Vadas József (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 11. (Budapest, 1991)
STURCZ János: Maróti Géza pályaműve a Rockefeller Centerhez
Maróti intentionally concealed some elements of the Dionysus tradition in his design, being aware of the fact that the Americans are doubtlessly attracted to an enthusiastic, unconscious, released Dionysian atmosphere, which is shown in their craving for parades and shows. There are dozens of mass festivals a year in New York alone, most of which must pass in front of the R.C., on the Fifth Avenue. (Perhaps this is the reason why Maróti depicted the classes of society happily marching on.) To make his mythical figures general and fitting them into the universal aspect of mass communication, Maróti takes them out of their original mythical or cultural field and surrounds them with attributes from other legends. (This is why Siegfried's attribute, the Burning Walhala, is placed behind Orpheus and why Prometheus's eagle is above Beethoven. The Hellenistic and German myths are expanded with Christian legends, with motifs that can be identically interpreted, e.g. the drinking doves at the well or the deer at the spring.) In German mythology, Walhala is the resting place of the souls of gods and glorified heroes. The Burning Walhala first turns up in Wagner's Twilight of the Gods. In Wagner's mythology, influenced by the 1848 revolutions, it was meant to symbolize the end of the period of feudal privileges. The city of gods, the home of privileges has to be destroyed in order to create the city of people on its ruins. In the original legend, Siegfried represents the new, fearless human hero stronger than God, the Übermensch, whose mission is to destroy Walhala. However, in the picture it is replace by Orpheus 39 ; the falling castle of the gods is contrasted with the metropolis of skyscrapers, raised by the tune of Orpheus' lute. Thus, relating the German legend to the international population of the New World, he appoints the Americans to be the representatives of a new human species who will found a new, free and democratic order of modern metropolises in place of the aristocratic city of the gods. 40 If the „city of Harmony" refers to America, one might ask whether Walhala refers to the old world of Europe, mentally and physically destroyed and burnt in World War I. Maróti's picture is a rare and interesting example for the fact that Wagner was an inspirer of various fields of art, even in non-German territories under German influence, since in Eastern Europe, Maróti received a German-style education. 41 BEETHOVEN Like Orpheus, Beethoven is depicted in an „active" posture, placed in the focus of the powers that rule the world. His body is also radiant and he is shown in the ecstasy of creation. Beethoven belongs to the tragic and romantic geniuses of art, usually shown as a lonely, introverted and ignored artist. In contrast, Maróti, while retaining some of the romantic features 42 , deprived him of the tragic ones, and instead of portraying the musician in the original, melancholic posture - with head down in his hands, like, for example, in Laurens's The Music - an allegory of Beethoven, without date -, he shows him stepping and flinging his arms about vigorously. Just like with the Orpheus figure, as well as other figures of the picture, the posture indicates the ^principle of the largest surface", used in Egyptian illustrations. 43 Beethoven's person was identified with the archetype of the artist in revolt during the Viennese Secession; since then he has often been associated with Prometheus. This is true, for example, for the effective statue by Klinger, where Beethoven is depicted sitting on a throne on top of a
