Kárpáti Zoltán - Liptay Éva - Varga Ágota szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 101. (Budapest, 2004)
ANNUAL REPORT 2004 - A 2004. ÉV - PUBLICATIONS - KIADVÁNYOK - ENIKŐ BUZÁSI: Ágnes Szigethi, Old French Painting, 16—18th Centuries
while Régnier's Mary Magdalene originates in the collection of the Festetich Counts. A rare Liotard stained-glass work of precious value arrived to Hungary as a purchase by Miklós Jankovich, while four landscapes from the circle of Claude Lorrain and Gaspar Dughet, as well as two portrayals associated with Philipp de Champagne and Greuze, arrived to the country as acquisitions of the family of Count Zichy, subsequently being placed in the Municipal Gallery with the collection of Jenő Zichy. The provenance of more than one-half of the artworks, 55 paintings, however, is provided by the Esterházy Collection, and thus, the conclusions we can reach with regard to the quality of the taste of the collectors concerns these first and foremost. The majority of these were purchases of Prince Miklós Esterházy II, for the most part until 1820, when the works of such masters were included in the gallery of the Prince, as: Philippe de Champaigne, Claude Lorrain, Pierre Mignard, Charles Le Brun, Nicolas Régnier, Jacques Blanchard, Laurent de La Hyre (represented in the collection by two works), as well as François Verdier, and moreover Charles-François Hutin, Hubert Robert, Claude-Joseph Vernet and Jean-Baptiste Greuze, while the time of acquisition is uncertain, and thus also the collecting individual within the family, in the case of the works of Jacques Stella, Michel Dorigny and Sébastien Bourdon. It is perhaps not in vain to present the roll-call, since the most eminent names of seventeenth and eighteenth century French painting are included. But nor is it futile, because these names, in part from the seventeenth, otherwise referred to as the great century of French painting, designate masters whose aesthetic gauge and painterly way of seeing prompted the norms of the Classicist style of both centuries. And whereas according to the conclusion of Simon Meller's monograph on the princely gallery, Miklós Esterházy consciously strived for the completeness of his collection, both in terms of the territorial distribution of painting schools, and with respect to painting styles, from the variegated wealth of the French painting of these two centuries, those periods, masters and artworks were visibly favoured that either dated from his own era, or - and these are in the majority - suited the Neo-classicist taste of his age. We are aware, of course, and those who will read Ágnes Szigethi 's introduction will know, that these purchases were not necessarily the choices of Esterházy himself, but those of his employed advisors and commissioned art dealers, who, observing the art market and from time to time the movement of artworks within collections, represented the interests of the Prince, in constant correspondence with him, strictly following his collecting intentions. Those who are occupied with artworks originating in historical collections know well that in spite of the fact that the works emerging are accompanied by inventory registration covering appearances beginning even 150 to 200 years previous, very often incorrect entries are recorded with respect to the attribution, generally the painter of the work, but also sometimes the subject. These errors typically occur in favour of the "big names", in particular by way of the stylistic definition or the place within a painting school. Just to remain within old French painting with a few examples: the picture entitled The Brazen Serpent, which the literature has recorded as a work of Verdier since the attribution by Vera Kapossy, was purchased by Miklós Esterházy in 1811 as a work of Poussin; Nicolas Régnier's painting, Card-Players, was purchased
