SESSION 1: Early travellers to Egypt and the Middle East
Dejan Pernjak
PICTURES OF EGYPT AND THE MIDDLE EAST IN GEORGRIUS HUSZTHIUS’ FROM RASCINIA DESCRIPTIO PEREGRINATIONIS
Georgrius Huszthius from Rascinia was a Croatian Latinist and a travel writer from the first half of the 16th century. He studied in Pécs, and in 1532 he was captured by the Turks when they were returning from the siege of the Hungarian town Kőszeg, and brought to Constantinopole. During slavery, he learned to play trumpet and he joined Suleiman the Magnificent’s military campaign to Egypt, where he stayed for two years. His account describes the customs of the Egyptians, and the reader can get information about balm, animals, dances, pyramids, etc. The goal of this presentation is to present Hus’s experiences of Egypt as well as certain information about places such as Aden, Bethlehem and Mount Sinai.
Udo Staf
THE HISTORY OF THE LUCOVICH FAMILY FROM PRCANJ (NEAR KOTOR)
The very typical example of a navigator family, who in a short time became a major ship-owner and merchant “empire” in the Mediterranean area and hold this respectable position for more than three centuries, both in the Ottoman Empire in the South East, and in the Venetian Republic and the Habsburg Monarchy in the North West.
Ten years ago now, I began to sift through, studied and put together the puzzle that came out of this suitcase from the 19th century. The personalities who entered the great history of science, arts or politics immediately stand out (Erwin von Steinbach, Alexander von Humboldt, Anton Tomaschek, Antoine de Lucovich d’Ascrivio and so on). Trying to understand how these different personalities from very various locations came together, I found out that their first common element is a basic cosmopolitan and universal philosophical attitude. The second common point is the relative insignificance of real estate in these families, but the high importance of education, languages, travel and research (in the sense of continual renewal) to an epoch in which such occupations are referred only to small privileged groups.
The example of the Lucovich family also shows how navigators, by reaching out to foreign cultures, first acquired an intermediary position, thereby later a powerful economic position, which also has political and diplomatic consequences. Starting with the postal service between Venice and Constantinople, the family business rose to a Mediterranean-spanning trading and shipping company, planting their coats in strategic positions, carefully guarded by family members, from Odessa, Barila (formerly Drinago), Constantinople, Cyprus, Beirut, Alexandria, Crete, Trieste, Venice, Corsica, Marseille, Oran, Bordeaux to Cardiff and, together with a handful of other Adriatic seafaring families, all related through crosswise marriages, dominated maritime merchandising.
Fortress and harbour constructions for the city of Venice along the Adriatic coast, on Crete and in Alexandria, the cooperation at the Suez Canal and many still existing public buildings in Cairo and Alexandria testify to a very comprehensive framework of activities of the Lucovich clan until the end of the 19th century.
The collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the subjugation of Venice and the Adriatic ports to the Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy, as well as the colonialist confrontations of France, Belgium and England made an end of the outstanding social position of the Lucovich family at the turn of the last century. The dynasty also missed the technological transition to the steamboats and the new global trade market. The different family branches tried to locally assure their future in new activities and some emigrated to Australia, Brazil, Canada, and USA…
The presentation will present the main representatives of the Lucovich family and in more details the Egyptian period from 1678 to 1918.
Lucie Storchová
RELIGIOUS ZEALOTRY, TERRIFYING UNREASON OR A MODEL OF TOLERATION? IMAGINING ISLAM IN FICTIONAL TRAVELOGUES OF VÁCLAV MATĚJ KRAMÉRIUS (1802-08)
The main goal of my paper is to analyse an outstanding series of Czech travelogues which were published shortly after 1800 and dealt with the Near and Far East (with a special focus on Egypt and the Holy Land). Václav Matěj Kramérius (1753–1808) belonged to the most prolific authors and organizers of Czech literary life in this period when a process of Czech nation-building began to gain momentum. He occupied a central position in a network of intellectuals who tried to produce and spread Czech speaking literature and newspapers in small towns of Bohemia and Moravia. Having prepared numerous books and passed them directly onto future readers, Kramérius created a virtual monopoly not only over language and communication standards but also over values and conceptual frameworks shared by the emerging Czech national movement.
Images of the Other played a crucial role in his endeavours. As showed elsewhere, the ways in which Non-European and especially Oriental Other were represented in Kramérius´s travelogues enabled one to define who could be admitted as a “legitimate member” to this imagined community and who did not “deserve” to be included. In his travelogues, Kramérius focused mostly on topics like a civilisation decline of Non-European countries, gender disorder and poor hygienic and health standards. He criticised, however, also incompetence and law labour productivity of local people, which he related to the fact that they allegedly „lived in superstition”.
Kramérius commented on religion and a religious life in all his travelogues. He tended to combine an Enlightenment criticism of religious zeal, superstition and monastic way of life with a very positive attitude to Non-European religious tolerance and its impact on the functioning of a social whole. Developing an intersectional approach, my paper will deal with his imaginaries concerning religious belief in general, and Islam in particular. How did Kramérius imagine Islam and Muslims? Did his imagery intermingle with other stereotypes of the Non-European people? Regarding the fact that the travelogues concerned were fictional, how Kramérius reworked his sources? Was he interested in theological questions or did he conceptualise Islam primarily as a civilisation and a lifestyle? What did he know about the Quaran, the life and normative teaching of Muhammad? Did he relate Islam to any (bio)political and moral issues which were so typical for his other texts? And, finally, did Kramérius discuss Islam to address more general questions and topical issues of his time?
