PT Journal
AU Cihakova, J
TI Dating and composition of the Vysehrad type Romanesque floor tiles
SO Staleta Praha
PY 2009
BP 16
EP 25
VL 25
IS 2
DI 10.56112/sp.2009.2.02
WP https://staletapraha.cz/en/artkey/pha-200902-0002.php
DE floor tiles - ceramic (terracotta) tiles - Romanesque art - Prague/Vysehrad - Prague/Mala Strana - pre-Romanesque church - 11th century - pre-Romanesque composition - geometric composition
SN 02316056
AB An attempt is made to evaluate the oldest terracotta relief tiled floors in Bohemia - their chronology, iconography and composition technology. Chronology of the Vysehrad type of tiles is currently based on two conceptions: it was produced either in the end of the 11th century or in the period around the year 1130. After critical analysis of those published finds, which have a high degree of potentially accurate dating, the earlier date is considered more probable. The newly recognised composition principle of the eponymous tiled floor, found in the 19th century in the basilica of St. Lawrence at Vysehrad in Prague, was based on a different idea than the composition of square tiles. A re-construction design of the Vysehrad type tiled floor and its interconnection with the architectonic disposition of the building as a work of a master of European format is suggested. An attempt to compare the construction of the Vysehrad type of floor with the groundplan of the surrounding building has so far been made in case of St. Wenceslaus rotunda only, where coherence was prooved. Revealing the composition principle of the floor from hexagonal Vysehrad type ceramic tiles as a complicated construction with a strict inner structure opens further possibilities regarding their iconography and comparing the iconography and composition of other early medieval floors in Europe.
ER