In 2018 the Szépművészeti Múzeum in Budapest, Hungary reopened its doors after an extensive renovation. This gave the museum the opportunity to renew the permanent exhibition of the Old Masters’ Gallery. Alongside the renovation project, a comprehensive publication was compiled from the museum’s seventeenth-century Flemish collection that consists of – amongst others – works by Rubens, Van Dyck and Jordaens.

The publication by dr. Annamária Gosztola, chief curator of the Szépművészeti Múzeum, is a scientific-educational work supplemented with numerous recent findings, and illustrated with pictures of paintings from the museum’s collection and other collections. The book presents iconographic interpretations of the paintings through their symbolical and allegorical meanings and explains the main trends and diversity of genres in seventeenth-century art. It contains an introductory study, six chapters arranged by genre with a list of relevant literature, furthermore it gives an insight into the processes and methods of the research-work.

The book was published in Hungary with the title Rubens és pályatársai. 17. századi flamand remekművek a Szépművészeti Múzeumban (Rubens and His Colleagues. Seventeenth-century Flemish Masterpieces in the Museum of Fine Arts) and is not available in English as of now. Fundings are being sought to publish the book internationally. For more information, you can contact Annamária Gosztola.