Budapest, 1945. (1. évfolyam)
3. szám - VIGH JÓZSEF „A nagy tábor” (Könyvismertetés)
BUDAPEST ILLUSTRATED MONTHLY OF ART, HISTORY AND SOCIETY-LIFE OF THE HUNGARIAN CAPITAL THE BUDA PICTURE CHRONICLE One of the most valuable relics of hungarian art of 14t h century, the Buda Picture Chronicle, is in close relation with the court-culture developed during the Anjou dynasty. It was made in the years of about 1370 and was intended to be an engagement-present at the occasion of the planned marriage between the king Louis the Great's daugther Catherine and Louis Valois's, the son of the French king Charles V. The Chronicle's destiny was romantically varied. From the Buda court it went to the French crown-prince's library, from there — as a wedding present — to the Serbian sovereign, Brankovich. It seems probable that in the middle of 15th century it was in hungarian, later, after the fall of Buda, in turkish hands as is proved by notes written in it. At the beginning of the 17tb century it was registered among the treasures of the Vienna court and in 1933, following the Venice Agreement, it was returned to Budapest. Fortunately, it also survived the siege of Buda. The writer of the Chronicle — supposingly an Óbuda cannon — gives, duly, the knight story of hungarian past. With dramatic tension, St. Steven's battles are presented, also, the inner wranglings that arose after the king's death. It masterly illustrates the Árpáds' knight court and the history of the Anjous till Louis the Great. The real hero is St. Ladislas the knight king, the ideal of middle-age Hungarian knights. The author of the miniatures decorating the pages of the Chronicle, probably one of Louise's court-painters, (Miklós Medgyessy) is a worthy partner to the writer as illustrator. His style shows that he learnt in italian workshops under fine masters' hands but his pictures also show that he thoroughly knew hungarian life ; he faithfully depicts the costumes and the armour both of Hungarian and foreign peoples of those times and also, he painted legendary scenes that are not mentioned in the text . D. Dercsényi THE CAPTURED TREASURES OF NAGYBOLDOGASSZONY CHURCH The golden age of the ritv of Budapest was the late periods of Middle-Ages. She began to rise from the rank of other hungarian towns in the time of the Anjou-s. In Zsigmond'« time, as residence of the germán empire, the town grew out of local relations and became the centre of spiritual life, of arts, politics and commerce. — She kept that noble position till the 16th centurv. Her splendour and memory went ruined by the Turks' conquest. The art-historian of these days, — in order to duly qualify the importance of the city — has to solve difficult problems of method based on the combinative comparison of contemporary documents, descriptions and on the analysis of dispersed and partly perished relics. The task is the most difficult on the field of goldsmith' s works where the relics of Buda are either annihilated or are untracbably dispersed. We know only two chalices that were romantically returned to the place where they originated from, to the treasury of Buda's very first church, the Nagyboldogasszony one. Even these two relics could not survive the last historical cataclism, the last episode of the great war of our days — the siege of Buda. The defending German troops thoroughly stripped the church and thus, also the very last remnants of Buda treasury disappeared. Their fate is symbolical, they met the same destiny which-for centuries past — afflicted our once so splendid a Capital. The Buda treasures, royal ones and those of churches and cloisters alike, were mostly taken to Pozsony after the Mohácsdisaster, where they became subjects for the ever hungry German emperors and thus, hungarian mastership, knowledge and value were thrown into german melting-pots. Not one fraction of the Nagvboldogasszony-treasures could avoid this fate for, although they were returned to Buda, Joseph II. had sold those fine master pieces by auction in 1785. Only two chalices could escape for a while, as they were loaned in those times. Those two relics of modest quality, — saved by mere chance, do not represent the extraordinar skill and taste of Buda — masters but they are characteristic for their avarage productions, done in the early years of 14th and 16t b centuries. We know from lists, inventaries and descriptions that in the Buda goldsmithies — at an as early date as the 12th century — monumental works were produced, guilt wooden crucifixes, crosses with precious stones, crowns, transparent — enamelled altars and what is more, also large reliouary — coffins, in the 14th century. Furopean treasuries are proud of magnificent goldsmith's creations that may have some connections with Buda workshops, like the Aachen treasure, the Frederic the Bellicose's Dresden sword that was given to him as a present by King Zsigmond in Buda, the Breslau St. Dorothy herma and the Mátyás-cup in Wienerneustadt ; we can mention here at lea«t a part of the Esztergom Calvarv, also, Отееп Flisabeth's altar in the Paris Rotschilds' Collection that reflects the refined taste of the Court. These splendid relics prove the hungarian, notably the Buda workshops' highest european level and they strenhthen the facts of contemporary descriptions. The Buda goldsmiths' guilds were famous alreadv in the times of Louis the Great, their leading part in the country seems to be proved by the fact that the most important centers had their regulations given bv the guilds of Pest and Buda. thus thev should be considered as derivatiye guilds of those (Zagreb. Győr. Fsztero-om, Komárom etc). Following the teachings of relics and inventaries. the most characteristic technic of late Middle-Ages Hungarian goldsmith's works were given shape in these workshops, which is the so-called »cableenamel« (the Nvitra evangelistarinm and the Dresden swordV The part of Buda shops was both directing and stvleforming. Masters from the country were swarnv'ng toward Buda to learn and master-teachers from there visited the conntrv-ernftsmen for teaching them. Wares of artistry came and went the same ways and thus a general style developed. The last two memories of this magnificent flourishing, those once returned to the Nagyboldogasszonv church's treasury, went lost by the same, constant and already historical destructive force now. during the last siege. László Gerevich THE DANUBE AND THE DANUBE BANKS Budapest, from many points of view, ows her greatness to the city — forming effect of the Danube. The natural borders to north and to south are given by the river. The main roads of communication including the crossing points on the Danube, the part played by the placing of the bridges clearly settle the network of traffic. A reasonable conception of the town's architectural reorganization must tend to accentuate the banks of the Danube. How to build up the Buda bank, is determined by the line of the Gellért-, Castle-, and Rose-hills which, together with the ondulating outline of mountains in the back-ground, give a most beautifid rhythm of Nature's play. The problem of city arrangement and aesthetic is how to insure the startling panorama, that the sea of houses stretching to the slopes should not swallow the outstanding green patches, that it should — with the right proportion of both — secure the harmony of the view. On the Pest-side the situation is different. Here the »city« reaches the Danube. Here also the problem of arrangement is different : the »city« must be limited at the river's side but at the same time, it must be directed toward the Buda mountains thus opening the way for the fresh air bringing health and refreshment from the river to the crowded quarters of the town. Beside all this, the buildings must be created both horizontally and vertically so that inserted into the general view, they should give a harmonious panorama with the bridges and the opposite mountains. Károly Szimély BUDAPEST OF THE »DILIGENCE« The liberating siege — in many ways— threw Budapest back at least for a hundred years. This statement goes especially for the traffic and connection between the two towns. The barbarous destruction of the bridges created circumstances in Budapest similar to those at the early years of 19th century, that were characterizing Pest-Buda before the constructing of the first permanent bridge on the Danube. Also, the city's traffic fell back far into the past. After the siege, for long months the public had no vehicles at their disposal and thus people spent hours every day by marching, later, some fiacres appeared and the town show quite a past century aspect. From this occasion the author reviews traffic conditions of old Budanest. He deals with the world of omnibuses and fiacres. In the first years of 1800, 234 fiacres were to be hired in Pest-Buda, about half a century later »companion coaches« followed. the omnibuses that were nothing else than the clumsy »diligences« known throughout Europe's high-roads. These vehicles communicated on six lines in town till 1866, when horse-pulled public railway was set up for the use of the 139
