Prékopa Ágnes (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 30. (Budapest, 2016)
Szilveszter TERDIK: “Athonite” Miniature Carvings at the Museum of Applied Arts
The fragile carvings were often mounted in ornate metal frames, which were usually produced outside the monastery, although there were a number of monks who were skilled at crafting metal. Data testify that secular goldsmiths were active in the Athonite community of Karyes in the eighteenth century.8 The metal sections often bear a donation inscription, and sometimes even a year, which can help in estimating the date when the carving was made. These objects were generally bought by pilgrims, or were brought down from the Holy Mountain by monks to give away or sell. From a Hungarian point of view it is interesting to note that Prince Francis II Rákóczi owned a triptych depicting scenes of feast days, which was probably made in Athos, and which was a gift from Metropolitan Gerasimos of Heraklion to the “prince of the Hungarians”.9 The Hungarian general public began to gain familiarity with “Athonite” wooden carvings at the large-scale exhibitions on fine metalwork and the applied arts that were held at the end of the nineteenth century. A number of objects were featured at the fine metalwork exhibition of 1884, borrowed from private collections, ecclesiastical treasuries and the collection of the Hungarian National Museum.10 At the show put on in 1896 to mark the Millennium (of the Hungarian nation), a small selection was compiled mostly from items held in private collections and church treasuries." It was not until the second half of the twentieth century that Hungarian scholars turned their attention once more to Athonite carvings. In Szentendre in 1963 Árpád Somogyi, an employee of the Museum of Applied Arts, organised a major exhibition of late Byzantine artworks from a number of collections in Hungary.12 In 1976, György Rúzsa assembled a selection of objects from the collection of the Museum of Applied Arts for a cabinet exhibition at the castle museum in Nagytétény.13 A variety of later exhibitions also featured a few objects.14 In 2015, as part of the Ars Sacra festival, a selection of works from the Museum of Applied Arts was put on display, supplemented with additional items from the Hungarian National Museum.15 We shall now describe the exhibited works of the Museum of Applied Arts and, as far as possible, clarify their dating and provenance. Crosses The first “Athonite” object in the Museum of Applied Arts was a cross now kept in the Furniture department, which comes from the collection of György Ráth (1828-1905), the institute’s first director.16 It was carved probably not out of boxwood, but the wood of some harder fruit tree. It could be hung by a simple hook at the top of the upright shaft, while at the bottom of the shaft is a brass mounting that goes all the way around. Judging by its highly polished surface and the tiny cracks and chips, it was probably worn for a long time as a pectoral cross. The carving is deeper than average, but it is not pierced. The cross is carved on every side, but the occasionally exaggerated forming and its heavily worn state mean that certain scenes, separated from each other by simple frames, are hard to identify. On one side, the main composition is the Crucifixion, and on the frame above it can be read the abbreviation IC XC. The scenes of the Lamentation and Transfiguration, respectively above and below the Crucifixion scene, are clear to see. To the left of the cen56
