Studia Patzinaka, 2, 2006, pp.

7-25

Royal Sainthood Revisited. New Dimensions of

the Cult of St. Ladislas (14th -15th centuries)
Ana Maria GRUIA

Among the ruins of a fifteenth century town house from Baia, in Moldavia,
the archaeologists have uncovered the remains of a gothic tile stove. Some of
the tiles depicted fragments from the legend of Saint Ladislas, namely a
particular scene in which the holy king is following the Cuman warrior
(fig.1).1 Ladislas, king of Hungary (1077-1095), canonized in 1192 at the
initiative of King Béla III, was often presented as a martyr in the first
hagiographic texts referring to him, while later on the emphasis shifted to
those elements of the vita that reflected the values of chivalric culture2.
This change in emphasis was also reflected in the visual
representations of the legend of St. Ladislas. On the stove tile from Baia one
can see the crowned saintly prince mounted on his horse (named in the
sources Szög), ready to strike with his battleaxe the pagan whom he grabs
by the hair. Certain details of arms, armour and horse saddlers add to the
medieval knightly appearance of the two opponents. Ladislas holds a
battleaxe, his main iconographic attribute (looking more like a halberd here)
while the lower part of his body is protected by tassets. The tack of his horse
includes a saddle, stirrups and a decorated girth. The Cuman rides his horse
without a saddle, holding it by the reins, according to the nomadic way. He
wears no armour but a simple garment and a waist belt.
The depicted episode is a popular, later addition to the legend of the
holy king. During the times when Ladislas was still just prince of Hungary,
presumably in 1068 during the battle of Kerlés against the Pecsenegs (later
called Cumans by the sources), he ran to the rescue of a fair maiden:

The saintly prince, Ladislas, then, espied a Pagan carrying on the back of
his horse a beautiful Hungarian maiden. The prince thought that this
maiden had been the daughter of the bishop of Várad, and, although being
in severe wound, he started to pursue him, riding his horse whose name
was Szög. But, then, when he reached by a lance’s point, he could do

1 Bătrâna, Bătrâna, 1990, pp. 168-170.

2 Klaniczay 1992, passim; Klaniczay 2002, passim.
Ana Maria Gruia

nothing, for his horse was unable to run faster, while the others did not fall
back in speed. Then St. Ladislas cried to the maiden, saying: “Fair sister!
Take the Cuman by his belt and jump off from the horse to the ground!”
And she did as she was asked. But then, when the Cuman lay on the
ground and prince Ladislas wanted to kill him with his lance, the maiden
strongly asked him not to do so, but let him [the Cuman] go free. So it is
clear from this as well, that there is no faith in women, for surely she
wanted to spare the Cuman out of lusty love. The saintly prince, then, after
a long battle, cut his [the Cuman’s] sinew, and killed him. But the maiden
was not the bishop’s daughter.3

Fig. 1. St. Ladislas following the Cuman (Baia - Moldavia)

The source notes that, in the end the maiden was not the high-status person
she was thought to be and that she ran with the Cuman out of “lusty love”.
In other variants of the legend, the girl changes her mind and helps her holy
rescuer by cutting herself the sinew of the Cuman. Despite the fact that he
needs the help of a woman to defeat his opponent, Ladislas is presented as a
hero, as a noble knight, fighting for the values of chivalry and in defence of
his Christian belief. Ladislas became a popular saintly figure throughout the
Hungarian Kingdom. The centre of his cult was Oradea, in the cathedral
dedicated to him, where believers could venerate his relics and where
miracles were recorded. The image of the holy king appears in church
frescoes, on coins, seals, manuscript miniatures, stove tiles, altar paintings,
enamels and sculpture.4 In Oradea there was a reliquary for the saint’s skull

3 Szentpétery 1999, pp. 368-369; translation: Kovács 2000, p. 145.

4 Marosi 1987, pp. 211-256; Balogh 1982; Drăguţ 1974, pp. 21-38.

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Royal Sainthood Revisited. New Dimensions of the Cult of St. Ladislas (14th -15th centuries)

