Izvorni znanstveni članak
Contribution to the 15th and 16 th century dukes of Ilok heraldic heritage
Mladen Radić
; Muzej Slavonije Osijek, Osijek, Hrvatska
Sažetak
A good example of how archaeological finds of the
late Middle Ages and early Modern Age supplement archive
sources are stove-tiles found in the course of archaeological
excavations over a number of years of medieval
fortified castles of Ružica-burg and Ilok.
Besides being a visual art and artistic value they are an
excellent example for the research of family, political and
business connections and economic power of the Dukes of
Ilok, who as owners and builders of these two most valuable
mediaeval complex in Eastern Croatia played crucial
role in Hungarian-Croatian Kingdom from the second half
of the 14th century until Turkish seizure.
Nikola of Ilok (died in 1477) and his son Lovro (died
in 1524) were the main bearers of these family’s powers.
Their sepulchral slabs in the church of St. John Capistran
in Ilok were starting points of my research and reflection on
heraldic heritage of this family and indistinctness referring
to particular coats of arms and their origin.
While processing huge amounts of stove-tiles found
at Ružica-burg, fragments with images of different coats
of arms drew a particular attention. Although they seemed
at first to be imported stove-tiles i.e. the moulds so that the
coats of arms had more of aesthetic purpose the detailed
analysis resulted in a smaller number of coats of arms (fig.
3, 4, 5, 6, 7) of this type.
The other group of coats of arms comprises state i.e.
royal coats of arms such as Hungarian, Austrian, Bohemian
or Portuguese (fig. 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16). The coat
of arms of the Pecs bishop of Sigismund Ernuszt has been
found almost intact.
The small coat of arms of Portugal is ‘‘odd’’ only at
first impression. However, keeping in mind the conflict
between Nikola of Ilok and the King Matthias Corvinus
(1458-1490) and Nikola’s inclination and connections with
Austrian Emperor Friedrich III of Habsburg, Roman-German
Emperor 1452-1492, whose wife was the Portuguese
princess Eleonor (died in 1467) this coat of arms is a confirmation
that stove-tiles motifs on show-piece stoves at special
court premises such as festivity halls, dining halls, chapels,
yards etc. had not been selected by chance (fig. 16).
The same applies to the fragment of the coat of arms
of Kyburg, an estate in the vicinity of Habsburg (now Switzerland),
which was inherited by marriage of Rudolph of
Habsburg (1218-1291) (fig. 17).
Similar features are carried by the fragment of unglazed
terracotta with black bird image presumably raven- the
family symbol of the King Matthias Corvinus (fig. 18).
The third group of coats of arms gives us the most
information and refers to those coats of arms that reached
the families through family bonds. These are the fragments
of several coats of arms of the Gorjanski family (fig. 19, 20)
since Lovro’s sister Euphrosyne was married to Job, who
was the last Gorjanski (died 1481).
Lovro’s sister Hyeronima was married to Leonhard,
the count of Gorica, the part of whose coat of arms was
found on Ružica (fig. 21). The sepulchral slab of Leonhard,
the count of Gorica and Tyrol in Lienz contains a fragment
of the Carinthia coat of arms (fig. 22) as well; a fragment of
the Counts of Celje (fig. 23) was also found.
The coat of arms fragments that had obviously been a
part of a larger stove tile in the crest of a luxurious tile stove
are of special interest. The rest of the lower part, glazed in
green, indicates that the coat of arms was slightly slanted to
the right, leaning to the Gothic balustrade of the large gable
stove tile from the stove crest. It was probably a part of a
pair together with another coat of arms slanted to the left,
with an axe image. The combination of the two motifs is
depicted on the sepulchral slab of Lovro of Ilok.
The reconstructin (drawing) of this coat of arms established
that it contains the motive of a four posted bower,
the roof of which is made of four layers of straw bound to a
knot on the top (fig. 25, 33).
The constant issue in the course of research of the stove
tiles and finds from Ružica was connected to non-existence
of a single item that would bear at least one of the
coats of arms of the Dukes of Ilok known in literature, i.e.
that are on the sepulchral slabs or seals (fig. 1, 2, 28, 35).
Almost the same statement could be applied to the stove
tiles found during archaeological research in Ilok.
The analyses of the existing coats of arms on sepulchral
slab of Nikola of Ilok and his son Lovro have shown
that preserved coats of arms on Nikolas’ a slab are known
and they depict coats of arms of the Bosnian Kingdom with
three crowns (Nikola’s title was the King of Bosnia), i.e.
the old family coat of arms with the image of two laid beams.
Subsequent intervention and attempts to insert some
randomly selected and poorly made coats of arms are completely
unfounded.
