Tóth Vilmos: Funeral Art - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2006)

Kerepesi út Cemetery at the Turn of the 20th Century

■ Miklói Ligeti: relief on the Kern iepulchre

the two archetypes of funeral sculpture - the elevated and the tragic. The Kilián sepulchre is an embodiment of the latter: the male nude bowing its head and turning its back on the outside world passes through an angel-guarded gate. The figure is reminiscent of a major work of Ligeti's, The Tree of Knowledge. The lofty type appears on the Eisele tomb: the proud male figure holding a wreath stands facing the viewer here. It was at that time that nude images were permitted in Kerepesi út Cemetery, a concession mainly due to Ligeti's work. The first one was placed on Béla Toth's tombstone unveiled in 1909 (K 29/1), but similar figures make repeated appearances on later works of Ligeti's, too, such as the sepulchre made for Antal Sorg in 1924 (K 27/2).

Of Miklós Ligeti’s further works, the sepulchres of Sándor Hegedűs, Gusztáv Gerhardt and the Baron Korányis can be found in the right-hand side

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