Category Archives: Nazarene Movement
A titkos cikk: Késő nazarénus, késő romantikus és kártyatervező: A Kupelwieser-tanítvány Unger Alajos újrafelfedézese. In: Arrabona 50 / 2 (2012)
A titkos cikk. A múzeumi oldalon nem található, hivatal pdf nem kaptam meg. Ez ellenére itt az Arrabona 50 / 2 tanulmányom magam pdf formátumban. A győri Unger kártyafestő és művészcsaládról. Unger Károly (1812-1895), pap, püspöki írnok és levéltáros az újvárosi Nepomuki Szent János kápolna kurátóra volt, a kápolna melleti házban élt. Ott 1878-ban testvére Ifj. Unger Mátyás kártyafestő halt meg, és ott Unger Alajos akadémiai festő olajképei egyszer is raktározottnak.
Wunderlich, Claudia: Késő nazarénus, késő romantikus és kártyatervező: A Kupelwieser-tanítvány Unger Alajos újrafelfedézese
claudia_wunderlich_arrabona_50_2
Megjelent a legfrisseb Unger tanulmány az Acta Ethnographica Hungaricában // The most recent article on the Ungers has been published in Acta Ethnographica Hungarica
Angol nyelvű The iconography, design and manufacture of the 19thcentury playing-cards by the Unger family from Győr cimű tanulmányt írtam s most megjelent. Itt az absztrakt. Magyar forditás hamarosan is lesz. Egy kis türelemt kérem szépen.
My latest article entitled The iconography, design and manufacture of the 19thcentury playing-cards by the Unger family from Győr has now been published. The abstract can be found here. I shall soon provide a Hungarian translation.
Abstract:
The present article offers new evidence on the Unger playing-card making family of Győr, Western Transdanubia as the result of a cross-disciplinary study. Mátyás Unger the Elder (1789-1862) and his like-named son Mátyás the Younger (1824–1878) produced various types of playing-cards from the early to mid-19th century. In particular, their cards, their iconography, design and production process will beanalysed. The family is best known for their cards with Sopron (Oedenburg) pattern. Also discussed will be the role of Mátyás the Elder’s second eldest son Alajos Unger (1814-1848) as a possible designer of the later Unger cards, which were of considerably higher quality than the earlier known ones by Mátyás Unger the Elder.
The hitherto little-known Alajos Unger was trained as a draughtsman and painter first at the National DrawingmSchool of his hometown and then, between 1833 and 1842, at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, particularly under Leopold Kupelwieser (1796–1862). Finally an innovative outside-in bottom-up method for gaining further, reliable insight into 19thcentury artisanal playing-card manufacturing will be proposed to determine the size, output and profitability of the Unger workshop based on material-flow simulation.
Keywords: 19th century Hungarian playing-cards, Sopron pattern, Mátyás Unger, Alajos Unger, playing-card iconography, artisanal playing-card production, reconstruction of a playing-card workshop, material flow simulation
Acknowledgements: Special thanks to Dr. Erzsébet Györgyi, Antal Jánoska, Peter Endebrock, Dr. phil. Cornelia Friedrich, Dr. Mária Unger, Dr. Gyula Vadász, István Pozsonyi, my family & particularly my husband Jürgen for their help and encouragement. Last but not least thanks to Professor Gábor Barna for the kind interest expressed in my work.
Tovabbi információk / further information:
http://www.akademiai.com/content/ug32757g237r/?p=65d38f20bccc481aac10dc3d5dfc7c9f&pi=0
The Unger exhibition opening at the museum
At the long last I manage to post here again. I had prepared two further entries, but have not managed to proofread them and add pictures as of yet.
In the meantime I have returned from a holiday in Hungary, where I tried to relax as much as possible, spending as much time as possible riding, soaking in thermal baths and just seizing the moment. The first days were nice and warm, but then the weather changed and it became hideously cold, definitely not what we had expected.
Last Thursday then the Unger exhibition (Egy győri polgárcsalád a reformkorból: az Ungerek – Kártyagyártók és művészek/ A middling sort family from Reform Age Győr: The Ungers — Card producers and artists) was opened at the XJ Museum in Győr. I cannot say how thrilled I am about this. Not just because it is so exciting to see the wooden playing card stamps from my family and pictures of their cards on display there, but also because finally Alajos Unger’s art is appreciated posthumously. This I had hoped for for the longest time and to find as much of his original artwork as possible. I remember when I was sitting on a bench in the parco Ducale in Parma contemplating this when I spent three months there attending Italian language and art history classes at the university there as an Erasmus student. I was taking every opportunity while being there and travelling around the country to see as much (renaissance) artwork as possible in museums, churches and elsewhere, which is really funny because Parma and Duchess Marie-Louise played such an important role in Leopold Kupelwieser’s career. This especially since I did not know that Kupelwieser had been Alajos’ teacher back then… Anyway, something somehow drove me to the arts back then, which helps me understand and appreciate Alajos’ art so much better.
