Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 27. (Budapest, 2009)
Piroska ÁCS: "These Robes Will Appear Like a Vision..."
PIROSKA ÁCS "THESE ROBES WILL APPEAR LIKE A VISION..." 1 THE CEREMONIAL COSTUME BY TEXTILE DESIGNER ÉVA SZABÓ, FOR PÉCS CATHEDRAL IN 1938 Among the exhibition records in the Archive of the Museum ol Applied Arts is a document, dated 16 February 1996, in which Emőke László, the then head of the Textile Department, certifies receipt from the Pécs Episcopate of two dalmatics and hanger, one chasuble and hanger, four copes, three mitres, six stoles and five maniples, tor an exhibition of Éva Szabó's oeuvre. 2 These are all parts of a set of ceremonial robes which first went on display to the public on 10 May 1938, immediately following their completion (fig. 1). New ceremonial robes for a special occasion In Hungary, the year 1938 was dedicated to the first king of the Hungarians, St Stephen. The 34 t h International Eucharistie Congress was also held in Hungary that year. 3 The Cathedral of Pécs, founded by St Stephen, decided to commission a special work of ecclesiastical art for the occasion. The Bishop Ferenc Virág and the Pécs Cathedral Chapter ordered a set of twenty-eight liturgical robes. Discussions led by the Under-Sacristan, István Komócsy, started in spring 1937, and the commission was awarded to Éva Mária Szabó, a weaver who had recently won the Silver Wreath award for her work. She produced her designs under the guidance of Dr Antal Somogyi, a theology professor in Győr, who had a high reputation throughout Europe. 4 Their shared aim was that the liturgi1. Episcopal cope, mitre and maniple Published in Magyar Iparművészet 1938, 108 cal vestments must be appropriate both in conception and execution to the history and location of the Romanesque Pécs Cathedral. 5 No vestments from that era survived in Hungary, but Szabó's participation in the 1937 Paris World's Fair 6 offered an excellent opportunity to study the Romanesque vestments in the Musée de Cluny in Paris. The decorative scheme of the robes 7 The liturgical vestments are made of golden-yellow brocade. The repeating motif woven into them is a dove hovering above two angels holding the three-times repeated text Sanctus (fig. 2). The copes are decorated by 125
