The Museum of Fine Arts ( hu, Szépművészeti Múzeum
seːpmyveːsɛti ˈmuːzɛum is a museum in
Heroes' Square,
Budapest
Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
,
Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...
, facing the
Palace of Art.
It was built by the plans of
Albert Schickedanz and Fülöp Herzog in an
eclectic
Eclectic may refer to:
Music
* ''Eclectic'' (Eric Johnson and Mike Stern album), 2014
* ''Eclectic'' (Big Country album), 1996
* Eclectic Method, name of an audio-visual remix act
* Eclecticism in music, the conscious use of styles alien to th ...
-
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 older additions such as those from
Buda Castle
Buda Castle ( hu, Budavári Palota, german: link=no, Burgpalast) is the historical castle and palace complex of the Hungarian Kings in Budapest. It was first completed in 1265, although the massive Baroque palace today occupying most of the si ...
, the
Esterházy
The House of Esterházy, also spelled Eszterházy (), is a Hungarian noble family with origins in the Middle Ages. From the 17th century, the Esterházys were the greatest landowner magnates of the Kingdom of Hungary, during the time that it ...
and
Zichy Zichy is a surname. Notable people with the name include:
* Mihály Zichy (1827–1906), Hungarian painter and graphic artist
* Maria Anna Stubenberg Zichy (1821-1912), composer
* Eleonóra Zichy (1867–1945), Hungarian noblewoman
* Géza 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 master paintings gallery, Modern collection, Graphics collection. The institution celebrated its centenary in 2006.
Collection and exhibits
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 Mahler
Eduard Mahler ( hu, Mahler Ede, September 28, 1857, in Cífer, Kingdom of Hungary, Austrian Empire – June 29, 1945, in Újpest) was a Hungarian-Austrian astronomer, Orientalist, and natural scientist.
He graduated from a Vienna public school ...
, in the 1930s. Subsequent digs in Egypt have expanded the collection. Some of the most interesting pieces are the painted
mummy
A mummy is a dead human or an animal whose soft tissues and organs have been preserved by either intentional or accidental exposure to chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or lack of air, so that the recovered body does not decay fu ...
sarcophagi.
Classical antiquities
The core of the collection was made up of pieces acquired from
Paul Arndt
Paul Julius Arndt (14 October 1865 – 17 July 1937) was a German classical archaeologist born in Dresden.
He studied classical art under Johannes Overbeck (1826-1895) at the University of Leipzig, and classical archeology with Heinrich Brunn ( ...
, a classicist from
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
. 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 Mycenaean 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 Banco
Maso di Banco (working ''c'' 1335–1350) was an Italian painter of the 14th century, who worked in Florence, Italy. He and Taddeo Gaddi were the most prominent Florentine pupils of Giotto di Bondone, exploring the three-dimensional dramatic real ...
's ''Coronation of the Virgin'',
Sassetta
''For the village near Livorno, see Sassetta, Tuscany''
Stefano di Giovanni di Consolo, known as il Sassetta (ca.1392–1450 or 1451) was an Tuscan painter of the Renaissance, and a significant figure of the Sienese School.Judy Metro, ''Italian ...
's ''Saint Thomas Aquinas at Prayer'',
Domenico Ghirlandaio
Domenico di Tommaso Curradi di Doffo Bigordi (, , ; 2 June 1448 – 11 January 1494), professionally known as Domenico Ghirlandaio, also spelled as Ghirlandajo, was an Italian Renaissance painter born in Florence. Ghirlandaio was part of ...
's ''Saint Stephen Martyr'',
Bernardo Bellotto
Bernardo Bellotto (c. 1721/2 or 30 January 172117 November 1780), was an Italian urban landscape painter or ''vedutista'', and printmaker in etching famous for his ''vedute'' of European cities – Dresden, Vienna, Turin, and Warsaw. He was ...
's ''The Piazza della Signoria in Florence'',
Gentile Bellini
Gentile Bellini (c. 1429 – 23 February 1507) was an Italian painter of the school of Venice. He came from Venice's leading family of painters, and at least in the early part of his career was more highly regarded than his younger brother Giova ...
's ''Portrait of Caterina Cornaro'',
Giorgione
Giorgione (, , ; born Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco; 1477–78 or 1473–74 – 17 September 1510) was an Italian painter of the Venetian school during the High Renaissance, who died in his thirties. He is known for the elusive poetic qualit ...
