Vadas József (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 11. (Budapest, 1991)
RENNER Zsuzsanna: Baktay Ervin, mint művészettörténész és muzeológus
that: having also a talent for writing, he could also express the experience of his encounters with Indian works of art. His writings, whether books, scholarly papers or travel accounts in newspapers, are always fascinating to read. Baktay's life work as art historian is summarized in his book entitled the Art of India, first published in 1958 1 . In the course of his preliminary studies and later on, during his years spent in India, Baktay's ambition was to become familiar with all aspects of Indian life. The study of Indian art constituted an important but by no means exclusive part of his efforts. Similarly, when working on the Art of India, he did not confine himself to the history of art only. As he believed that in order to understand art, particularly the art of a distant culture, one must be familiar with its historical and social bakground, the chapters of his book on art history are always preceded by chapters dealing with the cultural history of the given period. The chapters on art history, written with scholarly expertise, synthesize the wast literature that had accumulated on the subject by Baktay's time. From recent and old works, Baktay selected the enduring findings with excellent critical acumen. He always based his critique on the latest results of research and on the views held by the best known authorities of Indian art. However, besides the critical and synthesizing nature and literary value of his book, it is first of all Baktay's private view set forth in several questions of Indian art that gives him his lasting value. One of his most original theories concerned the art of the Indus-valley culture. Baktay considered the art of the Indus valley separate from the later art of the Aryans and related it to the art of Egypt, Mesopotamia and the Aegean culture, assuming that the mythology of all these cultures had been deeply rooted in astrology and the symbolism of the starry sky which was in turn based on the ecliptic, the zodiac and the precession of the vernal equinox. For Egypt and Mesopotamia, it was indisputable. On the basis of the images on Indusvalley seals Baktay argued that it must have been the same case with the Indus-culture. Considering the fact that the bull had been the most often represented animal in the art of Egypt, Mesopotamia and the Aegean culture as well as on Indus-valley seals, he supposed that it must have had the same ritual function in the Indus-valley as in the other three cultures. The Egyptian, Mesopotamian and Indus-valley cultures are dated to the 5—3rd millennia B.C. (It has also been ascertained that the vernal equinox crossed the sign of the Bull during the same period.) This is the explanation for the phenomenon that the bull symbol gained primary importance in the magic and ritual determined by astrology. The bull was immidiatcly followed, if not equalled in importance, by the cult of the Mother Goddess because already in old tradition the ruling planet of the Bull was Venus which might bear different names but was unvariably the symbol of „primeval womanhood" and fertility in all ancient cultures. From the aspect of astral symbolism, the Indus-valley seal showing a tree on the right and a horned and tailed female in the middle fighting with a rearing tiger at the left is particularly interesting (Plate 1.). According to Baktay's interpretation, the bull, also wearing the attributes of Venus, and the tiger which often stands for the lion in the East arc symbols of the two axes of the Solar System, at the Southern and Western poles of which we find the signs of the Lion and the Bull respectively (Plate 3.). In astral symbolism, the two axes are given contrasting meanings, the South -North one
