H. Kolba Judit szerk.: Historical Exhibition of the Hungarian National Museum Guide 2 - From the Foundation of the State until the Expulsion of the Ottomans - The history of Hungary in the 11th to 17th centuries (Budapest, 2005)

ROOM 8 (PASSAGE) - The Expulsion of the Ottomans (1683-1699) Aristocratic and Town Relics from the 17th century (Judit H. Kolba)

ROOM 8 (PASSAGE) The Expulsion of the Ottomans (1683-1699) Aristocratic and Town Relics from the 17th century The events shown earlier ended with wars resulting in the expulsion of the Ottomans. In 1683, the Turks, led by Kara Mustapha, attempted to capture Vienna, but the allied imperial, Polish, Bavarian and Saxon armies under the leadership of Charles of Lorraine, and the Polish king, John Sobieski, inflicted a crushing defeat on them. The Holy League, an international alliance, was called into existence against the Porte in 1684. On September 2, 1686, Buda was liberated as well. After liquidating the line of border-fortresses in Ottoman hands, the Christian armies won magnificent victories at Szalánkemén (Stari Slankamen) in 1691 and at Zenta (Senta)in 1697. After sixteen years of warfare, the opposing sides concluded the Peace ofKarlowitz in 1699: of the Hungarian territories only the Temesköz area now remained in the hands of the Turks. The battles of the liberation war, followed attentively all over the world, and the generals of the Christian and Ottoman armies were immortalized in a succession of engravings. Arms of the period, some borne by the soldiers of the army of liberation, some taken from the Turks as booty after the victorious battles, have survived in large number. The most famous of all of is the sabre of John Sobieski. The victorious battles and the famous generals, such as Sobieski, Charles of Lorraine, Eugene of Savoy, Louis of Baden, the great supporter Pope Innocent XI, and the emperor Leopold I, were also represented on medals. According to the custom of the period, medals were struck to commemorate great victories and famous peace treaties also. In the next part of the exhibition we continue to display - on two sides, complementing each other - the art of the 17th century. On the left we show, from the characteristic relics of noble residences, a socalled Gallery of Ancestors. The full-size representations, made after foreign prototypes, were first ordered by members of the Nádasdy family as early as the middle of the 16th century. The pictures placed next to each other on the walls of castles and palaces were intended to prove that the rank of the families was acquired on account of the merits of forebears.The greatest value of these pictures is that they show the gorgeous attire of the grand seigneurs of the 16th and 17th centuries, the garments, of a characteristic Hungarian cut and richly embroidered, of the lords and ladies, the jewellery belonging to them and the ornamented arms, and sometimes also interiors. The 17th century was the golden age of Hungarian national costume, in this period the influence of the Western fashion was less prominent on formal attire. The characteristics of the male attire were a short coat (mente), the dolman, metal buttons, bobbin lace, metal belts and those of twisted braid, while ladies wore bodices closed with hooks or with lacing, cambric shirts and pleated skirts. The garments were made of brightlycoloured Italian, Spanish and Turkish cloth, decorated with lace and embroidered with silver-gilt or silk thread. In the pictures painted for the family such attire was displayed by court painters known and unknown. The persons represented in the pictures were members of the most famous aristocratic families, such as Palatine Tamás Nádasdy (in office 1554-62) and his wife Orsolya Kanizsai; Palatine Miklós Esterházy (in office 1625-45) and the wife of Ferenc Esterházy; György Rákóczi I, prince of Transylvania; Lord Chief Justice Ferenc Nádasdy (Fig. 72) and his wife, née Anna Julianna Esterházy (Fig. 73 ); Miklós Zrínyi, poet and general; and his brother Péter Zrínyi, ban (governor) of Croatia (in office 1665-71). In the table display-cases ladies 'jewellery, as represented in the pictures (aigrettes, belt buckles, belts, neck-