Kárpáti Zoltán - Liptay Éva - Varga Ágota szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 101. (Budapest, 2004)
ANNUAL REPORT 2004 - A 2004. ÉV - PERMANENT EXHIBITIONS - ÁLLANDÓ KIÁLLÍTÁSOK - ILDIKÓ EMBER, ESZTER FABRY, AND ANNAMÁRIA GOSZTOLA: New Permanent Exhibition of the Old Masters' Gallery
Constitution of the museum's collection renders it possible for us to proffer a sampling of the oeuvres of all three generations of Central European fresco and altar painting, with an imposing picture purchased in 2003 and restored recently, by the great master and school founder, Johann Michael Rottmayr, at the fore. In comparison with the earlier exhibition, this time Maulbertsch is represented by a smaller number of typical works, as is his more conservative contemporary, Martin Johann Schmidt. Returning to hall number X, following the ensemble of Johann Kupezky's portraits, the exhibition continues with the expanded presentation of the epoch of Classicism, with the works of such internationally known painters as Anton Raphael Mengs, Angelika Kauffmann and Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein. The landscape painting of the era has been enriched with the large-scale painting portraying the Lake of Nemi by Jacob Philipp Hackert, and the great master of Viennese Josephine era Classicism, Friedrich Heinrich Füger, has been given space befitting his status. 6 Crowning his exhibited works, and perhaps even all the German material of the museum, is the lifesize portrait he painted of Empress Maria Ludovika in the early 1790s, which was purchased by the museum in 1995. We feel that the new installation of the German pictures and their new arrangement may draw the attention of both professionals and visitors to just how significant the German-Austrian collection of the Old Masters' Gallery is, taking into consideration its number, level and diversity, alongside the Italian, Spanish and Dutch collections. The early Netherlandish pictures occupy one hall and four cabinets. Here too, as in the case of the German exhibition, the earliest pieces are placed in the cabinets. The first grouping, in cabinet number 9, introduces the great painters working in Bruges: the earliest existing copy after Jan van Eyck's lost Road to the Calvary, which can be dated to the mid-sixteenth century, and the panels of Petrus Christus, Gerard David and Hans Memling. Works of Colijn de Coter of Brussels and a number of Northern Netherlandish masters join them, from the second half of the fifteenth century and the early sixteenth century. In the next cabinet, number 8, alongside the paintings of Adriaen Isenbrant, Cornelis Engebrcchtsz. and Joos van Cleve, The Adoration of the Magi, attributed to the Master of the Khanenko Adoration, deserves special mention, featured for the first time within the permanent exhibition. 7 The presentation of Flemish Renaissance Painting in hall number IX is organised around Pieter Brucgel the Elder's The Sermon of Saint John the Baptist. Beyond the works of his sons, Pieter the Younger and Jan Brueghel the Elder, the works of other 6 1 would like here to thank Mrs. Brigitta Cifka, for making Füger's painting, Jupiter Enthroned, preserved in the Modern Collection, available to the Old Masters' Gallery, from the exhibition she curated, entitled Biedermeier and Eclecticism. 7 Within the Flemish section of the Collection, the restoration of this work alone was realised explicitly for this occasion, within the framework of the restoration project of the Friends of the Museum of Fine Arts, and with the sponsorship of the Volunteer Museum Guides.
