Imre Györgyi szerk.: A modell, Női akt a 19. századi magyar művészetben (A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria kiadványai 2004/2)

Tanulmányok / Studies - Imre Györgyi: A modell / The Model

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u Cf.: Székely Bertalan I. vázlatkönyve (Bertalan Székely's First Sketchbook). MNG inv.: 19 15-1 760. ff. 47-50 191 Watelet is quoted by Újvári, Péter: Állatfestés. (Animal Painting). 3 1-32. Zsánermetatnorfózisok (Metamorphosis of Genres). Exhibition Catalogue. SzM. Bp. 1993. 27-47. According to Székely genre painting is a unity: it is revealed through the evaluation of mimicry that notions related to unity are selfawareness, naturalness, beauty and what is consistent and proper to the character. Cf.: MTA Manuscript Archives Ms 5006/12. f. 8. He copied in his sketchbooks genre scenes known from prints or paintings, see MTA Ms 5006/1, this notebook contains notes from 1862-1874. In 1869 Székely wrote notes on exhibitions in Munich (ff. 14-17). The sketches after the cityscapes of Dresden, showing a female nude streching herself in a shell with a swan in front of her, are supposedly from 1869. (f. 89) Székely distinguishes the 'große Cathegorie: Das historisch objective (portrait) (historienbild) / Das poetisch subjective (etwa Rembrand) [sicj' Cf. MNG Adattár inv.: 21.382/1983. 33. He quotes Waldmüller in his first (Munich) sketchbook: 'Natürliche Denken der Idée', vagy 'Naturstudium der Idée nach' (f. 13); ibid. November 1861: '...Let us go home during the summer months and with poetic tendency industriously paint studies for certain figures... we can return by the winter and, enjoying Prof. Piloty's advice, artistically elaborate the studies.' Cf. Székely Bertalan vázlatkönyve I. (Bertalan Székely's First Sketchbook). MNG inv.: 1915-1760. f. 136 The categories of John Ruskin's Modern Painters had a strong effect on the painter's artistic principles with which he confronts the modern painter: 7 Wahrheit - II Einfachkeit Mystery - Bestimmtheit - decision - Eigentlichkeit'

. Cf. MTA Ms 5006/4 '~ In 1861 he writes: 'Makart: Phantasterei Phantasie - Helldunkel - Poesia'. Cf. MNG inv.: 19 15-1760. Székely Bertalan 1. vázlatkönyve. (Bertalan Székely's First Sketchbook). Székely adopted the painting terms of Munich. Cf. Deutsche Maler-Poeten. München 1923; Karl Spitzweg und sein Freundeskreis. Ausstellungskatalog. München, Haus der Kunst Okt. 1967 - Jan. 1968. München 1967. 9-12.; Ludwig, Horst: Die bayerische Flußlandschaft in der Münchner Malerei. Müchen 1985. 5

üff. In his short autobiographical writing Székely gives an account of the principles of education of Moritz von Schwind, from among the painting teachers the genre painter Einhuber and the landscape painter Schleich. See: MNG I. Vázlatkönyv. 113 ff. 193 Cf.: Graves, Robert: A görög mítoszok. [Greek Myths) Bp. 198 L. 301-4. Cf. Újvári: Állatfestés, op. cit. (n. 191) 27-29. The pictures of Leda and the Japanese Woman are not single-figure paintings as Annamária Szőke states in: Székely Bertalan mennyezet-elmélete és mennyezettervei. (Bertalan Székely's Ceiling Theory and Ceiling Designs). 296. Székely 1999, 293-303. See Cat. nos. 87, 97, 98, 99, 180 1 '

4 On the compositional significance of the so-called key thing in connection with 'twanging-out' see n. 55. Elsewhere Székely declares the painterly 'beautiful' to be related to that of music: 'Figures

