Thain János - Tichy Kálmán: Kisalföldi és gömöri népi építészet (A Néprajzi Múzeum tudománytörténeti sorozata 4; Budapest, 1991)

POPULAR ARCHITECTURE IN THE SMALL HUNGARIAN PLAIN AND THE GÖMÖR REGION

POPULAR ARCHITECTURE IN THE SMALL HUNGARIAN PLAIN AND THE GÖMÖR REGION The ethnographical and folkloristic exploredness of the northern Hungarian linguistic area (a zone of varying breadth, extending from Bratislava [Pozsony] to Nagykapos [Vel'ké KapuSany], with more than 0,5 million inhabitants, belonging since 1918 to Czechoslovakia) is rather unsystematic and incomplete. Nevertheless, in more than seven decades of minority life, the Hungarian ethnology of Slovakia has archieved some results, which are not only of considerable importance for the history of science, but are also indispensable for special research-work on account of their value as irreplaceable sources. János Thain (1885-1953) of Nővé Zámky (Érsekújvár) and Kálmán Tichy (1888-1968) of Ro^Äava (Rozsnyó) belong to the most important research-workers. Our volume presents a choice of their drawings belonging to the sphere of popular architecture in the Small Hungarian Plain and the Gömör region. Part of the collection serving as source (the works of János Thain) can be seen in the District Museum of Nővé Zámky, others (those of Kálmán Tichy) in the Ethnological Collection of the Ethnographical Museum, Budapest. Both authors have graduated as art-teachers im 1911 in the Budapest Academy of Fine Arts. This start, completed by a more sensitive empathy to the popular-national aspect due to minority life, has marked their entire activity. In the exploration and interpretation of folk-art they followed the trend represented by Dezső Malonyay (in the case of János Thain, a concrete contact can be proved). The aesthetical aspect in recording the phenomena and objects of popular architecture is an important trait of their activity. Of course, this is to be understood in a wider sense; in the case of János Thain, the reprezentation of carved barge-bords is as typical as that of gate-posts, furniture etc, whereas Kálmán Tichy aimed above all at the documentation of the typical plastered frontal decoration of the houses in the Gömör region. Though handling their subject in a slinghtly idyllic way, the value of their drawings as ethnographical sources is incontestable.