Prohászka László: Equestrian Statues - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1997)

teenth-century representatives of the Historicist school, to create the statue of the country’s first king, the founder of the Hungarian state. The artist worked for ten years on the statue of St. István (Stephen) (c. 975-1038). He tirelessly collected data and descriptions concerning the cultural history of Hungary in the 11th century. In order to achieve perfect faithfulness to historical fact, he even studied the history of the stirrup. However, it is doubtful whether the superabundance of ornamental detail did much good to the composition. The figure of the horse, in particular, is overdecorated. No doubt, Stróbl sculpted a superb stallion, which was met with unanimous acclaim on the part of the jury. But he could not resist the temptation of introducing as many contemporaneous ornaments and objects of daily use as he possibly could. The enormous saddle-cloth and the profusion of fringes cover much of the horse’s body, which is why the beauty of its shape cannot come into full display. The figure of the king is also overdecorated. What is worse, Stróbl was obliged to comply with the jury’s wish and transform the position of the king’s arm; its outstretched movement had to be replaced by a more restrained gesture expressing serenity. Although this did enhance the overall effect of calm dignity, many have objected that the piece lost much of its dynamism for the same reason.

Sitting on his caparisoned steed, Stróbl’s King István wears Hungary’s sacred crown on his head and the large coronation cloak over his shoulders, holding the apostolic double cross in his hand. From below the cloak protrudes the hilt of the famous sword of St. István, now kept in Prague. The halo about his head indicates the fact that he was canonised in 1083. As no authentic likeness of the king survives, the artist depicted St. István’s features according to the iconographic conventions that had emerged by the turn of the century.

Stróbl’s original intention was to make a rider figure with a more intimate aura, mounted on a lower pedestal, but to meet official expectations a monument on a truly grand scale had to be produced. Accordingly, the architectural part of the monument evokes the splendour of a high altar. It is, however, well integrated into the overall visual effect of its environment, as the pedestal was designed by Frigyes Schulek, the architect who had overseen the re20