SESSION 2: Travellers to Egypt and the Orient during the first half of the 19th century
Carlo Rindi Nuzzolo and Irene Guidotti
EPIDEMICS BETWEEN EUROPE AND EGYPT IN A REDISCOVERED WORK OF GIUSEPPE NIZZOLI
During the first half of the 19th Century, pandemics struck Europe and Africa. In this climate of uncertainty, European powers and Kingdoms – including the Austrian Empire – endeavored to look for prevention and health advice to contain the disease.
This paper will present how Giuseppe Nizzoli, Chancellor of the Austrian Consulate in Egypt, contributed to spread awareness on such an important topic by recalling his own experiences in Cairo and Alexandria. The discussion will include the analysis of a hitherto unknown work of the Chancellor, recently rediscovered by the authors during the investigation for the Nizzoli Project.
Johanna Holaubek
MARIA SCHUBER (1799-1881), A COURAGEOUS WOMAN AND HER JOURNEY TO THE ORIENT.
Maria Schuber was born on July 20th, 1799 in Graz. After her time at school, Maria devoted herself to a career as a teacher and governess. When she was 48 years old, she remarked in her book, ‘that the world had become too small and her life too narrow’. And so, being very religious, she decided to undertake a pilgrimage to Palestine and eventually a trip to Egypt as well. The secondary purpose for her journey was to seize an opportunity to learn more about different schools and educational institutions. Altogether during her journey, she managed to cover 8 000 km on foot, by train, by ship, on camel and donkey. Moreover, she accomplished this alone.
Maria Schuber recorded her travel impressions in a 508-page travelogue, which was first published in 1850 in Graz and has now nearly been forgotten. She chose a narrative in letter form for her travel account. Schuber took the material for her book from notes that she had written down in a very meticulous manner all throughout her trip. The aim of her book was to present observations, occurrences and encounters that she had recorded on her journey to an interested public.
Tomislav Kajfež
A CASE OF MODERN-DAY BURIAL IN ANCIENT EGYPTIAN SARCOPHAGI
For over a century and a half, two ancient Egyptian sarcophagi can be found in Slovenia. About 1845 these sarcophagi were sent to Vipava by Anton Lavrin, Austrian consul-general in Alexandria, who was also engaged in collecting Egyptian antiquities, a common pastime among European diplomats in Egypt at that time. Vipava was Lavrin’s hometown and he brought the sarcophagi there to be set up in the family burial vault. The sarcophagi were discovered at the foot of the Chephren pyramid in Giza, in the tombs of courtiers from the end of the 4th (2575-2465 BC) and the beginning of the 5th (2465‑2323 BC) Dynasty. They pertain to the class of granite sarcophagi and bear stylised representations of ancient Egyptian buildings on their sides. Originally, they contained the remains of prince Junmin and of the courtier Rawer. Today, both sarcophagi stand in the burial vault of the Lavrin-Hrovatin family at the Vipava cemetery, holding the mortal remains of Anton Lavrin’s parents and of his underage son. The reburial of Lavrin’s parents in the Egyptian sarcophagi in 1845 received media attention at that time, shown by the fact that it was covered by the newspaper “Kmetijske in rokodelske novice” (Agricultural and Artisan News). The ceremony at the cemetery was also attended by consul Lavrin himself, who was at the time paying a visit to his native country. An interesting question remains as to how the Lavrin’s “pagan” act was accepted by the strictly Catholic-oriented society of the time without any objections.
Session 3: Travellers to Egypt and the Orient during the second half the 19th century
Vera Vasiljević
THE BOMBARDMENT OF ALEXANDRIA 1882 IN THE WRITINGS OF MILAN JOVANOVIĆ MORSKI
Milan Jovanović Morski (1834-1896), physician and writer, member of the Serbian Royal Academy (of Science), was born in Banat. After getting his degree in Vienna in 1865, he practiced medicine in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, the Principality of Montenegro and in the Kingdom of Serbia. From 1878 to 1882, he was employed as ship’s doctor of the Austrian Lloyd and in that capacity, he travelled to the Far East. His travelogue „Back and Forth through the East“ (Tamo amo po Istoku), begins with the chapter on Alexandria. There and in a story at „From the Sea and from the Land“ (S mora i sa suva), Jovanović concisely commented on the Urabi Revolt and gave a brief witness account of the bombardment of Alexandria in 1882, and on that background he tells about a group of indigent men from the Bay of Kotor (then Austria), caught in the turmoil.
Sanda Kočevar
JAKOV ŠAŠEL – THE ORIGIN OF HIS BILDER
Jakov Šašel was born in 1832 in Carinthia in a family of a Slovenian gunsmith where he was taught the trade of gunsmithing by his father. In the summer of 1853, at the age of 21, Šašel joined the Catholic mission of Ignatio Knoblecher in the Sudan. Skilled in writing and drawing, he wrote letters accompanied by his own drawings to his family members as well as his companions’ families. Although he stayed in Africa less than a year, it obviously had such a great impact on young Šašel, that even after a decade he wrote a book of memories in the form of a journal. This manuscript, written in German under the title Bilder aus dem Oriente aufgenommen während einer Reise nach Aegypten, Nubien, Sudan in Jahren 1853 und 1854 (Pictures from the Orient taken during a journey to Egypt, Nubia and Sudan in 1853 and 1854) is nowadays a part of the collections of the Karlovac City Museum (inventory number GMK-KP-460). It is bound in leather with the title in gold letters and consists of a foreword and 143 pages divided into four chapters, illustrated with Šašel’s 33 colourful drawings.
The paper questions the context of the manuscript’s origin in the light of recent discoveries of Šašel’s letters to his parents.