and an equestrian bronze statue commissioned to George and Martin

brothers from Cluj.5 The legend of Ladislas not only permeated the upper
classes but reached also the lower ones, entering folklore.
Although the scene of Ladislas following the Cuman is fairly
popular in the medieval fresco decoration in Hungary (and confined to the
Kingdom), the stove tile from Baia is one of the only two such depiction in
other artistic media than wall painting. What is more intriguing about the
tile is that it was discovered in Moldavia, outside the boundaries of the
Kingdom. Since Ladislas is a “national” Catholic Hungarian saint, how can
one explain the dissemination of this motif to an area outside the borders of
the Kingdom? One possible explanation may lie in the Hungarian and/or
Catholic origin of the townsman who chose to decorate his interior in this
way, considering that the house was excavated in the close vicinity of the
catholic church of Baia.
The example of this stove tile leads one to the more general
questions raised by the presence of images of saints in such an artistic
context. Stove tiles are items of interior decoration with clear functional use,
that of distributing and retaining heat more efficiently. Do then saintly
images decorating stoves retain any of their devotional functions? Can the
distribution of stove tiles with saintly figures indicate the spread of the cult
of certain saints? What was the original intention and which the reasons
behind the production of these items? How did the market conditions (the
offer and the demand) influence the choice of motifs? Which were the
receptions of such images and which their functions and use?
In this article I will raise these questions taking as case study the stove tiles
with depictions of Saint Ladislas. Starting from the context of discovery of
the tiles and referring to several theories of response, I will analyse the
possible functions of saintly depictions on tiles. From already published
catalogues of medieval stove tiles, one knows that the depictions of saints on
this type of material culture objects are among the most appreciated motifs.
But what are the reasons for this preference, how were these images used in
their interior and mostly domestic contexts?
The topic of image functions has a solid bibliography behind6 but it
has never been thoroughly applied to stove tiles, a less usual medium from
the perspective of cultic significance. Studies of stove tiles reveal a very
technical approach, either archaeological (concentrating on dimensions and
technique of the material culture object) or art historical (classification of
subjects, description and analogies of the images they carry). After the

5 The gilt silver reliquary is kept today in Győr. The statue was made around 1390 and placed in

front of the cathedral, but it was melted by the Turks in 1660. It represented Ladislas on
horseback, crowned and holding the battle axe; Balogh 1982; Vătăşianu 2001, p. 319; Klaniczay,
2002.
6 Freedberg 1989; Burke 2001; Zika 2003, chapter 14 “Writing the Visual into History: Changing

Cultural Perceptions of Late Medieval and Reformation Germany”; Scribner 2001, chapter 2
“Popular Piety and Modes of Visual Perception in Late Medieval and Reformation Germany”;
Baxandall 1988, chapter 2 “The Period Eye”. Maguire 1996.

9
Ana Maria Gruia

publication of a large part of the tile material from Central and Eastern
Europe, one needs to take the discussion further, starting with the
theoretical questions related to the function of images.
There is certainly need of a theoretical approach in discussing
images as visual sources. Images are placed at the meeting point between
the intention of the creator, the reception of the beholder and the use given
to them on the basis of this reception. As David Freedberg7 defines it,
response to an image incorporates the symptoms of the relationship between
image and beholder. He differentiates between recurrent, irrational
responses to images and culturally contextualized ones. The first type,
including psychological, behavioural and critical responses encountered
cross-culturally as non-intellectual reactions towards images, are usually not
written about. The second type, including responses subject to repression
and strongly embedded in certain cultural contexts, is better documented,
more spectacular and easier to analyse.
One needs to make one’s way through all the ambiguities and
complexities in the meaning of images. First, there are always two levels of
meaning in one and the same image: the meaning given to it by the artist
(the intention) and that given by the viewer (the reception). Then, at the
same time there can be distinct receptions on the part of different beholders.
The most intricate and detailed analysis is needed when the image itself is
ambiguous and when no written evidence of the intention and the responses
has been preserved (as is often the case with saintly images on stove tiles).

In the case of saintly depictions on stove tiles, one more issue needs
to be considered, that of control over images. In theory, the Church should
control and rectify according to the dogma the production of religious
imagery. In practice, stove tiles just as other decorative smaller arts and
crafts, evade such control precisely due to their decorative, technical and
popular character. One also needs to think of the degree of effective control
and power of the Church in the late medieval Kingdom of Hungary and in
Moldavia.
Peter Burke, talking about images as sources, considers that sacred
images “express, form and document views of the supernatural”.8 The
statement can be applied also to religious images devoid of sacred power,
used outside the devotional sphere. Images of the saints, even in their lay,
domestic and decorative usage, still reflect every-day attitudes towards the
supernatural. The chronological modifications in the iconography of such
images reflect the evolution of mentalities and attitudes in certain contexts.

Religious imagery on stove tiles, due to the peculiarities of the

media, fall in the category of popular image tradition and popular religious

7 Freedberg 1989, iv.

8 Burke 2001, chapter 3 “The Sacred and the Supernatural”.

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Royal Sainthood Revisited. New Dimensions of the Cult of St. Ladislas (14th -15th centuries)