's ''
Portrait of a Young Man'',
Raphael
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. List of works by Raphael, His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of ...
's ''
Esterhazy Madonna
The ''Esterhazy Madonna'' is an oil-on-canvas painting by Raphael, created ''c.'' 1508, 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, Tintor ...
'',
Giambattista Pittoni's ''St Elizabeth Distributing Alms'', three works by
Corrado Giaquinto
Corrado Giaquinto (8 February 1703 – 18 April 1766) was an Italian Rococo painter.
Early training and move to Rome
He was born in Molfetta. As a boy he apprenticed with a modest local painter Saverio Porta, (c1667–1725), escaping the rel ...
, ''Allegory of Painting'', ''The Angel Annunciant'' and ''Moses receiving the Laws'',
Correggio
Antonio Allegri da Correggio (August 1489 – 5 March 1534), usually known as just Correggio (, also , , ), was the foremost painter of the Parma school of the High Italian Renaissance, who was responsible for some of the most vigorous and sens ...
's ''Madonna and Child with an Angel'', three works by
Sebastiano del Piombo
Sebastiano del Piombo (; c. 1485 – 21 June 1547) was an Italian painter of the High Renaissance and early Mannerism, Mannerist periods famous as the only major artist of the period to combine the colouring of the Venetian School (art), Venetian ...
,
Bronzino
Agnolo di Cosimo (; 17 November 150323 November 1572), usually known as Bronzino ( it, Il Bronzino ) or Agnolo Bronzino, was an Italian Mannerist painter from Florence. His sobriquet, ''Bronzino'', may refer to his relatively dark skin or reddis ...
's ''Adoration of the Shepherds'' as well as his ''Venus, Cupid and Jealousy'',
Romanino
Girolamo Romani, known as Romanino (c. 1485 - c. 1566), was an Italian High Renaissance painter active in the Veneto and Lombardy, near Brescia. His long career brought forth several different styles.
Biography
Romani was born in Brescia. Hi ...
's ''Doge Agostino Barbarigo Handing over a Banner to Niccolo Orsini'',
Titian
Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italians, Italian (Republic of Venice, Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school (art), ...
's ''Portrait of Doge Marcantonio Trevisani'',
Tintoretto
Tintoretto ( , , ; born Jacopo Robusti; late September or early October 1518Bernari and de Vecchi 1970, p. 83.31 May 1594) was an Italian painter identified with the Venetian school. His contemporaries both admired and criticized the speed with ...
's ''Supper at Emmaus'',
Tiepolo
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo ( , ; March 5, 1696 – March 27, 1770), also known as Giambattista (or Gianbattista) Tiepolo, was an Italian painter and printmaker from the Republic of Venice who painted in the Rococo style, considered an import ...
's ''St James the Greater in the Battle of Clavijo'',
Dürer's ''Portrait of a Young Man'',
Bernard van Orley
Bernard van Orley (between 1487 and 1491 – 6 January 1541), also called Barend or Barent van Orley, Bernaert van Orley or Barend van Brussel, was a versatile Flemish artist and representative of Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting, who w ...
's ''Portrait of Emperor Charles V'', eight pictures by
Lucas Cranach the Elder
Lucas Cranach the Elder (german: Lucas Cranach der Ältere ; – 16 October 1553) was a German Renaissance painter and printmaker in woodcut and engraving. He was court painter to the Electors of Saxony for most of his career, and is know ...
,
Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Pieter Bruegel (also Brueghel or Breughel) the Elder (, ; ; – 9 September 1569) was the most significant artist of Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting, a painter and printmaker, known for his landscapes and peasant scenes (so-called genr ...
's ''St John the Baptist Preaching'',
Rubens
Sir Peter Paul Rubens (; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat from the Duchy of Brabant in the Southern Netherlands (modern-day Belgium). He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque traditio ...
's ''Mucius Scaevola Before Porsenna'',
Murillo's ''
The Christ Child Distributing Bread to Pilgrims'',
Maarten van Heemskerck
Maarten van Heemskerck or ''Marten Jacobsz Heemskerk van Veen'' (1 June 1498 - 1 October 1574) was a Dutch portrait and religious painter, who spent most of his career in Haarlem. He was a pupil of Jan van Scorel, and adopted his teacher's Itali ...
's ''
Lamentation
A lament or lamentation is a passionate expression of grief, often in music, poetry, or song form. The grief is most often born of regret, or mourning. Laments can also be expressed in a verbal manner in which participants lament about something ...
