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

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

15. Two stone lions - originally each on a console, today in depository of the museum. Shanghai (?), end of the 19

h century (Men qian xi qi san qian zhang I Hu wai chun guang ski er shi).

u (ills. 13, 14) The gate in the garden space Belonging to the gate are two stone lions

29 that are placed on the stone base in front of it (ill. 15). According to Chinese tradition, these guard the house and are able to ward off harmful influences. Lion figures reached China with Buddhism; originally pairs of lions were placed in front of the entrance to shrines, and later on in front of the gates of manor houses belonging to the elite.

30 Since the lion is not indigenous to China, depictions of it show a fabulous (to us grotesque) animal: they recall most of all a curly-haired dog. Chinese designers attributed an important role to moon gates in the organisation of space: they widened the space between parts of the garden divided from one another by walls (these parts were generally not very large). For the viewer, they connected the vegetation of the far side and part of the view of that side to the place where the viewer was standing, placing these in a round frame. Therefore, it was necessary that what could be seen through a moon gate was a harmonious composition: a small number of carefully selected plants, a rock, a pond, etc. In the garden of the Hopp villa, deep inside the garden on the line of the axis of the Moon Gate, is built a small Jain shrine;

31 the original carved stones are likewise supported by a brick wall. In the niche of the shrine is placed a tirtbankara, a sculpture of the Jain Master seated made from precious stone and dating to the 14

th-15

th century.

32 As the photographs attest, attempts were made to select the plants for its immediate vicinity in a careful manner. Such efforts correspond to Chinese tradition, although here this attractive solution creates a composition that is fully peculiar: a Chinese gate and an Indian shrine are found together only in Budapest, in a garden for lovers of Eastern art.

33 The later life of the gate The Museum of Eastern Asiatic Arts came into existence in 1919, in Ferenc Hopp's villa. Its first exhibition opened in 1923, and since that time it has been in continuous operation. Its garden, too, has been open to visitors, continuously acquainting those who came with Eastern art. Inside the garden the gate and the lions have stood untroubled for decades. The plants have grown larger, and some have been changed; the gate became overgrown with wisteria. During the siege of Budapest (in the winter of 1944-5) in the Second World War, the Museum did not receive a direct hit, although the building suffered much splinter damage, as did the art works and vegetation in the garden. Only years later were energy and attention devoted to an assessment of the damage to the garden.

34 In its