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Late Renaissance and Baroque Art

The permanent exhibition of Late Renaissance and Baroque art (1550–1800) surveys the art of 250 years, beginning with Mannerist works made in Vienna and Prague in the years around 1600. The 17th century is represented by Hungarian ecclesiastical treasures, wooden epitaphs and tomb sculptures, as well as by depictions of Árpád-dynasty saints in Hungarian attire. Next, the show evokes the culture of aristocratic residences in the Baroque age by means of a painted travelling tapestry once belonging to Ferenc Rákóczi II, prince of Transylvania; Rococo genre paintings imitating frescoes; atmospheric still-lifes; and impressive portraits of nobles. Early 18th-century art is represented by works by Bohemian, Silesian and German masters, and by those of their Hungarian counterparts who achieved fame abroad. Of these the best known is the still-life painter Jakab Bogdány, who lived in England and who created a number of the works displayed, and Ádám Manyoki, court painter to Ferenc Rákóczi II. An eminent figure of Baroque art in Hungary, Mányoki is represented not only by works he made in the German territories, but also by a number of portraits he painted in Hungary, including his famous likeness of the prince. The room that used to serve as the monarch’s bedroom in the palace now houses reminders of Baroque ecclesiastical art: altarpieces and altar statues. The creators of these were often guest-artists invited from abroad; they included Franz Anton Maulbertsch and Johann Lucas Kracker, the most important Austrian masters of the age. The exhibition shows a number of significant works by both artists. Besides monumental works, altarpieces and fresco sketches help recall the one-time completeness of Baroque ecclesiastical art. Most of these works present scenes from the legends of Hungarian royal saints. The survey of Late Baroque religious art ends with cabinet portraits on Old Testament themes. The works exhibited last – portraits and landscapes from the time of the Enlightenment, pictures on historical themes, allegorical works on classical themes, and folk genre pictures – are already forerunners of 19th-century paintings characterised by middle-class taste and national sentiment.