Abstract

Eduard Grützner’s painting Brotzeit synthesizes a way of understanding the relation of the human being to the material world that is both economic and beautiful. As in Grützner’s painting, in Zsolnai’s thought the condition for this is that economic life points to the essential. When human activity is based on this concentration on the essence that leaves out the superfluous, it frees the most authentic form of things that turns out to be also its most beautiful, more enjoyable and also more useful aspect. In the peaceful and contented countenance of the monk portrayed by Grützner is finally reflected another aspect of Zsolnai’s philosophy: that in an economy based on the essential is also contained the possibility of brotherly coexistence with others.