The Museum Age in Austria-Hungary

300 Pages·2021·69.231 MB·English

by  Matthew Rampley

The Museum Age in Austria- Hungary

The Museum Age in
Austria-H ungary
Art and Empire in the Long Nineteenth Century
Matthew Rampley, Markian Prokopovych,
and Nóra Veszprémi
The Pennsylvania State University Press
University Park, Pennsylvania
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Rampley, Matthew, author. | Prokopovych, Markian, 1972– author. | Veszprémi,
Nóra, author.
Title: The museum age in Austria- Hungary : art and empire in the long nineteenth
century / Matthew Rampley, Markian Prokopovych, and Nóra Veszprémi.
Description: University Park, Pennsylvania : The Pennsylvania State University Press,
[2021] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary: “A critical study of the history of public art museums in Austria- Hungary,
examining their place in the wider history of European museums and collecting,
their role as public institutions, and their involvement in the complex cultural
politics of the Habsburg state”—Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: lccn 2020055258 | isbn 9780271087108 (hardback)
Subjects: lcsh: Art museums—Austria—History—19th century. | Art museums—
Political aspects—Austria—History—19th century.
Classification: lcc n1610 .r36 2021 | ddc 708 .00943609 /034—dc23
lc record available at https:// lccn .loc .gov /2020055258
Copyright © 2020 Matthew Rampley, Markian Prokopovych, and Nóra Veszprémi
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
Published by The Pennsylvania State University Press,
University Park, PA 16802–1003
The Pennsylvania State University Press is a member of the Association of University
Presses.
It is the policy of The Pennsylvania State University Press to use acid- free paper.
Publications on uncoated stock satisfy the minimum requirements of American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Material, ansi z39.48–1992.
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Museums and Cultural Politics in the Habsburg World 1
Matthew Rampley
1 The Museological Landscape of Austria- Hungary 17
Matthew Rampley
2 The Museum and the City: Art, Municipal Programs, and Urban Agendas 51
Markian Prokopovych
3 Visions in Stone: Museums and Their Architecture 82
Matthew Rampley
4 Curators, Conservators, Scholars: The Rise of the Museum Professions 114
Nóra Veszprémi
5 “Uniques” and Stories: Principles and Practices of Display 142
Nóra Veszprémi
6 Museums and Their Publics: Visitors, Societies, and the Press 180
Markian Prokopovych
Epilogue: Modernity and Regime’s End 213
Matthew Rampley
Notes 227
Bibliography 249
Index 277

