Museum of Fine Arts (Budapest)
Encyclopedia
The Museum of Fine Arts is a museum in Heroes' Square
, Budapest
, Hungary
, facing the Palace of Art
.
It was built by the plans of Albert Schickedanz
and Fülöp Herzog in an eclectic
-neoclassical
style, between 1900 and 1906. The museum's collection is made up of international art (other than Hungarian), including all periods of European art, and comprises more than 100,000 pieces. The collection is made up of various older additions such as those from Buda Castle
, the Esterházy and Zichy
estates, as well as donations from individual collectors. The Museum's collection is made up of six departments: Egyptian, Antique, Old sculpture gallery, Old painter gallery, Modern collection, Graphics collection. The institution celebrated its centenary in 2006.
in the 1930s. Subsequent digs in Egypt have expanded the collection. Some of the most interesting pieces are the painted mummy
sarcophagi.
. The exhibition mainly includes works from Ancient Greece and Rome. Most significant is the 3rd century marble statue called the Budapest dancer. The Cyprean and Myciaenian collection is also notable, also the ceramics and bronzes.
's Coronation of the Virgin, Sassetta's Saint Thomas Aquinas at Prayer, Domenico Ghirlandaio
's Saint Stephen Martyr, Gentile Bellini
's Portrait of Caterina Cornaro, Giorgione
's Portrait of a Young Man
, Raphael
's Esterhazy Madonna
, Correggio's Madonna and Child with an Angel, three works by Sebastiano del Piombo
, Bronzino's Adoration of the Shepherds as well as his Venus, Cupid and Jealousy, Titian
's Portrait of Doge Marcantonio Trevisani, Tintoretto
's Supper at Emmaus, Tiepolo
's St James the Greater in the Battle of Clavijo, Dürer
's Portrait of a Young Man, Bernard van Orley
's Portrait of Emperor Charles V, eight pictures by Lucas Cranach the Elder
, Pieter Bruegel the Elder's St John the Baptist Preaching, Rubens's Mucius Scaevola Before Porsenna, two excellent portraits by Frans Hals
, and a particularly strong collection of works by Spanish masters including El Greco
, Velázquez
and Goya
.
. A number of painted wooden sculptures feature in the German and Austrian section.
for the 'Battle of Anghiari', 15 drawings by Rembrandt, 200 pieces by Goya
and French aquatint
s.
period and French art. From the latter are representatives of the Romantic
period (Eugène Delacroix
), the Barbizon school (Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
, Gustave Courbet
) and Impressionism
(Édouard Manet
, Claude Monet
, Camille Pissarro
, Pierre-Auguste Renoir
, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
). There is a large collection of sculptures by Auguste Rodin
and Constantin Meunier
.
the famous Hungarian artist donated a significant collection of his works to the gallery. These have found a permanent home outside the walls of the gallery at the Zichy
mansion in Obuda
. The two storey wing of the building is known as the Vasarely Museum and is the only one of its kind in eastern Europe.
Heroes' Square (Budapest)
Hősök tere is one of the major squares of Budapest, Hungary, rich with historic and political connotations. Its iconic statue complex, the Millennium Memorial, was completed in 1900, the same year the square was named "Heroes' Square"...
, Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
, Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
, facing the Palace of Art
Palace of Art (Budapest)
*Kunsthalle Budapest is a contemporary art museum in Budapest. The building, built in 1895, is located in Heroes' Square, facing the Museum of Fine Arts....
.
It was built by the plans of Albert Schickedanz
Albert Schickedanz
Albert Schickedanz was an Austro-Hungarian architect and painter in the Eclectic style....
and Fülöp Herzog in an eclectic
Eclecticism in art
Eclecticism is a kind of mixed style in the fine arts: "the borrowing of a variety of styles from different sources and combining them" . Significantly, Eclecticism hardly ever constituted a specific style in art: it is characterized by the fact that it was not a particular style...
-neoclassical
Neoclassicism
Neoclassicism is the name given to Western movements in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that draw inspiration from the "classical" art and culture of Ancient Greece or Ancient Rome...
style, between 1900 and 1906. The museum's collection is made up of international art (other than Hungarian), including all periods of European art, and comprises more than 100,000 pieces. The collection is made up of various older additions such as those from Buda Castle
Buda Castle
Buda Castle is the historical castle and palace complex of the Hungarian kings in Budapest, first completed in 1265. In the past, it was also called Royal Palace and Royal Castle ....
