“Around me where I lived only ruins remained”
Conversation with restorer, Miklós Szentkirályi
MúzeumCafé 51.
It is worth linking this interview with a visit to the room in the National Gallery where the winged altars are displayed. That would reveal the significance concerning how these large items, after being in tiny pieces in terrible condition locked in boxes, came to life; how the altars were restored; how, from the end of the 1960s, the missing carvings, painting and gilding were replaced by masters, young restorers who had to work without having the experience and the expertise. MúzeumCafé talked to one of those involved. MiklósSzentkirályi was born in Hungary but spent his childhood in Transylvania in a “disadvantaged position” due to his parents’ aristocratic roots. In 1949 the family was forcibly moved, though fortunately to TîrguMureş – it could have been worse. For six years he worked in a car repair workshop with dismissed engineers. Working hours were from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., after which he attended drawing classes and evening school. He finished secondary school and was admitted to the university of fine arts in Cluj in 1968. In 1973 he took all the final exams but did not defend his degree work, since he married and moved to Budapest. Szentkirályi was increasingly interested in restoration, because where he lived there were only ruins around him. Nothing else remained. Therefore he enrolled in the third year of the academy in Budapest to study restoration. There were opportunities to work alongside his studies. The restoration unit of the Department of Old Hungarian Masters was formed at that time and he, as a student, was a founding member. “I worked in the National Gallery from 1975, initially in a part-time job. The Gothic winged altars of the Old Hungarian Masters’ Collection were in a critical condition, in pieces, in boxes. A medieval exhibition had to be created from the altars in the state room.” There was nothing to rely on and there was no routine. Today it is easier for a restorer, because the essence, the methodology of museum restoration has been worked out. Many say that it should be regulated legally, but Szentkirályi does not agree with that because almost every item needs to be assessed individually on the basis of the artist’s working method, the art historical significance of the work and its condition. It is like the relationship between a doctor and a patient. This approach was prevalent at the department until the permanent and temporary exhibitions were staged. A jury system, which is still in operation, was developed and is a very important part of a restorer’s working methodology. MiklósSzentkirályi was invited to work in the Museum of Fine Arts by MiklósMojzer, because at the time there was no department of restorers.