Tanulmányok Budapest Múltjából 27. (1998)
PICTURES OF THE LAST CORONATION IN HUNGARY - Katalin Földi Dózsa: HISTORY OF THE EXHIBITED PICTURES
the royal household in state coaches. Prime Minister count István TISZA was sitting in the last of the festive coaches. Finally the eight-horsed carriage of Maria Theresia's age came on with His and Her Majesties seated in it. At the portal of church Lajos SZMRECSÁNYI archbishop of Eger and Károly HORNIG bishop of Vác received the Sovereign and his Wife. Charles was wearing a Hungarian general's galauniform, the enchanting, four-years old, golden-locked Crown Prince Ottó was dressed in a Hungarian braided gala coat of white silk and an ermined cloak, designed by Gyula BENCZÚR. The magnificant gala dress 20 of the Queen was tailored at the first-class dressmaker's J. Girardi's, the skirt embroidered by the Hungarian Handicraft Association, the bodice by the "Izabella" Handicraft Society. 21 Girardi recorded in 1929: "The dress is the reproduction of a gala dress of Maria Theresia's age as preserved in the wardrobe of the Pálffy-Esterházy family. The coronation gala had been made of 32 m of white duchesse silk covered abundantly with golden hand-made embroidery. The garment had been embroidered-by twenty five emroideresses working 12 days and 12 nights. Five kg of pure gold had been used up for the royal gala dress. Since during the war too little gold was circulating on the market, we applied for and were granted a special permission to purchase gold and to convert it to spun gold. 22 " The clothes of the Hungarian aristocrates present at the coronation were not less luxurious. Everybody made an effort to wear all of the garments, pieces of clothing and jewelry inherited from their anchestors conforming to the Hungarian tradition. Most of the gentlemen wore their father's and grand father's velvet or coloured silk Hungarian gala dresses with fur adornment. If one had a new costume made, it also followed the traditional lines. The most ancestral gala dress was, doubtless, the one of duke Miklós ESTERHÁZY, deemed at that time as Matthias' short fur-lined coat. Now it is known that the garment originates from the 16th century, so King Matthias could not wear it, however it is still one of the oldest men's article of clothing in our country which is kept in the Museum of Applied Arts. 23 The ladies also cleared the family heirlooms. Countess Zichy's green silk skirt 24 and countess Klára ANDRÁSSY's fur-lined coat with a floral pattern had been embroidered in the 18th century. The dress of György MAILÁTH jr.'s wife 25 was worn by her mother-in-law in 1867 and 1896. Countess Kata ANDRÁSSY (married count Mihály KÁROLYI) put on the gold embroidered red velvet dress of her husband's grandmother. When the Majesties have seated themselves on the thrones facing the high altar, the Coronation Mass began. The King took the ecclesiastic oath in front of the altar, he was anointed, Miklós ESTERHÁZY cloaked him with the coronation cloak of St. Stephen, the first king of Hungary, then he knelt down on the top stairstep of the altar. Archbishop János CSERNOCH and count István TISZA as vice palatine put the Holy Crown on the King's head. Traditionally the new king, had to be crowned by the palatine, but at that time Francis Joseph did not appoint anybody to palatine so the Prime Minister was acting as a vice palatine. Queen Zita was crowned with the so-called "home-crown" by bishop of Veszprém—who had this ancient privilege as Chancellor of the Queen. Then István TISZA and Lord Stewart duke Tasziló FESTETICS took off the Holy Crown from the King's head and touched the right shoulder of the Queen with it and put the crown again on the King's head. The Queen set down in the after-coronation throne at the King's side and the hymn of thanks-giving was intoned: Te Deum laudamus. Both at the 9
