Gellér Katalin - G. Merva Mária - Őriné Nagy Cecília (szerk.): A gödöllői művésztelep 1901-1920 - The artist's colony of Gödöllő (Gödöllő, 2003)

GELLÉR, KATALIN: INNOVATION AND TRADITION

alism and folklore collections were the direct precedents to Károly Kós' work. 7 9 István Medgyaszay, who first used the ferro-concrete structure in an artistic way in Hungary also took part in collecting trips and also fostered the special interest in the East of Lechner's generation. Sándor Nagy shared the belief in the interrelation between our oriental origin and folklore relics, too. He deemed it possible to reconstruct "Attila's town of wooden palaces" on the basis of Transdanubian cottages with wooden columns and the carved graveposts of Transylvania and Transdanubia. 8 0 The Gödöllő artists played a pioneering role in creating the theory and iconography of the Hungarian style that reached its zenith around 1910. Adopting the romantic characterology of the peasantry, they regarded the repre­sentations of shepherds and horse-herders, popular figures of 19 , h century art, as part of the Hungarian myth simi­larly to their predecessors (see Sándor Nagy's murals in the National Salon and his knotted carpet Attila's return from a hunt).* 1 Körösfői-Kriesch detected the preservation of Hungarian artistic traditions and the models of a new, "more self-conscious" society and art in the communities and way of life of the Kalotaszeg people. 8 2 Their ambition was to unite various religions, myths, grand and folk art (see e.g. Sándor Nagy's glass painting for the Veszprém theatre), and as regards style, figural and ornamental expression, traditional and decorative pictorial composition. For several of their works Gödöllő artists borrowed themes elaborated by 19th century history painters, such as Antal Ligeti and Sándor Wagner (King Matthias returning from a hunt), Mór Than [Attila's feast. Fair Helen meeting her lover again). Soma Orlai Petrich and Viktor Madarász (Felicián Zách). Sándor Nagy plunged into transcribing the genre picture into decorative style and allegorising the Hungarian types, and he was also keen on evoking the life of the Transdanubian nobility in the Age of Reforms (Vintage , calendar drawing, 1903). From János Arany's works drawing on the Hunnish­Hungarian mythology, they picked the story of the miracu­lous stag, the figure of Attila and the Toldi legend. Sándor Nagy in a tapestry and Ödön Moiret in a plaque repre­sented Toldi as the "Hungarian Hercules" (Ferenc Toldy). Körösfői-Kriesch relied on the types of Hungarian history painting, on Asian ethnographic studies and Greek exca­vations to paint his fresco Shamans (Palace of Culture, Marosvásárhely). In nearly every work they combined the traditional symbolism and the folklore motifs with the floral symbolism of Art Nouveau in a singular manner. They set to themselves the goal to find the ancient sym­bols of the Hungarians and to conjure up the legendary figures of Hungarian and international history. Apart from heroines of Greek, Celtic and Indian myths (Körösfői-Kriesch: Cassandra, Sándor Nagy: Sakuntala. Laura Kriesch: Tristan and Isolde ) they represented Attila, Ildikó, Klára Zách and Toldi in monumental form. In his writing Transitions to large life communities. Sándor Nagy compared the great heroes of Nibelungenlied and Kalevala with the more modest myths of the Hungarians, first of all with János Arany's and Petőfi's heroes. 8 3 They set the themes of Hungarian history and literature against the known international topoi. They have elaborat­ed several tales and ballads, such as Sleeping beauty in many drawings, Fairy of the Grove in tapestry and drawing by Rezső Mihály, Székely folk ballads in illustrations by Aladár Körösfői-Kriesch (Művészet 1902), in glass paint­ings by Sándor Nagy and Mariska Undi. An episode of Árgirus and Tündér Ilona of Italian origin known from the book of Albert Gergei (Gyergyai) was elaborated in tapes­tries by Körösfői-Kriesch and István Zichy. This story, a kin of Hungarian folk tales, was also chosen by Mór Than for his secco in Pest's Redoute and by Károly Lötz for a plan for the same building. 8 9 This theme is echoed by István Zichy's gobelin Tündér Ilona (prior to 1909), the geometric forms of which are reminiscent of Gerhard Munthe's tapestries on German national themes. GESAMTKUNSTWERK (SYNTHESIS OF THE ARTS) FOUNDING HOME AND WORKSHOP Similarly to their contemporaries, the artists at Gödöllő longed for a unified world view, for the reunion of art and life, art and craft. They expressed their ideas in panel pictures, murals, sculptures, tapestries, glass paint­ings, mosaics, leather works and embroideries. They often set their paintings into carved frames as heavy as furniture pieces. It was a crucial contribution to the recognition of Gödöllő that they established the weaving shop as the centre of their activities. Subsequent secessionist groups such as the Kecskemét colony also referred to it as an example. 8 5 The workshop founded by Kriesch in Leó Belmonte found an ideal partner for the execution of tapestries, leather and glass painting designs with his similarly thorough knowl­edge of old techniques. The artists in Gödöllő, the plein air landscapists and folklore collectors all planned works for the weaving workshop.

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