Nandor Brenner Viday, Born in Budapest, Hungary in 1903, date of death possibly 1944. He was a painter and graphic artist who studied initially at the School of Arts between 1918-21 with Master Eugene Jeno Haranghy, then at the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts between 1923-25 with Master Oszkar Glatz, then Academie Julian in Paris.
He began exhibiting his work in 1920 and attracted immediate attention. In 1925 he won Hungary’s Benczur Prize, in 1926 he won a Gold Medal in the Hungarian National Exhibition for a religiously-themed work in a Baroque-style copperplate engraving, followed with the Ferencz Jozsef Prize in 1928.
In 1930 he exhibited at the Ernst Museum, in 1937 at the Salon of the Studio he was a member of the Munkacsy Ceh and Szinyei Merse Art Groups.
His paintings reflect the influence of both naturalism and expressive elements and he participated in major exhibitions throughout, Hungary, Europe and the U.S. Known for his Jewish genre scenes, Chess scenes and other early 20th Century salon style paintings. In the tradition of Moritz Oppenheim, Isidor Kauffman and Maurycy Gottlieb and later of Tully Filmus and Itshak Holtz he captures his Jewish interior scenes with a particular sensitivity.
The Inferno – Part 1 of 2, Nandor Viday Brenner (Hungarian 1903)
Inferno (Italian for “Hell”) is the first part of Dante Alighieri’s 14th-century epic poem Divine Comedy. It is followed by Purgatorio and Paradiso. It is an allegory telling of the journey of Dante through Hell, guided by the Roman poet Virgil. In the poem, Hell is depicted as nine circles of suffering located within the Earth. Allegorically, the Divine Comedy represents the journey of the soul towards God, with the Inferno describing the recognition and rejection of sin.
