Introduction to Hungarian Painting [antikvár]

WITH THEIR COUNTRY situated oii the borders between East and West, life for the Hungarian nation has unceasingly alternated beltween destruction and construction. Small villages and large cities have grown up and flourished for a time, only to disappear again and leave no trace behind them, victims of the successive invasions and occupations by Tartar, Turk and German hordes. Hungarian mediaeval art, in consequence, is merely fragmentary, but in a few frontier to\\ns and in the yellowing pages of official archives sufficient evidence does remain to show how immense has been the loss and to indicate that in itself the beginnings of Hungarian painting already foreshadowed the richness and fulness of later centuries. Even in the X\^Hth and XVIIItli centuries conditions ^^ ere noit much easier for painters since this was one of the most difficult periods in Hungary's history. The Habsburgs were at the height of their absolute power and not only drained the country of her material wealth, hut kept a careful watch to see that the spiritual rebirth of the exhausted nation should neither take place nor even be made possible. It was Vienna that was the centre of culture. It was from Vienna that came the ciwl servants, the architects, sculptors and painters, alien artists whom the high dignitaries of Church and State employed to build and decorate churches, palaces and mansions for them. These were the men who introduced into Hungary Baroque. Rococo and neo-classical styles and attempted, not very successfully, to expand their influence throughout Hungary, for these styles never really grew deep roots there. Nevertheless, although the fen^our of this Hapsburg R.enaissance was never very warmly kindled among Hungarian artists, by the end of the XVIIIth centurj- there were already hopeful signs that, after a long period of total exhaustion, they were beginning to "come round" spirituallJ^ More and more did building contracts, for example, bear the names of Hungarian craftsmen and carvers in wood and stone, painters, artisans rejoiced in working for well-known foreign arlists, for not only did they thus gain a livelihood but it was the only means for acquiring skilled tuition. Such was the position of Hungarian Fine Arts at the turn of the XlXth century, when certain -v^Titers, enthusiastic over the ideas loosed bj^ the French Revolution, worked hard for the greater enlightenment of their countrymen, a rebirtli of national life and a general raising of standards. Now the battle really had been joined. Daily papers and periodicals urged the public to appreciate things Hungarian, to back native artists by subscribing to various appeal funds, to foster wherever they could the tiniest ilickerings of the "di\'ine spark". But since the country lacked art schools, it was to Vienna that young artists had to be sent, where the receding waves