Hungarian Conservative

Visitors of the city can attend a months-long series of events celebrating the golden age of the Hungarian Renaissance, including period-authentic exhibitions and culinary programmes, and can also take part in period craft workshops.

For over 20 years, collectors have awaited the opportunity to once again acquire Gulácsy’s iconic masterpiece. In 2002, the painting’s emergence caused a sensation, disproving the assumption among art historians that the masterpiece had perished during the Second World War.

His courtly representation, international Gothicism, and the reception of the Renaissance in Hungary can be considered Matthias’ most brilliant achievements, which were also highly appreciated by his contemporaries. It is undoubtedly a unique phenomenon of 15th-century Hungarian history that the Italian Renaissance had such a great impact in the country.

Baron Bálint Balassi de Kékkő et Gyarmat is celebrated as the pioneer of Hungarian romantic poetry, a valiant soldier, a daring lover and an accomplished polyglot. His life and achievements embody the true spirit of the Renaissance, and read like a tale of romance, valour, and fighting spirit.

The concept of the ‘Bulwark of Christendom’ appeared in all border areas where two civilisations and religions came into contact. However, the conscious and regular use of the term is linked to the Italian humanists of the 15th-century Renaissance, who greatly contributed to the formation of the modern image of Europe.

According to Thomas Molnar, intellectualism is only a brief flash between the religious and technological society. More dangerous than its waning light is its ‘thunder’, i.e. the unspoken problem of the Century, which is revealed unmistakably only after the lightning.

‘Lajos Gulácsy had a very peculiar personality, producing a type of art that is difficult to classify. He really cannot be included in any of the major trends of the early 20th century, but he may not even need to be.’