Veszprémi Nóra - Szücs György szerk.: Vaszary János (1867–1939) gyűjteményes kiállítása (A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria kiadványai 2007/3)

Tanulmányok: - KOVÁCS BERNADETT: A „lefejezett szobacicus" esete, avagy Vaszary János műveinek (félre)értelmezése a korabeli karikatúrákban

BERNADETT KOVÁCS "The Beheaded Chambermaid", OR THE (MIS-)REPRESENTATION OF JÁNOS VASZARY'S WORKS IN THE CARICATURES OF THE TIME Humour magazines began to appear in Hungary after the 1848 revolution, and became organs expressing political opinion in a society increasingly influenced by middle-class values much in the way they did in most European countries. By the turn of the century, however, a slow change was taking place in the character of humour magazines. Taking after French examples, the papers gradually lost interest in political satire, and increasingly treated phenomena of social life. Thus exhibitions, too, had their columns, with caricatures of the works displayed. The beginnings of János Vaszary's career coincided with the period when the greatest number of humour magazines were published in Budapest. Thus, most of the mock versions of his works came out between 1894 and 1903. Many a lampooning cartoon was made of his works, which had of themselves drawn the attention of many. His Art-Nouveau, symbolist works were not quite understood by everyone, and satirists thus made targets of them more often than usual. They sometimes ridiculed the thinness of Vaszary's models, dubbing At the Spring, a deeply symbolic work, the Withered Fairy of the Spring, or saying that, in Adam and Eve (Cat. No. 27), Adam, showing his back to the viewer, is "playing hide-and-seek". A mocking report on an 1898 debate (teachers objected to a ministerial decree ordering school children to be taken to exhibitions as they did not wish to expose children to "all that nudity") was occasioned by Vaszary's symbolic work, The Return of Spring (Cat. No. 24). It was probably his most popular work, Golden Age (Cat. No. 23), that was satirized most bitingly: a cartoon made the idyllic scene be laughing stock with an obscene-minded inscription: "Her ladyship has gotten thirsty while smoking". It was the Borsszem Jankó (Tom Thumb), the best middle-class humour magazine of the time, an enthusiastic supporter of all things modern, that most often scoffed at Vaszary's nudes - probably to fight the prudery that dominated the period in such a way, as well. Cartoonists would not spare Vaszary's conversation pieces on peasants either. Bolond Istók ("The Mad Man Upstairs"), the humour magazine of the nobility, represented the peasant and the cow he leads in his Man Servant as Merry Mates, referring to the common critique made of the picture that its raised view made the cow seem to float. Borsszem Jankó, however, seeking the favours of city bourgeoisie, portrayed the young man in accordance with good manners. Apart from these, some of Vaszary's paintings were poked fun at for actual or alleged failings in their composition. Vaszary's first work to be railed, The Call-Up Order Has Come (Cat. No. 20), earned sarcastic comments because of its dummy-like figures - reflecting the view of art reviewers at the time. In the mock version of Share Harvesters, the peasants walking in the first rows are unaware of the massacre the others are carrying out behind. One of the paintings by the artist lampooners loved to scoff at was After the Bath (Cat. No. 33). Vaszary had not been interested in the personal traits of his figures so he had a "beheaded" chambermaid assist the bathing woman. This awkward composition was singled out by two humour magazines. They issued cartoons of the painting with no changes to the composition, only giving it the title: The Beheaded Chambermaid, or adding the comment: "For God's sake, ma'am, bend your head down, or you'll lose yours, like meself". On the occasion of the 1925 nude exhibition, After the Bath was again jibed at with the inscription to its caricature: "My chambermaid has completely lost her head." There was only one cartoon to ridicule the painterly style of Vaszary. In the case of Women with Mirror, the witty lampooner captured its brushwork that follows the lines of the axially elongated figures and their positions, and gave the picture the title X-ray Mirror. Apart from merry-making, the caricatures of exhibitions were actually part of a widespread movement to popularize Hungarian fine arts. Among the papers put on the tables of coffee houses, humour magazines had a prominent place, as all guests enjoyed leafing through them. Through laughter-making, mock drawings called the attention of a wide public to the shows, and thus lured masses to visit them. Caricaturists, however, chose the objects of their mockery not only following critical judgment: they made drawings mostly of the paintings reproduced in exhibition catalogues - suggesting that they had an eye to their convenience, too. The works of art ridiculed never suffered from ill judgment, for attention was thereby focussed on them. This is what is to be made of the fact that in a later, 1920 caricature of the works selected to represent Hungary at an exhibition abroad, out of the 11 depicted paintings, seven were by members of the organizing committee. So, while caricatures in humour magazines sought to present the value judgments of the public at large - for a joke functions when it makes everyone laugh -, the advertising capacity of these magazines was not at all negligible, and was, according to the signs, often put to use by the artists themselves.