Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 26. (Budapest, 2008)
Ildikó PANDUR: Variations on a Sculpture. Questions and Answers Concerning the 'Ironworker' Sculpture Formerly in the Jungfer Collection
11. Entrance of the Hungarian Pavilion at the International Applied Art Exhibition, Turin, 1902 seen at this exhibition. 20 ) In the event its being the cast version, the name of the sculptor would surely have been given; however, on the plate mounted on the plinth it is the names 'Arminio e Francesco Steiner' that can be read (Ármin and Ferenc Steiner were producers of bronze ware). The plinth is of a distinctive type designed for the exhibition (ill. 12), to be made of wood in as many cases as possible. This indicates that it was presumably the beaten-metal sculpture that was displayed at the exhibition, as a work of technical bravura, although those recording it mentioned it as a work in bronze: 'Designed by Margó, the artefact entitled "Worker", which was executed by 12. Inscription on the plinth of the Statue of Ironworker. Detail of the Hungarian Pavilion at the International Applied Art Exhibition, Turin, 1902 the Ármin and Ferenc Steiner firm, is a fine example of Hungarian plastic art.' 21 It is sure that the beaten-metal version of the 'Ironworker' artefact featured at the St Louis World Exposition of 1904, moreover in the middle of the central hall of the Hungarian pavilion, which was once again designed by Pál Horti. The piece was described by Horti himself: 'I placed the very best of our bronzes on plinths: sculptures by Teles, Damkó, Radnai, and György Vastagh the Younger that were cast and given a patina by Haraszti, successfully as well. In the middle of the space I put Ede Margó's figure entitled 'Labour', beaten out in copper by Ármin and Ferenc Steiner.' 22 Like Elemér Czakó in 1902, Horti, too, gave Ede Margó as the creator of the sculpture. The above reports on the exposition place the identity of both the modeller and the executor in a new light. Hitherto it is Alajos Stróbl who has been named in the specialist literature as the modeller of this piece. 23 As well as the modelling method, the theme, too, supports StróbPs authorship. A number of renowned 19 lh-century Hungarian sculptors - for example, István Ferenczy 24 and János Fadrusz 25 - began their careers as smiths. Alajos Stróbl (1856-1926) was never a trained smith, but he did spend time in a factory at Liptóújvár (today Liptovsky Hrádok, Slovakia) and also worked for a year in a forge next to the village of Trisnyecz in Silesia. 26 It was there that he was able to acquire direct experience concerning the life of ironworkers. Ede Margó (Morgenstern) 27 (1872-1946) (ill. 13) began his studies at the Department of Sculpture at Budapest's School of Applied Arts. In the academic years between 1893/94 and 1896/97 he visited Alajos Stróbl's school of sculpture in Budapest's Epreskert district (the Department of
