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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Dora Merai
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Half-figure funerary monuments appeared in Transylvanian churches of the Lutheran Saxons in the second half of the sixteenth century, following the tradition of medieval priests’ memorials but also diverging from that in some respect. The model of these portrait memorials can be identified among the Humanists’ epitaphs in Vienna set up in the first half of the sixteenth century. The stone epitaph of the scholar and poet Conrad Celtes was placed on the wall of the Saint Stephen Church in Vienna. In addition, he, still in his lifetime, had a printed epitaph made in woodcut by Hans Burgkmair the Elder, which was intended to preserve his memory, his intellectual presence in the circle of Central-European Humanists. By this, he successfully shaped the memory discourse: some of his disciples even had their own funerary monuments made based on this graphic model. The ledger stone of a Transylvanian Saxon priest, Franciscus Elisius, who died in 1593, also follows this model, though with a simplified composition and in a rather poor sculptural quality. The scholarship of medieval and early modern funerary monuments in Europe, inspired by social anthropology, the social sciences in general, and literary criticism has recognized that these objects in their original context were shaped along cultural and ideological expectations which cannot uncritically be connected to the concept of artistic production. Scholarly literature defined the primary function of funerary monuments as preserving the presence of the dead, setting up models to follow for the living, and supporting various memory practices. Funerary monuments re-constructed, even manipulated memory, and this purpose determined how the patrons and tomb makers chose the type, form, material, images, texts, even the site of the memorial. Humanistic education appears as a dominant element in the memory created, shaped, and preserved by the funerary monument of Franciscus Elisius as well as in a group of stone memorials created for Transylvanian Saxon priests in the following decades. Though the texts and images on the monument of Elisius emphasize his excellence in the sphere of religion, the form and composition define his place among the European Humanist intellectuals. The same can be concluded about a group of funerary monuments for pastors produced from the 1590s, which also follow a model from the circle of Viennese Humanists, the epitaph of Johannes Cuspinianus. The paper offers an analysis of the visual and textual aspects of the monuments to explore the intellectual network the early modern Transylvanian Saxon intelligentsia identified with, as well as the actual relationships, knowledge, and experience behind this self-perception. The aim of the research was to understand how all these influenced the image they wished to leave behind about themselves for the contemporaries and the future generations.
Author(s): Mérai D
Editor(s): Gulyás B; Mikó Á; Ugry B
Publication type: Book Chapter
Publication status: Published
Book Title: Magyarországi reneszánsz és barokk. Tanulmányok Galavics Géza tiszteletére (Renaissance and Baroque in Hungary. Festschrift for Géza Galavics)
Year: 2022
Pages: 123-140
Acceptance date: 01/03/2021
Publisher: MTA BTK
Place Published: Budapest
Notes: in Hungarian
