Gosztonyi Ferenc - Király Erzsébet - Szücs György szerk.: A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria Évkönyve 2002-2004. 24/9 (MNG Budapest, 2005)

INDIVIDUAL RESEARCH. PHD THESES AT THE HUNGARIAN NATIONAL GALLERY - Bernadett Puskás: The Art of the Munkács Greek Catholic Diocese (16th-19th centuries)

church. Thanks to the church unions, more direct links became established between the traditionalist religious art of the Carpathian region and Europe. Liturgical book graphics also transformed, thanks to itinerant masters and imported engravings. Western-type baroque religiousness came to characterize the united eastern church of the Carpathian region, where modern shrines appeared. 17th-century wooden churches were built after the ground plan and technology of the previous century. Their superstructure, however, showed an increasing influence of western architectural styles: in Máramaros gothic, turreted steeples appeared (Ósándorfalva), elsewhere polygonal shrines (Szolyva), renaissance arcaded piazzas or balconies (Majda). The roof covering the antechamber became higher and higher, and was often turned into a steeple. This was a time when the interiors of churches began to be painted. The icons used in the region in the 17th century were made in south-east Polish (Rybotycze, Szudova Visnya) and local studios, and by itinerant painters. The iconostases were new, symmetrical, three-gate ornate structures, with a row of predella icons. The new iconographie solutions (western models, elements of portrait and landscape set in the traditional composition of the icon) spread partly via the engravings found in liturgical literature. The books used by the Ruthenian congregations in Hungary were printed in Wilnius, Lviv and Pocsajiv. During the establishment of the Munkács diocese (Chapter III), there were important Maecenases, like bishop Mihály Manuel Olsavszky (1743-1767), Queen Maria Theresa, the enlightened' patroness of the Eastern churches (higher education, schooling, constructions, the Vienna synod of Greek Catholic bishops), and bishop András Bacsinszky (1773-1809); the latter was personally responsible for the establishment of the diocese (with a seat in Ungvár, including a seminary, an archive, a library and a school for teachers). The majority of notable buildings were still wooden churches. More complex, multilayer baroque versions of the hip roof with onion domes became typical. With support from Maria Theresa, mud-walled churches in the Great Plains were replaced by simple stone structures with the shrine in the apse, and with a single frontal tower, whose uniform design was developed under the auspices of the Royal Chamber. During the same period important baroque monastery complexes were built for the Order of Saint Basil, with support from the crown (Kisberezna), the aristocracy (Munkács) and the bishop (Máriapócs). The great number of iconostases that have survived from the second half of the 18th century were made by Galitsian painters, the masters of local travelling studios and folk artists. From this time on, Baroque and Rococo elements became dominant in the style of the icons, as well as the structural elements of the iconostases. Remarkable among these relics are works by Mihály and Tádé Spalinszky, who were of Galitsian origins and became the principal painters of the diocese (cf. iconostases in Sátoraljaújhely, Ungvár, Máriapócs). Beside icons, new genres began to be commissioned by the Greek Catholic Church and the historical Munkács diocese (bishop's portrait gallery, images of dignitaries lying in state). These new tendencies were partly related to the patronage of bishop Olsavszky (cf. the church in Máriapócs and its murals set in illusory architectural frames, the monastery of the Basilians, or the furnishing of the two). Complete baroque mural cycles survived even in Greek Catholic wooden churches (Darva, Máramaros). Shifts in the graphics of the time are indicated by the engraved antimensia of bishop Olsavszky and his successors. The composition of the prototype was used, with minor alterations, for thirty years, though after 1772 bishop András Bacsinszky ordered his own not from Galitsia but Vienna (J. E. Mansfeld). Engravings were ordered for the pilgrims visiting the Máriapócs church, with an image of the weeping painting (1715) and its environment (ca. 1750, Franz Feninger; János Fülöp Binder). The local, post-Byzantine art of the 19th century (Chapter IV) was seeking new directions, was characterized by modernizing attempts and a depreciated value of traditional forms. Beside the academy-trained painters (József Miklóssy, Ferdinánd Vidra, the Bogdansky family), entire workshops were producing iconostases (Pest, Ungvár). The art relics of the Munkács diocese represent, like those of all the other Byzantine churches coming in contact with West-European art, links in a chain of transforming attitudes between tradition and modernization. The era when the icon emphasised its being a likeness in the theological sense was followed by a perhaps transitory period when the icon assumed new meanings and functioned as an object of representation, a work of art. This indeed was a very important period for the modern, post-Byzantine culture and church of the Carpathian region, in that it carried a promise of renewal. The route of modernization, however, outlined then and there, was eventually not travelled. The departure from the tradition not only led to a complete oblivion of the icon perspective, but also, due to local conditions, to the eventual decline of artistic quality.