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

Funeral Art in the Second Half of the 20th Century

nificant, and somewhat better balanced, mausoleum of the period was raised above the grave of Count Mihály Károlyi to plans by Lajos Skoda in 1963 (K 22). Besides the labour section, few monuments bearing the marks of the reigning ideology of the age were made here in the period, another proof of the conservatism and comparative timelessness of the funeral genre.

From the viewpoint of newly erected works, control was not altogether harmful. That is especially true for funeral monuments set up over the provisionally marked and neglected graves of the famous deceased, usually artists. Béni Ferenczy, a sculptor who had previously received very few funeral commissions, made several monuments belonging to that category, such as the Apollo figure topping the tomb of Mihály Babits and unveiled in 1954 (K 34), or the sculptures made for the tombs of István Réti (K 34) and Károly Ferenczy (K 34/2). Another work of Ferenczy's is the relief on the cover of the urn cubicle holding the remains of Valér Ferenczy (K 34/2); originally placed in a columbarium of Farkasrét Cemetery, the piece is one of the very few examples illustrating how the ubiquitous standard niche can be adorned, despite the severe limitations of space, with a high-quality work. However, the cover was set on a tombstone rather than a cubicle after its removal.

One of the finest works in the entire oeuvre of József Somogyi is the sculpture made in 1966 for the tomb of Baron László Mednyánszky, the painter whose mortal remains were brought back from Vienna three years earlier to be re-interred in Hungarian soil (K 34/2). The other funeral works of Somo- gyi’s are less unique; for example his work on the Mihályfi tomb, a monument unveiled in 1974, is one of his characteristic female figures, variants of which have been visible in various public places. His sculpture commemorating Gyula Rudnay was not set up on the grave — it is today in Epreskert. Benedek Virág's remains were reburied in Kerepesi út Cemetery in 1966; his new tombstone was made by Gyula Kőfalvi (K 34/2). Made by Tamás Vigh, Viktor Madarász’s funeral monument was unveiled in 1965 (K19), and Ferenc Hopp's, designed by János Konyorcsik, the following year (K 38). The monument of Gyula Csortos was made in 1970 by Sándor Mikus (K 10), Árpád Tóth's (F 42) and Dezső Kosztolányi's (F 42) by András Eösze.

One of the most original and consistent bodies of works of a truly lasting value in Hungary’s funereal art was created by Miklós Borsos. His first sepulchral sculpture was made for the tomb of Lajos Gulácsy in 1941 (F new2o). Entitled Sells-Portrait with Cypre&&e&, the copper relief of noble beauty is a variation on Gulácsy's 1903 piece of graphic art; enhancing Borsos’s work is the fact that

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