Tóth Vilmos: Funeral Art - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2006)
Funeral Arts in the 19th Century
many-sided craftsmanship can be found all over the cemeteries of Hungary’s capital. Especially in the first decade of its existence, the Gerenday workshop played a major part in commemorating the names of the country’s outstanding patriots and in the secular cult of cemeteries emerging at the time. They carved the tombstone of Károly Kisfaludy in 1853, which was originally set up in Váci út Cemetery (K 29/2). The sepulchre of János Garay was made in 1855 (K 29/1), and then that of Mihály Vörösmarty (K wall). Unveiled in 1859, the finest monument of the age standing in Kerepesi út Cemetery was that of Márton Lendvay (K 34/1). The portrait on the tomb was made by Lőrinc Dunaiszky's son László Dunaiszky, while the architectural design, to which the monument owes its significance, is likely to be the work of the architect Frigyes Feszi, who maintained long-term professional ties with Antal Gerenday. The cast-iron gates of the cemetery are certain to have been designed by Feszi in 1861, and it was also Feszi whose plans were used with the architecture of the funeral monument of Countess Manó Zichy-Ferraris. Completed by 1854, the sepulchre can be found in the Kálvin tér church; the attractive sculptural decoration made by Raymond Gayrard makes a curious effect in its Protestant environment. Another work made in the Gerenday workshop was the 1877 soldiers' monument for the Tabán Cemetery. As the communal sepulchre of the Hungarian soldiers who had fallen at the siege of Buda Castle, this was one of the most important memorial sites related to 1848. Of László Dunaiszky's later work, mention must be made of Mihály Horváth’s bust sculpted in 1881; the first important sculptural monument in Kerepesi út Cemetery, the bust was recently stolen from the tomb (K wall). Near the Horváth Monument is another early representative piece of Hungary's newly-revitalized funeral sculpture, the portrait on Ferenc Toldy’s sepulchre made by Adolf Huszár (K wall). Unveiled in 1879, the work testifies to the contemporary tendency of sculptural design being outweighed by the architectural construction; in a few decades, this order of relative importance would be reversed. Although made in a, style of classical simplicity, Toldy’s wreath-framed portrait appears as the most emphatic element of the monument without pushing its way into the foreground. Adolf Huszár played an important part in the country’s funeral sculpture in another way, too-, it was with his tomb, that Gyula Donáth made his debut in 1889 as the most original master of the next generation in the history of Hungary's funeral sculpture. Another remarkable mural sepulchre, '5