Susanna Moser
CARLO DE MARCHESETTI: AN AUSTRIAN BOTANIST IN THE LAND OF THE PHARAOHS
C arlo de Marchesetti was born in Trieste in 1850 and studied Medicine at the University of Vienna. He was mainly interested in Natural Sciences, and he became such a renowned botanist that he was nominated Director of the Natural History Museum of Trieste in 1876. He kept this position until 1921, and during this lapse of time, he personally excavated many of the most important prehistorical sites of the area of Trieste and the Karst, proving himself an exceptional archaeologist. Even though at that time the Museum possessed two Egyptian mummies in their coffins, as well as other ancient Egyptian objects, and though he travelled to Egypt three times in his life, he seems not to have been much impressed by the remains of the ancient Egyptian civilization, except by its prehistorical aspects (he took care to visit sites that yielded silex artefacts and became friends with Georg Schweinfurth). His diaries and pictures, however, still prove interesting and useful in reconstructing a chapter of the history of Egyptology.
Angela Blaschek
ANTON PROKESCH-OSTEN JR (1837-1919)
Anton Prokesch-Osten jr. published one of the first german-speaking travel guides for Egypt Nilfahrt bis zu den zweiten Katarakten (nilecruise as far as the second cataracts) in 1874. This was three years before Baedecker issued his guide for Lower-Egypt. The son of the renowned Anton Prokesch-Osten, a diplomat of Metternich, Anton Prokesch-Osten jr. lived abroad for several years, in Athens and later in Constantinople. He travelled to Egypt with his father on several occasions, and developed love and admiration for the history and the monuments of Egypt. He modelled his guidebook on the English-language travel guides in structure and layout, enriched with many personal comments.
Session 4: Formation of Egyptian collections in the second half of the 19th century
Éva Liptay
THE EGYPTIAN COFFIN AND MUMMY OF STEPHAN DELHAES
The artist, conservator and collector Stephan Delhaes (1845–1901) was the son of a wealthy Dutch tradesman. The family first settled in Pest, but later moved to Vienna. After having finished the Academy of Art he worked as a conservator for the Liechtenstein Gallery. His studio housed a rich and eclectic collection of artefacts containing prehistoric objects and ancient antiquities among others. In his testimony he bestowed all pieces of his collection to Hungarian museums. After his death in 1901 the ancient Egyptian objects had first been housed in the Hungarian National Museum until 1934, when they were transferred to the newly established Egyptian collection of the Museum of Fine Arts. As we do not have any relevant documentation of the ex-Delhaes-collection, in a current research we try to reconstruct its original composition. The paper deals with a Ptolemaic coffin and mummy, i.e. two highlights of the Delhaes-collection, and two other objects in the Museum of Fine Arts and in Graz, that seem to have come from the same family burial and may have been bought from the same art dealer during the last decade of the 19th century.
Jozef Hudec
AEGYPTIACA ON AN EXHIBITION IN PRESSBURG/ BRATISLAVA IN 1865
An exhibition of local products, archaeology and art was organised at the occasion of a Hungarian physicians and naturalists´ meeting in Bratislava on August 27, 1865. The exhibition catalogue was published under the title “Névsorzata azon ipar, régészeti és mükiállitásnak mely magyar orvosok és természet buvárok összejötte alkalmával Pozsonyban rendeztetett a kiállitás megnyittatik 1865. év Aug. 27-ikén”.
More than sixty items of Ancient Egyptian origin, belonging mainly to John Schieffner and George Ráth, were displayed in room II of the exhibition. The majority of the exhibited aegyptiaca represented various Ancient Egyptian gods in human and animal shape as well as scarabs.
The paper will describe the context of the exhibition, provide a list of the Ancient Egyptian monuments including conversions of their dimensions into modern measuring units, and provide an attempt to trace the monuments in contemporary collections.
Marta Herucová
ORIENTAL PAINTINGS IN THE FORMER KEGLEVIĆ’ CHATEAU TOPOĽČIANKY
Chateau Topoľčianky in Western Slovakia belonged to the Croatian noble family Keglević (Keglevich) de Buzin from 1742 to 1890. The most important art collector here was Ján Nepomuk Keglević (*1786 Pest †1856 Topoľčianky), son of Karol Keglević and Katarína, née Zichy, and husband of Adele Zichy and of Victoria Eugenia von Creneville-Folliot. Many Oriental items are preserved in the chateau, among them some paintings by various European authors – character heads and landscapes –, which will be the focus of this paper.
Session 5: Formation of Egyptian collections in the second half of the 19th century
Regina Hölzl
“THE FORGOTTEN PAPYRUS” OF THE MIRAMAR COLLECTION
Between 2011 and 2016 an inventory revision of the holdings of the Egyptian and Near Eastern Collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna was carried out. In the course of this project an unknown papyrus scroll was discovered in a so-called Ibis-cone – a pottery vessel which served as a coffin for a mummified ibis: Under the ibis mummy lay a small packet which had undergone unnoticed until that moment. It turned out to be a papyrus scroll wrapped in two pieces of linen.
This particular ibis cone derives from the so-called Miramar Collection of Archduke Ferdinand Max and is most likely part of his early acquisitions between 1850 and 1855. After Maximilian’s tragic death in 1867 the whole collection of his Aegyptiaca was officially incorporated into the Imperial Collection in Vienna.
After the papyrus was unrolled, it turned out to be 250 cm long; due to its hieratic inscriptions it can be dated to the Late New Kingdom.
This unusual discovery raises many questions. Above all, when was the scroll put in the ibis cone? Did this occur in antiquity, when the mummy was created and inserted into the clay cone? Or was the scroll only added during the 19th century when the ibis cone came from Egypt to Trieste, entering the Miramar Collection, or later when making the journey from Trieste to Vienna?
