Vadas József (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 11. (Budapest, 1991)

STURCZ János: Maróti Géza pályaműve a Rockefeller Centerhez

be traced back as far as Carus's Hommage to Goethe, 1832./ At the turn of the century, Beethoven's figure was also one of these popular symbols of music and art, especially among the artists of the Secession in Vienna. His cult reached its peak in 1902, when, at the 12th exhibition of the circle Josef Hoffmann converted the building into a pseudosacral shrine. He used his own reliefs and other pieces by A. Roller, A. Böhm, Andri and other artists, e.g. a Beethoven frieze by Klimt; Klinger's Beethoven statue (1902, Museum der Bildenden Künste, Leipzig) was placed in the focus. In his Art Nouveau period, Maróti often used Beethoven's figure, as, for example, in the music room, which he planned for the 1906 Milan exhibition. As in the Secession building, Ede Telcs's Beethoven bust was placed in the centre of the entrance hall. The figures of Beethoven and Prometheus were first connected by Klinger in his already-mentioned statue. Maróti was certainly familiar with the statue, something which is proved by the main figure of his fresco designed for the Csepel Workers' Casino in 1919. It is a half-naked man, equipped with all characteristics of Klinger's figure, sitting on the central anvil-shaped throne (see Krtf: 2264, p.,p., chalk, tempera, 22 x 115 cm; picture 19). Prometheus also appears on other pieces of Klinger, such as the last, 41st page of his engravings, also inspired by music, bearing the title Brahms's Phantasy. The influence of this engraving (Prometheus Unbound, 1894) can be well detected on Maróti's red chalk drawing (1930), now in the collection of the Budapest Museum of Applied Arts (see Krtf:2829, p, chalk, 20 x 15 cm, picture 18). Apart from thematic resemblances - both pictures depict Prometheus -, the mixing of ornamentalism, rough naturalism and symbolic eclectics (antique and Christian) also connect the two pictures. The use of the spring and the well as symbols of endless and everchanging life, love and, in this case, art, was extremely popular in Art Nouveau in Hungary and abroad. (The motif of the well as a symbol of art can be traced back to romanticism, e.g. to Overbcck's The Triumph of Religion in Art (1833-40). Other examples for the interpretation of the life-love-well in general: Segantini: Love at the Spring of Life, 1896; Serusier: A Vision Beside the Mountain Stream, 1897; Csontváry: Mary's Well in Nazareth, 1908; Sándor Nagy: Bathing Family, around 1910. In Maróti's picture, as well as in Klimt's frieze mentioned above, the well is interpreted as a symbol of music. An even earlier model is the back of a Ferenc Liszt plaquette, made by Fülöp Ö. Beck (1911, Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest), where the well is surmounted by the inscription ..Musica Infinita", and there is an Orpheus-like, naked male figure, playing the violin beside, /picture 16/ (see Ildikó Nagy: Beck Ö. Fülöp Liszt Ferenc emlékplakettje (Fülöp Ö. Beck's commemorating plaquette about Ferenc Liszt) In: Művészet Vol.XVII, 1976/1.) Another model is a fresco by Aladár Körösfó'iKriesch (The spring of art, 1907), decorating the Music Academy of Budapest. Both the symmetry and the kneeling female figures show a relationship with the piece described above, explained by the fact that Maróti and Körösfó'i were close friends and colleagues. 48. Beside New Religion: „Bringeth nearer the stars", beside Wisdom: „Useth solar powers and raiseth humanity." 49. The symbolic female figures placed over balls were frequent commonplaces of public and decorative sculptors at the end of the nineteenth century. Due to his education, Maróti might have been inspired by them. (Some examples: A. Mercié: Gloria Victis, 1872-75; A. Falguiére: Hunting Nymph, 1884, A. Saint-Gaudens: Diana, 1893; J. Dalou: The Victory of the Republic, 1899.) 50. The universal models of this motif can be traced back to the middle of the 19th century (Menzel: iron Rolling Mill, 1875, Nationalgalerie, Berlin), or rather to P.M. Brown's picture that praises labour {Labour, 1850, Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery). The ambiguous symbols, the rhetoric feature, the illustrative and comic characteristics all resulting from the ideology of the painter - can be related to Maróti's painting, (cf. Gert Schiff. Zeitkritik und Zeitflucht in der Malerei der Praraffaeliten. In. Beitrage zur Motivkunde des 19. Jahrhts./ Studien zur Kunst des 19. Jhrhts./ Munich, 1970. p.172.) The design recalls G.P.da Volpedo's famous picture, entitled The Fourth Class (18981901), depicting a marching group of workers led by an old man. Beside him, there is a mother and a naked child, similar to the figure of „Care". Behind the group, just as in Maróti's picture, there is a crowd of men making vigorous gestures. However, the influence can only be seen in the ideology and the motifs. Maróti did not take over Volpedo's naturalism or critical approach; moreover, he used the motif in a picture that was designed to praise capitalism. 51. Maróti left off the other attributes of Justitia: the crown, the blindfolded eyes, the sword of punishing justice and the ball she usually stands on. (The ball is given to Wisdom and New Religion.)