Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 24. (Budapest, 2006)
Györgyi FAJCSÁK: Exibition of Oriental Arts, 1929 - Collecting Chinese artefacts in Hungary in the 1920s and 1930s
tor. 15 He was interested in the arts of the Hellenistic Orient and thus opened a new period of Chinese art for comparative examinations (e.g. the examination of the historical objects of the oasis cities along the Silk Road). Collecting Buddhist scupltures started at the end of the 19 th century; now, the examination of archaeological findings gave it a new momentum. It was the theosophy unfolding in the last third of the 19 th century that directed travellers ' and collectors' attention to Buddhist relics. Theosophy turned to Buddhist religion as a source 16 and increasingly large numbers of those travelling on the Far East took notice of works of Buddhist art. Such pieces of art were considered as examples of the characteristics of distant cultures and meeting points of various civilizations. 17 Therefore, it is by no means an accident that at the beginning of the 20 th century Buddhist artefacts formed a significant group of objects of Oriental collections. Collecting Chinese artefacts in the 1920s and 1930s in Europe The decades between the two World Wars were the great age of collecting works of Chinese art. In 1911 the rule of the Manchurian Qing dynasty (1644-1911) ended in China. Under the leadership of Sun Yat-sen (Sun Wen), a civil democratic state started to be built up on the basis of a Western pattern. However, the development of the new system of establishment took a long time, which contributed to the political consolidation of military leaders. The following decades were determined by political disunity, economic depression and the Japanese invasion. The country was led by warlords who strived for power and making money fast; the relics of the past were not given special attention, that is, it was allowed to sell and buy anything. With the fall of imperial rule, the Chinese view of history, which was thousands of years old and strongly connected to traditions, was shaken, too; the Emperor, the Son of Heaven no longer had a heavenly mandate. The imperial collection, being the material proof of this power, lost its ritual significance. The fall of the imperial rule and growing Chinese nationalism catalyzed a debate on the traditional Chinese view of history; the methods of archaeology contributed to the debate. In the decades between the two World Wars, the main objective was to explore the beginnings of Chinese civilization. Excavations were carried out mainly along the Yellow River, in a territory considered to be the birthplace of Chinese civilization; an enormous amount of findings were unearthed. Chinese history was re-considered on the basis of the results of excavations; archaeological findings reinforced the existence of the Shang dynasty ( 17 th — 11 th century BC) and outlined a series of pre-Shang cultures. By the 1920s, railway construction had reached the inner provinces of China; as a result, archaeological finds became easier to transport. In European collections new categories of objects of Chinese art appeared; now, the core of exquisite collections consisted of Chinese archaeological material, that is, funeral ceramics, ancient bronze vessels and ancient jade objects. Pieces of the imperial collection were being collected, too. Importance was attached to objects produced in the Song period (10 th —13 th century, AD), the great age of Chinese ceramics. The translation of Chinese texts provided a source of getting to know the huge amount of material. The characteristic features of Chinese artistic aesthetics (the primacy of calligraphy and painting, the prominent role of ceremonial bronzes and the significance of the imperial collection) started to unfold. In the procedure of examining Chinese objects the notion of function appeared; the classification and systematization of objects provided a method facilitating a deeper understanding. Relics of Buddhist art formed a significant part of Chinese collections in Europe. Such objects had been present in Chinese collections since the turn of the century; along with the archaeological findings of the oasis cities of the Silk Road, the material of Northern Chinese Buddhist cave temples appeared in Western collections between the World Wars. Between the two World Wars, the historical