Anja Kovačić
EGYPTOLOGY IN THE VARAŽDIN AREA: THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE BOMBELLES AND PASZHTORY-VARADY FAMILY
In this paper the author will deal with two families from Varaždin county, whose contribution is more than significant when we speak about exploration and understanding of Egypt at a local level. It is about the Bombelles family, a noble family of french origin, which in the 19th century gained properties in Varaždin county and were very active in the Varaždin area during the 19th and 20th centuries, and the Paszthory family, which also gained properties in the Varaždin area in the 19th century that later got into the ownership of the Varady family.
Their interest in Egyptian history and Egypt itself, even though it was inexpertly and amateurish by today’s standards, resulted in a collection of valuable historical material, which is stored in the Varaždin City Museum fundus.
Themes that will be covered by the presentation are: the history of the mentioned families, their collectibles, journeys to Egypt and, it will be presented the Egyptian collection of the Varaždin City Museum which contains seven items, the most valuable legacy of the Pasztory-Varady family.
Although the collection is not big, it is very valuable according to some authors, taking into consideration that it contains pre-dynastic cup, an Ancient-Egyptian stele, scarabs, and four Ancient-Egyptian canopics, which are among the most beautiful and best preserved examples that can be found in Croatian museums.
Marina Kovač
THE EGYPTIAN COLLECTION OF THE MUSEUM OF SLAVONIA AND ITS DONORS
The lecture will present the formation of the Egyptian Collection of the Museum of the Free and Royal City of Osijek, today the Museum of Slavonia in Osijek, which began with the first donation of an Egyptian artefact to the Museum – a faience amulet of the God Shu – which was donated by Ludwig H. Fischer in 1893. Through the analysis of the data in the Museum’s Entry and Inventory Books, as well as the documentary and archival material of the Historical Department of the Museum of Slavonia and the State Archives in Osijek, the author will present information about Egyptian artefacts and their donors. Donations of honored citizens of the city of Osijek, such as Bettina Krausz, the wife of the wholesaler Ivan Krausz, captain Franjo Folk, the wholesaler and numismatist Carl Franz Nuber and k. u. k. military engineer and accountant Emerik Hild, from 1893 to 1898 allowed the long-time curator of the Museum professor Vjekoslav Celestin to create a small collection and start exploring individual Egyptian items. The last Egyptian object donated to the Museum of Slavonia is an Ushabti figurine which was found and handed over by Milan Plećaš while working on ground infrastructure on Vukovarska road in 1953. Citizens donated to the Museum of Slavonia a total of nine Egyptian items. One item was acquired in 1987, while there is no data for the other six items. The archaeological collections of the Museum of Slavonia, as well as the Egyptian collection, are now part of the newly established Archaeological Museum Osijek.
Session 6: Egypt in Art/Orientalist Art
Ernst Czerny
CARL RUDOLPH HUBER AND THE TEMPTATION OF THE EAST
The Austrian artist Carl Rudolph Huber (1839-1896) was a renowned painter of animals, especially horses, hors-races and sports. He also was a successful portraitist, mostly for members of the high-society in Vienna. However, he travelled four times to Egypt. His first trip took place already in the 1850’s, long before L.C. Müller visited Cairo for the first time. Later, he was a member of the famous artists’ party with Müller, Lenbach, Makart and others who stayed at Mussafirkhana Palace in Cairo.
Repeatedly in his life, Huber produced orientalist paintings, and he contributed many illustrations to Georg Ebers’ book “Ägypten in Bild und Wort”, when Müller retired from the commission. Not being a typical “orientalist” painter, Huber’s contributions to the genre are always original und un-conventional, sometimes even full of humour.
The lecture will give an overview over Huber’s orientalist paintings, drawings and photographs, including a hitherto unknown picture which might be ascribed to him.
Petra Vugrinec
EGYPTIAN MOTIFS IN CROATIAN MODERN PAINTING: VLAHO BUKOVAC, BELA CSIKOS SESIA, ROBERT AUER
Croatian painters have created works of art inspired by Egyptian motifs in the last decade of the 19th century and during the first half of the 20th century. Inspired by the Oriental spirit of the period which lasted throughout the whole 19th century in European Academic Painting, Croatian artists have also tried to bring the national audience closer to it through attractive settings from the Egyptian past. Vlaho Bukovac, under the influence of „Egyptomania“ in French Painting, created a masterpiece in 1886, called „Potiphar’s wife“, using the sensual potential of the wife of a commander in the service of the Egyptian Pharaoh. Bela Csikos Sesia has already made works of art inspired by Egypt during his studies in Vienna, in which, with the precision of an archaeologist, he revives historical scenes of the construction of the pyramids. Later, under the influence of symbolism, Csikos used a mystical aura of the atmosphere of Ancient Egypt in the painting called „The dead guard“. Robert Auer has placed Cleopatra, who he depicts in the moments before she dies, in his triumvirate of femmes fatales, including „Circe“and „Leda“. Fatal destiny and beauty have determined the choice of this motif, by a painter known for depicting sensual female nudes. Decorative motifs of Egyptian Art have often served as templates for the Art Nouveau repertoire of the painters of the Modern era and are also found in Croatian Painting of Art Nouveau. Dimensionality and pastel colors are a design approach of many compositions of the artworks of Croatian Modern painting. With a small, yet imposing oeuvre, Croatian Art is participating in the general wave of adoration of Egypt in the European Art of the 19th century.