behaviour. Without entering the debate over the definition of popular

culture9, I will adopt Burke’s paradigm, which holds that popular culture is
“a system of shared meanings, attitudes and values and the symbolic forms
(performances, artefacts) in which they are expressed and embodied”.10
Stove tiles are material culture objects, artefacts which through the images
they carry express “shared meanings, attitudes and values”. But as Scribner
points out, culture is neither uniform, static nor homogenous, therefore
particular interpretations must always be based on particular conditions and
stratifications of culture.11 Elements, such as local conditions, social
stratification, ethnicity, power, gender, official and unofficial religion, all
contribute to the shaping of different symbolic values appreciated in
different images. Yet another difficulty in grasping the perception and
response to images in a certain period of the past has been identified by
Michael Baxandall.12 He used the term “the period eye” to refer to the
culturally relative pressures on perception, typical to every culture and that
we today may have lost or altered. The interpretation of images must take
into consideration educative and experience related cultural codes of that
period and not the contemporary “common sense” of the historian.
In applying the general theories to specific cases as that of stove
tiles, the accuracy of the interpretation largely depends on the relevance of
the sources. In the absence of written evidence on image reception, one is
forced to base his or her interpretation on the images themselves and on the
usage context of the artefact. The information on the geographical, social,
ethnic, private/semi-private or public original context of the tiles is crucial.
Nevertheless, such information is sometimes missing, either because it was
simply not published, as it is the case of older archaeological publications, or
because it is not known, in the case of casual finds or some museum items.
The sources I will use in this article are stove tiles published in
archaeological articles or catalogues from present-day Romania, Hungary,
Slovakia, and Poland. To the best of my knowledge, 23 tiles13 depicting St.
Ladislas have been published so far. In a pervious article I have grouped
them into six types of related tiles, on iconographical basis.14 The excavation

9 Scribner 2001, chapter 1 “Is a history of popular culture possible?”.

10 Scribner 2001, 34.
11 Scribner 2001, 42.

12 Baxandall 1988.

13 For simplicity’s sake I consider here as one tile any number of similar tiles or fragments

depicting the same scene excavated in one site. The total number of individual pieces depicting
the saint is impossible to approximate since most archaeological reports do not mention the
number of similar fragments and the minimum number of identical tiles but just give an image
of the reconstructed model.
14 Gruia 2005, pp. 97-120. I have identified six iconographic groups: St. Ladislas on horseback (tiles

from Oradea, Cristurul Secuiesc, Aiud, Cluj, Cluj-St.Peter, all in Transylvania), St. Ladislas
fighting the Cuman (Cecheşti, Sighişoara, both in Transylvania), St. Ladislas under a gothic niche
(Râşnov, Vinţu de Jos, Cristurul Secuiesc, in Transylvania), Ladislas on horseback holding the axe
on his shoulder (Borniş, Bacău, Baia, in Moldavia), Ladislas fighting the cuman (Baia, in Moldavia)

11
Ana Maria Gruia

reports will provide the contextual data, available not in the greatest details
but enough for analysis. I will compare the stove tile material to the frescoes
depicting Saint Ladislas and to other (art) historical documents making
reference to the saint, in order to observe similarities and differences of the
same motifs in official or devotional spaces as compared to unofficial,
popular, domestic spaces.
From a methodological point of view, I will start from the different groups
of tiles depicting Ladislas, on the basis of the iconographical criteria and
then I will apply the different reception theories to exemplify the possible
functions of such tiles. The more general issue is whether (taking into
consideration all the possible functions of the image) the distribution of
stove tiles depicting a certain saint does indicate the existence of a cult of
that saint.
The last introductory remarks refer to the particularities of stove
tiles as artistic milieu. First, there is the already mentioned issue of the
combination of functional and decorative, which they embody. One has to
think whether certain tiles were used for the images they carried or just
because they fitted the required dimensions. Can one imply a conscious
choice from the part of the buyer in the absence of textual evidence? In very
few cases of reconstructed stoves was an intentional iconographic program
obvious. Most stoves combine tiles with different and often unconnected
images. The original context is complicated even more by the practice of re-
using or replacing tiles. Then, there is the issue of the mass production of
tiles. They were produced, by impressing the same motif from a mould
several times, thus creating series. Stove tiles were then copied mechanically,
re-using moulds or creating them from already existing tiles. The image was
therefore spread in a great number of copies and sometimes over
considerable distance. Such a large scale re/production of stove tiles, based
on the same principles as the early prints makes saintly images more easily
available and reflects the success, the fashion of certain depictions. Another
issue is raised by the use of stove tiles, restricted to interior spaces. The
degree of visibility of certain images depends on the position of the tiles in
the composition of the stove and also on the private, semi-private or public
character of that interior. Such stoves are attested in reception halls of
palaces (the most exquisite and expensive), in private rooms of town houses,
in the rooms of city halls or monasteries. In each case, according to available
data, the analysis needs to take into consideration the intended audience. By
who was the tile and its decoration meant to be seen and whose identity was
it meant to represent? A final iconographic remark refers to the limited
surface of a tile, at most 30x30cm but usually less. Such a confined space for
decoration favours iconic types of representations. Narrative images can be
either squeezed on one tile or, very rarely, divided onto neighbouring tiles.

and Standing Ladislas (Filakovo, Branč, Banská Bystrica, Kláštorisko, all in Slovakia). To the last
group I can now add two tiles from Poland, from Wleri and Krákow.