'', two excellent portraits by
Frans Hals
Frans Hals the Elder (, , ; – 26 August 1666) was a Dutch Golden Age painter, chiefly of individual and group portraits and of genre works, who lived and worked in Haarlem.
Hals played an important role in the evolution of 17th-century group ...
, and a particularly strong collection of works by Spanish masters including
El Greco
Domḗnikos Theotokópoulos ( el, Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος ; 1 October 1541 7 April 1614), most widely known as El Greco ("The Greek"), was a Greek painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. "El G ...
,
Velázquez and
Goya
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (; ; 30 March 174616 April 1828) was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His paintings, drawings, and ...
.
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 collections. From the latter came one of the most treasured works, the
small equestrian by Leonardo da Vinci. A number of painted wooden sculptures feature in the German and Austrian section.
Drawings and 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 represented. Important pieces include two studies by
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, Drawing, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially res ...
for the ''Battle of Anghiari'', 15 drawings by
Rembrandt
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (, ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), usually simply known as Rembrandt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker and draughtsman. An innovative and prolific master in three media, he is generally consid ...
, 200 pieces by
Goya
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (; ; 30 March 174616 April 1828) was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His paintings, drawings, and ...
, and French
aquatint
Aquatint is an intaglio printmaking technique, a variant of etching that produces areas of tone rather than lines. For this reason it has mostly been used in conjunction with etching, to give both lines and shaded tone. It has also been used h ...
s.
Art after 1800
![Allegoria della pittura, Giaquinto, museo di Belle Arti, Budapest](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/84/Allegoria_della_pittura%2C_Giaquinto%2C_museo_di_Belle_Arti%2C_Budapest.jpg)
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
Biedermeier
The ''Biedermeier'' period was an era in Central Europe between 1815 and 1848 during which the middle class grew in number and the arts appealed to common sensibilities. It began with the Congress of Vienna at the end of the Napoleonic Wars in ...
period and French art. From the latter are representatives of the
Romantic period (
Eugène Delacroix
Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix ( , ; 26 April 1798 – 13 August 1863) was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of the French Romantic school.Noon, Patrick, et al., ''Crossing the Channel: Britis ...
), the Barbizon school (
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot ( , , ; July 16, 1796 – February 22, 1875), or simply Camille Corot, is a French landscape and portrait painter as well as a printmaker in etching. He is a pivotal figure in landscape painting and his vast ...
,
Gustave Courbet
Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet ( , , ; 10 June 1819 – 31 December 1877) was a French painter who led the Realism movement in 19th-century French painting. Committed to painting only what he could see, he rejected academic convention and t ...
) and
Impressionism
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating ...
(
Édouard Manet
Édouard Manet (, ; ; 23 January 1832 – 30 April 1883) was a French modernist painter. He was one of the first 19th-century artists to paint modern life, as well as a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism.
Born ...
,
Claude Monet
Oscar-Claude Monet (, , ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of impressionist painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During ...
,
Camille Pissarro
Jacob Abraham Camille Pissarro ( , ; 10 July 1830 – 13 November 1903) was a Danish-French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, St Thomas (now in the US Virgin Islands, but t ...
,
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (; 25 February 1841 – 3 December 1919) 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 "R ...
,
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Comte Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa (24 November 1864 – 9 September 1901) was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman, caricaturist and illustrator whose immersion in the colourful and theatrical life of Paris in the ...
). There is a large collection of sculptures by
Auguste Rodin
François Auguste René Rodin (12 November 184017 November 1917) was a French sculptor, generally considered the founder of modern sculpture. He was schooled traditionally and took a craftsman-like approach to his work. Rodin possessed a uniqu ...
and
Constantin Meunier
Constantin Meunier (12 April 1831 – 4 April 1905) was a Belgian painter and sculptor. He made an important contribution to the development of modern art by elevating the image of the industrial worker, docker and miner to an icon of mode ...
.
Vasarely Museum
Hungarian artist,
Victor Vasarely
Victor Vasarely (; born Győző Vásárhelyi, ; 9 April 1906 – 15 March 1997) was a Hungarian-French artist, who is widely accepted as a "grandfather" and leader of the Op art movement.
His work entitled ''Zebra'', created in 1937, is consi ...
