The temporary exhibition, called Mediterranean Antiquities from the Ferenc Hopp Collection, is being shown as part of the museum's Highlighted Works of Art series.
Ferenc Hopp (1833-1919) was born into a large German-speaking family in Fulnek, in what is now the Czech Republic. He came to Pest at the age of twelve to become an apprentice in the optician's workshop of Stefano Calderoni. After receiving his apprentice's diploma in 1851, he set out on travels that would take him to Vienna and New York for further studies. Ten years later, he returned to Pest and became a partner with Calderoni. In 1864, he took over the management of Calderoni and Co., turning it into a highly profitable business by expanding into the photography and school supplies markets.
Having amassed a fortune by middle age, Hopp became a collector of art and a traveller. Between the ages of 49 and 80, he travelled around the world five times, always adding to his collection.
Although Hopp is best known for his collection of Asian art, he also purchased more than a hundred antiquities, most, it seems, acquired during a trip through Sicily and Tunis in 1897.
"Yesterday I was again in Carthage, and bought a great number of vases and lamps there in the museum. [...] Kindly forward them as a gift to the National Museum. [...] I had previously also bought similar vases in Taormina and Girgenti [Agrigento], which will also be of interest to the Museum," Hopp wrote to a colleague in Budapest while travelling in the Mediterranean region.
Most of the objects are indeed typical of the two areas indicated by Hopp. The various undecorated jugs, which date from Archaic to Hellenistic times, are characteristic representatives of the Phoenician (Punic) pottery of North Africa. Among the Sicilian pieces, noteworthy is a series of cups made in the second half of the 4th century BC in Agrigento (ancient Akragas). These cups, used as votive offerings, are decorated on the side with floral motifs. The bulk of the material is undecorated household pottery, but there are lamps, unguentaria of glass and clay, incense burners and sling stones as well. Figural vase painting is represented by a few Attic pieces; Roman decorated pottery by two pieces of terra sigillata; and terracotta small sculpture by the fragment of a female figure from Medma (Calabria).
Hopp never intended the objects for his own collection. In one of his letters he gave orders to ship the boxes containing the objects straight on to the National Museum without even opening them.
Source: Museum of Fine Arts
