FERENC HOPP MUSEUM OF EASTERN ASIATIC ARTS


	Hevajra Gilt copper, Middle Tibet 17^th–18^th centuries

The Tibetan Collection of the Museum contains approximately 250 artworks, several of which merit international attention. Though items of Tibetan art could be found in Hungarian private collections as early as the first half of the 20^th century, this field of collecting did not at once acquire importance in the Museum's collecting strategies. The majority of items were donated by the art dealer Imre Schwaiger (b. 1868, d.1940), who settled in India at the end of the 19^th century. The Collection principally incorporates pieces representing the art of Tibetan Buddhism, that is, small gilt sculptures prepared with lost wax process, painted scrolls (thangkas), wood-block prints and ritual objects.

The majority of items in the Tibetan Collection date back to the 17^th and 18^th centuries. This period is well represented by the collection of Károly Csapek (b. 1904, d. 1976), a painter and the former designer of the Herend Porcelain Manufacturers. This group of statues from his collection shows Chinese influence but belongs to the field of Tibetan Buddhism. The bequest came into the Museum's possession in 1988.

Small bronze sculptures constitute the most significant part of the Nepalese Collection. According to Zoltán Felvinczi Takács and Ervin Baktay, Imre Schwaiger was one of the first collectors of Nepalese bronzes in India. It is a fact that Schwaiger sent Nepalese artworks and jewellery to the Museum of Applied Arts as early as 1914, that is, before the foundation of the Ferenc Hopp Museum of Eastern Asiatic Arts. Though our bronzes represent several highly significant periods of Nepalese art, the majority show the more ornate but less artistic style of the 18th century.

Béla Kelényi


Vajrabhairava Black thangka Eastern Tibet, 18^th century		Kalachakra mandala Thangka, Middle Tibet latter part of the 15^th century