Tóth Vilmos: Funeral Art - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2006)
Funeral Art in the First Half of the 20th Century
entirely identical counterpart of the latter is the Wiener tomb in the Jewish Cemetery in Farkasrét.) Despite all that, the presence of sculpture in the Jewish cemetery of Budapest was more of a frequent exception than the rule. Funereal Art in the First Half of the 20th Century Needless to say, the overwhelming majority of figurái sepulchres were set up in Christian cemeteries in the 20th century, too. Sepulchral art lost some of its vigour after reaching its zenith at the turn of the century, and the depletion of thematic substance was accompanied with frequent recourse to routine solutions. The employment of such high-quality stone material as Swedish granite, Carrara and Ruskica marble, which had been in common use before World War 1, was now less frequent due primarily to economic constraints. Once again, the use of the cheaper and less prestigious limestone quarried at Süttő, Piszke and Budakalász became widespread, which essentially meant a return to the materials used decades earlier. Parallel to changes in the history of politics and mentality and as a counter-reaction of sorts to the age of the Dual Monarchy, a kind of anti-secular tendency unfolded in the funereal arts and their iconography of the 1920s and 1930s. Besides the continuing dominance of national and military symbolism, the profane - and within that antique — element lost much ground to a Christian system of symbols. The new funeral idiom left fewer marks in Kerepesi út Cemetery, whose most impressive parts had already been formed, but it made its presence intensely felt in Farkasrét Cemetery. János Horvay, one of the most conservative representatives of Hungary's funeral sculpture, created most of his works between the two world wars. The transition described above is well exemplified by Horvay's oeuvre: while connected to the antecedents by several of its characteristic features, this body of works is more sombre and more tired, its elevated sentiments suggesting a calculated quality, and many of its pieces using worn-out clichés. The majority of his sepulchral monuments - more than forty altogether — can be found in Kerepesi út Cemetery. These include sculptures on the tombs of Lajos Thallóczy (K 10/1), József Rust (K 34), Tihamér Lisznyai Damó (K 35) or Mihály Szabolcska (K 47/1). His most prestigious commission was for making a temporary sculpture for the tomb of Lajos Kossuth, which now stands on the sepulchre of the Fabisch family (K 45). Standing alone, his theatrical sculptures would make a spectacular impression, but set up in a row they strike one as schematic and mutually interchangeable. An almost caricature-like effect is 42
