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

Funeral Art in the First Half of the 20th Century

■ f ülöp Beck Ö. the funeral monument of György Király

of Christ carved by himself, originally set up as a collective monument of mourning (K 26). The communal site of remembrance at the main entrance of Farkasrét Cemetery, the statue of the Good Shepherd consecrated in 1913, was destroyed during the siege of Budapest in World War II. Some of his works are still extant in the Buda funeral ground, including the Buzáth (F 22), the Kenessey (F 37/1), and the Wolff (F 49/1) tombs.

While Horvay was overwhelmed with funeral commissions, the pioneers of Hungary's modernist sculpture received as few orders for sepulchral monuments as they were given for public ones. For example, Fülöp Beck Ö. made far fewer funeral monuments than Horvay, but each and every sepulchral sculpture made by the former is a truly memorable work of art. One of Beck's most important works, Song of Suffering, was unveiled as György Kiräly s funeral monument in 1922 (K 36/2). The piece represents a transition between the decorativeness of the turn of the century and the block-like formal essen44