Gärtner Petra (szerk.): Csók István (1865 - 1961) festészete - Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei. A. sorozat 45. (Székesfehérvár, 2013)
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RESUME 453 Csók expected "redeeming force" from his picture: "Deliver us from EwT.The idea of an artist identifying him or herself with their work was suitable for the romantic concept of a genius at the turn of the century, as it was prepared by Schopenhauer. However, he could not account for the tearing of the canvas, the unexpected anger and vandalism. In his memoirs he writes that he never really knew when a picture was ready, how long the inspiration had lasted, when its magic ceased and when his work became boring, i.e. when he had to stop painting. The truth, however, is that the work itself began to separate from the inwardness of Nagybánya in the light of the maturing requirement of "dear painting". The attitude of historicism, the antique figures and creatures of the fantasy which were equally not native in Nagybánya and the ones by Arnold Böcklin in Zurich or Munich, the tale, the great emotional symbols and their allegoric collaboration all derive from thoughts and notions. The figments of imagination are not the children of spectacle; this tension can only be overcome by exceptional talent.The deepgreen Greek sea, the antique shrine and the goat-hooved and goat-horned mythical figures have nothing to do with the experience one can gain by looking through the window of the studio. Csók's painting was not inspired by nature as it was required by the "mystery-play" of the school, but literature preformed it and this is his ultimate and inexpiable "sin". It was born from the marriage of nature and poetry, not from the marriage of nature and nature, which not only accounts for his experience of failure then, but also for the meaning of confusion and silence. VII. RITA BUDAI István Csók and the women of the Bible The richest and most widely interpreted theme of István Csók's painting is that of women. This curiosity characterizes most of his biblical works by solely selecting women's stories from both the Old and New Testament. When depicting these characters his focus is on the shape of the figures rather than on the stories themselves. Numerous experiences inspired Csók's choice of Biblical themes. On the one hand, his Protestant upbringing and his presumably intimate knowledge of the Bible; on the other hand, his biblical studies at the Julian Academy (1887-1889) could have played a significant role. Furthermore, he was deeply influenced by the spirit and thematic preferences of the symbolist movement, which he encountered in Munich (1889-1897) and later, in Paris (1903-1910). Symbolist painters favored scenes from mythology and the Bible, reinterpreting these stories in their own unique ways. Additionally, the symbolist movement was largely responsible for the widespread characterization of women as beasts, femme fatales, a notion that was repeated throughout the arts in the latter half of the 19th century. Csók's choice of theme might have been affected by his interest in sexual pathology through which he approached the unknowable, enticing, destructive type of women. He was particularly occupied with the simultaneous presence of purity and foulness to be found in the woman. Penitent Magdalene (cat. 13), Csók's initial female subject from the Bible, was painted in 1898. Magdalene is depicted, following the classic painterly tradition, with her full enticement (red hair, slipping gown, ecstatic movement) along with references to her repentance and asceticism. The painting can be described as academic naturalism with casual picturesqueness of Nagybánya, which he painted in several versions. This series of biblical female figures continued with Salome in 1901 (cat. 17), whose subject is one of the most famous femme fatale figures in painting during this period. Contrary to the biblical story, Salome was considered a ruthless and lustful character at the end of the century, whose sinful emotions to the prophet make the female figure kill him with great pleasure in the picture. Csók's character, a young, lying nude with dark hair, is holding the saint's head like quarry in her hands, reminding us of a Sphinx or bloodthirsty vampires. In his Parisian period, Csók discovered the biblical figure of Thamar, who ended up being his most painted character, (cat. 18- 23, VII.7, VII.9) The story of King David's daughter, who was first seduced then expelled by his half-brother driven by bodily passion instead of marrying her, shows passion and surfeit in a gruesomely sharp and objective way. It shows how desire turns into loathing; its moral of this transition is still valid today, in the respect of the nature of human passion. Csók depicted the fair, white-skinned female figure amid oriental ornamented draperies and with her gown in shreds. As the remorseful Magdalene's beauty is more stimulating than that of an ordinary prostitute, the disgraced, morally empty princess's attractive force is increasing more significantly. In Judah's Ring, Csók makes use of a different biblical Thamar, this one from the Old Testament. The subject, disguised as a prostitute, lures her own father-in-law to impregnate her after the death of her two husbands. The scene isfollowed by one in which Thamar victoriously raises Judah's ring, obtained as a pledge, above her head. In this work, Csók yet again depicted a nude in a natural setting. His last piece in this series was the bathing biblical figure of Susanna, whose figure was depicted by Csók many times in the 1920s. There were numerous well-known classics that showed a bashful Susanna trying to conceal her charms. Csók's interpretation followed this tradition by adding more eroticism and spice to the female character. Csók selected systematically, following inner logic and personal interests, those biblical female figures whose stories include corporeality, alluring power but also demonstrate purity, virginity, innocence and remorse. The biblical female figures transformed Csók's female-painting more refined, deep and varied art. i
