Secrets of the Past Czartoryski-Potocki Palace Th e Ministry of Culture and National Heritage Secrets of the Past

Jerzy Miziołek

The book is a kind of monograph of one of the most interesting palaces of Warsaw. It was erected in the first half of the 18th century and partially rebuilt at the beggining of of the 19th century. Its very interesting all'antica interior decoration, made before 1800, was almost completly destroyed during the world war II. Among its owners were princes Lubomirski and Czartoryski as well as, since 1799, Count Stanislas Kostka Potocki the founder of Polish archaeology and art history. The book is based on numerous archival sources and is lavishly illustrated. It records many important events such as the ball with the presence of Napoleon Bonaparte which took place on January 22,1807.

Secrets of the Past Czartoryski-Potocki Palace. The seat of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. Jerzy Miziołek Hubert Kowalski Secrets of the Past Czartoryski-Potocki Palace The Ministry of Culture and National Heritage MKiDN 2014 Jerzy Miziołek and Hubert Kowalski Secrets of the Past Czartoryski-Potocki Palace. The Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. Ministry of Culture and National Heritage 2014 Authors: Jerzy Miziołek and Hubert Kowalski Translated from Polish by Teresa Bałuk-Ulewiczowa Reviewers: Professor Juliusz A. Chrościcki and Dr hab. Jakub Sito Cover illustrations: contemporary photographs (2011) by Hubert Kowalski Text on pp. 157–158 by the Department of International Relations, Ministry of Culture and National Heritage © Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, 2014 In co-operation with: Project Co-ordinator: Aleksandra Ozga Proofreading by John Beauchamp Indexing: Adam Wieczorek Graphic design and DTP: Maciej Tarkowski ISBN 978-83-62622-38-2 Printed by Wrocławska Drukarnia Naukowa PAN im. Stanisława Kulczyńskiego Sp. z o. o. ul. Lelewela 4 53-505 Wrocław Count Stanisław Kostka Potocki (1755–1821), the ﬁrst Polish art critic and art historian Count Stanisław possessed a knowledge of the fine arts I have never encountered in any other art lover. To him we owe some very interesting research in that field, and some important scholarly studies (the generally known translation of Winckelmann’s great volume among them). Being in love with his studies, he found relaxation after his labours in supervising the work of artists and men of letters, to whom he generously gave his protection. In whomever a budding talent or a youthful inspiration blossomed, they could always count on his helpful advice and material support. Under the influence of his repeated Italian journeys he developed that noble adoration of beauty which is Nature’s gift she so rarely grants, and which can be likened to an additional sense. Often did I look at him in wonderment, thinking of the enormous amount of knowledge one man could amass, never forgetting one iota of it. He was an excellent Latinist: often did I hear him reciting whole books of Virgil, which he knew by heart, translating them freely and easily as he spoke. Memoirs of the Countess Potocka 1901, pp. 26–27. 6 Table of Contents Introduction 9 1. The Palace’s history 12 Denhoff and Czartoryski times A description and inventory of the Palace in 1735 A Residence ﬁt for the Princes Czartoryski The corps de garde Rococo ﬁnesse Casanova and the wine fountain Izabela Lubomirska née Czartoryska and her times Distinguished artists, splendid palatial interiors, and Pompeian motifs The happy couple, Stanisław Kostka Potocki and his wife Aleksandra Stanisław Kostka and Aleksandra depicted in words and pictures The Polish Herculaneum, Warsaw’s Revival, and A Speciﬁcation of Rooms Stanisław Kostka’s study and library The times of Stanisław and Aleksandra’s son and grandchildren The Palace and the house at Number 17 in the times of Stanisław Potocki (1845–1886) The Palace in the hands of the Potocki of Galicia The Potocki Palace in a diplomat’s recollections The Czartoryski-Potocki Palace on ﬁlm 13 19 23 33 41 43 45 52 56 60 63 66 67 76 78 96 97 2. Tableaux vivants: facts and anecdotes from the lives of the Princes, Counts, and their guests 100 A duel that never was, a six-horse carriage, and a magic lantern Napoleon, “magnetising enslavement,” and a Bacciarelli painting Napoleon in the Potocki Palace: the most famous social event of 1807 The concert, the dancing, and the beautiful Maria Walewska The Battle of Raszyn and the ball for the Archduke Ferdinand 101 106 110 113 119 7 Secrets of the Past 8 Aleksandra Potocka’s tableaux vivants A trip to Bliss and Niemcewicz’s piglet A historical reconstruction in honour of Niemcewicz Music in the Palace and Maria Kalergis 120 124 124 127 3. The Palace hosts an art gallery and an editorial office 130 Warsaw’s ﬁrst art exhibitions The Zachęta Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts Pictures that stirred hearts The Zachęta Society takes over the initiative Watercolours, beautiful prints, and professional printers The ﬁnest Polish weekly paper Conclusion 134 135 140 146 147 148 153 The Ministry of Culture and National Heritage in a nutshell… 157 Ministers of Culture 160 Inventory of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace Bibliography List of illustrations List of abbreviations Index 165 180 190 199 203 Introduction Introduction Just as the traveller wandering along the excavated streets of Pompeii discovers the remains of the houses of Cicero, Sallust, and Diomedes, so too, as we stroll along the streets of our own cities and towns, we cannot but discover the secrets of past times. None of the churches in our land, none of the castles, none of its most ancient houses is without its legends, its history, without its language of past times, without its inscription, “Thus it once was!” Having over half a century of life behind me, much have I seen, much have I experienced, much have I learned from my seniors; and if God has granted me any skills, I have decided to apply them in the service of those who will live after me, preserving for them what I have seen, what I have experienced, what I have heard from my elders. The expression “Thus it once was!” which Leon Potocki put into his beautiful, if slightly exalted little book in 1854, and reissued seven years later, acquires a special meaning with respect to this Palace, which has preserved its old proportions, finesse, and noble architectural forms but has had its interiors and the works of art therein almost completely ravaged and destroyed by the Second World War. Potocki, a graduate of the University of Warsaw, published his book under the nom de plume “Bonawentura z Kochanowa” and the title Święcone, czyli Pałac Potockich w Warszawie, thereby associating his account of the Potocki Palace with the traditional Polish custom of święcone, the church blessing of the fare to be eaten at breakfast on Easter Sunday (Fig. 1). The book is one of the sources, alongside other descriptions and photographs, which have saved for us the spectacular atmosphere of the erstwhile residence of the Czartoryski, the Lubomirski, and finally the Potocki families; in which its proprietors offered hospitality to emperors, kings and princes, distinguished writers and outstanding artists. Some of these guests, such as the renowned Napoleonic Marshal of France Joachim Murat, the well-known Polish painter Zygmunt Vogel, or the writer Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, resided in the mansion for longer. The long list of celebrated personages contributing to the story of this house is made up of its eminent proprietors, August Aleksander Czartoryski and Stanisław Kostka Potocki, and Potocki’s guest, Napoleon Bonaparte himself, who was here in 1807. Its history has also been built up by institutions, such as Gracjan Unger’s art gallery, which flourished here in the 1880s, the highly accomplished weekly magazine Fig. 1. Leon Potocki, Święcone czyli Pałac Potockich w Warszawie, Poznań, 1854; BNW 9 Secrets off tthe he P Past astt as POD PO OD OPIEKĄ M MUZ UZ Fig. 2. The Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, Warsaw, in 2011 10 10 Introduction Tygodnik Ilustrowany, and currently the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland. Published exactly 160 years ago, Potocki’s book is only apparently an account of Polish Easter customs, but in reality it served as a point of departure for a recapitulation of the main events in the history of the Potocki Palace and thereby also the history of Poland, a foretaste of the subjects to be painted by Jan Matejko, such as “The Battle of Grunwald”, “The Prussian Homage”, “Báthory at Pskov”, or “The Constitution of the Third of May, 1791”. In fact the first two of these canvasses would be exhibited in Unger’s gallery in 1882, as if drawn in by the magnetic attraction of Potocki’s book. The event was given extensive coverage in the press, and the paintings aroused enthusiasm, well-nigh euphoria, as they recalled great moments from the history of a nation deprived at the time of its statehood. The court of the Palace and Krakowskie Przedmieście, the Varsovian thoroughfare leading up to it, were full of joy and admiration for the grandeur of Matejko’s art and genius, albeit there were also emotions similar to those recorded in Potocki’s book: How delighted we are to read about episodes from our past, descriptions of those parliamentary assemblies at which deputies stood up in defence of freedom; when Jan Zamoyski dared tell the king to “reign but rule not”; when Żółkiewski captured the tsars of Russia and made them prisoners-of-war; when the king and the people, the people and the king, pledged their loyalty to the Third of May Constitution! How excited we are to read descriptions of the military campaigns of Tarnowski, Żółkiewski, Czarniecki, Rewera Potocki; how curious to hear stories of those supreme tribunal judgements, those confederations, those royal election rallies, those stately homes of the lords of Poland! The Potocki Palace, which was put up on the site of the modest 17th-century Denhoff residence, is one of the finest embellishments of Warsaw’s Trakt Królewski (Royal Route – Fig. 2). This is due to its noble proportions, its sophisticated decorations, and above all its corps de garde, which together with Sigismund’s Column, the façades of St. Anne’s Church and the Visitandine Church, the gateway to the University of Warsaw, and the Tyszkiewicz-Potocki and Staszic Palaces, make Krakowskie Przedmieście one of Europe’s most delightful and elegant streets. Actually, what we admire most about the edifice now accommodating Poland’s Ministry of Culture and National Heritage we owe to the Czartoryski family. This account of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace focuses not only on its erstwhile owners, its architecture, sculptures, paintings, and interior decoration as recorded by the vintage photographs, but also on many of its events – the balls, receptions, the tableaux vivants and performances staged here, the art exhibitions, and the diplomatic meetings, many of which were of crucial significance to the history of Warsaw and indeed the whole of Poland. Its walls, rising almost directly opposite the Presidential Palace (once home to the Radziwiłł family) go back to the late 18th century and the times of Stanisław Kostka Potocki, the father of Poland’s art history and classical archaeology; they hosted Napoleon; the writers Henryk Sienkiewicz and Bolesław Prus, frequent callers on the editorial office of Tygodnik Ilustrowany; the young Chopin; and the pianist, patroness of the arts and femme fatale Maria Kalergis. In this book we shall tell their stories referring to numerous documents, memoirs, and other records: who better to revive the atmosphere, nature, and drama of those events than their witnesses. We hope this book on the headquarters of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage will make a contribution to the study of the everyday life of Warsaw’s aristocracy and Polish culture over the last three centuries. 11 1 Secrets of the Past The Palace’s History Number 415 on the Krakowskie Przedmieście, the erstwhile residence of Count Józef Potocki and previously of the Princes Sieniawski, Denhoff, and Lubomirski, opposite the Governor’s (once Radziwiłł, now Presidential) Palace and recently restored to its original splendour – is one of the finest, if not the finest edifice in terms of historic status and style, on Warsaw’s most representational boulevard. That’s what Aleksander Kraushar, a distinguished polyhistor and connoisseur of Warsaw’s memorabilia, wrote in the early 20th century (Tygodnik Ilustrowany 23 (1904), p. 451). In 1896, when the Palace was about to be restored, one of Warsaw’s newspapers reported that all the shops would be removed from its corps de garde (guardhouse), and had started to move out. Built in a barocco style[!], the structure had been spoiled by the shops and would now be demolished, in a measure necessary to straighten out the course of the Krakowskie Przedmieście, and in its place a wrought iron trellis, appropriate for the edifice, would be installed, giving a view of the building’s extensive court and façade (Teki Walerego Przyborowskiego). Fortunately the plan to “straighten out the course of the Krakowskie Przedmieście” was not put into practice. The exquisite Rococo (not Baroque, as the notice on the gate says) corps de garde, the Palace’s vanguard and immediately recognisable showpiece, survived the Second World War and the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 virtually unscathed. An invisible power must have been keeping vigil over this fine and so characteristic building, with its rounded corners and the well-nigh diaphanous sculptures along its attic. The charming Rococo with its fine pilasters, its subtly framed windows and entrance, and its delicate ornamental motifs, are in excellent harmony with the wrought iron gates, the Palace itself, and the large court enclosed within the Palace’s wings, sometimes referred to as pavilions or annexes. Less than half a century after this restoration, the Palace – along with virtually the whole of Warsaw – lay in ruins, ravaged during the Second World War. It was rebuilt in 1946–1950. The design for its reconstruction was devised by a team led by Professor Jan Zachwatowicz of the Department of Polish Architecture at the Warsaw University of Technology. In Moja Warszawa, his poignant recollections of the Warsaw he had known, the engineer and bridge-builder Stanisław Gieysztor left the following reminiscence on the Palace’s pre-war state and its post-war restoration: Opposite, in the Potocki (formerly Czartoryski) Palace, the only thing that changed was the fine pair of Louis XV gates, designed by Władysław Marconi and installed in the first years of the present [20th] century. In my schooldays the gates fell into neglect, just like the central building of the corps de garde, which housed Żelisławski’s jeweller’s shop. . . . The ground-floor corner of the wing on the Czysta (now Ossolińskich) street side had always accommodated Gebethner and Wolff ’s bookshop, a familiar place for me, as it practised the good custom of selling books for payment in instalments. The other wing contained Franaszek’s wallpaper shop, which supplied the whole of Warsaw with wallpaper. Today, with the removal of both shops, the Palace has certainly gained much, though on the other hand it is almost inconceivable that Gebethner’s has gone. The Palace’s recent restoration was accomplished with a considerable amount of dedication, just as for all of Warsaw’s historic houses. Its tall, tiled roof (in my days the tiles were taken down even from church roofs) and elegantly shaped chimneys are in perfect harmony with the building’s façade. Alas, the beautiful walls hide an emptiness which was once one of Warsaw’s finest interiors in the Stanisław August style (Gieysztor 2010, pp. 663–664). 