Csontváry Zrínyi kirohanása című képe irodalmi keretben
Csontváry’s Painting Zrínyi’s Outburst in a Literary Framework

Summary/Abstract: In the 1820s and 30s, the figure of Miklós Zrínyi and the story of Szigetvár’s siege has become a focus of attention in Hungarian literary discourse through the works of Ferenc Kazinczy, Ferenc Kölcsey, and Mihály Vörösmarty, followed by their prominence in the fine arts, due to Peter Krafft and Bertalan Székely. In the 1850s and 60s, the topic of Zrínyi gained new actuality in Hungarian literature through Mór Jókai (and others), and at the very end of the 19th century, against the false historicisation of the Hungarian Millennium, Kálmán Mikszáth and Géza Gárdonyi made attempts to deconstruct the myth. The same objective was expressed in the fine arts through the work of Csontváry. Scholarly literature is divided over his 1903 painting, entitled Zrínyi’s Outburst (The Siege of Szigetvár). Instead of the grandiose Romantic conception, the painter has chosen an individual artistic solution, reminiscent of genre painting, by placing the hero in a somewhat petty historical reality. Zrínyi’s quijotesque gesture, represented on this painting, sheds a rather peculiar, new light on the historical event.

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