The Esterházys were the most important family of the Hungarian aristocracy, producing politicians, bishops, generals and a prime minister. Their collections, built up over centuries, were opened to the public as early as the nineteenth century, the first being a picture gallery in their palace in Vienna. This collection was sold to the Hungarian state in 1871 and is now the basis of the Museum of Fine Arts. After 1867, their most important historical objects were increasingly often loaned to the first historical exhibitions of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in Budapest and Vienna. This raised the standard of these exhibitions, allowed experts and the public to become acquainted with objects from private collections in Hungary, and enabled the lenders to present the history and significance of their families in the context of the history of the country and the nation, in the spirit of social responsibility. This study uses historical sources to describe the process of object lending and the public presentation of private collections.
The study is a sounding into the family festivities of one of the most important families in Early Modern Hungary, the Esterházys. The picture of the wedding ritual is supplemented with examples from other aristocratic families. Aristocratic weddings were one of the important instruments of family policy and a potential source of increased power. The Palatine Nicholas Esterházy was a great strategist in the field of marriage in the first half of the 17th century. It is difficult to imagine that he would have gained the office of Palatine without his two advantageous marriages. Nicholas Esterházy conceived a family policy, in the context of which he planned the marriages of his descendants. He also organized and supported marriages at his court. Thanks to these marriages, he created a whole web of relationships at his court and in the counties where his properties were situated. Apart from marital politics, the study also examines the actual practices connected with weddings in this period, from engagement and banns to the actual ceremony.
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