Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 18. (Budapest, 1999)

Zsuzsa H. BOGNÁR: About the Dining Room in the Buda Palace of Count Tivadar Andrássy - apropos of an armchair

artist who weighed and assimlated every new endeavour to renewal of man's surroundings by making them aesthetically pleasing, harmonious, warm, and close to nature. Even when things were at their most wretched, there were always flowers, symbols of organic and vibrant life, in the artist's home and surroundings. In the case of the Andrássy dining room, too, he started out from this, from the transposition of floral motifs recalling nature. The chairs featuring in the original designs did not - in contrast to the other pieces in the suite - did not display this flowing, organic character, but, starting out from a classical chair design and perhaps taking account of his own needs, were "serviceable pieces of furniture", highly functional, the least ethereal and restful; they were padded and presumably upholstered with leather. Their slightly curving lines would have produced a calming affect, in contrast to the character of the inherently dynamic table evoking organic notions and recalling nature/' Risking a guess, we may assume that English-type chairs were adopted in the interior on account of the looming deadline for completion, at the suggestion of Andrássy and with the concurrence of the artist. Because of this the suite, which was designed using an approach which aimed at unity - but not necessarily the creation of particular pieces - became, among other things, more eclectic and less "harmonious". The archives of the Rippl-Rónai Museum at Kaposvár hold a document - a copy of Dezső Malonyai's work entitled A fiatalok (The Young People) later annotated by Rippl-Rónai - which refutes every hitherto authoritative supposition. In his own hand the artist corrects the contemporary signed photograph with the title "Dining Room of Count Tivadar Andrássy" and the subtitle "The gobelin-type embroidery, the ceramic pieces, the stained glass, the furniture, and the glassware were made according to the artist's designs and under his supervision in 1897." He writes: "The vases here are by somebody else, the chairs and the lamp too; only the fireplace and the embroidery are mine. R-R-J." The pieces by others are crossed through, indicating that the original suite was a group of art works conceived as a unity by a sovereign artist which was supplemented with elements "by others" on account of particular circumstances/

2 We, late successors, acknowledge Rippl'

s pioneering role and only wish that he could have had less worry and trouble with contractors whom we know to have been competent, and that the craftsmen, too, could have been more amenable and responsive in realizing the "visions" of a creative artist. Then, perhaps, this major work - an individual creation by the artist far ahead his time - would not have been the only such undertaking in his oeuvre." After Rippl'

s death Károly Kernstok wrote the following about his one-time good friend: "In search of the mysterious paths of Providence and the laws, order and fantasy of the Cosmos, Man's desire to know and Mankind itself seek out all those - scholars, who from this truth, from the secrets of Creation, make a minute amount accessible to us; or the artist, who with the secrets of beauty and the mystery of Creation makes Mankind's fantasy soar; we envelop him in love full of questioning and wonder, because without doubt he is the one chosen to bring from the secret of secrets a Promethean flame down into the sad greyness of life." 'The disharmony of the order of earthy life is that we give them proper thanks and commemoration." "Because these are celestial travellers: prophets, scholars and artists by heavenly grace distribute gifts - the grace of the gods which, through them, enriches our life, and fantasy, so that through this cycle Man's life here on earth should be always on a higher and higher level."

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