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Royal Sainthood Revisited. New Dimensions of the Cult of St. Ladislas (14th -15th centuries)

In the end, stove tiles were artefacts produced for the market,
regulated therefore by the laws of offer and demand. In order to sell they
must reflect the taste of the time, so they must take into account the specific
reception and use of the image and of the artefact in that period. The offer
(and the intention) depends therefore on the demand (and the reception). In
the same time, the reverse is true. A buyer’s freedom of choice was limited
by the availability of motifs on tiles existing in a certain place at a certain
time (in the potter’s workshop or in the collection of moulds of a travelling
master). There must have been also special orders for tiles, where the
buyer’s options dictated (probably) the motifs. But in the absence of
evidence, correlative data is crucial. The reasons behind the existence of
certain religious motifs on tiles (if any such reason can be proved) must be
uncovered starting from a quantitative analysis of tiles and a comparison of
their distribution to other data15.
Based on the existing literature and applying general theories of
image functions and response, I have identified eight possible functions of
images of saints on stove tiles. Some have been discussed previously in
studies dedicated to the subject, other are newly applied to the milieu. Still,
such a classification is artificial in the sense that several functions and
interpretations can apply simultaneously and each tile might have been
“read” differently, according to the familiarity of the beholder with the
subject, his/her social status, religion and ethnic identity.

Decorative Function

Saints on stove tiles might have been purely decorative motifs. Transported
as they were to different cultural and religious contexts, certain saints might
not have been recognized anymore. Such an interpretation might be raised
for a group of tiles with St. Ladislas excavated in Moldavia. A group of
related tiles from Borniş and Bacău depict the holy king in a strange manner,
holding the battle-axe over the shoulder and wearing a large crown with
pompons (fig.2).

15 My doctoral research, ongoing at the Medieval Studies Department of the Central European

University includes a database of tiles with religious motifs from the Kingdom of Hungary. One
of my lines of research imposes the use of information on the cult of the saints in the area
(through church dedications, choice of patron saints, representations in other artistic contexts,
other data) to see if images on tiles indicate the existence of certain cults in certain places.

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Ana Maria Gruia

Fig. 2. St. Ladislas on horseback (Borniş, Bacău, Bacău - Moldavia)

It is possible that, imported from Transylvania, this decorative motif has lost
its significance for the Moldavians who regarded it simply as a decorative
knight or even a comedian. The tiles from Borniş were part of a stove with
bagpipe players and the above-mentioned mounted character, decorating
the interior of a rural residence of a boyar16. Such an iconographic
combination and the schematic, decorative character of the image indicate
that, as original intention, the tiles depicted Ladislas but they may have been
viewed as representing entertainers. The other two similar tiles come from
the princely court of Bacău but no further details on their context have been
published.
Because images on stove tile always preserve their decorative
function (although sometimes they embody other functions as well), they
are subject to and reflect the changes in fashion and taste. During the Middle
Ages certain types of representations were “fashionable”, such as the
knightly images, heraldic devices and also courtly images, of dancing
couples and musicians. The tiles with St. Ladislas discussed here might
reflect such a chivalric and courtly decorative taste, devoid of deeper
meaning. The close resemblance of the three tiles indicates that they are
directly related through copying.17 The motif was transmitted through
copying and certain elements were added (or eliminated), such as the
pompons on the crown, the border of decorative dots and the decoration of
the horse’s saddlers. The fact that the Moldavians took the trouble to copy
such a model indicates that it was indeed fashionable and corresponded to
local taste, even if the motif has lost the meaning it had in neighbouring
Transylvania.

16Popovici 1998, p. 176.

17Recent studies have shown how technical details can reveal copying issues. Due to the fact
that clay shrinks through firing, by detailed measuring of the dimensions of motifs, tiles and
borders and through the analysis of clay, glaze and firing techniques one can indicate which tile
was the original and which the copy (or re-copy) in a typological series. The geographical
distribution of related tiles shows the ways and directions of motif transmission. This requires
direct study of the artefacts, which was not applied, to this end to this group of Moldavian
stove tiles. For copying terminology and explanations see Tamási 1995.

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Royal Sainthood Revisited. New Dimensions of the Cult of St. Ladislas (14th -15th centuries)

Devotional Function

Private devotion in the later Middle Ages used domestic images as prayer
aids. The function of such images is to generate and sustain meditation and
prayer, they are placed in a separate part of the house (niche, corner, table)
with portable altar, woodcuts in prayer books, icons in orthodox context.
Essential is the use of the image, the ritual gesture attached to it (making the
sign of the cross, praying, kissing). Although there have been suggestions
that the tile stove with religious depictions was also a sort of “family altar”18,
one can hardly presume this was the case. As mentioned before, the main
role of the tiles was a functional one and this automatically means a “lower
rank” of the image and its support. Who would give trivial, practical uses to
an icon revered for its power and inspiring some of the reverence owed to
the saint itself? The existence of clay icons in medieval Bulgaria and
Macedonia and the close resemblance of such items to stove tiles has been
another argument for the shared devotional function. Still, the difference lay
in the use. Clay icons, produced in the same way as the tiles, were not part
of utilitarian objects and they were given the same use as other types of
icons, hung on the walls or placed in the house altar corner. One can hardly
imagine the owner kneeling down, praying in front of the stove.

