Imre Jakabffy (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 2. (Budapest, 1974)
KOÓS, Judith: A Hungarian pioneer of Art Nouveau: Pál Horti
The next piece was made some two years after his above designs. It is a silk carpet from 1901 (Fig. 6), that represents the tendency of Art Nouveau in Hungary on a European level. The style of the work — which is not only one of the most prominent pieces of our master's oeuvre, but that of the age's textile art too, — is in connection both with Linear Art Nouveau, and the above detailed ornamentalcompositional solution of the book and the wallpaper. In the middle of the oblong, goldish brown field divided by white wavy lines, there is a purple médaillon with a green, light- and darkblue coloured ornament representing four stylized manyfold flowers that turn towards each other. The four lines each symbolizing a branch that curves out of the green frame around the central pattern, end in three leaves in all the four corners of the tapestry. There is an infinite pattern of the characteristic Art Nouveau arabesque in the double bordure of the tapestry. On the inner, narrower one, there are green and blue coloured, round, longish, meander-like motifs on a purple foundation, while the other, broader stripe has three flowers with blue seeds on each side, surrounded from a certain distance by infinite blue ornamental lines. As mentioned before, our piece belongs to the rarest ones not only of Hungarian Art Nouveau, but in Europe as well. In both directions its material is artificial silk, with a perfectly woven Jordes technique. The silk surface has a colour harmony of goldsilver-blue-green, showing a typical Art Nouveau colouring. Because of its light and easy tracing, énergie composition, the balance of the so called Linear and Volumen Art Nouveau, and its colour dynamics and harmony, this carpet is one of the master's most beautiful works. 15 The front page designs of MI and Új Idők (New Times), that were published with 5. WALL-PAPER DESIGN, 1899 but a slight change, are from the years 1900 and 1901 (Fig. 7). 1(1 The front page design of MI is made in China ink. On the left side of the vertically divided title page we find the inscriptions. On the right side under the ornament we read: '"Edited by Kamill Fittler, principal contributor Kálmán Györgyi, III. vol. 1900." Under these, there are some lines of design in pencil. 179
