The work by Nitra painter Edmund Massányi The Nitra Square, from the period of second half of the twentieth century, depicts the local place of the former Main Square in Nitra (today Svätopluk’s Square). The author depicts the mood in Nitra at dusk, on the background of buildings with sloping roofs, grey and blue sky darkening into the night. The evening atmosphere of a street is accentuated by a street lamp whose golden light reflected in the surrounding buildings radiates quietude in the city falling asleep.
The art work represents the specific part of the city locale. The centre of author’s attention is, however, not the important historical building of the first Piarist secondary grammar school (1698 -1701) that was situated in the left part of the painting and is the oldest building of the Lower Town1 nor the part of the old, today non-existent, narrow pathway called Krížna ulička Street that in the past was inhabited by the poorest inhabitants.
Perpendicular to Krížna ulička Street and at the corner of the secondary school there is the old city street called Kupecká Street (and this corner building still exists) In the right part of the composition he depicted the one floor classicist building where in the forties of the past century the Braun Hotel was situated. The hotel was a popular social place in Nitra. Later in the sixties of the twentieth century, shortly before it was put down, it was the seat of the Communist Party in Nitra. Mr Hasala, the knife sharpener remembered by older generation of Nitra citizens, had his “mobile workshop” on a display in front of the building.
The content and form of the composition is balanced. The colour scale of the art work moves gradually from grey and green tones to expressive black, enlivened by impressive light emanated from a street lamp and reflected in a building nearby. This accentuates the topic. The artwork has not only artistic but also documentary value.
Massányi loved his hometown with its rich history, its significant viewpoints, corners, old crooked streets and history breathing buildings.
Painter Edmund Massányi was born on January 15, 1907 in Nitra. After finishing his secondary studies in 1924 he went to study at the UMPRUM in Prague with Professor Fr. Petr. From 1928 he studied at the Academy of Arts in Vienna under the supervision of Professor A. Brunner. He continued in his studies at the Academy of Arts in Munchen in a studio lead by Professor J. Albrecht, finished in 1929. In the same year he returned to Slovakia and was employed in the Slovak National Theatre as a stage designer, where he worked until 1932. From 1933 he was the member of art guilds: UBS in Bratislava, ZSU in Bratislava, the member of the Block of Slovak Artists in Bratislava, Union of Slovak Visual Artists in Bratislava.
Edmund Massányi was a multitalented artists who worked with almost all art techniques and genres. His works include drawings, graphic techniques, and book illustrations – adventure, fantasy and realist works by world authors of children’s literature where he appeared as a fluent artist. He used fully his masterly drawing skills to dramatize the plot. The author also created posters that avidly responded to topical problems of the time.
—Marta Hučková, February 2014
Notes
1 The Baroque building of Piarist Secondary School dated back in 18th C was built on a Renaissance foundations from 16th C. The building was built by the Esztergom Archbishop for the purposes of the Church. The building changed its function later, it was a townsmen house. The original structure burnt down in 1703 and the present one was built after the fire and serves now commercial purposes.
Inventory No.: O 97
Author: Edmund Massányi
Title: Nitra Square
Technique: oil
Material: chipboard
Dimensions: 48 × 36. 5 cm
Marked: unmarked