Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Sandor Nagy Tapestries and the Magyar Origin

Illustration: Sandor Nagy. Sakuntala tapestry, 1909.

The two tapestries shown here were both produced in the first decade of the twentieth century but reflect very little of that century or even its potential as seen from it's beginning, one that was to alter the decorative and fine arts irrevocably.

Both tapestries were firmly rooted in the folklore of a nation, but perhaps more importantly, they also aimed to pinpoint the origins of that nation and to give it a legitimacy in the hierarchy of European nationhood that it had sorely been lacking.

Sandor Nagy, the Hungarian artist, produced the tapestries in 1908 and 1909, to a formula that gained its inspiration and style from the English Arts & Crafts movement, with the tapestries themselves borrowing certain elements from the technical working style of William Morris.

However, the subject matter and narrative is entirely Hungarian in origin and reflects much of the new found confidence of Hungary, due largely to the restructuring of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, creating a dual monarchy and giving Hungary at least an appearance of equal power with its more influential and traditionally more powerful co-ruler Austria.

To make the differentiation between the German and Magyar sections of the empire more acute and therefore more obvious to outsiders, Hungary needed to emphasise the differing origins of their nation from that of Austria. Nagy, along with a number of other influential artists, designers, architects and composers, paid special attention to this origin question. Nagy himself, in the two tapestries shown here, drew an analogy between the Magyars and the Huns, seeing Attila the near legendary leader and also near destroyer of the Roman Empire, as a form of pseudo founder of the Magyar nation. Choosing Attila could have been no coincidence, especially as Austria had always seen itself as one of the inheritors of the Roman Empire. By choosing the near destroyer of that empire, Hungary was placing itself diametrically opposite to that of its co-ruler.

It is largely immaterial whether the analogy between the Huns and Hungary was mere supposition or based on fact. The important point is that Nagy, along with much of the creative talent that made up the late nineteenth and early twentieth century Hungarian Arts & Crafts movement, looked determinedly towards the east for inspiration and tradition, rather than west, as the Austrians did. By doing this, Hungary placed itself firmly in the eastern European tradition of art, craft and architecture, seeking its legends and identity from a Transylvanian birthplace and sometimes even further east. However, at the same time Hungary also strengthened contemporary cultural links with Western Europe, particularly Britain. This in some respects produced a Hungarian culture that looked to the East for inspiration as to its traditions, but to the West for the reinterpretation of those traditions.

These tapestries while appearing to innocently display and represent myths and legends from a nations past, were in fact part of a political and cultural shift in the perception and goals of that nation. 
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