A stained glass window made by Miksa Róth that depicts the dedication made to the Virgin Mary of Hungary by our king, Saint Stephen, can be found in the Saint Stephen Chapel of the Pannonhalma Benedictine Abbey. Miksa Róth’s design that was the basis for the work of stained glass is preserved in the museum collection of our institution. This design is the artwork of the month for December.
Following in the footsteps of his father, Miksa Róth opened his own stained glass workshop in 1885, which he ran until 1939. As a prominent figure in Hungarian stained glass art, he was able to raise the craft here to an international level through his life’s work. This was aided by the fact that he was able to work with the most outstanding architects, painters, and sculptors of the era. He was honored with numerous awards in recognition of the artistic quality of his works. He received substantial commissions for the decoration of both public and private buildings throughout the territory of historical Hungary, and at the same time fulfilled requests from abroad, such as in Oslo, Venice, The Hague, and Mexico City.
During his career, Miksa Róth performed numerous commissions for the church as well. These include the creation of two stained glass windows in the Saint Stephen Chapel of the Pannonhalma Abbey in 1899. This is when the head abbot’s (Saint Stephen) chapel originally constructed in the 15th century was rebuilt at the eastern wing of the cloister according to the designs of Ferenc Storno, whose name is connected with the comprehensive renovation of the abbey that had taken place a quarter of a century earlier. In connection with the Hungarian millennial celebrations, the head abbot Ipoly Fehér had the chapel renovated in the spirit of the Romanesque period that was related to the time of Saint Stephen. The unified artistic conception for the decoration was provided by the monastery that was celebrating its 900th anniversary and the country’s millennium, as well as by the memory of our first king, who was closely connected with this. The themes of the stained glass windows along with the rich mural paintings fit in well with this concept. The frescoes comprised an integral unit with the architecture, functioning to shape and supplement the interior space. Miksa Róth’s “Dedication” stained glass served as an altarpiece above the newly constructed altar. The other window of the chapel was Róth’s reinterpretation in glass of Gyula Benzúr’s painting entitled “The Christening of Vajk”, which faithfully follows the style of the original work and imbues it with a spellbinding quality through the magnificently bright colors of the glass. Both windows were restored by the glass artist László Hefter between 1994 and 1998.
Several hundred designs for stained glass windows and mosaics from the prolific career of Miksa Róth can be found in the collection of the HMA MPDC’s Hungarian Museum of Architecture, including his design for the Pannonhalma Abbey entitled “Saint Stephen Dedicates the Crown to the Virgin Mary”. This draft is not identical to the final work of stained glass in every detail.
Miksa Róth performed his commissions for the church in the spirit of Historicism, employing traditional stained glass materials and techniques. They often depicted Hungarian royal saints, which were very popular in the second half of the 19th century. The scene in the design of Róth’s “Dedication” window shows the kneeling Saint Stephen in the foreground dedicating the Hungarian crown to the Virgin Mary, who stands in the upper section of the picture wearing a crown, holding a scepter in her right hand, her child in her left, and surrounded by undulating clouds and seven angel heads. While the appearance of Saint Stephen is essentially unchanged in the completed stained glass window, the depiction of Mary and Jesus differs significantly from the design. Here the Virgin Mary of Hungary sits on a cushion of clouds accompanied by two angel heads. Below her feet is a crescent and her child in her lap is dressed in white and holding an orb in his left hand. The ornamentation of the framing border is also different, as are the motifs of the drapery and carpets. The coat-of-arms of the abbey seen in the design is supplemented in the final stained glass with the date of completion and Miksa Róth’s monogram as well as the accompanying Latin text of the donor, which in translation is, “Head Abbot Ipoly for the Glorious Founder”.
The stained glass at Pannonhalma was not Miksa Róth’s first work on the theme of Saint Stephen’s dedication. An earlier version was created in 1896 for the apse of the Ják Chapel in the Romanesque section of the historical architectural ensemble constructed for the Millennial Exhibition. The design for this could also be seen at the Hungarian Millennial Exhibition in the neighboring new building of the Műcsarnok (Hall of Art). The design was published by Miksa Róth in his Stained Glass Sample Book of 1896 and appeared in the exhibition catalogue as well.
Another, simpler version of a design for this theme can be found in the museum collection of the HMA MPDC, which shows Saint Stephen alone, without the Virgin Mary.
Csongor Fehér
Sources:
Csizik Gyula: Az üvegfestés (Stained Glass). In: Az iparművészet 1896-ban. Milléniumi emlékkönyv (Applied Arts in 1896. Millennial Souvenir Book). Ed. by Ráth György. Budapest, Magyar Iparművészeti Társulat, 1897. 185–188.
Dávid Ferenc: A pannonhalmi főegyház múlt századi helyreállításáról (The Restoration of the Main Church of Pannonhalma in the Last Century). In: Mons Sacer 996–1996 II. Ed. by Takács Imre. Pannonhalma, 1996. 162–181.
