The Hall named after Count Ferenc Széchényi, who founded the Hungarian National Museum in 1802, was established on the initiative of Mrs. Jánosné Bohus Antónia Szőgyén in 1859, who appealed to Hungarian women to raise funds for the construction of an auditorium in memory of Ferenc Széchényi. The 27,579 forints collected through the county and city committees of lady patriots were handed over to Director Ferenc Kubinyi for the construction of a representative hall cherishing the memory of Ferenc Széchényi.
The furniture of the Széchényi Hall was made of Slavonian oak by József Szabó, a master joiner from Buda, based on the plans of Miklós Ybl. The carvings, richly decorated with Renaissance motifs, including the caryatid Tuscan pilasters with Tuscan headings, the tendril braiding leafy borders and the volute consoles, give the furniture a particularly ornate appearance. The three windowless walls of the room are lined with glass-fronted bookcases with sliding doors extending up to the main parapet, with a doorway in the centre of each wall. A representative portrait of the founder, Ferenc Széchényi, already in the National Museum's Picture Gallery, was set into the ornately carved wood panelling between the two windows of the wall facing Múzeum körút.
When the Széchényi Hall was redecorated in the 1860s, it was given a new ceiling decoration. The previous ornamental colours were replaced by a heraldic programme, in which the Hungarian and county coats of arms reappear under the dome ceiling. In the centre of the ceiling, with its pale blue background and gold stars, the divided Hungarian coat of arms with the double cross, covered with the Holy Crown, was placed among laurel and oak branches. In the direction of the four corners are painted the coats of arms of Dalmatia, Croatia, Slavonia and Transylvania. The 60 shields, 15 on each side, running along the cornice of the parapet show the coats of arms of the 53 provinces of the time, as well as the coats of arms of 4 regions of Partium, Fiume (Rijeka) and Hajdú, and the unified coat of arms of Pest-Buda, anticipating the unification of the capital in 1873. The theme not only reaffirmed the fact that the National Museum, as an institution of the orders from its foundation, was subordinate to the Hungarian Parliament through the Museum Fund, but also commemorated the fact that the construction of the Széchényi Hall was made possible by the collection of the women's associations of the counties as a civic initiative.
The completed hall was opened on 7 May 1865 with a speech by Director Ágoston Kubinyi, who thanked Mrs. Bohusné and the women's associations for their generous donations. In the completed hall housed the old Hungarian manuscripts of the National Széchényi Library until its move to the Buda Castle in 1985. Since then, it has become one of the National Museum's most revered auditoriums, hosting exhibitions, ceremonies, conferences and book launches.
The painting was commissioned for the museum by the founder's sons, István Széchenyi and his brothers Lajos and Pál, after their father's death, from the renowned Viennese painter Johann Ender for 300 gold pieces. This painting was the first to be made especially for the National Museum after its foundation. Ender had a long-standing relationship with the Széchényi family, he painted portraits of several members of the family, he was commissioned to paint the altarpiece for the church in Nagycenk, and in 1818 he accompanied István on his long journey to the Orient. Painted in 1823, during Ender's stay in Rome, the picture was first exhibited in Vienna to great acclaim. Ferenc Kazinczy also saw the portrait and wrote about it with some irony in his letter to Izidor Guzmics: “The picture is enthusiastically conceived and very correctly, very beautifully executed, and shows the great, the noble-minded mortal, the eternal pride of the nation; but it is piled with the attributes of the sciences. The hero, resurrected, would not be able to emerge from among these terrible multitudes of things.” The picture is indeed very rich in visual references with meaning, thanks to István Széchenyi, who composed the programme of the painting, wishing to commemorate his father, who helped national education with his donation.
In the picture, the painter evokes the marble-columned space of an ideal library in a Renaissance architectural setting, from which the view of the Danube and the Buda Castle opens out to the right through an arched loggia. At the centre is the founder, an educated lord who was at the forefront of both public life and scientific patronage. He wears the robes of the Order of the Golden Fleece, of which he was invited to become a Knight in 1808 by Francis I. In his right hand he holds a volume containing the 1807 Parliamentary Articles, with the open page of Article XXIV, in which the Orders take under their protection the donation of his collection to the National Museum. Below, on the open scroll of paper, is the text of the 1802 charter of foundation. The sphinxes supporting the round marble table are, as we know from the correspondence between Széchenyi and Ender, symbols of wisdom.
On the table, next to the bust of the emperor, are objects that refer to the scholar antiquarian and collector: a writing pen and inkstand, a small statue of Athena, antique ceramics, coins, cameos and rings. In front of the table in the foreground are an engraved folder, a roll of paper and a book, all of which are indicative of his collections, while on the other side are an antique vase, a globe and a painter's palette. The palette may also refer to Széchényi's election as a member of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. In the background, in a frieze above the arch of the loggia, a relief of the seven muses holds his family coat of arms. The richness of the depiction developed gradually, as can be seen in the sketch held in Nagycenk, where the setting was still more reminiscent of a library and a famous collection of books.
The Széchényi Hall can be visited in the Hungarian National Museum.
