Czére Andrea szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 105. (Budapest, 2006)
ANNUAL REPORT - A 2006. ÉV - ÁGOTA VARGA: Hidden Beauty: The Portrayal of Woman from the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century until the Turn of the Twentieth Century
ÁGOTA VARGA ETAL., REJTETT SZÉPSÉGEK. A NŐ ÁBRÁZOLÁSA A 19. SZÁZAD KEZDETÉTŐL A SZÁZADFORDULÓIG. KIÁLLÍTÁS A 100 ÉVES SZÉPMŰVÉSZETI MÚZEUM GYŰJTEMÉNYÉBŐL [HIDDEN BEAUTY. THE PORTRAYAL OF WOMAN FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY UNTIL THE TURN OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY], EXHIBITION GUIDE. HUNGARIAN TEXT 63 PP.. 21 COL. ILLS.. ISBN 963 7063 15 3 In the history of art innumerable works of art came into being under the spell of female beauty. At the same time, w r orks of art served as an articulation of the female ideal of the artist's time or were the expression of the artist's own concepts. It would be impossible to list the contexts, roles, aesthetical canons, and artistic ideals that formed around the female figure in the course of the centuries. They range from the mythological representations of the perfect female body, the devotion of the Mary-figures in the Middle Ages and medieval depictions of female saints, to the representative portraits and to the ideal of femme fatale ... and the list goes on. The theme is one of constant fascination for art historians and of immense popularity, attested to by dozens of exhibitions, conferences and thematic volumes in the last twenty years. The exhibition of the Museum of Fine Arts organized to celebrate the centenary of the Museum was a touring exhibition, calling at Szombathely, Kaposvár, Kecskemét and Szeged, and it recalled a period (i.e. the ninteenth century and the turn of the century) that was, in addition to many other aspects, also rich and colourful for female representations. There were some thirty-nine paintings, twenty sculptures and six graphic works on display; these works of art neither tried to draw an outline of development in a scholarly way, nor did they attempt to form a complete illustration of the several types of female representations of the period. Instead, the selection was designed to introduce some typical female representations of a few characteristic styles, mostly displaying portraits and allegorical-symbolical compositions. The chronological framework was set by two artworks: the Venus of Gaspare Landi and futurist Gino Severini's portrait of his wife. Some hundred and fifty years passed between the creation of the two works. Within that range the exhibition illustrated the main lines of classicism, romanticism, realism, impressionism, art nouveau and cubism, with the portraits of Franz Eybl, Friedrich von Amerling, Hans Makart and Franz von Lenbach, the prints of Auguste Renoir and Paul Gauguin and the sculptures of Constantin Meunier and Auguste Rodin. In addition to these works of art, a selection was made of the paintings and sculptures of some lesserknown Norwegian and Swedish artists as well. The Scandinavian works, together with several works of art conserved in the storage rooms of the Museum (due to the lack of space), were put on display for the first time, hence the exhibition, which was organised in five different towns, revealed treasures hitherto not displayed for museum visitors.
