Fraternity-Testvériség, 1963 (40. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1963-09-01 / 9. szám
FRATERNITY 9 braces herself with her toes. The face of the soldier reflects the pride of the victor; his thick ej'ebrows and moustache indicate virility and military discipline. Instead of a proud commander on his mount, the most common composition in monuments of this type, Finta preferred to portray the simple and nameless soldier on whose personal bravery and endurance the outcome of the Civil War depended. As in all of his other works, here again we find the realism characteristic of Finta’s style. The angel’s beauty, the detailed reproduction of the shape of her body as outlined by her dress, the soldier’s military bearing, and the over-all effect of the group show his ability to note detail and to reproduce in forms of surprising perfection the fruits of his imagination. Commissioned by the American Hungarian Historical Society, Finta executed a relief portrait of Colonel Mihály Kovács, the Hungarian hero, who, with his hussars, died in battle at Charleston during the American Revolutionary War. As I have already mentioned, Finta became a loyal American citizen but never lost contact with the country of his origin. In his literary, artistic and political activities he always endeavored to call attention to that small European nation which has produced so many writers, artists, researchers, medical and technical experts for world culture and science, the nation that not only stood guard over Western civilization at the gates of Europe, hut also helped other nations to gain their independence. Copies of the Kovats portrait, varying in size, can be found in the New York Museum of Natural History, in the Historical Museum of the Hungarian National Museum in Budapest, in Colonel Kovats Square in New York, Charleston, and in the Washington, D. C., headquarters of the Hungarian Reformed Federation of America. The memorial plaque bears the following inscription :
