Vadas József (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 11. (Budapest, 1991)

STURCZ János: Maróti Géza pályaműve a Rockefeller Centerhez

Yet the two figures create only a geometrical centre, since they are placed fairly high, with no emphasis on the size or shape, thus they arc lost among the huge allegorical figures. The most significant and active ones are Beethoven and Orpheus, (pictures 12-13) who, strangely enough, are placed on the two sides of the picture. Both appear in a geometrically stylised „electronic vesica quarter", which is ragged like a flash. Beethoven stands on the left, dressed in antique clothes, making a dancing step, his hands raised as if conducting. Orpheus is placed in the right corner, playing his lute. Both are surrounded by an electric-like halo, and they are connected with a decorative batch of wavy lines, which radiate from their body and coil across the picture. Beside Beethoven, there is a well, symbolizing the Endless Music ("Musica Infinita"), with a drinking couple of doves on its rim. An eagle with spread wings appears above Beethoven's head. Behind Orpheus, water springs from a rock, and a deer and a unicorn appear to symbolize the animals lured there by the sound of the lute. They are surmounted by a castle on a hill, which is, according to the inscription, „The Burning Walhala". Another connected pair of allegorical figures appears in the same size, floating in a similar cosmos decorated with stars, yet in a more modest „vesica", which refers to their lower position. They arc the goddesses of „The New Religion" and „Wisdom". Their connection is suggested by their identical appearance, clothes and their posture and gestures which are symmetrical to the axis. (Both rest one foot on a ball, floating in the cosmos, holding a star in one stretched hand and a book (Wisdom) or a hour-glass (New Religion) in the other, (picture 14, 15) Between these figures from beyond we can see the sphere of humanity. A group of naked male and female figures, generally a symbol of humanity awakened to consciousness, appears between the goddesses. In the centre, a sleeping figure of „Latent state" appears, kneeling on a desert rock, with his head down and arms hanging free, (picture 11) The figure has his palms held upwards, as if asking for help. He is flanked by three female figures on each side, half kneeling, half sitting, with hands raised in a stretching position. They represent the process of „The Awakening"

. (The transition is suggested by the rising heads and opening eyes.) To the right there is „The Builder,,; to the left „The Thinker,, appears. The two marching groups between the goddesses and the heroes of culture represent the main classes of contemporary society, (pictures 14-15) On the left, we can see the working class (in overalls, with a car, a manometer or a sack in the hand) in front of skyscrapers under construction. Behind them there is „Care" (a figure with a baby, with one hand stretched towards the sky), with a figure of a capitalist engineer beside. On the side of the group we can see a printing machine and an apprentice picking up the paper ribbon - the representatives of „World Press" - surmounted by the emblem of London ("London.Television'"), with St. Paul's Cathedral in the centre, (picture 14) On the right, placed symmetrically with the proletars, the marching group depicts the intelligentsia and the scientists, (picture 15) Here we meet the archetypes again: the equivalent of the old worker leading a child is now an old „professor" teaching his students; there is a „biologist"(?) in a white gown looking down his microscope (with the inscription „Microcosmos"), a „pilot", holding an aeroplane, and a „geographer"(?), equipped with a globe. On the