Tanulmányok Budapest Múltjából 27. (1998)

PICTURES OF THE LAST CORONATION IN HUNGARY - Katalin Földi Dózsa: HISTORY OF THE EXHIBITED PICTURES

he was doing his military service in Nagyszeben when the Rumanian attacked Transylvania. Nagyszeben was quickly evacuated, so all of his personal belongings were left there. He could take a three month holiday so he went penniless, with nothing but regimentals on him to Budapest, where he soon received various assignments. He was 33, a well-known architect, a "meteor" of the so called New Wave. His already completed works included the kiosks of the Zoo designed jointly with Dezső ZRUMECZKY (1909-1910), the school of Városmajor designed jointly with Dénes GYÖRGYI (1910) and the main square of Wekerle Dwelling Estate at Kispest (1912-1913). Kos was one of the foundation members of the group of the "Young Ones" called also as "vernacular" comprising undergraduate architects of three grades, all born early in the 1880ies. The youngest artist called upon to do the decoration was 30-year old, Dénes GYÖRGYI one of Károly Kos' best friends. They had already organized together the Technical University students' exposition in 1907. The school in Városmajor was the most important work of the two young architects and later they worked together for a while designing interiors and objects of applied art. Both of them cooperated in some works with Móric POGÁNY, the 38-year old artist, one of whose famous work was the Hungarian Pavilion in the International Agricultural and Industry Fair in Torino (1911), designed jointly with Emil TORY and Dénes GYÖRGYI. The other "old artist" Jenő KISMARTY LECHNER

9 also 38, had "family relations" with the "Young Ones" since his young brother Lóránd KISMARTY LECHNER was a member of the group. KÓS welcomed him as a "good old friend" at their first meeting. Lechner had assisted Alajos HAUSZMANN in the reconstruction work of the Royal Palace and got nation-wide recognition for his historical research and renovations of historic monuments from the Hungarian Renaissance. Design problems Bánffy was not delighted with the idea of having the Coronation Church as a scene. He told his candid opinion to Endre Illés: "To tell the truth the coronation Matthias Church is dreadful. First I had conceal the troubled interior in all the colours of the rainbow. We decided that the whole church would be attired in dark red velvet, covering even the columns of the church with long carpets reaching to the ground. This dark glowing purple glamour was the most beautiful among all decoration elements of the coronation." Schulek threatened to make a scandal and said this was vandalism.

12 (After all he was right, since the "Young Ones" covered systematically everything that the old Master considered as important.) In the evening before the last an exalted patron suggested him not to cover at least the columns and let the decorative shaping of them show up well. The carpets covering columns had been fixed already. Starting to undo willy-nilly the drapery, the gathers of the falling curtain seemed to be so decorative that they left them on the columns half-way fallen. In the church two paires of thrones were used. The Majesties were sitting before the coronation on the one, and as crowned King and Queen on the other one. Lechner designed red velvet baldachins, lined with white silk to cover the thrones. The carpets covering the thrones and stages were decorated with silver 6