Zádor Anna: Neoclassical Pest - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1993)
finalized, and after some criticism and negotiations, construction began in the summer of 1837 and progressed at a relatively even pace. In 1842 discussions started on how the museum should be furnished and how to display the exhibits. The then director of the museum Ágoston Kubinyi went abroad to gather information and seek modern solutions. The museum's facade sets the tone of magnificence and solemnity. Both the museum’s creators and patrons considered it important that the museum serve a definite ideological aim. In the centre, there is a peristyle consisting of eight columns and crowned with a pediment; on each side, this peristyle is joined by a wing articulated by seven window axles. The giant pillars closing down the peristyle and the sides connect two levels to each other, and the entire building rests on the ground floor, which is used as the stereobate. This is where the offices are located. On the mezzanine level and the other floors, the framed windows accentuated by hood mouldings and placed on a string-course articulate the wings in an even rhythm. The second floor is surmounted by a richly articulated cornice enlarged with a wide frieze. The central part—the peristyle-is closed off by a pediment richly decorated with sculptures. In the centre of the composition, Pannónia is seated on a throne surrounded by allegorical depictions of Science and Art. The idea was probably Pollack’s, and the designs were made by the Munich sculptor Schaller, while the models themselves were created by the artist Raffaelo Monti from Milan. The symmetrical composition meets the requirements of monumental decoration and successfully ends in the energetic portico implying upward flight. Monti made the sculptures from zinc-plates to lessen the weight of the pediment. The same method was applied to the Corinthian column caps. Its low cost may also have been a reason for choosing this method, since we know that the sculptures that were to have been placed in the niches, and those of the Dioscuri that were to have crowned the walls of the flight of stairs, were omitted due to the tight budget. In contrast with the more magnificent effect of the main facade, the left and right fronts are on one plane: the five-axled central segment articulated by flat pillars 22
