Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 28. (Budapest, 2012)
Balázs SEMSEY: Architecture and Museology at the End of the 19th Century
of the palace on Üllői Road from the start: the installation costs were included in the detailed budget of the interior decoration dated 9 June 1895, and the artist who designed and executed the ornamental painting of the interior, Károly Miksa Reissmann had already studied them for subsequent use during the preliminary collection of motifs. 1 4 The plan of installing these elements in the would-be new building was already worded by Jenő Radisics in a letter to the Maksa presbytery dated 13 September 1892, that is, three years earlier: "(...) our institute is launching the construction of a palace worthy of our collection next spring, and I should be considering a room in which the ceiling might assume its original function as ceiling, just as another room is to be adjusted to the dimensions of the colourfully painted wooden gallery that had recently been received from a church in the upper country." 1 5 The latter remark must certainly refer to the Mezőcsát gallery. However, architectural planning ignored the director's expectation in this regard. With the debates on the planning competition being over, work on the construction began in October 1893, and parallel with the construction, working drawings of newer and newer levels were produced continuously by the office of Ödön Lechner and Gyula Pártos. The blueprint of the first floor planned to have the largest exhibiting space is dated 12 June 1894."' The size and location of the rooms were adjusted to the preliminary plans and there is no sign that the incorporation of the requirements of prospected large built-in furnishings was taken into account. As a result, when the galleries and the ceiling coffers were to be installed, the dimensions of the completed building had to be adjusted to. This led to different - but equally illuminating - solutions concerning the different art objects. The 75 cassettes of the Maksa ceiling had enough room in the chosen space; besides, before installing them in the museum, the staff could view the photos taken by József Huszka in situ before demolition (fig. 4) and study the sketchy assessment drawing of the ceiling, which helped them reconstruct the original state approximately authentically. 1 7 Only a few details they deemed disturbing were rectified: the 6. Kamill Fittler's sketch of the ground-plan and furnishings of the Sóly church, 1893 (MAA Archive 1893/203) 12
