Francesco Mazzaferro. Cennino Cennini in Hungary: At the Search of the Anonymous Author of the first Hungarian Translation

Front-cover of the anonymous Hungarian translation
by Cennino Cennini of the Book

CLICK HERE FOR ITALIAN VERSION

Francesco Mazzaferro 
Cennino Cennini in Hungary: 
At The Search  of the Anonymous Author of the First Hungarian Translation

I bought from the Budapest antiquarian one of the Possibly very few Remaining copies of the enigmatic translation into Hungarian of Cennino's Book of the Art , Which my brother commented in a previous post on 7 January of this year (see Giovanni Mazzaferro. Cennino Cennini, An The Enigmatic Edition of the First 1900s .

Some elements of general information are worth remembering. Two copies of the two antiquarians in the electronic catalogs ( www.mokka.hu ). Both antiquarian copies are now sold out, one of our readers.

The book has 131 pages and has a size of 20.2 per 14.7 centimeters. Cennino Cennini into English. There is no mention of what is a [1]

Pages turned yellow and damaged but the book does not seem extremely old. One of the two antiquarians in the Internet as of 1988 as publication date [2]; however, I could not find any evidence about it. At that stage, it was not anonymous. It was plausible it was produced in the 1970s-1980s.

What I discovered by a typographer. The original is a type-written text. This is a common lay-out for samizdat editions. In the 1950s and 1960s they were carbon-copied clandestine editions, with very few copies. [3] [3].

There is a 3-page introduction, which is reported in English and in English translation.

Page 1 of the Hungarian Foreword

It is fallen Nincs festészettel foglalkozó komoly szakkönyv, amelyben elő ne fordulna többször is az idézet: "Már Cennini is megirta..." Sajnos ezek a hivatkozások és idézetek a legtöbbször nem pontosak, sőt sokszor egymásnak ellentmondók. Nálunk a gödöllői iskola, Körosföi Krisch, Nagy Sandor fordultak vissza a festészet régmultjának mivessegéhez. Egyrészt, hogy megszabaduljanak a hozzánk német áttételen át erezett naturalista impresszionizmustól, másrészt a magyar falfestészet ujrateremtésére. Az ő munkásságukon keresztül Cennini módszerei, receptjei máig is feltalálhatók piktúránkban. Nagy Sandor mint főiskolai tanár a temperafestés, a gessoalap Cennini idejéből való hagyományait a festőgenerációk egész sorának adta át: - csakhegy nem egészen ugy, ahogy azt a pádovia mester több, mint ötszáz évvel ezelőtt megirta. Ennek nyilván több oka van. Az egyik a legfőbb, hogy az a német fordítás, amit a gödöllőiek használtak nem pontos, nem teljes. Ezenkivül a maguk tapasztalatait, máshonnan szerzett módszereiket is hozzáadták; a Cennini-használta anyagokat ma már nem lelték fel, máshogy: sokszor tévesen akarták pótolni /gipszdöglesztés/. Több mint husz ezelőtt sikerült megszereznem Rómában Cennini könyvének legteljesebb kiadását, mint egyiket, és äkkor úgy gondoltam legfontosabbat azok közül a kül- és belföldi festőtechnikai könyvek közül, amelyeken keresztülrágtam magam, hogy megtanuljam mesterségem minden ágazatát a falfestést az aranyozással, a sokszorositó temperakészitest. Megtanuljam elméletben és kipróbáljam gyakorlatban is. Ma már nem ugy itélem meg Cenninin könyvét, mint legtisztább ősforrást, amelyből ha iszunk minden festészeti titkok tudójává válunk. Nem, sokkal jobb fejlettebb technikák vannak már a temperakészitéshez is, még ha kihagyjuk is a műanyag temperákat, kötőszereket. /Ezeket persze nagy hiba lenne kihagyni - Cennini nézete is az volt, hogy a modern festési eljárás jobb, mint a régi/. A falfestés gyakorlata sem állhat meg az al fresco festésnél. Itt is be fog törni az új, a jobb, a mai épitészeti technikához, műanyągfalakhoz megfelelőbb műanyag kötőszer. Szakkönyvet is sok teljesebbet, jobbat olvastam az Il libro dell'Arte-nál, de szebbet még nem, tanulságosabbat sem. Szigoruan csak a mesterséget irja le, ismerteti Colle di Valvensai Adrea Cennini; csak az előszavában, ab evezető fejezetben szól a művészetről, de amit ott ir, ha azt egy kicsit leporoljak, lényegében ugyanolyan szépen és igazán ragyog, mint a maga idejében. Az a szeretet, ahogy a mesterségéről ir - hát az is tökéletesen időszerű és mindnyájunk számára máig is kötelező - nemcsak nekünk művészeknek, de minden dolgozónak.  De receptjei sem avultak el végkép. A mai festészet törekvései a felületek érdekességének, változatosságának kimunkálására nem volt ismeretlen a quatrocento mestere előtt sem. A felületek "megjátszásánál" gipszdamboritással, bronzolással, pettyegetéssel, aranyozással, ezüstözéssel, színezett sztaniollapokkal hosszú fejezeteken át ír a maga gondos, részletező fontoskodva magyarázó stílusában. Hogy ki mit szeret meg, mit használ fel Cennini művéből annak a kiválasztása, a mű értékelése végső soron az olvasó dolga. Úgy éreztem, kötelességem ennek a műnek lefordításával lehetőséget adni művész társaimnak és a művészetek iránt érdeklődők egyre nagyobb táborának ahhoz, hogy as igazi Cenninit ne csak idézetekből és hivεtkozásokból, hanem a maga teljességében megismerhessék. Lássák, amint a maga gyönyörű naivitásában a világ teremtésétől kezdve, segitségül hiva többek között szent Lukácsot, az első keresztény festőművészt, leírja a rajzolás, a falfestés, a táblaképfestés, az oltárképfestés, aranyozás, gipszdomboritás, miniálás, zászlófestés, és végül a gipszöntvénykészités különböző fogásait és technikáját. Biztos vagyok benne, hogy az olvasó ugyanagy meghallja a pádovai mester mához is szóló hangját sorainak olvasása közben, ahogy én meghallottam, amint először kezembe vettem az Il libro dell'Arte-t és nemcsak meghallják, hanem meg is szeretik, hogy Cennini szavait alkalmazzam, ezt a legrégibb keresztény festészeti szakkönyvet.

