Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest

The Museum of Fine Arts has been operating in Budapest for over a century, with works by such masters as Monet, Goya, Titian, El Greco, Rembrandt and many others on display. The six halls of the Museum of Fine Arts present a retrospective of the development of world culture from the ancient Egyptian civilization to the heyday of impressionism.

Foundation of the Museum of Fine Arts

The reason for the establishment of the museum was the publication in 1896 of a law that regulated the removal of collections of foreign art objects from the palace of the princes Esterházy, Buda Castle and the estates of the Counts Zichy and determined their placement on one site. Another 10 years were spent on the design and construction of the museum building, which was built in the center of Budapest on Heroes’ Square. The work was carried out under the supervision of the famous architects F. Herzog and A. Schickedanz.

The museum was ceremoniously opened on December 1, 1906, in the presence of the Emperor of Austria-Hungary Franz Joseph I. On the portico of the authentic neoclassical building, decorated with Corinthian columns, a scene of the battle of the Lapiths with the Centaurs is depicted, very reminiscent of the composition of the pediments of the Temple of Zeus in Olympia. The architectural complex accurately emphasizes its internal purpose, creating the necessary mood before getting acquainted with the masterpieces of art.

Museum exhibits

The basis of the Museum of Fine Arts exposition is about 700 paintings by old masters, which were in the private collection of the princes Esterházy. Over many decades, the museum’s funds have been replenished with exhibits from private collections and works donated by patrons. The collection also includes works by graphic artists and sculptors of the 19th-20th centuries. Today, the total number of exhibits has exceeded 100 thousand units.

Initially, the Museum of Fine Arts was created exclusively for exhibiting foreign works of art, but the famous artist and sculptor V. Vasarely donated a number of his works, which are exhibited in the Zichy estate. The museum has a good tradition of organizing temporary exhibitions, which display collections from other world-famous venues, such as the Prado or the Louvre.

Gallery of old paintings in the Museum of Fine Arts

One of the main sections of the museum is the “Gallery of Old Paintings”, which contains about 2,600 paintings, slightly less than a third of which are on permanent display.

Here you can admire paintings by outstanding masters of the Italian school – Raphael, Giotto, Tintoretto, Titian, Giorgione and others. Among the exhibits of the gallery are canvases by artists of other European schools – Flemish, Spanish, French, English. German and Austrian painting is represented by works by Durer, Cranach and Holbein.

Departments of Ancient Art of the Museum of Fine Arts

The Egyptian section features items from the personal collection of Hungarian Egyptologist Eduard Mahler. The exhibition includes almost 1,300 exhibits, making it one of the largest collections of ancient Egyptian art in Europe. Among them are ancient figurines, amulets, fragments of clay vessels, masks and much more. Thanks to new excavations in the Middle Egypt and Thebes area, the number of exhibits continues to grow.

Of particular note is the statue of the Egyptian crown prince from the 9th century BC and the bronze sculpture of a seated cat dating from the 3rd century BC.

The basis of the exhibition of the antique department was formed by works from the collection of the famous German archaeologist Paul Arndt. About a thousand works, covering almost the entire antique period, became the property of the permanent exhibition. One of the most famous exhibits remains the statue of the early Hellenistic period “Budapest Dancer” and the bronze jug of Grimani from Southern Greece, dating back to the 5th century BC.

Departments of Medieval and Modern Art in the Museum

Visitors to the graphic arts and engravings department will be able to admire drawings by Rembrandt, Poussin, Delacroix and two sketches by the great Leonardo for the “Battle of Anghiari”. The collection contains over 10,000 works, including several prints.

Due to their heightened sensitivity, masterpieces on paper are only displayed at temporary exhibitions.

The gallery of works by new masters is almost entirely dedicated to the work of the impressionists and masters of the romantic movement – ​​Manet, Rodin, Delacroix, Monet, Cezanne.

Budapest is rightly called one of the most museum cities in the Old World. There are over 200 museums, galleries and exhibitions in the Hungarian capital, and many tourists may get dizzy from such an abundance of places of high culture. However, the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts stands out among them thanks to the unique opportunity to personally touch the canvases of great European masters.

Basic information about the Museum of Fine Arts:

The Museum of Fine Arts is located very close to the Széchenyi Baths and Vajdahunyad Castle and a few hundred meters from the House of Terror Museum.

Map showing the location of the Museum of Fine Arts: