Arts and Humanities

Abstract

After Theodore Brentano's long tenure (1922–1927), a new American minister arrived in Hungary, who in many ways was a very different breed from his predecessor. Joshua Butler Wright was a career diplomat and, as it turned out, the only such American minister in Hungary in the interwar years, which meant a somewhat different approach to the job. Many in Hungary also interpreted the change as a positive sign as to the country's greater importance for Washington. However, this was not to be. Butler Wright's three years in Budapest did not bring any fundamental changes in the relationship between the two countries, and Hungary's importance, or the lack thereof, to the United States remained as before: as long as there was a politically stable government in Hungary and it did not cause diplomatic headaches to Washington, the American State Department was satisfied with reading about the political and economic situation in Hungary. Therefore, any Hungarian hopes or expectations that the United States might help in the revision of the Treaty of Trianon were frustrated.

Abstract

A theatrical privilege of May 13, 1749, which was granted to the Pressburg citizen and confectioner, Charles Turbilio, provided the basis for operations of permanent theatrical performances and balls. The privilege also included the duty to construct a new theater building for the purpose. However, during the decade of its validity, Turbilio did not fulfil this element, and so he did not receive the second privilege of September 11, 1760. This second document did not apply to a specific individual but to the area of Pressburg. The city authorities transferred these rights to Count Eudemio Castiglioni, who, together with Count Kristóf Erdődy, eventually paid for the conversion of the so-called Green House into a theater. This study does not deal with theatrical repertory but mainly the background of issuing the second privilege from the perspective of the official proceedings of the Hungarian Royal Governor's Council.

Štúdia sa zameriava na taliansko-slovanské pamätné miesta predovšetkým v Druhom cestopise Jána Kollára. Do centra pozornosti sa dostávajú najmä slovanské pamätné miesta v Ríme, kam Kollár pricestoval v roku 1844. Teoretické východiská štúdie tvoria výsledky výskumov kultúrnej pamäti (P. Nora, J. Assmann), kultúrnej geografie (M. Crang), kultúrnej semiotiky (B. Uspenský, J. M. Lotman) ako aj výsledky v oblasti najnovšieho bádania o Kollárovom celoživotnom diele (R. Kiss Szemán, A. István). V cestopise sa zvlášť zobrazujú rímske pamätné miesta, ktoré podľa narátorovej koncepcie zohrávajú dôležitú úlohu v dejinách slovanskej kultúry. Slovanské pamätné miesta sa prirodzene začleňujú do multikultúrneho sveta talianskej metropoly. Použitie slovanských jazykov a funkcia rôznych slovanských nápisov sa skúma v kontexte rímskej jazykovej mapy. V štúdii sa zvláštna pozornosť venuje talianskym slovám a výrazom, ktoré rozprávač zaradil do českého autorského textu. Pestrá jazyková mapa ako aj široké časové a kultúrne spektrum Kollárovho cestopisu nastoľuje možnosť jeho interpretácie ako palimpsestu. Kollár obohacuje svoj cestopis aj o osobné skúsenosti a príbehy, čím prispieva k ďalšiemu prehĺbeniu zobrazenia slovanských pamätných miest v Ríme. Cestopis sa venuje aj pamätným miestam významných výtvarných umelcov, ktoré sú interpretované prostredníctvom fenoménu ekfrázy (Kibédi Varga). Do Kollárovho cestopisu je zakomponovaná aj lyrická vložka, ktorá je venovaná slovansko-talianskym pamätným miestam a spoločným charakteristickým črtám týchto dvoch národov. Nápisy, pomníky a maľby spomenuté alebo opísané v cestopise tým pádom nadobúdajú nový národný význam a vytvárajú sústavu slovanských pamätných miest, ktorá je tesne spätá s minulosťou a zameriava sa na formovanie slovanskej národnej pamäti.

Abstract

In Modern Hungarian, pedig can signal opposition or continuation between two states of affairs, as well as express concessive meaning, i.e. ‘however, although’, but it has exhibited the latter function only since the 16th century, while the others are older. This paper studies the functional expansion resulting in a shift between the subtypes of expressing contrast and a structural difference as well. Concessive pedig occurs both in clause- or sentence-initial position and, unlike other Hungarian conjunctions, in clause- or sentence-final position. The analysis investigates historical data from the 16th century up to recent language use, showing the diffusion of concessive pedig and variation with its functional variants in different registers. The study also raises the question of whether the change in the word order is connected to the functional difference, involving the role of peripheries in the grammaticalization process.

Abstract

The paper deals with the novel Korvína čili kniha o havranech (Corvina or The Book of Ravens, 1993) by Petr Rákos from the perspective of multilingualism, stylistic hybridity, genre parody and metafiction. The poetics of the Czech author's novel opens the door to a wide range of genre traditions, languages and stylistic registers, including certain Hungarian historical and cultural items, as well as witty language play and references to literary history. The aim of the interpretation is to explore these and to shed light on their poetic role.