Vesna Kamin Kajfež, Ljubljana
ADOLF LOOS’S PURCHASE IN 1914. THE STORY OF IVAN NAPOTNIK AND HIS „EGYPTIAN WOMAN“
At the Viennese exhibition in Künstlerhaus in 1914 Adolf Loos – one of the pioneers of modern architecture at the turning-point between the 19th and 20th centuries – acquired a gypsum model of the statue entitled „Egyptian Woman“ of the young Slovene sculptor Ivan Napotnik (1888–1960). Napotnik’s statuary activity dates to his academic years in Vienna, when he was presenting his first works on academy artistic performances and at the exhibitions in Ljubljana. Those works were partly still under the influence of the school, but partly they were already showing the first buds of his independent artistic modelling. Just like all other purebred sculptors, Napotnik was above all interested in the human body, into which he poured all his love and creative amazement about the enormous miracles originating from mother Nature. »Egyptian Woman« shows the rare motive of a female figure standing on turtles. The motive itself shows the spirit of the Secession and its witty imaginings. In this paper I will argue that Loos played a pivotal role in Napotnik’s later professional career as his patron and supporter, since he also acquired Napotnik’s other works and became his close acquaintance and emphatically persuaded him to devote himself completely to sculpture.
Ágnes Mészáros
“ÉCOLE HONGROISE” OF ORIENTALIST PAINTING – DOES IT EXIST?
The rediscovery of 19th century oriental painting for art history in the 1970’s resulted in a series of thick volumes on national schools of French, British, American, Italian, Spanish, German and Austrian orientalist painters, appearing in the 1990’s. Later, orientalist exhibitions followed, too. However, no similar scholarly works have been published yet on orientalist schools of any of the Central European countries. Hungarian orientalists constituted a forgotten chapter of local art history until about two decades ago when participants of the international art market started to show a vivid interest in their works too. Prices of these paintings have been increasing ever since, although these artists are barely known even to auction experts and only scanty information is available on them.
My paper will discuss the issue of a Hungarian school of orientalists along the following questions: Is it appropriate within the context of the 19th century Habsburg Empire and Monarchy to discuss national schools of painters? Do individual artists necessarily form a school if they are of the same nationality? Is there any characteristic stylistic feature that links members of this group together? Who can be considered Hungarian? While looking at this colourful tableau of Hungarian artists, an exciting network of personal connections with Austrian and other foreign artists emerges. To give a few examples: while in Cairo, Róbert Nádler, a close friend of Pettenkofen, was renting the very same studio in the Arabian quarter that earlier belonged to Carl Leopold Müller; Arthur Ferraris used to share a studio with Charles Wilda in Paris, and he was among the organisers of the Exposition du Caire in February 1892 where he invited Ferenc Eisenhut, Alexander Swoboda and, of course Charles Wilda to participate.
Session 7 Travellers to Egypt and the Orient during the second half the 19th century and the early 20th century
Edith Specht
PATER JOSEPH OHRWALDER: TWO LIVES, TWO WIVES
Joseph Ohrwalder was born 1856 in Lana/South Tyrol. Very young he decided to become a missionary. He graduated in Divinity and joined the Missionaries of Daniele Comboni in Verona. After his investiture as a priest in Cairo in 1880 he was sent to the missionary station in Delen in Sudan. Here he was a devoted and efficient missionary, seeing the Sudan as his homeland. He died in Ondurman in 1913.
For almost ten years, however, he led a life completely different from his canonical obligations. As a captive of the Mahdists from 1882 to 1891, he had to act as the head of a profane family after marrying two nuns of the Comboni-Order who had been captured with him.
His recollections of that time were published immediately after his escape from Omdurman in 1891. The English version of the book became a bestseller and consequently was a useful tool for the Intelligence Service to justify he costly British activities in the Sudan to the public.
Eszter Feró
MÁRIA FÁY, THE FIRST HUNGARIAN WOMAN TRAVELER AND HER JOURNEY TO THE ORIENT
Mária Fáy Béláné Mocsáry (1845–1917) was the first Hungarian woman traveller who started her exciting journeys nearly at the age of 50 after her husband’s death. This exceptional woman not only visited Egypt during her travel to the Orient in 1893 but also India, Ceylon, and later on the USA and Mexico. What made her a really unique figure is the fact that she managed to touch the broad public through her catchy but objective reports published in various newspapers and in the same time she earned the respect of the academic realm as well. The Hungarian Geographical Society frequently invited her to give lectures, and she also published articles in the Geographical Bulletin. The main goal of my paper is to investigate how her travel experiences boosted the public interest towards the research of the Orient. I would also shed some light upon the circumstances in which she turned out to be a role model while women had only just gotten the right to study at universities in Hungary but still had to fight against prejudices.
Session 8 and 9: Fran Gundrum Oriovčanin in Egypt (1902) – the unpublished manuscript of his diary
Ivana Funda
FRAN GUNDRUM ORIOVČANIN’S VOYAGE FROM TRIESTE TO ALEXANDRIA
In November 1902,Fran Srećko Gundrum Oriovčanin travelled to Egypt to participate in the First Egyptian medical congress in Cairo, which took place from 19th to 24th December in 1902. In his unpublished manuscript „Moje putovanje po Egiptu“, Gundrum gave detailed description of his voyage.
In this paper, the author will present Gundrum’s voyage from Trieste to Alexandria (20th to 25th November 1902). During her presentation, the author will describe his voyage on the steamboat „SS Habsburg“of the Austrian Lloyd. In his manuscript, Gundrum noted his thoughts and observations down of people on the steamboat, their interaction with each other, problems with seasickness etc. as well as his first impressions of the port of Alexandria.
