A szobafestő szerződése Fabricius Jakab Ignác Edelényben (1780), Johann Binnerth és Joseph Lerch Márkusfalván (1788, 1792)

Abstract

A growing number of 18th century ornamental wall paintings have been explored and published in country houses and burgher’s dwellings. They are never signed, the painters are usually anonymous. A few archival documents, contracts that may be associated with such assignments are presented now. Jakab Ignác Fabricius of Miskolc signed a contract with Countess Ludmilla Forgách to decorate a room and correct the decoration of another in Edelény in 1780. Since the contiguous figural decoration of the walls of six rooms of this mansion has been attributed to Ferenc Lieb (on the basis of a contract of 1769 and other works of his), the purely ornamental decor of the seventh room in the western wing of the mansion might have been the work of Fabricius, who was the son-in-law of Lieb, by the way. Other painters and gilders were at work in Edelény, too: the Latin contract of János Voronieski dated 1765 also covers the ornamental decoration of a room, the presence of István Nits, painter from Eger in 1768 suggests a similar assignment, which were later painted over by Lieb’s murals of rococo figural scenes in 1769–1771. The rococo reconstruction, extension and decoration of the Máriássy mansion complex at Márkusfalva (Markušovce) took place under the guidance of Farkas Máriássy from the 1770s. The surviving 73 contracts of the work are known from earlier publications, including the contract of 1788 with Johannes Binnerth, a painter from Igló (Spíšská Nová Ves), for the free-handed painting of flowers after sketches. The five smaller and two bigger rooms at issue were in the lateral building to the right (now in ruins). Binnerth’s achievements as a painter and drawing teacher, and his son’s similar ambitions were praised in the press as later as in 1813, too. The Catholic painter who died at the age of 64 in 1814 is documented in the Spíš town from 1783, but his works are not known. Slovakian research literature has explored the oeuvre of Joseph Lerch (1751–after 1828), Lőcse (Levoča)-based painter born at Szepesszombat (Spíšská Sobotá). His neoclassical late baroque frescoes were signed in the country house at Dobó (Dubavica) and the parish church of Liptóújvár (Liptovský Hrádek); altarpieces and portraits are known by him, in 1804 he was contracted to paint a picture on the curtain of Kassa (Košice) theatre. The widow of Ferenc Máriássy commissioned him in 1792 to decorate five rooms, but in view of the price and Lerch’s known works, this work might have been figural. The decoration was completed, but it has no trace at Márkusfalva; the fresco of the roadside chapel of St John Nepomucene was earlier attributed to him, while the higher quality mythological scenes painted on the walls of the garden pavilion of the mansion („Dardanelles”) still await attribution.