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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 KözepEurópában, 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 Osztrák-Magyar Monarchia építészetében 1867-1918, Budapest, Vince Kiadö, 1998, 208. 3 Ákos Moravänszky: Verseng6,1998, 202-207. 2 * 448 +
