Voit Pál: Barokk tervek és vázlatok (1650-1760) (A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria kiadványai 1980)

BAROQUE DESIGNS & SKETCHES FROM 1650 TO 1760 The first drafts and designs of artistic products are valuable documents of our history of art. They are genuin records of the artist's original intentions, talent, rich fantasy or of craftsmanship. Some of these drawings represent an abstract artistic vision, others are thoroughly worked out designs specifying every technical aspect of implementation. They all represent, however, the style and demand of contemporary society, as well as the ambitions and follies of the builder or the patron. The plans which could not be or were not executed are often more exact expressions of artistic talent than the completed work of art, which may have been realized by saving many of the significant artistic details or modified later so that the original harmony got disrupted. The original conception of the incompleted or partially finished works is best recorded by the plans or their later accurate copies. The drawings, shown at the exhibition, have been selected from the material of our public collections and ecclesiastic archives. The drafts, sketches and designs record the original conception of the but partially realized monuments of Baroque architecture, decorative art and interior architecture from the 17th century on till 1760 when Franz Anton Pilgram's plans for the cathedral of Vác were completed or rather till the master's death. This series should be regarded as the final phase of Baroque or rather of Rococo style. In 1761, when Isidore Canevale appeared in Vác, a new stylistic age, the neoclassic trend of the Enlightenment began. Drawings from this following period — presumably in much greater number — will be shown at the next exhibition. Though they do not fully represent the architectural activity and artistic standard of the age these architectural drafts offer opportunity for interesting studies. The majority of the original plans were destroyed or lost though we know that they were greatly appreciated at their time. Károly Esterházy — bishop of Eger — great patron of the Baroque, kept the models and plans of the buildings in separate rooms; he had wide-spread correspondence and devoted significant funds for the acquisition of the plans of the cathedral of Vác and for obtaining Gerl's designs of the Lycée. Nevertheless no more than a few dozens of his precious collection of plans remained. A few more can be found in the archives of aristocratic families, most of which date from later periods. The council of governor-general, the highest building authority, took account of state construction only. The monastic orders were responsible for large scale building activity, but hardly any documents of drawings survived with the exception of those in the possession of the Jesuit and Piarist Orders. At the end of the 18th century — when monastic orders were d issolved — the majority of the plans got lost. Most of those remaining are survey documents prepared to official order following secularization, and thus they represent the contemporary state of existing buildings. The laying of the foundation-stone of the Jesuit church in Nagyszombat, on the 16th of May in 1629, marked the beginning of Baroque architecture in Hungary. This church was the first monument of the new style in the former territory of Hungary. It was comissioned by the palatine of Hungary Miklós Esterházy, who devoted this imposing, stately church for the burial-place of his family. The ground-plan of the building and its facade were designed after the Jesuit church in Vienna, the architect of which — unknown up to the present — might have participated in the realization of the building at Nagyszombat. The new church type, worked out by the Jesuits, was widely imitated and became very popular in the regions north of the Alps. In contrast to the front of the H'Gesu in Rome — built without towers and conforming to the rather more favoured northern