CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2017
| Author | Somogyvári, Virág Erika |
|---|---|
| Title | The Art of Love in Late Medieval Bone Saddles |
| Summary | The thesis deals with a little known, albeit particular and unique Central European object group from the fifteenth-century. A great number of wood saddles covered with bone panels survived from the first part of the fifteenth century and are dispersed in museums all over the world. Despite their particularity, these special parade objects have not gained enough attention in scholarship which can be explained by the main issue related to them: the lack of written sources. Therefore we cannot assert when and where exactly they were made, or their original purpose. The aim of the thesis is to examine a recent idea connected to the purpose of the saddles, namely that they were used during marriage processions. In order to find an answer to this question, in my thesis I examine the topic from different angles: their decoration and their possible cultural context. Accordingly, my thesis is divided into four main chapters. In the first chapter, I give an overview of the most important issues about the object group. In the second chapter, I reveal the dominating iconography, which is connected to love. The third chapter examines the inscriptions which usually have some love content and the initials which may refer to concrete couples. Finally, I place these special objects in their probable cultural context: in late medieval marriage rituals. |
| Supervisor | Szakács, Béla Zsolt; Choyke, M. Alice |
| Department | Medieval Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2017/somogyvari_virag.pdf |
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