12 The Palace’s history A very good idea of what the Palace and its interiors looked like in the interwar period may be had from the surviving photographs, on which we observe the shop-windows and signs described by Stanisław Gieysztor. This image of the past is supplemented by the posters advertising Franaszek’s and Gebethner’s, the latter of which also sold grand pianos, and a piano is the central item on one of its posters. A beautiful poster for Franaszek’s company, designed by Tadeusz Gronowski, displays an exquisite Rococo side-table similar in style to the corps de garde and the main edifice, with a caption informing readers that the shop sells “Refined Paper Wall Upholstery”. The expressions “sophisticated,” “elegant,” “refined,” and “sublime,” characterise the atmosphere of the Palace and its past, and today they come to mind especially when we are facing the corps de garde, enter the court, into some of the interiors, and observe the precinct from Plac Piłsudskiego. These walls, sculptures, and interiors are witnesses to a history that starts in the first half of the 17th century under the Vaza dynasty, in the reign of Vladislaus IV (1632–1648). There are various texts, inventory lists and two invaluable drawings, one by Peter Schenk dated 1703 (Fig. 3), and another by Ricaud de Tirregaille (1762: Fig. 4) which give us an idea of the residence in the times of the Denhoff and Czartoryski proprietorships. The unquestionable priority in the description of the Denhoff residence must go to Adam Jarzębski, whose invaluable if not very sophisticated guidebook to the sights of Warsaw, entitled Gościniec, albo krótkie opisanie Warszawy (1634), has the following record: Denhoff and Czartoryski times Fig. 3. Peter Schenk, View of the court of Marywil, copperplate engraving, 1703; MNW 13 Secrets of the Past Fig. 4. Plan of the City of Warsaw, dedicated to His Majesty Augustus III, King of Poland, Elector of Saxony, made by order of Count Bieliński, Lord Grand Marshal of Poland, by the engineer Lt.-Col. P. Ricaud de Tirregaille in the service of His Majesty and the Republic of Poland, 1762; AGAD The Palace’s history Secrets of the Past Fig. 5. Peter Schenk, The Denhoff residence, detail of Fig. 3; MNW And this most substantial court A double structure doth disport: Spacious is its dining-hall, Hosting many guests withal. Beyond the lobby the lord’s rooms stand, As the servants let me understand. I entered one, and then another, . . . A round tiled stove, chimneyed and glazed, In it a merry fire will always blaze. In this room the master’s bed doth stand, Splendid I’ d say, glorious and grand, With fine tapestries upholstered, With sundry silks and satins bolstered. Then come ample chambers next For the ladies and the guests. Kitchens and pantry are not far away, Where the daintiest dishes are made. Through the windows look and out of doors See how a pretty little garden grows; Fresh water’s by two wells supplied, However much the house requires. By the front gate sentry-houses stand, The tallest with its roofing crowned, Rooms upstairs and downstairs are arrayed Over a spacious porch and entrance-way. A little building stands at its side, Its walls stuccoed on the outside. Across the court the stables stand, In a long and double row they run . . . (Jarzębski 1974, pp. 130–131) The proprietor of “this most substantial court” and the adjoining “pretty little garden” was Kacper Denhoff, Lord Voivode of Sieradz and Marshal of the Court of Queen Cecylia Renata. On the Voivode’s death the property, which had been restored after the Swedish War of 1650–55, passed down first to his son Aleksander, who was a royal secretary and Abbot of Jędrzejów Cistercian Abbey, and subsequently to Ernest Denhoff, Voivode of Malbork. We are given an idea of the way the Voivode’s residence might have looked in a drawing by the already-mentioned Peter Schenk, royal artist to Augustus II, in which he presents a view of Marywil (Fig. 5). This view, done in 1703, that is a decade after the Voivode’s death, shows a storeyed building arranged along ten axes on a rectangular plan with a distinctive central projection and a cornice separating the two floors. According to one hypothesis, some of the building’s features suggest that it may have been designed by Józef Piola (?–1715), a Polish architect originally from the Italian-Swiss borderland and a student of the renowned Tilman van Gameren, another architect who came to Poland (from Holland) and settled, designing many famous buildings including Marywil (as depicted in Schenk’s drawing; today the Teatr Wielki stands on the site). 16 The Palace’s history The Denhoff residence passed down to Maria Zofia Denhoffowa née Sieniawska still in the reign of Augustus II, who had tried to purchase it (but in vain) to extend his own, adjacent property, the Pałac Saski (“Saxon Palace”). Maria Zofia was the wife of Stanisław Ernest Denhoff and it is due to her that the Palace is associated with the once illustrious House of Sieniawski. Stanisław Ernest Denhoff died without issue in 1728, leaving Maria Zofia a widow after just four years of marriage. We see Stanisław and his young wife Maria Zofia depicted by an unknown artist in a group portrait preserved in the Museum of Wilanów Palace (Fig. 6). In a truly Sarmatianist style, the painting shows two married couples, the other pair being the Sieniawski, Maria Zofia’s parents. We are fortunate to have another, quality portrait of Stanisław Ernest Denhoff (Fig. 7). It is a large canvas kept in the Royal Łazienki Palace and shows a handsome, grey-haired man with a lively, intelligent face. Fig. 6. Unidentiﬁed painter, Portrait of Lord Hetman Sieniawski and his wife, with their daughter Maria Zoﬁa and her ﬁrst husband, Stanisław Denhoff, oils on canvas, 1724–26; Wilanów Palace Museum 17 Secrets of the Past Fig. 7. Unidentiﬁed painter, Portrait of Stanisław Ernest Denhoff, Lord Field Hetman of Lithuania, oils on canvas, ca. 1720; Royal Łazienki Museum in Warsaw Maria Zofia née Sieniawska was one of the richest women in the Poland of her times, and after the death of her first husband had many suitors, including Karol Tarło and August Aleksander Czartoryski (Fig. 8). Their rivalry ended in a duel, in which the latter was victorious. According to some records Czartoryski’s chief adversary was not Tarło, but one of the Pac family. On 11th July 1731 the young, fabulously rich, beautiful, and educated widow married August Aleksander (Konopczyński 1938, pp. 64–77; Kuras 2010, pp. 108–109), and the former Denhoff property in the heart of Warsaw became one of the residences of the ascendant Czartoryski family. It would remain in their hands until 1799, but as of 1781 it was owned by Izabela, August Aleksander’s daughter, who married Stanisław Lubomirski, a man much older than herself who died in 1783. Once again the Palace was left to a young widow, extremely rich thanks to the wealth left by her husband. However, unlike her mother Maria Zofia, Izabela never remarried, and in the last year of the century the Palace was inherited by one of her daughters, Aleksandra Lubomirska, happily married since 1776 to Stanisław Kostka Potocki, one of the most enlightened men of his times. Nonetheless, the excellent 18 The Palace’s history Fig. 8. Unidentiﬁed painter, Portrait of August Aleksander Czartoryski, oils on canvas, 1730s; Wilanów Palace Museum. On what is probably the best of all the Prince’s known portraits we see a self-conﬁdent, proud, and intelligent man in his mid-thirties. His apparel, a breastplate and ermine-lined cloak, displayed against a homogeneous dark background, endow him with an air of nobility, a perfect match, it seems, for his ambition to obtain the throne. The exquisitely painted face, the highlights on the breastplate, the delicately applied crimson verging on purple, and the unobtrusively presented cross of honour make this painting an outstanding work of art. reputation and personal virtues of Aleksandra’s learned spouse do not change the fact that what had been a prince’s residence now turned into the home of merely a count. Before we proceed to the description of the thorough conversion of the Czartoryski residence that determined its present-day shape, it will be worthwhile making a few remarks on an invaluable document which first earned the attention of and a commentary from Irena Malinowska, who has done noteworthy work on the Palace. The document in question is a 1735 description of the property, compiled on the basis of a certain Witkowski’s register, and its Polish title is Opisanie rzeczy w Pałacu Warszawskim przed Karmelity w dozorze P. Zawadzkiego, A. 1735 z regestru JM Pana Witkowskiego wypisane. Wykonotowanie zrewidowanych Rzeczy wszelkich w Pałacu przed Karmelitami Jaśnie Oświeconych Xięstwa Ich Mości Dobrodzieystwa y w nim będących w Warszawie in [novembris] br. Anno 1735. The information it contains suggests that A description and inventory of the Palace in 1735 19 Secrets of the Past POD OPIEKĄ MUZ 20 I The Palace’s history Anonymous painter, portrait of August Aleksander Czartoryski; oils on canvas; mid-18th century, Wilanów Palace Museum A full-figure presentation of the Prince clad in a full suit of armour with his right hand resting on a helmet, and draped with a red ermine-lined cloak, on a background of war trophies in a landscape of huge trees against a blue sky partly covered by dark clouds in sharp contrast to the Prince’s ponytail wig. The Prince is wearing the blue sash of the Polish Order of the White Eagle, with its star decorating his cloak. Gravity and serenity emanates from his face, which is shown in a three-quarter view. Highlights on the armour, the beautifully painted cloak, the subject’s noble pose, and the somewhat misty landscape make the picture an interesting work of art. Prince August Aleksander Czartoryski (1697–1782) received a meticulous education. In 1715 he toured France, Italy, and Germany, finally settling in Malta with the Order of St. John. In 1716 he took part in the defence of Corfu. After a while he transferred and served in the Austrian fleet, under the command of Prince Eugene of Savoy. He was promoted to the rank of colonel, and in 1718, following the Battle of Belgrade against the Turks, received a sword of honour. He returned to Poland after 1720, but made frequent visits to Austria in the following years. It was his ambition to play a salient part in the affairs of his native country, where state policy was falling into anarchy and its army was disintegrating. In the first years after his return home his main concern was to gain influence and look after his estates, though with varying success. On 1st June 1729 he was commissioned to serve as the commander in the colonel’s rank of the First Infantry Guards of the Kingdom of Poland; and on 14th June of the same year he was appointed Major-General of the Forces of the Kingdom of Poland. In June 1730 he took part in the military exercises of the Saxon and Polish armies at Mühlberg, inspected by King Augustus II. On 22nd July 1731 the Order of the White Eagle was conferred on him. On 11th November 1731, four months after his marriage to Maria Zofia née Sieniawska, he was appointed Voivode of Ruthenia. During the interregnum of 1733 he supported the candidacy of Stanisław Leszczyński to the throne, and spent some time in Gdańsk owing to this. On 29th June 1734 he submitted to Augustus III, and was rewarded with the conferral of the Saxon Order of St. Hubert (Kuras 2010, pp. 16–19). With time the Prince became one of Augustus III’s most trusted ministers and counsellors, but when rumours went round in 1745 of the latter’s abdication, he was considered a candidate to the throne. When relations with the King grew worse and worse, Prince Czartoryski started thinking of a compatriot monarch – his son Adam Kazimierz. Despite being out of favour with the King, Czartoryski’s star shone brightest in 1762–3, as the historian Konopczyński writes (1938, pp. 70–71); he was promised Russian backing in his attempt to secure the crown for his son. But the interregnum of 1763–4 brought Czartoryski a bitter disappointment: although he had bought the favour of Kayserling the Russian envoy, he could not persuade his son to stand for election and was forced to watch Poniatowski, the nephew he did not care for at all, ascend the throne for his money. He wept bitterly over the outcome of the election, and on the following day, in a fit of grief, this illustrious, serene old man grabbed his son Adam by the chest and, pointing at the king-elect, muttered sotto voce, “You fool, you did not want the crown when you could have had it; you’ll see how well it will suit him. Now it’s too late.” Thereupon, for the entire coronation sejm, he was genuinely ill or feigned illness. After some time the Prince was reconciled to the new monarch and lavished a lot of money on a celebration of his name-day on 8th May 1766. There is not much exaggeration in the numerous, extremely laudatory opinions on the man who created the power of the House of Czartoryski. As Konopczyński writes (1938, p. 74), only the nephew who became king harboured rancorous feelings for him, unable to get over the fact that his uncle and patron Czartoryski was worthier of the crown than he. August Aleksander Czartoryski 21 Secrets of the Past no conversions had been carried out on the interior arrangement since the beginning of the reigns of the Wettin kings (1697). The proprietors’ main rooms were on the ground floor; the only upstairs rooms described are the hall and the Prince’s study. The Princess’ rooms were on the left-hand side of the vestibule, and the Prince’s on the right. The lady of the house had four rooms: a bedroom, a study, a “second room,” and an antechamber, along with two wardrobes and dressing rooms, all sumptuously and meticulously appointed, the walls covered with green brocatelle, damask, and velvet with gilt panels and gold braid. The curtains and upholstery for the furniture were made of matching fabrics. Between the windows and the fireplaces there were large mirrors, with chandeliers at their sides to light up the rooms. Decorative panels hung above the paintings of still life – flowers, fruit, and hunters’ game. The register lists a lot of furniture – tables, chairs, settees, desks – but one of the most noteworthy is the Princess’ ornamented bedstead, white satin on the inside decorated with gold and multi-coloured braid, green velvet on the outside festooned with braiding and tassels, with a decorative board running round the top, and ornamental trelliswork at the bottom of the bed. In addition china figurines – kittens, birds, and other trifles – embellished the Princess’ bedroom. The master of the house had a large room which served for dining, and two other rooms overlooking the garden. From the extant part of the description we learn that in one of them there were cabinets holding a collection of books. The interiors were decorated with paintings mounted on supraportes and vases on the mantels and along the walls. The Prince’s bedroom was probably upstairs, but there is no mention of it in the description. The Palace was still awaiting its major transformation, which would turn it into a residence truly fit for a prince. What was the Prince’s new residence like when was it created, and who was the chief architect responsible for the conversion? Numerous written sources have records on its splendour. Some, in Teki Korotyńskie, are a bit confusing. One of the 19th-century press items says that the little palace was designed in the 18th century by the architect Fontana and separated off from the street with the corps de garde designed by Hiż the architect. Another tells us that part of the Potocki Palace was erected by Adam Mikołaj Sieniawski, Lord Castellan of Kraków and Grand Hetman of Poland. Originally it consisted only of large halls, probably intended to serve as barracks. It was converted by the Hetman’s daughter Zofia, the last of the Sieniawski, wife of Prince August Czartoryski, Lord Voivode of Ruthenia (Bohdziewicz 1964, pp. 257–259). Today we know beyond all doubt that Adam Mikołaj Sieniawski had next to nothing to do with the Palace. We also know that his daughter Zofia (or strictly speaking Maria Zofia) played only a minor part (if any at all) in its conversion. All the signs are that the conversion was accomplished chiefly thanks to August Aleksander Czartoryski, Voivode of Ruthenia, though probably with his wife’s involvement and support. Some of the work probably started already in the 1730s, soon after they were married, but the conversion proper, which determined the Palace’s rank among the other aristocratic residences of Warsaw, did not come until 1754–1766 (Sito 2010). However, it is still difficult to identify its architect. Fontana (1710–1773), the designer of the Collegium Nobilium on ulica Miodowa in Warsaw and the country mansion at Radzyń Podlaski, might have been the chief architect of the Czartoryski Palace (Kwiatkowski 1989, p. 107). Fontana is named as the Palace’s architect by Antoni Magier in Estetyka miasta stołecznego Warszawy (Magier 1963, p. 116). Could this distinguished Polish-born architect