Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 26. (Budapest, 2008)

Mária FERENCZY: Chinese Moon Gate on Budapest's Andrássy Avenue. The Garden of Ferenc Hopp, I

Ferenc Hopp on 18 August 1890 via Hong Kong to Trieste (HMA: A 1679/20). 18 Anniversary album 1895, p. 8. So far this reference is our only source for asserting that the Moon Gate is of Hungarian design. 19 With a higher middle part and with the most emphatic decorative element below it, roof structure recalls the form of decorative gates ipailou). See, for example, Boerschmann, Ernst: Chinesische Architektur. 2 vols. Berlin, 1925, vol. II., t. 268. These were erected to the memory of eminent personages and also had a magical role: in the area around them they strengthened the harmony of natural forces in accordance with the principles of geomancy (fengsbui). 20 This decorative element was actually made up of a number of parts fixed to poles. Details of it, however, cannot be seen in the surviving photographs, and for this reason it cannot now be exactly described. 21 These had a magic function also: depiction of the dragon, the deity of waters, protected buildings from all kinds of harm, but principally from lightning strikes and fire. 22 Chinese theatre tradition - it differs from region to region - prescribes strongly stylised acting. Actors appear on stage without scenery in magnificent costumes; the type of role and the character of a figure are indicated by distictive painting of the face (make-up). Many elements of the stylised movements of actors are invested with symbolic meaning also. Theatre performances were indispensable elements in festivities; well-known pieces were often performed on temple terraces. Here we see a depiction of'Cantonese opera'. 23 This type of glaze is called Sáncai (late variation with blue added). 24 The actor with the unpainted face is a young scholar who is in love; his place in the sculptural group is recognisable: he is looking down from one of the balconies. The fragment was found in the soil of the garden after the 2002 restoration (information kindly provided by Tatjána Kardos). 25 Inv. no. 9596.1-2. Published in: Fajcsák 2007, nos. 146-147. The glaze on these groups is multicoloured and their working is finer than that of the pieces embellishing the gate. 26 In the vicinity of Shiwan can be found the most suitable clay in China for the modelling of figures. Figurai ceramics for the embellishment of roofs and ledges have been made there for centuries. Till, Barry: 'Shiwan Art Pottery from the Pearl River Delta. The Carol Peckhamn Collection'. Art of Asia, vol. 36, 2006, no. 2, pp. 105-108. 27 The name (in the form of Franz Hopp) can be written in Chinese only in this form. Clearly, it was in southern China, probably Shanghai, that the transcription was performed: the standard (northern) reading of the character transcribing the end of the given name is shi, in the south si; moreover, in the south - and in the literary tradition - that of the character serving to transcribe the surname in the south ends in p or in a glottal stop depending on dialect. Accordingly, the rendition does actually resemble the Hopp name. 28 The column on the right side should be read first. 29 Today they are in the collection storerooms (inv. no. 64.89.1-2.). 30 One of the lions is a female, she is playing with her young; the other is a male and holds a magic ball under his paw. In other words, they represent and also symbolise the balance between y in and yang. 31 See an account of it in the second part of the study, to be published in the next volume of Ars Decorativa. 32 See Baktay, Ervin: India művészete [The Art of India), Budapest, 1955, p. 268. 33 Another moon gate was built in Budapest, in District II; this was the entrance from the street in the wall around the Simonyi-Szemadám villa at Bolyay utca 13. The gate, similar in construction to the one in the Hopp garden, was incorporated into the stone wall and fitted with doors that could be closed. On it there are no ceramic embellishments and its proportions are much less fortunate than those of the Hopp gate. 34 Cf. Hopp Museum Record Office (hereinafter: HMI): 312/1947. The first known report concerning damage is dated 1 October 1947. 35 Cf. HMI: 329/1948, 336/1948. 36 HMA: A 329, A 358, A 363. 37 Of the original tiles just two survived: HMA: T 3481. The new tiles are exact copies of the old ones with regard to form, but in colour they are slightly lighter. 38 The documentation is at present not to hand. 39 Cf. HMI: 160/1964, skk. 40 Budapest Museum of Applied Arts, Records Office: 104/1986. 41 For photographic documentation of the restoration work, see HMA: Ad/5182.1-2003 K (the photographs of the ceramic embellishments come from this source).