ISTVÁN FERENCZY
Sculptor. After being apprenticed to his father,
a locksmith, Ferenczy attended a course on copperplate engraving at the Vienna
Academy where he was awarded for his medal "Solon". He was a pupil of Fischer
and Kleiber at the Academy in 1817 where he learnt sculpture. In 1818 he made
his way to Rome covering the distance on foot and spent six years on scholarship
there. He worked in the workshop of Thorvaldsen, a Danish artist. He sent his
first works ("Reposing Venus", "Portrait of Csokonai", "Sheperdess or the
Beginning of Fine Crafts") to Hungary and they brought him several scholarships
and, as a result, he became Canova's pupil for two years. Full of plans,
Ferenczy returned to Hungary in 1824.
In the 1830s he modelled portraits ("Ürmélyi", "Rudnay", "Kazinczy", etc.),
tombs ("Kulcsár", "Szánthó", "Fornay", etc.), altarpieces ("The Blessed" in Vaál,
"The Martyrdom of St. Stephen" in Esztergom, etc.), some smaller memorials
("Károly Kisfalady" in Muzeumkert, Budapest) but he was never commissioned to
create the equestrian statue of "King Matthias", his life-long ambition. His
attempts to establish a school of sculpture proved to be unsuccessful. It was
Ferenczy who discovered marble in Ruszicka. Travels and excavations cost his
much of his fortune. He completed the "Statue of Kölcsey", his major work in
1846 and lived retired from the world in Rimaszombat from 1847 onwards. Only the
statue of "Eurydike", his best in his opinion, and small clay statuettes kept
him busy.
As an art student in Rome, he bought small renaissance bronzes, now among the
treasures of the Museum of Fine Arts, e.g. an equestrian statue which art
experts consider to be a work of Leonardo da Vinci's. Ferenczy, a typical
representative of classicism, was best at character portrayal. His large scale
plans never matched the artistic standards of his portraits and his "Sheperdess".
His real significance rests rather in his mission to establish national art in
Hungary.