Műalkotások az Országházban 1945 előtt
Works of Art in the Parliament Before 1945

Summary/Abstract: While planning the Parliament Building architect Imre Steindl designated a minor role to paintings and sculptures, wanting to integrate the interior architecture into the Gothic style of the building. He accepted murals as a compromise but refused to have any oil paintings. However, he failed to execute his vision due to the approach of the Hungarian Millennium of 1896, a series of celebrations commemorating the thousand-year anniversary of the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin. For this event an oil painting portraying the conquest was ordered from Mihály Munkácsy, as well as a pair of statues depicting Franz Joseph I, and his wife, Elisabeth, with the intention of displaying them in the Parliament. Further orders were made in 1902, when the lawmakers occupied the building. From the very beginning they wanted to decorate their rooms and offices with paintings, sculptures, and works of applied art. As representations of their positions, they usually displayed portraits of their predecessors, or important events and figures of Hungarian history and law-making. In the 1920s and 1930s the number of artworks in the Parliament significantly increased due to two Speakers of the National Assembly, Béla Scitovszky and Tibor Zsitvay. Their contributions included the galleries depicting the former speakers and first officers of the National Assembly, the large tapestry by Gyula Rudnay depicting the national assembly in Ópusztaszer, the painting by Gyula Benczúr about the national Assembly paying respect to the king at the Millennium, as well as the depictions of monarchs (Franz Joseph I, Charles IV) and statesmen (István Széchenyi, Lajos Kossuth, Ferenc Deák, Miklós Horthy). This study discusses the history of the most exceptional works of art among these until the middle of the 1940s.

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