Andreja Škrlec
FRAN GUNDRUM ORIOVČANIN’S TOUR OF THE TOMBS IN UPPER EGYPT
Fran Srećko Gundrum Oriovčanin, a Croatian doctor and writer, who travelled to Egypt to participate in the First Egyptian medical congress in Cairo in 1902, described, among other things, his voyage from Cairo to Upper Egypt and back. In his unpublished manuscript „Moje putovanje po Egiptu“.
In this paper the author will present Gundrum’s nineteen days voyage from Cairo to Upper Egypt and back to Cairo (29th November to 17th December 1902). During her presentation the author will focus on and describe his cruise on the Nile aboard the steamboat „Nefert-Ari“ as well as his tour of the tombs in Upper Egypt. In his manuscript, Gundrum wrote a brief overview of Egyptian history and he gave descriptions of tombs and other monuments in the above-mentioned region. He also took notes of his thoughts and observations of the people he met, places he visited etc.
Mladen Tomorad
FRAN GUNDRUM ORIOVČANIN IN LUXOR (4TH ‒ 7TH DECEMBER 1902)
From 25th November until the 26th December 1902 Fran Srećko Gundrum Oriovčanin travelled around the Nile valley from Alexandria to Aswan and back to Alexandria. In a previous paper (Egypt and Austria XI) the author gave a very brief description of Gundrum’s voyage around Egypt. In his 453 pages long unpublished manuscript, Gundrum observed and described a considerable number of the archaeological sites in the Nile valley that he visited in Alexandria, the Cairo region and during his voyage on three steamboats from Cairo to Aswan and back to Luxor.
In this paper, the author will present the part of his voyage in the Upper Egypt region around the city of Luxor, which took place from the 4th to the 7th December 1902 (Gundrum „Iz Kaira u Gornji Egipat po Nilu i natrag u Kairo”, pp. 298-362). During this presentation the author will describe the archaeological sites and monuments in the ancient Thebes region which Gundrum visited: the Luxor temple, the Karnak temple, the tombs in the Valley of the Kings, the ruins of the temple of Seti I, the Deir el-Bahri temples and tombs, the Ramesseum, the Memnon Colossi, the valley of Deir el-Medina, the temple in Medinet Habu, and the necropolis in Sheikh Abdel-Quma. Gundrum’s writings contain very detailed archaeological and historical data about each site with various details of the preservation of these monuments at the beginning of the 20th century. They are an amazing source of knowledge about the archaeology and history of Ancient Egypt and according to this data we can consider Gundrum as one of the first Croatian amateur Egyptologist.
Margareta Filipović – Srhoj
FRAN GUNDRUM’s DESCRIPTION OF THE CONSTRUCTING AND THE GRAND OPENING OF THE OLD ASWAN DAM IN 1902
In this paper the author will review one part of Fran Gundrum’s writings entitled “Iz Kaira u Gornji Egipat po Nilu i natrag u Kairo“. He stayed in Aswan from 9th to 13th December 1902. During that time, he was able to participate at the grand opening ceremony of the old Aswan Low Dam on 10th December 1902. The focus of this presentation will be Fran Gundrum’s description of the construction work of the Low Dam and it’s opening ceremony. The whole story will be displayed through his thoughts, written in his unpublished manuscript, which will be put in the historical context of that time, and the comparative analysis of newspaper reports of this event.
Lana Končevski
FRAN GUNDRUM ORIOVČANIN: „FROM KRIŽEVCI TO CAIRO“ – ETHNOGRAPHIC DATA
This presentation will show an ethnographic picture of Egypt as given by Fran Srećko Gundrum Oriovčanin in an unpublished travel journal to Egypt, with special reference to the part named “Iz Križevaca u Kairo“ (‘From Križevci to Cairo’). This Croatian physician, writer and cultural worker was in Egypt from November 25 to December 26, 1902. The main goal and purpose of the presentation is to show and interpret the patterns of values, behaviour, beliefs and language of Egypt as seen and described by an Austro-Hungarian (Croatian) traveller at the beginning of the 20th century.
Kristina Milković
THE SOCIETY REPRESENTED IN THE MANUSCRIPT „MY JOURNEY TO EGYPT“ OF FRAN GUNDRUM ORIOVČANIN
Fran Gundrum Oriovčanin travelled to Egypt at the very beginning of the 20th century and left written testimony of this journey in an unpublished manuscript. As a destination, Egypt was very popular in 19th and 20th centuries.
In this paper the author will consider the topic of social relations between people from different social classes and different cultures as revealed by Gundrum Oriovčanin seen through his own eyes. The author will analyse social relations between Europeans and between Europeans and Egyptians in this period which represents a boundary between tradition and modernity and she will also analyse ethnic, social and cultural stereotypes as well.
Session 10 Travellers during the first half the 20th century
Jaro Lajovic
DR. KAREL PEČNIK – A SLOVENIAN PHYSICIAN IN EGYPT
Dr. Karel Pečnik, a man of many talents and interests, was born in a Carinthian village in 1867. After studying medicine in Vienna and Dresden, he followed his professional interest in tuberculosis by joining a sanatorium in South Tyrol. Presumably, he first visited Egypt accompanying his patients there for climate therapy. The land seems to have impressed him and in 1895 he settled in Alexandria.
During the next 16 years in Egypt, his activities were manifold. Having established his practice in Alexandria he became much involved in social activities, including the foundation of the society »Slovenian Palm on the Nile« and the creation of a mutual social/health insurance for numerous Slovenians, mainly maids and nannies, serving in Egypt. In various Slovenian newspapers, he published many articles on Egypt, dealing with its present and its ancient heritage as well as discussing (and urging his readers to use) the economic opportunities of exporting Slovenian goods to Egypt. His findings on the local climate and tuberculosis were quoted in medical textbooks. He also wrote a travel guide of Ramleh, published in four languages.
