Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 26. (Budapest, 2008)

Mária FERENCZY: Chinese Moon Gate on Budapest's Andrássy Avenue. The Garden of Ferenc Hopp, I

3. The Moon Gate in the garden of Ferenc tîopp's villa with Ferenc Hopp and the architect Géza Györgyi in the foreground, 1895. Picture of an unknown photographer the Anniversary Album, as well as the description a few photographs, too, were published (these were the work of an unknown photographer). In one of these the villa's facade and front garden can be seen. In comparison with the previous photograph ten to fifteen years earlier, the trees were now much bigger and the plants more numerous. On the other photographs we see the back garden" and the principal works of art there: the Moon Gate,

12 a Jain shrine and a Chinese stele, a reed-covered arbour, and smaller pieces (an Indian elephant on a high plinth, a Japanese lampbearer in stone, and Chinese ceramic drum seats and flower pots). These - and other smaller artworks - can also be seen in photographs that survive in their original state in the Museum's archive (unfortunately some are already in a much decayed condition). The Moon Gate According to the surviving photographs" (ill. 2) and the abovementioned picture in the Anniversary Album, the Chinese Moon Gate constituted the entrance to the villa's back garden as early as the 1890s (the outbuilding had by that time disappeared) (ill. 3). In China it was a custom to build decorative gates featuring a round opening without doors

14 (ill. 4) into walls dividing various parts of a garden from one another. The roundness of the opening recalls a full moon. Here in the garden the gate stands alone: there is no walling connected to it. 4. Moon Gate at the famous old Yipu Garden in Suzhou (province Jiangsu)