The Matthias Fountain is the main attraction in the Hunyadi Courtyard of the Royal Palace in Buda Castle. From the beginning, its creators wanted to evoke the figure of the great ruler, closely linked to the castle’s historical past, and at the same time to “capture a scene from the life of this gallant and popular king”. The theme chosen for Alajos Strobl’s work was Matthias’ hunting and romance in the Vértes Mountains, the story of Beautiful Ilonka, perpetuated by Mihály Vörösmarty’s poem. Its predecessor was an earlier ornamental fountain Miklós József Esterházy had commissioned for the courtyard of Tata Castle. The unrealized fountain was to have featured Matthias in hunting clothes and Beautiful Ilonka as a fairy of the springs. While working on the Matthias Fountain for the royal palace, Strobl had the opportunity to further elaborate on the design, but in the new context the fountain also had the function of a historical monument, and he had to reconcile the hunting and the poetic moments of the legend of Ilonka the Beautiful with the image of the great monarch, which the monumental art of late historicism was shaping at the time and which was also embodied in the decoration and architecture of the royal palace itself.

This image is closely linked up with the ideological changes at the end of the century, the redefinition of the nation’s position and role within the monarchy, and the tendencies of ethnic-cultural homogenization emphasizing the civilizational superiority and assimilative capacity of the Hungarian people. The memory of Matthias, who was always held in high esteem in Hungarian historical memory, also acquired new significance from the point of view of national self-esteem, since he was a strong-handed king of a populous country of predominantly Hungarian ethnicity, capable of conquests, during whose reign Hungary was able to play a dominant role as a regional power in the area and in Europe.

The choice of the hunting scene was partly motivated by the memory of Matthias’s hunting grounds close by, which were often mentioned not only in scientific works, but also in popular publications on local history, hunting and tourism in the period. However, in keeping with the iconographic tradition of the hunting monarch, the sculptural group – going beyond the historical genre scene – also became a memorial to the great king, depicting and glorifying the virtues of his reign in the image of the skilful hunter who took noble prey.

Matthias’s humanist contemporaries described him as handsome and virile, but the positivist historical research of the last third of the 19th century gave a disappointing picture of the king’s appearance, physique and features: they lacked Hungarian character and beauty. Artists who ventured into representing the historical past faced similar challenges to the moot points of the “Hungarian face” debate going on in ethnography and anthropology at the turn of the century. In terms of contemporary expectations of the Hungarian type and its expression as a reflection of national character, the Toldi figure in the Arany memorial was well received, and Strobl also reflected on the ideals of body politics associated with the modern sports movements and the emerging ideology of health and beauty.

Compared to athletics, hunting is a centuries-old, aristocratic sport with historical associations, still the most popular sport of the ruling class and political elite at the end of the century, and therefore the holders of power could actually recognize themselves in the sculptural representations on the Matthias Fountain. Strobl modelled the king’s features on the head of the Bautzen statue of Matthias, while idealising and rejuvenating the king’s appearance. At the same time, by giving his face more angular and defined features, he emphasised both his youth and his mature masculinity. He modelled the splendid figure in a pose reminiscent of the contrapposto and arm position of Donatello’s and Verrocchio’s bronze David, further reinforcing the impression of a vigorous young stalwart.

The obvious reference of the figure of Matthias to Florentine quattrocento art is a typical manifestation of the historicizing process, “historical art”, the purpose and content of which was explained suggestively by Miklós Szmrecsányi. He defined its creation as the mission of those artists who were capable of creating works that “revived the glorious traditions of the Hungarians, their glorious past under their national kings, in the spirit and language of their perished memories”. He also warned that the artistic endeavour should not be limited to “the recollection of external appearances, forced period accuracy, costumes and other archaeological bric-à-brac”, in objective detail, that is.

Strobl, of course, immersed himself with relish in creating the characters, clothing and props of the king and his entourage. The richness of detail in the accessories must also have been inspired by quattrocento models, such as Donatello cramming the armour and saddle-cloth of the mercenary general Gattamelata in a similar manner. The most spectacular of the secondary figures is the Master of the Hunt, whose waistcoat bears a very similar embroidery pattern to the bone cover of the National Museum’s Hunyadi crossbow depicting a deer hunt, and whose costume is a mixture of elements from the Conquest-period and from folklore. The figure can almost entirely be circumambulated, and Strobl has connected the pose, which can be derived from ancient sculptures (Apollo Belvedere), with a distinctly spiral structure. The Master of Hounds, also almost entirely in the round on a rock near the viewer’s space, is a figure that takes its cues from the gigantic figure of the Danube in the Fountain of the Four Rivers in Piazza Navona in Rome. Outside the natural setting, on the left, on an independent architectural pedestal stands the Falconer, whose stance, together with his straight, rigid spine, his head raised with a phlegmatic expression on his face emanates detachment and serenity.

