Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 28. (Budapest, 2012)
Balázs SEMSEY: Architecture and Museology at the End of the 19th Century
When installed in the museum, the gallery was straightened out and the height was raised to adjust to the room dimensions. The order of the banister sections was also changed and the entire width of the gallery was slightly reduced. The latter move might be attributed - beside the shortage of space - to the omission of possibly damaged elements and certainly explains the presumed hiatuses aggravating the exact interpretation of the Latin inscription running all along the banister. 2 0 The extension in the upper segment of the pillars and the asymmetry in the different widths can be ascribed to the transformation. It can be taken almost for granted that not all elements of the edifice were reused, but the exact state of the objects was not documented upon their arrival in the museum and later all their pieces were given the same inventory number and the unused part got lost. 2 1 Although there was sufficient information for the re-installation of the original state of the Sóly gallery, the fictitious reconstruction was probably decided upon for architectural and aesthetic considerations. The irregular, asymmetrical structure often characterizing such relics having been "corrected", the gallery and the Maksa ceiling were installed in a geometrically regular, symmetrical layout, which harmoniously fitted the museum interior. It is perhaps not too far-fetched to declare that both furnishing pieces are peculiar remains of purist restoration typical of monument protection in the late 19th century. The gallery of Mezőcsát was eventually too large for any other place than the ground floor glass hall. 2 2 A few of its painted panels omitted from the reconstruction were put up on the wall of the "Hungarian room", although the museum guide fails to mention them, but they can clearly be seen in the archive photos. The gallery taking up the entire length of the hall opposite the main entrance was incompatible with Lechner's architecture and covering a considerable section of the ground floor arcade it disrupted the unity of the monumental interior space (fig. 7). This was obviously one reason why a few years later the gallery was removed, put in store for years and transferred - with several similar relics - to the Ethnographic Museum in 1970. Some of its pieces have been put on display in several exhibitions, but the entity has not been assembled. 2 3 Since then the ground floor hall has been reserved for temporary exhibitions and occasional programs. It is an incidental piece of information but not indifferent for our case-study that earlier a copy of the Maksa ceiling adorned a room in the main historical ensemble of the Millennial Exhibition where manuscripts and incunabula were shown. 2 4 It is clearly visible in an archive photo (fig. 8) taken by Antal Weinwurm that the reconstruction put up in the exhibition did not follow the proportions or layout of the original exactly. 2 5 The ceiling is framed by ornamental laths with wavy edges the motifs of which are identical with the carvings on the banister of the Sóly gallery. This solution is evidently missing from the photos of the Maksa church, but similar ornamental lattices framed the reconstruction of the Sóly church ceiling built of 15 panels in the Museum of Applied Arts later. 2 6 A few years later at the Paris World Fair of 1900 the room of the Hungarian historical pavilion for the old Hungarian manuscripts, missals and other printed items was also adorned with motifs of the Maksa ceiling. 2 7 The connection and explanation lie 14