In 1911 he left Egypt and settled in Trieste, later in Celje, finally upon retirement settling down in Vienna, where he died in 1936.
Grzegorz First
FROM HABSBURG GALICIA TO OTTOMAN EGYPT. IMPRESSIONS FROM A VOYAGE TO EGYPT BY FR. STANISŁAW TRZECIAK (1904)
One of the most interesting sources of knowledge of the Ancient Orient are voyage accounts of individuals who did not conduct research or own business, but only observed people, monuments and local occurrences.
In 1903, the catholic priest Stanisław Trzeciak set out on a journey from Krakow via Vienna and Trieste to Egypt. After his voyage, he published an account, in which he described Alexandria, Cairo with Heliopolis, Giza, Memphis and Saqqara, Port Said and villages in Lower Egypt. This report, written in Polish, is broadly unknown. It is a fascinating source of perception of Ancient and Ottoman Egypt made by a person from the perspective of his origin, status and views. As a typical voyager of his epoch, he compared the visited country to the Galician part of the Habsburg Monarchy, with broad comments on history, religion and human behaviours.
This source can also contribute to the history of Ancient Egyptian monuments, observed in the beginning of the 20th century, and it describes a traveller’s views on the archaeology of Ancient Egypt based on the onetime state of knowledge.
Sabina Kaštelančić
IVAN MEŠTROVIĆ’S CORRESPONDENCE TO RUŽA MEŠTROVIĆ FROM EGYPT IN 1927. THE ARTIST’S FASCINATION WITH EGYPT REFLECTED IN HIS PICTURE POSTCARDS TO RUŽA MEŠTROVIĆ
The paper deals with a more private aspect of the artist’s journey to Egypt, (also to Palestine, Syria and Greece), in 1927, offering insight into the artist’s fascination with these countries, their tumultuous history and people’s livelihood and may also be an addition to the paper on Ivan Meštrović’s outstanding works that were created after this visit, that is, inspired by his travels to Egypt and presented at this Conference by Zorana Jurić Šabić, senior curator.
The contents of Meštrović’s picture postcards posted to his first wife, Ruža Meštrović, sculptress, paintress and decorative artist, to Buenos Aires, where she was organizing exhibitions of their works for the year of 1928, have been preserved in the family archives and were not published so far. Apart from quite captivating photographs of famous sites, the postcards also offer insight into interesting postage stamps and postmarks of that time.
Ivica Šute
FROM SPLIT TO THE PYRAMIDS. HOW DID THE CROATIAN POET VLADIMIR NAZOR EXPERIENCE EGYPT IN 1935
Among many travellers to Egypt, in the summer of 1935, also the famous Croatian poet Vladimir Nazor was on the steamship “Kraljica Marija“ (“Queen Mary”). On the way from Split to Port Said, Nazor was eagerly awaiting to see the Nile and to sail through the holy river. He also wanted, like his companions, to discover the charms of “a thousand and one night” or, by the way, see the sights of the pyramids in the moonlight “as they swim in the sea of green sand.” Nazor’s impressions of Egypt, contacts with local people, with other poets and artists are described in his travelogue. Today, this travel book is a valuable source for illustrating the cruise journeys maintained by the society Jadranska straža (Adriatic Guard) on the Croatia – Eastern Mediterranean route, as well as the insight into the experiences of Egypt by the famous Croatian interwar intellectuals.
Session 11 Egyptomania in Art
Marina Bagarić
EGYPT IN THE IMAGE OF ZAGREB: BUILDINGS, MONUMENTS, STREET FURNITURE
Signs of Egyptomania in Zagreb’s architecture and urbanism can be found scattered in a period of almost two centuries. At the beginning and the end of that time line are the obelisks whose setting is associated with the Zagreb Archdiocese. The first ever obelisk in Zagreb was set up by bishop Aleksandar Alagović in 1835 in honour of the completion of the works at the great garden under the bishop’s palace and the Cathedral. The last obelisk (so far) was set in 1995 in the Hrvatske bratske zajednice Street to mark the 900 years jubilee of Zagreb and the Zagreb Archdiocese. Between these two monuments in the city of Zagreb, more obelisks were erected which also commemorate various events and serve as street furniture.
The Mirogoj Cemetery and the Maksimir Park are the parts of the city with the largest number of monuments with references to ancient Egypt. First, because of the unquestionable connection between the Egyptian culture with the culture of death, and second, due to Egyptomania that grabbed Europe after 1922.
In the first decades of the 20th century, the art of ancient Egypt inspired many of Zagreb’s architects, but especially those who witnessed the new “discovery” of Egypt in Vienna around 1900. Among commercial and residential buildings in Zagreb’s Lower Town, most of the Egyptian decorative elements are found on the building project of the Isis pharmaceutical company, which was to create a complete visual identity from its name.
Andrea Fullér
EGYPTIANIZING FUNERARY ARCHITECTURE IN BUDAPEST
Although Egyptomania has been of interest to researchers in Hungary recently, the influence of ancient Egyptian art on modern funerary architecture has not been properly investigated until now. The heyday of Egyptianizing funerary architecture in Hungarian cemeteries was during the Dual Austria-Hungary Monarchy. At the turn of the twentieth century, imposing mausolea and funerary monuments were built in Budapest, designed by famous architects and sculptors of the period. The authorship of a number of these monuments, however, has not been determined. Variations of the house-tomb with Egyptianizing decorative motifs are well-known from the grand Parisian cemeteries, and can also be found in many places around the world, for example in London, Naperville and Belfast. The house-tomb decorated with Egyptianizing motifs can also be found in Hungary; in several cases, the monuments blend Egyptianizing details with Neo-Classical elements and Art Nouveau features.