Loyalty and Allegiance

Saintly images on stove tiles could have been a symbolic way of honouring a
superior. Maybe the owner of a certain interior and a certain stove chose to
display images of a certain saint in his house as a means of showing
allegiance to a senior with a known devotion for that saint. In the case of St.
Ladislas, a holy king whose cult was started and promoted by the ruling
dynasties19, the use of his image may have shown loyalty to the royal house.
Even more so in the case of tiles which probably depicted all the three holy
royal characters of the Hungarians, St. Stephen, St. Ladislas and prince
Emeric. Such tiles were excavated in Transylvania, at Râşnov20, Vinţu de Jos
and Cristuru Secuiesc21, in contexts as diverse as a peasant fortification, a
castle and a Szekler market town. Another iconographical group of tiles
from Upper Hungary, present-day Slovakia, depicts Ladislas as a standing
king with all the royal attributes: the crown, the mantle and the orb. These
tiles, indicating a preference for the royal status of the saint, were used in the
castles of Filakovo22, Branč23, Kremnica, Orava and in the Carthusian

18 Bătrâna, Bătrâna 1993, pp. 43-52.

19 Klaniczay 2002.
20 Marcu Istrate 2004, pp. 263, 467, plate 128.3.

21 Marcu Istrate 2004, pp. 286, 495, plate 156.61.

22 Holl, Voit 1963; Holčik 1974, pp. 175-193; Kalmár 1959, 24/25, table XLII.

23 Hoššo 1997, pp. 95-102. The author mentions similar tiles in Kremnica and Orava.

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Ana Maria Gruia

monastery of Kláštorisko24. The same type of depiction is found on two tiles

with Ladislas from Poland, in Wlerí25 and Krakow26, which might have
reached Poland through exchanges triggered by dynastic connections.

Fig. 3. Standing Ladislas (Filakovo, Branč, Banská Bystrica, Kláštorisko – Slovakia; Wlerí –
Poland)

One has to note that the iconographic type of standing Ladislas is the most
popular way of depicting the saint on stove tiles (11 out of 23, comprising
tiles from the most different areas, such as Transylvania, Upper Hungary
and Poland). The type is also spread in the most diverse social contexts, such
as fortifications, towns, castles (most cases), and a monastery. It seems that
the most popular reception of the image of Ladislas was that of (holy) king,
not surprising for a saint belonging to and promoted by the ruling dynasty.

Status Symbol and Prestige

Saintly images on stove tiles could have also had the function of status
display. It would have been a statement to display a fashionable image, one
that other people have just ordered or bought. A good quality, expensive
tile, exposed in a semi/private or public interior would have been a good
indication for the wealth and means of the owner. Such could have been the
case with the polychrome glazed tile from Sighişoara, probably depicting a
scene from the legend of Ladislas, the following of the Cuman.27 The tile
represents only the Cuman on horseback, aiming his bow backwards, and a
small image of the maiden, presumably carried behind. It is a rare instance
when one can presume the existence of a pair tile depicting the mounted
Ladislas, an instance of a narrative scene divided onto separate stove tiles. It
comes from a Saxon city, therefore from a competitive milieu where the tile
was probably intended to show status through the quality of the piece and
through its fashionable knightly story (maybe besides devotion to the saint
or even royal allegiance). One can even wonder whether the mere

24 I thank Edith Kocsis (Mátyás Király Múzeum, Visegrád) for this information and image.
25 Dymek 1995, p. 255, table XVIII, fig. a. I thank A.A. Rusu for indicating this tile to me.
26 I Tesori 1985, p. 175.

27 Marcu Istrate 2004, pp. 272, 538, and plate 199.2.

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Royal Sainthood Revisited. New Dimensions of the Cult of St. Ladislas (14th -15th centuries)

possession of the image of a king, the ultimate symbol of power and

prestige, was not believed to transfer some of the prestige onto the
possessor.

