Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 25. (Budapest, 2007)
Ildikó PANDÚR: The Role of Gyula Jungfer in Hungary's National Exhibition of 1885
Fig. 5 Hall of Exhibitions Situated further away from the main gate of the exhibition site, the ornamented Exhibition Hall became, after complete renovation, the venue of the Health Section at the Millennial Exhibition of 1896. Built to plans by Ferenc Pfaff, this building, designed in the Neo-Renaissance style and embellished with Zsolnay ceramics, is the only one of these three structures still surviving today (Fig. 5).20 As the illustrative material attests, in all three of these buildings, and elsewhere too, work by Gyula Jungfer was to be found. In 1885, the Exhibition Hall housed not only the Fine Arts Group, but also the Architecture Section. According to the register,21 many drawings of elevations and prospects were exhibited on which architectural ironwork by Gyula Jungfer could be seen.22 (Such illustrations may also have featured in a similar way in the Budapest Pavilion, where ‘plans of the capital’s better- known buildings were presented’.23) In the series of 1; 100-scale photographs consisting of 200 connected pictures collectively entitled ‘Panorama of Andrâssy (Sugar) üf (this presented both sides of Andrâssy lit from beginning to end), the visitor could likewise discover works by Gyula Jungfer.24 However, the works themselves were more important than illustrations of this kind. Creations from Gyula Jungfer’s firm were assigned to two specialist categories: Group XI: Metalwork and Group XXII: Construction Industry.25 In the former, among the metalwork creations, it exhibited separately. In the latter, it displayed work in a group consisting of products for the building industry, while its gas lamps featured in a collective exhibition by Budapest gas producers.26 On a photograph by Klôsz that is now known and recognised (see Fig. 1), a detail of the interior of the Hall of Industry can be seen. In the central space of the building, a visitor proceeding from the south gate could see on the right side of the exhibition artefacts belonging to the Metalwork Group, which had 282 exhibitors. Within the smith’s work category, artistic smith’s work was represented by fourteen exhibitors (Fig. 6-7: Hall of Industry. Interior).27 Jungfer’s work must have stood out from that of the other exhibitors on account of its dimensions, too: it was partly surrounded by a latticed structure designed especially for this occasion.28 This was without doubt prompted by the exhibition guidelines published in 1883: ‘it is desirable that the exhibition spaces for smith’s work be marked off by ornamented iron grills or railings.’29 Gyula Fig. 6 Hall of Industry. Interior 92
