Vadas József (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 11. (Budapest, 1991)

STURCZ János: Maróti Géza pályaműve a Rockefeller Centerhez

coloured the motif as a birthday present for his wife, (picture 20)

52 Just like the Past and Present couple, the scene illustrates the ambiguity of dreaming and being awake. Meditation, thinking, awakening to consciousness and the desire to get away into the transcendental world were favourite topics in the arts at the turn of the centuries. Thus the pieces created in this period are full of figures depicted in the transitional state between dreaming and wakefulness. Maróti used the works of two artists when designing his picture. With the symmetrical middle group of six female ("Awakening") figures and a male ("Latent State") figure, he applied the motifs of two compositions by Hodler, entitled „Daylight" and „The Chosen"; whereas the starting point for the two side figures, representing the state of wakfulness, was undoubtedly Rodin's oeuvre. Hodler on his Daylight (1900, Kunstmuseum, Bern) depicts five sitting and kneeling female figures in different phases of awakening, (picture 22) His middle figure is shown in a stretched postnre, similar to the pose of Maróti's female figures. The typical posture of arms stretched in a V-shape towards the sky, taken over from Adam and Eve scenes, was quite characteristic of the turn of the century, symbolizing the desire to ascend into the transcendental world.

53 (In Hodler's pieces, A. Comini connected the posture with the movements of modem dances, and especially with the art of Rudolph von Laban and Mary Wigman.

54 On the other hand, Maróti's figures, and the stepping posture of Beethoven might also remind us of the Dancer statues of Elza Kövesházi Kalmár.) The other picture of Hodler that inspired Maróti is The Chosen (1893-94, Kunstmuseum, Bern; picture 23), showing a defenceless boy, kneeling on a rock and praying in deep trance, among six sheltering female figures. The basic concept of the two pictures is the same. Likewise, the symmetry of the two Hodler pictures and the characteristic, energy radiating type of youth must also have influenced Maróti.

55 The group can be interpreted as a visual prayer, since all figures are depicted in different poses of praying or asking for help. On the sides, they are flanked by the two types of the awakened humanity, the constructors of material and spiritual world: The Builder and The Thinker. (While the former is presented in a suffering pose, half collapsed, supporting himself and with eyes closed, the Thinker is in a further state of consciousness, partly upright; although he is chained partly to the earth, the stretched position of the hands turn the figure towards the sky.) Their attributes follow tradition. The pair of compasses in the Builder's hands is a general tool of constructors; in the cycle of the seven free arts it is the attribute of geometry. As a sophisticated tool to determine proportions it is also a symbol of perfection; this is the reason why it appears often in the hands of The Creator. (Maróti apparently used the symbol to refer to the perfection of „new cities", skyscrapers, and indirectly the building to be decorated.) The figure of the Builder lifts his right hand to his head — this movement recalls Rodin's The Age of Bronze (1875-77, Palais du Luxembourg). The statue was also called „The Awakening Man" (Homme qui s'éveille). Originally it was made under the influence of the trauma of 1871, and refers to the age of sorrow, pain ang grief. It radiates the transitional state between being awake and being depressed, which is so typical of Maróti's figure. The position of the right hand is attributed to Michaelangelo's Slave, now in the Louvre.

56 The other allegorical figure, The Thinker is also connected to the slave statues of Mi-