Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 2002. Vol. 8. Eger Journal of American Studies.(Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 28)

Studies - Mária Kurdi: "Hold like rich garners the full-ripen'd grain." On the Scholarly Heritage of Péter Egri (1932-2002)

painters like Mihály Munkácsy, Tivadar Csontváry Kosztka, Aurél Bernáth, István Dési Huber and Gyula Derkovits. Varying the strategy, in Value and Form Egri appears to be even more conscious of the idea of Walter Pater that the "various forms of intellectual activity which together make up the culture of an age, [...] partake indeed of a common character, and unconsciously illustrate each other;" as it is claimed in the preface to The Renaissance (xv). Besides summing up the research of many years, the book is the work of a scholar teacher who was in the habit of entering the classroom with not only books but also art albums and pieces of recorded music. Instead of abstract theorizing and using the works as mere illustrations, Egri's method in Value and Form continues to be a detailed analysis of its subject without any rigidly imposed pattern, seeking answers to the questions the material itself raises. Chapter IV of the book, for instance, is memorable for exploring one particular theme (the storm) and some corresponding images/symbols in Shelley, Turner, Field and Chopin. According to Egri, it is the Romantic artists' imagination-governed attraction to the unusual manifestations of nature which seems to be the shaping force behind the magnificence of their works. The joining of distant poles and diverse elements produces linguistic contrasts in poetry, "large-scale modulations" in music, and "masses of whirling colour" in painting (185). In the same chapter the Irish-born and relatively unknown, even neglected Romantic composer John Field is resurrected as an inventor, that of the musical genre of the nocturne, and his influence on Chopin becomes duly recorded. Continuing to intrigue the author, the ideas presented here are further expanded by the book Érték és képzelet: Shelley, Turner, Field és Chopin (Value and Imagination: Shelley, Turner, Field, and Chopin), which appeared in 1994. The comprehensive nature of Value and Form lies also in the fact that besides the artists focused on more closely many others are called to mind, and as a "by-product" of the analyses, this results in enriching the text with further thought-provoking remarks. Value and Form treats several connections or just resonances between artists and art works which have received little or no attention by other scholars earlier. The respective manifestations of the 18th century novel of education (exemplified by Tom Jones in the book), and the classical 27