Name of Object:

Plan for the House of the Invalids in Pest

Location:

Budapest, Közép-Magyarország / Central Hungary, Hungary

Holding Museum:

Budapest History Museum

 About Budapest History Museum, Budapest

Date of Object:

1739

Artist(s) / Craftsperson(s):

Salomon Kleiner (1703, Augsburg-1761, Vienna)

Museum Inventory Number:

3735

Material(s) / Technique(s):

Engraving and etching on paper

Dimensions:

H: 42 cm; w: 57.5 cm

Type of object:

Engraving, etching (veduta)

Description:

The engraving and etching was made after the original drawing by the imperial architect, Anton Erhard Martinelli (1684–1747), for the largest Baroque building, the House of the Invalids in Pest. The building, which was never finished following Martinelli's original plans, is today the City Hall of Budapest.
The building, which was originally used as a military hospital, has three gates, the central one leading to the former chapel where there are allegorical figures of War and Peace with a statue of Atlas above. The façade is decorated with reliefs commemorating Emperor Charles III and Eugene of Savoy. The foundation stone was laid in 1716, and the main façade was finished in 1731. With the death of the architect, Martinelli, construction of the building stopped in 1741. During the reign of King Joseph II it became a casern named after the founder, Charles III. It became the City Hall in 1894 and was transformed for the purposes of the central office by the architect Ármin Hegedűs.

A printed veduta using a mixed technique showing the plan of the largest Baroque building in Budapest – the House of the Invalids in Pest – designed by Anton Erhard Martinelli (1684–1747). The building, which was never finished following Martinelli's original plans, was rebuilt at the end of the 19th century as the City Hall of Budapest, for which use it is still inhabited today.

How date and origin were established:

On the basis of the signature

How Object was obtained:

Transferred from the Capital’s collection in 1945

Selected bibliography:

Budapest az Újkorban (Budapest in Modern Times), (ed. G. Szvoboda Dománszky), Budapest, 1995, p. 23.

Citation of this web page:

Beatrix  Basics "Plan for the House of the Invalids in Pest" in "Discover Baroque Art", Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://baroqueart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;BAR;hu;Mus11_A;50;en

Prepared by: Beatrix Basics
Copyedited by: Terézia BardiTerézia Bardi

SURNAME: Bardi
NAME: Terézia Anna

AFFILIATION: National Trust of Monuments for Hungary

TITLE: Art Historian, Vice Director for Research at The National Trust of
Monuments for Hungary; MWNF DBA local co-ordinator (Hungary), author
and copy-editor

CV:
Terézia Bardi, Vice Director for Research at the National Trust of Monuments for Hungary since 2004, was awarded her MA in History and History of Art at the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. After a period of fellowships mainly in Italy, Terézia gained her PhD from the Faculty of Art History at the same university for her thesis Presentation and Representation – the European Reception of the Liberation of Buda in 1686: Feast and Public Opinion. Her main fields of research are 17th-and18th-century Baroque and Rococo: the spectacles, festival decorations and associated iconography – including theatre productions of the period – and interior decoration of historic houses. Since 1988, she has edited a number of art historical books that include some on Oriental art and architecture. She is MWNF DBA’s local (Hungarian) co-ordinator, author and copy-editor.
Translation by: Beatrix Basics
Translation copyedited by: Mandi GomezMandi Gomez

Amanda Gomez is a freelance copy-editor and proofreader working in London. She studied Art History and Literature at Essex University (1986–89) and received her MA (Area Studies Africa: Art, Literature, African Thought) from SOAS in 1990. She worked as an editorial assistant for the independent publisher Bellew Publishing (1991–94) and studied at Bookhouse and the London College of Printing on day release. She was publications officer at the Museum of London until 2000 and then took a role at Art Books International, where she worked on projects for independent publishers and arts institutions that included MWNF’s English-language editions of the books series Islamic Art in the Mediterranean. She was part of the editorial team for further MWNF iterations: Discover Islamic Art in the Mediterranean Virtual Museum and the illustrated volume Discover Islamic Art in the Mediterranean.

True to its ethos of connecting people through the arts, MWNF has provided Amanda with valuable opportunities for discovery and learning, increased her editorial experience, and connected her with publishers and institutions all over the world. More recently, the projects she has worked on include MWNF’s Sharing History Virtual Museum and Exhibition series, Vitra Design Museum’s Victor Papanek and Objects of Desire, and Haus der Kulturen der Welt’s online publication 2 or 3 Tigers and its volume Race, Nation, Class.

MWNF Working Number: HU 73