Foreword There is no serious reference book on painting, in which may you would not find repeatedly the sentence: "Also Cennini wrote...". Unfortunately, most of the time these references and quotations are not accurate, and sometimes they are even conflicting. At the Gödöllő school, Körosföi Krisch and Sandor Nagy made reference to the past standards of high quality painting. They did it, first of all, to eliminate any German influence on naturalistic impressionism, and second to re-establish the tradition of Hungarian murals. The Cennini methods and recipes can be rediscovered - through their artistic work - in their paintings. Sandor Nagy as a college professor handed over to generations of painters the traditions from Cennini times, like tempera painting, gesso basis design - but not exactly the way the master from Padua wrote more than five hundred years ago. There are obviously several reasons for this. One of the principal is that the German translation, which was used at Gödöllő, was neither accurate nor complete. Moreover, their own experience gained from other methods originating elsewhere; the materials used by Cennini were not anymore available, and sometimes there were mistakes in trying to replace them (for instance on the gypsum death). More than twenty years ago I managed to get the most complete edition of Cennini 's book in Rome, which is one of the many foreign and domestic technical books on painting, which I very thoroughly read, in order to learn in my profession all sectors of painting, including gilding and preparing tempera. If you try to learn Cennini’s book in theory and practice, it is like if you wanted to drink the purest ancient potion, from which you wanted to become a scientist possessing all secrets of painting. No, much better and more developed techniques exist now even for tempera preparation, even if plastic tempera is omitted to glue together binding agents. (Of course, it would be a mistake to miss the new techniques.  Cennini himself was also of the view that the modern painting methodology is better than the old one). Also the practice of wall painting cannot stop with the fresco painting. Here it also breaks into the new and better technique of plastic binding agents, fitting well with today’s new existing plastic walls. I have read more complete and better books than the Libro dell'Arte, but not nicer or more beautiful and also not more enlightening. Adrea Cennini from Colle di Valdensa limits himself to describe the craft profession, and only in the preface writes about art, but what is written there (if we are taking away a little bit the old dust) is essentially still shining the same way in which he shined at his time. The love, as he is writing about his profession, is perfectly timely and for all of us is still a must - not only for us artists, but for all workers. The recipes did not fall into disuse at all. The new efforts of modern painting to make the surfaces interesting, to work out a big diversity of results, was not unknown to the quattrocento master either. "The production technique" of surfaces (including gypsum relief, bronzing, etching, gilding, colouring in silver, using tin foil) are described in long chapters, in Cennini’s careful and detailed explanatory style. Who loves what and what to use from Cennini’s work is ultimately a matter of the reader. I felt it was my duty to translate this work to give an opportunity to my fellow artists and those people who are increasingly interested in art, in order to know the true Cennini not only from quotations and references, but in its completeness. To be seen are: his own beautiful naivety on the creation of the world, calling for help from among others St. Luke, the first Christian painter; his description of drawing, painting, panel- painting of altarpieces, gilding , gypsum relieving, banner painting, forming of gypsum and finally using different tricks and techniques . I am sure that the readers will hear the master of Padua’s voice addressed to today’s world as well as I have also heard it, when I had in my hand for the first time Il Libro dell'Arte. And they will not only hear, but also love to use Cennini’s words, the oldest Christian book on painting. (traduzione di Eva Harangozo)