Identity

Ladislas is mainly a national Hungarian, royal and Catholic saint. Anyone

displaying his representation might have wanted to indicate thus his or her
identity under any of these points. A very widely circulated theory holds
that Ladislas became in the Later Middle Ages a general border-defender
hero and that he was invoked for his warrior character in border regions of
the Hungarian Kingdom.28 Most of his representations in wall painting are
concentrated in northern Slovakia and southeastern Transylvania. The tiles
decorated with the image of the saint are found in Upper Hungary (in 6
locations), Transylvania (9 locations), Moldavia (5 locations), Poland (2
locations) and only one in Hungary proper, in Oradea.29 Without embarking
on an intricate discussion concerning the definition of the term “border
area”, I will only refer to the case of the tiles. Although they are largely
found in Slovakia and Transylvania, a significant (for the proportions of the
sample) number of tiles emerged in Moldavia, an area outside the borders of
the kingdom and two in Poland. As border-defender hero, Ladislas’s
protection would have been preferred in belligerent areas and invoked in
fights against outer enemies. Still, some counter examples force one to
question the often-expressed belief in the specialized protection of the saint.
In Cluj and Sibiu he was the patron saint of blacksmiths and tailors.30 One
can only wonder which could have been the reasons for such guilds to
choose Ladislas as patron saint. In fresco decoration, his image is often
complemented by a far from warlike dynastic saint, Elizabeth. It is probable
that the accent fell on the dynastic character of both and that the primary
function of the images was that of showing loyalty to the ruling house. In at
least eight cases the tiles were found in contexts, presumably less permeated
by the chivalric virtues such as town and city houses or even a monastery.31
Also, we have no evidence that the tiles depicting the knightly saint were
connected and used together with other chivalric tiles. Although detailed
information is too scarce to formulate more than suggestions, I would argue
that in every-day use Ladislas might have ceased to be an exclusively
knightly figure and less of a border-defender hero. He was more of a
legendary royal figure and a fashionable chivalric character. His legend,

28 Drăguţ 1974; Bătrâna, Bătrâna 1990.

29 It is significant that this is the only tile discovered in the central point of Ladislas’s cult, in the
town where his relics lay in the cathedral dedicated to him. On the (now lost) stove tile: Balogh
1982, p. 106 and fig. 98.
30 Gros 2004, p. 263.

31 Although the depiction could have been chosen by a social strata willing to integrate the

(fashionable) values of chivalry into their homes.

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Ana Maria Gruia

especially the episode with the Cuman presents some of the attractive
literary and folk topoi of late medieval times: the fearless Christian
king/prince fighting the pagan enemy in order to rescue the beautiful
maiden. She is, at first on the side of the Cuman, due to lusty love, but later
on she helps Ladislas, participates actively in the killing of the enemy, and
lets the future saint rest in her lap in a courtly scene, often depicted in wall
paintings.

Visual Literacy, Memory and Edification

The presence of an image, be it iconic or narrative, in an interior, would have

attracted attention and would have raised discussions. In a family context,
the legend of the saint would have been explained to the children. The
image would have been “read” to them and deciphered. As a means of
communication, following different rules than the written word, “reading”
images would have needed a certain level of instruction. Tiles depicting
Ladislas on horseback, crowned, dressed in full armour, holding up the
battle axe and a shield with a cross, such as the group from Transylvania
(Oradea, Cristurul Secuiesc32, Aiud33, Cluj34 and Cluj-St. Peter35) would have
rendered the following information: that the character was a king (the
crown), a knight (the armour, the arms, the equipped horse) and a Christian
(the cross inscribed on the shield). His image would have permanently
reminded people of his story and the legend could have been used for
moralizing purposes. The tiles emphasize how the holy and just king fought
against the Pagans, how he defended his country and his Christian belief,
how he was a perfect, honourable knight, running to the aid of maidens in
distress.

Protection and Magic

All religious representations have a basic protective function. Images of

Christ, Mary and the saints, Christian signs and symbols, especially the
cross, can ensure the protection of the home and its inhabitants. The
protection offered by images works in several ways. The process implies
something (or someone) who needs protection, a harm-causing agent, and
an image mediating or ensuring the protection. In need of protection are the
inhabitants of the interior space in which the stove is located. The evil agent
is Satan or the demons and they can harm people in ways related or not to

32 Benkő, Ughy 1984, p. 69, fig. 57.

33 Marcu Istrate 2004, pp. 176, 340, fig. B; Marcu Istrate, Scrobotă 2003, pp. 143-159.
34 Crişan 1996, pp. 385-401.

35 Benkő 2004, pp. 69, 107, plate 17.

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Royal Sainthood Revisited. New Dimensions of the Cult of St. Ladislas (14th -15th centuries)