—the sensation of a beautiful figure has the same uplifting and ennobling effect on the artist as beautiful music' MNG Adattár inv.: 13983/60/9 95 See n. 192. Székely XIII. VK. 92 196 MTA Ms 5006/ 14. f. 80 19 Cf.: Alberti, Leon Battista: Delia pittura, 1436. (IE 41) Darwin on organisms cf. Gould, Stephen Jay: A természetes kiválasztódás és az emberi agy: Darwin contra Wallace. (Natural Selection and the Human Brain: Darwin contra Wallace). 54. Gould, Stephen Jay: A panda hüvelykujja. (The Panda's Thumb). Bp. 1990.49-68 199 Székely XIII. VK. 95 200 Cf. Székely XIII. VK. 96 201 Cf. Székely XIII. VK. 94 ~°~ On the nature of 'beauty' Székely writes the following note around 1879; Cf. MTA Ms 5006/ 18. fol. 8 1.: 'The elements of beauty are I Unity - distinctness 'variety - free play /Justice - life - characteristic I Greatness - Moderation - regularity I proportion I 1. between the figure and content I 2. Harmony between the parts of the whole j 3. between the object and its environment I 4. between the work of art and the spectator.' "° E.g. the colour blending of Neue Leda in light and shadow: 'decomponieren wir zu erst die Lichtfarbe in Gelb und Rosa', cf: MTA Ms 5006/ 12, f. 11 2(14 Cf. Székely XIII. VK. 94 2US The Nude. (Manuscript) MTA Ms 5008/18 206 He continued with the following: 'First of all the person's knowledge of the truths of natural sciences is necessary, then some anatomy with regards to humans and animals, botany with regards to the countryside and also geology, and to know in what geometrical forms the rules of anatomy, botany and geology manifest themselves.' Cf. MTA Manuscript Archives Ms 5006/ 12. f. 1 He makes a note around 1880 of Claude Bernard (18 15-1878), cf. MTA Ms 5006/14/1 208 Székely takes notes in his early notebook on Mrs Merrifield's Book on Frescopainting 1844, Joshua Reynolds' 1781 Dresden edition of Discourses, James Barry and James Opie's works on colours and quotes from Richardson's Essays and Ruskin's Modern Painters. Cf. Székely Bertalan I. vázlatkönyve. (Bertalan Székely's First Sketchbook). MNG inv.: 1950-1760. He also writes on the painting of Turner and Constable, supposedly in 1872: MTA Ms 5006/4; MTA Ms 5006/12, f. 150-157. See also the monography about the artist of the physicist Palágyi, Menyhért: Székely Bertalan és a festészet aesthetikája. (Bertalan Székely and the Aesthetics of Painting). Bp. 1910. 21 A)> Székely on Young, Maxwell, and Helmholtz, Cf. A szín és A festés technikai nemei (Colur and the Technical Genres of Painting): A compositió. Résumé. MNG Adattár inv.: 20.701/1980. For his colour diagrams see: MTA Ms 50006/12 ff. 76-77. In his study from 1874 entitled A színérzésről (On Colouring) in Természettudományi Társulat Közlöny (Journal of the Hungarian Society of History of Science) (297-309), Nándor Klug also displays colour charts made according to Helmholtz's idea. Chevreul: De la loi du contraste des couleurs, Paris 1834, MTA Ms 5006/ 4. f. 180. On September 8 1872 the French Academy of Sciences organised a celebration in honour of the 87-year-old Chevreul

—reported in Kir. M. Természettudományi Társulat Közlönye (Journal of the Hungarian Society of History of Science), 1872. (IV. vol.) 465. See also n. 87 21

1 Cf. Székely XIII. VK. 95 'Artistic sight is a fluctuating sight, where the interesting and the indifferent are distinguished with sharp self-awareness, another reason why photography is useless for the achieving of artistic aims. [...] Therefore to be able to observe with total objectivity it is necessary [...] to create a great excitement in the activity of the observing mind and practically nothing in that of desires and emotion. In such a state of observation when we are only aware of the object and hardly at all of ourselves, objects can be perceived in their total objectivity and beauty and thus, excluding ourselves

