Wild Flowers Vilmos Szamosi Soós

Although the plaquette is one of the finest and most typical Art Nouveau works in Hungarian medallic art, Szamosi’s name is hardly known. Yet as early as in 1910, it was highly successful at the exhibition of the Budapest Academy of Fine Arts students. Szamosi emerged from anonymity with the entire arsenal of Art Nouveau stylistic tools. The ornamentally perceived, stylized graphic background pattern (it is difficult to decide whether it intends to present a natural environment or a wallpaper motif) provides a frame for the softly modelled portrait of a female depicted with a halo. The title apparently emphasises the motif of the background, thus it immediately suggests some hidden, symbolic connection with the melancholically sad figure, which is further intensified by the pattern repeated on her dress. However, the ‘flowers’ of the wallpaper or natural environment represent poppy heads rather visibly, which further makes unequivocal interpretation difficult, giving full play, however, to a number of possible associations.