Prékopa Ágnes (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 30. (Budapest, 2016)
Ildikó PANDUR: A Wrought-Iron Exhibition Hall Gateway from 1883: A Contribution to the Architectural History of the Old Exhibition Hall and the Old Music Academy in Budapest
The grille, composed of square iron rods bent into S-shaped and C-shaped profiles ending in volutes and leaves, riveted onto a square-iron base shaped into a basket arch, is decorated with wrought, veined leaves, fixed on both sides with concealed rivets. In the middle there is a small columned niche made from embossed sheet metal, with, at its peak, a bouquet of flowers cut from metal sheets, while at the bottom is a baldachin-like sheet-metal feature, with drooping tassellike decorations. At each side there are vases, made from embossed sheets similar to that used for the central baldachin, with sheet-metal bouquets of flowers. Above the tassel decorations - on both sides of the grille - the date “1721” can be read to the right of the baldachin and to the left can be read “IIV”. The lamp featured on the plan (one in the middle of the niche which appears on a separate detail drawing of the plan) is missing. The end of a flat iron bar sticks out from the middle of the floral ornamentation of the upper section, with two holes in it - the function of this could be discerned from the plan: it held the sheet metal sign, which is now lost.48 A letter from the Music Academy related to the museum’s move from the premises includes a possible reference to this sign.49 It is likely that, in the present condition of the pediment, the wrought-iron grille preserves the details from 1721. The later supplements, created in accordance with Uhl’s plan, are probably the parts made from sheet metal: the small central niche decorated with floral bouquets, and the two side vases with the hanging baldachins. The date and the letters “IIV” also seem to be additions made around 1883. It is possible that “IIV” was supposed to be a Roman numeral (“VII”), perhaps referring to the number of the gallery. (The collection of the Museum of Applied Arts has another example of wrongly used Roman numerals, produced in a reputable workshop, dating from the early twentieth century.)50 In the age of historicism, there were many instances of “new” archaicised objects being made, for example, from fragments of old jewellery. This work, which is also of great interest as part of the history of the museum, is a rare example of an old, presumably incomplete wrought-iron artefact being combined into a “new” work - one might say “reconstructed” or “recycled” - with the addition of new elements. On both sides, it is supported by a narrow, slender grille element, decorated with tendrils and leaves. These historicist sections are connected in the middle - as a further example of nineteenth-century supplementation - to the low gate, which could open in two directions, serving as the entrance to the exhibition hall. Epilogue: the building on Üllői Road As the collection grew steadily in size, it had to survive the first quarter century of its existence in temporary rented exhibition premises. In 1890, a competition was launched to find the design for an independent home for the Museum and School of Applied Arts; all the plans that were received went on display for six weeks, in the rooms that had been rented since 1877, in the Old Exhibition Hall.51 The exhibition galleries remained open to the public there until the end of February 1896, and all the while the library functioned uninterruptedly, and Sunday lectures were held regularly.52 Pressure was applied, in the form of a written letter, for 109