with Italian roots have worked on the project with Efraim Szreger (Ephraim Schröger; 1727–1783), known primarily for the design of 22 The Palace’s history the façade of the Carmelite Church almost opposite the Palace, as some writers suggest? Szreger is sometimes mentioned in connection with the superb corps de garde, which was completed in the reign of Stanisław August Poniatowski (1764–1795). No doubt his name is considered due to the other commissions he did for Prince August Aleksander Czartoryski, which we shall be discussing later. Recently a new hypothesis has emerged on the grounds of an article in the Warsaw press, that the corps de garde was the work of a now virtually forgotten architect known as Piotr Hiż (or Hiche), a Pole with French ancestry, who has already had some study devoted to him (Sulerzyska 1970, pp. 377–378). The hypothesis was originally put forward by Jakub Sito, who has published archival materials relating to the Palace preserved in two manuscripts (11308 and 11320) in the Czartoryski Library in Kraków. In doing so he concluded that the project started in the 1750s, not the 1760s, and he drew attention to an intriguing passage in Czartoryski’s ledger for 1754–1760 (Księga Kontowa Augusta Aleksandra Czartoryskiego 1754–1760; ms 11323, p. 420), where Hiche was referred to as “the Architect” (Sito 2010, p. 13). Can Hiche, who received his professional training in Warsaw and subsequently in Dresden, and who in 1744–1756 designed Hieronim Wielopolski’s mansion on Nowy Świat (Putkowska 2005), be regarded as the maker of the whole of the Czartoryski Palace? According to earlier opinions Hiche was merely the on-site technical and administrative manager (Malinowska in Kwiatkowska and Malinowska 1976, p. 43). We shall have to wait for more research for a definitive answer on Hiche’s contribution to the making of our masterpiece of Varsovian architecture. In 1762 the French master builder and engineer Pierre Ricaud de Tirregaille drew up a plan of Warsaw, on commission from Franciszek Bieliński, Lord Grand Marshal of Poland and “patron” of the Marszałkowska, the street named after him. The vignette of Ricaud de Tirregaille’s plan shows seventeen of the capital’s finest edifices, and one of them is the Czartoryski Palace (Fig. 9). The engraver presented only the A Residence ﬁt for the Princes Czartoryski Fig. 9. Elevation of the main building of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, 1762; detail from the vignette of Ricaud de Tirregaille’s plan of Warsaw; AGAD 23 Secrets of the Past POD OPIEKĄ MUZ façade of the Palace’s main building, which must have been completed by the time the engraving was made. From the written sources we know that its wings were built in the early 1760s, and its embellishing corps de garde a few years later. In the conversion the main building of the old Denhoff structure was extended by the addition of six axes, the last pair at either end making up biaxial projections in the form of separately roofed alcoves. The new, elongated façade of fifteen axes is accentuated by a central triaxial projection divided up by pilasters with Corinthian capitals and topped with a tympanum decorated with a double cartouche crested with a crown, and with a seated figure on either side. The pediments feature panoplies – trophies of armour and helmets mounted on a post – matching the ones on the corps de garde. On the ground floor there are semi-circular arcades over the three doorways; while the French windows on the upper floor are topped by segmental arches, a favourite detail with Rococo architects. The two storeys are of the same height. The end sections of the elevation are portioned off with a combination of lesenes and recessed panels. The terminal projections are bordered with pilasters, and the intervening spaces hold recessed panels decorated with delightful Rococo pendants derived from the rocaille ornamental shells beloved of Rococo designers and applied not only on façades and interior walls, but even on printed works, such as the title page of 24 The Palace’s history Fig. 10. Design for the elevation of the Palace’s main building and portico, ca. 1840, pen-and-ink drawing; BNW. A question arises: when was the Palace’s Classicising conversion, including the addition of its Doric portico, done? Perhaps not until the 19th century? Warsaw’s municipal register for 1750–1771. An examination of the Palace’s extant structure shows beyond all doubt that around 1762 two alcoves were appended on the south side of its main building. Today they are the only parts which have preserved their authentic Rococo decoration, giving us an idea of the original ornamentation on the façade. Another of the Palace’s components which calls for a short description, are its wings, not included in Ricaud de Tirregaille’s drawing. This elegant pair of edifices flanking the court is closed off on the Krakowskie Przedmieście street-side with two-storey pavilions on a square plan and topped with mansard roofs and dormer windows looking down onto the street. The elevations on the pavilions are divided into sections with vertical rusticated panels, and their friezes are decorated with triglyphs, which makes them accord in almost perfect harmony with the portico of Doric columns on the central projection put on the main building in the final decades of the 18th century, when Princess Izabela Lubomirska neé Czartoryska owned the property. There are three sculptures in the tympanum of the central projection. An additional four, arranged in two pairs, top the two flanking projections (Fig. 10). The terrace of the portico is decorated with four sculpted vases. Alas, a full reconstruction of the original concept for the decoration would probably be impossible to achieve, as over 25 Secrets Secr Se cret cr e s of tthe et hee P h Past astt as The Palace’s Pala Pa lace la ce’s’s history ce his i tooryy Secrets of the Past POD OPIEKĄ MUZ Fig. 11. View of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, ca. 1928; ISPAN 20 The Palace’s history the years a series of changes was made, such as the replacement of the vases with two groups of putti at play, and two other putti eating grapes. The sculptures extant until the Second World War appear to have supplanted their predecessors in the late 19th century. We can identify three of those on the central tympanum from pre-war photographs: Ceres, Ganymede (modelled on the Vatican Antinous), and a Louvre-type Germanicus, sometimes referred to as Mercury (Fig. 11). The Doric portico, which was completely destroyed during the Second World War, has been faithfully reconstructed, but unfortunately without the sculptures (Figs. 12–13). Fig. 12. Ruins of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, façade of the main building, 1945; NID Fig. 13. View of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace in 2011 29 Secrets of the Past Fig. 14. Design for the elevation of the Palace’s north wing, ca. 1840, pen-and-ink drawing; BNW Fig. 15. Elevation of the Palace’s north wing, ca. 1915–18; ISPAN 30 The walls of the wings facing the court are accentuated by a set of triglyphic projections (Figs. 14–15) with attics crested by sculptured vases and panoplies (Figs. 16–17). The south wing has always been connected with the main building, while a passage leading into a servants’ courtyard was left between the north wing and the central building. In 1763 new pavilions were raised around the servants’ courtyard, and a beautiful Neo-Renaissance house was put up on its street-side just before the mid-19th century. The Palace’s history Fig. 16. Detail on the south wing of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, 2011 Fig. 17. Vase at the top of the attic on the south wing of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, 2011 31 Secrets of the Past Fig. 18. View of the Palace’s corps de garde, 1930; ISPAN The Palace’s history The crowning glory of the conversion project was definitely the corps de garde, with its flowing lines, its front embellished with double pilasters forming a frame around its entrance, with a panoply motif and a recessed, four-column portico on its court side (Figs. 18–23). This exquisite little building is further enhanced by the fine, fortunately The corps de garde Fig. 19. View of the Palace’s corps de garde, 2011 Fig. 20. View of the Palace’s corps de garde, 2011 33 Secrets of the Past The Palace’s history Secrets of the Past Fig. 21. View of the corps de garde from the Palace’s court, 1895; MNW 36 The Palace’s history Fig. 22. View of the corps de garde from the Palace’s court, before 1939; BNW Fig. 23. View of the corps de garde from the Palace’s court, 2011 37 Secrets of the Past Fig. 24. Statue of Mars (or Bellona) on the corps de garde, 1951; ISPAN The Palace’s history Fig. 25. Statue of Mars (or Bellona) on the corps de garde, 2011 Fig. 26. Statues of putti on the corps de garde, 2011 Fig. 27. Sculptural decoration of the corps de garde, 2011 surviving sculptures along its attic, only slightly impaired by the damage done by time and the War, but meticulously restored as soon as the latter ended (Fig. 24). A statue of Mars commands the central position; it is Mars, and not Minerva, as is sometimes claimed, though in a pose somewhat reminiscent of dancing, copied by the four putti on either side of him (Figs. 25–28). In the Rococo perspective the god of war is not very bellicose, moreover deprived of his arms by the passage of time still before the outbreak of the War. The statue has remained armless to this very day. This five-figure sculptural group fits snugly into the overall picture of the structure’s gossamer, capricious, and somewhat ragged rocaille poetics. As an ornament it is unquestionably the dominant feature in the sculpted decorations on the attic, over its corners and with respect to the solitary putti lodged on its court side and holding up gently indented shields with plumes of rocaille and palm leaves. These beautiful, somewhat dreamyeyed putti could well serve as a symbol of all the Rococo in the Czartoryski residence. A row of fastidiously sculpted trophies, armour and helmets crested with feather plumes and set up, as in the art of ancient Rome, on pillars or tree-stumps, completes the decoration. The ornamental assemblage alludes self-evidently to the building’s original function, as a guardhouse (French corps de garde). And, after all, the master of the Palace was the general of the royal infantry guards, as Ludwik Cieszkowski writes in his now rather forgotten anecdotal memoirs of the reign of Stanisław August Poniatowski, adding that Czartoryski’s was the most numerous regiment in Poland, and that its commanding officer maintained it in the very best condition right until his death, lavishing money from his private resources on it (Cieszkowski 1867, pp. 58–59). For nigh on two hundred years the architectural gem known as the corps de garde has not had much in common with Mars, the pugnacious god of war, but has been 39 Secrets of the Past associated rather with the domain of Apollo and his minions, the Muses. Recently it has been the trysting-place especially for Clio, the Muse of history, attended by her sisters Polyhymnia and Euterpe, the Muses of song and music respectively. In 2010, the year of Chopin’s Bicentenary, his music was played, and an exhibition of artworks inspired by it was put on display here. In 2011, on the President’s initiative, the public could view the original document of Poland’s Third of May Constitution, exhibited here on the 220th anniversary of the event. The cultural venue known as Galeria Kordegarda has taken up a permanent place in the programme of artistic events held in the Krakowskie Przedmieście. 220 0 The Palace’s history When the corps de garde was being built and embellished with sculptures in the mid-1760s, the main building of the Czartoryski Palace was appointed with new interior decoration designed and effected by a truly international team of artists and craftsmen. The roll-call of their names encompasses sculptors Samuel Contessa, Jan (Johann) Redler, and Sebastian Zeisel; painters like Jan Bojanowicz, the locksmith Augustyn Lob, the master bricklayer Johann Staude, the stonemason Michał Dollinger, and the upholsterer Kozerowicz. Contessa probably did the wood-carving, the remaining sculptors worked on the outdoor items as well, while Zeisel is generally regarded as the maker of the sculptures on the corps de garde. One of the most notable Rococo ﬁnesse Fig. 28. Sculptural group decorating the corps de garde, 2011 41 Secrets of the Past interiors created at the time was the small apartment lodged on the south side of the redeveloped main building and used by Princess Izabela, the Czartoryski daughter. On 11th May 1781 Ernst Ahasverus von Lehndorff, Chamberlain to the King of Prussia, paid a visit to the Czartoryski family in their Palace and left a record of his impression of Izabela and her rooms, calling her a modish lady (Fig. 32), as evidenced by the furnishings in the entire house. What caught his eye were the flower vases, the dimmed candlelight, the bottles of perfume, and the chaises longues – all elegant and sophisticated (Polska stanisławowska w oczach cudzoziemców 1963, Vol. 2, p. 28). Looking at Ricaud de Tirregaille’s drawing, observing the façade of the Palace’s main building, wings, and the corps de garde with its fine decoration, and paraphrasing some of Jan Białostocki’s reflections, we shall try to draw up a characteristic of the Palace’s predominant style, which came from the world of Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier (1695–1750) and his famous book of ornamental designs. Rococo is not the realm of the pulchrum, outright beauty, but of the subtly pretty, the delicate and fragile bellum; it carries a hint of the gracefulness which had been gaining in importance in the theory of art already since the 17th century. A human figure, a tree, or an ornament make up a self-contained entity extracted from its background and sometimes enclosed in a vignette. The rocaille is its superordinate form, the shape of its framework, almost entirely dominating the imagination of its artists. Another, more particularly Rococo criterion may be observed in the specific composition of its walls and the architectural system proper to them. The Rococo wall is flat, almost completely bereft of architectural orders, often without cornices and horizontal mouldings, and its windows and niches tend to have a segmental arch or a wavy line over them. It is modelled by the delicate stratifications of natural or artificial stone, or vertical bands of rustication. The rusticated panels on the walls of the corps de garde and the wings survive; but those destroyed during the War on the main building have not been restored. The Rococo tendency to break free from imposed architectural order was waived in the corps de garde with its four-column portico and pilasters, the work of a different architect from the designer of the main building, as we remember. Is Rococo a late version, or perhaps a specific variant of Baroque? Many researchers have tried to answer this question. It’s worthwhile referring to the opinion of Nikolaus Pevsner from his famous Outline of European Architecture: “Rococo is not a separate style, but part of Baroque, as Decorated is part of the Gothic style. The difference of Baroque and Rococo is only one of sublimation: the later phase is light, whereas the early phase was sombre; delicate, where the earlier was forceful; playful, where the earlier was passionate. But it is just as mouvemente, as vivacious, as voluptuous as Baroque. One connects the term Rococo chiefly with France and the age of Casanova on the one hand, Voltaire on the other” (Pevsner 1945, p. 145). We beg to differ. Like Władysław Tomkiewicz we consider Rococo a separate style in its own right. It is enough to compare the Krasiński Palace, which was the work of Tilman van Gameren, with the Czartoryski residence to see the difference (Tomkiewicz 2005). Indeed, we have to look for the sources of Fontana’s inspiration in France, in places like the Château de Chantilly and, to a certain extent, Germain Boffrand’s Hôtel de Soubise in Paris. In Poland a comparable style may be observed in Fontana’s masterpiece at Radzyń Podlaski, and secondly the unfortunately not very accurately reconstructed Branicki Palace in Warsaw on ulica Miodowa, with its entrance leading out onto the Podwale. Another edifice in the Rococo style is the Visitandine Church, not far from the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace: the interior of this exquisite and 42 The Palace’s history well-preserved church, with the delicate ornamentation on the architecture, pews, and picture frames, gives a fair idea of how attractive the Rococo can be. Sophistication, finesse, sublimation – these terms and expressions have appeared recurrently in our remarks. Some of the Palace’s 18th-century owners, as well as some of the designers of its interiors, must certainly have been familiar with Edmund Burke’s Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1757). The English term “the sublime” would soon be embarking on an even grander career in European art and literature (Sublime 2000). In Poland Kazimierz Brodziński, a professor of the University of Warsaw and a close friend of Stanisław Kostka Potocki, wrote about it (Brodziński 1966, pp. 449–465). Nikolaus Pevsner refers to Giacomo Casanova (1725–1798: Fig. 29). The famous ladies’ man, who was also a good writer, visited Warsaw in 1765–1766 and called on August Aleksander Czartoryski in his Palace, which had just acquired the appearance we have described above. In his memoirs Casanova recorded the visit as follows: On Casanova and the wine fountain Fig. 29. Anton Raphael Mengs (?), Portrait of Giacomo Casanova, oils on canvas, 1768; private collection. The frame is an excellent example of the Rococo style with an elegant rocaille ornament. 