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

imperial collections in Vienna; the purpose of commissioning a second version from Mazo remains to be explored by future research. The following two halls were devoted to the versatile genres and styles of the seventeenth century. The first of these again had a revealing pair of paintings: Ribera's Magdalene (Prado) and Saint Agnes of Dresden, attributed in the catalogue to an unknown follower of Ribera. Celebrated throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as a chef-d'œuvre of Ribera, the Dresden painting's charm exactly lies in its most anti-Riberesque feature, i.e. the awkward definition of the figure which greatly intensifies the sense of helplessness. The final room represented the eighteenth century, and is introduced by Jean Ranc's Portrait of Infante Philip at the Age of Six from 1726, a relatively recent acquisition by the museum, whose inclusion in the exhibition served to contrast the style of an international court artist working in Spain with the respective styles of the indigenous artists. The ten paintings by Goya provided a view into his art in its entirety, wdth all of the nuances, from the Madrid Children with Dogs tapestry design through the grandly conceived Still-Life with Turkey (also from the Prado) and the celebrated Budapest pair of The Water Carrier and The Knife Grinder to some first-rate portraits. Probably the most interesting feature of this room was that the portraits of José Antonio, Marqués de Caballero (Budapest) and his wdfe (Munich) were once again reunited. Authors of essays in the catalogue include Eva Nyerges, Matthias Weniger, Javier Portus, István Németh, and Deborah L. Roldán. Of special interest is a checklist of Spanish paintings in Hungarian private collections and smaller museums (with black-and-white photos), compiled by Zoltán Kovács. Axel Vécsey