MADARÁSZ, Viktor

The young Viktor Madar�sz fought throughout the entire War of Independence. After a short study-trip to Vienna, he lived in Paris for fourteen years, where he was influenced by his teachers, L�on Cogniet and Paul Delaroche. Yet, Dobozi, and His Spouse painted in 1868, two years before his return home, shows the impact of Delacroix’s Romanticism.

The landscape and the horse - depicted as a magic steed - reveal the horror of the last moments of the couple running away in full gallop from the blood-thirsty Turks; on realizing that there is no escape, they commit suicide. The wide horizontal format and the horizontal line of the clouds at sun-set are used to emphasize the deadly speed of the race.

In different forms, the Dobozi theme was depicted repeatedly by Hungarian painters during the 19th century, for whom the suicide of the couple symbolized the idea of choosing death instead of slavery.

From the mid-nineteenth century onwards, Hungarian painters began to paint historical scenes as well as landscapes, portraits and genre paintings. It was not merely a fashion in Hungary to follow the current Romantic Movement that originated in Paris, or the “historism” of the Munich and Vienna Academies; it went much deeper than that. At the defeat of the fight for independence, the nation escaped into its history. Along with Hungarian poets and writers, the painters recalled the glorious events of the past, searching for ideals of patriotism and heroism that had not been crushed by despotism.

Viktor Madar�sz gained the first international appreciation for Hungarian painting when his picture, “The Bewailing of L�szl� Hunyadi” won the State Grand Prix at the 1861 Paris Salon Exhibition. This rather romantic historical painting of the Hunyadi tragedy epitomizes the national grief of the 1850s, and fans the fire of revenge. The dead body of the heroic L�szl� Hunyadi, son of the great J�nos Hunyadi, lies in Buda Castle Chapel. King L�szl� V, fearing for throne, had lured the popular young Hunyadi to his place with a promise of safe passage. Then he seized him and had him beheaded in the market place at Buda on March 16, 1457. At the feet of body, his mother, Erzs�bet Szil�gyi, and his bride, M�ria Gara, kneel in grief.

Madar�sz took all the subject matter for his historical works from the heroic past of Hungary. When “Zr�nyi and Frangep�n in B�cs�jhely Prison” was exhibited in Hungary in 1866, people “went on pilgrimages” to see it. It shows P�ter Zr�nyi, the Ban of Croatia, and Ferenc Frangep�n, both of whom had taken part in the Wessel�nyi Conspiracy against the Habsburg rule in an attempt to restore the constitutional rights of the Hungarians. The two patriots who rebelled against the Emperor say farewell to each other in B�cs�jhely Prison before their execution. Th�ophile Gautier remarked that “their manly faces show the pain they feel about the uselessness of their sacrifice, rather than sorrow for their own lives. They would gladly die if they could but restore the rights to the country”. The group of haughty imperial followers in the background emphasizes the intimacy of the two main figures. Among them is Prince Lobkowitz, a confidant to the Emperor, wearing black robes and a wig.

The compositional merits of the painting and the excellent characterization are accompanied by great technical ability - the local colours of this lavishly painted work are augmented by fine translucent shadows and reflections.