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Recent
news can now be found on my
Medieval Hungary blog
For earlier posts, visit and search or browse the
Medieval Hungary blog!
Exhibitions, excavations, conferences, talks, new
publications
Recent exhibitions
2009
Pages of the Hungarian Angevin
Legendary were on view at the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York,
in the following exhibition:
 Pages
of Gold - Medieval Illumination from the Morgan
June 19 - September 13, 2009
2008 - Renaissance Year in
Hungary
In 2008, a series of exhibitions
were devoted to the period of King Matthias Corvinus (1458-1490). Most
significant was the coordinated effort of four museums, titled 4 times
on Renaissance. Thematically and chronologically, these
independent exhibitions complemented one another, giving visitors a
comprehensive overview of 15th century Hungarian culture.
The exhibitions were the following:
 National Széchényi
Library, Budapest:
Star in the Shadow of the Raven - János Vitéz and the Beginnings of
Humanism in Hungary
This
exhibition surveyed the beginnings of
Hungarian humanism up to approximately the late 1470s. A special focus was
the personality and the library of archbishop János Vitéz.
 Budapest
History Museum, Budapest:
MATTHIAS CORVINUS,
THE KING - Tradition and renewal in the Hungarian
Royal Court 1458-1490
The exhibition gave a complete overview of
the personality and court of King Matthias. Accompanied by an
English-language catalogue.
 Museum
of Applied Arts, Budapest:
The
Dowry of Beatrice - The beginnings of Italian Majolica and the Court
of King Matthias Corvinus
The goal of this exhibition was twofold: to
present the 15th century origins of Italian majolica art while presenting
its most important monuments, and second: to study and demonstrate the
origins and creation of works in the majolica workshop of Buda. The famous
Corvinus dishes, made in Pesaro, wer shown. See also the museum
website.
Accompanied by an English-language
catalogue.
 Hungarian
National Gallery, Budapest:
The Legacy Of
King Matthias - Late Renaissance Art In Hungary
The exhibition set out to present the
history of Renaissance art in Hungary and to interpret the era within the
culture of the early modern age as a whole. It looks at how Renaissance
art in Hungary, which today is inextricably linked to the name of the
great king subsequently developed.
2006 -
Sigismundus Rex et Imperator
In 2006, the largest and most important exhibition
ever dedicated to the art and culture of medieval Hungary opened at the
Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest. Titled
Sigismundus - Rex et Imperator, Art
and Culture under the Last Ruler of the Luxemburg Dynasty, 1387-1437,
the exhibition traveled later in 2006 to the Musée
national d'histoire et d'art in Luxembourg.
The goal of the exhibition was to present the personality and times
as well as the artistic milieu of Sigismund of Luxemburg, the king of
Hungary (1387), and king (1410/11) and later emperor (1433) of the Holy
Roman Empire. The exhibit centres on Sigismund's colourful personality,
his political career and his patronage, although other objectives include
the detailed presentation of the cultural and artistic phenomena and works
associated with the emperor's lifework. The exhibition presents more than
350 artworks from approximately 100 great libraries, museums and
treasuries throughout Europe.
      
The exhibition is accompanied by a complete website,
accompanied by a detailed online guide, see
www.sigismundus.hu!
As a concurrent event, the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York, and Prague Castle Administration will dedicate an exhibition to
the last rulers of the Luxemburg dynasty, titled 'Prague,
The Crown of Bohemia, 1347-1437'
The Art of the Late Middle Ages - A
series of exhibitions worldwide in 2004
The year 2004 has seen
a large number of exhibitions dedicated to the art of medieval Europe and
the Mediterranean during the 14-15th centuries, ranging from English
Gothic to Late Byzantine art. As you see above, this series will continue
this year and after at New York, Prague, Budapest and Luxembourg.
The most important medieval exhibitions of
2004 were:
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Gothic - Art for England, 1400-1547
Victoria & Albert Museum, London
October 9, 2003 - January 18, 2004
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Paris 1400 - Les
arts sous Charles VI
Louvre, Paris
March 26, 2004 - July 12, 2004
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L'art à la cour de Bourgogne, Le mécénat de Philippe
le Hardi et de Jean sans Peur et l'art en Bourgogne (1360-1420)
Dijon, Musée des Beaux-Arts - Du 28 mai 2004 au 15 septembre
2004
Dukes and Angels: Art from the Court of
Burgundy (1364-1419)
The Cleveland
Museum of Art
October 24, 2004 - January 9, 2005
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Gothic Art - The History of Fine Arts in Slovakia
Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava
December 2003 - March 21, 2004
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Byzantium: Faith and Power (1261–1557)
Metropolitan Museum, New York
March 23, 2004–July 4, 2004
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Earlier exhibitions on medieval Hungary
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Europe's Centre around AD 1000 - A joint European exhibition, sponsored
by the Council of Europe. The focus is the art and culture of
Central European peoples around 1000. A two-volume German language
catalogue is supplemented by text volumes in English, Hungarian,
Polish and Czech: Europas Mitte um 1000 - Beiträge zur Geschichte,
Kunst und Archäologie, I-II., Stuttgart: Theiss, 2000. The
exhibition started in Budapest, from Aug. 20, 2000 to Nov. 26, 2000,
and then went to Berlin, Prague, Mannheim and Bratislava.
