Vadas József (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 13. (Budapest, 1993)

CSÉFALVAY Pál: Csernyánszky Mária és Esztergom

analyzed a field lhat had not been researched in Hungary up till lhat time. Naturally she had to feel at home with liturgy, or the international literature of sacral textile arts. As far as the first is concerned, liturgy meant and means no problem for her and not only for the sake of any political system or for the university institute or her master. She knew - or at least that is what her bibliography suggests - all the relating - mainly German reference books, and the works of Canon Bock and the Jesuist J. Braun. Mária Csernyánszky divided her essay into 8 chapters. In the introduction she describes the liturgical development, the material and the technique of the paraments and then she introduces the short history of the Treasury. In the ensuing chapter she enumerates the chasubles from the Ipolyi collection, followed by 15th century Italian or Italian-like, German and German-like chasubles. A separate chapter is devoted to objects made for private piety, to the Baroque objects, to pieces from the nineteenth century and last to Flemish laces. 38 from the 150 units arc described in details. Beyond a simple description she tries to find the origin of the material, stylistic relations and companion pieces. Wherever possible, she identifies the objects with pieces of earlier inventories. It might seem strange, however, that size or inventory numbers are never mentioned. Yet the expert way she described ornaments and techniques created a vocabulary that relieved the burden of description and composition for later researchers. Her expressions and phrases survive both in Lepold's Catalogue for the Treasury and the "Genthon" topography. Csernyánszky had prepared an essay entitled "Magyar úrihimzésü miseruluiïnk" (Hungarian Chasubles With Secular Embroidery), for the presentation volume published on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of Tibor Gerevich, her tutor at the university. She introduced two chasubles of the Esztergom treasury: the one that belonged to Péter Pázmány and the "coronation" chasuble. She identified the peculiarity of secular embroidery: these chasubles "present the artistic ornaments and the excellent technique of Hungarian secular embroidery of the age. As a result, the chasubles show a new, special Hungarian style of embroidery that has emerged with no models or antecedents. There are two sources that provide Hungarian secular embroidery with motifs: one is the Italian Renaissance, enriched with some classical oriental forms, the other is the pure oriental treasury of motifs found on Turkish embroidery, brocades, and carpets. The roots of this peculiarly Hungarian embroidery go back as far as the sixteenth century." (see pp. 139-140). Csernyánszky found the fact depressing that the beaded coronation chasuble has been reshaped through the centuries, with some of the motifs changed. The scientific inventory of the Esztergom Treasury was also badly needed. On behalf of the Cathedral Subcnstos, József Bruckner asked Eva Kovács to make the inventory of the goldsmiths' works and Maria Csernyánszky to do the same with the textiles. Eva Kovács finished her job by the summer of 1964, while Csernyánszky was over with the inventory by the autumn of the same year - in one single month! If we just look at the fact that the treasury contained more than 151 items and one item - say an ornate of an episcopal - is equipped with more than 20 accessories, her diligent and exhausting work cannot be appreciated enough. From the January of 1965, the inventory was followed with the reorganization of the Treasury in a more modern way.