, the Esterházy and Zichy
Zichy
Zichy , the name of a noble Magyar family, conspicuous in Hungarian history from the latter part of the 13th century onwards.-Brief history of the Zichy:...
estates, as well as donations from individual collectors. The Museum's collection is made up of six departments: Egyptian, Antique, Old sculpture gallery, Old painter gallery, Modern collection, Graphics collection. The institution celebrated its centenary in 2006.
Ancient Egyptian art
The gallery holds the second largest collection of Egyptian art in central Europe. It comprises a number of collections bought together by Hungarian Egyptologist Eduard MahlerEduard Mahler
Eduard Mahler, or Mahler Ede was a Hungarian-Austrian astronomer, Orientalist, natural scientist....
in the 1930s. Subsequent digs in Egypt have expanded the collection. Some of the most interesting pieces are the painted mummy
Mummy
A mummy is a body, human or animal, whose skin and organs have been preserved by either intentional or incidental exposure to chemicals, extreme coldness , very low humidity, or lack of air when bodies are submerged in bogs, so that the recovered body will not decay further if kept in cool and dry...
sarcophagi.
Classical Antiquities
The core of the collection was made up of pieces acquired from Paul Arndt, a classicist from MunichMunich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
. The exhibition mainly includes works from Ancient Greece and Rome. Most significant is the 3rd century marble statue called the Budapest dancer. The Cyprean and Myciaenian collection is also notable, also the ceramics and bronzes.
Old Master Paintings (13th to 18th centuries)
The 3000 paintings in the collection offer an almost uninterrupted survey of the development of European painting from the 13th to the late 18th centuries. The core of the collection is constituted by the 700 paintings acquired from the Esterhazy estate. The collection is split up into Italian, German, Netherlandish, Flemish, French, English and Spanish art. The most important works include Maso di BancoMaso di Banco
Maso di Banco was an Italian painter of the 14th century, who worked in Florence, Italy. He was a pupil of Giotto di Bondone. Maso's name and work are known to us from the autobiography of Lorenzo Ghiberti, I Commentari, which identifies frescoes in the chapel of the Holy Confessors at Santa...
's Coronation of the Virgin, Sassetta's Saint Thomas Aquinas at Prayer, Domenico Ghirlandaio
Domenico Ghirlandaio
Domenico Ghirlandaio was an Italian Renaissance painter from Florence. Among his many apprentices was Michelangelo.-Early years:Ghirlandaio's full name is given as Domenico di Tommaso di Currado di Doffo Bigordi...
's Saint Stephen Martyr, Gentile Bellini
Gentile Bellini
Gentile Bellini was an Italian painter. From 1474 he was the official portrait artist for the Doges of Venice.- Biography :...
's Portrait of Caterina Cornaro, Giorgione
Giorgione
Giorgione was a Venetian painter of the High Renaissance in Venice, whose career was cut off by his death at a little over thirty. Giorgione is known for the elusive poetic quality of his work, though only about six surviving paintings are acknowledged for certain to be his work...
's Portrait of a Young Man
Self-portrait (Giorgione)
The Self-portrait of Giorgione is a 1510 self-portrait by the Italian painter Giorgione. It is held at the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest, from which it was stolen on 5 November 1983. It was recovered in Operation Budapest....
, Raphael
Raphael
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino , better known simply as Raphael, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form and ease of composition and for its visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur...
's Esterhazy Madonna
Esterhazy Madonna
The Esterhazy Madonna is a 1508 painting by Raphael, now held at the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest, in Hungary. It was stolen on the night of 5 November 1983, along with other works by Raphael, Giorgione, Tintoretto and Tiepolo - all the works, including this one, were recovered by the Italian...
, Correggio's Madonna and Child with an Angel, three works by Sebastiano del Piombo
Sebastiano del Piombo
Sebastiano del Piombo , byname of Sebastiano Luciani, was an Italian Renaissance-Mannerist painter of the early 16th century famous for his combination of the colors of the Venetian school and the monumental forms of the Roman school.- Biography :Sebastiano del Piombo belongs to the painting school...
