The Pantheon Concept from the Renaissance to Romanticism

Reflections on the Background of Statues of Csokonai by Ferenczy and Izsó

Abstract

The rise of the cult of famous people in the period of Renaissance was fostered by ancient examples, the biographies of Plutarch and Suetonius. The respect paid to contemporary poets, writers and humanists is considered as a Renaissance achievement, and the erection of ornate tombs as a typical expression of that. In Florence, the Basilica of Santa Croce has for centuries served as the burial place of great thinkers, from Leonardo Bruni to Vittorio Alfieri, and that is where Goethe, Foscolo and Stendhal paid their respect to them. In Hungary, István Széchenyi came up with the idea of the Üdvlelde (a Salvation Park), a memorial park that would contain the graves of scholars who had served the nation’s progress. It was up to the artists to realise the idea: István Ferenczy, who studied in Rome, created the busts of several Hungarian writers and poets, including Csokonai, as part of an imaginary national pantheon. When it commissioned a full-length statue of Csokonai from Miklós Izsó, the Debrecen Memorial Garden Committee imagined a park “where statues of great people of our homeland and science, especially of those who have made great contributions to our city, should stand [...]”. The elite of the city of Debrecen thus updated an old tradition with its roots in humanism, a heritage that was still alive in the 19th century through the spirit of the Reformed College.