Fügedi Márta: Állatábrázolások a magyar népművészetben (Officina Musei 1. Miskolc, 1993)

Representation of animals in the hungarian folk art (summary)

REPRESENTATION OF ANIMALS IN THE HUNGARIAN FOLK ART „Research of folk art is an extremely important question of the universal Hungarian culture. It is significant, since our folk art is considered to be of high ranked even on a world scale, and significant, since it is the most characteristic creature of the Hungarian people. As a consequence of this double quality, the popular art is more significant here then anywhere else in the world" - wrote Jolán Balogh in 1967. The history of researches and movements connecting to the Hungarian folk art represents a peculiar part in the history of the Hungarian culture. In Hungary the decorative folk art was found worthy of attention relatively late in comparison with the popular poetry: only in the second half of the past century. The essential motivations of the interest in the folk art rested not on scientific, but artistic, aesthetical and - as a new feature - practical and economical grounds. The interest in the folk art has increased since the middle of the past century in close connections with the world and national expositions, where the homecraft with its artistical craft products came into prominence. However, in the second half of the past century the homecraft was considered as the integral part of the applied arts, and this approach gives explanation to the statement of János Jankó: „In our country the applied arts and the homecraft were the parents of the ethnography". The discovery of the folk art, the nice decorated objects, i. e. „homecraft with the contemporary terminology, soon raised the question of origin: Where does this rich, decorated art arise from? What origin does it have? Considering the great attention given to the prehistorical times in that era, it is not suprising that the values were intended to be proved by the qualification „primeval". From the years of 1960's - primarily connected with the activity of Edit Fél, Klára Csilléry K. and Tamás Hofer - the researches have brought about new knowledges on the different periods and on the development of the Hungarian folk art. The investigations strove to reveal the structure of the peasant world with regard to their objects and articles, as well as the existence of an interdependence between the objects ranked as folk art products and the structure, values and customs of the peasant society. However only a few results can be listed considering the formal analysis of folk works, the revelation of regularity in the ornamentation and the determination of the stylistics appearing on depictions. With regard to the figurai motifs, the representation of human forms were investigated and shown by Edit Fél and Tamás Hofer in their book titled „Peasants, Herdsmen, Highwaymen" (1966). Mária Kresz, in her work titled „Flower and Folk Art" (1979) summarized the cultural history and the special characteristics of the most typical flower motifs applied in the Hungarian folk art. The researches carried out by Kincső Verebélyi revealed the cultural historical relations of the typical representation schemes and préfigurations. Gábor Lükő applied a very special approach in explaining the ornaments used in the Hungarian folk art. In his work titled „The origin of the Hungarian embroidering folk art" (1939) and „The forms of the Hungarian soul" (1942) he expounds the transmittance of ancient symbol-systems: „The technics of the Hungarian popular art have undergone many changes over our European history, its content has also changed but to a slighter