Magyar News, 2006. január-május (17. évfolyam, 1-5. szám)
2006-03-01 / 3. szám
From Stratford, CT to Stratford on Avon, UK FINDING A SHAKESPEAREAN HUNGARIAN During comings and goings, one stops to look around and find something of personal interest. This happened when visiting Shakespeare’s hometown. For us living in Hungaryduring the Communist regime Shekespeare was considered a national playright. Not because he was Hungarian, far from it but because his plays were on the billboard more often then one would expect. Many Hungarian playwrites stayed in the background avoiding the Com-munist preasure. In Stratford on Avon we arrived on a tour bus. It was reasonable to be dropped of at an outstanding recognizable place so in the evening we will be able to find the bus. This place was the Abbey. It was beautiful so we went straight in. On the walls and the floor there were many names on carved stones and tiles reminding of people who were hurried there. Fortunately the chuch historian was there. I asked him if there was anything in the Abbey relating to Hungarians. After a short time he said that there is nothing. Meanwhile other people joind in our conversation. There was a local man who said that during WW II Hungarian soldiers were stationed nearby and probably they attended services there. Well we didn’t have time to confirm his statement. Maybe one day we could. So, with my wife, we on to see as much as possible. In the Shakespeare Center, Claudia picked up a booklet. As she opened it a Hungarian name, Vincze, appeared in front of her. We payed more attention from there on. We found Paul Vincze’s works at the Shakespeare Center. As one passes the receptionist there is a wall full of medalic works created by Vincze. I asked the permission of the author, who was very generous and agreed to have it published in the Magyar News. The author is: Marian J Pringle Special Collections Librarian Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. This is what she wrote: “Many people who purchase tickets for Shakespeare's Birthplace pause only briefly to look at the tall oak panelling on the left of the Visitors' Centre. This wall deserves more careful consideration of its specialist sculptures by an artist of wo.rld renown, Paul Vincze. Vincze was bom in Hungary in 1907 and after studying at the Budapest School of Arts and Crafts he won a travelling scholarship to Rome from 1935 to 1937. He came to England in 1938 and ten years later became a British subject. All his life Vincze devoted his flair for design and evocative detail to numismatic art, finding the challenge in the confines of circular small-scale sculpture. Today there are examples of his work in museums from London to Denmark, Washington, DC, Paris and beyond. In his early years coin designs were commissioned for the national currencies of Libya, Guatamala, Ghana, Nigeria and Guernsey. In the 1950s coins in Uganda, Malawi and Jamaica also bore Vincze designs. Later, after he marked the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953, he worked primarily on the creation of commemorative medals. Paul Vincze was first approached by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust to design a medal to mark the Shakespeare quatercentenary in 1964. This medal depicted a stylised head of Shakespeare on one side and on the reverse draped figures holding a torch and a folio sized book were shown with the masks of Comedy and Tragedy. The success of this medal led to the commission of 'Hamlet' as the first of a series of thirty-seven created over the next ten years, each commemorating a memorable scene from a diffetent Shakespeare play, It was the first medatlion series ever to depict scenes from all of Shakespeare's plays. The medals, issued in platinum, gold (for export only) and silver were limited editions, while bronze medals were not limit-Paul Vincze at work ed in number. All were sold by the Birthplace Trust as 2 1/4 inch medals or as miniatures for 'charm’ bracelets and pendants. Before beginning each design Vincze read his chosen Shakespeare play with care and selected a scene that, in his view, illustrated the unique identity of each play; Romeo and Juliet's balcony scene, or Lear mourning over Cordelia were perhaps, predictable but the wooing scene at the end of Henry V was a more unusual and perceptive choice. A pen and ink drawing, often using live models for the figures and facial expression, was then completed before the design was worked in plasticine on a slate. This low relief sculpture was carved or moulded for fine detail and close attention was paid to the compositional balance of a single figure or a group of up to six characters. Vincze's knowledge of the technical processes of coin and medal making ensured that the designs could be reduced mechanically without loss of artistic quality. A plaster cast was made from the first model then lettering was cut by hand and fine details added, before the plaster became the master for a bronze cast for the die on a reducing machine to strike the medal in the chosen metal. his work on the ANA Miitéíf Club This medal was designed for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth the Second This medal celebrated the anniversary of the Magna Carta in 1965 Page 2
