Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 28. (Budapest, 2012)

Ildikó PANDUR: Links between the Oeuvres of Ödön Lechner and Gyula Jungfer

the exhibition, while the remaining 60 were either to be delivered with the first lot or until 1 December 1895 the latest.

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7 It also cautions us that a ministry ordinance of 25 June 1895 makes separate mention of the print cabinets of the Historical Picture Gallery with an appropriation of 1000 florins, in addition to the showcases required by the National Picture Gallery.

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8 In the 1894 exhibition only a small part of the collection was put on display, the greater part was available in a special installation "in a system of cases easy to be handled by all those interested, one by one or in groups."

19 When the building of the Kunsthalle in the City Park was used for the Millennial Exhibition of 1896, the above-mentioned exhibition was closed very soon, within a year, and the material was put into storerooms for years.

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0 It may then be concluded that the Lechner-Jungfer iron showcases delivered in two consignments and paid with delays until 1897 were not ordered for the showing of the Historical Picture Gallery in 1894. My hypothesis is that these cases were more likely commissioned as part of the overall preparations for the millennium in 1896, as these preparations began already in 1890. This is supported by the fact that the cost of the cases was registered among the transitional expenses of the state budget of 1890.

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1 (The urgent call for the separate functioning of the National Museum's picture gallery and natural science collection by the commission set up for the promotion of this goal in 1886 was repeated in 1891, with reference to the closeness of the millennium.)

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2 Upon Gábor Baross's proposal, article no. 2 enacting the call "to celebrate the millennium with a national exhibition"

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3 was passed in 1892, i.e. precisely in the year in which the designing of the iron showcases was ordered. The Academy of Sciences was already involved in the "dress rehearsal" for the Millennial Exhibition, the national exhibition of 1885. Albert Schickedanz was the designer of the ornate four-door book-case adapted to gothic models with a matching table, for the purpose of displaying the Academy's publications.

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4 At the millennial exhibition the Academy won a diploma as an exhibitor.

25 It is again some other financial sources that inform us of the further destiny of the showcases. In 1907 Dr Ernő Kammerer, director of the Museum of Fine Arts and the Historical Picture Gallery

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6 asked - whom else but - Gyula Jungfer to make twice three padlocks "with loops and levers"

27 for each iron table of the "historical picture gallery" and to fasten the showcases to the floor.

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8 These changes must have been part of the preparations for a new exhibition. After the official opening of the Museum of Fine Arts' building in 1906, the material of the Historical Picture Gallery was also retrieved from the storerooms. Its new permanent exhibition was opened on 5 June 1907 in the vacated rooms of the National Picture Gallery at the Academy.

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9 The graphic sheets - 604 prints and lithographs - were put on display in showcases - probably the iron cases at issue - in nine rooms.

30 This selection was modest as compared to over ten thousand items in the collection, but at the same time it had an accentuated role beside the "painted and sculpted material of the historical picture collection".

31 A separate catalogue was compiled of the graphic material, and "the listed works readily illustrated the intention that the sheets mostly displayed in showcases should complement and interpret the art works on the walls as fully as possible".

32 The entire graphic collection of the His97