, Bronzino's Adoration of the Shepherds as well as his Venus, Cupid and Jealousy, Titian
Titian
Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio (c. 1488/1490 – 27 August 1576 better known as Titian was an Italian painter, the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, near...
's Portrait of Doge Marcantonio Trevisani, Tintoretto
Tintoretto
Tintoretto , real name Jacopo Comin, was a Venetian painter and a notable exponent of the Renaissance school. For his phenomenal energy in painting he was termed Il Furioso...
's Supper at Emmaus, Tiepolo
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo , also known as Gianbattista or Giambattista Tiepolo, was an Italian painter and printmaker from the Republic of Venice...
's St James the Greater in the Battle of Clavijo, Dürer
Albrecht Dürer
Albrecht Dürer was a German painter, printmaker, engraver, mathematician, and theorist from Nuremberg. His prints established his reputation across Europe when he was still in his twenties, and he has been conventionally regarded as the greatest artist of the Northern Renaissance ever since...
's Portrait of a Young Man, Bernard van Orley
Bernard van Orley
Bernard van Orley , also called Barend or Barent van Orley, Bernaert van Orley or Barend van Brussel, was a Flemish Northern Renaissance painter and draughtsman, and also a leading designer of tapestries and stained glass...
's Portrait of Emperor Charles V, eight pictures by Lucas Cranach the Elder
Lucas Cranach the Elder
Lucas Cranach the Elder , was a German Renaissance painter and printmaker in woodcut and engraving...
, Pieter Bruegel the Elder's St John the Baptist Preaching, Rubens's Mucius Scaevola Before Porsenna, two excellent portraits by Frans Hals
Frans Hals
Frans Hals was a Dutch Golden Age painter. He is notable for his loose painterly brushwork, and helped introduce this lively style of painting into Dutch art. Hals was also instrumental in the evolution of 17th century group portraiture.-Biography:Hals was born in 1580 or 1581, in Antwerp...
, and a particularly strong collection of works by Spanish masters including El Greco
El Greco
El Greco was a painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. "El Greco" was a nickname, a reference to his ethnic Greek origin, and the artist normally signed his paintings with his full birth name in Greek letters, Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος .El Greco was born on Crete, which was at...
, Velázquez
Diego Velázquez
Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez was a Spanish painter who was the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV. He was an individualistic artist of the contemporary Baroque period, important as a portrait artist...
and Goya
Francisco Goya
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker regarded both as the last of the Old Masters and the first of the moderns. Goya was a court painter to the Spanish Crown, and through his works was both a commentator on and chronicler of his era...
.
Old Sculpture
The collection's main section is devoted to pieces from the Middle Ages to the 17th century. It was based on the Italian collection of Karoly Pulszky and Istvan Ferenczy's bronze collection. From the latter came one of the most treasured works, the small equestrian by Leonardo da VinciLeonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance...
. A number of painted wooden sculptures feature in the German and Austrian section.
Drawings & Prints
The collection shows selected rotating exhibitions of its collection of 10,000 drawings and 100,000 prints originating mainly from the Esterhazy, Istvan Delhaes and Pal Majovsky acquisitions. All periods of European graphic art are richly represented. Important pieces include two studies by Leonardo da VinciLeonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance...
for the 'Battle of Anghiari', 15 drawings by Rembrandt, 200 pieces by Goya
Francisco Goya
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker regarded both as the last of the Old Masters and the first of the moderns. Goya was a court painter to the Spanish Crown, and through his works was both a commentator on and chronicler of his era...
and French aquatint
Aquatint
Aquatint is an intaglio printmaking technique, a variant of etching.Intaglio printmaking makes marks on the matrix that are capable of holding ink. The inked plate is passed through a printing press together with a sheet of paper, resulting in a transfer of the ink to the paper...
s.
Art after 1800
The museum's collection of 19th- and 20th-century art is less significant than those found in other departments; it is a younger collection. The bulk of the painting is from the BiedermeierBiedermeier
In Central Europe, the Biedermeier era refers to the middle-class sensibilities of the historical period between 1815, the year of the Congress of Vienna at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, and 1848, the year of the European revolutions...
period and French art. From the latter are representatives of the Romantic
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
period (Eugène Delacroix
Eugène Delacroix
Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of the French Romantic school...
