A World's Fair in Italy: Turin 1911

Resource: Padiglione dell'Ungheria (AS NP HU 5) | Pavilion of Hungary (Pogany) (Print)

Title:

Pavilion of Hungary (Pogany) / Padiglione dell'Ungheria (AS NP HU 5)

Publication info:

Turin, 1910-11

Original Mode of Expressions:

Watercolor

Physical description:

Color print (41 x 29 cm) by Stabilimento Pietro Celanza of a watercolor by Maurice Pogany included in L'Esposizione di Torino 1911. Giornale ufficiale illlustrato dell'esposizione internazionale delle industrie e del lavoro 1911. It was also published in black and white in Esposizione Internazionale di Torino aprile-ottobre 1911, p.14.

Descriptive note:

Print of a watercolor of the Pavilion of Hungary from the River Po by Maurice Pogany.

Subjects:

Architectural structure

Pavilion of Hungary

Hungary is so modern in aesthetic expression and so jealous of its national traditions. The pavilion is the most striking in the International exhibition: austere in its exterior, beautiful and bizarre inside, this building of noble proportions and harmonious coloring ... is reminiscent of India and Persia ... and inspired by antique Hungarian motifs. (Melani, 289)

Named “King’s Attila Tent-Palace,” the Hungarian Pavilion was unanimously considered the “Pearl of the Exposition” and praised for its ability to evoke a sense of motion in a perfectly geometric structure. The designers’ aim was to give visual expression to the power of the Hungarian military tradition, underscore its relevance to the present, and celebrate the strong and determinate nature of the Hungarian nation and its people. Made of wood, the Pavilion of Hungary combined the Romantic vision of the Tent-Palace of ancient king Attila with the Modernist inspiration of its stern cubic blocks. Harmoniously fused in the pavilion, Romantic echoes and Modernist traits are the defining elements of Hungarian functionalism. The building is a mirror of the lively social and cultural situation of the Hungarian nation, and particularly Budapest, during the first decade of the twentieth century.

The Pavilion of Hungary was located on the left bank of the river Po, next to the Main entrance on Corso Vittorio Emanuele II and the Orto Botanico (botanical gardens). It was designed by Hungarian architects Emil Tőry, Móric (Maurice) Pogány, and Dénes Györgyi. An eclectic building, combining Art Nouveau elements with the features of National Romanticism, it covered 6000 square meters, and was considered "the pearl of the exposition."

Le Eposizioni di Roma e di Torino nel 1911 descritte ed illustrate (volume 4, January 1911, 31) described the building under construction as "una costruzione eminentemente caratteristica, con decorazioni cromatiche in maiolica" (a remarkably characteristic building with colorful maiolica decorations").

The Mostra Forestale Ungherese was located next to the Pavilion.

Interpretive Essays

Holding Repository:

Biblioteca Civica Centrale di Torino