The stone fragment with finely carved coat of arms on
a similar red stone (without an inventory number) that is in
the holdings of the Museum of the Town of Ilok (fig.29) is
not the part of Nikola’s sepulchral slab, either.
The Renaissance image of a shell which comprises
the mentioned coat of arms is similar to that on which two
putti hold the shell with an empty shield (coat of arms is
chiselled off) and with the subsequently chiselled year of
1797. The fragment with the coat of arms of the Dukes of
Ilok must have been in the same position between two putti.
There is another fragment with one putto in the Museum
of the Town of Ilok; however the breach line indicates that the fragment of the coat of arms of the Dukes of Ilok
did not make a whole to fit. The rests of iron clamps on both
fragments indicate that this was a frieze (cornice with coat
of arms), i.e. the coats of arms of the Dukes of Ilok, one of
which was a fragment with a quartered coat of arms and a
bower in its third quarter. These could be also coats of arms
of the families with whom the Dukes of Ilok were in family
ties, as well as the state i.e. royal coat of arms.
Sepulchral slab of Lovro of Ilok has been preserved
almost intact (a part of the inscription in its left corner is
missing) and it comprises four coats of arms preserved in
its entirety.
Besides the first three known coats of arms (the coat
of arms of Bosnia, of the Dukes of Ilok and Lovro’s wife
Katarina Pongracz de Dengelog), the fourth coat of arms of
an unknown origin comprises the motif on the right side of
the shield for which it was not clear what it depicted, which
is the key to its origin.
The vagueness of form and function of this quite effaced
and indistinct object rendered the finding out of its
significance and function impossible.
It was only by notification of stove tile from Ružica
and subsequent analysis that I managed to establish that
the fourth coat of arms on Lovro’s slab comprises the same
four-posted bower with a straw roof bound in a knot on its
top that is also depicted on the coat of arms i.e. the stove
tile that formed the tile stove crest at Ružica burg (fig. 25).
The mentioned fragment of the red stone slab in the
Museum of Ilok bearing a nicely dressed smaller coat of
arms should be noted in this context. On this quartered coat
of arms in the upper left corner there is an old coat of arms
of the Dukes of Ilok with two laid beams (2nd quarter. In
the upper right corner (1st quarter) there is a Hungarian
cross and in the lower left corner (4th quarter ) an axe turned
to the left, which is the same motif as on the fourth coat
of arms on Lovro’s slab.
The third quarter is of the greatest significance obviously
containing the motif of a bower with a four layered roof,
that is here round-shaped (semi-cicular) for the «restricted
space» on the 3rd quarter (the shield is slightly bent). It
is particularly interesting that four posts of the bower are
depicted as a pruned tree trunk. Finally, we should note an
importat find of the completely preserved niche-shaped tile
that was excavated in the course of archaeological excavations
within the mediaeval palace of the Dukes of Ilok in
Ilok over a number of years.
Within the niche of the green glazed and partially reconstructed
stove tile there is an image of quartered coat of
arms depicting a common cross in its first quarter.
In the 2nd quarter there is an old coat of arms of the
Dukes of Ilok with two laid beams whereas the 3rd quarter
depicts two pruned tree trunks with a round tree top and
probably an image of a snake raised along the left tree. The
4th quarter was destroyed and reconstructed as a flat surface
and it could have depicted an axe.
Thus, it should be concluded that we deal with an image
of the same coat of arms from the fragment from the
Museum of Ilok with modifications that first of all reflect an
unskilful stove maker, i.e. the mould maker.
It is questionable why the tile from Ružica that comprises
a coat of arms with a bower lacks an axe unlike other
images, however the possibility should be reconsidered
that besides this coat of arms slanted to the right within the
big crest of the tile there was also a coat of arms with an axe
slanted to the left. The rests of the olive-green glaze (for
reinforcing the construction), i.e. the breach in the upper
right corner on the coat of arms with a bower where it was
connected to the other coat of arms, speak for the fact.
The coats of arms of the Dukes of Ilok and their variations
in professional literature were reproduced i.e. drawn
based on preserved seals on charters and images on stone
monuments.
The oldest coat of arms in whose shield there are two
laid beams, a helmet with a crown out of which a crowned
winged virgin appears, could be found earlier on seals of
Nikola Kont in 1359 and 1364. Such a seal can be found
both on the sepulchral slab of Nikola of Ilok and his seals.
The second coat of arms can be found on seals and
on sepulchral slab of Lovro of Ilok. This quartered coat of
arms from the sepulchral slab of the Dukes of Ilok was probably
used only by Lovro of Ilok.
This counts for the third coat of arms that was noted
only on seals with charts issued by Lovro of Ilok as state
judge in 1519 and 1524. Quartered just like the previous
coat of arms it differs from it only by a ‘‘tower’’ motif with
a conical roof on a cliff depicted in its fourth quarter.
