Csornay Boldizsár - Dobos Zsuzsa - Varga Ágota - Zakariás János szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 100. (Budapest, 2004)
URBACH, ZSUZSA: Ein flämischer ikonographischer Bildtypus im italienischen Quattrocento. Bemerkungen zur Studie von Éva Eszláry
On the basis of this document, we can conclude that in 1900 Peregriny was still aware of the identity of the depicted person, but he did not name the sculptor, Miklós Izsó. By connecting these two data, which, as the sources show, refer to the same object, not only the provenance of the sculpture, but also the identity of the depicted man in the person of Count Ivan Forray is revealed. We may assume that it was Izsó who, after Ferenczy s death, carried out Júlia Brunszvik's plans about the sculpture of her son. The connections he had also support this assumption. As an apprentice of Ferenczy, Izsó may well have known the Forray tomb made by his master, as well as his ideas about the planned bust. It seems that it took a while for the young apprentice to realize the inspiration he drew from Ferenczy during his master's last years, since he only completed the sculpture in 1861. 35 Besides, Izsó was on good terms with the Brunszvik-Forray-Nádasdy family, who were enthusiastic patrons of the arts. Either Ferenczy s sketches for the Forray tomb, 36 or the aforementioned Stepnitz sculpture, which remained in the property of Júlia Brunszvik until 1859, may have served as the model for this early work of the artist. Comparing the now identified Forray portrait in the National Gallery to Stepnitz's sculpture in the Museum of Fine Arts, the similarities between the features of the two faces also justify our conclusion. Thus, the list of Forray-mementos has increased by another piece, although the name of Count Iván Forray, the traveller of the East who followed the orientalist spirit of the era, would have probably endured even 35 According to the certificate issued by Ferenczy, Izsó worked with the master from the 16 March 1853 to the end of March 1856. Cf. Izsó Miklós levelei (The letters of Miklós Izsó), coll. and ed. Gy. Soós, Budapest 1958, 14. See also "(...) after an 8-day-journey [Izsó] arrived at a village called Zsip, ... and from there he got to Rimaszombat, to a stone-carver named Jakovecz, and there he learnt the trade of stone-carving. While he was there, he got acquainted with Ferenczy, the great sculptor of our country, who recognised his talent, loved him as a son, and with the greatest possible devotion he taught him and initiated him into the secrets of art, which he learnt so quickly that he astonished the master himself." (J. Izsó, Epizódok Izsó Miklós életéből [Episodes from the Life of Miklós Izsó], in ibid., 108.) 36 See the illustration of the plaster version of the tomb in Meiler, op.cit. (n. 16), 355, which at the time of the book's publication was kept in the Museum of Fine Arts (inv. no. 2662) together with a study of a blooming lily (inv. no. 2661: see ibid., 357), as well as Peregriny, op.cit. (n. 22), 100-101, sculptural works, nos. 2661 and 2662 "Study for Iván Forray 's tomb. Relief adorned at the top by the coat of arms with a crown, and showing Count Iván Forray, who is lying on the right with a tasselled pillow under his head and a withered wreath of roses next to it, as chained to the ground. On the left, an angel kneels with its wings half spread out and leaning forward so that he can release the chains. Opposite, in the background, there is a cross and a blossoming lily as a symbol of the last living member of the family, Countess Júlia. Plaster relief, dimensions: 25.5 by 29.4 cm - Inv. no. 2662. - Value 40 K. - Donated by Mrs. András Jánosdeák in 1902..."
