The museum as a field of gaining experiences Interview with ÉvaOravec MúzeumCafé 51. author: Judit Jankó Historian and museum education specialist ÉvaOravec heads the museum education department at the SzéchenyiZsigmond Carpathian Basin Hungarian Museum of Hunting in Hatvan. Not very long ago she herself was a student and she still remembers how the interest of young people visiting the museum can be raised. She treats pupils for the museum sessions as […]
“My whole life is about the arts” Interview with Gabriella Shah, director of the DornyayBéla Museum MúzeumCafé 51. author: Katica Kocsis Gabriella Shah was appointed to head the DornyayBéla Museum in 2013. Her main aim was to make the museum an active and open communal place, which seems to have been realised: the exhibitions draw an increasingly broad range of visitors and the museum has turned into a visitor-friendly venue. Furthermore, besides staging exhibitions, organising events […]
What followed after the end National Cultural Heritage reused MúzeumCafé 51. author: Emőke Gréczi One quotation summarises the fate of listed monuments in Hungary since the mid 20th century: “This chapter in history reflects such a powerful anti-cultural attitude that we can only recall it with horror.” There has been reconstruction, dispersal, demolition, re-painting, and the deprivation of ornamentation, parks, economic background and furnishings. The discussion focussed on listed […]
Each artwork is a window onto the past A conversation in Budapest with professor Andrea De Marchi of Florence University MúzeumCafé 51. author: Péter Emőd Art historian, Professor Andrea De Marchi came to Budapest for the launch of a book. He took over the Department of Art History at the University of Florence from Hungarian researcher MiklósBoskovits (1935–2011) after the latter had retired. The conversation touched on the usefulness of blockbuster exhibitions, the situation of old masters in the art […]
The past, present and future of the Municipal Gallery Small collection without attempting to be comprehensive MúzeumCafé 51. author: Emőke Gréczi The Municipal Gallery, formerly housing the most significant collection of modern Hungarian fine arts, today functions as one of the main departments of the Budapest History Museum. The art collecting activity of the Hungarian capital as a patron of the arts began directly after the unification of Buda, Pest and Óbuda in 1873. The municipality […]
Esterházy, Rákóczi and the monks, the relation of sound and silence Functions in the Majk Hermitage MúzeumCafé 51. author: Marianna Berényi Monks occupied the monastery today called the Camaldolese Hermitage – Majk for less than 50 years. Yet the 18th-century Baroque ensemble of listed buildings, comprising 17 cell-houses, convent building of the hermitage and ruined church tower is considered a curiosity all over Europe. The first part of the ensemble, which was renovated with an 885 […]
Lost meaning – museum amnesia Meditating on the exhibitions in the museums of Hatvan MúzeumCafé 51. author: PéterGyörgy, aesthetician There are outstanding exhibitions in Hatvan’s museum. However, visitors might feel rather uncertain when they approach the HatvanyLajos Museum, since they are confronted by two signs on the building. HatvaniÉrtéktár (Hatvan Asset Repository) can be read on the left and MúzeumSerfőzde (Museum Brewery) on the right. There is a spacious gate in the middle without […]
Glancing with glass eyes in the trophy collection An origin myth of museum history in Hungary MúzeumCafé 51. author: ZsófiaFrazon The sight draws attention like a magnet: the sacred space, the animal heads and antlers on the walls, the Gothic stained-glass windows, the pillars, the painted vaulting and the four scenes with plants and stuffed animals – spring, summer, autumn and winter. It’s a dramatic sight, with – placed in the scene – glass-eyed taxidermal […]
Natural History Exhibition in a Museum of Literature From Room to Room, among Zemplén Hills MúzeumCafé 51. author: Tamás Vásárhelyi The KazinczyFerenc Museum in Sátoraljaújhely took over the Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County’s biological collection, which now comprises 180,000 items. In 2013 the museum became affiliated to the Petőfi Museum of Literature, understandably given Kazinczy’s name and the closeness of Széphalom – both the Kazinczy Mausoleum and the Museum of Hungarian Language can be found there. Literary historians […]
The revival of an Italian Baroque painting Restoration of Giuseppe Vermiglio’s The Penitent Magdalene MúzeumCafé 51. author: IldikóCsala, restorer In 1971 the Museum of Fine Arts bought a painting for the Collection of Old Masters depicting Mary Magdalene. The artist was believed to be an unknown 17th-century French master. In 2015 art historian ZsuzsannaDobos identified it as a work of Giuseppe Vermiglio, a prominent representative of the Lombardy-Piedmont early Seicento. The attribution raised the […]