Korsókra varázsolt legendák. Németh János figurális díszítésű edényei (Zalaegerszeg)

Legends on pitchers

their horses and tracking in the forest. The brother ahead is standing with bended bow and their falcon is swooping down on the staggering stag. On the other pitcher the two brothers are under the tree of life - where else? - resting, their tethered horses are rubbing against each other, the stag sipping at the cold spring water. Every single movement, every single motif carries a rich symbolic meaning: the dream is the channel of the revelation of God, the spring is the water of life, the horses symbolize the ancient free manners of the Magyars. The stag is the future, which is attractive, however will never be fulfilled. The tree of life on the analogy of the tree of Jesse, is the allegory of the vigour and the promising future of all the people originating from Magor. Another aspect of this sphere of thought is the Cantata Profana pitcher, decorated with the story of the boys, who became stags. This could as well be entitled "Hommage à Bartók". The nine, fine upstanding young fellows, after finding and drinking from the water, which collected in the tracks of the mythical stag, became stags themselves. The mythical stag is an enigmatic, totemic, pre-historic animal, which transforms those who follow him into a similarly-looking creature. The father, surrounded with his stag-boys, represents the intertwining of the past of men and animals. By choosing this topic, Németh gives clear evidence of his total intellectual identity with the ambitions of Kodály and Bartók - though he uses a different medium. The fact that the stag appears on other pitchers as well is not surprising at all. We can easily identify the stag-pair drinking from the life-giving water of the spring, trickling from among the roots of the tree of life again, as the mystical characters of Hungarian folklore. The tree no longer functions as something that gives shade and protects the totem-ancestors. The water of life comes directly from among its roots. Besides being the symbolic totem ancestor with magical powers of our mythology - it also reminds us of the first line of the Protestants' favourite psalm: "Like to a cool spring, a stag longs to go..." - quasi opening up a new culture-layer. From this angle the tree of life can refer to the heavenly Jerusalem. The various possibilities of interpretation show that the elements of the ancient pagan and Christian concept of the universe are on good terms with each other in the peasants' way of thinking. The pitcher, with the hopping stag on its belly recalls the representation by gold- and silversmiths of Scythians, late-Avars and the conquering Hungarians, but using the former analogy we can easily find a Christian symbol in it as well. This association is supported by one of St. Francis' bottles, on the first side of which the figure of the saint can be seen when preaching to the animals, and on the other side nothing but the stag appears, with the sun-disc among the branches of his antler. The frequently used figures of shepherd wood-carvers, gingerbread makers and other popular representations appear on the other group of Németh'

s pitchers. János Háry, the cavalryman, the thirsty highwayman, the plump friar or the hunter with a shotgun are of this kind. The Zala-pitcher is extraordinarily rich in symbols and in content-concentration. There are two peasants carrying a huge bunch of grapes on a pole, which comes down to the earth. Behind the peasants a crucifix from Göcsej can be seen among the trees, above which the shining sun and the moon, in the foreground - again - a stag emerges from among the trees with a meadow in blossom at his feet, while in the background on the ridge of the hill there is a thatched wine-cellar. It might be the only pitcher, on which there is perspective opening up behind the scene, which takes place on a narrow stage-like strap. Of course - quite like in folk art - perspective is out of the question. Spatial depth is indicated by placing things above each other, it is only because this time the emphasis is very reasonable. The essence of the artist's monumental works (e. g. the Keresztury house in Zalaegerszeg, the mural on the building of the embassy in Canberra) is succinctly expressed on one pitcher. It is a spontaneous confession about motherland, where in the forests among the gentle slopes stags hide, where the fields are scattered all over with colourful flowers, where the roadside crucifixes, carved with devotion, announce that the local people are full of religious devotion, where on the slopes of the hills, which are magnified to mountains in colloquial speech, busy hands cultivate wine yards, and the juice of the grapes is matured in wooden barrels in the pleasantly cool wine-cellars, the walls of which are made of earth. The huge bunch of grapes refers simultaneously to wine-growing and the rich natural resources and, together with the crucifix to Eucharist, while the small building denotes the honest poverty of the people of 16