The Pest Organ

With the advancement of the natural sciences in the beginning of the 19th century, the exploration of caves, such as the Baradla Cave in Aggtelek, became a popular passtime. Károly Markó the Elder produced a six-part series of monumental pictures showing the stalagmite which at the time could then only be seen by torch-light. Exotic forms resembling a crypt, an altar a church, and sometimes a waterfall, rise to view from the romantically dark surrounding. "The Pest Organ" completed in 1821 as the last piece of the series, conveys the contrast between light and dark very forcefully.