Veszprémi Nóra - Jávor Anna - Advisory - Szücs György szerk.: A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria Évkönyve 2005-2007. 25/10 (MNG Budapest 2008)

NEW ACQUISITIONS, NEW RESULTS - Gizella SZATMÁRI: Frigyes Podmaniczky's 1877 Bust

1. determined. There is no doubt, however, that the bust, primarily due to the popularity of the person it portrayed, was well known, and it was reasonable to look for its maker among the sculptors working with the architects the Budapest Public Works Committee had employed. Various encyclopaedias mention Fessler's portraiture

3 but only in general; and, had he made any such effigies in the period of his stay in Hungary, none of them have come down to us. Fessier did work for the Schlick Foundry, designing iron and zinc frames as well as smaller reliefs for the Buda Castle Garden Bazaar, he also carved the lions decorating its entrance. (Fessier got quite scathing criticism for the latter.) However, it was only in 1878 that, being called by Miklós Ybl, the Vienna artist settled in Budapest - i.e. a year after the date on the plinth of the bust in question.

4 Were the date not precisely given, the question might arise: why had he, a well-known maker of effigies in Vienna,

5 not signed it, when this would surely have made a good impression on his début in Hungarian art-loving circles - which, primarily because of his Austrian background, would make a wry face at him, view his work throughout his career with little benevolence, and often make excoriating remarks on his sculptures. The sculptor Antal Szécsi died in 1904, and, in the obituary István Dömötör wrote in the art magazine Művészet, the Podmaniczky bust cropped up again.

6 It would certainly have fitted well in his oeuvre: he had portrayed the actor Imre Nagy, Károly Gerlóczy, Béla Czobor, József Eötvös, Ferenc Mayer, and others, but these have a much drier, much more rigid pitch and much less forcefulness than the bust discussed. What is more, at the time of its casting, Szécsi was studying in Vienna under Edmund von Hellmer and Alois Dull, and returned home in 1880. In the biography Mária Rónay compiled on Szécsi, she accepts the authorship István Dömötör had suggested.

7 The Schlick Foundry went out of its way to popularize its activities, to enlarge the circle of its clients. In order to achieve superior quality, it employed a master caster who had learned his trade in Vienna in the person of Károly Herpka the elder. Károly Herpka (1833-1907) was the offspring of an old Buda tinsmith family. Until 1856, he was forced to serve in the Austrian Army, and then learned the trade of metal casting in Vienna, where he later became the head of the Diener Foundry, too. In 1871, he was called to Budapest by Schlick. It was probably the new, well-trained colleague of a good reputation who moulded and cast the effigy, and the company name was inscribed on it instead of the artist's one as a kind of advertisement trick, to promote the name of the foundry and make a public appeal. As far as we know, the bust has never been exhibited before, it was preserved by the family throughout the years. NOTES 1 According to the retired director of the Aszód Museum, Dr. István Asztalos, the archive of the PodmaniczkyVigyázó family was destroyed during World War II; thus no evidence on the bust can be expected in this respect. 2 Pasteiner, Gyula. "A magyar szobrászat." In: Budapesti Szemle, 1883, vol. 34, p. 370. 3 Haßlwander, Friedrich. "Feßler, Leo." In: Thieme, Ulrich and Felix Becker eds. Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart. Vol. 11. Leipzig: Verlag von E. A. Seemann, 1915, p. 506; Krause, Wfalter], "Feßler (Feszler) Leo." In: Meissner, Günther ed. Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon. Vol. 39. Munich: K. G. Saur, 2003, pp. 206-207. 4 Ybl, Ervin. Ybl Miklós. Budapest: Képzőművészeti Alap Kiadóvállalata, 1956, p. 189. 5 See Note 3. 6 D. I. [Dömötör, István], "Szécsi Antal." In: Művészet 3.4 (1904) p. 260. 7 Archive of the Research Institute for Art History of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, inv. no.: MDK-C-II-56.