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A Thousand Years of Christianity in
Hungary
- At the
Hungarian National
Museum, until 30 June 2002. The exhibition
presents artworks associated with Christianity from Hungary, and is
accompanied by a catalogue, which is available in English, Italian
and Hungarian. Originally shown at the Vatican Museums.
Visit the
homepage of the exhibition.
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Bavaria - Hungary - A Thousand Years
(Bayern-Ungarn
- Tausend Jahre).
Passau,
Oberhausmuseum - Hungarian
National Museum. Now closed, this exhibition focused on
long-standing relations between Hungary and a region, this time
Bavaria. The exhibition and catalogue has a strong emphasis on the
Middle Ages, as contacts were especially strong at the time of St.
Stephen (his wife, Gisela, came from Bavaria), as well as during the
thirteenth century, and at the time of King Matthias. A German
language catalogue, guide, and website
are available.
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Otto
der Grosse - Magdeburg und Europa
- In the focus of this splendid exhibition stood the figure of
Emperor Otto I, as well as his residence at Magdeburg. Hungarians
are featured as one of the formidable enemies Otto had to face. Open
27. August – 2. December 2001, at the Kulturhistorisches Museum of
Magdeburg.
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Paradisum plantavit - Benedictine Monasteries in Medieval Hungary
An exhibition at the
Benedictine Archabbey of Pannonhalma, Hungary
March 21-Nov. 11., 2001.
This major exhibition is dedicated to the history,
art, and culture of Benedictine monasteries in Hungary between 997
and 1526. About 225 objects, ranging from charters to altarpieces to
chalices and architectural carvings will be exhibited in the Library
and Exhibition area of the Archabbey of Pannonhalma (near Györ in
western Hungary). The material will be arranged in the following
sections: Antecedents and Beginnings. Culture and Writing in the
Monasteries. Art and Everyday Life. Liturgical Objects.
Architectural Remains.
A bilingual (Hungarian-English) catalogue was
published for the occassion, with studies, catalogue entries,
bibliography and a database of Hungarian Benedictine monasteries.
The Hungarian version is available
online.
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Recommended website for
Fall 2007:
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The
Grand Atelier - Virtual Visit
The theme of the 2007
Europalia was "Europe". A major
exhibition, titled The Grand Atelier celebrated art on the
continent, with a focus on medieval art. The
exhibition has
been described as follows:
From the 5th to the 18th century, the development of
trade routes across Europe transformed the continent into a gigantic
artists’ atelier in which painters, sculptors, goldsmiths, princes and
patrons travelled and spread their influence. The main event of the
europalia.europa festival, the exhibition “The Grand Atelier. Pathways
of Art in Europe”, will show some 250 great artworks from over one
hundred European museums, illustrating the emergence of these new
artistic dialogues and how they influenced the whole of Europe.
Hungary was one of the major lenders to the
exhibition, with key peices from several museums.
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Archive - Selections
from featured internet links:
(please keep in mind that some of
these links may be broken)
Recommended website for winter 2004-2005:
Sigismundus - Rex et Imperator,
Art and Culture under the Last Ruler of the Luxemburg Dynasty,
1387-1437.
A major
international exhibition organized by the Museum of Fine Arts,
Budapest. On view in Budapest during the Spring,
and still to be seen at the Musée national d'histoire et
d'art in Luxembourg until October 15.
Recommended website for winter 2004-2005: The homepage of the
Christian
Museum in Esztergom, one of the most important collections of
medieval art in Hungary. I especially recommend the
Collection of Hungarian Late Gothic Painting and Sculpture, but the
Museum has a rich collection of
medieval Austrian and German painting, as well as a world famous
Italian Trecento and Renaissance painting collection, along with many
other treasures.
Recommended website for Fall 2004:
An illustrated overview of the
Hungarian
Coronation insignia, featured on the homepage of
Bildarchiv Foto Marburg. With photographs by Károly Szelényi.
For further information on the crown and regalia, see
my
page on the insignia.
Recommended website for Spring 2004:
A series of databases created
by Arcanum - A collection of historical databases.