—the gathering place of all suffering

—such contemplation results in a kind of happiness /Schopenhauer/.' Székely, Bertalan A compositió tanítása (Instruction of Composition), op. cit. (n. 87.) f. 15. Székely believes that it is optically advantageous for painters if they are simultaneously long- and shortsighted for 'a time may come when the aforementioned natural differentiation of the visual abilities of our two eyes far from a disadvantage will be recognised as an advantage and glasses will be ordered to further promote this.' cf. MNG Adattár inv.: 20.701/1980. f. 74. This was the time of the discovery of filming: Louis Lumière patented his technique on February 13 1895 in Lyon; the public showing was on March 22 with the film entitled Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory. 1 The result of the fluctuanting process is the socalled twanging-out: 'The reason for twanging-out is the following: Artistic impression consists of three parts. Something which detaches itself from the indif ferent

, but in order that the rupture is not visible it is at the same time connected to it. [...] Psychologicallyspeaking one is only occupied with the existence of one thing at a time(:) the key object

—if two objects of equal value are struggling for existence the impression is unclear

—the key object has the greatest effect therefore if nothing of equal value co-exists alongside it. [...j But as the happenings of the soul are like a continuous torch (similar to a piece of wire, containing in places clusters of knots), thus the further existence of the key object must leave some trace in the indifferent. That is, the components of the key object are dispersed in the background, resulting in a kind of connection [...] between the two of them, by which the unity of the work is better-established than if the key object and the background were standing separately side by side.' [sic] MNG Adattár inv.: 20.701/1980 214 MNG Adattár inv.: 20.701/1980. f.44. In the course of the charting of his optical experiments and the phases of motion of the body Székely developed Muybridge's photographical technique to such perfection that on 13th October 1880 Etienne-Jules Marey, staying in Naples at the time, expressed admiration for his colleague, cf. MTA Manuscript Archives Ms 5006/14 (ff. 89a-90b). The letter is quoted in Székely 1992. 90. In his diary begun around 1870 and continued till 1881 he made note of a 1864 Berlin publication, whose title was Die Photographie als bildende Kunst, i.e. the perception of photography as fine art, see: MTA Ms 5006/4 f, 176 ' On his Bathing Woman drafted similarly in grey Székely examined the notion of irradiation and researched the pictorial structure created from layers of grey of distinct saturation on the basis of Braun's artistic reproduction. MNG inv.: 19 15 / 1384 216 Cf. Székely XIII. VK. 96 1 Székely notes the following on the drawing of nudes in Munich: 'The teaching was bad and slow (fiddling six weeks on a nude)

—both the model and the draughtsman were wearied. The using of white paper comes from not recognising the necessity for swiftness. The posing of ugly models

—because ugly is easy, while beautiful tricky

—does not advance Naturalism

—which tends not to require abstrac tions

...' Cf. MNG Adattár inv.: 20.701/1980. f. 150 "

18 Palágyi, Menyhért op. cit. (n. 208) I 1. On Menyhért Palágyi most recently Bogdanov Edit: Művészetelméleti gondolatok befogadása és kreatív átalakítása Palágyi Menyhért filozófiájában. Palágyi képzőművészeti esztétikája (The Aesthetics of Menyhért Palágyi). In: A kreativitás mintázatai. Magyar tudósok, magyar intézmények a modernitás kihívásában. Ed. by Békés Vera. Bp. 2004. 94-129 At the end of 1899 Székely wrote the following: 'The difference is between pure sig

ht and vision revealed by knowledge: the difference between the two can be at times great..' Cf. Emlékezés és ítélet. (Tanításom. íratott 1900 táján) (Memories and Judment. My lectures. Around 1900). MNG Adattár inv.: 20.701/ 1980. X 20 Székely could have become acquainted with the works of Félix Ravaisson-Mollien (Namur 1813 -