„Pleinair erfunden …” adalékok Csontváry plein air-tanulmányaihoz (1897–1903)

Abstract

There is still much to be explored about the exact circumstances of the creation of Csontváry’s pictures and the painter’s working method. Research has either approached the oeuvre from the life path wrought with mythical elements, or wished to embed it in the context of 19th century painting tradition. From these angles, however, the consistently built visual logic of Csontváry’s pictures, their details governed by the inherent laws of the genre of painting are often overlooked. The most adequate method of exploring Csontváry’s creative practice appears to be a thorough examination of the relation between the inspiring sight and the picture painted of it. I based this study on Csontváry’s landscapes painted between 1897 and 1905, first of all those painted in Trogir, Castellammare and Taormina. In the knowledge of these localities it can be established that the painter accurately followed the topographic sight and the conditions of light. At the same time, the comparison of the location and the painting has also revealed that the painter had pairs of pictures in mind in his intention to capture a sight systematically. Taking up a vantage point mostly in northsouth and one in east-west orientation, he created “panorama pictures” built of several elements. His paintings are similar to the 360° panoramas in photography. But while a rotating camera can take an infinite number of photos, the painter assembled the picture from two “shots”. Conspicuously, the pairs of pictures depict different times of day: instead of momentary impressions and moods, Csontváry captured the path of the transmission of light and thereby the passing of time, an interval of time in the pairs of pictures. In his later compositions he was to apply these different light conditions in a single picture, framing as it were the daily path of the planet on the horizon. This practice is related to one of Csontváry’s key technical terms, the “Sun Path”. By capturing the changing of light in one picture Csontváry wished to “perfect” the 19th century plein air technique. His “Sun Path” painting derives from a specific view of nature and the world, which was in polar opposition to the positivism of naturalism and the sensualism of impressionism. Proof of it is the pairs of pictures. They summarize all Csontváry’s observations of time and space, and their translation into the practice of painting. The views conveyed by Csontváry’s paintings were often borrowed from contemporaneous picture postcards. Not only greeting cards but e.g. the rich moving picture and photo material of the programs of the Urania Hungarian Scientific Theatre inspired him. He treated the pictorial themes as visual tropes or conventions, but in the creative process he only used their fixed, symbolic form such as a typical cutting. When a theme was actually to be realized, he thought it indispensable to be on the site in person, to make sketches and paint on the spot. He did so to make the contents he found important in the symbol visible by his painting.