Illustrations
1. The Kunsthistorisches Museum and the Sciences, housing the Strossmayer Gallery of
Kaiserplatz 3 Old Masters, 1880 54
2. Kaspar von Zumbusch, monument to 12. The Cloth Hall, Cracow, during the resto-
Empress Maria Theresa, 1887 18 ration of 1876–79 56
3. Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt, the Belve- 13. Friedrich von Schmidt, Vienna’s New Town
dere Palace, Vienna, 1723 23 Hall, first location of the Vienna City Museum,
1872–83 68
4. Franz Burger, Simon Hoffmeyer, and Anton
Hertzum, the Brukenthal Museum, Sibiu, 14. Ferenc Pfaff and Gyula Kauser, the City
1778–88 27 of Budapest Museum, ca. 1940 72
5. Josef Zítek and Josef Schulz, the Rudolphi- 15. Antonín Wiehl and Jan Koula, the Prague
num, with the Museum of Decorative Arts, City Museum, with the Café Pavilion, former
Prague, 1885 28 site of the museum, 1896–98 79
6. The Old Arsenal Building, Cracow, site of 16. Anonymous engraving of Vienna and the
the Czartoryski Museum 29 gardens the Belvedere Palace, 1811 85
7. František Škabrout, the House of National 17. Karl Friedrich Schinkel, the Altes Museum,
Culture (now the Slovene National Gallery), Berlin, 1825–30 86
Ljubljana, 1918 31
18. Leo von Klenze, the Glyptothek, Munich,
8. The Renaissance Cloth Hall, Cracow, site of 1816–30 87
the National Museum 33
19. Friedrich Stüler, the Nationalgalerie, Berlin,
9. Francesco Caratti, the Czernin Palace, 1664– 1865–76 87
73, site of the Picture Gallery of the Private
20. Leo von Klenze, the Alte Pinakothek,
Society of Patriotic Friends of Art 38
Munich, 1826–36 88
10. Ferdinand Fellner and Hermann Helmer,
21. Mihály Pollack, the Hungarian National
the Lanckoroński Palace, Vienna, 1894–95 45
Museum, Budapest, 1837–46 92
11. Friedrich von Schmidt and Hermann
Bollé, the Palace of the Croatian Academy of
Illustrations
22. Raffaele Monti and Ludwig Schaller, 37. The Zichy Room in the Hungarian National
Pannonia on the front façade of the Hungarian Museum, ca. 1888 161
National Museum, Budapest, 1846 92
viii 38. Room xxiv (now Room x) of the Kunst-
23. Albert Schickedanz and Fülöp Herczog, historisches Museum, ca. 1910 164
the Műcsarnok (House of Art), Budapest,
39. Room of nineteenth- century art in the
1896 94
National Museum in Cracow, with Jan Matej-
24. Albert Schickedanz and Fülöp Herczog, ko’s Prussian Homage, in 1898 168
the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest,
40. Room of nineteenth- century art in the
1899–1907 95
National Museum in Cracow with Jan Matej-
25. Ödön Lechner and Gyula Pártos, ko’s Prussian Homage, in 1907 168
the Museum of Applied Arts, Budapest,
41. Designs for seating in the Rudolphinum,
1896 98
attached to a letter from 3 December 1884 170
26. Josef Schulz, the Museum of Decorative
42. Robert Raschka, The Opening of the Kunst-
Arts, Prague, 1900 102
historisches Museum by Emperor Franz Joseph I
27. The staircase of the Hungarian National on 17 October 1891, 1893 182
Museum, with frescoes painted by Károly Lotz
43. Carl Goebel the Younger, The Marble Hall
and Mór Than, 1875 144
of the Lower Belvedere, with the Egyptian, Greek,
28. The room of history painting in the and Roman Antiquities from the Ambraser
Hungarian National Museum, ca. 1888 147 Gallery, 1876 188
29. Viktor Madarász, The Mourning of László 44. Robert Raschka, The Staircase of the Kunst-
Hunyadi, 1859 148 historisches Museum, 1891 190
30. Sándor Liezen- Mayer, Saint Elizabeth 45. Carl Goebel the Younger, Portrait Collec-
of Hungary, 1882 149 tion, Library and Custodian’s Office, 1889 192
31. Gyula Benczúr, Bacchante, 1881 150 46. Rudolf Bruner- Dvořák, interior view of the
Rudolphinum 197
32. The southern wall of Room iv of the
gallery in the Rudolphinum, as planned by 47. Caricature from Der Floh, 25 October
Viktor Barvitius 152 1891 210
33. The State Picture Gallery in Budapest in the
early 1870s 154
34. One of the rooms of antiquities from the
sixteenth to the nineteenth century at the
National Museum in Cracow 155
35. Henryk Siemiradzki, Nero’s Torches, 1876 159
36. The Munkácsy Room in the Hungarian
National Museum, ca. 1888 160
Acknowledgments
This book would not have been possible without the help and assistance of many insti-
tutions and colleagues. The greatest thanks should go to the Leverhulme Trust, which
generously funded the project and enabled it to happen. Further thanks are due to the
College of Arts and Law of the University of Birmingham and Masaryk University, for
additional support they provided. The project would not have been possible without the
assistance of the archivists of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna; the Hungarian
National Museum and Hungarian National Gallery in Budapest; the East Slovak Museum
in Košice; the Gemersko-m alohontské múzeum in Rimavská Sobota; the National Gallery,
Museum of the City of Prague, and the Rudolphinum in Prague; the National Archive
and the National Museum in Cracow; and the Croatian History Museum, the Museum
of Arts and Crafts, and the Archaeological Museum in Zagreb.
This book has many intellectual debts and has benefited enormously from discus-
sion and debates with colleagues and friends, many of whom have also helped us with
information from libraries and archives. They include Uršula Ambrošová, Milena Bart-
lová, Eszter Békefi, Francesca Berry, Andrzej Betlej, Judit Boros, Marina Bregovac Pisk,
Cornelia Cabuk, Gary B. Cohen, Diana Reynolds Cordileone, Dragan Damjanović,
Orsolya Danyi, Béla Debreczeni- Droppán, Antonija Dejanović, Ljerka Dulibić, Milan
Gašparović, Andrew Ginger, László Gippert, Mátyás Gödölle, Ferenc Gosztonyi, Maximil-
ian Hartmuth, Sophie Hatchwell, Susanne Hehenberger, David Hemsoll, Matthew Hilton,
John Holmes, Christian Huemer, Claire Jones, Stefanie Jovanović- Kruspel, Pieter M.
Judson, Nicola Kalinsky, Petra Kárai, Vjera Katalinić, Csilla Korenová, Karel Kučera,
Zsóka Leposa, Hubert Locher, Karin Lovecky, Suzanne Marchand, Andrea Mayr, Cosmin
Minea, Kate Nichols, Jaromíra Nováková, Bernadett Piskolti, Dominique Poulot, Klaus
Richter, Enikő Róka, Artur Rosenauer, Raphael Rosenberg, Julia Rüdiger, Kamil Ruszała,
Arnika Schmidt, Sebastian Schütze, Judit Sebő, Tomáš Sekyrka, Ana Solter, Alexandru
Sonoc, Andrzej Szczerski, Annamária Szőke, Werner Telesko, Anita Tóthová, Benedek
Varga, Georg Vasold, Foteini Vlachou, Tomáš Vlček, Jindřich Vybíral, Michael Whitby,
Acknowledgments
Filip Wittlich, Richard Woodfield, and András Zwickl. We apologize to anyone we inad-
vertently missed.
x An equally important role was played by families and friends, who supplied us with
the energy and perseverance to keep going when the project was at its most daunting.
Matthew Rampley owes a special debt of gratitude to Marta, Thomas, Ben, Peter, and
Boris. Markian Prokopovych would like to thank Kati and Mia. Nóra Veszprémi would
like to thank her parents, Tamás Veszprémi and Zsuzsanna Németh, her sister, Ágnes
Veszprémi, and her aunt, Éva Veszprémi, for their always unwavering support.