43 Secrets of the Past Fig. 30. Efraim Szreger, Design for the fountain put up in Warsaw for King Stanisław August’s name day in 1766, drawing; GR BUW the next day at eleven I met that extraordinary man, the marvellous Lord Voivode of Ruthenia. The illustrious gentleman was in his morning dress, standing in a group of Polish nobles in their national costume and high boots. . . . The Prince spoke to each in a friendly but stately manner. As soon as his son Adam mentioned my name his face lit up and he received me in a most dignified and aff able way. He was not overbearing, but neither did he admit confidentiality, which gave him the opportunity to closely observe the person whose acquaintance he wished to make. He went behind a screen and had his servants dress him, whereupon he appeared in his regimental uniform, in the French fashion, with a long blond wig and a long queue and large tresses on his cheekbones, attire from the reign of Augustus III. He bowed to all present and retired to his rooms, where his wife was. She was convalescing after an illness which would have been very grave had it not been for the adroitness of Dr. Reimann, a student of the great Boerhaave. (Polska stanisławowska w oczach cudzoziemców 1963, p. 235). Casanova accepted an invitation to dinner and found that there were three tables very sumptuously laid, each for thirty diners, and was told that such was the everyday practice. The splendour of the Voivode’s house eclipsed the glories of the royal court. We should add that Casanova was also introduced to King Stanisław August, who offered him hospitality and generous gifts. To honour the new King on his feast-day (St. Stanislaus’ day, 8th May) in 1766 , the Prince Voivode had a fountain that poured out wine installed near the Palace, in the forecourt in front of the Visitandine Church (Lorentz 1986, pp. 108–110). It was designed by the already-mentioned Efraim Szreger (Fig. 30), and a record of it is preserved in an etching kept in the Print Room of the University of Warsaw Library. A brief glance at this illustration is enough to show the class of artworks commissioned by Prince August Aleksander. The structure was 13 metres high, with the fountain set up on a large plinth and decorated with vases and an eagle with outspread wings, the emblem of Poland, set in a niche. The fountain appears to have been 44 The Palace’s history in working order still in 1776, when two painters, Wawrzyniec Jasieński and Łukasz Smuglewicz (father of Franciszek, more widely known and associated with the documentation for the paintings in the Domus Aurea in Rome) restored it to its original glory (Pokora 1993, p. 22, Fig. 11; Sito 2010, pp. 19–20). Thanks to the latest research we also know that the Prince Voivode ordered another contraption for the festivities to celebrate the royal name-day. It was installed in the court of the Radziwiłł (now Presidential) Palace and cost 16,521 Polish złoty – even more than “Bacchus’ machine” in the forecourt of the Visitandine Church. Apparently its decorations included herm pillars, 800 gilt lanterns (sic!), vases set up on plinths, and a royal crown (Sito 2010, p. 19). Thus, within two years of Stanisław August’s election to the throne of Poland-Lithuania, Prince August Aleksander Czartoryski had got over his disappointment on missing the opportunity of putting his son Adam Kazimierz on the throne, enough to honour the royal feast-day in a well-nigh spectacular manner. Prince August Aleksander Czartoryski, commended by compatriots and foreigners alike for his civic virtues and hospitality, ended his days in 1782, shortly before his equally outstanding son-in-law, Stanisław Lubormirski (1721–1783: Fig. 31), today remembered as a genuine patriot and author of an invaluable memoir on the first years of the reign of Stanisław August Poniatowski (to 1768; see Lubomirski 1971). Bereaved within the space of just over a year of her husband, by whom she had had four daughters, and her father, as well as deprived of their support, Izabela was generously remunerated from their estates, which included not only the Palace on the Krakowskie Przedmieście, but also Łańcut Castle and Wilanów Palace (Fig. 32). Her annual revenues exceeded those of her erstwhile lover and wouldbe husband, King Stanisław August. There was something disquieting about this refined, educated, ad at the same time whimsical woman. Perhaps the best descriptions of her character came from the writer Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, and from her daughter-in-law Anna Potocka née Tyszkiewicz (Wąsowiczowa by her second marriage), who wrote the following in her memoirs, She was called the Princess Marshal [księżna marszałkowa]. It would have been hard to encounter another person with a Izabela Lubomirska née Czartoryska and her times Fig. 31. Marcello Bacciarelli, Portrait of Prince Stanisław Lubomirski, oils on canvas, ca. 1770; Wilanów Palace Museum Fig. 32. Alexander Roslin, Portrait of the Princess Marshal Izabela Lubomirska née Czartoryska, before 1781, oils on canvas; Wilanów Palace Museum 45 Secrets of the Past Fig. 33. The Doric portico on the CzartoryskiPotocki Palace, 2011 46 character combining such excellent virtues with such unusual vices. She loved neither her children, and perhaps actually loathed them, nor her country; and out of boredom constantly changed her place of residence. Alien to everything save for the old traditions of the French Court, she had a much better knowledge of the age of Louis XIV than of the events that shook her native land (Memoirs of the Countess Potocka 1901, p. 34). After the Princess Marshal’s death in Vienna in 1816 Niemcewicz, then a resident of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, recorded the following in his memoirs: On 25th November news came from Vienna of the death of the Princess Marshal Lubomirska née Czartoryska, daughter of Prince Czartoryski, Lord Voiviode of Ruthenia, who died in her eighty-second year. This lady was known for her masculine character, great nobility, sharp The Palace’s history reason, rare wit, and pity for the unfortunate; and alongside all those virtues she also had an inexplicable savagery for her country (Niemcewicz 1871, Vol. 2, p. 311). For the Princess, Anna continued, Napoleon was a miserable man raised up by favourable circumstances to a status he could not maintain. She avoided talking about him, and whenever she had to mention the despicable name she would call the Emperor “Little Buonaparte.” Loyal to the Bourbons, she wore mourning for the Prince d’Enghien and showered her beneficence on all the émigrés she managed to collect (Memoirs of the Countess Potocka 1901, p. 34). She could not have been pleased to learn in 1807 that one of Napoleon’s marshals was residing in the Palace she had appointed so lavishly, and that a reception had been given in it in honour of Napoleon himself. Notwithstanding her “Bourbon loyalty”, the Princess Marshal, an art lover and admirer of refined taste, was a proficient observer of the changes ensuing in the culture of the arts. She abandoned Rococo in favour of the fashionable Neo-Classicism. A good example of this facility of hers is the portico in the Doric style she put up on Fig. 34. The Golden Room, before 1939 [ca. 1924]; ISPAN 47 Secrets of the Past POD OPIEKĄ MUZ Fig. 35. Interior of the Arabesque/Pompeian Room, 1938; MW Fig. 36. Interior of the Arabesque/Pompeian Room, ca. 1924; MNW 20 The Palace’s Pala Pala Pa lace ace c ’ss history his isto isto tory ryy Fig. 37. Interior of the Arabesque/Pompeian Room, 1938; MW the central projection of the Palace she had inherited from her father (Fig. 33). The creator of this development was probably Szymon Bogumił Zug (1733–1807), whose name appears on the invoices associated with the property as of 1784. Known also under his German name, Simon Gottlieb Zug, this architect from Saxony who also worked for the Princess Marshal at the suburban Natolin (then named Bażantarnia, “the Pheasantry”), pioneered the Doric order in Warsaw (for the portico of the Lutheran Church, 1777). Neo-Classicism was the predominant style in the Palace interiors, for instance in the White Room and the Arabesque Room, the pride of its interior decoration until the Second World War (Figs. 34–39). A good idea of them is to be had from extant photographs, such as the ones showing the Golden Room and the ornamentation of the door frame leading into it from the Arabesque Room. Over the door there is an eagle with outspread wings, similar to the one on the façade of the nearby Church of St. Anne (the mid-1780s), in a laurel wreath. The same motif, modelled on the famous antique relief in the narthex of the Basilica dei Santi Apostoli in Rome, may also be observed in the decoration of Łańcut Castle. Today, for an idea of the finesse and artistic class of the Palace’s stuccowork and arabesque decorations destroyed during the War, you have to see some of the interiors at Łańcut, created on commission from the Princess Marshal at around this time. The maker of the Łańcut arabesque decorations was Vincenzo Brenna of Rome, who came to Poland in 1783 with Stanisław Kostka Potocki, Princess Izabela’s son-in-law as of 1776. 49 Secrets SSe eccrret reetts of of tthe hee P h Past aasst st 38. Interior of the Arabesque/Pompeian Room, 1895; MNW The Palace’s history Fig. 39. A Centauride and Bacchant; watercolour (copy made ca. 1785 of a detail from a painting in the Villa of Cicero at Pompeii; after an engraving in Antichità di Ercolano, vol. 1, tab. XXVIII), GR BUW 51 Secrets of the Past Distinguished artists, splendid palatial interiors, and Pompeian motifs The Palace’s account books for 1782–1788 contain the names of numerous artists employed in it. Alongside Zug and Brenna they list the painters Żebrowski and Richter, the joiner Loch, stonemasons Schopfer and Pimer, and ébénistes Babst, Benke, Fig. 40. Count Soter Krasicki, Plan of the Hon. Princess Marshal Lubomirska’s garden, 1783–1794; GR BUW Fig. 41. Charles Bechon, Portrait of Jan Chrystian Kamsetzer, miniature, 1789; MNW and Jentsch. We also know that Brenna renovated the statues of Apollo and Venus in the garden, which was modernised on the basis of Blondel’s and de Neufforge’s pattern-books. A plan showing the layout of the garden and entitled Plan Ogrodu J.O. X. Lubomirski Marszałkowej W. Koron. is kept in the Print Room of Warsaw University Library; it gives an idea of the garden’s beauty and size, admired for its large area (it stretched up to ulica Wierzbowa) and for its fine trees which managed to survive, despite changes, virtually until the mid-19th century. 52 Thee Palace’s Th Pal Pa ala laccee’s’s history lace his isto isto t ry Fig. 42. Jan Chrystian Kamsetzer, Design for interior decoration, ca. 1785; GR BUW But let’s return now to the interiors, the Princess Marshal’s greatest achievement in the Palace. As of 1788 another interior designer from Saxony, Jan Chrystian Kamsetzer (Johann Christian Kammsetzer, 1753–1795), is believed to have worked on them (Figs. 41–42), making the decoration of the vestibule, including its fine fireplace and mantelpiece (Figs. 43–44). Was he the designer of the decoration of the Arabesque Room, or was it perhaps Brenna or Antonio Tombari? This was the room with the Pompeian 21 Fig. 43. Interior of the vestibule of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, with the portraits of King Stanisław August and Stanisław Kostka Potocki, ca. 1924; ISPAN Secrets of the Past Fig. 44. Marcello Bacciarelli, Portrait of Stanisław August Poniatowski and the bust of Pius VI, oils on canvas. A copy of this painting used to hang in the vestibule of the Palace (see Fig. 43). The Ciechanowiecki Foundation at the Royal Castle of Warsaw Fig. 45. Angelika Kauffmann, Henryk Lubomirski as Cupid, oils on canvas, 1786; Lviv, Lviv National Art Gallery (Ukraine) 54 motifs extremely fashionable at the time, such as the renowned Centaurs and Centaurides excavated in the Villa of Cicero at Pompeii and disseminated throughout the world thanks to books, and black-and-white and coloured prints (see Fig. 39). Some coloured illustrations of them were in the possession of King Stanisław August (and are now in the Print Room of Warsaw University Library); the famous multi-volume book on the excavations in the towns around Vesuvius was in the holdings of the Warsaw library of the Princess’ brother, Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski, who resided in the Blue Palace (pałac Błękitny). Stanisław Kostka Potocki himself, who visited Pompeii several times, might have influenced the selection of Pompeian motifs. In the mid-1780s he went on another expedition to Naples, this time with his mother-in-law, who later had an exquisite Pompeian room arranged in her residence at Łańcut Castle. A Pompeian decoration similar to the Varsovian one was made at Rybienko near Wyszków (Miziołek 2010). We started our account of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace with a quotation from Leon Potocki’s book, in which he mentions Pompeii and even the Villa of Cicero itself. We shall now supplement it with another worthwhile reference, this time to the memoirs of Leon Dembowski, a contemporary of Stanisław Kostka Potocki, who made the following remark on the fashion for Pompeian motifs and the Empire style elaborated after Napoleon’s coronation in 1804: The French language and French dancing had become ubiquitous, Dembowski observed. A vogue set in for lunches at five o’clock and dejeuners à la fourchette, previously unknown in Poland. Even the French cuisine was eclipsing Polish traditional fare, ousting the familiar bigos, barszcz, and kapuśniak. In furnishings Grecian and Roman paraphernalia became even more widespread than ever. Tables, chairs, desks, and chaise-longues just could not do without eagles, lion’s paws, and the like; and tripod legs became indispensable for tables. Herculaneum and Pompeii supplied the patterns and models for everything (Dembowski 1898, Vol. 1, p. 357). The Princess Marshal’s palace was embellished not only with grotesques and stuccowork, but also with numerous paintings, some of considerable artistic quality. In 1790 two foreigners, Fortia de Piles and Boisgelin de Kerdu, wrote about them, with particular attention to the works of old, and some contemporary masters. They observed that the apartments were admirable, richly furnished with the most refined taste. The little rooms were delightful with a substantial number of pictures. There were two paintings by Vernet from his good period, and another one, but far inferior. There were two comely landscapes by Lantara; two fine waterfalls by Fidanza; a portrait of the Princess Lubomirska’s son as a little Amor, a charming picture by Madame Lebrun which had been exhibited in the Salon in 1789. Then there was a small Correggio and Annibale Carracci’s small Pietà in Poussin’s taste. Two fine Watteaus. A small portrait of Don John of Austria by Holbein – a good work. Five portraits of Madame de Sévigné and her family. A portrait of Queen Joanna attributed to Titian; the attribution was questionable, but the picture was very good, with an excellently done