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Across the Leitha 383
allein aufzubauen. Die Waare, die fĂĽr den Weltverkehr berechnet wird, ist unempfind-
lich für nationale Schrullen.”56
Most museums kept to this broad aim and maintained a collecting and acquisitions
policy that was global in scope. Thus, from early on, the Museum of Art and Industry not
only acquired textiles by the Viennese firm of Philip Haas, for example, but also pur-
chased examples of contemporary Japanese, North African and Indian work.57 Similarly,
while its glass collections had an understandable focus on work by manufacturers such
as Lobmeyr or Salviati from Habsburg (or former Habsburg) territories, they included,
in addition, Islamic glass, and an international network of agents ensured a supply of
objects from across the globe.58 A similar pattern could be observed across the Empire.
From Brünn (Brno) to Kolozsvár (Cluj Napoca), museums of design and industry, even
those in regional cities and towns, amassed substantial collections of artefacts from Ja-
pan, China and the Islamic world, alongside those from Europe.59
This was common practice across both halves of the Empire, and is important for
how we view Austria-Hungary, since a distinction is commonly drawn between the
cosmopolitanism of Austrian Cisleithania and the putatively nationalist orientation of
Hungary. As this article argues, however, Austrian and Hungarian Liberals (and most
members of the cultural elite would have regarded themselves as Liberal) had similar
values when it came to the question of national and state identity. The administration
in Budapest did, admittedly, seek to create a unitary Magyar identity for all its subjects,
but this was a matter of some debate amongst Hungarian politicians. Thus, the prom-
inent politician József Eötvös (1813–1871), minister of education and religion in the
1860s, who was instrumental in the emancipation of the Jews, argued tirelessly for the
preservation of the cultural plurality of the Hungarian kingdom.60 Moreover, the policy
56 “In the same way it is a basic error to build up such museums solely on the basis of the nation. The
commodity intended for world trade is immune to the quirks.” Ibid.
57 A. Völker, Die Sammlungspolitik der Textilsammlung des k. k. Österreichischen Museums für
Kunst und Industrie in den Jahren 1864 bis 1910, in : Noever (ed.), Kunst und Industrie (cit. n.Â
3),
pp.Â
114–129.
58 R. Strasser, Der Aufbau der Glassammlung des k. k. Ă–sterreichischen Museum fĂĽr Kunst und
Industrie, in :Noever (ed.), Kunst und Industrie (cit. n.Â
3), pp.Â
137–142.
59 See, for example, the accounts of Islamic and Asian art collecting at the museums of design in BrĂĽnn
and Kolozsvár in : S. DvoĹ™aková, PĹ™ĂbÄ›hy tisĂce a jednĂ© noci : islamskĂ© umÄ›nĂ ve sbĂrkách MoravskĂ©
galerie v BrnÄ› [Stories of a thousand and one nights : Islamic art in the collections of the Moravian Gallery
in Brno], Brno 2011 ; M. Székely, János Vadona’s Collection of Japanese and Chinese Objects in
the Museum of Industry in Kolozsvár, in : Z. Jékely (ed.), Ödön Lechner in Context, Budapest
2015, pp.Â
91–102.
60 P. Bödy, Joseph Eötvös and the modernization of Hungary, 1840–1870 : a study of ideas of individ-
uality and social pluralism in modern politics, Boulder 1985.
Rudolf Eitelberger von Edelberg
Netzwerker der Kunstwelt
- Title
- Rudolf Eitelberger von Edelberg
- Subtitle
- Netzwerker der Kunstwelt
- Authors
- Julia RĂĽdiger
- Eva Kernbauer
- Kathrin Pokorny-Nagel
- Raphael Rosenberg
- Patrick Werkner
- Tanja Jenni
- Publisher
- Böhlau Verlag
- Location
- Wien
- Date
- 2019
- Language
- German
- License
- CC BY 4.0
- ISBN
- 978-3-205-20925-6
- Size
- 17.0 x 24.0 cm
- Pages
- 562
- Category
- Biographien