Vadas József (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 13. (Budapest, 1993)

ZÁDOR Anna: Csernyánszky Mária, a barát szemével

Hers was a truly unique and important dissertation. She examined textiles as the greatest experts examined old paintings which were regarded as the most important works of art in those days. Besides supplying the data required, Mária discussed the techniques, the provenience and the value of these pieces, and by doing so she was, in my opinion, virtually the first to consider these important and precious ecclesiastic trappings worthy of thorough scholarly research. The same high quality and thoroughness, together with extreme scholarly modesty were characteristic of her later works as well. It was perhaps a little later that she started working for the Budapest Museum of Applied Arts, so the topics of her subsequent studies came first of all from the collections of this museum, and were often very far away from the topic of her Ph. D. thesis. In 1936 she wrote an article about the Museum's old Persian rugs, in 1938 about old Oriental carpels, while in 1937 she chose old brocades exhibited in the museum as a subject of research. In 1940 she published short essays on needle and bobbin lace. Those who consider how this old and noble technique has ceased to attract the interest of collectors and researchers as well, can appreciate how useful Cscrnyánszky's ambition was to cover the whole area of the textile arts. My favourite, a comprehensive study of hers, entitled The Role of The Valero Family in The Art History of Old Pest was also a result of this ambition. The excellent article gives the reader much more than the title suggests; not only had she explored the settling, all property purchases and the family relations of this Spanish-bom family, but she also examined the activities of this family in a larger context of the history of civilization, industry, with reference to the problems of middle-class representation. Soon after settling, at the time when the factory in Király Street was built, they decided on a palace-like building, in the Late Baroque style of the second half of the 18th century. Demands had increased with the successive generations and when in the 1840 they built the huge plant, planned by József Hild, which is still there in Honvéd Street, we all the characteristic features of the palatial. Of course, it is not the main question of the study; I have laid special stress on it only because at that time such an overall approach was fairly rare and unusual. Csernyánszky gave a detailed account of the products of the Valero factory, analyzing the available or known items of their silk fabrics both from aesthetic and from iconographie points of view. Already at the time of its publication I was certain that this study inaugurated an entirely new approach, which, unfortunately, proved to have very little effect. But this is certainly not the author's fault. She published a significant study about chasubles with satin-stitch embroidery in the Gerevich Memorial Volume (1942) which in a way completed of her Ph. D. thesis. All references made above merely indicate the broad field of knowledge Cscrnyánszky's works cover. I competent enough, nor have I the necessary space here for an adequate appreciation of what she achieved. Among her merits we find thorough erudition, strict observation and the appropriate description of the objects, as well as the faithful presentation of facts. The second world war and especially the siege of Budapest did not spare the Museum of Applied Arts - partial rebuilding and the revival of museological activities started under hard conditions. Yet already in 1945 she published another essay on the museum's Turkish rugs, and the following year one about the first tapestry. The same year she gave an account of the