Vadas József (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 13. (Budapest, 1993)
BATÁRI Ferenc: Az Iparművészeti Múzeum két aprómintás "Holbein"-szőnyege
FERENC BATÁRI TWO SMALL PATTERN "HOLBEIN" CARPETS IN THE COLLECTION OF THE BUDAPEST MUSEUM OF APPLIED ARTS Oriental carpets have been collected by the Budapest Museum of Applied Arts since its foundation in 1872. This field of research has been enriched by the exhibitions and studies of the fellow-workers, such as Mária Csernyánszky. Jenő Radisics /1856-1917/, who was the Director of the institute since 1886, was especially interested in Turkish carpetmaking. One of the richest museum collections of Turkish rugs in Europe was found under his leadership. He organized an exhibition in 1887, from the collections of the late Bishop Arnold Ipolyi /1826-1886/. Radisics presented Ipolyi's 24 carpets in a separate room of the museum, which in fact was the first (!) exhibition of carpets in Europe 1 . After arranging two national exhibitions -one displaying book art, the other goldsmiths' works -, on the suggestion of Count Domokos Teleki, the excellent carpet collector, Radisics set out for organizing a comprehensive, national exhibition of Turkish carpets. The actual arrangement of the display was commissioned to Károly Csányi (1873-1955). Opened in 1914, the exhibition was the most impressive carpet display ever seen 2 , also presenting paintings depicting carpets beside the 312 rugs. They planned to issue a book on carpets, with Teleki's financial support, but it had to be cancelled because of the war. A more modest version of the book entitled "Tapis Turcs provenant des églises et collections de Transylvanie" 71 was published in 1925 in Paris, by Gyula Végh /1870-1951/, who was the director of the Museum at that time, and Károly Layer /1878-1937/. Csányi, on the other hand, founded the Association of Hungarian Carpet Collectors in 1923, and a year later he organized the "Exhibition of Ancient Oriental Carpets 4 in the Budapest Museum of Applied Arts, using mainly the treasures of the members of the association. Károly Layer, who was the director of the museum between 1934 and 1937, arranged two large-scale presentation of carpets, together with Mária Csernyánszky and Sándor Mihalik. The first was the "Ancient Carpets from Asia Minor" 5 in 1935, the other was "The Exhibition of Ancient Persian Rugs" 6 , opened in 1936. Mária Csernyánszky belongs to the second generation of researchers in this field, who, building on the foundation laid by the predecessors and with thorough research in the archives, could place the material in the Hungarian cultural history and examine them from an aesthetic point of view. Her article on Transylvanian carpets 7 , published in 1944 is a fine illustration of a literary essay. Her study on the "Lorenzo Lotto" carpet of the Museum 8 , published in 1945, was the first in Hungarian literature to examine one single outstanding piece, independently of others, in a scientific way.
