Műtárgyvédelem, 2006 (Magyar Nemzeti Múzeum)
Összefoglalók
Budapest. He also restored the panel paintings of the primatial gallery of Esztergom (to date Christian Museum) in the 1910’s. The main source for the research was József Mihalik’s work, which he himself edited in 1916 and László Éber’s publications. With these completed with other publications and the documents found in the Archives of the Hungarian National Museum, the Archives of Military History and the Patent Office, we aspire to paint a more complete picture of this significant and unduly forgotten person of the beginning of the last century and his activity. The present paper also intends to complete the former publication written about the same topic in 1992. New discoveries in Csontváry’s late drawings How does a restorer’s observation modify the interpretation of a piece of art? Ferenc Czakó The study is a good example how important a restorer’s experience can be in art historical research. The months spent with meticulous work offer an opportunity to observe technical details that can lead to new interpretations of works of art. Tivadar Csontváry Kosztka (1853-1919) was an eminent Hungarian painter. His painting cannot be classified in any school. Strong and clear colours and a nave-realistic emblematic force characterises his oeuvre. He organised a number of exhibitions yet the expected success did not come. His paintings were tossed about for a long time, and it was often little short of a miracle that they were saved at all. Since 1973, a collection of his paintings has been exhibited in Pécs. In 1994, his paintings were sent to a west European exhibition tour. Prior to it, they had been restored for years. The author noticed on this occasion that the artist’s late drawings were not fragmentary, unfinished pieces but the designs of large, never accomplished paintings prepared on wrapping paper in a scale of 1:1 and drawings on tracing paper, which helped their copying on canvas. After having found the right side adjustment, the drawings that had been exhibited as fragments were fit together and so we could reconstruct the complete original composition. It has been proved that one of the drawings on tracing paper exhibited in the museum was also a means to help copying: it belonged to the artist’s last grandiose plan: “The arrival of the Hungarians”. It has been proved that the working method of an artist can be learned from the examination of tiny and seemingly unimportant details, and now we can meditate over the analysis of “new”, already complete drawings. With the recognition of the sketches, research can be started after yet undiscovered works of art. 180
