Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 28. (Budapest, 2012)

Balázs SEMSEY: Architecture and Museology at the End of the 19th Century

ground-plan and the ceiling were not perfectly regular originally, the sizes and shapes of certain panels differed. Particularly the coffers in the lateral row above the loft gradually narrowed towards the ceiling corner, adjusting to the plane of the southern wall of the church. In the museum, the panels were fitted into a regular grid of lathes; the symmetrically composed ornaments were centralized where need be, and the gaps at the joints were filled where necessary. Where this was not enough - in the three coffers at the corner - the decoration was complemented by axially mirroring the original tendril and foliage motifs (fig. 5). A far greater problem was posed by the Sóly gallery, whose original shape is considerably different from what can be seen in the Museum of Applied Arts. The nave of the Sóly church is two metres narrower and the interior height is smaller than the "Hungarian room". Kamill Fittler's notes and on-the-spot ink sketch (fig. 6) inform us that originally the gallery was asymmetrical, comprising three banister sections at almost right angles to one another.

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8 Archeological exploration and recent wall probing in the church explored the foundations of two supporting pillars and the break-ins of the support of the gallery. This helped define the original height.

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9 7. The ground floor hall of the museum with the Mezőcsát gallery, photo: Antal Weinwurm, 1897 (Vasárnapi Újság, 28 November 1897) 13