Pages 2 and 3 of the Hungarian Foreword

A FEW NEW PIECES OF INFORMATION FROM THE TEXT OF THE FOREWORD

The Book of the Art has been translated into Hungarian by a painter. The overwhelming attention of the foreword is on technical issues. As shown above, in the 3 pages there is a very detailed specification of different techniques and a reference to specific conservation problems of art products produced according to the techniques used by the Gödöllő school and the teaching of Sandor Nagy. To the contrary, there is little discussion of other aspects, which would have discussed by an historian of art (e.g. the main theses in the Book, Cennino’s role between Middle Age and Renaissance, relations with previous editions, etc.), and there are even some mistakes: Cennino was an artist of Trecento, not Quattrocento; his treatise is certainly not the eldest book of Christianity on painting.

The translator knew about the influence of Cennino Cennini on Hungarian History of Art, which occurred through at least two phases [4]. Well before the First World War, when Hungary was still the political center of a powerful empire, the Gödöllő community was created, lasting ten years. The second phase was the creation (in the newly constituted Kingdom of Hungary in 1920, one third of the original territory) of the Cennino Society (Cennini Társaság) [4]

Reading the three pages, the author does not give any indication of those experiences. But, there seems to be some distancing from them: Sandor Big is softly criticized as having followed the technical solutions of the old recipes.

What is the exact relation to the Gennedel and the Cennino Society? murals), religious inspiration.

The first Christian painter, Cennino's book as the first Christian book is art '.

SOME INTERESTING IDEAS

First, the text mentions of the teaching activity of Sandor, and his teaching to 'generations of painters'. They became active at the Academy of Fine Arts in 1934 and retired in 1944, in the midst of the Second World War. In 1945 Hungary was conquest by the Soviet Union and the prevailing regime dismantled [5]. As my brother observed, Sandor Big and his brother is well integrated in the clerical-conservative world before the war. Still today, one of the main sources of information is the Catholic Lexicon.

Secondly, the second is the translator. It might be interesting to know about the introduction of Europe in Europe.

Third, the author or authoress mentions the harm of the Cennino's book in Rome. Somebody knowing well the two languages ​​could try - through sample reading - Tambroni 1821, Milanesi 1859, Simi 1913, Thompson 1932 or Brunello 1971. clear reference to Simi would make sure this is a text written after 1913; a translation of Brunello would be a complete explanation of the problem;

Fourth, the author is a must have a good command of Italian. In fact, translating a complex 130-page text requires more than simply mastering conversational Italian.

ARTISTIC RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ITALY AND HUNGARY

Many geopolitical shocks, including wars, and several regime changes on both sides. A number of church-based colleges and institutions permanently offered by artists for their 'pilgrimages' [6]

The Conclusion of the Lateran Accords in 1929 For instance, there was a patronage of the King of Italy.

As explained by my brother in his 7 January post, there was a deeper and deeper conservatism in the 1930s. In Budapest.

Interestingly, the recent doctoral thesis by Beáta Szlavikovszky contains a list of several hundred Hungarian students in Italy between 1880 and 1945 [7]. At least four prominent painters studied in Italy in those years. They were

1) György Leszkovszky (one of the founders of the Cennini Society) in 1930;

György Leszkovszky (1891-1968) The offer of the church - facade fresco in the Kaposvar cathedral (1937)

2) Ernis Jeges in 1931;

Ernő Jeges (1898-1956) Stephan I of Hungary on the foundations of the town of Székesfehérvár - fresco (1952)

3) Béla Kontuly in 1928 and in 1929; 

Béla Kontuly (1904- 1983) and C. Pál Molnár (1894-1981) Church of St. Anna, ceiling frescos in the central nave (1938 )

4) C. Pal Molnar in 1928, 1929 and in 1930.