Tournament helmet over the shield is crowned and within
a crown there is an image of a winged and crowned
virgin.
In order to solve the whole riddle of the unidentified
coat of arms on sepulchral slab of Lovro of Ilok one should
refer to the tower or a well as stated by Nagy in his book
while describing the motif in the fourth quarter of the seal
(coat of arms Ib).
In Siebmacher’s editions for Hungarian, i.e. Croatian
and Slavonian gentry, this motif is graphically differently
depicted so that I immediately doubted that this was about
the bower that reminded Nagy of the roof on a well, which
is quite logical since the bower motif is very rare in Central
European heraldry.
This presumption was confirmed upon examination of
seals dating from 1519 i.e. 1524. The images differ in details
of bower posts but there is no doubt that this is the motif
that is also on sepulchral slab of Lovro of Ilok, on the coat
of arms from the sepulchral slab fragment from the Museum
of Ilok as well as on the tiles found in Ružica burg, i.e.
at the palace of the Dukes of Ilok.
Therefore the image of this coat of arms (in
Siebmacher’s editions for Hungarian i.e. Croatian and
Slavonian gentry) should be corrected so that it depicts a
bower instead of a tower in the fourth quarter, with appropriate
description, blasoning.
It should be noted that the coat of arms on seals dating
from 1519 actually depicted a compilation of elements of
the second and the fourth coat of arms from the sepulchral
slab of Lovro of Ilok. Dr Ivan Balta has created a completely wrong image
of the appearance of the coats of arms of the Dukes of Ilok
by stating a number of arbitrary and incorrect interpretations
while blasoning the coats of arms of the Dukes of
Ilok in his paper under the title ‘‘The Mediaeval Ilok in
Topography and Heraldic-Toponomastic Analysis (of coat
of arms and names) with a Special Reference to Images
Dating to the 19th and the Early 20th Centuries’’ in the Proceedings
‘‘The 1525 Ilok Code and Ilok Middle Ages’’.
Although sepulchral slab of Filip Korog dating back
to 1394 from the Franciscan monastery in Osijek has no
direct significance for this paper, it is worth noting that presentation
of the coat of arms of Filip Korog was to some
extent differently interpreted than by its first mentioning
in the paper by Dr Ivo Mažuran ‘‘ Mediaeval and Turkish
Osijek’’ in 1994.
It can be concluded that the Dukes of Ilok had family
coat of arms on their show-piece tile stoves in Ilok and Orahovica.
They were obviously built in domestic workshops
and the stoves had not only their basic function of heating
big hall premises but also their aesthetic function presenting
a status power symbol.
Some other finds at Ružica should be reconsidered.
From heraldic point of view the important find of partially
preserved green-glazed figurine of a crowned long-haired
lady. The repeated analysis in the context of new research
speaks for the fact that this is obviously the ‘‘virgin’’
from the coats of arms of the Dukes of Ilok. In this context
one should observe the rest of a tiny teracotta tournament
helmet that was also a part of the coat of arms.
In the heraldry of the majority of Central European
countries (Hungary, Austria, Germany, Croatia, the Czech
Republic and Slovakia) the motifs of straw bower on posts
is extremely rare. This motif is mostly connected to old
Polish gentry (family) that was attributed ‘‘de Leszczyc’’
mentioned as early as in the 14th century. A great number
of significant gentry families had this adjective-title that
was particularly spread in Silesia.
In the course of presuming a possible family connection
of the Dukes of Ilok with some of the Polish gentry families
with the attribute ‘‘de Leszczyc’’ one should keep in
mind that they all held the gentry attribute title according to
their estates in what is now western Slovakia ‘‘de Galgoc’’
i.e. ‘‘de Palota’’.
The research of the heraldic heritage of the Dukes of
Ilok in Hlohovec, i.e. Valpaloti has not given any particular
results.
One of the conclusions could therefore be that since
the second half of the 14th century the Ilok family probably
had had political, economic, and consequently family
connections with high gentry of Silesia, i.e. southern Poland
around Krakow. Ladislav (died before 1424), Nikola’s
father was married to Anna of the Šćiborići lineage, whose
father Šćibor of Šćiborić among other held the title of the
Duke of Erdely. This Hungarian nobleman (1348-1414)
was of Polish origin and a close partner of the Hungarian-
Croatian king Sigismund.
To what extent this earlier family connections with
Polish gentry could have brought the coat of arms with a
bower (and an axe) to the family of the Dukes of Ilok should
certainly be researched in detail in particular in Polish
and Slovak sources.
Ključne riječi
Hrčak ID:
95596
URI
Datum izdavanja:
20.5.2010.
Posjeta: 2.228 *