robe of red velvet. A marble vase and other sundry items. A copy of Mithridates’ bronze vase. Several marble busts and statues. Some bronze busts. A few antiquities, as well as a handful of expensive items, delightful to behold. The small rooms were decorated with pictures by Boucher, whose style had lately declined very considerably. And there were also some beautiful Japanese porcelain vases (Polska stanisławowska w oczach cudzoziemców, Vol. 2, p. 692). We may add that many of these paintings, some with different attributions, have come down to our times; some were sent to Łańcut, others to Lwów, and especially to Wilanów, where they can still be admired (Fig. 45). The works of art which were inscribed into the Palace’s aura – to use Walter Benjamin’s famous concept (expressed in The Work of Art The Palace’s history in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction) included the painting of Henryk Lubomirski as Cupid by the renowned artist Élizabeth Vigée Lebrun (Fig. 46), and a copy of The Guardian Angel, slightly smaller than the original, by the early 17th-century Italian artist Domenico Zampieri known as Domenichino (Fig. 47). Incidentally, the Warsaw replica has a special value, as it shows the full original composition, while the prototype, currently housed in the Museo di Capodimonte in Naples, has lost the top of the painting, a presentation of the Holy Trinity (L’ idea del bello 2000, p. 330). And here is Anna Potocka’s recollection of the Palace’s interiors: Between my motherin-law’s floor and the ground floor, which accommodated a grand apartment I had vacated for Prince Murat, there was a small apartment on the mezzanine, which the Princess Lubomirska had appointed . . . . This miniature apartment, furnished and adorned in an extremely refined manner, apparently reproduced the style of what was known in that distant age as les petites maisons. My mother-in-law (Aleksandra Potocka née Lubomirska) only used it when it was very cold, as thanks to a concealed staircase these small rooms afforded a well heated, cosy passage from one apartment to the other. This charming little nook was treated as belonging to the grand apartment, thus the key to it was entrusted to Prince Murat’s servants when he came to stay at the Palace, and thereafter no-one else looked after it (Memoirs of the Countess Potocka 1901, p. 81). Thus our account of the Palace in the Princess Marshal’s times has moved on to the Napoleonic age and the turn of the centuries, when its proprietors were that distinguished couple, Stanisław Kostka and Aleksandra. In 1799 the property hitherto in the hands of the Czartoryski passed down to the Potocki, who owned it until the Second World War. Fig. 46. Elisabeth-Louise Vigée Lebrun, Portrait of Henryk Lubomirski as the genius of fame; oils on oak board, 1789; Berlin, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin Fig. 47. Domenico Zampieri (Domenichino), “The Guardian Angel”, workshop version, slightly smaller than the original, oils on canvas, early 17th c.; Wilanów Palace Museum 55 Secrets of the Past The happy couple, Stanisław Kostka Potocki and his wife Aleksandra Fig. 48. Pompeo Batoni, Aleksandra Potocka née Lubomirska (the wife of Stanisław Kostka) as Melpomene, oils on canvas, 1780; Wilanów Palace Museum 56 It often happens that notwithstanding their great merit, some individuals stand in the shadow of their spouses or siblings. Sometimes a distinguished lady may overshadow her no less outstanding husband. That was the case with Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski, the Princess Marshal’s brother, who is far less widely known than his wife Izabela Czartoryska née Fleming. Aleksandra Potocka née Lubomirska was one of the most eminent individuals associated with the Palace (Fig. 48), and we shall be mentioning her quite often. This noble character is somewhat obscured by her renowned husband, Stanisław Kostka Potocki, who nonetheless appreciated the merits of his consort. And he expressed his appreciation in the most elegant terms, as befitted a Classicist, in the introduction to his historic book, Winkelman polski, the first history of art written in Polish, and published in 1815. His words might be Englished in this way: Yours is this Work, for without You it would never have come into Existence. Dedicating it to You, I would fain have it an Eternal Memorial of my gratitude worthy The Palace’s history Fig. 49. Jacques-Louis David, Portrait of Stanisław Kostka Potocki on horseback, oils on canvas, 1781; Wilanów Palace Museum of You. But as my self-love does not delude me so much as to make me trust in the reality of my wish, out of the Goodness proper to Your Heart deign to receive the intention in lieu of the outcome. I believe I have given more than sufficient justification of the Causes which have brought me to dedicate this Work to You, Dear Wife; yet it behoves me not to pass over in silence those which Your Love of the Arts and familiarity with them make equally important with regard to this Work. For many years sharing with me a captivating propensity for the Arts, by Nature endowed of an exquisite Taste, You have acquired a Sensibility which, thanks to Your Experience and, if I may say, Perpetual Abiding with the Arts, and Sense of Beauty, is rare not only in Your own, but also in our sex. Therefore for this reason I see no other Person worthier than You of the honouring in the dedication of this Work on Art, for none other do I know whose Judgement on Art is more apposite than Yours (Potocki 1815/1992, Vol. 1, pp. 3–4). This singular hymn of love, composed at the origins of Polish art history, may have been instigated not only by the writer’s authentic emotions, but also by the fact that notwithstanding his education and brilliant wit, Count Potocki owed his wealth solely to his wife. It was no doubt thanks to her financial resources that he was able so often to sojourn in Italy, engaging in archaeological excavations, collecting works of art, commissioning paintings from artists as eminent as Jacques-Louis David (Fig. 49) and Pompeo Batoni (Fig. 50), undertaking to reconstruct on paper the famous villa of Pliny the Younger near Rome and laying the foundations for the Musaeum Polonicum (Miziołek 2010a). In 1805 he and Aleksandra opened up Wilanów Palace 57 Secrets of the Past II The Palace’s history Marcello Bacciarelli, Izabela Lubomirska, 1770s, oils on canvas, Wilanów Palace Museum Princess Izabela Lubomirska née Czartoryska (1736–1816), daughter of August Aleksander Czartoryski and Maria Zofia née Sieniawska, was one of the most distinguished Polish ladies of the Rococo and Early Enlightenment periods. She was called the Blue Marquise on account of the blue crinoline gowns she wore; she is also presented in blue in this portrait. In her youth she was an affectionate friend of her cousin Stanisław Poniatowski, but after his accession to the throne her friendship changed into dislike, and even hostility. In 1735 she was given in marriage to Stanisław Lubomirski, Lord Grand Marshal of Poland, by whom she had four daughters, Izabela (Elżbieta), Aleksandra, Konstancja, and Julia; her palace at No. 15 on the Krakowskie Przedmieście passed down to Aleksandra, her second daughter. This portrait, which is kept in Wilanów Palace, is one of Bacciarelli’s best works and, as many specialists have observed, is the quintessence of the Rococo, expressed both in the subject’s attire as well as in the slightly diffuse background and above all in its delicate pastel colour-scheme derived from the work of Antoine Watteau and his imitators, and the world of the images of Madame Pompadour. However, the nearest analogy to this presentation of the Blue Marquise comes from English rather than French art, particularly the work of Thomas Gainsborough. An especially close counterpart is a Gainsborough in the Hermitage collection in St. Petersburg, which some specialists have identified as a portrait of the Duchess of Beaufort. In both we see a similar predilection for blue; a tall, powdered hairstyle; a carefully studied pose, and a subtle charm with a hint of exaltation which in the Gainsborough has a touch more of dreaminess about it. Commentators have noted that Princess Izabela is dressed in accordance with the French fashion, although this type of apparel comes from England (Gutowski 2010, p. 110). Could Bacciarelli have known Gainsborough’s painting? It’s likely, especially if we consider the special fascination the Czartoryski family had for England. Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski, the Princess Marshal’s brother, was sent to England already in 1757. Both canvases were made at about the same time, though Bacciarelli put an earlier date on his work, 1757, as if wanting to honour the subject’s marriage to Stanisław Lubomirski, which had actually taken place a few years earlier. This would fit in very well with a few of the details in the painting – the pet dog as a symbol of fidelity, and the orange blossom which the Blue Marquise holds in the fingers of her left hand, a symbol of love and the heart. The Princess Marshal, as she used to be called, travelled a lot and finally settled in Vienna, where she spent the rest of her life. In 1785 she had been involved in the Dogrumowa Affair (a plot to assassinate King Stanisław August), and after losing her case in court left Poland for a long time. Was she really as indifferent to Polish affairs as she is often alleged to have been? She was certainly concerned for her estates and residences, such as the Palace on the Krakowskie Przedmieście, Wilanów Palace, and Łańcut Castle. She had Łańcut completely redecorated, installing a sculpture gallery and a Pompeian Room. She purchased many works of art abroad, sometimes assisted by her son-in-law Stanisław Kostka Potocki. Prior to destruction during the Second World War the interiors of the edifice now housing the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage offered an example of her sophisticated taste. Izabela Lubomirska 59 Secrets of the Past Fig. 50. Pompeo Batoni, Apollo and two Muses, Euterpe and Urania, replica, oils on canvas, after 1741; Wilanów Palace Museum Stanisław Kostka and Aleksandra depicted in words and pictures 60 to the public. No doubt he had her support, too, for his project to establish a museum of the fine arts in Warsaw, much of which he managed to accomplish on the premises of Warsaw University in 1808–1820. His high esteem for his wife’s knowledge of the arts is reflected in the final part of the above-cited dedication, in which he related an incident that occurred in Vienna, the city where their love started in 1775. We feel that in a book on the history of the Palace where today the key decisions on Poland’s art and many aspects of its culture are being made it will be right to quote this final part of the dedication, or rather a sort of appendix to it: It befits not a husband to flatter his wife, therefore let me cite just one example to show that I am no flatterer. One day during a stay in Vienna we visited the Imperial Exhibition Hall for engraved gemstones. The learned Heckel was showing us round, giving a full account, all the more enthusiastically when he noticed that we were no strangers to this branch of the arts. After he had shown us many other stones he handed my wife – if I remember rightly – an engraved carnelian, asking her to peruse it. Having examined it carefully, she passed it to me, saying in Polish that it did not look ancient to her, but seemed to be the work of Pichler, a well-known German who lived in Rome. She did not mention his name, so as not to betray even the slightest hint of her misgivings. I cast an eye on it and nodded to indicate my concurrence. Heckel, who had been watching us carefully, started to urge me to disclose my wife’s opinion on the stone; finally I satisfied his curiosity. He was astonished and said that the lady was the most conversant expert he had ever seen. For a long time, he continued, the stone had been regarded by the exhibition hall’s staff as antique, until they were cured of their error by Pichler himself, who was passing through Vienna and recognised his handiwork. Heckel was so impressed by the accuracy of my wife’s judgement that when he met me a few years later he still recalled the incident and his surprise (Potocki 1815/1992, Vol. 1, p. 5). We shall return to Aleksandra Potocka in the next chapter; now we shall turn to the portraits of her and her husband, whose work is still not sufficiently widely known, despite his enormous merit for his country, as well as the arts and sciences. Perhaps the finest portrait of Aleksandra was done by Batoni in Rome in 1780, showing her as Melpomene with a theatre mask on a chain round her neck (Fig. 48). It is part of a diptych, the other half of which shows her sister Izabela Elżbieta as Polyhymnia, and is now preserved in Wilanów Palace, although originally it must certainly have hung in our Palace. These two of the Princess Marshal’s daughters were also painted by Carlo Labruzzi during an excursion in the environs of Rome (Grand Tour 2006, pp. 100 and 112). While Izabela Elżbieta was definitely a beauty, Aleksandra was not exceptionally good-looking, but instead she was much happier in life. Her aquiline nose, slightly protruding cheekbones, and small mouth endowed her with a certain nobility; moreover, in her eyes we can discern a strong character and a certain kind of noble gravity. She was definitely one of those women who are denied the charms of stunning beauty but are able to create and sustain an excellent domestic atmosphere as mistress of the house and a companion supporting their husband in his sundry activities and enterprises. When Stanisław Kostka died, Aleksandra, as if in memory of his great love of Italy, went on another tour of that country which they both loved so much. Grief-stricken when the November Uprising of 1830 fell, she left for Kraków and died there soon afterwards, but had not failed to ask to be buried next to her beloved husband. We know Stanisław Kostka from his numerous, oft-described portraits, the best of which were The Palace’s history Secrets of the Past Fig. 51. Antoni Blank, Portrait of Stanisław Kostka Potocki, oils on canvas, ca. 1815; Wilanów Palace Museum 62 painted by Jacques-Louis David and Anton Graff. Both canvasses show him radiant with the optimism, joy of life, finesse, and elegance characteristic of the Age of Reason (Ryszkiewicz 1963). Incidentally, the portrait by David, presenting Stanislaw Kostka mounted on a fine steed, was commended at the 1781 exhibition in the renowned Parisian Salon. Graff ’s portrait was made in 1785 in Karlsbad, where Count Potocki met Johann Wolfgang Goethe (Majewska-Maszkowska, Jaroszewski 1968). One of the most interesting – and at the same time rarely cited – characteristics of the appearance and opinions of the learned Count was written by his eccentric daughter-in-law, Anna Potocka née Tyszkiewicz (and Wąsowiczowa by her second marriage), to whom we have already referred several times. In her memoirs written just before the mid-19th century, she gave the following description: In that era, so rich in men of profound minds and brave hearts, the count was one of the greatest. His brother Ignacy and the count himself profoundly contributed to the making of the 3rd May Constitution and both were victims of their devotion to the cause; in punishment for the noble impulse of their hearts, which had them strive for the freedom and independence of their native land, each was locked in the dungeons, one in Russia, the other in Austria, in Spielberg. It is very rarely that one sees two brothers so richly gifted by Nature; in addition to the pleasantest aspect possible, each had an elevated mind, an education to match, and an astoundingly good memory; they constantly frequented the best salons, yet they knew everything and had time for everything. Count Stanisław, moreover, possessed a knowledge of the fine arts I have never encountered in any other art lover. To him we owe some very interesting research in that field, and some important scholarly studies (the generally known translation of Winckelmann’s great volume among them). Being in love with his studies, he found relaxation after his labours in supervising the work of artists and men of letters, to whom he generously gave his protection. In whomever a budding talent or a youthful inspiration blossomed, they could always count on his helpful advice and material support. Under the influence of his repeated Italian