Abstract
Colors were ubiquitous in the medieval world, and castles were no exception. While in the eyes of most people their rich color schemes manifested power and wealth, some could also read the more nuanced messages these colors conveyed. The main objective of this paper is to discuss the use and role of color in the interiors of castles of medieval Bohemia and Poland. The picture is complemented by the analysis of color decorations of defensive residences of the Teutonic Order. The discussion takes into account the varying states of preservation and draws from the available written accounts. To present the most complete picture possible, we discuss royal residences, for which unfortunately limited data are available, as well as the better-preserved castles of dukes and knights. We discuss the identified iconographic programs and their chivalric, heraldic, and hagiographic motifs. Within the scope of our discussion are late forms of floral decorations, known as “green chambers”. The numerous examples presented in the paper prove that color was an important tool of visual social communication in castle architecture: it complemented the symbolism, and sometimes carried an independent message.
Highlights
According to an eyewitness account of the famous chronicler Janko of Czarnków, the funeral of Polish King Casimir the Great in 1370 was a highly ceremonial event
1348, and five years later we find the first mention of the painting of wall decorations, when Charles IV supposedly witnessed the miracle of the finger of St
Color was present on elements which are more difficult to grasp, such as furnishings, structural elements, and walls
Summary
According to an eyewitness account of the famous chronicler Janko of Czarnków, the funeral of Polish King Casimir the Great in 1370 was a highly ceremonial event. The chronicler intentionally emphasized the colors accompanying the particular people and groups The focus in this passage is precisely on the enumeration of colors, a clear signal that they were important tools of visual social communication at that time. Detailed research has long been conducted, albeit often in parallel and in many fields, from heraldry and material culture to literature, linguistics, and theology The aim of this text is to draw attention to color in the medieval castle architecture of Poland and Bohemia, within the present-day borders of Poland and Czech Republic. Conclusions on the role of color must be based on a limited number of examples, which may make this text more of a case study than a comprehensive, detailed and exhaustive analysis of the problem The subject of this analysis is only the secular interiors of the residences of kings, dukes and knights. Chapels at castles were intentionally left out of the field of our research
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