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

Funeral Art in the First Half of the 20th Century

■ Ziigmond Kiifaludi Strobl: the tomb oh the Paulheim family

eighty sculptors, there were a hundred designs competing for first prize, which eventually went to Géza Csorba. Unveiled in 1930, Csorba's work representing the dead poet can hardly be described as a masterpiece, especially not when compared with his own fine statuettes made as preliminary studies for the finished work or with designs made by other artists, such as Fülöp Beck Ö. and József Róna. Of Csorba's works, the funeral monument featuring the Muse Thalia made in 1930 for the grave of Imre Pethes deserves more attention (K 45).

The few pioneers of modern sculpture represented a small minority at a time when sculptors subscribing to a conservative, academic line were in overwhelming majority. The funeral sculpture of the interwar period was dominated by the latter type. Among their works there are several decent pieces attesting to high standards of technical expertise. Rising above the average of József Damkó’s contemporaneous work are the dramatically-charged sepulchral statue on András Bacsa’s tomb (F 33/4), and Kornél Divald's origi48