journeys he developed that noble adoration of beauty which is Nature’s gift she so rarely grants, and which can be likened to an additional sense. Often did I look at him in wonderment, thinking of the enormous amount of knowledge one man could amass, never forgetting one iota of it. He was an excellent Latinist: often did I hear him reciting whole books of Virgil, which he knew by heart, translating them freely and easily as he spoke. And when among those fond memories of my youth there springs the image of a splendid salon, I always see my father-in-law in it, with equal ease discussing the latest fashionable romance, governmental reforms, political affairs, designs of public buildings, the composition of a painting or an old friend’s personal matters. Invariably polite and amiable, he was always ready to listen to everyone who desired his advice. – Memoirs of the Countess Potocka 1901, pp. 26-27. Visitors to the delightful grounds of the Museum at Wilanów Palace will encounter a beautiful and at the same time magnificent memorial to the pioneer of Polish archaeology and art history, installed on one of the drives. It is a marble replica of the famous sarcophagus discovered in the Scipio Mausoleum in Rome, now exhibited in the Vatican Museums. Founded by Aleksandra Potocka, this monument once embellished Gucin (known also as Gaj), the remains of which are located near Służew. Several decades ago, as Gucin was becoming more and more dilapidated, the sarcophagus was moved to Wilanów. The inscription engraved on it may be rendered as The Palace’s history TO STANISŁAW KOSTKA COUNT POTOCKI, CHAIRMAN OF THE SENATE OF THE KINGDOM OF POLAND, IN THE PLACE HE FOUNDED AND DECORATED, AND WHERE IN HIS LONG AND GRAVE SUFFERING HE LIKED TO SEEK COMFORT AND RELIEF, HIS WIFE ALEXANDRA POTOCKA NÉE LUBOMIRSKA ERECTED THIS MONUMENT, IN GRATITUDE FOR FORTY-FIVE YEARS OF SWEET AND HAPPY MARRIED LIFE. GUCIN, ON THE FOURTEENTH OF SEPTEMBER 1821 Stanislaw Kostka and his wife Aleksandra, who was probably the Princess Marshal’s favourite daughter, were the ones who inherited the Palace in hard times for Warsaw. Following the Third Partition of Poland in 1795 the city fell into the hands of the Prussians and suffered very substantial impoverishment; it was degraded from the status of capital city to that of a provincial town. Fryderyk Skarbek described its condition in his memoirs, writing that he had never been to Herculaneum and Pompeii, but he could imagine them on visiting Warsaw under Prussian rule and seeing the edifices in which the nation’s life had once been concentrated, the houses which had been the domain of the upper strata of Polish society. Now those houses stood in gloomy silence amid the noise of the streets. The entrance gates into their courts were either strewn with refuse or cluttered up with ungainly street stalls. When one passed through a half-rotten wicket-gate and entered into one of these courts one seemed to have crossed the threshold beyond which there stretched a dead city, a city of the past and its recollections, the Polish Herculaneum (Skarbek 1959, p. 101). We should add that right until the 1820s the access roads to Herculaneum led through tunnels gouged out in the lava, hence Herculaneum appeared to be an “underground city.” Excavating Pompeii, which had been covered with ash and pumice-stone, was much simpler, but evidently Skarbek was not aware of this, since as he wrote, he had never been to the Vesuvian cities. The situation in Warsaw changed dramatically on the arrival of the Napoleonic army in late 1806. Stanisław Kostka’s daughter-in-law recorded the tremendous eruption of joy, describing the festivities. Tables laden with fare were set up even in the streets and squares. Many a toast was raised to the forthcoming independence, to the valiant army, to the great Napoleon!... People embraced each other and fraternised, carousing, maybe a bit too much, for there were a few incidents of soldierly licence, which led to a temporary attenuation in the warm enthusiasm of the welcome (Memoirs of the Countess Potocka 1901, p. 63). Skarbek seconded her account, describing the extraordinary atmosphere of those times in his memorable book on the history of the Duchy of Warsaw: In those days the chief feature of the Nation’s life was its purely civic, noble spirit, free of all personal incentive, determined by the good of the country and offering it all the moral and material sacrifices that only a good citizen may give his country. For this reason the history of the few years of the Duchy’s existence presented an example of general civic commitment so rare in the history of mankind, and manifested with a fullness of heart which may perhaps be matched only by the relations between virtuous children and their parents (Skarbek, 1860, Vol. 1, p. VIII). The inevitable inference to be drawn from Skarbek’s observation is that the Polish people of the time were capable of singular sacrifice and collective effort for the common good – just as they had been many times before and would often be again in the future. But the Polish people of those times, especially the young, also knew how to express their emotions enjoying themselves at numerous social events and balls. The Polish Herculaneum, Warsaw’s Revival, and A Speciﬁcation of Rooms 63 Secrets of the Past Fig. 52. Antoni Brodowski, Portrait of Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, oils on canvas, 1820; Wilanów Palace Museum 64 Skarbek, who happened to be the godfather of Fryderyk Chopin, observed the phenomenon and noted in his memoirs that the young people, who had been in their childhood at the time of Poland’s final dismemberment and therefore had not been cognizant of the magnitude of the tragedy, were now entering into the world of public pleasure and wanted their parents to arrange entertainments and the delights of social life for them. The long repressed desire of good cheer revived, and the houses of Warsaw started to hold athomes for educated company. Some of the young girls and married ladies who appeared at these social gatherings were acknowledged for their beauty, and courted and paid tribute to by handsome young men (Skarbek 1959, p. 129). But let us move on to yet another inventory, this time drawn up for the Palace under the supervision of Dominik Cellary, administrator of the estates of Stanisław Potocki and his wife. “The inventory compiled in January 1800 for the Palace in Warsaw and given to Mr. Inklewicz the steward of the said Palace for safe-keeping” was written in simple, “technical” language, and contained information of the following kind: Brickwork Palace comprising a ground floor and an upper storey, with mezzanines; under a tiled roof. / Brickwork pavilion connected with the Palace. / Brickwork corps de garde with mezzanines and a tiled roof, flanked by a pair of gates. / Second pavilion, not connected with the Palace, with an upper storey, a tiled roof, and a subsidiary wing on the Krakowskie Przedmieście street-side; leading to an adjoining food storage building. / Brickwork wing with two upper floors and mezzanines, under a tiled roof, on the Krakowskie Przedmieście street- side, and joined on to a long wing on the Trębacka street-side. / Long brickwork wing with an upper floor and a tiled roof on the Trębacka side, joined on to the The Palace’s history wing on the Krakowskie Przedmieście side. / Brickwork wing with an upper floor and a tiled roof, accommodating Mr. Komar’s lodgings; at the back with an adjoining smaller wing holding the lodgings of Mrs. Wentzlowa. / Brickwork stable under a tiled roof, with an annex at the back./ Brickwork cold store with a tiled roof. / Wood storage shed. / Wooden storage and firewood sheds (Kwiatkowska and Malinowska 1976, p. 62). In the second part of the inventory we get “A Specification of Rooms, Premises, Stables, Coach-Houses, Heating-Stoves and Chimneys,” with information on the state of the diverse rooms. We also learn that a few rooms were let to tenants. The Specification lists the rooms on the ground floor, starting from the south, including the Yellow Room, the Little Room known as the Capuchin, the Celadon Room at the end, the wire Birdhouse above, the Small Library with two cabinets fitted with mirrors, the Erabesco Bedroom with a marble fireplace and a mahogany door, the Yellow Cabinet, the gilded Room [meaning most probably the Golden Room] with a marble fireplace and mahogany door; the Erabesco Reception Room (later referred to as the Arabesque Room), and finally the White Room with two stuccowork heating stoves. The principal room on the north side was the Dining Hall fitted with two Stuccowork Heating Stoves, and a copper-plated stone chimney; along with several not so ornamented utility rooms. The former mezzanine apartment on the Czysta streetside comprised a small corridor with walls upholstered with bands of embroidered fabric, the Little Erabesco Room with a wire fireplace fender, the Reception Room, with walls upholstered with white satin and Friezes; and finally three studies, one of which neighboured on the renowned Bird House set in the Rock and fitted with Mirrors; the second, known as the Dark Study, had a cabinet set in a frame; and the third had its walls decorated with satin. A stone staircase with a handrail set on an iron trellis led upstairs (Kwiatkowska and Malinowska 1976, p. 63). The “Specification of Rooms” also tells us that the ground floor in the main body of the Palace, and the mezzanines and upper storey facing the Czysta accommodated the residential quarters of the Honourable Sobolewski, most probably Walenty or Ignacy, both of whom were members of the government under the Duchy of Warsaw (1807–1815) and later under the Congress Kingdom of Poland (1815–1832). Alongside all the minor entrance halls and vestibules in Sobolewski’s apartment, the more noteworthy rooms included the painted Erabesco Bedroom which had Glass Panels on the walls and two doors with four Panels of Mirrors, the vaulted Celadon Study, the Recreation Room with a door fitted with mirrors, a Pale Green Room decorated with Festoons, the Yellow Room with Ornamental Bands, the Celadon Wallpapered Room, the Room with Green and White Bands, the Room with walls painted yellow, and the Small Wardrobe with a glass door. Later the Palace, or rather its wings, also provided accommodation for other residents, such as the poet and playwright Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz (Fig. 52) and, in Congress Kingdom times, Nikolai Novosiltsov, the hated tsarist official who earned a deprecatory mention in Mickiewicz’s Forefather’s Eve. Fortunately the latter did not stay long in the Palace. Another notable personage resident in the south wing “adjoining the main body of the Palace” already in 1800 was Zygmunt Vogel (1764–1826), erstwhile court painter to King Stanisław August and later art master at the Liceum school and professor of drawing in the Fine Arts Department at the University. At the Liceum he was Chopin’s tutor for drawing, a skill the composer continued to cultivate well-nigh to the end of his life. After some time Vogel moved to one of the wings of the Czapski-Krasiński Palace, which was located directly opposite the main gate of the University. The Specification of Rooms also tells us that Mr. Zygmund Vogiel (sic) had a study and two rooms with a 65 Secrets of the Past wardrobe set in a frame, and furnishings listed in a separate inventory (Sroczyńska 1969). The north wing provided residential quarters for the Palace’s administrative staff, including the already-mentioned Cellary. It also accommodated the kitchens. Stanisław Kostka’s study and library Fig. 53. The Wilanów Library in the Palace of the Republic of Poland: the Special Collections of the National Library. Reproduction by courtesy of the National Library of Poland 66 Except for the coat of arms on the tympanum, nothing changed on the Palace’s exterior when it passed into the hands of Stanisław Potocki and his wife. On the other hand, the interiors of the former Czartoryski residence were renovated and acquired new furniture, and some of its rooms, such as the library, were redecorated in the spirit of the times in the Empire style. These changes were done in 1800–1806, but they did not involve any major transformations, as the Palace had already had a Classicist conversion, brought in by its previous proprietress with a contribution from her daughter and son-in-law. Sobolewski had probably moved out by this time, and Count Stanisław Kostka turned the rooms he had vacated into premises for his scholarly pursuits. In the rooms on the ground floor, now housing the offices of the Minister of Culture and his deputy ministers, the learned Count drew up the Constitution of the Congress Kingdom of Poland. In 1815 Niemcewicz recorded in his diary that the long forgotten Voivode Stanisław Potocki was summoned, and in his house there were frequent meetings going on into the late hours of the night on amendments to the constitution (Niemcewicz 1871, Vol. 2, p. 259). Potocki must have written most of his book on the history of art in the premises now used by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. Another of his scholarly achievements presumably created here was his multi-volume work O wymowie i stylu (On Eloquence and Style). Fryderyk Chopin owned a copy, which is now in the Czartoryski Library in Kraków (Miziołek and Kowalski 2010, p. 94). The young composer must have known the Count, who often visited the Warsaw Liceum and the University by his capacity as Minister of Public Education. In 1817– 1827 Chopin was a student in turn of both institutions, moreover he lived in accommodation on their premises. He almost certainly gave concerts in the Potocki Palace, though probably after Stanisław Kostka’s sudden death in September 1821. What do we know about the interiors in which the Count wrote his books and papers, and drew up his projects for the University of Warsaw and Museum of Fine Arts? Documents from the period and pre-1939 photographs prove helpful. The apartment used by the master of the house consisted of an antechamber, a reception room for entertaining company, a bedroom and, apparently, three studies. All of these rooms were newly painted and fastidiously redecorated. The walls were wainscoted, and muslin curtains put up in the windows. The furniture – sofas, chairs, and settees – were re-upholstered to match the colour scheme of the walls and curtains. In the bedroom the old painted ceiling and fireplace made with imitation marble and stuccowork were left, but Princess Lubomirska’s white bed was removed and replaced with a bed brought in from Wilanów Palace, which was another of Stanisław and Aleksandra’s properties. One of the rooms, which Potocki called his Grand Stuccowork Study and held a number of statues, had its walls lined with glass cabinets and low cupboards holding files of drawings, which were later moved to Wilanów and eventually in the 1930s, along with the entire Wilanów Library, to the National Library, where they have happily come down to our times. The files of drawings contain Potocki’s invaluable reconstruction of the Villa of Pliny the Younger, and the The Palace’s history equally inestimable sketches presenting his original idea for a fine arts museum in Warsaw (Miziołek 2007). Today only a handful of researchers are familiar with the ambitious design which Potocki and his accomplished draughtsmen committed to paper around 1780, when he was still a young man. With its five thousand books and magnificent collection of drawings now in the Krasiński Palace, the Wilanów library is unique in its class for Poland, giving us a fair idea of what the Count’s library was like at Number 15 on the Krakowskie Przedmieście under the Duchy of Warsaw and the first years of the Congress Kingdom (Rudnicka 1967, Fig. 53). Alas, the revival of Warsaw Skarbek had written about was short-lived. The hopes pinned on Napoleon soon faded, and in 1815 a Kingdom of Poland, generally known as the Congress Kingdom, was established in place of the Napoleonic Duchy of Warsaw. Until his death in 1825 Alexander I, Tsar of Russia and “King of Poland”, acted as the guarantor of that unilateral Polish-Russian “union”. On the succession of his brother Nicholas I, who turned out to be a despot, the constitution Alexander had granted the Congress Kingdom was constantly being infringed, which eventually triggered the outbreak of the November Uprising of 1830. While Alexander I, who had been a fairly frequent visitor at the Potocki