Hungary kicks off Renaissance Year with colorful carnival

Spotlights danced amid polished marble pillars in the former Palace of Justice at Kossuth tér; Renaissance ballads played as the grotesque, fantastic, decadent came together for a carnivalesque opening to the Renaissance Year (Reneszánsz Év) 2008 last night in Budapest.

Nihat Sengul

(Top) Dancers perform to patrons of the arts in Budapest, celebrating 15th-century Hungarian King Matthias' role in the Renaissance. (Bottom) Two girls don Renaissance-reminiscent dresses.

The contemporary celebration marks 550 years since the celebrated Hungarian King Matthias brought Italian Renaissance thinkers and artists to Hungary and contributed to the development of humanist ideas in greater Europe.

The courtly celebrations serve as a precursor to the great exhibitions planned, István Hiller, Minister of Education and Culture said in his opening remarks. A second opening ceremony will take place at the City Park ice-skating rink.

The calendar for 2008 is full of artistic, cultural, and civic events: the family history of the Medici's and the birth of humanism in Hungary are just two exhibitions on a busy schedule. The second half of the year will also feature a variety of contemporary art.

Meanwhile, 25 blonde-wigged girls with ballet-dancer figures donned contemporary Renaissance-inspired frills, and courtly pages dressed all in black offered glasses of wine, juice and pastries to remember an era when Hungary was a powerful empire and Matthias was its benevolent king.

Hungary and Italy had close relations during the 14th and 15th centuries, and Matthias rivaled the powerful city-state banker Medici in support of arts and learning, said Gábor Klaniczay, a professor of medieval studies at the Central European University.

Though the elite lavishness of the Renaissance was important, it didn't effect the lives of ordinary people until much later:

"The impact of the Renaissance was indirect [...] There's a big difference between those times and the present, in terms of what ordinary people know. Now we live in a more democratic culture; [during the 15th century] culture and learning was the property of a restricted elite," said Klaniczay. "Now more people have access to culture and learning."

In their time, Renaissance thinkers critiqued the Middle Ages to reincorporate the lessons, tales and beauties of Antiquity into their world.

For Hungary, recognizing the Renaissance in 2008 won't be another renaissance, per se, "though it will have profound effects on arts programming and give more space to burgeoning, young Hungarian designers than the actual Renaissance did," said Zsuzsanna Renner, director of the museum of applied arts in Budapest.

For instance, the rich nostalgia and playful performances of the opening have a strong contemporary influence. The costumes of the dancers, wait staff and hostesses are by Márk Lakatos, a contemporary Hungarian multi-media designer.

"I'm very happy to see the ministry make a commitment to contemporary work, there are so many talented Hungarian designers working in multimedia - fashion and web design," said Renner.

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