15thc perception on swallowtail merlons?

[Pierre Dumont Himself]

Well found! That's a small detail in such a busy scene. There are a few other overlaps with the Rosettes as well, like the mandorla shape and the rose window framework.

 
It's not so difficult once you know what to look for. Multiple churches in the Piemonte feature vault frescoes depicting angels and/or the Four Evangelists, some of which also include merlons. However, this is the first example I've found in which the merlons are specifically swallowtail.

With what you have learned, how do you see the role of the relevant branches of the Anjou? We encountered them in Sicily (somewhat uncertain attestations), and now, again in the periphery, in Croatia.

The small shields on top of the oldest crest, which were later scrubbed off by the Venetians, may have belonged to the Šubić princes rather than the Anjou. Until the early 15th century, the centers of power of the Croatian princes were mostly in Dalmatia rather than the interior, while the Hungarian King ruled from far away. I have found very few examples of merlons of any kind in collections of Croatian and Bosnian miniatures or in fortifications of the Dalmatian interior. All evidence in the East comes from Venice, Istria and the Italian-linked cities on the coast, including the de facto independent entities of Gorizia, Trieste and Ragusa (there is no evidence so far from Slovenia and only a few attestations from pre-earthquake Friuli, all postdating the Venetian annexation). In the early 15th century, when frescoes became common in Italian churches, Dalmatians preferred sculpture and other forms of stonework. The articles I linked mention that carved Angevin crests were relatively common, but I haven't seen any other evidence of English, French or Hungarian art in Dalmatia.  Maybe there is something in the Hungarian archives, but there are certainly no buildings with swallowtail merlons in Continental Hungary. In Medieval Serbia, the artistic influences were predominantly Byzantine: St George is usually depicted standing, pinning the dragon to the ground with a spear, and with no castle in the background, while the walls of the early 15th-century capital at Smederevo were inspired by the walls of Constantinople. 

Sicily had no Angevin presence outside of the 1298-1302 invasion. The island was ruled by the same Aragonese who seemingly avoided swallowtail merlons on the mainland (albeit by a different dynasty until 1412). The Torri di Varano were built under the Angevins of Naples, but it remains to be seen if we can find any other examples. Unfortunately, there is no depiction of Naples until decades after the Aragonese conquest, when the castle and the walls had been rebuilt. 

In France, the 14th century seal of Bayonne, and the castles on Aquitanian coins do NOT have swallowtail merlons. This kind of stock image is known as the "Châtel aquitanique", and it has two-pronged (bident) merlons. 


Serena Sozzi. La monnaie en Aquitaine XIIIe-XVe siècles. Histoire. Université de Bretagne occidentale - Brest,
2021. Français. ⟨NNT : 2021BRES0046⟩. ⟨tel-04920136⟩
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