Oldal 449 [449]
MÓNIKA PILKHOFFER
a path to mainstream art. Although, the operation of Lechner was gradually
undermined, his followers and imitators not only provided a continuation but
also renewed his artistic mode of expression.
Keywords: national style, architecture, folk art, Austro-Hungarian Monarchy
The attempt to initiate a national style as a cultural movement was a trend in
Europe in the case of nations in peripheral situations during the Art Nouveau
period, providing a possibility for the renewal of art. Due to lagging behind
in economic development, folk art representing its local and particular
character, which according to contemporaries conserved their ancient and
national origins, was still existent in Central Europe in the second half of the
19' century. The forms drawn from folk art and national style both gave an
opportunity to get rid of historical styles as well as to be purified of foreign
(German and Austrian) influences. The unconcealed authenticity of folk art
shows common features with modern architecture, such as the salient mode of
ornamentation and structures rooting in the properties of building materials.
Moreover, the aspiration could be considered as the democratization of art,
since its source of inspiration may be found in the art of a lower social sphere.’
The artists seeking a national style in the multinational Austro-Hungarian
Monarchy defined the mountain area as their source of inspiration, where
they believed they would find the archaic and national forms due to the
enclosed and remote qualities of the locations. Such mythical territories
were Zakopane in Galicia, Slovacké in Moravia and Kalotaszeg in Hungary.”
While in Austria, the German regional house construction, Heimatstil, had
an impact on some architects of the period, in other corners of the Monarchy
it was rather the works of the British John Ruskin and William Morris, as
well as the aesthetic innovations related to the anti-capitalism of the Arts
and Crafts movement, that led to the discovery of a new ideal of beauty in
folk architecture.’
It was the second half of the 19'* century when the question of national
style was raised in Poland. In almost all of the historical styles, from Gothic
| Katalin Keserii: Az épitészeti gondolkodäs ätalakuläsa a 19-20. szäzad fordulöjan Közep¬
Európában, in Katalin Keserü — Peter Haba (eds.): A modernizmus kezdetei Közép-Európa
építészetében. Lengyel, cseh, szlovák és magyar építészeti írások a 19-20. század fordulóján,
Budapest, Ernst Müzeum, 2005, 9-26.
Ákos Moravánszky: Versengő látomások. Esztétikai újítás és társadalmi program az Oszt¬
rák-Magyar Monarchia építészetében 1867-1918, Budapest, Vince Kiadö, 1998, 208.
3 Ákos Moravänszky: Verseng6,1998, 202-207.
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