The exhibition from the illustrations for Madách's 'Tragedy of Man' is shown in the exhibition ward of the Castle of Tata organized by the Zichy Mihály Memorial Museum and the Kuny Domokos County Museum of Komárom-Esztergom County.

Zichy began to work on the illustrations of Madách Imre's famous work in 1885. At that time, the painter lived in the Court of the Russian Czar. In September the Czar let the artist take a 2 months vacation to be able to make the illustrations. He finished the 15 large coal drawings at the beginning of 1886. The drawings were first shown in the Fall of the same year in the Hall of Artworks.

The works illustrated almost all the scenes of the 'Tragedy of Man' except for the scene out of Paradise for which Zichy did not make an illustration at all. A few years later in 1887 he complemented the illustrations. He did new drawings to the scenes in Egypt, in Rome, and Byzantine. He did two more illustrations to the phalanstery scene too. The illustrations to the 'Tragedy of Man' were Zichy's most famous works. The book with his illustrations was published 15 times until the turn of the century.

The original works were 70x100cms in size just as the copies supported by the Zichy Mihály Public Foundation founded by the great grandson of Zichy Mihály Csicsery-Rónay István. Szász Endre, the graphic artist deceased in the recent past, also helped in the reproduction of the illustrations. The Hungarian National Gallery holds the original works.

Gassama-Szabó Bernadett