the stove.36 One needs to see here the importance and the powerful
symbolism of the hearth and the fire, paralleled by its potentially destructive
power. Harm can be done to the inhabitants through malfunctions of the
stove, which might suffocate them with its smoke or might set the entire
house on fire.
Essential in the protective function is the act of seeing, the gaze
which activates the power of the image. The representations on tiles are
meant either to be seen by the inhabitants or by the demons. According to
general beliefs of popular religion, religious images sometimes work simply
by being looked at. The classical example is that of St. Christopher who
protects the viewer from sudden death during that day. Another theory
holds that some images are meant to protect by distracting the demons,
confusing them, fooling or frightening them. At the sight of the cross, the
demons know that the object, person or space marked by it stands under
divine protection and they flee in terror.
Discussing the symbolic charge of certain places and boundaries of
interior spaces, such as the threshold, the door, the window and “God’s
corner”, the place with the crucifix and devotional pictures, Scribner37 makes
reference to their liminal and ambiguous characteristics which bring about
protective rituals. However, he does not mention such rituals related to
images, maybe due to his special interest for the period of the Reformation,
which, despite preserving some of the protective rituals, marked the shift of
power from sacred images to sacred words and inscriptions.38
But which are the visual elements, invested during the later Middle
Ages with apotropaic powers? Sources on religious practices indicate that
the images of the saints enter in this category. Other images are to be found
on amulets, talismans, pilgrim and secular badges, and on charms39. Some
fulfil the same functions today, based on the same superstitious beliefs.
Some of these images preserve a religious character, precisely due to the
ambiguous interferences between religion and magic.40
In the case of stove tiles with St. Ladislas, there are three elements
“suspect” of leading to “superstitious”41 reception: the fact itself that

36 In order to see if images on stove tiles were selected as to ensure a “specialized” protection,

one should analyse for example the proportion of water-related representations (such as the
two-tailed siren) or saints invoked for their protection against fire disasters.
37 Scribner 2001, “Symbolizing Boundaries: defining social space in the daily life of early

modern Germany”, pp. 302-322.

38 Scribner 2001, “Magic and the Reformed Protestant Popular Culture in Germany”, pp. 321-

345.
39 Mellinkoff 2004; Hausmann, Kriss-Rettenbeck 1966, pp. 214-217; Elworthy 1989, pp. 357-358;

Spencer 1998; Koldeweij 1999, pp. 307-328.

40 For an excellent detailed discussion on the topic see Scribner 2001, “The Reformation popular

magic and the ‹disenchantment of the world›”, pp. 346-365.

41 Popular magic, labelled by the official church as superstition i.e. false belief, is defined by

Scribner as being a form of cultural practice concerned with mastering the exigencies of
material and daily life, crossing social boundaries but being based on popular, traditional and
oral knowledge. Scribner 2001, p. 323.

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Ana Maria Gruia

Ladislas was a saint and holy elements in his depictions, such as the halo
and the cross, placed on his crown, on his shield or on the orb he is
sometimes carrying; his arms and armour; and the violent combat scenes of
his legend. An image depicting a saint is invested through transfer with
some of the power of that saint. The visual resemblance triggers a spiritual
connection. On the other hand, images of arms and weapons are considered
effective against demons because through their warrior qualities they “fight”
and scare the malevolent spirits. In his full armour and raising his battle-axe
Ladislas is a miles Christi, a fighter against all evil. The violent scenes in
which Ladislas is sometimes represented on stove tiles, following the
Cuman, like on the already mentioned tile from Baia, or fighting the Pagan
in a face-to-face struggle, like on a tile from Cecheşti42 are, through their very
nature, something both interesting and scary, at the sight of which evil
would perish.
Although Henry Maguire43 analyses the use of saintly images in the
context of household magic in a different context, that of early Byzantium,
one can try to appropriate some of his conclusions. The main characteristic
of the images used for apotropaic ends is, according to his study, their
obscurity and their repetition. Making the parallel with the stove tiles, one
will easily notice that these characteristics are preserved: in the great
majority of cases one decorative motif repeats itself several times on the
same stove and through repeated copy (and maybe lack of talent) the
accuracy of the details is lost to such degree that some motifs may loose all
recognizable elements.44
Stove tiles first appeared in nowadays southern Germany and
northern Switzerland and they spread to central Europe mainly due to the
waves of German colonization. Therefore these artefacts originally reflected
the catholic culture. Was then their reception different in an eastern,
orthodox area, such as Moldavia? My previous research suggests that
indeed stove tiles may reflect cultural and religious differences, manifested
through iconography. Saint George for example is depicted in a slightly
different manner on stove tiles from Transylvania (belonging to the catholic
cultural area) and Moldavia. In Transylvania the saint is most often depicted
as a knight, with clear details of arms and armour, while in Moldavia he is
depicted more like a saint, in the Byzantine tradition, with halo, mantle,
cross-ended spears and blessed by the dextra Domini.45 If indeed Moldavia
seems permeated by the Byzantine culture even in the case of “foreign”
artefacts such as stove tiles, then maybe the principles of Byzantine
household magic also applied in their case.

42 Benkő, Ughy 1984, p. 53, fig.13.

43 Maguire 1996, “The Saints and Household Magic”, pp. 118-132.
44 The same traits can have also more “pragmatic” causes, such as the availability of series of the

same motif rather than of different motifs and the fading of details due to pure technological
reasons (the wearing out of the mould, too much glaze filling up the relief elements, etc).
45 Gruia 2004.

