Collection of Prints and Drawings

The graphic collection, numbering more than 5,000 items, preserves prints, watercolours, and drawings from five centuries. The sheets largely come from the collection of Archbishop János Simor, the museum’s founder.

Among the prints, outstanding works include Wolgemut’s 47 woodcuts made for the Nuremberg Chronicle; Albrecht Dürer’s series — the Small Passion, the Large Passion, The Life of the Virgin, and the Apocalypse; 60 engravings by Hans Holbein the Younger, especially the so-called series of trades; the large number of engravings by Marcantonio Raimondi and Antoni Waterloo; as well as sheets by Schongauer, Aldegrever, Schäuffelein, Burgkmair, Cranach, Virgil Solis, Jost Amman, Goltzius, Lucas van Leyden, Rembrandt, and Maulbertsch.

The coloured woodcut depicting Saint Margaret of the Árpád Dynasty, dating from around 1500, represents a unique spiritual value. The 17th- to 19th-century material is also exceptionally rich. Also worthy of mention are Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld’s pencil drawings of the articles of the Creed; Joseph Settegast’s twelve watercolours of the Blessed Sacrament; 307 sketches by Károly Markó the Elder; three enormous coloured charcoal cartoons by Károly Lotz, made for the frescoes of the Church of Saint Francis of Assisi in Budapest; and charcoal drawings by Sándor Liezen-Mayer.

In relation to Esztergom, the views of the city from the 16th to the 20th century are significant, as are Marco Casagrande’s own drawings connected to the statues of the Apostles he created for the sculptural decoration of the Basilica.

For conservation reasons, works from the graphic collection can only be viewed at temporary exhibitions.

Pál Cséfalvay – Dóra Sallay, 2004

The digital cataloguing of the graphic collection began in 2017, with the participation of art historian Judit Sebő, collection manager György Horváth, art historian Ildikó Kontsek, and photographer Attila Mudrák.