A Veszprém Megyei Múzeumok Közleményei 24. (Veszprém, 2006)

László Péter: A veszprémi Szent Imre szobor, Erdey Dezső alkotása

THE SAINT IMRE STATUE OF VESZPRÉM THE WORK OF DEZSŐ ERDEY The statue of St. Imre, the work of Dezső Erdey, stands on top of the stairs leading down to the remains of the Saint George Chapel, in the garden between the Cathedral of the Veszprém Castle and the former seminary. Although the statue itself is closely associated with the townscape, very little is known about its creator, whose name only appears in guidebooks. Dezső Erdey (1902-1957) was a busy artist of the period between the two world wars. He was mainly a sculptor who believed that the task of his art was to make his environment more harmonious. After the naturalism of his youth, his works bear a classicist style, together with tectonic thinking and solutions. He strived for compactness, simplicity and monumentality and his statues resemble the style of the Roman Hungarian school, in which he was categorised by Tibor Gerevich, although he himself always protested against this kind of categorisation. He always started sculpting after long preparation and studying, and he tried the best possible solutions on several sketches. When making the Statue of Saint Imre, he also prepared a lot of sketches, on altogether 11 sheets, which were given to the Dezső Laczkó Museum of Veszprém by his widow in 1985. It is clearly seen on the sketches how Dezső Erdey was experimenting with different solutions to make the statue fit in the surroundings best. Although the statue indicated the place where Saint Imre took the oath of virginity according to the legend, the artist intended to make his statue represent the historic figure, who was skilled at handling weapons, and was a determined and strict heir to the throne. Taking into consideration that the statue was in a closed garden under inaccessible trees, the artist made the statue to be viewed only from one angle. In the work, the contours and the simplified lines in screened light are emphasised. It can be traced very well in the drawings that the statue was finalised after several attempts with its cleared form, Romanised style which perfectly fits into the neighbourhood of the Neo-Roman cathedral, though it might falsely suggest a style of the Middle Ages. 268