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

Funeral Art in the First Half of the 20th Century

Important funeral works were made by Zsigmond Kisfaludi Strobl, such as the majestically serene sculpture on the Paulheims' tomb (K 26) or the beautiful portrait over his wife’s grave (F 9/1). A copy each of his well-known 1927 statue Ad aitra tops the tomb of András Halász (F 46) and the sculptor's own (K 34/2). (While Pásztor’s above-mentioned variant of the Ad aótra motif features a girl’s figure, Kisfaludi Strobl’s version represents a young man.) An enlarged replica of the sculptor's 1911 statuette Finale was placed upon Ferenc Halász's tomb (K 24/1). His funereal art is well illustrated by such further works of his as those set up on the Plány (K10), the Bérezik (K19/1), the Ország (K 37/1), the Szurday (K 42), the Korb (K 51), or the Kmety tombs (F 30/2).

The most important funeral works of Ferenc Sidló's is the statue made for the grave of Mrs. Gábor Strache, a piece of absolutely fetching beauty (K 34), and the tombstones of Géza Nagy (F 6/2) and Endre Nagy (K 11). What makes the statue of the Virgin Mary atop the Zaitz tomb (F 2) special is that a bronze version of the work stood above Sidló's own grave in Kerepesi út, then in Rákoskeresztúr Cemetery, that is, until it was stolen. Elek Lux's peculiarly light and graceful works mark the Reiner (K 34), the Kovács (K 36/1) and the Gróh (K 48/3) graves as well as the artist’s own tomb (K 50/1). Szilárd Sződy’s finely- wrought relief portraits adorn the tombs of Ödön Wildner (K 34) and Ella Némethy (F 1) among others, but these are re-used memorial plaques originally set up elsewhere. Elza Kövesházi Kalmár made the tombstones of Margit Kaffka (F1) and Mária Gyarmati (F 26/2), and mention must be made of the sculptor's own funeral statue, which went missing when the grave it marked was cleared away. The same refined and often lyrical tone characterises the statues atop the tombs of Zoltán Túry by Géza G. Fekete (F 43) and of Dezső Csánki by Elemér Fülöp (F 33/2) or the funeral monuments of Mrs. István Csók (K 35) and the stately Sipőcz tomb by István Szentgyörgyi as well as the works of Sándor Gabay, Viktor Vass or Yrjö Liipola.

Another tendency of a more elevated and at the same time more belligerent tone, one that applied a predominantly military iconography, was represented by the original sepulchral sculpture commemorating Gyula Gömbös. György Vastagh Jr’s funeral work was demolished a few years after it was unveiled in 1941. The superbly-shaped equestrian statue represented an ancient Hungarian warrior. The same trend is exemplified by Dezső Lányi’s Eckensberger tomb (K 10/2), Mihály Dabóczi's Gerentsér tomb (F 6/8), or Sándor Krisztián’s works, such as the Lajos Hajts Monument in Rákoskeresztúr Cemetery. Here mention should be made of Lőrinc Siklódy's numerous works, including the

50