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Autographed By Tibor Méray
This powerful poster, issued in Milan by MEMO (Associazione per il Sostegno dell’Informazione), commemorates the 1956 Hungarian Revolution and stands as a striking artifact of postwar European protest culture. Designed in the aftermath of the Soviet crackdown on the Budapest uprising, it transforms national iconography and geography into a haunting image of martyrdom, turning the Hungarian tricolor into a map, a funeral shroud, and a symbol of defiance.
The composition features contorted bodies covered by the red, white, and green of the Hungarian flag; one grasps a rifle even in death, with boots and feet sticking out elsehwere. Rendered in bold, gestural strokes by the artist, the Italian painter Ferenc Pintér, the composition fuses cartography with the message: the inscription “BUDAPEST” is placed at the center of the flag, making the symbol a surrogate for the besieged nation itself. Beneath the image, a quote from poet Sándor Petőfi, a hero of Hungary’s 1848 revolution, lends historical and emotional weight: “Coloro che sono morti per te, sacra universale libertà” (“Those who died for you, sacred universal liberty”). The invocation of Petőfi links the 1956 uprising to a broader, pan-European tradition of sacrifice for democratic ideals.
The poster was printed by Stampa Tecnografica Milanese and bears the signature of Tibor Méray, the Hungarian exile writer and editor.
A compelling visual statement of solidarity, grief, and resistance, and one of the more evocative poster designs to emerge in response to Soviet repression in postwar Europe.
Rarity
The poster is extremely rare.
We were unable to locate any other surviving examples.
Ferenc Pintér (31 October 1931, Alassio – 28 February 2008, Milan) was a Hungarian-Italian painter, poster designer, and one of the defining illustrators of post-war Italian publishing. Born on the Ligurian coast to a Hungarian father and an Italian mother, he spent much of his childhood in Budapest, where his father sought medical care. Orphaned during adolescence and politically at odds with the Stalinist cultural regime, he was denied entry to the Budapest Academy of Fine Arts. After supporting the 1956 Hungarian Revolution he fled to Italy, settling first in Rome and soon after in Milan, where his vigorous brush-work and cinematic flair won early commissions for advertising and cinema posters. In 1960 Arnoldo Mondadori Editore hired him as a staff cover artist, inaugurating a thirty-two-year collaboration during which he produced hundreds of tempera-on-board jackets for Mondadori’s most visible lines, including fourteen noir covers for the “Segretissimo” spy series and the Italian editions of Georges Simenon’s Maigret novels, Agatha Christie’s detective fiction, and the mass-market “Oscar Mondadori” paperbacks that shaped the visual landscape of Italian popular literature.
Pintér’s mature work extended beyond commercial assignments into personal projects that revealed his fascination with allegory and archetype. In 1989 he painted the twenty-two Major Arcana for a Tarot deck published by Lo Scarabeo of Turin, prefaced by the art historian Federico Zeri; he completed the fifty-six Minor Arcana between 2000 and 2002. Throughout his career he signed his art “Pintér Ferenc,” retaining the Hungarian name order even as Italian usage rendered him “Ferenc Pinter,” a subtle assertion of his dual cultural identity. Synthesising Central-European expressionism with the bold pragmatism of Italian graphic design, Pintér left an indelible mark on European illustration; gallery retrospectives and robust auction results continue to affirm his status as a master of twentieth-century visual narrative.
![A M. Kir. VIII. Honv. LGV. O. Hazamenetelének útja mecsebjelovkától kassáig [The Hungarian 8th Anti-Aircraft Battalion's Homeward Route from Mechebylove to Kosice]](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/90242.jpg)
