Tóth Vilmos: Funeral Art - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2006)

Funeral Art in the First Half of the 20th Century

■ János Horvay: the homily vault oh the Brüklen

created where several of his works are set up one next to the other, as is the case with his funeral monuments in the groups of sections Nos. 26, 36 and 37 in Kerepesi út Cemetery. His art is a far cry from the autonomous world of Stróbl or Donáth, who often took years to complete one or another of their works.

The majority of Horvay's sculptures represent figures of youths or men standing alone or in groups, according to the financial means available to his customer. Among his most characteristic motifs are a group of male pallbearers - this appears on the tombs of the Popovics (K 34), and the Megyeri (K 37/1) families or on the Farkasházy sepulchre (K 43) among others - or the group of mourners lying supine on a coffin or sarcophagus as on the tombs of Szigfrid Kammer (K 26) or Ferenc Chorin (K 26/1). Horvay made the sculptural component of the Miklós-Gombaszögi Mausoleum (K 34). He sculpted several excellent Christ figures, too, including those made for the final resting places of the Gerbeaud (K 26) and the Brükler families (K 20/2). After the relocation of his own sepulchre, his own grave was also marked with a statue

43