Sculptures from the Age of Sigismund

from Buda Castle (15th century)

When the castle of Buda was reconstructed, fragments of statues were found during excavations. As it soon turned out, the majority of statues had never been finished. They must have been works of a workshop which were thrown out when a stone-cutting workshop was demolished. Hollows in the ground were filled with statues together with fragments when a house was built in the Middle Ages.

Statues were made of limestone which came from the region of Buda, perhaps Budafok. A group of them shows figures of different size (knights, bishops, kings never identified and aristocratic ladies) in court costumes while the other group includes saints, apostles and prophets in half life-size. The two groups do not differ from each other in style.

Dates were decided after a critical analysis of style had been carried out. Statues came rather from the 1420s than the Late Anjou period, i.e. the late 1370s as was first believed. Statues represent two major styles: one is closely associated with sculpture of the Vienna school around 1400, and the other with French sculpture (the style of André Beauneveu, a Flemish artist, in Bourges) which is very likely to have arrived at Buda via Brabant and Lower-Rhineland.

Preview	Picture data	File Info	Comment
	Knight with Painted Eyes in Capuccio 1420-30 Limestone, height: 17 cm Historical Museum, Budapest	594*760 Grayscale 73 Kb
	Knight with Painted Eyes in Capuccio (partially completed) 1420-30 Limestone, height: 34 cm Historical Museum, Budapest	694*810 True Color 100 Kb
	Head of a Man with Felt Hat 1420-30 Limestone, height: 26 cm Historical Museum, Budapest	676*744 Grayscale 79 Kb
	Knight in Capuccio 1420-30 Limestone, height: 41 cm Historical Museum, Budapest	618*778 Grayscale 70 Kb
	Head of a Man 1420-30 Limestone Historical Museum, Budapest	649*810 True Color 118 Kb
	Head of an Apostle or Prophet 1420-30 Limestone, height: 24 cm Historical Museum, Budapest	617*827 Grayscale 103 Kb
	Head of an Apostle or Prophet 1420-30 Limestone, height: 24 cm Historical Museum, Budapest	627*825 Grayscale 87 Kb
	Head of a Man 1420-30 Limestone, height: 23 cm Historical Museum, Budapest	682*710 Grayscale 63 Kb
	Figure of a Knight with Ornamental Belt (partially completed) 1420-30 Limestone, height: 119 cm Historical Museum, Budapest	324*876 Grayscale 42 Kb
	Head of an Apostle or Prophet 1420-30 Limestone, height: 14 cm Historical Museum, Budapest	581*695 Grayscale 74 Kb
	Figure of a Prophet (partially completed) 1420-30 Limestone, height: 24 cm Historical Museum, Budapest	519*1032 True Color 100 Kb
	Head of a Woman 1420-30 Limestone, height: 18 cm Historical Museum, Budapest	599*650 True Color 55 Kb
	Bearded Prophet 1420-30 Limestone, height: 72,5 cm Historical Museum, Budapest	418*876 Grayscale 68 Kb
	Bearded Prophet 1420-30 Limestone, height: 73 cm Historical Museum, Budapest	374*878 Grayscale 54 Kb
	Prophet Holding his Cloak 1420-30 Limestone, height: 72 cm Historical Museum, Budapest	408*869 Grayscale 56 Kb
	Madonna 1420-30 Limestone, height: 81 cm Historical Museum, Budapest	350*844 Grayscale 46 Kb

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Created and maintained by Emil Krén and Dániel Marx; sponsored by the T-Systems Hungary Ltd.