Spiritual Heir of Saint Eligius
Lajos Muharos was a respected participant of high ranking international professional events in the first decades of his career.With two other artists he represented Hungarian goldsmiths at the first and only World Exhibition of Design in Toronto in 1974. In the 1980s he regularly participated in the International Exhibition of Enamel Art in Limoges. The employees and the guests of the Hungarian Embassy of Kiev have been able to admire his copper wall decoration covered with enamel, entitled „The Fairy Tale” since 1980.
The Encyclopedia of Art of those days and the catalogues of goldsmiths’ biennials preserve the data, that prove that he was charged with implementing mural works or works related to architectural constructions. The 3 m2 relief made for the Isis Hotel in 1968 with the techniques of embossing and enamel inlays was among his first works. The characteristics of the composition of the mythological scene are the dense, emblematic, static gestures, the human figure facing us, represented parallelly to the profile image of the animal figure, and the undefined space of the image lacking objects and natural surroundings. The mural ornament composed in 1980 for the Hungarian Embassy in Kiev entitled „The Fairy Tale” also illustrates the change that happened in the previous decade in the creative world of Lajos Muharos. The relief was made of bronze with the technique of casting. Its composition is essentially the same as that of the embossed plate work in the Isis hotel: the bodies of animal profile and of the facing human figure are parallel to each other, but their emblematically static gestures are bulkier and more lively than those of the relief of Szombathely, as a result of the casting technique he applied. The liveliness of the scene is also increased by the front legs and the nose of the horse hanging out of the left side of the frame and by the head and head gear of the horse rising above its upper edge. Also the open space within the frame makes the composition more lively and the polished enamel surfaces of the clothes and the saddle cover are also significant beside the bronze surface of the figures.
Special pieces at the Contemporary Metal Art Biennals organized at the Klebelsberg Cultural Center were the silver statuettes made by Lajos Muharos, in honour of Saint Eligius. The facial features of the statuettes recall those of the sculptor himself, of János Máté and József Kótai and László Fördős. Why isn’t it the patron saint of the 7th century who appears wearing the bishop robe?
Perhaps Lajos Muharos was inspired by the feeling of community with his contemporaries and by the supporting and nurturing power of his professional roots. He evokes Eligius also on a pendant made in 2012, and it was preceded by the portraits of his colleagues made between 2006-2008.
Who was Saint Eligius, the medieval bishop who is still a source of power after more than 500 years for goldsmiths, when the social reality of their lifetime makes their knowledge of professional identity indefinable?With what, with whom do János Máté, József Kótai and Lajos Muharos assume a spiritual community, when they evoke the figure of the bishop not only as a historical being, but referring to him as a shaping power of their personal and community existence?The meaning of the latin name of the patron saint is „elected”.The serious commitment to the art of goldsmiths gave social perspectives to this personal activity: he could assume a role of a political and economic consultant for the king because of the high quality of his handicraft. By means of these, his rank and his financial devices he could serve the cause of peace and justice. He not only prevented wars with the help of his diplomatic activity, but he also made severals slaves free. By means of his knowledge of reality and refined sensitivity, he could exactly feel the border and the meeting points between the dimensions of profane and sacral. Accomplishing his mission in the civil world, as an elected person he showed the way to transcendental perspectives to his contemporaries and to the ones who preserved his spiritual heritage hundreds of years later, i.e. to Lajos Muharos. His life inspires to serve the social reality of human culture with the deepest commitment as well as to the freedom of independence from social determination. How is this life mission realized in the crareers of thes excellent contemporary goldsmith?
From the mid 1970s the goblets elevating the splendour and authority of profane celebrations and the chalices for lithurgical purposes can be traced among his works as well. He made these objects of silver, with the classical techniques of the goldsmiths’ art. Special features of the early pieces made in the 1970s is that they are decorated with portraits of Hungarian kings and Transylvanian princes, with figural scenes and pland motives. Ribbons of graphic motives straddle rolls of semi-precious stone or stems decorated with semi-precious stones are conected to plastically elaborated silver holders. The engraved images of the chalices show the exceptional knowledge of drawing of the artist highly appreciated by Miklós Borsos at his entrance examination to the University of Applied Arts.
The elegance of the chalices is provided by the unity of the undecorated, plain silver surfaces, the temperate geometrical motives of the holders and stems and of the plastical, figural scenes of the „noduses”. In the „nodus”, there are compositions in small niches, decorated with semi-precious stones, that direct the memory in historical distances and the plastical experience offered by the scenes makes the spectator wish to touch the works. The pure silver surfaces invite the user of the chalice to look at themselves in a mirror and to see themselves grotesquely distorted by the bulges, as well as the figures of the compositions of the nodus. At this closeness our desire is awakened to drink of the liquid, which is preserved undeteriorated by the silver.
This precious metal is the material of the jewels that take such an exclusive place in the oeuvre of Lajos Muharos. The goblets and chalices inspired us to face with ourselves and to strengthen our identity and the jewels are especially suitable for achieving the same effects, also because of their traditional role in the culture of humanity. At the beginning of the 21st century, the choice of jewels for expressing identity may be an important device for people trying to understand themselves and searching for their roles.Lajos Muharos offers an opportunity for that with several varieties of the same genre, with his figural pendants called „násfa” in Hungarian. With some exceptions of Roman and Greek mythological scenes, all the pendants represent Biblical stories. Beside the refined, chased silver elements made with the lost-wax (cireperdue) casting technique, the semi-precious stones carved and polished by the artist himself get an important role as well.The compositional solutions of the pendants follow the traditions of the Hungarian goldsmiths’ art of the 16-17th century. It is shown by the fact that the figural scene is built on the semi-precious stone surrounded by a niche-like building with arcades. Another characteristic of these works is that semi-precious stones hang from the richly decorated silver pieces. The figures are gross and grotesque also because of the proportions of the metal motives and the stones. These are the formal chatacteristics of the Biblical stories: the figures of Adam and Eve on a ring and on two pendants, Noah’s ark in several adaptations, King David, Suzanne and the old men, Saint Christoph and Saint Eligius on the pendants.The silver and semi-precious stone pendants hang on the chest of their owners. Metals may have a healing and disease prevention effect on the body, especially around an important energy center of the flow of creative and living powers. Culture preserves similar experiences about the capacities of stones as well. Together with the physical contact with the jewels, the spiritual connection with the compositions of the pendants have a great significance as well.
Wearing a precious stone with the scene of the flood and the silver of Noah’s ark symbolizing the flight from destruction, the freedom and the responsibility for the renewal of the essence of life, one can have the experience that the jewel shapes consciousness and determines the knowledge of identity.Meeting and touching the jewels of Lajos Muharos, like the pendant of Saint Elegius, I remembered the silver-semi-precious stone statues of the bishop. I could feel that the jewels and the statuettes are made of the same materials and it made hardly any difference that the jewels were 7, and the statuettes 14 cm long.Apart from viewing, the statuettes can be approached physically, as well as the pendants. Fitting into our palms, they stimulate an energy center creating and invigorating the human body, different from the pendants.They remind us of a state of existence of creatures, the unity that can be experienced with the Creator. What treasures does the heritage of Saint Elegius hide?The appreciation of the classical materials of goldsmith art and the application of its technical procedures? The timeliness of professional traditions in a given historical period? Serving the internal need for purification in people, the respect of human dignity, the development of people’s knowledge of identity with the help of the objects of goldsmith art? Serving the memory and the experience of unity with the Creator?Thenks to the oeuvre of Lajos Muharos, we are able to participate in the treasures of the heritage of Saint Elegius even at the beginning of the 21st century.
by M. Ágnes Bakonyvári