Hajós György: Heroes' Square - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2001)
György Zala guaranteed that the sculptures in the monument would be made in the officially accepted and sponsored academic style. Although he was commissioned with sculpting the statues, Zala left the creation of most of the kings’ figures to his colleagues. Zala was allowed to arrange his workshop in a warehouse belonging to the Western Station. At the core of his work was the angel meant to stand atop the central column, the allegorical sculptures that would decorate the tops of the colonnades and the composition with the figures of the seven chieftains. To sculpt a statue topping a tall column is always a difficult task. From close up the distortions created to offset the effect of foreshortening is disturbing, while looked at from a distance, the fine details of the work lose all definition. The prototypes probably very well known to Zala and Schickedanz are not free of this problem either. Such are the statue of St. Peter mounted atop the 27-metre tall Column of Trajan, the figure of Nelson standing on a 44-metre tall pillar, or the 5- metre high sculpture that was set on columns in 1840 in Bastille Square in Paris. Zala began with sculpting the 4.80-metre tall figure of Archangel Gabriel, which was cast in bronze in the foundry of Gladenbach in 1897. The committee in charge of overseeing the creation of the monument ordered and then approved a pillar taller than the one originally planned for, which renders the viewing of the statue in a public space impossible. The angel with his outstretched wings raises the crown in his right and a double cross in his left hand, connecting the symbol of statehood with that of Christianity, which was accepted as the country’s official religion. The gold of the symbols stands out against the verd-antique of the statue and the azure of the sky. (Before being set up permanently the statue was exhibited at the Paris World Exposition of 1900 where it was awarded Grand Prix.) All that György Zala had to go on when creating and adorning with contemporary symbols the statues of Prince Árpád and his chieftains were a'few archaeological finds, legends, oral traditions, and popular myths fed on the spirit of Millenary enthusiasm. The statues are immensely effective, even though they are 25
