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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 older additions such as those from
Buda Castle Buda Castle (, ), formerly also called the Royal Palace () and the Royal Castle (, ), is the historical castle and palace complex of the King of Hungary, Hungarian kings in Budapest. First completed in 1265, the Baroque architecture, Baroque pa ...
, the
Esterházy The House of Esterházy, also spelled Eszterházy (), is a Hungarian nobility, 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, durin ...
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 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, 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 Organ (biology), organs have been preserved by either intentional or accidental exposure to Chemical substance, chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or lack of air, so that the ...
sarcophagi.


Classical antiquities

The core of the collection was made up of pieces acquired from Paul Arndt, a classicist from
Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...
. 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, Dutch, Flemish, French, English and Spanish art. The most important works include Maso di Banco's ''Coronation of the Virgin'',
Sassetta ''For the village near Livorno, see Sassetta, Tuscany'' Stefano di Giovanni di Consolo, known as il Sassetta (–1450) was a List of Italian painters, Tuscan painter of the Italian Renaissance painting, Renaissance, and a significant figure of th ...
's ''Saint Thomas Aquinas at Prayer'', Domenico Ghirlandaio's ''Saint Stephen Martyr'', Bernardo Bellotto's ''The Piazza della Signoria in Florence'',
Gentile Bellini Gentile Bellini (c. 1429 – 23 February 1507) was an Italian painter of the Venetian painting, 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 y ...
's ''Portrait of Caterina Cornaro'',
Giorgione Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco (; 1470s – 17 September 1510), known as Giorgione, was an Italian painter of the Venetian school during the High Renaissance, who died in his thirties. He is known for the elusive poetic quality of his work, ...
's '' Portrait of a Young Man'',
Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), now generally known in English as Raphael ( , ), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. List of paintings by Raphael, His work is admired for its cl ...
's '' Esterhazy Madonna'', Giambattista Pittoni's ''St Elizabeth Distributing Alms'', three works by Corrado Giaquinto, ''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 an Italian Renaissance painter who was the foremost painter of the Parma school of the High Renaissance, who was responsible for som ...
's ''Madonna and Child with an Angel'', three works by
Sebastiano del Piombo Sebastiano del Piombo (; – 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 scho ...
,
Bronzino Agnolo di Cosimo (; 17 November 150323 November 1572), usually known as Bronzino ( ) or Agnolo Bronzino, was an Italians, Italian Mannerism, Mannerist painter from Florence. His sobriquet, ''Bronzino'', may refer to his relatively dark skin or r ...
's ''Adoration of the Shepherds'' as well as his ''Venus, Cupid and Jealousy'', Romanino's ''Doge Agostino Barbarigo Handing over a Banner to Niccolo Orsini'',
Titian Tiziano Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), Latinized as Titianus, hence known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italian Renaissance painter, the most important artist of Renaissance Venetian painting. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, near Belluno. Ti ...
's ''Portrait of Doge Marcantonio Trevisani'',
Tintoretto Jacopo Robusti (late September or early October 1518Bernari and de Vecchi 1970, p. 83.31 May 1594), best known as Tintoretto ( ; , ), was an Italian Renaissance painter of the Venetian school. His contemporaries both admired and criticized th ...
'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 Lucas Cranach the Elder ( ;  â€“ 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 known for his portraits, both of German ...
,
Pieter Bruegel the Elder Pieter Bruegel (also Brueghel or Breughel) the Elder ( , ; ; – 9 September 1569) was among the most significant artists of Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting, a painter and printmaking, printmaker, known for his landscape art, landscape ...
's ''St John the Baptist Preaching'',
Rubens Sir Peter Paul Rubens ( ; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat. He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque tradition. Rubens' highly charged compositions reference erudite aspects of clas ...
's ''Mucius Scaevola Before Porsenna'', Murillo's '' The Christ Child Distributing Bread to Pilgrims'',
Maarten van Heemskerck Maarten van Heemskerck (born Maerten Jacobsz van Veen; 1 June 1498 – 1 October 1574), also known as Marten Jacobsz Heemskerk van Veen, was a Dutch portrait and religious painter, who spent most of his career in Haarlem. He was a pupil of Jan ...
's '' Lamentation'', two portraits by
Frans Hals Frans Hals the Elder (, ; ; – 26 August 1666) was a Dutch Golden Age painter. He lived and worked in Haarlem, a city in which the local authority of the day frowned on religious painting in places of worship but citizens liked to decorate thei ...
, and a collection of works by Spanish masters including
El Greco Doménikos Theotokópoulos (, ; 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, regarded as one of the greatest artists of all time. ...
, Velázquez and Goya.


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 1452 - 2 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested o ...
for the ''Battle of Anghiari'', 15 drawings by
Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (; ; 15 July 1606 â€“ 4 October 1669), mononymously known as Rembrandt was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker, and Drawing, draughtsman. He is generally considered one of the greatest visual artists in ...
, 200 pieces by Goya, 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 ...
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 Biedermeier period and French art. From the latter are representatives of the Romantic period (
Eugène Delacroix Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix ( ; ; 26 April 1798 â€“ 13 August 1863) was a French people, French Romanticism, Romantic artist who was regarded as the leader of the French Romantic school.Noon, Patrick, et al., ''Crossing the Channel: ...
), the Barbizon school (
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot ( , , ; 16 July 1796 â€“ 22 February 1875), or simply Camille Corot, was a French Landscape art, landscape and Portraitist, portrait painter as well as a printmaking, printmaker in etching. A pivotal figure in ...
,
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 the ...
) and
Impressionism Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...
(
Édouard Manet Édouard Manet (, ; ; 23 January 1832 – 30 April 1883) was a French Modernism, 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 (art movement), R ...
,
Claude Monet Oscar-Claude Monet (, ; ; 14 November 1840 â€“ 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of Impressionism painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During his ...
,
Camille Pissarro Jacob Abraham Camille Pissarro ( ; ; 10 July 1830 â€“ 13 November 1903) was a Danish-French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of St Thomas (now in the US Virgin Islands, but then in the Danish West Indies). ...
,
Pierre-Auguste Renoir Pierre-Auguste Renoir (; ; 25 February 1841 – 3 December 1919) was a French people, French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionism, Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and especially femininity, fe ...
,
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Count, ''Comte'' Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa (24 November 1864 â€“ 9 September 1901), known as Toulouse-Lautrec (), was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman, caricaturist, and illustrator whose immersion in the colour ...
). 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 u ...
and Constantin Meunier.


Vasarely Museum

Hungarian artist, Victor Vasarely, 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
Óbuda Óbuda (, ) is, together with Buda and Pest, one of the three cities that were unified to form the Hungarian capital city of Budapest in 1873. Today, together with Békásmegyer, Óbuda forms a part of the city's third district, although the to ...
. 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 *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 w ...
, 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 officially announced plans to build a new structure along Andrássy út close to City Park 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 w ...
. This expanded plan, which would utilize the entire boulevard, is also referred to as the Budapest Museum Quarter 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 w ...
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 w ...
* List of museums in Hungary *
List of largest art museums Art museums are some of the largest buildings in the world. The world's most pre-eminent museums have also engaged in various expansion projects through the years, expanding their total exhibition space. List The following is a list of art mus ...
*


References


Further reading

* * * *


External links

*
Museum website
*
Museum.hu information

Aerial 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, operated by Google. It utilizes high-re ...
* {{authority control Art museums and galleries in Budapest National museums of Hungary Egyptological collections Art museums and galleries established in 1906 Buildings and structures completed in 1906 1906 establishments in Hungary Landmarks in Hungary Greek Revival buildings Neoclassical architecture in Hungary