Our exhibition, presenting 19th-century art, surveys the work of almost 100 years, beginning in the late 18th century. Here we can see almost all the important works from the time of National Romanticism that have for generations determined the national visual memory. Including such major emblematic works of historical painting as The Women of Eger, The Mourning of László Hunyadi and The Christening of Vajk, the most significant historical paintings by Viktor Madarász, Mór Than, Sándor Liezen-Mayer, Bertalan Székely, and Gyula Benczúr fill two impressive rooms on the first floor.

In the adjacent rooms the visitor can see landscapes by Károly Markó as well as major works by József Borsos, Miklós Barabás, Mihály Zichy, Gyula Benczúr, and Bertalan Székely. A separate room presents the work of the greatest renewers of 19th-century Hungarian art: Pál Szinyei-Merse, Mihály Munkácsy and László Paál. The one-time ballroom of the palace displays works of Naturalist and early plein-air painting that in many instances paved the way to Modernism. Works by László Mednyánszky, Géza Mészöly, Lajos Deák-Ébner, Simon Hollósy, and István Csók form the backbone of this unit.

The exhibition, opened in 2002, surveys the most important trends in the fine arts in Hungary from the generation that founded the Nagybánya artists' colony in the 1890s (Simon Hollósy, Károly Ferenczy) to the mid-1940s. In line with a new method of arrangement, works are not displayed in strict chronological order; each room is an independent unit in its own right.

The work of the most important artists (József Rippl-Rónai, Tivadar Csontváry Kosztka, Ferenc Medgyessy, Róbert Berény, Gyula Derkovits) and groups of artists (the Eight, the Activists, the Rome School, the Gresham Circle) is presented by a continually altering selection of paintings.

Late Renaissance and Baroque Art: The permanent exhibition of Late Renaissance and Baroque art (1550-1800) surveys the art of 250 years, beginning with Mannerist works made in Vienna and Prague in the years around 1600. The 17th century is represented by Hungarian ecclesiastical treasures, wooden epitaphs and tomb sculptures, as well as by depictions of Árpád-dynasty saints in Hungarian attire. Next, the show evokes the culture of aristocratic residences in the Baroque age by means of a painted travelling tapestry once belonging to Ferenc Rákóczi II, prince of Transylvania.

Early 18th-century art is represented by works of Bohemian, Silesian and German masters, and by those of their Hungarian counterparts who achieved fame abroad. Besides monumental works, altarpieces and fresco sketches help recall the one-time completeness of Baroque ecclesiastical art. Most of these works present scenes from the legends of Hungarian royal saints.

Late medieval wooden sculptures and panel paintings are to be found in two different exhibition spaces. While most of the winged altarpieces that are fully intact are displayed on the first floor, on the ground floor, single-piece works of art, including components of one-time winged altarpieces that now qualify as such, are in the majority. It is here that visitors can see the earliest pieces in the collection: works that date from the 14th century.