Buza Péter: Spring and Fountains - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1994)

Contrary to the opinion of the above-mentioned critics, most contemporaries found the idea rather clever, even though the commentary which appeared in Vasárnapi Újság [Sunday News], rather appreciative on the whole, is not without some overtones of disapproval:

In the work before us we can see the pretty and poetic figure of a fisher girl lifting, with her right hand and with the help of her clothes, a large fish, while in her other hand, which keeps her skirt in picturesque folds, she holds some smaller fish on a strap together with the emblem of fishing- -a net. The small fish almost disappear in the abundant folds of her clothes. The sculpture makes a pleasant impression on the whole, and if we are out to find mistakes, the only thing we can find fault with is exactly this fashionably wide-flowing attire, which is hardly the way such poor fisher girls, busy doing their hard work, usually dress.

Rézi Fischer, or as it was officially called, the Fisherman’s Well, was transported to Népliget when the medieval town centre was demolished. Thus the fountain was taken away from the Fish Market, which used to be in Eskü (today Március 15) tér, but was moved back into the old town many decades later in 1985. However, as no better place was found for it, this time it was put in Kristóf tér. Virtually every part had to be carved anew. The artistically perfect execution of the reconstruction is the work of Sándor Lovas.

Almost at the same time as the well in the fishmarket was installed, a new ornamental fountain was built also in Buda. Research tentatively dates its birth to 1850. (There are experts who favour 1870 as a more likely date.) An imitation antique female figure decorates the water-spouting pedestal. It is commonly known as Hebe, but knowledgeable art historians have discovered that it was modelled on the Gabi Artemis sculpture of Polykleitos. Artemis was the goddess of hunting, while Hebe was that of youth, but she also held the office of Grand Cup-bearer on Olympos.

What is certain among the many uncertainties is that the fountain was used as a public well while it stood in its original place in Nádor (today Kapisztrán) tér. We also know that the first period in the life of this fountain, created by an anonymous master, lasted until 1923. It was then that the spot where the fountain had stood so far was chosen for a statue of János Kapisztrán, the heroic scourge of the Turks. The sculpture on the fountain was then moved to what is now Hess András tér but which was then called Iskola tér, where it only fulfilled an aesthetic function. And not for very long either. In 1936 it was replaced by the statue of Pope Innocent. Poor Artemis, this ill-treated lady of antiquity, who appears to have

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