, 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 is a surname. Notable people with the name include:
* Mihály Zichy (1827–1906), Hungarian painter and graphic artist
* Maria Anna Stubenberg Zichy (1821-1912), composer
* Eleonóra Zichy (1867–1945), Hungarian noblewoman
* Géza Zichy ( ...
mansion in
Óbuda
Óbuda was a town in Hungary that was merged with Buda and Pest on 17 November 1873; it now forms part of District III-Óbuda-Békásmegyer of Budapest. The name means ''Old Buda'' in Hungarian (in German, ''Alt-Ofen''). The name in Bosnian, ...
. 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 Oltványi
Imre Oltványi (20 February 1893 – 13 January 1963) 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 ...
*1952–1955 Ferenc Redő
*1956–1964 Andor Pigler
*1964–1984 Klára Garas
*1984–1989 Ferenc Merényi
*1989–2004 Miklós Mojzer
*2004–
László Baán
Budapest Museum Quarter project
In 2008, the director of the Museum of Fine Arts, László Baán, proposed the merging of his museum with that of the
Hungarian National Gallery
The Hungarian National Gallery (also known as Magyar Nemzeti Galéria), 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 works ...
, due to the similar exhibition and collection profile of the two. Both (along with the Ludwig Museum of Contemporary Art) specialize in 20th century and
contemporary fine art, much of which was created by Hungarian artists living overseas.
After his request to add an €18million underground extension to the Museum of Fine Arts, which would have united collections spread across the city, was denied in February 2011, Baán presented an alternative plan to the government to build two new buildings at the cost of €150m. He envisioned the new buildings, one housing contemporary European art and the other Hungarian photography, as a "special museum island" that would complement the Museum of Fine Arts and the
Budapest Art Hall (Műcsarnok) by permanently joining the two collections by 2017.
In September 2011, Secretary of State for Culture
Géza Szőcs
Géza Szőcs (21 August 1953 – 5 November 2020) was an ethnic Hungarian poet and politician from Transylvania, Romania, who served as Secretary of State for Culture of the Ministry of National Resources in Hungary from 2 June 2010 to 13 June 2 ...
officially announced plans to build a new structure along
Andrássy út
Andrássy Avenue ( hu, Andrássy út) is a boulevard in Budapest, Hungary, dating back to 1872. It links Erzsébet Square with the City Park (Budapest), Városliget. Lined with spectacular Neo-renaissance mansions and townhouses featuring fine faca ...
close to
City Park
An urban park or metropolitan park, also known as a municipal park (North America) or a public park, public open space, or municipal gardens ( UK), is a park in cities and other incorporated places that offer recreation and green space to resi ...
and near the existing Budapest Museum of Fine Arts and
Budapest Art Hall (Műcsarnok). This building would house the collections of the current
Hungarian National Gallery
The Hungarian National Gallery (also known as Magyar Nemzeti Galéria), 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 works ...
.
This expanded plan, which would utilize the entire boulevard, is also referred to as the
Budapest Museum Quarter The Budapest Museum Quarter is a proposed new cultural and tourist site to be located on Andrássy út in Budapest, Hungary, and has at its core the merger of the Hungarian National Gallery with the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts into one institutio ...
or Andrássy Quarter.
In early December 2011, Ferenc Csák, director of the
Hungarian National Gallery
The Hungarian National Gallery (also known as Magyar Nemzeti Galéria), 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 works ...
since 2010 and critical of the proposed merger of the gallery with the Museum of Fine Arts, called the merge process "
ry unprofessional, anti–democratic and short–sighted" and announced that he would resign at the end of 2011. , a new director had not been named and the Hungarian National Gallery was being led by Deputy General Director, György Szűcs.
See also
*
Budapest Kunsthalle (Palace of Art) — contemporary art museum across the square''.
*
Hungarian National Gallery
The Hungarian National Gallery (also known as Magyar Nemzeti Galéria), 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 works ...
*
List of museums in Hungary
*
References
Further reading
*
*
*
*
External links
*
Museum website*
Museum.hu informationAerial photographs of the museumVirtual tour of the Museum of Fine Arts (Budapest)provided by
Google Arts & Culture
Google Arts & Culture (formerly Google Art Project) is an online platform of high-resolution images and videos of artworks and cultural artifacts from partner cultural organizations throughout the world.
It utilizes high-resolution image technol ...
*
{{authority control
Art museums and galleries in Hungary
Museums in Budapest
National museums of Hungary
Egyptological collections
Art museums established in 1906
Buildings and structures completed in 1906
1906 establishments in Hungary
Landmarks in Hungary
Greek Revival buildings
Neoclassical architecture in Hungary