The main goal of the paper is to introduce an important group of Hungarian funerary art, which is rich in Egyptianizing motifs, and to explore the cultural and social settings that lay behind the effect of Egyptomania on Hungarian architecture.
Zorana Jurić Šabić
IVAN MEŠTROVIĆ – CREATING ART FOR ETERNITY. MEŠTROVIĆ’S FASCINATION WITH ANCIENT EGYPT AS ILLUSTRATED IN THE FAMILY MAUSOLEUM IN OTAVICE
The renowned Croatian sculptor Ivan Meštrović (1883 – 1962) travelled to Egypt, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon and Greece in May of 1927. He recorded powerful impressions of his travel along with numerous photographs in his manuscript Memories of a Journey around the Orient. Not only did the travel open his horizons and encourage him to explore further oriental cultures, it also deepened his fascination with Egyptian art and architecture, which would soon be reflected in the forms of his own artistic expression.
A year after the travel of 1927, in his native village of Otavice Meštrović began the construction of the family mausoleum, or as he named it, the Church of the Most Holy Redeemer. It was a perfect example of his impressions of Egyptian art, visible in the monumentality of architecture, the design of sculptural elements according to Egyptian principles, and finally, in a fascinating iconographic programme intended for the decoration of the dome.
The author will discuss this complex programme in the paper, by studying numerous drawings and sketches, which Meštrović created for the decoration of the dome, which the artist never in fact was able to finish. Nevertheless, it will reveal his unusual concept of religion and faith, influenced significantly by his contact with the visual language of the ancient cultures during the travel of 1927.
Session 12: Varia and Studies
Elisabeth Monamy
FOOD ARCHAEOLOGY. A NEGLECTED FIELD OF RESEARCH AWAKES
When studying the past, archaeologists and historians have a lot of sources at one’s disposal, like results from archaeological excavations, texts, visual documents etc. We can reconstruct the everyday life of past cultures very well and imagine how people lived. However, one area is still poorly researched: nutrition. Roughly we know which food was available and eaten at which time. But how the food was processed, and tasty dishes developed from it, that remains partly hidden. Only in recent years have leftovers been analyzed and these results have helped to restore eating habits and even recipes.
In this paper the author will give an insight into this field of research, as it became fashion especially in experimental archaeology and in the mediation of archaeology and history to a wide audience.
Clemens Gütl
ACROSS BORDERS AND CULTURES: NEW APPROACHES TO SOUND RECORDINGS FROM THE MAGHREB
In its archives, museums, libraries and private collections, Europe hoards hundreds of thousands of original sources from Africa, both written and pictorial, as well as films, videos and sound recordings or objects. The depots are full of knowledge from and about the continent. Knowledge from Africa was repeatedly presented effectively within small academic circles, but also to a broader audience through exhibitions, lectures, newspapers, etc. All in all, representatives of many nations and of different socio‐economic background constantly shaped the image, or to put it better, the images of Africa. At the same time, knowledge from Africa was removed and hence until the present time is not accessible to Africans.
Until now not much information is available about African “informants” who interacted with Austrian scholars to produce and disseminate knowledge about African languages, music and cultures; their services rarely receive explicit acknowledgement. Usually, male European researchers harvest all the credit, be it in financial terms or as social capital in the form of academic positions, awards, memberships in scientific associations, etc.
Therefore, it might be time to think afresh about how the knowledge produced came about and who else had contributed to a great extent to it. I would suggest a reflection on knowledge production beyond a hagiographic historiography but from a south‐up perspective and will draw my attention to the meaning of interactions among individuals, groups and institutions for the production and distribution of knowledge from Northern Africa in Europe by taking historical sound recordings from the Vienna Phonogrammarchiv as examples.
James Goff
THE VIENNESE CIRCLE FOR THE STUDY OF THE EGYPTIAN BOOK OF THE DEAD: A DIALOGUE WITH THE INEFFABLE
One of the most intriguing aspects of Viennese Egyptology of the last century were the activities of what was called in German the „Wiener Totenbuchrunde“, the Viennese Circle for the Study of the Egyptian Book of the Dead. It was a group of engaged instructors and chosen students dedicated to a deeper understanding and interpretation of the mysteries of the Egyptian Book of the Dead. The Book of the Dead is part of a funerary tradition that marks the transition into the hereafter. It contains spells that were vital to the progression of the deceased to the afterlife as well as metaphysical and philosophical information, the insights of which have hardly ever been surpassed in literature. It was a daunting task. The circle flourished throughout the 1930’s, finally disbanding with Austria’s annexation to National Socialist Germany. Yet, their efforts to explore these unchartered regions were still felt in the ensuing years and remain even today a challenging mystery for future generations.
Adéla Jůnová Macková
FRANTIŠEK LEXA (1876–1960) AND HIS FAMILY. DAILY LIFE OF THE FIRST CZECHOSLOVAK EGYPTOLOGIST
In my paper I will explore the family and the family milieu of the first Czechoslovak Egyptologist František Lexa, founder and first director of the Czechoslovak Institute of Egyptology, expert on Egyptian philology, especially demotic language, professor at Charles University, Prague. I will analyse the social status of Lexa’s family and the importance of his marriage for shaping his scientific life. I will consider the everyday routines of this scientist’s household, including the claims demanded by the requirements of bringing up three children. As a specific focus, I will analyse the everyday life of a travelling scientist, particularly during holidays spent with the family abroad, and illuminate the significance of summer retreats in shaping a scientists’ familial travel experience.
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