Ecclesia et Synagoga
Nov. 19th, 2006 04:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustOur walk around Castle Hill in Budapest brought us to the Mátyás Church - so called not because it is dedicated to Saint Matthew but because the fifteenth century king, Mátyás Corvinus (I am charmed by the existence of a king called Matthew the Crow, but that's a whole other story...) was married there - twice.
Our guidebook said:
I'm glad we did, because I enjoy excess, and have a taste for Victorian Gothic: and this was certainly excessive. Imagine what Pugin could have done, if he'd really pulled out all the stops and let himself go. It's true that the interior is so crammed with decorative detail that it does not exude any sense of space, Gothic or otherwise: there is no unity, but a mass of details, each more irresistible than the last. I was particularly taken by a crow design for all the world like a 1950s wallpaper.
The following morning we visited the Great Synagogue which had intrigued us on our outward journey: this time a genuinely nineteenth century building, and one which had been designed all of a piece. The contrast was astonishing, and not just because this was nineteenth century orientalism, rather than gothic. I was forced to concede that, wonderful though the church had been, the synagogue was better. The decoration was equally rich, but co-ordinated, harmonious, and the result was not to reduce the exuberance but to focus it: yes, I know this is the theory, but I've rarely seen it so clearly demonstrated.
Next door is the Jewish museum.
Our guidebook said:
...today the most attractive aspect of the facade is its reflection in the [Hilton] hotel. Even the interior fails to exude any sense of Gothic space. The wall paintings are somewhat far-fetched...Such fervent dispraise was irresistible, and we went in to see for ourselves.
I'm glad we did, because I enjoy excess, and have a taste for Victorian Gothic: and this was certainly excessive. Imagine what Pugin could have done, if he'd really pulled out all the stops and let himself go. It's true that the interior is so crammed with decorative detail that it does not exude any sense of space, Gothic or otherwise: there is no unity, but a mass of details, each more irresistible than the last. I was particularly taken by a crow design for all the world like a 1950s wallpaper.The following morning we visited the Great Synagogue which had intrigued us on our outward journey: this time a genuinely nineteenth century building, and one which had been designed all of a piece. The contrast was astonishing, and not just because this was nineteenth century orientalism, rather than gothic. I was forced to concede that, wonderful though the church had been, the synagogue was better. The decoration was equally rich, but co-ordinated, harmonious, and the result was not to reduce the exuberance but to focus it: yes, I know this is the theory, but I've rarely seen it so clearly demonstrated.Next door is the Jewish museum.
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Date: 2006-11-20 01:34 pm (UTC)I have a good friend whose family is from Hungary and whose parents were saved by Raoul Wallenberg. Seeing that synagogue makes me wonder if his ancestors once prayed there.
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Date: 2006-11-20 03:14 pm (UTC)