What was already known about the Unger family and the painter Alois Alajos Unger before my research began?
In short, not very much, but once it became clear what I knew and had collected about my family as well as reconstructed a list of oil paintings by Alajos Unger, of which I had traced down an unknown one before the exhibition, Zoltán Székely and his Museum jumped on my bandwagon.
The family and the painter were more or less known by name only before I started my in-depth research in 2007, even in the local historical literature of their hometown. All histories of the Austro-Hungarian playing-cards mention Mátyás Unger. The Thieme-Becker art encyclopedia – just like similar ones and even Hungarian ones – only hold the following information:
Most literature still give 1815 instead of 1814 as his year of birth.
The Biographical Encyclopedia of Györ (Győri Életrajzi Lexikon) only knew the following, short entries without (correct) life data and only listed one Mátyás Unger:
Most literature still renders 1815 instead of 1814 as the year of birth of the painter.
The Kisalföldi Művésezti Lexikon (first edition from 1998) was the most copious source on the artist Alois Alajos until my article in the museum yearbook of Győr of 2012 (which appeared in 2014).
In 1998 an exhibition to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the recapture of Györ took place and Székely wrote an entry on Alajos Unger’s painting depicting the scene, in which he strongly drew on an earlier Exhibition catalogue from 1972, when the work was also displayed in his hometown. It was the most copious description of a work of his up until then, but did not mention the correct year of birth, either, and no year of death.
In 2004, respectively 2006, the playing-card expert Antal Jánoska published more copious articles (the latter jointly with Ferenc Horváth) on the playing-card producers in Győr, with the main focus on the playing-cards and wrappers of the Unger family. Nothing was mentioned, however, about the family, other than that there were two eponymous Unger playing-card makers, the production, the precise location thereof, and the connection between the academic painter Alois Alajos Unger.
What new discoveries did I make?
Welche neuen Erkenntnisse brachte ich:
- Until the 2010 exhibition
Vital data of the family members who resided or were born in Győr
That the family originated in Sopron and livdn in a building now part of the Flóris-Rómer-Museum (Abbot’s House)
The precise date of baptism of Alois Alajos Unger, and place and date of death: reconstruction of a number of his oil paintings, particularly on the basis of his brother Károly’s will and in connection with the Petz collection (from an MD from Győr)
Identification of all the people in the family painting in possession of the Hungarian National Gallery
Old family photos including some with the people in the above painting
Reconstruction of the lives of these people on the basis of the sources made available to me at the time
Finding archival sources with further details regarding Alois Alajos Unger’s school attendance: not only did he study under János Hofbauer, but also under Ottó Hieronymi, who considered him to be a rather mediocre student
Finding various sources and literature on the Unger family, the playing-cards, and the artist as well as compiling a bibliography, work which has been ongoing since
The paintings‘ provenances
Finding the source on the Unger bankrupcy
Reconstruction of the historical playing-card making process together with my husband Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jürgen Wunderlich
Actual times Alajos Unger attended the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts based on the primary sources of its archives
Finding the link between Alajos Unger and the Győr/Vienna branch of the well-known Toscano chimneysweep dynasty
Alajos‘ late Nazarene roots
That Károly was chaplain in Sopron, fell seriously ill there, and suffered from afflictions during his entire lifetime (he remained deaf, for example), but then worked in the bishop’s office as a scribe and archivist and then, from the 1870s, as the curator of the John of Nepomuk Chapel, and lived in the small house adjacent to it together with his housekeeper, where he passed away in 1895
In 1878 there playing-card maker Mathias Mátyás Unger the Younger had also died
The entire catalogue of the exhibition oft he Art Association of Pest from 1846 (according to the top expert on the topic it is not available in its entirety in Hungary); Székely saw the catologue next to me during a conversation before the exhibition, and was eyeing it with interest, but did not want to ask to see it; I therefore only published the complete title of the painting exhibited by Unger in 2014
Information from the Vienna Technical Museum on how the playing-cards there became part of their collection
Tracing down the painting of the Holy Family, negotiating the loan for the exhibition (and transporting it to Győr myself, at my own expense; the painting strongly ressembled a work by Cesare da Sesto in the Hermitage in St Petersburg)
The provenance of the unsigned Baptism of Vajk painting, but which is mentioned in the above will; the owners had contacted the museum after the Exhibition.
