Czére Andrea szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 105. (Budapest, 2006)

ANNUAL REPORT - A 2006. ÉV - AXEL VÉCSEY: El Greco, Velázquez, Goya: Five Centuries of Spanish Masterpieces

EL GRECO. VELÁZQUEZ. GOYA: FIVE CENTURIES OF SPANISH MASTERPIECES 27 January, 2006 - 14 May, 2006 Curator: Eva Nyerges EL GRECO, VELÁZQUEZ, GOYA. ÖT ÉVSZÁZAD SPANYOL FESTÉSZETÉNEK REMEKMÜVEI I E L GRECO, VELAZQUEZ. GOYA. FIVE CENTURIES OF SPANISH M ASTE RPIECESI. ED. ÉVA NYERGES. MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS. BUDAPEST 2006. HUNGARIAN TEXT, 323 PP.. 141 COLOUR AND 96 B&W ILLUSTRATIONS. ISBN 963 7063 16 1 EVA NYERGES ET AL.. EL GRECO, VELÁZQUEZ, GOYA. FIVE CENTURIES OF SPANISH MASTERPIECES. MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS. BUDAPEST 2006, ENGLISH TEXT. 84 PAGES, 34 COL. ILLS.. ISBN 963 7063 25 0 As the Spanish old masters form one of the most celebrated parts of the Museum's collections, it seemed qLiite an obvious choice that one of the major events of the centennial year would be a grand-scale presentation of the art of painting in Spain. This exhibition, albeit in a somehow altered form, finally fulfilled one of the long-held ambitions of Eva Nyerges, curator of the Spanish Old Masters' Paintings at the Museum, to mount an exhibition that would explore the place of the works in the collection within the development of Spanish painting. The roots of this exceptional collection can be traced back to that of Edmund Bourke (1761-1821), former ambassador of Denmark to Madrid, which was acquired by the Esterházy princes in 1819-1822. The zeal in augmenting the collection has been shared by the curators of the Szépművészeti Múzeum ever since its foundation, and the acquisition of important Spanish paintings continued unabated even when the Museum had scarce financial resources at its disposal in the last few decades. Although the exhibition in Budapest differs significantly both in its concept and in regard to almost half of the works on display from the show in Germanny entitled Greco, Velázquez, Goya: Spanische Malerei aus deutsche?? Sammlungen, it was based on its foundations. Curated by Matthias Weniger for the Bucerius Kunst Forum of Hamburg and the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister of Dresden in the previous year, addressed the history of collecting the Spanish old masters in Germany and how they were received. The Budapest Museum of Fine Arts participated in this exhibition by lending five gems from its collection, which were either of German origin or came from the collection of Marcell Nemes, the most outstanding Hungarian art collector of the twentieth century, whose collections were open to the public at Schloss Tutzing, near Munich, during the 1920s. The outstanding masterpieces that featured in the Hamburg-