Katalin Gellér: The art colony of Gödöllő 1901-1920 (Gödöllő, 2001)
- * fr T / •• ÍC JFE. \ Í « VV FESWL V M*« W. W- Ti í •^'•í •<>''> M- Í-; ÍI'IÍ • * 1 V i 'i • * Agg Ííi" \ 'v /felIMM - :'<ii i Jí v /". ' r t ?'« '-"i - v, i* 'i. »-- ' — — íj- v 1 VÜ AH .f /Vhr -Í»*^ ;í ÍÍ í ií Wl* • ÍÍ sjí te^ ft ft tfáfe *JMRW ÄSE fíiíí,> // ,, * tíiíí m ÜMI •''••"III iá; V.' ' ÍU ;í ií,' v i- - ?> of the artists. He portrayed his painter friends as the followers of "true Christianity", a new religion, in which everyone was to be deified in their own way, and whose priests, Christ and Tolstoy are the examples of "selfredeeming man". Sándor Nagy: Madonna/stained glass, prior to 1912. Executed by Miksa Róth yarn suggesting a mystic experience. In his tapestry The Good Helmsmdn (1906, whereabouts unknown), one of his programmatic pictures, he also started out from a traditional style of painting. For Körösfői-Kriesch, the "philosophy of life" was of primary importance. Sándor Nagy laid the stress on the search and creation of "the art of life", the "island of a full life". "Let us create a hierarchy of desires. Let us create a whole organism," he wrote with almost avantgarde diction in 1907. Körösfői-Kriesch, having adopted the social ideas of Ruskin and Morris, hoped to reconcile social antagonisms through the realization of Biblical ideas (calendar drawings for the periodical Művészet in 1905). The Gödöllő artists believed in the redeeming power of art, in the social and moral reforms achieved through the "cult of beauty" (Sarolta Geőcze). Home from Paris, Sándor Nagy joined the socialist movement as a member of Ervin Szabó's circle at the beginning of the century and his works protesting against social injustice were published in Népszava (Lord and Peasant). Later, as a consistent adherent of Tolstoyanism and the "inner revolution", he turned away from the socialist movement. In the younger generation Jenő György Remsey made campaigning posters ( Courrieres , 1906). One of Körösfői-Kriesch's large paintings was given a carved frame adorned with folklore motifs and a tympan giving the impression of an altarpiece; in the centre Christ stands, pointing the way and offering consolation. The artist was motivated to choose this theme by his grief over the death of his son. In the background of the painting are the carved gates of the Diód mansion, strongly stylized trees and figures in Kalotaszeg costumes. On the right, the artists Sándor Nagy, Laura Kriesch, Leó Belmonte, Tom von Dreger and Antónia Kriesch are sitting in a circle around Christ who appears amidst rays of metal Christ in Judgment/stained glass window, chapel of the Mental Hospital in Lipótmező, 1913 Executed by Miksa Róth
