István Ferenczy

Istvan Ferenczy died in 1856 in Rimaszombat, at the age of 64.

István Ferenczy was born in Rimaszombat (today Rimavská Sobota in Slovakia on 24 February, 1792. His father was a locksmith.

He was a bright young boy with an inherent interest in fine arts. However, his parents wanted him to follow in his father’s footsteps and had him apprenticed to him.

Naturally talented and gifted with an artistic bent of mind, he wanted to pursue a career as an artist. But his parents wanted him to choose a more stable profession that would also pay well as in those days artists barely managed to eke out a living.

The young István was adamant and his parents finally gave up. He first attended a course on copperplate engraving at the Vienna Academy where he was awarded for his medal "Solon".

He then studied sculpture under Fischer and Kleiber at the Academy in 1817. The following year he traveled to Rome desiring to study under Antonio Canova, the greatest Neoclassicist, and hoped to establish the art of sculpture in his homeland in future.

István Ferenczy sent two of his sculptures to Hungary in 1822, addressed to Palatine Joseph Habsburg, the Austrian governor of Hungary and well-respected patron of Hungarian culture, who displayed the sculptures publicly.

As a sculptor, he aimed at erecting memorials of great figures of the Hungarian history. He believed that heroes of culture were as important as heroes of war, and chose to erect his first memorial in the honor of the poet Mihály Csokonai Vitéz.

He adapted the formal conventions of Neoclassical sculpture to his Hungarian subject matter when he combined a traditional Hungarian dress with an antique toga in the bust of Mihály Csokonai Vitéz.

István Ferenczy was a very idealistic individual and wanted to put his skills to the use of his country by creating memorials of historic figures in order to inspire the coming generations. He viewed himself to be a thinker whose works were born out of his intellectual activities.

During his stay at Rome he had envisioned a great future for himself. But after returning to Hungary, he was met with considerable disillusionment. He wanted to work freely, and also wanted to do something for enriching Hungarian arts. However, things did not work out the way he had planned.