Budapest – 05 Jun 2024

Rented a bicycle today and headed to the downtown area. I did not notice until later in the morning that there was a smudge on the camera lens, so these photos are less than ideal.

bicycles
building
church
church
church
building
statue of newspaper boy
woman reaching up to bust of person

Stopped at a Cat Café to get a feline fix.

gray cat
longhair siamese
cat trees

River & Castle

Across the Duna river and atop a hill is the Buda Castle. There’s a funicular that goes up to the top, but there was a long line for it, so I decided to go up the steps to the top.

bridge and building
twin spires
towers
bridge lion and building in background
buildings
buildings
cityscape
balustrade
funicular
cityscape and bridge
cityscape
ornamental ironwork Ornamental ironwork near the palace.

Hungarian National Gallery

As long as I had climbed all the way up to the top of the hill, and the Hungarian National Gallery was there, I decided I would give it a try and see if it was better than the Museum of Fine Art. And yes, it was. (Not least of which is that I am an EU citizen and 70 years old, so I got in the museum for free.)

king me King me! (Some dude getting crowned king.)
sculpture
porcelainware

A whole section was devoted to portraiture, and these were really good.

women and girls in restaurant
busts
pope leo xiii Pope Leo XIII
hot air balloon
woman in purple dress
embarrassed faun sculpture
bust of woman
wall of portraits
portrait of young woman
portrai of young man
sculpture of a bohemian

 

Perspective fail; it looks like two guys talking to each other next to a dead body.
girl lyng down in grass
This is Orpheus (who should really be playing a lyre if you ask me). My first reaction upon seeing this was “why yes, I always play the violin as soon as I get out of the shower.”
orpheus-playing violin
The title of this one is “Sulking“.
couple sulking
This is a portrait of a tramp; my first thought was “Gollum - the Early Years”
man in coat with hands in pockets

 

four portraits of men
man in hat smoking small cigar Closeup of one of the portraits
wooden sculpture of two men
man and woman embracing
yawning man
multicolored patches Part of an installation of art by Sean Scully.
bust of stern faced man

One room was devoted to altar pieces.

altarpiece
immense altar piece
man in bishops mitre holding head of beheaded man in lap My, isn’t religion cheerful?

Back to other art:

sculpture man in hat
bust of man with hand on chin
bust of man with moustache

Hungarian Art since 1945

This is a special section on the top floor of the gallery.

various abstract modern sculpture mobile and painting
modernist sculpture
abstract sculpture
bright colored geometric sculptures
woman with long cut down body
man in robes
bronze abstract owl This is supposed to be an owl. You could have fooled me.
various abstracts
abstract spirals
landscape object This is brilliantly minimalistic.
various abstracts
various abstracts
various abstracts
modern paintings Sunday to Monday, Németh Hajnal (digital prints)
jet plane made of paper and books Gives a whole new meaning to “paper airplane”.
body and threads
The lit-up words are powered by the grid; the unlit “NOT” was battery-powered and eventually the battery was out of power.
not all is eternal

Dohany Great Synagogue

Some pictures of the exterior of the Dohany Great Synagogue.

dohany synagogue
dohany synagogue
synagogue
Október 7. tér A sign outside the synagogue marking this as “October 7 Place”.

Signage / Stickers

schmuck andor Why vote for some ordinary schmuck when you can vote for a real Schmuck?
sticker your mom loves ombre
marijuanaize legality I think this translates to “Marijuanize Legality”.
graffiti
jeez luiz