Pal C. Molnar (1894-1981) The flight into Egypt (1938), oil on canvas

This does not imply, of course, that necessarily one of them must have translated Cennino’s book. As mentioned above, several hundred of several artists visited (and even studied in several Italian Universities) during the four decades of Cennino’s influence over Hungary. However, this piece of evidence on the Italian studies (in a few cases for more than one year) of four leading painters with such an inspiration is a source of information which should not be ignored.

A FEW COMMENTS ON THE LANGUAGE 

A few observations about the text of the foreword can perhaps help.

The foreword is reported above in the literal form in which appears in the booklet. It consists of 553 words. The current Hungarian word corrector suggests a different use of accents for 28 of them. The request of the language corrector affects a relatively large share of total words (five per cent). The text may have been drafted in a Hungarian which – in terms of orthography – is systematically different from the one which is currently used in Microsoft Word 2010.

The Hungarian language corrector often requires accents to vocals' and 'u', implying a variation in the length of the vocals. There were some changes in the 1922, 1954 and 1984, according to Wikipedia [8]. The variation in the length of the vocals was at the center of the 1954 reform. [9] The Hungarian linguist would be very well able. This would greatly help date the text.

TWO IPHOTESES: A PLANNED PUBLICATION OR A PRIVATE TRANSLATION? 

The author or the authoress refers to the fact that the translation was performed in Rome. Let us imagine a moment in the 1920s and the 1930s. This is an unbelievable one.

These were dark years in Hungary's history. After a time of terror and persecution against the previous war, Imre Nagy [not a relative to the above mentioned painter] They were sacked, but one year later, and they were sacked back in October 1956. The Soviet troops invaded Budapest and crashed that political season.

What was the end of the year? Here there may be two views. On the one hand, the general impression is the 131-page text was for the public at large, and that something impeded it. This is the only one that can be used as a source of information.

Translating Cennino into English (long - 1871) or the German (Verkade - 1914-1916) (many of their past works were suffering from technical imperfections). One cannot exclude the sense of 'Cenninian' painters. One of the motivations of publishing Cennino's text was perhaps the re-establish of the unity among the original master '. Full-time translations of the artist's pursuit avant-garde painting.

If publication was the goal, one has to imagine that - for whatever reason. The text was held clandestine. In the years of Soviet terror, it was definitely a deep religious feelings. The risk of this is that they are not the only ones who have a good quality of life.

That is not the only way to get the rest of the world out of the Cennino Society. or impossible.

I consider the first hypothesis more probable. The translation of Cennino's intentions has taken several years, intense efforts. Conservation months of hard work.

WAS TODAY BOUND TEXT A COPY OF AN OLDER TYPE-WRITTEN VERSION? 

It is a highly probable that the text is written in the 1950s. Type-written samizdateditions of the 1950s looked like much less orderly. I was a youngster, and the text seems more similar to the second. This may be a transcript of the original. Certainly, it was a modern electric machine like those available in the 1980s. Some are not perfectly aligned with others. Specialists exist who would be able to recognize the exact type of written text. [10]. There is a very particular aspect of the parenthesis.

There is another specific element in favor of this thesis. At the end of the text, Cennino's text is Reported in all editions with the end date of 1437 (as well known, wrongly Considered as the date of the Book of the Art , Which was completed at Least a few Decades before). The type-written Hungarian version, text reads: “/ sic / 1537”. This is a mistake by one century, which is in Latin characters. The type-writer seems to be the document that was mistaken. This implies probably a complete manuscript.

The 1970s, and later in the 1980s, is the only one of the most popular in the world. copy technologies). Many years had most probably translated into English; still the author or authoress did apparently not want to be recognized.

The author or authoress succeeds in remaining anonymous. By now, it's probably passed away since long. Descendants may exist who might know who he was; they will however be relatively aged; memory in families may have gone through generations (and the books are secretly in the antiquarian market). Finding it out with a daunting task. As explained in the previous post, they have been quite limited.

This is an attempt to find out how we can do it. I hope it compensates the fact that the book is now completely sold out in Budapest.

If the text is sold out, it is still available in public libraries. Cennini Cennini, which is fully ignored in any essay we could consult. Perhaps time is ripe that somebody would publish it.