Selecting Gesta will lead to databases of historical geography and
medieval family history in Hungary. Selecting Magyar Országos Levéltár
will give you access to the database of pre-1526 charters in the
collection of the Hungarian National Archives. Some knowledge of Hungarian
is needed to navigate the site.
Recommended web site for Fall 2003:
The Digital Corvina Library - Széchényi National Library, Budapest. The database aims to create a
virtual reconstruction of the celebrated library of King Matthias Corvinus
(1458-1490). So far the site is only in Hungarian, but clicking on
"Corvinák" on the menu will take you to digital facsimiles of a number of
manuscripts.
Recommended website for April-May
2002:
The Collections of the
Benedictine Archabbey of Pannonhalma - An overview of the Collection
of Antiquities, Picture Gallery, Library, Tresury, etc. with photos and
descriptions of objects. For the abbey itself, see
http://www.osb.hu.
Recommended web site for December
2001:
OTTO DER GROSSE
- Magdeburg und Europa - official website of the exhibition at
Magdeburg.
Recommended website for November
2001:
Bayern-Ungarn - Tausand Jahre -
Passau, Oberhausmuseum.
These are the main website of the Bavarian exhibition, as well as the
website of the Museum housing it.
Recommended website for October
2001:
A Thousand Years of Christianity in Hungary - Homepage of the Hungarian exhibition at
the Vatican Museums, with short description of select objects.
Recommended website for September
2001: 
L'Europe des Anjou
- Homepage of an exhibition held at the Abbey of Fontevraud, to celebrate
the glorious past of the Angevin dynasty. Central France (Anjou), Naples,
Hungary, Croatia, and Poland are among the territories and countries where
they ruled. The exhibition presents objects from these places, focusing on
the 14th century. Open June 16 - Sept. 16, 2001. An exhibition catalogue
is available.
More information on the homepage of the Croatian Embassy in France.
Recommended website for March 2001: Hungarian National Museum – see the pages on the
Highlights of
the Collections, including medieval objects, as well as the page on
Exhibitions
(With links to the Coronation mantle and the Medieval lapidary.)
Recommended website for February
2001:
Dress, Jewels, Arms and Coat of Arms: Material Culture and
Self-Representation in the Late Middle Ages - A
site by the Medieval Studies Department, Central European University
Recommended website for November 2000:
The High Altar by Master MS at Selmecbánya - A virtual
reconstruction on the
Fine Arts in
Hungary site.
Recommended website for October 2000:
-Medieval
Manuscript Manual - Created by the Medieval Studies Department,
Central European University
Other events
-The Cathedral Museum of Pécs is now open (Fall 2004).
The museum displays the richest ensemble of Romanesque stone carving known
from Hungary. The portals, staircase walls and stone altars of the
cathedral are reassembled inside the museum, along with great many other
carvings and fragments.
-On January 1st, 2000, the Holy Crown of Hungary
was moved to the building of the Hungarian Parliament from the Hungarian
National Museum. The spectre, orb and the coronation sword moved to
Parliament as well, but the Coronation Mantle remains at the National
Museum. Thus the units of the only medieval ensemble of coronation regalia
surviving intact have unfortunately been separated. See my page on the
Crown.
-On November 10th, 1999, the new exhibition of
Northern Gothic Sculpture has opened at the Museum of Fine Arts in
Budapest. The collection has not been on view for decades. Currently
altogether 60 pieces are on display, including French, Netherlandish,
German and Austrian pieces of the 13th to early 16th centuries, carved out
of ivory, stone and wood. Two complete altarpieces are also exhibited. The
descriptive catalogue of the collection was written over twenty years ago
(Jolán Balogh, Katalog der ausländischen Bildwerke des Museums der
Bildenden Künste in Budapest, IV.-XVIII. Jahrhundert, I-II. Budapest:
Akadémiai, 1975.), a new catalogue of the Gothic pieces is awaiting
publication. In the Spring of 2004, the exhibition closed for an uncertain
time.
-A fourteenth-century royal throne carpet has
been recovered at the Buda castle excavations. The carpet has been
recovered from a well in very good condition. It is a large silk patchwork
(240x110 cm) decorated with Angevine coats of arms. It will be displayed
after restoration in the Budapest Historical Museum. The same well has
yielded a number of other interesting objects made of wood, leather and
other materials, all preserved in good condition. The excavations still go
on.
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Detail of the silk royal throne carpet recovered
at Buda, before restoration (Budapest History Museum)
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The new Lapidarium of the Hungarian National Museum
opened on November 25, 1998. Apart from Roman stones of Pannonia, many
medieval stone carvings, especially tombstones are exhibited here. See the
homepage.
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