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Royal Sainthood Revisited. New Dimensions of the Cult of St. Ladislas (14th -15th centuries)

Although not confirmed by the sources, the protective power of saintly

images on stove tiles is a possibility never discussed so far in the scholarly
literature. Certain iconographical elements point in this direction and such
reception would fit the already known elements of popular religious
practice and beliefs. To put it shortly, it would fit “the period eye”. I believe
a more thorough analysis on a larger sample of stove tiles could reveal
illuminating details on the topic.

Cult of the Saints

Images of saints are important elements of the cult of saints (besides church
dedications, presence of relics, hagiographies and canonisations, specific
prayers and liturgical mentions etc).46 The role of saintly images as focus
points of the cult is clearer in the case of images with devotional function or
those displayed in a clear religious context. In the case of images with
religious subject on functional objects (stove tiles, coins, metalwork etc.) one
needs to be more cautious. The image may be considered as source for the
cult of a saint only if the visual reception was accurate and the use different
than purely decorative or fashionable. A slight problem of dating raises
here, because functional items might have still been used for practical
reasons after the saint depicted ran out of personal (or even collective)
fervour.
Let us refer to the groups of tiles depicting St. Ladislas found in Moldavia.
Can the presence of images of the saint on stove tiles be considered as
evidence for the existence of a cult? Could they reflect the popularity of the
saint? Was he adored as an intercessor, was he a symbol of status? Was his
cult a way of expressing loyalty to the dynasty? To the Hungarian
Kingdom?
As mentioned above, in the cult of saints images hold an important
part. The question is if images of the saints on functional or para-liturgical
objects indicate the existence of a cult. Let me refer back to the previous
seven possible functions of saintly images on stove tiles. In the case of
decorative reception of the image of Ladislas, one does not even have to
identify the character correctly and there need not exist any cult of the saint
in the region. The transmission of such an image on a functional type of
object might have been purely coincidental, devoid of any intention or
deeper interpretation. Besides the purely decorative function and possibly
that of status display, all the other uses imply, if not the existence of a cult of
Ladilas, at least knowledge of “his story”. And how are “stories” about the
saints more efficiently circulated than through their cult? In order to be able
to show social, ethnic or religious identity through a domestic image of Saint
Ladislas, one needed to know who the saint was and which were the values
he represented. To explain an image of Ladislas to the children or in order to

46 See a summarized discussion in Crăciun, Florea 2003, pp. 43-68.

21
Ana Maria Gruia

use episodes of his legend to moralizing purposes, one needed to posses

such information. Most convincingly perhaps, in order for an image of
Ladislas to be effective in protecting the house, one needed to believe in the
power of the depicted person, which would have been transferred to the
image. What is important is that in their particular ways, the great majority
of these functions point to the conclusion that the presence of saintly images
on stove tiles indicate the presence of the respective cults in that area. For
greater accuracy though, one should also take into consideration
corroborative data. Besides the stove tiles depicting St. Ladislas, the only
known representations of the holy king in Moldavia are to be found on
coins.47 Both tiles and coins might have been used disregarding the image
they carried. Their relatively small numbers and the possibility that the
objects were imported to the province make coincidence a possible
explanation. In the absence of other indications for a cult of St. Ladislas in
Moldavia, the representations on tiles may only raise the question but not
answer it. Their presence might be caused by coincidence or at best, it might
indicate the existence of personal or restricted devotions towards the saint,
but not an elaborate or largely spread cult.
I have set out to identify possible functions of saintly images on
stove tiles. Due to the strong functional role of the stove tiles I have ruled
out the possibility that the images they carried retained any of their
devotional function. The use of images on stove tiles would have certainly
been very different from the use of the same images in liturgical context.
Nevertheless, such domestic images hold a rich symbolism. They could have
been used as status symbols, as items of prestigious display, as a means of
communicating the ethnic, religious or social identity of the owner. Images
of saints on tiles could have been, in the same time aids for memory and
edification and a means of instructing visual literacy, of developing one’s
specific ability to “read” images. One function has not been taken into
consideration by previous studies, and that is the protective power of such
items, valorised through domestic, popular magic. Also, to a great extent,
the existence of stove tiles decorated with the image of a certain saint does
indicate the existence of a cult in that area, or at least the existence of several
personal devotions towards that saint.
One has to recognize that the quality of sources makes it impossible
even to speculate on the original intention behind the production of certain
types of stove tiles. At this stage of research, one finds it also impossible to
evaluate the degree in which market mechanisms limited or not the buyer’s
freedom of choice. What becomes evident is that iconography and
contextual data is the key to the analysis of image functions on stove tiles. A
new approach of the topic should distance itself from pure archaeology and

47 Which I suggested is a possible way for the transmission of the iconographic type of Ladislas

on horseback from Transylvania to Moldavia. Gruia 2005.

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Royal Sainthood Revisited. New Dimensions of the Cult of St. Ladislas (14th -15th centuries)

art history, turning to other fields of study as well, such as to the social
history of art and to cultural studies who can offer very useful suggestions.

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