The exhibition at the Museum of Applied Arts, entitled The Dowry of Beatrice - The art of Italian Majolica and the Court of King Matthias Corvinus, demonstrates the art of majolica in the 15th century, says museum director Zsuzsa Renner.
Project director Zsombor Jékely says the first part of the exhibition follows the path of the art of glazed ceramics to Italy, while the second part examines pieces of majolica unearthed in Hungary.
Restoration expert Katalin Csontos says there are many extraordinary works in the exhibition. Among them is a piece used for writing - it has an inkwell, a place for ash, a quill and a knife, as well as a candleholder - that is signed by the artist, the Italian master Giovanni Manzoni di Colle.
Also highlights are three of four surviving pieces of the Corvinus-service, bearing the coats of arms of King Matthias and his wife, Beatrice of Aragon. (King Matthias is considered as Hungary's "Renaissance king".) The pieces represent the peak of Italian majolica in the late 15th century and were the first big commission for the ceramics north of the Alps. They are on loan from the Metropolitan Museum (New York), the Victoria and Albert Museum (London) and the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology (Berkeley).
The exhibition is one of four planned for Hungary's Renaissance Year 2008, which marks the 550th anniversary of King Matthias's coronation. The other three, which are also opening in March, will be hosted by the Budapest History Museum, the Hungarian National Gallery and the National Széchényi Library.
The Hungarian Museum of Commerce and Catering has several events planned for Hungary's Renaissance Year 2008. Museum staff and gastronomy historians have made their best efforts to re-create the cuisine of the court of Marie de' Medici in an exhibition.
The museum has borrowed objects from the Museum of Applied Arts, Szekesfehérvár's Saint Stephen the King Museum, the Open-Air Folk Museum in Szentendre and the Ethnography Museum for the exhibition, which runs until May 4.
Source: Múlt-kor / Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
