Antall József szerk.: Orvostörténeti közlemények 64-65. (Budapest, 1972)

KISEBB KÖZLEMÉNYEK - Varannai, Gyula: Aszklepiosz a magyar éremművészetben (angol nyelven)

stick. With this approach the artist wanted to portray the representative of traditional popular curing, who is living in Nature's bosom. Surely Asklepios entered mythology through his healing activities based on empiricism. The direct cause of his rise was his resurrection of the dead in defiance of Zeus for which he was struck dead by a lightning according to Greek mythology. (Fig. 11.) Ferenc Csúcs had another medal of Aesculap made in 1962, at the 175th anniversary of veterinary training, in memory of Sándor Tolnay, the first professor in the veterinary sciences in Hungary. The composition was based on the illustration in Tolnay's book. Among the medals prepared by József Reményi the god of medicine first appears in 1920 on the medal of head physician József Keleti. On the reverse of the coin Asklepios is confronting Death. Each is feeding a serpent, the first the sacred serpent of life, the other a reptile symbolizing doom. (At some ancient peoples e. g. the Sumerians or the Egyptians the cave-dwelling snake, well known for its deadly bite was the harbinger of the nether world, the representative of the Empire of the Dead.) József Reményi was a professor at the High School of Applied Arts. He often turned to the devices of classical symbolism in expressing his message on the Fig. 1

1 Fig. 12 reverse of his medals. So Asklepios appears on many medals honouring physicians. These two Aesculaps are from the 'twenties. Both are in a stilted Art Nouveau pose, though not without artistic qualities. In our opinion they are just l'art pour l'art variations of Aeskulap. Let us see some other variations. (Fig. 13.) On a medal minted in honour of directing head physician János Wenhardt a member of the nursing staff, a certain Sister Márta is handing some medicine to the patient, while Asklepios is holding the model of the new Rókus Hospital in his hands. Now, after nearly half a century, the walls of the old building are still standing, and the model of the new building is waiting to see its realisation. (Fig. 14.)