Schiffer Villa
A masterpiece of Hungarian Secessionist architecture, built in Budapest between 1910 and 1912 after the design by József Vágó, this elegant villa of several storeys in height was commissioned by the engineer and building contractor Mika Schiffer. It was modelled on Josef Hoffmann's Stoclet Palace in Brussels, while its geometric ornaments reflect the influence of the Wiener Werkstätte in Austria. The building exemplifies the simplified, puritan forms of the Hungarian late Secession, and its interior design was executed in the pan-artistic spirit of the age, resulting in a Gesamtkunstwerk.
Josef Vágó designed the complete furniture and fittings, the bird-motif stained-glass windows produced in the workshop of Mika Roth, and the Zsolnav ceramic tiles that combined figures of birds with stylised plants. The unifying concept and subject matter of the artworks in the building were intended to convey the idea of art being instrumental in the creation of a state of paradise, and the notion of harmony between nature and humanity. The architect invited some of the most notable exponents of modernism to carry out the interior decorations. Karoly Kernstok designed a stained-glass window for the two-storey hall, while a painting by Kernstok depicting Mika Schiffer graced the wall beside the staircase. The hall also hosted a marble floral basin by Vilmos Fémes Beck, and a marble well decorated with a bronze figurine. A white marble sculpture of a seated male nude by Miklós Ligeti is still placed on the ground floor of the villa. On the wall above the reading alcove in the study was a panneau by Béla Iványi Grünwald titled Summer, whose luscious natural environment transforms the picture into an allegory of Plenty. In the lounge alcove of the grand salon was a large painting by Josef Rippl-Rónai, showing Miksa Schiffer's wife, Sarolta Grünwald, with their daughters in the garden of the family mansion in Nagyszentmiklós (Sânnicolau Mare, Romania). In the bedroom of the lady of the house was a painting by István Csók, depicting female figures in a waterside landscape.
Modern Times
