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Jenő Gyárfás was a Transylvanian artist who learned everything there was to know about the Academism of Munich. In his smaller paintings he proved what an excellent, realistic illustrator of the human soul he was. In 1881, in line with his affinity for drama, he chose the most tragic moment of "The Ordeal of the Bier", a ballad by the renowned 19th-century Hungarian poet, János Arany, to be the theme of his major monumental painting. Benő Bárczi lies on his catafalque; to the right, shocked by the sight of him dead, stands his bride, Abigél Kund, whose crime of thoughtlessly having helped him to his death is divulged by her victim's bleeding wound. The accurate psychological interpretation of the tragic situation is the main virtue of the compact composition of the large painting. The picture won the grand prize of the National Fine Art Association in 1881. Contemporary critics emphasized the masterly double lighting and the differentiated depiction of the petrified accessory figures, but found the demented face of the mentally crushed main character much too overstated. Looking at the painting today, we may miss the freshness and the modern poignancy of the drama, still present in the study but sadly missing from the more rigid final version.
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