Öriné Nagy Cecília (szerk.): A gödöllői szőnyeg 100 éve - Tanulmányok a 20. századi magyar textilművészet történetéhez (Gödöllő, 2009)

Summaries

Summaries 125 They organized the first religious art exhibition in Hungary in 1908 at the initiative of the Society of Applied Arts. With a view to raise religious arts to a higher standard, the Society addressed a request to the Hungarian catholic episcopacy to commission the craftsmen of the country to create the necessary works of art or turn directly to the Society of Applied Arts, which was ready to provide good advice. Henrik Fieber took part in the preliminary selection of the works prepared and he wrote the study accompanying the catalogue of the exhibition. Fieber often criticized the archaizing approach of his predecessors who had preferred the historical styles. In his articles published before and during the exhibition of 1908, Fieber analyzed the possibilities of modern religious art as well as the attitude to art of the clergy. Henrik Fieber organized the first course of religious art in the summer of 1910 taking over the example from Austria. Beside the theoretical lectures, they usually held, in the afternoon, also practical demonstrations in the Museum of Applied Arts and then, the participants of the course went over to Gödöllő for visiting the artists' colony there. Next summer, two courses were organized: one for the priests of the diocese of Esztergom and the other for the nuns' congregation of Saint Vincent de Paul. The latter consisted of theoretical lectures held in the mother home in Ménesi street in Budapest followed by practical classes in the afternoon in which the participants learnt different embroidery and lace techniques, collected colour samples and copied the designs and embroidery patterns prepared in the textile class of the School of Applied Arts. The artists of Gödöllő received one of their most important commissions in religious art from Gyula Glattfelder, bishop of Csanád, which was mediated by Henrik Fieber. The bishop ordered the decoration of the seminary in Temesvár (Timisoara). In addition to the stained glasses and frescoes Sándor Nagy prepared with Aladár Körösfői-Kriesch, he also designed, according to the testimony of the extant invoices, eight carpets for the altar steps of the chapel in the seminary. All that remained from these carpets is a photo representing the half of one of them. Henrik Fieber died in 1920 after a painful and protracted illness. His essay published in 1918 in the periodical Díszítőművészet (Decorative Arts) can practically be considered as the summary of his views on liturgical raiment and on the ways he tried to put his views into practice. Theory and practice, however, did not always go hand in hand. It reveals from the ornaments on the registered chasuble designed by Sándor Nagy and prepared in the weavers' workshop of Gödöllő in 1930 for the 30

,h year jubilee of the ordainment of the Prémontré prelate Menyhért Takács for, Sándor Nagy did not share in all points Fiebers objections related to figural representations. It can be stated of the existing chasubles known so far that Sándor Nagy prepared them in each case for such church dignitaries he was in personal relations with and who gave him other large scale commissions as well. Balázs Fábián Wooden grave-posts in the works of art of the art colony of Gödöllő It is a fact that the creators of the art colony of Gödöllő gave proof of their profound interest in folk art. It urged them to observe life and art on the spot, to go onto collecting tours to Kalotaszeg, which was their most popular destination. Aladár Körösfői-Kriesch, Ede Toroezkai Wigand, Sándor Nagy, István Medgyaszay, Mariska Undi, Árpád Juhász, István Zichy and Rezső Mihály visited the villages several times to collect motifs, which they later utilized in their own works of art. From among the artists of Gödöllő, Sándor Nagy felt the greatest attraction to Transdanubia being the mostly impressed by the art of carving of this region. The activity of Árpád Juhász primarily stands out by the help he rendered in preparing the illustrations to Malonyay's volumes in which work Ede Toroezkai Wigand did not take part, although he was a great admirer of the art ofTransylvania. It is very interesting that many artists of Gödöllő drew inspiration from the churchyards and graveposts of Kalotaszeg. These grave tokens with rich ornamental carvings have been applied by many of them in many different ways. They appear in several works of art of Aladár Körösfői-Kriesch, Sándor Nagy and Ede Toroezkai Wigand. The picture of Körösfői-Kriesch entitled Magyarvalkó painted in 1908 tries to render rather a general impression created by the cemetery and the grave tokens do not play a significant role in it. Sándor Nagy prepared a painting in 1908 of the same cemetery entitled Graveyard in Kalotaszeg. In contrast to Körösfői-Kriesch's painting, the wooden grave-posts play the main role in this one. Attila and the Hun traditions get a paramount importance in the works of art created in the artists' colony of Gödöllő. One of the most important creations, which chose Attila as its main topic was the Hungarian pavilion in the biennial festival of Venice. Géza Maród, who was the designer of the building, decorated the front garden of the pavilion with grave-posts carved in Kalotaszeg because he found that these grave tokens were in harmony with the composition and spirit of the pavilion. However, the posts with knobs could not remain in the front garden, because of the intense attack from the newspapers of Budapest; they had to be removed even before the inaugural. The Hun world of traditions greatly inspired also Ede Toroezkai Wigand, who spent a long time in Transylvania. In his