Stone materials of the late twelfth-century incrustation works of Esztergom

Abstract

The paper deals with the material analysis of four emblematic stone fragments from Saint Adalbert Cathedral and the Royal Palace of Esztergom from King Béla III’s era. All of the four examined objects (two fragments from the Porta speciosa and two throne arm-rests) have incrustations with red limestone basement and other colourful stone pieces. As red limestone is a well-known material in Hungarian art history with a rich historiography, the paper focuses on the findings of the analyses of other stone materials of the incrustations. The research contains several non-destructive analytical methods, such as relative humidity measurement, macroscopic and microscopic photography and X-ray fluorescence with lithologic description. Besides the comparative analysis of the stone materials, archive documents, the current state and the impacts of subsequent restorations of the four stone artefacts were also studied.