Studia Waweliana (1.1992)

flowers. The centrę of the composition is invariably marked with
a boss. The triangular corners of the tiles are filled with various leaf
motifs in axial arrangement. The ground of the decoration is
freąuently plain or covered with fine granulation. The dimensions
of the tabuiar fronts of the wali tiles rangę from 18.2 x 18.2 cm to
20.5 x 20.5 cm; the depth of the tiles varies from 7.5 to 8.5 cm.

The linking tiles, i.e. the moulded oblong elements respon-
sible for the architectural division of the stove and used for the
„binding" of its heating surfaces together, repeat the ornamental
motifs of the stove walls but in an arrangement of bands. The mode
of disposing these motifs on the tiles permits the precise deter-
mination of the function of each of them in the stove. Thus
a number of tiles were identified which had formed the base, 17.5
cm in height of the superstructure of the stove, and a cornice
surmounting particular tiers of the stove and measuring 21.0 cm in
height.

The tiles of this group are covered with transparent green
glaze laid on slip, or with a multicoloured opaąue one with
addition of tin and with the use of green, white, yeliow, and blue.

The distinguished tiles vary in respect of the techniąue of
production, this supporting the view that they come from different
workshops. The diversity of the materiał in question and the
considerable number of recovered fragments prove that there must
have existed a large demand for tiies of this kind and that there
were many stoves built with them. This is confirmed by the finds
made during archaeoiogical and conservation work in numerous
places in the Cracow area.

At the turn of the 16th century the Cracow tile-maker's
workshops produced tiles for the royal court and church dig-
nitaries as well as for burghers. Therefore, those found in burgher
houses supplement our knowledge about the tiles and stoves on
Wawel Hill and may be used for the reconstruction of the forms or
decoration of the stoves built in that period. During the inves-
tigations carried out in the town in the so-called Hetmańska House
a type of rectangular tile was found with the same ornamental
motifs as those in one variety of the wali tiles and in the linking
tiles from the Wawel group, representing the same style and colour
scheme.

The identical style and ornamentation of the above-men-
tioned tiles and their simultaneous occurrence in the rubble suggest
their having been designed and produced with the intention of their
utilization in a stove. A stove built of such tiles, on account of the
diverse use of the acanthus leaf motif, may be called an A-type
acanthus pattern stove (to distinguish it from the ones whose walls
were built exclusively with square tiles bearing an acanthus leaf
motif) — and though no rectangular wali tile could be identified
among the fragments found on Wawel HilL there are some
premises and high probability that such tiles did exist there. Hence

tiles of this kind have been included in the discussed group with
a view to reconstructing the hypothetical aspect of a Late-
-Renaissance stove in the Wawel castle.

In Poland, tiles analogus to those of the group in ąuestion
occur exclusively within the rangę of influence of the Cracow
tile-making centrę. Outside Poland, they are to be found mainly in
Austria and Hungary. A mould for rectangular tile production,
with the same decoration as on the Cracow „acanthus" stove, has
been found in Upper Austria, this bearing evidence of the existence
in that region of a workshop producing tiles of this type.

In addition to the decoration identical with that on the tiles
of the discussed group, a number of its variants have been found
in Europę which are not encountered in Poland. The motif of
a rosette inscribed in a sąuare had been used in European
tile-making sińce as early as the mid-16th century not only to
decorate the whole front of a tile but also as an element
accompanying other motifs. Besides, it was included in a con-
tinuous pattern and then was freąuently split into a ąuarter- or
hałf-rosette. Acanthus leaf motifs forming a frieze may be counted
among the decorative elements preferred in the European tile-
-making of the second half of the 16th century for the embellish-
ment of linking tiles. Despite different stylization it is not difficult
to find examples of treatment of the acanthus motif similar to that
on the Wawel tiles. The motif of a short stem with two heart-
-shaped leaves symmetrically growing from it occurs in European
and Polish tile manufacture solely on the tiles of the „acanthus"
stove and in varieties of its decoration. It follows from analysis of
the recovered tiles that those decorated with the above motif were
common in Europę in the second half of the 16th and in the 17th
century.

In the absence of documented historical objects it is hard to
ascertain when such tiles first appeared in Poland. Tabuiar Late-
Renaissance stove-tiles were encountered in Poland as late as the
end of the 16th century. Therefore, the above-described ornament
was an import subjected in the course of time to local stylization
with several variants. The decoration of the A-type acanthus stove
which probably originated in some Upper Austrian centrę, must
have been such a prototype for all variants of the rosette-within-
a-square motif. This decoration, seen in fuli on the stove from
Waidhofen-on-Ybbs (Austria), gained much popularity, being rea-
dily reproduced and modified (into forms typical of particular
regions) throughout Europę for over a hundred years.

The idea of an „acanthus" stove must have reached Poland
through the Styrian court, after the 1595 fire in the Wawel castle.
Analysis of the royal accounts suggests the conclusion that the
acanthus stove may have been built in 1602 by Matys or Jędrzej
Dzwonik, master tile-makers at that time working for the royal
court, in one of the royal chambers in the north wing of the castle.

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