Collection of Egyptian Antiquities The Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest holds one of the largest collection of
Egyptian art in Central‑Eastern Europe, consisting of approximately 3,500 objects. 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 sarcophagi.
Classical antiquities The core of the collection was made up of pieces acquired from
Paul Arndt, a classicist from
Munich. 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's
Saint Thomas Aquinas at Prayer,
Domenico Ghirlandaio's
Saint Stephen Martyr,
Bernardo Bellotto's
The Piazza della Signoria in Florence,
Gentile Bellini's
Portrait of Caterina Cornaro,
Giorgione's
Portrait of a Young Man,
Raphael'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's
Madonna and Child with an Angel, three works by
Sebastiano del Piombo,
Bronzino'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's
Portrait of Doge Marcantonio Trevisani,
Tintoretto'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,
Pieter Bruegel the Elder's
St John the Baptist Preaching,
Rubens's
Mucius Scaevola Before Porsenna,
Murillo's
The Christ Child Distributing Bread to Pilgrims,
Maarten van Heemskerck's
Lamentation, two portraits by
Frans Hals, and a collection of works by Spanish masters including
El Greco,
Velázquez and
Goya. '' by
John Constable, 1814 '',
Eugène Delacroix, 1824 , 1734
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 for the
Battle of Anghiari, 15 drawings by
Rembrandt, 200 pieces by
Goya, and French
aquatints.
Art after 1800 St. Roch (1727), Oil on canvas, 42 x 32
Allegory of Painting (1750), oil on canvas, 98 x 74 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), the Barbizon school (
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot,
Gustave Courbet) and
Impressionism (
Édouard Manet,
Claude Monet,
Camille Pissarro,
Pierre-Auguste Renoir,
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec). There is a large collection of sculptures by
Auguste Rodin and
Constantin Meunier. ==Vasarely Museum==