William Penn Life, 2000 (35. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
2000-11-01 / 11. szám
Pure Genius A look at the “Liberation" monument and its creator from The Budapest Sun Online New York has the Statue of Liberty, Paris' skyline is dominated by the Eiffel Tower and London looks to Big Ben for the time and the reassurance that traditions still last. All great capitals need an eyecatching, symbolic monument towering over the cityscape to finish the picture, like the icing on a cake or the angel on top of a Christmas tree. Budapest is watched over by a 49-foot-high statue of a woman holding a palm leaf of victory above her head as a symbol of liberation from the Germans by Soviet troops in 1945. The statue's creator, Zsigmond Kisfaludy-Strobl, was born in 1884 in Alsórajik in Zala county, Hungary. During his long life, he became one of Hungary's most successful 20th century sculptors. He studied at the Budapest School of Applied Arts and then under the tutelage of legendary sculptor Alajos Stróbl. In 1908 he began to work as a sculptor in a little workshop on Akácfa Street and two year later, in 1910, received his first significant commission to design the monument for poet Elemér Szentirmay's grave. Kisfaludy-Strobl's career was centered on portraits and small sculptures and he created his first statue for a public square in 1918 with the image of a soldier. After the fashion for chunky, declaiming Socialist-realist statues fell away, many sculptors found their careers floundering, but Kisfaludy- Strobl's great talent lay in his ability and willingness to adapt and move with the times. In this way, he resembled the sculptor György Zala, who created the impressive statues of the seven tribe leaders that surround the columns in Heroes' Square. Some have argued that it was not so much flexibility but incredible talent that enabled Kisfaludy-Strobl to make a statue of Prince St. Imre (the son of King St. István—Stephen—who was killed by a wild boar while hunting) as a gift for Horthy Miklós körtér, now Mórics Zsigmond körtér. In 1950, Kisfaludy-Strobl created the Hála (Thanks) group statue which was placed in Szabadság tér for Stalin's 70th birthday, but it was removed in 1956. Kisfaludy-Strobl was a Kossuth-award winning artist and designed, appropriately, the Kossuth group statue which stands in front of Parliament. It is perhaps because of his habit of making Social- Realist style statues that, on closer inspection, Kossuth resembles not so much the Statesman who campaigned against the Hapsburg rule, but more like Lenin, gesticulating while delivering one of his stirring speeches. But Kisfaludy-Strobl's most famous work is, without doubt, the Liberation Monument which was erected in 1947. The statue of Genius has become a symbol for the city. One of the lasting myths surrounding the Liberation Monument is that it was originally designed to be a memorial to Regent Miklós Horthy's son, István, who was killed in a plane crash on the Russian front in 1942. The figure was to hold a propeller blade high above her head. The story goes that Marshal Klimient Woroszylow saw a statue in the artist's workshop and decided it would make an appropriate tribute. However, the model in the story survived— despite the bombing of the Castle District cellar where it was stored— and shows that the two statues were quite different in design. Kisfaludy-Strobl created a second memorial to István Horthy which stood in a square in Siófok, but was taken down after the war. This work was a version of his Ad Astra statue created in 1927 and a further version was created and became the decoration for the artist's own grave in Kerepesi Cemetery. Twice in history the Liberation Monument has come close to being removed from its position on the summit of Gellért Hill. In 1956 and 1992 there were discussions about removing it and whether it represented not so much a liberation (felszabadulás) but an occupation (megszállás). But, it is a much-loved feature of the Budapest skyline and has stayed in place along with two allegorical figures below; a torch bearer and a man wrestling with a dragon, as representatives of victory and the struggle with evil respectively. The statue of the Russian soldier that used to stand guard at the base of the statue's plinth has now been removed to a new home in the Communist Statue Park way out in District XXII. Kisfaludy-Strobl died in 1975. Although many of his statues have disappeared, Genius will remain a symbol of Budapest for years to come. Reprinted from The Budapest Sun Online. Log onto the Internet at www.budapestsun.com. William Penn Life, November 2000 7