Erdei Gabriella – Hunkár Tímea – Horogh Margit: Róth Miksa császári és királyi üvegfestő (Miksa Róth, Imperial and Royal Stained Glass Artist). Műemlékvédelem, 32. 1988. 4. sz. 252–268.
Ezredéves Országos Kiállitás 1896. A Képzőművészeti Csoport képes tárgymutatója. Az uj Műcsarnok alaprajzával (National Millennial Exhibition 1896. Illustrated Index of the Fine Arts Complex. The New Műcsarnok [Hall of Art] with Its Ground Plan). Az Orsz. M. Képzőművészeti Társulat Kiadványa (Publication of the National Hungarian Fine Arts Society), 1896.
Fényi Tibor: A színek varázslója (The Conjurer of Colors). Budapest, 38. 2015. 12. sz. 5–8.
Gellér Katalin: Nagy Sándor üvegablakművészete és történeti előzményei (Sándor Nagy’s Stained Glass Art and Its Historical Antecedents). Ars Hungarica, 5. 1977. 2. sz. 251–266.
Gellér Katalin: Róth Miksa (1865–1944) A magyar üvegablak-művészet fénykora (Miksa Róth [1865–1944], the Golden Age of Hungarian Stained Glass Art). Művészettörténeti Értesítő, 29. 1980. 2. sz. 148–154.
László Csaba: Adalékok Pannonhalma középkori történetéhez (Data for the Medieval History of Pannonhalma). Műemlékvédelmi Szemle, 5. 1995. 1–2. sz. 89–129.
Levárdy Ferenc: Pannonhalma építéstörténete IV. (Construction History of Pannonhalma IV) Művészettörténeti Értesítő, 11. 1962. 1. sz. 1–23.
Mester Éva: Az építészeti üvegek iparművészeti értékei. Magyarországi üvegfestmények és díszüvegezésük (The Value of Architectural Glass to Applied Arts. Hungarian Stained Glass and Decorative Glasswork). Budapest, Geopen Könyvkiadó, 2012.
Takáts Rózsa: Színek, fények, árnyak – Róth Miksa és Alpár Ignác együttműködése a budapesti Vajdahunyadvárban. (Kézirat gyanánt) (Colors, Lights, and Shadows – the Collaboration of Miksa Róth and Ignác Alpár at the Vajdahunyad Castle in Budapest [manuscript]). Budapest, 2017. http://mek.oszk.hu/17300/17349/17349.pdf (2021. 11. 29.)
Varga Vera: Róth Miksa művészete (The Art of Miksa Róth). Budapest, Helikon Kiadó, 1993.
[sz.n.] Az uj Szent István-kápolna Pannonhalmán (The New Saint Stephen Chapel at Pannonhalma). Pesti Hírlap. 21. 1899. 327. sz. 6.
[sz.n.] Pannonhalma 900 éves jubileuma (The 900 Year Anniversary of Pannonhalma). Ország-Világ. 22. 1901/2. 27–52. sz. 713–716.
Internet:
Aki megszínesítette a napfényt – Róth Miksa 76 éve halt meg (The Man Who Colored Sunlight – the 76th Anniversary of the Death of Miksa Róth)
https://nullahategy.hu/aki-megszinesitette-a-napfenyt-roth-miksa-76-eve-halt-meg-kepgaleriaval/ (28 November 2021)
Hefter Glass Gallery
https://www.heftergallery.com/portfolio/pannonhalmi-bences-foapatsag/ (28 November 2021)
László Hefter
https://artportal.hu/lexikon-muvesz/hefter-laszlo-4740/ (28 November 2021)
Pannonhalma Abbey
https://pannonhalmifoapatsag.hu/ (28 November 2021)
Szent István felajánlja a koronát (Saint Stephen Dedicates the Crown) – Kotricz Tünde
https://www.kozterkep.hu/19017/szent-istvan-felajanlja-a-koronat#mulap (28 November 2021)
Saint Stephen Dedicates the Crown to the Virgin Mary, design by Miksa Róth,
HMA MPDC Hungarian Museum of Architecture, Inv. no. 71.032.39.3.
Pannonhalma, Saint Stephen Chapel, photograph by Róbert Hack
Pannonhalma, detail of the Saint Stephen Chapel, photograph by Róbert Hack
Miksa Róth: Church Window Design (published in: Ezredéves Országos Kiállitás 1896.
A Képzőművészeti Csoport képes tárgymutatója [National Millennial Exhibition 1896.
The Illustrated Index of the Fine Arts Complex]. CV.)
Stained glass in the Romanesque section of the historical architectural ensemble of the Hungarian Millennial Exhibition,
designed and made by Miksa Róth (published in: Üvegfestészetek mintakönyve [Sample Book of Stained Glass],
1896. This is a color illustration following the title page in an advertising brochure published by Miksa Róth)
Saint Stephen Dedicates the Crown, design by Miksa Róth
HMA MPDC Hungarian Museum of Architecture, Inv. no. 71.032.48.57.