Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 28. (Budapest, 2012)

Balázs SEMSEY: Architecture and Museology at the End of the 19th Century

1897 (hereinafter Kalauz 1897), 26; Kalauz az Orsz. Magyar Iparművészeti Múzeum gyűjteményeiben [Guide to the Hungarian Museum of Applied Arts]. Budapest, 1907, 47 (several editions); and Layer, Károly: Az Országos Magyar Iparművészeti Múzeum gyűjteményeinek leíró lajstroma műtörténeti magyarázatokkal [Descriptive catalogue of the collections of the Hungarian Museum of Applied Arts with art historical explanations]. Budapest, 1927, 39. 7 According to Register "A" the objects were inventorized in 1897. The original inventory number was later modified, but each ensemble comprising several items is subsumed under a single number, at present: 5466 (Maksa ceiling), 5467 (Sóly ceiling) and 5468 (Sóly gallery). 8 Radisics, Jenő: 'Az Orsz. Magyar Iparművészeti Múzeum és magyar gyűjteménye' [The Hungarian Museum of Applied Arts and its Hungarian collection]. Magyar Iparművészet XVIII, 1915,135. 9 The earlier and much better known ceiling from Gogánváralja and Ádámos came into museum possession rather later, in 1903 and 1909, resp., the former into the Museum of Fine Arts, the latter into the National and later the Ethnographic Museum; today both are on permanent display in the Hungarian National Gallery. (Tombor, Ilona: Magyarországi festett famennyezetek és rokonemlékek a XV-XÍX. századból [Painted wooden ceilings and similar artworks in Hungary from the 15-19th centuries]. Budapest, 1968 (hereinafter Tombor 1968), 22, 79-81, 108, 134-135; and Mikó, Árpád - Szentkirályi, Miklós: 'Az ádámosi unitárius templom festett famennyezete [1526] és a famennyezet rekonstrukciója [1985]' [The painted wooden ceiling of the Unitarian church of Ádámos (1526) and its reconstruction (1985)]. Művészettörténeti Értesítő XXXVI, 1987, 86-118.) 10 Archive of the Museum of Applied Arts (hereinafter MAA Archive) 1892/121, and Huszka, József: 'A mezőcsáthi kórus' [The choir loft from Mezőcsát]. Magyar Iparművészet I, 1897, 20-25. No exact information is available on the arrival of the Mezőcsát gallery in the museum. What the documents in the Archive reveal is that "all the documents together with the drawings" concerning the acquisition of the Mezőcsát gallery were sent back to the ministry by the museum on 19 July 1892. The ministry documents were transferred to the National Archives and most of them perished in the fires of the storerooms in 1944/45 and 1956, so no document of the Museum of Applied Arts on the pre-1919 period can be found there. (Kind communication by archivist Andrea Erdélyi.) 11 Archive 1892/198. Huszka was the first to write about the ceiling earlier: Huszka, József: Magyar díszítési motívumok a Székely Földön [Hungarian ornamental motifs in the "Székely" land]. SepsiSzentgyörgy, 1883 (hereinafter Huszka 1883), 13-14. Later he used his drawings of the Maksa furnishing in his work on Hungarian ornamental motifs: Huszka, József: Magyar diszitő styl [Hungarian decorative style]. Budapest, 1885 (hereinafter Huszka 1885), figs. XVI. 4, XVIII. 4, XIX. 1 and XXXIX. 6. On Huszka's researches in Maksa, see also Tasnádi, Zsuzsanna: 'Falképek és templomi berendezések rajzai' [Drawings of frescoes and church furniture]. In: Fejős, Zoltán (ed.): Huszka József a rajzoló gyűjtő (Exhibition catalogue, Ethnographic Museum) Budapest, 2006, 37, and 55-57 (cat. 62-67) and 102-104 (cat. 138-145). The documents on the dissembling of the ceiling were published by: Jánó, Mihály: 'A maksai református templom „kifehérítése". Adatok a templom középkori falképeinek felfedezéséről, a templom lebontásáról és a kazettás mennyezet elszállításáról 1892-1893-ban' [The "whitening" of the Calvinist church of Maksa. Data on the discovery of the medieval frescoes, the demolition of the church and the transfer of the coffered ceiling in 1892-93]. Acta Siculica 2007, 467-480 (hereinafter Jánó 2007). 12 Earlier, Flóris Römer was the first to mention the painted ceiling of the church in the appendix to his work on medieval wall paintings: Rómer, Flóris: Régi falképek Magyarországon [Old wall paintings 18