Szépmüvészeti Múzeum (Museum of Fine Arts)

Frommer's Review

Planned at the time of the 1896 millennial celebration of the Magyar Conquest, the Museum of Fine Arts opened 10 years later in this neoclassical behemoth on the left side of huge Heroes' Square, at the edge of City Park. The museum is the main repository of foreign art in Hungary and it houses one of central Europe's major collections of such works. A significant part of the collection was acquired in 1871 from the Esterházys, an enormously wealthy noble family who spent centuries amassing great art. There are eight sections in the museum: Egyptian Art, Antiquities, Baroque Sculpture, Old Masters, Drawings and Prints, 19th-Century Masters, 20th-Century Masters, and Modern Sculpture. Most great names associated with the old masters -- Tiepolo, Tintoretto, Veronese, Titian, Raphael, Van Dyck, Brueghel, Rembrandt, Rubens, Hals, Hogarth, Dürer, Cranach, Holbein, Goya, Velázquez, El Greco, and others -- are represented here. It has been said, though, that while the museum suffers no shortage of works by the old masters, it can boast precious few outright masterpieces. Delacroix, Corot, and Manet are the best-represented 19th-century French artists in the museum.

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