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Folia Anthropologica 4; 5−19. (2006)
III. BÉLA KIRÁLY ÉS CHATILLON ANNA
ARCREKONSTRUKCIÓJA
Árpás Károly
Képzőművész, arcrekonstruktőr, Bakonyoszlop, Kossuth u. 72.
Árpás Károly 1977-es kézirata alapján sajtó alá rendezte és az előszót írta:
Kustár Ágnes PhD. (Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum Embertani Tár, Budapest)
Abstract: The facial reconstruction of the Hungarian king, Béla the 3 rd and his wife Anne Chatillon.
(Edited by Ágnes Kustár on the basis of the manuscript of Károly Árpás /ÁRPÁS 1977/). The Hungarian
king, Béla the 3 rd (was born between 1148-1152) ruled in Hungary for 24 years, and he died in
1196, at the age of 44-48. The only authentic and identified Hungarian king’s bury excavated till now
is the tomb of a king which came to light at the destroyed cathedral of Fehérvár. Károly ÁRPÁS,
sculptor, worked out his anatomic method of facial recon-struction in 1968-69. He has good experience
in anatomy and portrayal thanks to his artistic qualification, furthermore, he worked as a
graphic artist in the field of archaeology for more than twenty years. He was charged with carrying out
the facial reconstruction of the royal couple by the Hungarian National Museum in 1972.
The basis of the reconstruction was the anatomy of the face that is why he terms it as the anatomic
method. During the reconstruction work the muscles, the fatty tissues and the skin are built up from
coloured plasticine, according to the muscle markings on the surface of the skull. The thickness and
the direction of the muscles depend on the grade of expressedness of muscle insertions. First he
reconstructs only the one half of the face. During this process the other half of the skull stays bonyclear,
to enable permanent control between the skull and the reconstructed half-face. In the first phase
he sets the head into Frankfurt horizontal plane. In the second phase he shapes the mass of the muscles
of the neck and forms the deep muscles of the nape of the neck. Then he develops the mass of the nose
and the eyes. In the third and the forth stages he moulds the glands and the subcutaneous fatty tissue,
which partially invade into the deep layers of the face. In the fifth phase as he fashions the skin, the
half-face is essentially finished. Then, in the sixth (last) phase he puts the other half of the face into
shape, according to the thicknesses of the soft tissues measured in different points of the finished
facehalf, taking into account the asymmetries of the face. The Sculpture as an applied technique plays
a very important role throughout the whole project from shaping of the first muscle to completing the
whole face.
He endeavours in his work to reconstruct the clear and simple forms of the face, which suit the
scientific requirements, and the forms anatomically can be proved. He avoids any disturbing surface
effects and face impressions, which might mislead the observer. If the reconstructor works following
exactly the principles of the anatomic method, the late person’s sex, age and physical appearance will
turn up.
Előszó
Régi adósságot törlesztünk e dokumentáció megjelenésével. ÁRPÁS Károly elsőként készített
Magyarországon hiteles, azaz antropológiailag is helytálló arcrekonstrukciót. Eljárását maga dolgozta
ki, amely az anatómia törvényszerűségeire, illetve a koponya egyedi jellegzetességeinek megragadására
épül (SJØVOLD 1981). ÁRPÁS Károly az arc újraszerkesztésének anatómiai módszerét 1968-69-
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