Palace, used to say that Warsaw should be made as beautiful as a jewel and indeed did a lot to turn it into un bijou (see Niemcewicz 1871, Vol. 2,p. 307), Tsar Nicholas did not trouble to hide his indifference and treated Warsaw like a provincial town. Natalia Kicka made a record in her memoirs of an incident in May 1830, when the Tsar told one of the ambassadors that officially he only received diplomatic missions in St. Petersburg. He added words of great consequence: that although he bore the title of King of Poland, the Kingdom of Poland was (for him) equal in status to the principalities of the nomadic tribes of Asia whose armorial bearings were spread out on the wings of the Double-Headed Eagle (Kicka 1972, p. 176). A few months later the Uprising broke out, followed by a couple of victories and eventually defeat. On 7th September 1831 Russian troops under Field-Marshal Ivan Paskevich took Warsaw and on the following day the act of capitulation was signed (although the last of the Polish forces did not surrender until 23rd September). The city was submitted to the most severe repressive measures. Paskevich was appointed Prince of Warsaw and Governor of the Kingdom of Poland. He moved into the Governor’s (now the Presidential) Palace, opposite the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace. Ravaged by the war, the tiny Kingdom of Poland was made to pay a tribute amounting to twenty million roubles (equivalent to approximately a hundred and twenty-four million Polish złoty in the contemporary currency). As we have already said, after the sudden death of Count Stanisław Kostka in 1821 his wife Aleksandra left for a fairly long stay in Italy, the country she and her husband had treated almost as a second homeland. In 1831, after the fall of the November Uprising, she left Warsaw for Kraków, where, grief-stricken like many other patriotic women who may be called the Mothers of Poland, she died shortly (see Łętowski 1952, p. 144). The Palace was inherited by the only son of Stanisław and Aleksandra, Aleksander Potocki (1778–1845), who does not seem to have cared very much for it. His two unhappy marriages, first to Anna née Tyszkiewicz, to whose memoirs we have often been referring, and secondly to Izabella Mostowska, who was thirty years younger than he, could well have exerted an influence on his attitude to his parents’ residence. Aleksander, to whom The times of Stanisław and Aleksandra’s son and grandchildren “The city [Warsaw] is of great extent, but with its decayed grandeur and the horrible memories it calls up at every turn, it makes a mournful impression. In the last century, next to Paris, it was the most brilliant city in Europe; now it is a Russian provincial town. It then had the character of prodigal splendour; now it is a forlorn, neglected place, which declines more and more every day, not the least thing being done by the authorities for its appearance and improvement. It cuts one to the heart to see the wretchedly paved streets, or the terrible old sandstone ﬁgures in the Saxon garden, on coming from a luxurious city like Vienna, or one which has blossomed out with such rapidity as Berlin” George Brandes, Poland. A Study of the Land, People and Literature, London 1903, p. 11 67 Secrets of the Past POD OPIEKĄ MUZ Fig. 54. Aleksander Kokular, Portrait of Aleksander Potocki, son of Stanisław Kostka, oils on canvas, ca. 1830; Wilanów Palace Museum 20 The Palace’s history Fig. 55. Johann Ender, Portrait of Natalia Sanguszkowa née Potocka, daughter of Aleksander Potocki, oils on canvas, 1829; Wilanów Palace Museum we owe a variety of undertakings in the sphere of patronage as well as the organisation of his father’s collection of books and drawings, was blemished by a certain character defect and a spiritual restlessness, perhaps due to the political situation (Bąbiak 2010, pp. 544–552; Fig. 54). He had first held the office of chamberlain to Napoleon, and thereafter, as of 1824, of senator and castellan of the Congress Kingdom. He was not involved in the November Uprising, serving neither in the combat nor in the deliberations of the insurrectionist parliament, and in 1831 was struck off the list of senators for this default. It was probably due to this “neutrality”, but also to his genuine love of horses, that he was appointed court equerry to Tsar Nicholas I. In his youth Aleksander Potocki, the beloved only son of distinguished art lovers, used to travel to Italy with his parents, and later continued the custom on his own, recording a series of noteworthy observations on the architecture, sculptures, and paintings he saw. He certainly deserves the attention of art historians and museologists. His daughter Natalia (1810–1830) by his first wife, Anna née Tyszkiewicz, was one of the most beautiful Polish ladies of her time and was married to Prince Roman Sanguszko. Andrzej Edward Koźmian, son of the more widely known writer Kajetan, wrote of her that she had the features of an ancient Greek sculpture; her complexion was as smooth and as white as marble, but her mouth and the expression on her face betrayed a somewhat disdainful pride which depleted the charm with which her youth and beauty should have endowed her. Anyone who saw her could imagine he was beholding a dethroned queen, who regarded everyone as rebellious subjects (Koźmian 1867, Vol. 1, p. 361). Today, this all too prematurely deceased belle has a monument at Natolin and a marble memorial 69 Secrets of the Past plaque in Queen Sophia’s Chapel at Wawel Cathedral. Along with Maria Walewska and Zofia Czartoryska née Zamoyska, Natalia Sanguszkowa née Potocka is one of the retinue of beautiful ladies who lived in or visited the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace worth recalling when we visit Number 15 on the Krakowskie Przedmieście. We shall now return to Aleksander Potocki’s second marriage, which Koźmian also mentions in his memoirs in a passage presenting something like a catalogue of the most beautiful Polish ladies of his times. According to Koźmian, of all the young Fig. 56. Design for the arrangement of Aleksander Potocki’s study, ca. 1820, pencil drawing; BNW 70 married women Izabella Mostowska was the youngest, and probably also the fairest, when at sixteen she married the nearly quinquagenarian Aleksander Potocki. She was a rosecoloured dawn rising from the Ocean. The freshness and brilliance of her beauty were unparalleled. This marriage, so inappropriate due to the age difference, was contracted to the great displeasure of Mrs. Potocka and Niemcewicz, the contentment of the bride’s mother, and the indifference of her father (Koźmian 1867, Vol. 1, p. 309). A son, Stanisław, was born of the union, and he was the one, not his much older half-brother August, born to Aleksander by his first wife, who in 1845 at the age of seventeen inherited the Palace, which already in his father’s times was transforming from an aristocratic residence into a property to let for a sizeable revenue. Aleksander had kept the first-floor apartment in the main building for himself (Fig. 56), and let the remaining premises. This practice continued almost to the end of the century, also when a new Potocki line took over the property in 1886. Balls and exhibitions were held in virtually the whole of the Palace, giving the people of Warsaw a chance to see the world and the progress made in it as presented in the The Palace’s history modern forms of visualisation. An announcement published in Kurier Warszawski in September 1839 enthused that the Varsovian public could now travel around the world without leaving their chairs, moreover faster than by train or in a balloon. Anyone who doubted the truth of this news should see Mrs. Henning’s panorama in the newly opened exhibition halls in the Potocki Palace on the Krakowskie Przedmieście. . . . Spectators could gaze for a long time at the view of the Dardanelles, the shimmering water and the boats that seemed to glide over it, with unfathomed expanses of the ocean in the distance, as if fleeing from the embrace of the wide-open arms of the mountains coming down to the shore – it had all been assiduously done. You could spend several hours most enjoyably in these exhibition rooms. On 3rd February 1835 the same newspaper informed its readers that 250 contented guests had been entertained most agreeably at a ball organised by a group of friends at No. 415 (the Potocki Palace). There were shops in the wing facing ulica Czysta (now Ossolińskich). In 1857 Gebethner and Wolff ’s bookshop was installed in the pavilion on the corner of the Czysta and Krakowskie Przedmieście, and stayed there until the Second World War (Figs. 57–59). Fig. 57. The Corpus Christi procession on the Krakowskie Przedmieście and Czysta street corner, 30th May 1861 71 Secrets of the Past The Palace’s history SSecrets Se ccrretts of of tthe he P Past astt as Fig. 58. Gebethner and Wolff’s bookshop on the Krakowskie Przedmieście, May 1933; NAC 74 POD PO OD OP O OPIEKĄ IEKĄ IE KĄ M MUZ UZ UZ A quarter of a century later the Palace apparently experienced its “utter downfall”: its court was let to Gracjan Unger, who in 1881 put up a large pavilion designed by Leandro Marconi and designated for art exhibitions. It was here that Varsovians could see Jan Matejko’s large paintings, such as “The Battle of Grunwald” and “The Prussian Homage”. In fact the “downfall” brought about an extraordinary cultural upsurge: for nearly 15 years crowds of art lovers, and occasionally of sensation seekers, flocked to “Unger’s shed”, as it was labelled maliciously. A sensation was caused by the exhibition of a picture entitled “Nana”, showing the heroine of Zola’s novel in her birthday suit (see Baliński 1987, p. 155). In 1857 the Palace lost one of its finest ornaments, the spacious and magnificent garden that stretched right to ulica Wierzbowa. A large part of the garden had been sold in 1827, but thirty years later it nearly disappeared altogether. Only a small part was left, approximately its present size. The individual who appears to have been most aggravated by the loss of the garden was Karl Robert Nesselrode, chief of the Russian police force in Warsaw, who had been one of the Palace’s residents for many years. All that even such an apparently powerful official could do was to complain The Palace’s history and write petitions which turned out to be of no use. He railed profusely in verbal outpourings recorded by Stanisław Szenic in the biography of Maria Kalergis, at his landlord, Count Potocki, who without notifying any of his tenants had sold the beautiful garden located at the back of the property and containing the most magnificent trees in the whole of Warsaw. According to Nesselrode it had been one of the city’s finest precincts, when suddenly workmen were sent in to cut down the trees and spoiled the lovely sight to which he had become accustomed, as the windows of his apartment gave a view onto that splendid garden. We have mentioned Nesselrode also because he was the father of the famous Maria Kalergis, one of Chopin’s students and a friend of many Poles. Maria Kalergis lived in the Palace on several occasions and gave concerts in it, especially playing Chopin. We shall return to her later, as her story illustrates the tortuous Polish-Russian relations which have left their mark on the Palace and may still be sensed within its confines. Fig. 59. German bookshop in Warsaw under wartime occupation, July 1941; NAC 75 Secrets of the Past The Palace and the house at Number 17 in the times of Stanisław Potocki (1845–1886) Fig. 60. P. Tyrowicz, Portrait of Stanisław Potocki in the Polish national costume, oils on canvas, 1848; Wilanów Palace Museum 76 Stanisław Kostka Potocki’s grandson, another Stanisław, did not distinguish himself with any notable achievements, perhaps apart from raising the house at Number 17 on the Krakowskie Przedmieście (Figs. 60–61). Although he resided on and off in the Palace, he treated it largely as a source of revenue from the letting out of its premises. Like his father, he had an unhappy marriage. In the mid-1850s he wedded Maria Sapieha and divorced her in 1866. Thereafter he paid frequent visits to Paris, where according to contemporary reports he lived a rather rakish life, while the Palace was left to deteriorate more and more. Like his great forebear, he was interested in art (Bąbiak 2010, p. 554). In 1855 during his travels abroad he purchased a picture by a 17th-century Dutch landscape painter named Ruisdael for his collection in the Palace. Today it is hard to tell whether the painter in question was Salomon or Jacob van Ruisdael. A good idea of the latter’s work is to be had from a canvas entitled “Landscape with a waterfall”, which is now in Wilanów Palace (Wilanów Collection 2005, pp. 60–61). Another intriguing event is associated with this Stanisław. In 1869 the Prince of Wales, Queen Victoria’s eldest son, later King Edward VII, made a secret visit to Warsaw. So far we know very few facts concerning the future monarch’s stay in the Palace. Let’s return to the story of No. 17 on the Krakowskie Przedmieście. There is an interesting document from that period relating to this house, describing a new technology used in its construction: The new part of the Potocki Palace is being built with the modern application of cast iron. Each of its arcades is to be supported on four slender columns made of cast iron with windows in between them. The house is to have three storeys and large windows with delicate decorations suited to the lightweight base. Mr. Lanci thereby wants to avoid the error now most frequently committed by the English and French, of putting heavy loads in the style of Greek or Roman architecture on the seemingly flimsy (but in reality strong) support off ered by thin iron columns, or by topping such supports with Gothic architecture, no longer a good match for today’s industrial age, which pays more attention to comfort and convenience, cost eff ectiveness, and utility, rather than to pomp and useless splendour (Kwiatkowska and Malinowska 1976, pp. 109–110). These were the words of August Potocki, who in 1846 was supporting his halfbrother in his most ambitious investment in connection with the Palace, or rather with the adjoining property. The plan involved the redevelopment of the old building situated between the north wing of the Palace and Mr. Kirkow’s house. The property at No. 17 on the Krakowskie Przedmieście is one of the best achievements of Francesco Maria Lanci (1799–1875). It took the form of an irregular quadrangle with two upper floors, two tracts, and nine axes. Lanci employed structural details which were novel at the time. On the ground floor he had pairs of slender cast iron columns topped with stone caps supporting the storey above. On the upper floors he had narrow lesenes between the windows of the first floor, and Tuscan pilasters and cornices on the second floor, along with ornamentation consisting of plant motifs, portraits set in tondi, meandering friezes, intersecting lines, and flat caissons. In the central part of the façade there is a balcony with a delicately shaped iron trellis. The harmonious and subtle divisions in the house’s architecture are reminiscent of Italian Renaissance buildings, and the tondi enclosing portraits call to mind the tondi on Lorenzo Ghiberti’s famous second door to the Baptistery of Florence Cathedral, or on the façade of another Renaissance edifice, the Ospedale Maggiore of Milan, designed by Antonio Averlino (Filarete). Thee Palace’s Th Paallaace P ce’s’s history his i to torryy tor Kurier Warszawski published very precise reports on the progress made in the construction and its completion. In the summer of 1847 it wrote an article on the building as compared to other edifices designed by Lanci: As may be inferred from the initial outline, in his new building he will be combining elegance with the simplicity of style the model of which we have observed in Count Stanisław Potocki’s edifice which is now being finished on the Krakowskie Przedmieście. . . . The exemplary care with which they are being done deserves the attention of the experts. In October of the same year the newspaper announced that the scaff olding had been taken down from Count Stanislaw Potocki’s newly built house. The graceful and well-proportioned structure had a gorgeous eff ect, embellishing one of Warsaw’s finest streets. Stanisław Gieysztor, whom we have already quoted, described Lanci’s building after its reconstruction after the War, writing that the ground floor of the house