The picture collection in the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts is descended from the Hungarian National Museum, founded in 1802, and the National Gallery, founded in 1870 to acquire the collection of the Esterházy princes. Growing national awareness in the nineteenth century led to numerous donations and bequestsa tradition of private generosity which, combined with judicious acquisitions, has continued since the amalgamation of the two institutions into the Museum of Fine Arts in 1906. Dr Garas describes the museum's famous Spanish collection (including seven El Grecos and three Goyas) as probably the most comprehensive outside the Iberian Peninsula; it is housed along with other paintings illustrating the whole development of European art from the thirteenth century to the nineteenth. Raphael's 'Esterházy Madonna', Rembrandt's Old Rabbi', renderings of the Crucifixion by Memling and Altdorfer and works by Manet and Constable are among the masterpieces in a collection which also illuminates such fascinating byways as German and Austrian Biedermeier painting. With over 2000 paintings, many of which are superbly reproduced to accompany the text, the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts contains one of the most important art collections in Central Europe.

on the jacket: Titian, Doge Marcantonio Trevisani'