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Patterns of Devotion and Traces of Art. The Diplomatic Journey of Queen Elizabeth Piast to Italy in 1343-1344
This article focuses on the journey the Hungarian Dowager Queen Elizabeth Piast undertook in 1343–1344 to the Italian Peninsula in order to bolster the claims of her son, Prince Andrew, to the Neapolitan throne. Contrary to the agreement concluded a decade earlier between King Charles i of Hungary and King Robert of Naples, Andrew’s wife, Queen Joanna i, was still the sole ruler. In addition to its obvious diplomatic purpose, the trip also represented an occasion for Queen Elizabeth to express her devotion at the shrines of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul in Rome and St Nicholas in Bari. With this occasion, the queen visited many churches, making generous donations in money and precious objects to these cult centers.
On one hand, the author reconstructs the itinerary of Queen Elizabeth by examining a series of contemporaneous chroniclers’ accounts: Giovanni Villani’s Nuova Cronica (around 1320 to 1348); the Cronica of the so-called Anonimo Romano (1357-1360); and Chronicon de Ludovico rege by John, Archdeacon of Târnave/Küküllő (1360s). On the other hand, he identifies some of the works of art the Hungarian Dowager Queen donated to Italian churches by looking at the 14th-century inventories of the treasuries of St Peter’s and St Nicholas’ Basilicas. Confronting the written evidence with the surviving visual evidence, the author notices that Queen Elizabeth donated or commissioned works of art with the image of the Árpádian/Angevin dynastic saints, namely, St Stephen, St Emeric, St Ladislas, St Elizabeth, and Blessed Margaret. According to the description in the inventory, a no-longer existing dossal destined to St Peter’s Basilica was embroidered with the figures of these Hungarian saints, who were depicted in the company of the Virgin with Child and the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul. This association of saints conveyed an obvious political message, stressing the inborn sanctity of the Angevin dynasty. A chapel-shaped reliquary, lavishly decorated with precious stones, enamels, and figures of saints, still exists in the treasury of St Nicholas’ Basilica in Bari. Very visible on the chapel’s tower, the Árpádian coat-of-arms informs the beholder upon its donor and makes obvious the Hungarian dynasty’s tools of self-representation. The altarpiece painted by Lippo Vanni shows the Virgin with Child being flanked by Sts Dominic and Elizabeth of Hungary/Thuringia. The two donors bearing the Árpádian/Angevin coat-of-arms are depicted on the side of the Hungarian saint and can be identified with Queen Elizabeth and Prince Andrew – this association makes obvious the dynastic link and families ties between donors and saint. The Hungarian dynastic saints appear also in the miniatures of the Decretales, executed in 1343 by the Bolognese painter known as Illustratore and commissioned by the Provost of Esztergom Nicholas Vásári, who was probably part of Queen Elizabeth’s retinue during her Italian journey.
Consequently, the dynastic saints of home were present abroad during their supporters’ pilgrimage to the cult centers of other saints, and this association increased the prestige of both the dynastic saints and those promoting the cult.