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

CSÉFALVAY Pál: Csernyánszky Mária és Esztergom

PÁL CSÉFALVAY MÁRIA CSERNYÁNSZKY AND ESZTERGOM The first book to be published by Mária Csernyánszky was entitled "Az esztergomi Főszékesegyházi Kincstár paramentumai (Paraments of the Treasury of The Esztergom Cathedral), a Ph.D. thesis written in the Art Historical and Christian Archaeological Institute of the Royal Péter Pázmány University of Budapest, with 17 picts. Budapest, 1933." With this work she wanted to continue the activity of a generation which, with the lead of Tibor Gerevich, took up the task of assessing Christian monuments and works of art in Hungary. Among studies dealing with this topic we may find Gyula Edvi-Illés's Az esztergomi főszékesegyház (The Esztergom Cathedral) /1929/, Mária Dutka's Az esztergomi Keresztény Múzeum gobelinjei (Tapestries in the Esztergom Christian Museum) /1936/, and the Esztergom XVIII. századi műemlékei (Monuments from the 18th century Esztergom) /1937/ by László Pálinkás. Mária Cscrnyánszky's essay also belonged to this series. The studies were born in the positive atmosphere created first by the friendship of Tibor Gerevich and the two years older Prelate Antal Lepold. It was their influence that enabled Esztergom to acquire the Ipolyi and San Marco collections, as well as to perform the famous and successful "excavations" between 1934 and 1938. Gerevich's love for the town is also proved by the first volume of "The Topography of Hungarian Monuments", started and edited by him. The volume which is still an often used essential guidebook for students, covered the Esztergom Christian Museum, the Treasury and the Library. Gerevich was keen on directing his students' scientific curiosity towards Esztergom. The Treasury of the Esztergom Cathedral includes a collection of sacral textiles, which is uniquely rich compared to other Hungarian collections of the same sort. Some of the pieces were already mentioned in previous volumes dealing with the treasury, for example, József Dankó's long and ornamental book from 1880 describes 16 textiles, with photos. Objects lent for great national exhibitions of the nineteenth century are described in the catalogues (Vienna 1876, For Victims of Flood 1876, Hungarian historical and art historical relics, 1876 and in the 1896 catalogues for the Millenial exhibition.) The "master" had also written a comprehensive article about the subject in the 1928 Primas Album, entitled Esztergomi műkincsek (Treasures of Art in Esztergom). Gerevich had come up with a great number of new approaches in his favourite topic - Early Italian Renaissance Painting - but he felt the lack of a thorough research of the diverse topic of art history. So he initiated his student, Mária Csernyánszky to follow this route, and asked Antal Lepold, who was the prépost of the Treasury at that time to support her. No great, surprisingly new results or explorations were expected from a Ph.D. thesis at that time. Yet Mária Csernyánszky