XX. századi műemlékek és védelmük (A 26. Egri Nyári Egyetem előadásai 1996 Eger, 1996)

Előadások: - Damjan Prelovšek: Joze (Josip, Jusep) Plečnik (Ljubljana, 1892. jan. 23-1957. jan.7)

vision of the Slovene House of Parliament (1947). The only commission by the Municipality was the renovation of the abandoned Teutonic Order's monastery in Ljubljana; otherwise the forties and the fifties were filled with tasks of mostly decorative character (book design, applied arts). Proceeding from G. Semper's maxim about the fundamental importance of arts and crafts for architecture, Plecnik designed also furniture, lamps, textiles, liturgical objects, and invented graphic designs throughout his career. His skill in the cabinet maker's trade, acquired in Ljubljana and Graz, was further deepened in Vienna by the study of Biedermayer and English furniture. He avoided fashionable novelties, such as bending and pressing the wood, and insisted on classical veneering. In designing chairs and sitting sets he was fond of following Semper's speculation that the most elegant antique pieces were supposedly always made of metal. He tried to re-experience imaginary antique models with extremely masterly wooden structures recalling metal forms. Already at the Graz school of applied arts he demonstrated a special liking for metals, and he mastered his own metal-working skill by collaborating with the school master metal-workers in Prague. He especially followed the example of Czech mediaeval applied art products decorated with inlaid precious and semi-precious stones. While designing his numerous chalices, from 1913 onwards, he mostly relied on Semper's descriptions of antique ceramics. The central theme of a cup placed on a base stimulated him to create a series of metamorphoses of archaic drinking vessels. Plecnik's Christian symbolism was very deep, but first of all it was completely unconventional; as a result it often gave rise even to a certain dislike on the side of official Church authorities With similar enthusiasm he would design candlesticks or different kinds of lamps. Although in Vienna he was also forced to design objects for mass-production, he avoided them later and strived for individual solutions. The production of applied art objects was at the same time a great school for crafstmen who collaborated with Plecnik; namely, he was inexorable in his demands for exactness and devotion to work, which helped to raise Slovene metal-workers', stonecutters' and cabinet makers' crafts to a world level.