Anyway, the exhibition was organised by the museum and it is not only highly informative but also has a high aesthetic value overall I find. This not just because of the artwork on display there — basically the two oil paintings from the National Gallery (The Recapture of Győr, the family portrait from 1843) and the Madonna my relative loaned as well as various drawings by Alajos and Kupelwieser. I am also very pleased that the museum used all my information on the family and its members, which my family (my parents and the relative who loaned the painting) and I had researched and compiled for so many years. Finally it has all been bearing fruit and all these findings will be presented in more detail in my forthcoming article in the museum yearbook Arrabona. Dr Gy Sz mainly gave a summary of this article in his opening speech. It is noteworthy that the museum has shown such an interest in the history of the Unger family.
Alajos Unger’s Mary with Jesus and John (oil on canvas)
Alajos Unger’s “Mary with Jesus and John”, oil on canvas, ca 70×90 cm, date unknown, family ownership
The oil painting has been in the possession of the descendents of the Unger family and it has never been on display in an exhibition yet. On 31 May 2010 it was transported from Lower Austria to Győr by Dr C Wunderlich, where it was taken to the János Xántus Museum by Gy P, director of the museums of Győr-Sopron-Moson County and Z Sz, curator of the upcoming exhibition on the Unger family. It is currently being restored. The photograph shows the painting in the museum director’s room at the museum on Széchenyi Square in Győr on that same day.
The picture features Mother Mary with Jesus and little John the Baptist with Joseph and Zachary in the background.
(Upon request of the painting’s owner, the photograph has been removed for the time being.)
Unger Alajos/Alajos Unger (Győr 1814 – Győr 1848)
The (re-)discovery of a Kupelwieser-pupil and his works: Alajos Unger (bap 29 Oct 1814 +28 Dec 1848); also called Alois, Aloys or Lajos Unger
Vita brevis, ars longa. Hippocrates
Alajos Unger was born as the third child of master card-maker Mátyás Unger and his wife Anna Brandelmayer, who had settled down in Győr after getting married in their native town of Sopron in January 1811.
He started his education at the elementary and drawing school in his native city, where his drawing teacher was the painter János Hofbauer. In 1833 he began attending the drawing school at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, before he became a pupil of Leopold Kupelwieser in 1836, where he stayed until 1842. There he also studied anatomy under Anton Schaller.
In 1846 he displayed a painting at the exhibition of the Art Association of Pest.
He travelled around Europe. In 1848, after his return to his hometown, offered art courses in Győr’s local newspaper Hazánk and furthermore joined the national guard in the revolution and freedom fights (for some time) in that year.
For unknown reasons, he died of hepatitis in December 1848 and was buried by Ferenc Ebenhöch, a later cannon, local historian and collector of various objects that are now featured in museums in Budapest and Győr.
Alajos Unger’s known works are drawings (particularly male nudes), portraits, historical and religious depictions, the latter being the main theme of his oil paintings.
The whereabouts of most of Unger’s works are unknown, with the exception of two oil paintings in the possession of the National Gallery in Budapest, a collection of 35 drawings owned by the X J Museum in Győr and private collectors as well as further oil paintings owned by private owners. Several of these works will be shown at an exhibition at the museum to be opened in September 2010.
Worklist:
The recapture of Győr, Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest, at the time of publishing this entry on display at the Festetics palace museum in Keszthely
The artist and his family, Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest
Mary with Jesus and John, family ownership
35 drawings, mainly male nudes, JX Museum, Győr and private ownership
Judith and Holofernes
The baptism of King Stephen, private ownership
St László, king of Hungary, perceives King Solomon (Szent László magyar király ráismer Salamon király)
The Holy Family
Picture clock with view of Venice, family ownership
to be continued
Literature:
Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon online/Artists of the World online, s.v. Unger Alajos
Wunderlich, C (2009): “Die Győrer Spielkartenmalerfamilie Unger – Im Spiegel neuer Erkenntnisse“, in: Talon – Zeitschrift des österreichisch-ungarischen Spielkartenvereins, 18/2009, Vienna/Budapest, pp 78-81
Wunderlich, C (in preparation): “The Unger artist and card-making family of Győr, ” (working title) in: Arrabona, yearbook of the János Xántus Museum, Győr and the literature cited therein
