Vadas József (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 11. (Budapest, 1991)
RENNER Zsuzsanna: Baktay Ervin, mint művészettörténész és muzeológus
some traditional features of both schools but cannot be attributed to either of them with certainty. It is a good example of the popular 18th century type which is characterized by its dark tonality where the figures, as if illuminated, are in sharp contrast to the background. In this case, dating was relatively easy for Baktay owing to the presence of some elements betraying Western influence, e.g. the modelling of figures, the composition and atmosphere of the landscape or the use of perspective. All these details pointed to the 19th century origin of the miniature. It is much more difficult to determine the age of Mughal paintings, especially portraits, because these were habitually copied and it is almost impossible to tell copies apart from the originals. The name of the artist was almost never indicated on the paintings and in the case of the rare exceptions it could also be copied. In the absence of definite evidence, Baktay dated to the 17th century the portraits of persons who lived in that century and also those paintings the style of which pointed to that period. On the basis of its style, Baktay dated the painting on Plate 21 to the early 18th century; although in the perspective of sitting no Western influence can be traced, the representation of clouds shows some naturalistic tendency. The artistic quality of the museum's painting collection was rather uneven at Baktay's time: the great majority of the paintings belonged to the Mughal school and were of an average quality; there were only a very few outstanding pieces. The Rajput school was represented by only two paintings; one of them, however, did not rise much above the medium level. There was no Rajput painting to represent either the most characteristic style or the popular Krishna motive. Unfortunately, the situation has not much changed since then, although Baktay made efforts for systematic purchases. He bought several pieces to fill the most striking gaps. Among his acquisitions, there was for instance an 18th century miniature from the Kangra valley and another one belonging to the stylistically peculiar Nathadvara branch of Rajput painting (Plate 22.). The products of the latter school are rather rare. This specimen shows the wellknown Krishna image of Nathadvara with a Rajput prince paying reverence to him. Baktay dated it to the 18th century. It was also him who purchased for the collection the painting on Plate 23 showing the characteristic features of Rajput pahari painting. Naturally, the increase and study of the Indian collection during Baktay's time was not confined to the few pieces mentioned above; here we only wanted to present some of the most valuable pieces he acquired or worked on. Transmitting his great knowledge of India and Indian art particularly was an essential part of Baktay's life-work. From 1951, he regularly lectured at the Faculty of Arts in Budapest on Indian, Tibetan, South-East Asian and Indonesian art. His university lectures were completed by practice at the Museum of Eastern Asiatric Arts where students could come into close contact with the works of Indian art. Edit Tóth was Baktay's most talented student, and later became his successor as curator of the Indian collection at the museum. The museum provided a good opportunity for Baktay to mediate Indian art to a larger public. In 1950—52, he organized an exhibition of Indian art. In one part of the exhibition, Indian art works were displayed in chronological order, arranged according to artistic form 10 . Baktay used large-size photographs of temples, stupas and reliefs in their original setting to illustrate the function of sculptures and architectural fragments, for he held that these in them-