Moving far away from the first version of the Tata fountain plan, Ilonka the Beautiful has clearly become a secondary character in the ensemble. She is no longer a nude fairy of the springs, but Strobl has given her a nymph-like look with a shock of long hair, simple sleeveless dress with front laces and bare legs. In 19th-century depictions, the sylvan nymphs are often depicted as erotic seductresses, captivating the hearts of the men who chance upon them or tantalising the satyrs who catch sight of them. Strobl has tried to recreate something of the nebulous love story in Vörösmarty’s poem, in which the forest is the scene of the lovers’ encounter and of erotic magic, rendered with balladic condensation. By depicting the king as a young man in love and Ilonka as a nymph-like, almost mythical creature, the sculptural group preserves something of the lyrical-romantic thread of the story, but the representation of historical reality undoubtedly marginalises it. Here, Ilonka is more of an attribute, a side character in a male-dominated world and history, an object of desire and seduction, a “representative prop of male power”.

Despite being fixed to the wall, the stone coulisse in the semi-circular basin protrudes well into space, and the arc of the staggered placing of the figures traces a serpentine line extending into the courtyard. Strobl draws on this to unfold the narrative condensed into sculptural figures and to link the hunt with the love affair. At the same time, this line leads from a figure towering in the distance, composed mainly for a frontal view, to increasingly spatial, circular standing and seated figures, i.e. from a pictorial form accessible to the eye to figures that dynamically unfold and can be experienced as three-dimensional bodies.

Antal Hekler was a decisive figure of Hungarian art historiography in the interwar period. He occupied important offices as the heir to the country’s then only university department of art history (1918–1940), that is, the successor to Gyula Pasteiner; chief editor of the Archaeologiai Értesítő (1923–1940) also carrying art historical writings; the vice president of the National Archaeo-logical and Anthropological Society (later Hungarian Archaeological and Art Historical Society) (1920–1928); founder and editor of the bilingual Henszlmann-lapok (1927–1930); member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (1920: corresponding, 1934: ordinary member). He was a close kin and shared deep intellectual orientation with the decisive cultural minister of the era, Kunó Klebelsberg. The accidentally surviving private letter (written by Hekler to Klebelsberg on 17 July 1921) allows a glimpse of this relationship. As there is a lot of relevance for the history of the study of art history in the letter, it is worth making it public. They tried to revive and normalize the cultural life of an impoverished, internationally isolated Hungary after the lost war, in which process Hekler was assigned an important role. Thanks to his links to the ministry, he arranged scholarships, channels of publication, sometimes jobs for his students (Andor Pigler, János Kapossy, later Jolán Balogh, Anna Zádor and many others).

The detailed scientific examination of the late Gothic Madonna statue of the Franciscan friary of Șumuleu-Ciuc (Csíksomlyó) took place between 2009 and 2015. This work involved the careful cleaning of the sculpture and the detailed technical examination of the piece, which included the endoscopic detection of hard-to-reach external surfaces and the inaccessible parts of the interior of the statue, sampling and the determination and radiocarbon dating of these tiny wood samples, as well as the careful collection of written sources and old representations. The statue appears first in written sources at the beginning of the 17^th century. In these years it was not placed on the main altar yet but it was part of a side-altar. It can be assumed that the statue of more than a man’s size (the total height of the statue without the baroque crown is 210 cm) was originally a masterpiece in a church of an unidentified Transylvanian urban settlement, as the main figure of a winged altar, carried later to ȘumuleuCiuc (Csíksomlyó), which remained firmly Catholic during and after the Reformation.

The large, spherical pedestal of the statue, representing the universe, was reworked in the modern age in a modified form. Apart from that, we did not find traces of later rejuvenation on the sculpture surface. Likewise, we did not see any signs of the hypothetic burning of the statue in the 17^th century. The original coloring of the sculpture overlaid (repainted?) in the 19^th century has been determined (specified?) at several points; that was also confirmed by an oil painting from 1747 documenting the original coloring.

The Virgin’s temples and neck reveal numerous traces of small pins and needles, which is a sign of the early modern dressing of the statue. The details of the dressing appear in 17^th century written sources; more details can be found among the items listed in the 18^th century inventories of the sacristy (dresses, veils, precious metal jewelry, crowns, jewels). The actual/present crown of Madonna and the little Jesus comes from the second half of the 17^th century.

We have connected the statue of Madonna with two smaller statues of St. Barbara and St. Catherine at the Szek ler Museum of Ciuc. It is assumed that these three sculptures took part in the construction of the same medieval wing altar. The radiocarbon examination of the samples taken from the backs of the smaller statues from the beginning of the 16^th century gave considerably earlier 15^th century values than the real date of carvings, which only proves that these thick trees were of considerable size in the mid-15^th century. The results of the radiocarbon examination of the canvas that was used to base the Madonna statue showed 1426–1452 as its origin time.