Galéria – Ročenka SNG 2004–2005
10. Stopnica, parish church, antependium of the high altar. Before 1370 (?). Photo: A. Wierzba
is closely linked with the ruler, even more closely than with the arms by which the ruler is identified”.51 Some years later Ladislas the Short issued a series of denarii bearing a helmet with an eagle’s wing on top of it on the obverse and a crowned eagle on the reverse.52 [ill. 9] They were accompanied by the inscription M[oneta] REGIS POLONIE, which explicitly testifies that the series was issued after the coronation in 1320. Some scholars link both sides of the coins together, suggesting a thesis “about the complementary character of the heraldic composition distributed on both sides of the denarius under discussion”.53 Nevertheless, it seems to me that the situation of the crested helmet on the obverse together with the royal titles should prompt us to refer this emblem to the ruler himself and to derive it from the heraldic tradition of the dukes of Kuyawy. Thus it is not the crest of the arms of the Kingdom but the personal crest of Ladislas the Short. On the town seal of Sandomierz, which is known to us from the original brass die preserved in the collection of the Princes Czartoryski in Cracow, the above-mentioned crest appears in yet another context, above the shield with the White Eagle of the Polish Kingdom. As in the earlier cases, it probably refers to the king, whose authority exercised over the city is underscored by the legend on the seal: SIGILLVM REGIS POLONIAE ET CIVITATIS SANDOMIRIAE.54 On the bosses in the palace at 17, Main Market Square in Cracow, which are younger by some fifty years, the coat of arms of the Kingdom is provided with a crest in the form of an eagle sitting in profile to the right, while the crest in the form of an eagle’s wing is placed in a separate bay, again probably as the king’s personal bearing. The Polish historical literature occasionally voices the opinion that it was not until the reign of the An-
gevins that many courtly customs became popular in Cracow.55 Such an inference is also drawn from the heraldic customs of interest here.56 In point of fact, in Hungary a helmet with the crest of the Angevins appears not only on seals and coins. It can be found, for example, on the shield held by the king in the opening initial of the Secretum Secretorum manuscript of the 1370s (Oxford, Bodleian Library, Ms. Hertford College 2, fol. 1) and on the stove-tiles which decorated the castle in Buda in the second half of the 14th century.57 Various instances of the use of a crest are the gold articles presented by Louis the Great and his mother to the
51
JAWORSKA 1998 (op. cit. note 48), p. 129; JAWORSKA 2003 (op. cit. note 48), p. 65. 52 PASZKIEWICZ, Borys: Mennictwo Władysława Łokietka. In: Wiadomości Numizmatyczne, 30, 1986, pp. 32-35, 55-57, pl. 2.1; Idem: Od symbolu do herbu. Orły polskie na monetach średniowiecznych. In: Orzeł Biały. Herb Państwa Polskiego. Ed. Stefan Krzysztof KUCZYŃSKI. Warszawa 1996, p. 26, ill. 21; JAWORSKA 1998 (op. cit. note 48), p. 129; JAWORSKA 2003 (op. cit. note 48), p. 66. 53 JAWORSKA 1998 (op. cit. note 48), pp. 67, 204. 54 GUMOWSKI 1960 (op. cit. note 17), pp. 192-193, kat. 382; SEROKA 2002 (op. cit. note 17), p. 33, ill. 7. 55 ŚNIEŻYŃSKA-STOLOTOWA, Ewa: Ze studiów nad kulturą dworu węgierskiego królowej Elżbiety Łokietkówny In: Studia Historyczne, 20, 1977, p. 189; Eadem: Wpływy francuskie a wpływy neapolitańskie w Europie Środkowej w w. XIV. In: Biuletyn Historii Sztuki, 43, 1981, p. 225; KRĘT, Helena: Dwór królewski Jadwigi i Jagiełły. Kraków 1987, pp. 12-13; BRZUSTOWICZ (op. cit. note 16), p. 248. 56 SZYMAŃSKI 1993 (op. cit. note 22), p. 49, n. 226. 57 The Hungarian Illuminated Chronicle. Ed. Desző DERCSÉNYI, Budapest 1969, p. 44, ill. 10; MAROSI (ed.) 1987 (op. cit. note 5), ill. 746, 875; GEREVICH, László: The Art of Buda and Pest in the Middle Ages. Budapest 1971, p. 81, pl. LIX, ill. 149.
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