(b Vörösberény, 29 Nov 1820; d Rome, 25 Jan 1916). Hungarian painter. In 1840 he studied at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Vienna under Leopold Kupelwieser and Joseph von Führich, who were admirers of the Nazarenes. In 1853 he settled in Rome, where he came into contact with the Confraternity of S Isidoro through Friedrich Overbeck; soon afterwards he joined the Nazarenes. Its members, following the traditions of the Italian Quattrocento, sought to express a new type of religious quality in art. In his paintings Szoldatits avoided extreme sentiment and created his own archaism in such works as Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane. His carefully composed and sometimes rigid forms contrast with his emotional tone. In 1859 he went on a study trip to Munich and Dresden. He painted altarpieces for both Italian and Hungarian churches (in Eger, Nyitra, Szihalom, Veszprém, Borota, Jászberény, Jankovácz, Budapest and Temesvár). With the support of Bishop Császka many of his religious pictures, such as the Annunciation, appeared in Kalocsa. His best-known work was a fresco for the chapel of Our Lady in Eger Cathedral (1881). He painted portraits of several popes, including Leo XIII (Eger, Lyceum), as well as providing paintings for the St Anthony Chapel, for the Pope’s apartments and for Bishop Frakno’s Roman Palace. He painted many versions of Patrona Hungariae, which are infused with a religious and national spirit. He showed his works in the annual exhibitions of the Fine Arts Society (Képzomuvészeti Társulat) in 1877, 1879, 1881 and 1896. As a representative of the Nazarene tradition he influenced a circle of young Hungarian artists living in Rome in the 1890s, including Aládar Körösfoi-Kriesch and Sándor Nagy. This profound interest in Italian Renaissance painting can also be seen in the later work of the artists of the Gödöllo colony.

• Szoldatits, Ferenc
  • Nazarenes, §2: The Nazarenes and their influence, after 1818