Ingrid Ciulisová alerted us to the latest issue of the journal ARS, a peer-reviewed art history journal published by the Institute of Art History of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava. The issue is the outcome of a research project she led that focused on Mary of Hungary (1505-1558), the Governor-General of the Low Countries, and her artistic legacy.

This current issue offers new research and fascinating stories regarding the legacy of Mary of Hungary, linking present-day Hungary, Bohemia, Slovakia, Austria, Belgium, and Spain. It explores her roles from multiple perspectives—as queen, shadow political player, diplomat, and Governor-General of the Low Countries for her brother, Emperor Charles V. It also examines her activities in the arts (as a female art patron, collector, and curator of Habsburg collections) as well as her engagements with warfare and military architecture, providing a better understanding of the practices Habsburg women used to consolidate their family’s position as a lasting power in the early modern world.

The entire issue is available open access at ars.sav.sk.

ARS, vol. 59 (2026) no. 1

Contents
EDITORIAL
Ciulisová, I.

INTRODUCTION
Silver, L.
Mary of Hungary: Patron of Distinction

ARTICLES
Hope, C.
Mary of Hungary and Titian

Cupperi, W.
Mary of Hungary’s Small Portraits: The Difficult Quest for Female Patronage

Jordan Gschwend, A
Empire in Portrait: Mary of Hungary’s “Grande Galerie” and the Transimperial Crafting of Habsburg Identity

Ciulisová, I.
Mary of Hungary and Binche Palace: Strategic Collecting and the Politics of Display

Gonzalo Sánchez-Molero, J. L.
Militia and Architecture in the Library of Queen Mary of Hungary

Hoffman, M.
Gift-Giving and the Political Agency of Mary of Hungary during her Governorship in the Low Countries (1531 – 1555)

Hoffman, M.
The 1555 Testament and Codicil of Queen Mary of Hungary