Is there any element of information offered here?

NOTES

[1] There is a handwritten name in the inside front cover. The same name is also written down in the back cover (see pictures below). The name - which I did not manage to decipher - is now the owner of the booklet. I understand that I bought the copy I bought. Is anybody able to decipher the name?

Handwritten name in the inside front cover

The same handwritten name in the back cover

[1-3-2014 We are very grateful to Ms. Edit Lantos, for having the signature above could be Zsolnay. Industrial history in Hungary. As from mid-1800, Zsolnay produced artistic porcelain, which was known worldwide (see www.zsolnay.hu and, for an historic review, an intense relationship with secessionist artists in Hungary, Hannes Stekl (Hg.) Bürgerliche Familien, Lebenswege im 19. Und 20. Jahrhundert, Böhlau Verlag, Wien, Cologne, Weimar, 2000, pp. 297-298

[2] ( http://vonnegutantikvarium.com/?q=cennino&qt=q&qm=cennino )

[3] To impede the spreading of samizdat literature, but not managed to block the flow of new editions. Hungary was considered to be a relatively liberal regime in the Warsaw Pact, and publishing in the United States. The publication is under the impulse of Miklós Nemeth and Gyula Horn, also with Gorbachev's glasnost. ( http://www.centrart.hu/letolt/arsperennis/28Ars_perennis_Benko.pdf ).

[4] There was also a so-called 'Spiritual Artists' in Hungary. As explained by Zsuzsanna Benkő, “The Spiritual Artists 'Society was created by a member of the Gödöllő Artists' Colony, Jorge György Remsey, and was founded on the moral principles of the colony. See Zsuzsanna Benkő, Céchbeliek, Cenniniek, Spirituals. Artist companies in Gödölloő (The Guild of Artists, the Cennini Society and the Spiritual Artists: The Artists' Columns of the Gödöllő Artists'Colony), in Ars Perennis, pages 169-175, 2009 ( http: //www.centrart .hu / letolt / arsperennis / 28Ars_perennis_Benko.pdf ).

[5]  http://www.art-nouveau.hu/art.php?menuid=1&id=35 

[6] Interestingly, the sharpest opponents to the Gödöllö circles - inspired to modernism, futurism and avant-garde - had a strong artistic liaison with the same years. Among them, there was a “Group of Rome”. The Il Tempo della modernità. Pittura ungherese 1905-1925 ”in Rome in 2013

http://www.beniculturali.it/mibac/export/MiBAC/sito-MiBAC/Contenuti/MibacUnif/Eventi/visualizza_asset.html_1487810113.html

[7]  Beáta Szlavikovszky, Chapters on Hungarian-Italian Cultural Relations between 1880-1945 (Capitoli delle relazioni culturali ungherese-italiano fra 1880-1945), Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Faculty of Art, 2009 http: //phd.btk.ppke .com / tortenelemtudomany / szlavikovszky_beata / disszeracio.pdf   

[8]   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_orthography

[9] See  http://www.nytud.hu/buszi/wp1/node3.html .

[10] I do not know the type of machine. In any case, we would be willing to scan some pages and send them out to anybody who would like to try this identification exercise.

ALL THE POSTS PUBLISHED IN THE CENNINI'S SERIES

Giovanni Mazzaferro. Cennino Cennini and The Book of Art: a Check-list of the Printed Editions. First part: from 1821 to 1900. Bologna, dicembre 2013

Giovanni Mazzaferro. Cennino Cennini and The Book of Art: a Check-list of the Printed Editions. Second part: from 1901 to 1950. Bologna, dicembre 2013

Giovanni Mazzaferro. Cennino Cennini and The Book of Art: a Check-list of the Printed Editions. Third part: from 1951 onwards. Bologna, dicembre 2013

Giovanni Mazzaferro. Cennino Cennini, An Enigmatic Edition and Hungary in the First 1900

Mark Clarke. Pentimenti: DV Thompson's Reflections is his translation of Cennini 

Francesco Mazzaferro. Cennino and Stalin's 'Neo-Renaissance': The Russian Translation of the "Book of the Art" (1933)

Francesco Mazzaferro. Cennino Cennini between Europe and Japan, And all the time

Francesco Mazzaferro. Cennino Cennini in 1924 Poland: The Journal of Stucco Artyst 'Between Theory of Art and Commercial Promotion

Giovanni Mazzaferro. Cennino Cennini: The Small Italian-Argentine Miracle