Róka Enikő szerk.: Zichy Mihály, a „rajzoló fejedelem” (A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria kiadványai 2007/4)

Egy romantikus allegória • Zichy Mihály „főművének" inspirálói LICHNER MAGDOLNA

A Romantic Allegory • The Impulses of the 'Masterpiece' by Mihály Zichy MAGDOLNA LICHNER Originally meant to be exhibited at the Paris World Exhibition of 1878 the painting mentioned in the title was referred to by Mihály Zichy in connection with his intention of painting 'a Doré like' picture. However, he never revealed what he exactly implied by it, that is, the choice of the theme, genre, or simply its pictorial treatment. It was their contemporaries that first began to treat the works of the Hungarian and French artist as parallel ones when Doré's friend, Teophile Gautier visited Russia. Later critics and authors of monographs on Zichy's life-work also tended to refer to this, but apart from a few descriptive epithets they seem to fail to specify what constituted this parallel entity, let alone the positive or negative definition of such similarities. Doré's reception is just as contoversial as the appraisal of his Hungarian contemporary. Moreover, it was not always deemed as an honour to be compared with Doré. Doré had no academic training and as a child prodigy made a quick fame with his drawings, but he was lacking formal instruction and the acqusition of sophisticated taste. Never was he recognized as 'a professional painter' in his home country, so he was constantly trying to display his qualities throughout his life. This motif of his efforts is amply proven by his choice of historical, biblical and allegorical subjects, the grandiosity of his canvases, the speed of his dexterity as well as by existing written sources. At the end of the 1890s his life-work was moved from the Doré Gallery of London to North America, where its short period of splendour quickly faded away and disappeared from contemporary artistic life. It was not until the 1970s of the 20th century that he was rediscovered. Art historians virtually had an opportunity to experience and analyse this much quoted similarity based on the references of their predecessors between the arts of Zichy and Doré on the occasion of the Doré centenary exhibitions and publications. The different title versions such as The Arms of Evil, The Arms of the Demon, The Triumph of the Genius of Destruction, The Genius of Devastation (fig. 39.) already reveal the easily identifiable impulses of the apocalyptic passages from The Revelations by St John. The model of the title figure is Abandon, the Angel of Abyss, or Appolion in Greek, the Destroyer (Rev. 9. 11.). There is a nineteenth century reinterpretation involved in the romantic exegesis of the representational painting of the biblical text, including the actualization of 'the horrors or destructions of war', a traditional iconographie pattern. One should bear in mind the closeness of the Crimean War or 'the Franco-Prussian wrestling' that had divided Europe. When Zichy spoke of the ideological substance of his painting, he called it The Arms of the Evil, or briefly The Demon, and regarded it as his main work despite the fierce political and aesthetic debates published in the daily papers of his times. However, subsequent reception, critics, and the authors of monographs did not always agree with him. After his early recognition as court painter of the Russian tsar his art was not received favourably by all. During the period of the depreciation of romantic painting Zichy's graphics, book illustrations were held the pinnacle of his art. His graphics were extremely highly thought of In spite of their belonging to a somewhat underrated genre in the field of fine arts. Yet they do influence our concept of his art just as well the reception of already classic works of Hungarian literature illustrated by him. Zichy's graphics were instrumental in popularizing melancholic ballads by János Arany, The Tragedy of Man by Imre Madách, or even The Demon by Lermontov. This might as well have been a deliberate choice of pattern as it was Doré that created the romantic and historical visualization of the best-known works of European literary history. The works Doré illustrated included among others The Bible, Dante's