), the Barbizon school (Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot was a French landscape painter and printmaker in etching. Corot was the leading painter of the Barbizon school of France in the mid-nineteenth century...
, Gustave Courbet
Gustave Courbet
Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet was a French painter who led the Realist movement in 19th-century French painting. The Realist movement bridged the Romantic movement , with the Barbizon School and the Impressionists...
) and Impressionism
Impressionism
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement that originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s...
(Édouard Manet
Édouard Manet
Édouard Manet was a French painter. One of the first 19th-century artists to approach modern-life subjects, he was a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism....
, Claude Monet
Claude Monet
Claude Monet was a founder of French impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting. . Retrieved 6 January 2007...
, Camille Pissarro
Camille Pissarro
Camille Pissarro was a French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of St Thomas . His importance resides in his contributions to both Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, as he was the only artist to exhibit in both forms...
, Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Pierre-Auguste Renoir was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty, and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "Renoir is the final representative of a tradition which runs directly from Rubens to...
, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa or simply Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman, and illustrator, whose immersion in the colourful and theatrical life of fin de siècle Paris yielded an œuvre of exciting, elegant and provocative images of the modern...
). There is a large collection of sculptures by Auguste Rodin
Auguste Rodin
François-Auguste-René Rodin , known as Auguste Rodin , was a French sculptor. Although Rodin is generally considered the progenitor of modern sculpture, he did not set out to rebel against the past...
and Constantin Meunier
Constantin Meunier
Constantin Meunier , Belgian painter and sculptor, was born in Etterbeek, Brussels.His first exhibit was a plaster sketch, "The Garland," shown at the Brussels Salon in 1851. Soon afterwards, on the advice of the painter Charles de Groux, he abandoned the chisel for the brush...
.
Vasarely Museum
Victor VasarelyVictor Vasarely
Victor Vasarely was a Hungarian French artist whose work is generally seen aligned with Op-art.His work entitled Zebra, created by Vasarely in the 1930s, is considered by some to be one of the earliest examples of Op-art...
the famous Hungarian artist donated a significant collection of his works to the gallery. These have found a permanent home outside the walls of the gallery at the Zichy
Zichy
Zichy , the name of a noble Magyar family, conspicuous in Hungarian history from the latter part of the 13th century onwards.-Brief history of the Zichy:...
mansion in Obuda
Óbuda
Óbuda was a historical city in Hungary. United with Buda and Pest in 1873 it now forms part of District III-Óbuda-Békásmegyer of Budapest. The name means Old Buda in Hungarian...
. The two storey wing of the building is known as the Vasarely Museum and is the only one of its kind in eastern Europe.
Directors of the museum
- 1906-1914 Ernő Kammerer
- 1914-1935 Elek Petrovics
- 1935-1944 Dénes Csánky
- 1949-1952 Imre OltványiImre OltványiImre Oltványi was a Hungarian politician, who served as Minister of Finance in 1945 in the Interim National Government. He studied at the University of Budapest. Between 1920 and 1921 he was the secretary of the National Agriculture Association. He was a founding member of the Smallholders' Party...
- 1952-1955 Ferenc Redő
- 1956-1964 Andor Pigler
- 1964-1984 Klára Garas
- 1984-1989 Ferenc Merényi
- 1989-2004 Miklós Mojzer
- 2004. – László Baán
Further reading
- The Budapest Museum of Fine Arts. Edited and with a preface by Klára Garas. Corvina, 1990.
See also
- Hungarian National GalleryHungarian National GalleryThe Hungarian National Gallery , was established in 1957 as the national art museum. It is located in Buda Castle in Budapest, Hungary. Its collections cover Hungarian art in all genres, including the many twentieth-century Hungarian artists who worked in Paris and other locations in the West...
- Palace of ArtPalace of Art (Budapest)*Kunsthalle Budapest is a contemporary art museum in Budapest. The building, built in 1895, is located in Heroes' Square, facing the Museum of Fine Arts....