Hajós György: Heroes' Square - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2001)

for any sculptural decoration. Art historian Ervin Ybl believed that the absence of these “in fact creates an effect of reserved monumentality, which is expressive of the exalted, sacral aura associated with a museum’s functions”.

Via the main entrance we can get, from the square, into the Marble Hall of the frontal building, from where single flights of stairs take us to an arcaded gallery surrounding the Renaissance hall. It is from here that the wings of the picture galleries open on either side.

The ornamental paintings of the interior were made, under the supervision of the construction committee, by designers Schickedanz and Herczog themselves, who used their numerous sketches prepared in advance. The upper vaults of the Renaissance hall were to have been ornamented by Károly Lotz, who showed no little interest in making frescos for the promising fields. Death, however, prevented the famous painter from undertaking the project. As a result the designers were commissioned to do this work, too. The portraits of 16

The Museum of Fine Arts today

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