Hungarian Conquest 

Curator: What strikes me first is the raw energy radiating from this composition; there’s almost a visual cacophony occurring, wouldn’t you say? Editor: You can certainly feel the movement and dynamism—a real sense of collective action. I think a large part of that is due to the technique. Here, we are viewing "Hungarian Conquest," a painting created with oil on canvas and credited to Mihaly Munkacsy, though the year is, alas, undocumented. Curator: Indeed. The upraised arms, the weaponry pointed skyward – a mass expression of triumphant arrival and claiming of land. Observe the figures with their faces tilted upward – they practically glow with a kind of divinely ordained fervor. There’s a transfer of symbolic energy here. The act of bowing the neck down indicates, simultaneously, subjugation, servitude, humility and subservience. Editor: You can also see the materiality of Romantic painting; note the canvas is a window, not on reality, but on an interpretation steeped in its labor and brushstrokes. Munkacsy understood his paint and primed canvas deeply – look how that pigment renders fur, skin, metal, fabric… he coaxes light to ripple over everything. His grasp of the tools and materials is evident. The historical subject, too, becomes just one ingredient in this crafted object. Curator: This resonates with a reading of ‘Hungarian Conquest’ as an assertion of national identity. Flags are raised like banners and proclamations. The horse is also prominently featured, a symbol not only of power and command, but also mobility – in this instance, it signifies both literally and metaphorically, the conquest in question. What is striking is how Munkacsy is portraying not a single historical moment but rather the *idea* of conquest. Editor: And he does so employing these Romantic techniques, and building his scene in visible layers with varied textures. It is a visceral creation of not just nationalistic myth, but the social relations involved in myth-making through material things. From paint to textile, Munkacsy assembled available resources and molded the idea through the physicality of the making. Curator: In this painting, Munkacsy seems to say, look at the past to understand your shared destiny! A compelling image and, indeed, an assertive act of artistic myth-making. Editor: And one constructed by the visible hand. Looking at the oil itself makes that undeniable.