Prohászka László: Equestrian Statues - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1997)

monument erected in honour of the 10th Hussar Regiment in Székesfehérvár bears comparison to anything in the same genre in Europe.) And Pátzay applied stiff ethical standards to his own art, too.

In his historical monuments, such as the equestrian statue of János Hunyadi in Pécs or Balassi’s figure at the Kodály Körönd, an openly acknowledged Historicist stance is clearly visible, but it can also be felt that he kept a safe distance from the mandatory “socialist realist” style of the 1950s.

The three-metre high Sports Rider is a fine specimen of Classicist taste. “He was a Classicist in the original sense of the word, in that he was always in search of the classical, or exemplary, perfect, shape in his works without trying to imitate the masters of classical antiquity,” says Sándor Kontha summing up the art of Pátzay.

Foal in üllői út housing estate

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