Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 18. (Budapest, 1999)

Zsuzsa H. BOGNÁR: About the Dining Room in the Buda Palace of Count Tivadar Andrássy - apropos of an armchair

the metropolis - the mood and lush vegetation of the garden on the Andrássy estate at Toketerebes.

6 Rippl-Rónai always took as his point of departure a primary experience - be it a journey, an exhibition, or an impulse originating in his immediate environment, or a person who was in some way remarkable - a beautiful woman, an interesting male face, perhaps a friend or some outstanding contemporary worthy of immortalizing. This time the "source of inspiration" was Mrs. Andrássy, an ethereal, willowy and subtle being, as well as the luxuriant richness of the garden on her Toketerebes estate.

7 This time as well he could lose himself in the drawing of individual flower motifs. This stemmed from his sensitivity, and not least from his pronounced love of nature. Nature occupies an especially important place in his studies and compositions.

5 Through modern eyes the wonderful thing about this Gesamtkunstwerk - since Rippl had received no training of any kind as a designer - is that the interior could become the embodiment of an artist's religious and magically atmospheric (although not excessively practical) dream symphony. The dining room suite was made for twelve persons; this ensured intimacy with regard to scale - it also served the eating "rite" of a small party of guests, a contemplative, "spiritual" time spent together by small company, in accordance with the requirements of the patron. The craftsmen - first and foremost Thék - were unable to execute Rippl-Rónai's plans with the necessary humility. The original idea, which the artist committed to paper merely, which he tried to conduct through a thousand obstacles and which he repeated to verbally and in writing, remained semi-fulfilled. The proud and down-to-earth craftsmen gave a more prosaic, structured and solid character to the pieces, which were at variance with the original idea, "breaking their wings". A hitherto unpublished letter written to the artist by his brother Ödön attests to the antipathy which existed between the designer and those entrusted with implementing the designs.

9 However, Rippl believed that that his client had the necessary financial resources with which he, Rippl, could realize his own ideas, with which his discerning, progressively minded and - above all - generous patron would would also be given the opportunity bring in something new. We know that when the interior was made, the accepted trend in Hungary was Historicism. This reached back to the motifs and solutions of earlier times, and appeared lasting and authoritative, acting as an obstable to all new initiatives. Károly Lyka put it extremely well when he wrote of Rippl: "Standing alone and going his own way, it's approximately the need for this that drives Rippl-Rónai, when he draws a few lines with a thick pen, or when he designs his glass pinnacle, a table or supraport, when he makes a bookplate, or when he weaves together his own special female figures from coloured mist. It is this desire that especially offends the phillistines, who needing to follow the herd, fervently wish that every little sheep in the sheepfold should be the same."

70 That this "desire to create a little world in miniature" was not the attitude of a dandified fin-de-siècle aesthete is proved by all Rippl's diary entries and all his statements, letters and conversations on (he matter. All this is well illustrated by his furniture - produced out of a wish to help for the homes of his parents, brothers and friends, or later, in 1908, by the "Studio" enterprise he set up within the Uránia art dealing concern. (The "Studio", which was to have organized a series of exhibitions on the theme of home interiors, came to grief, owing to lack of interest.) All this shows his intention, the drawing nearer of an observant and open-minded