Tanulmányok Budapest Múltjából 28. (1999) – Urbanizáció a dualizmus korában: konferencia Budapest egyesítésének 125. évfordulója tiszteletére a Budapesti Történeti Múzeumban

A VÁROS KULTURÁLIS ÉLETE ÉS A POLGÁROK - Erdei Gyöngyi: A fővárosi műpártolás története, 1873-1918 159-207

GYÖNGYI ERDEI THE HISTORY OF ART PATRONAGE IN BUDAPEST, 1873-1918 SUMMARY The following two studies cover two periods of art patronage in the Hungarian capital. Though these periods are distinct, they bear several similarities. Such continuity is natural, as changes of historical period normally involve a slow transition, in which the new conditions retain several features of the earlier ones. This applied especially in municipal politics, where the new period brought a transformation of the administrative structure. The rapid development that began when Budapest arose from a merger of three towns in 1873 involved a big population increase, industrialization and accelerated modernization. This changed the city's outward appearance and its social structure. There emerged a narrow, but socially influential layer of educated bourgeois, whose European horizons and financial strength equipped Budapest to become the country's cultural and artistic centre. Patronage of the arts provided an obvious field for this. From the outset, the civic elite acted as initiators of artistic activity in Budapest. The analysis also delineates the processes of stylistic transformation in the arts, to which the elite in the two periods responded in various ways. The first stage culminated, after almost a quarter-century, in the 1896 celebrations to mark the millenary of the Hungarian Conquest. It was a period of establishment. In 1 880, the city council provided the organizational frameworks and financial bases for patronage of the arts. Most activity in the early years went into providing artistic interior and exterior surroundings for the city's new institutions. After a few years, a sequence of other initiatives ensued, involving a widening circle of benefactors. Apart from direct commissioning of artists and sculptors, the city council sought to stimulate artistic activity by promoting a competition to improve the appearance of the city and initiating various works of art for public spaces. Separate prizes were also endowed. The epitome and climax of this earlier period came with the Millenary Exhibition of 1896. The second period began with the twentieth century and extended to 1918. Already the first few years saw the fulfiment and accomplishment of projects begun in the previous period. The city played an increased role, exemplified by the way it organized and executed several competitions for major works of art in public places. However, the germs of a new era were appearing. Cultural activity in the 1900s was centred on Budapest, which had grown into a European metropolis. The arts themselves had broken away from Historicism and were seeking new paths. The citizens of the capital, who had grown in numbers and financial strength, proved very receptive to the new trends that expressed the idiom of the age. The changes can be traced in the activity of the council and city assembly. The city maintained its long-standing traditions of art patronage, while trying to increase its scale and develop new forms for it. Fund-raising for the prizes presented at the coronation jubilee of Francis Joseph began. The recipients showed that the new trends in art were slowly gaining ground. The types of work purchased also changed. Contemporary pieces began to be collected more intensively about 1910, with the aim of establishing a separate gallery, representative of art in Budapest. The lead here was taken by the mayor, István Bárczy. He initiated a reorganization of the council's system of institutions and recruitment of a new staff of officials, who also formed the city's art patronage to the spirit of the new age. The art collection established by the end of the period earned wide-ranging contemporary admiration.