Kókay Krisztina (Esztergom, 2005)

The Body of the Lord, in a way resembling a folk devotional object, gentle though in pain, fragile and frail though triumphant, is one of the artist's most exciting works. This T-shaped dead Christ, with the nicely tied, floating loincloth, a veil of modesty, and with the wide shroud, is unique. The finely hatched but still rough timbered wooden cross is wider than on the usual representations. It might be a relative of the roadside tin crucifixes, a match for the folk, naive or very early archaic representations. Its beauty is party due to the fact that the artist, as if she was forgetting the law of gravity and the natural weight of the "body", does not present a hanging, unselfconscious body, but, almost unconsciously imitating the early Italian capolavom (masterpieces), a living and standing corpus. Although the body could "stand"

with the feet propped up and nailed, in "reality" and on the contemporary representations the weight of the body pulls the head down between the shoulders. This time the holy torso is "royally crowned" by the head separated from and raised above the arms. The body is portrayed front-wise, dignified, "in maesta". Above the head, tiny inkspots outline the shape of a small crown. The same spots reappear, lightly, on the left hand and above the region of the heart. The nails are not visible; the figure is almost floating on the cross. The place of the tablet is almost perceptible on the "wooden contraption". The "I.N.R.I.", the sign, the well-know sequence of letters, is missing this time. But, virtually, it is there.

The Body of the Lord triumphs over sin and death. The artist's corpus, Krisztina Kókay's fine ink line drawing is one of the most remarkable works in her artistic repertory. This fine ink drawing crowns triumphantly the oeuvre.

2004

RÓMAI TÖREDÉK II. • ROMAN FRAGMENT II. • 2001

PAPÍR, TOLLRAJZ • PAPER, INK • 40X42 CM