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

Representation of animals in the hungarian folk art (summary)

branches are ramifying almost from the animal. The animal forms in wreaths and medallions also occupy central place on the ornamented surface either on painted furniture, plate, ceilings, or on God's table-cloth. The ornaments representing animal forms often get their name after the animal being shown, this also proves the significance of the animals; therefore the makers and the users often spoke of stick with snake, ram-headed pot, lapte with bird, flask with bird, sheetedge with cock, deer-pattern or pelican-patter, etc. The disorganization of the traditional compositional structures, the increasing significance of new decorating principles, the accelerated and local breaking up of the decorating style have appeared more and more emphatically in the Hungarian folk art since the end of the 19th century. As a consequence of the stiffening and simplification, the location and significance of animal representation among the ornaments have changed. The motifs placed side by side often without integral connections, just keeping in view to fill the space, the ornaments usually consist of the mechanical repeat of a few elements, placing them side by side, this way the animals become raw-pattern. The representation of birds, earlier combined with flower and flowery stem have also suffered changes. On the ornaments made at the end of the 19th century or at the beginning of the 20th century the birds in pairs were often replaced by a „kissing pigeon couple" without flower or by a flying bird holding an envelop in his bill, and this type of expression is usually displaced from the ornament, it is merely inserted on the top or at the corner of the ornament. The ornaments of the folk works originating from later periods can be characterised by striving after naturalistic, detailed, well elaborated representation, and this aspiration can be observed on the pictures of the animals as well. The stylization and expression by marks had been the dominant features of the animal representationa in the folk art, he depictions of later periods, however, became exageratedly detailed, the precise denomination of the patterns also reflect this change, eg.: on examining the embroideries made in Kalotaszeg in the 20th century, pattern denominations such as lark, pigeon, thrush, fawn, wild goat can be collected. Animal forms such as squarrel, dog, fox, ox which had not been typical so far, appeared on the pastoral woodcarvings of the later periods, showing „génre picture-like" scenes. Finally I have to speak about the symbolic value of animal motifs applied in the popular art. Do the motifs imply deeper information or messages? The majority of animal representations can be considered to be the survival of several century old motifs, which used to imply mytical, religious or erotic meanings at that time. The original meaning had sunk into oblivion, or got eclipsed and the messages of that time were replaced by another system of expression. The majority of ornamental elements used in the decorative folk art go back to a past of several hundred or occasionally several thousand years. It is obvious that these motifs used to communicate symbolicmessages. The intention of their use might have gone through many historical changes according to the different religions, cultural regions. The understanding of symbols used in the popular ornamentation, the research of its iconography encounter special difficulties, because the symbols at that time of its birth, did not obey to stipulated, prescribed rules of the artistical practices, it emerged from the stock of elements originating from the interaction between the local traditions and indi-