That the Ungers owned a Viennese picture clock; the latter two points did not find their way into the exhibition because Székely made it clear that he was not going to discuss the art with me
Until my article in Acta Ethnographica Hungarica in 2012 I discovered:
Reconstruction of the address of the house in Győr (Duna kapu 7) in which the workshop, and for some time also the living quarters had been located in the 1840s/50s, which is also where Alajos offered his drawing classes according to ads placed in the newspaper
First mention since the 1930s that Flóris Rómer took an interest in collecting playing-card printing blocks
Details on János Koller, who engraved playing-cards for the Ungers
More explicit formulation of the hypothesis that Alajos was the designer of the playing-cards (which I had only briefly mentioned before) and the connection between his oil paintings and playing-cards
Picture clock with a view of Venice by Alajos Unger as evidence that he travelled there himself
Layout of a reconstructed ideal workshop and a brief description of the identified historical playing-card making process (the layout as such Zoltán Székely had actually already received before the exhibition)
Arrabona 2014:
Final proof with the help of a primary source that Mátyás Unger the Elder was indeed a burgher of Győr (and not merely an inhabitant)
Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA) art historical collection: documents by Károly Lyka on Alajos Unger
Loating further works by Alois Alajos and ascribing the portrait of Ferenc Hergeszell from the collection oft he Rómer-Flóris-Museum to Unger, particularly because of characteristics identical to those of a painting in a private collection (Zoltán Székely had never offered to show me paintings by unknown artists, therefore I started looking on my own)
Source proving that Alajos Unger did indeed design playing-cards
He belonged to those – along with his brother – who were the first to design patriotic Hungarian playing-cards
A list of his oil paintings along with a first more comprehensive description of these
In-depth description of the connection with the (late) Nazarenes and the influence on his paintings
The fresco in the so-called chapter house of the diocese of Györ could, because of its colours and painting style also have been created – at least partly – Alajos Unger; further Information or Research on the side of the diocese would be desirable
2017:
Adapting the reconstructed playing-card production to the actual situation of the house at Duna kapu tér 7 in Győr
My publication in 2020:
Retracing the pedigree oft he Ungers as an ancient burgher family of Sopron to the 16th century
Reconstructing the family and social networks, ie the relationship with the above-mentioned Toscano family and the priest Carl Károly Beitl, for example
Relationship between Mátyás Unger and the engraver János Gastó, who also worked in Győr and engraved playing-cards in copper for Unger
Identification of connections with former art collections
Viewing the documents on Alajos in the so-called lexikon collection of the art historical institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
Compilation of a list of exhibitions in which works or printing blocks of the Ungers were displayed in the past (incomplete, but a beginning)
Extracting information pertaining to the Ungers and when they stayed in Vienna and when the elder became master from the guild documents at the Vienna City and County Archives
Finding the entry in the city council minute books from 1810 according to which, in analogy to the above, he was accepted as a master craftsman
Finding a source in the Pesti Divatlap which confirms that the Ungers really were the first to produce patriotic playing-cards in Hungary
Demonstrating that the house in which the Unger-workshop was located was the venue of the first male choral society of Győr and that the rehearsals may have taken place there
Precise information on the houses owned by merchant József Unger
Analysis of the reports on the golden jubilee and the obit of Carl Károly Unger in the local newspapers
Transcription of two Latin sources for further insight into his life of Károly Unger (request and Bishop János Simor’s reply)
Transcription of his will in its entirety
German influence in Alajos Unger’s painting of the Baptism of Vajk
Identification of strong resemblance between images of family members in family photos with photos by József Mayerhofer in the possession of the diocesan archives of Győr
Further details on the lives of the family members from Győr