next door, another Potocki property, had accommodated Starkman’s, a tailor’s shop . . .; while Gebethner’s piano warehouse had occupied an entire storey and had its sign, a huge golden piano, mounted on the balcony, not doing much for the house’s aesthetics. This building has now been reconstructed for the Ministry of Culture and Art, with a façade more in keeping with the Late Baroque style than the one designed by Lanci in the first half of the 19th century (Gieysztor 2010, p. 664). However, we beg to differ from Gieysztor regarding his opinion on the style of the house reconstructed by a team led by Zdzisław Stępiński, who in fact kept many of the original forms and details of Lanci’s design, including the beautiful window frames with rosettes and a meander motif, with the addition of a few details derived from Classicism, such as a series of elegantly shaped palmettes. Fig. 61. No. 17 on the Krakowskie Przedmieście in 2011 Land gripped by the yoke – choked under / brute force and grievance, distrained like a poor angel with wings sundered, like a woman deprived of her shame, / and the people’s genius has gone silent, muted, / robbed of its voice in the night of enslavement. / O Warsaw, so you, too, have been pressured, you and your proud Polish scions, put to slumber by a swarm sent from Russia / of army yokels, oafs, and ruffians? (Alexander Blok, Vozmezdie, III) 77 Secrets of the Past The Palace in the hands of the Potocki of Galicia Fig. 62. View of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace ca. 1900; ISPAN 78 In 1886 Count Józef Potocki of Antoniny, the grandson of Natalia Sanguszkowa née Potocka and great-great-grandson of Stanisław Kostka Potocki, acquired the Palace. He bought it from its previous owner for the sum of 310 thousand roubles, but did not embark on a thorough renovation until a decade later. Unger’s pavilion was demolished and the court was cleared up (Fig. 62); a set of Neo-Baroque grilles was mounted on either side of the corps de garde (Figs. 63–66). The restoration was conducted by brothers Leandro and Władysław Marconi. By 1900 the Palace looked as good as new, as described by Aleksander Kraushar in the text quoted at the begin- ning of this chapter. One of the Warsaw newspapers reported on the restoration of the princely residence to its former splendour as follows: Thanks to the embellishments which are being done on it Count Józef Potocki’s Palace on the Krakowskie Przedmieście is acquiring more and more of an appearance to match its grand title. Following the clearing up and gravelling of its huge court a set of entrance gates have been installed, an The Palace’s history undeniable adornment for the Palace. Made entirely of cast and welded iron, the gates are exquisitely shaped and make up a highly aesthetic entity. The Pilawa device, the arms of the Potocki family, crested with a crown and the motto “Scutum opponebat scutis” have been mounted at the top. In the middle of the main gate there is a pair of gilt bronze monograms. On either side of the main gate there is a minor entrance gate for pedestrians. The total cost of the gates amounts to 4,000 roubles. These decorative gates, designed by the builder Leandro Marconi, were made locally in S. Zieleziński’s factory of ornamental works (Teki Przyborowskiego). 21 Fig. 63. View of the Krakowskie Przedmieście – Czysta junction, before 1886; ISPAN Fig. 64. View of the entrance gate to the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, 1938; MW Secrets of the Past Fig. 65. View of the entrance gate to the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, period between the World Wars; ISPAN The Palace’s history And what were the Palace’s interiors like? Their history was well-known, thanks to commemorative works such as Leon Potocki’s book. Alongside the Rococo furniture, they were appointed with deep-seating, leather-upholstered club chairs; and electric lamps alongside the Empire chandeliers. On record in fairly numerous photographs, Fig. 66. Detail on the Palace gate, with the Pilawa arms, 2011 81 Secrets of the Past POD OPIEKĄ MUZ Fig. 67. The Boudoir/Green Drawing Room, ca. 1924; ISPAN Fig. 68. The Small Drawing Room, these interiors may seem to us a little too overloaded, but as Maria Kwiatkowska has observed, they are an expression of the taste proper for their times, a period of ca. 1924; ISPAN 20 Thee Palace’s Th Paala P l ce ce’ss history histo istoory is ry Fig. 69. The Boudoir/Green Drawing Room, prosperity (Figs. 67–70). On the photographs we see many outstanding works of art, now in the National Museum in Warsaw, and among them portraits of the kings of ca. 1924; ISPAN Fig. 70. The Small Drawing Room, ca. 1924; ISPAN 21 21 Secrets of the Past Fig. 71. Interior of the Library, ca. 1924; ISPAN 84 POD OPIEKĄ MUZ Poland, Stephen Báthory, Henri de Valois, Vladislaus IV, Augustus III, and Stanisław August (Figs. 71–74). Unfortunately many of the paintings, much of furniture and china and other valuable items that once decorated the Palace were destroyed or lost irretrievably during the Second World War. The Palace’s history Fig. 72. Bartholomeus Milwitz, Portrait of Vladislaus IV in his coronation robes, after 1636, oils on canvas; MNW 85 Secrets of the Past Fig. 73. Interior of the Drawing Room/Golden Room/Dining Hall, 1938; MW Fig. 74. Marcello Bacciarelli, Portrait of Stanisław August Poniatowski in his coronation robes, oils on canvas, 1764; Muzeum Lubelskie, Lublin 86 An idea of the opulence of the Palace’s interiors following Józef Potocki’s redecoration project is given by Kraushar’s article in Tygodnik Ilustrowany. The Warsaw polymath wrote that a life-size portrait of Napoleon by Gérard adorned the dining hall, in which in 1807 Napoleon had danced with Countess Walewska. It had been presented as a gift to Talleyrand, the grandfather of Countess Helena Potocka, wife of Count Józef, and was purchased by the Palace’s current proprietor from the château at Velenciennes [sic]. In the library there was a portrait of Stephen Báthory painted on a metal plate in 1585, of Vladislaus IV by Dolabella, Stanisław August by Bacciarelli, Jerzy Potocki by Kraff t, and Alfred Potocki by Matejko. In the Empire Room there was a bust of Aleksander Potocki. The Reception Hall was decorated with a portrait of Bishop Sołtyk, the famous Sèvres dinner set decorated with pictures of the mistresses of Louis XV, a portrait of Hetman Sieniawski, a picture of the interior of Wilanów Palace by Gryglewski, an The Palace’s history 21 Secrets of the Past POD OPIEKĄ MUZ ornamental fan by Krzesz, and a marble group by Simonetti. In the White Room in the Louis XV style with wall tapestries with tableaux by Wouverman there was a collection of Saxe Royale china decorated with the apotheosis of Augustus III. On the overdoors of the boudoir there were pictures imitating Boucher, and in the study there were canvasses by Rozen, Rybkowski, Fałat, Juliusz Kossak, and a few by Orłowski (Kraushar 1904, p. 452; Figs. 75–77). Fig. 75. The ground-ﬂoor study in the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, ca. 1924; ISPAN Fig. 76. Marcello Bacciarelli, Portrait of Kajetan Sołtyk, oils on canvas, 1768, Wawel Royal Castle. A replica of this painting used to be part of the decoration of the Palace’s White Room Fig. 77. Interior of the White Room in the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, with a marble sculptural group of a Satyr and a Bacchante, before 1939; ISPAN 220 0 Thee Palace’s Th Pala Pa lace la ce’s’ss history ce his isto t ry to 21 21 SSecrets Se c et cr etss off tthe he P he Past asst Fig. 78. Interior of the Library in the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, ca. 1924; ISPAN 90 POD PO D OP O OPIEKĄ PIE IEKĄ EKĄ K M MUZ U UZ Once again the interiors of the Potocki Palace were among the finest, most sumptuously decorated with artworks by old and contemporary masters in the whole of Warsaw. Its carefully selected portraits of the kings of Poland and the most distinguished members of the family, and in particular of Jan Potocki (1761–1815) show that the The Palace’s history memory of the family’s history and famous personalities was vivid and cherished as a mark of ancestral pride. The portrait of the famous traveller and scholar, author of The Manuscript Found in Saragossa (1805) and husband of Julia Lubomirska, one of the daughters of Princess Marshal Lubomirska, was hung in the palace’s library, as Fig. 79. Portrait of Jan Potocki, photograph, ca. 1924; MNW 91 Secrets of the Past Fig. 80. Jan Chrzciciel Lampi (Giovanni Battista Lampi) the Elder (?), Portrait of Jan Potocki, copy, oils on canvas; Wilanów Palace Museum 92 The Palace’s history shown on one of the extant photographs (Fig. 78–79). It was an early 19th-century copy of the original by Giovanni Battista Lampi or Alexander G. Warneck, which is now in the Wilanów Palace collection (Fig. 80). This copy, which originally hung in the library of Józef Potocki’s residence at Antoniny, was made by Teodor Axentowicz. It survived the Second World War and is now in a private collection. The portrait of Jan Potocki depicts a deeply pensive man with a certain restlessness about the eyes. On his lap there is an unrolled scroll inscribed with hieroglyphics. The background presents an Egyptian landscape, with which the sitter was familiar. Two palm trees, some pyramids and a strange figure reminiscent of a sphinx are its dominant features. On his chest the learned Count has the famous Polish Order of the White Eagle and the Russian Order of St. Vladimir; these distinctions illustrate the tortuous paths of the history of Poland and one of her sons, who, despite his numerous achievements in scholarship and literature, in 1815 no longer saw a sense in life and committed suicide in a spectacular way (Rosset and Triaire 2006). Józef Potocki knew how significant a place his relative held in the annals of scholarship and quite rightly put up his portrait in the library. After the death of Józef Potocki in 1922 the Palace became the property of his son, another Józef. In those years of revival for the Polish State the Palace was the venue for many meetings which proved decisive for the future of Warsaw and, to a certain extent, also of Poland. Redecorated just before 1900, the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace and the house at No. 17 gratified the eyes of visitors and Varsovians alike with their fine Rococo and sophisticated Neo-Renaissance style – until the summer of 1944. On 7th August 1944, during the Warsaw Uprising, the Nazi Germans set the Palace on fire. Luckily they did not use dynamite, as they had done with the Royal Castle, but the effectiveness of the atrocity was increased by a large quantity of petrol poured on the Palace (Fig. 81–85). “Is it not for this reason that Warsaw is so dismal, that the Polish capital is ruled by an arrogant band of Russian military philistines? That a thieving dignitary is building Russian Orthodox churches on sites where only a Catholic church would delight the eyes of the citizens? That anything the governor says is but a dingy, impenetrable fog, while behind his back the infuriated Pole is cocking a snoot at him?” (Alexander Błok) Fig. 81. Ruins of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace in the aftermath of wartime devastation, 1945; MW 93 SSecrets Se ecr cret cr ets of ets of tthe he P Past asst Fig. 82. Ruins of the south wing of the Palace from ulica Czysta in the aftermath of wartime devastation, 1945; MW Fig. 83. Interior of the Drawing Room/Arabesque Room in the aftermath of wartime devastation; 1945 94 POD PO D OP OPIE OPIEKĄ IEKĄ M IEKĄ MUZ UZ The Palace’s history Fig. 84. Entrance way to the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace in the aftermath of wartime devastation, 1945; MW Fig. 85. Interior of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace in the aftermath of wartime devastation, 1945; MW 95 Secrets of the Past The Potocki Palace in a diplomat’s recollections 96 Did Hitler’s henchmen know that during the First World War Polish-German constructive negotiations had been conducted in the Palace? In 1915 German forces had pushed the Russians out of Warsaw and tried to reach a modus vivendi with the Poles, whom they even allowed to reinstate the University of Warsaw and the University of Technology, with Polish as the language of instruction. The atmosphere of these talks, in which German kings and princes took part, is described in the extensive and fascinating memoirs of Bogdan Hutten-Czapski, a Pole in the service of the Prussians. He was born a Pole and died in Poland, – as one of the historians writes about him – he received a cosmopolitan education, but from his early years he thought of himself as a citizen of Prussia, and very often his loyalty to Prussia and Germany was the decisive factor determining his conduct. He wrote and published his memoirs bilingually, in Polish and German (Dunin-Wąsowicz 1971, p. 113). The following information will throw light on Hutten-Czapski’s account and way of thinking: If I were to carry out the task entrusted to me in Warsaw, I had to be able to engage in social life on a grand scale, so as to arrange meetings between the Germans and the Poles. For this I needed elegant premises. My choice was Count Józef Potocki’s Palace, in which Murat had stayed a century earlier. Hundreds of people could congregate in its magnificent rooms. But there was another particular reason determining my choice. Count Józef Potocki was an old friend of mine. He had been born an Austrian subject and held the office of chamberlain to the Emperor of Austria. Long before the War broke out he had to become a Russian subject in order to inherit his mother’s estate in Volhynia. He was even appointed to an office at the Tsar’s court. At the beginning of the War Nicholas II took Potocki with him to his headquarters in Lwów. There Józef ’s elder brother Roman, a Knight of the Austrian Order of the Golden Fleece, had a spacious mansion, in which the Tsar decided to stay. Thanks to their hospitality, the Tsar exempted Łańcut Castle and Count Roman’s vast estates in Galicia from all manner of Russian billeting for the duration of the War. The Austrian authorities were not at all pleased with Count Józef, and a certain high-ranking Austrian personage in Warsaw asked the governor of Warsaw to turn the Potocki Palace into an officers’ mess. To save my friend’s residence and at the same time to acquire the elegant premises I needed, I got General Gereke to issue an order under which the entire ground floor of the Palace could not be let and was to be left at the governor’s disposal. I obtained modest lodgings in the Palace for myself (Hutten-Czapski 1936, pp. 274–275). Hutten-Czapski’s choice of residence was determined by the Palace’s location and his friendship with its proprietor, but to a certain extent also by its rich history, as evidenced in the reference to Napoleon’s famous Marshal, and no doubt recollections of the Czartoryski and Lubomirski as well. In an atmosphere conjured up by memories of the lords and princes of Poland-Lithuania and of Murat, Marshal and Prince in the Napoleonic age, and later King of Naples, negotiations were conducted with kings and princes on the establishment, or rather the restoration, of a Polish state, albeit on Prussian and Austrian terms. Hutten-Czapski continued his story: in the course of 1916 we managed to persuade a series of Princes of the German Reich, including three Kings, of Bavaria, Saxony, and Würrtemberg, to visit the Polish capital. We wanted them to see for themselves what had been done in Warsaw, and what the objective was, and to convince them of the need to set up a Polish state, so that they could influence the instructions issued to their representatives in the Council of the Union. The Governor-General welcomed each of the monarchs [Frederick Augustus III of Saxony, Ludwig III of Bavaria, and Wilhelm II of Württemberg], at the station in an elaborate ceremony, after which he escorted them with The Palace’s history a guard of honour, usually from the respective land, to the Potocki Palace, where I would meet them upon their arrival. . . . Usually Beseler held a grand reception in the Royal Castle, while I did the same in the Potocki Palace. The fact that all three kings and many other princes stayed in the Potocki Palace with me vastly contributed to strengthening my status in Warsaw, not only socially but also politically, both in the German as well as in the Polish milieu (Hutten-Czapski 1936, Vol. 2, pp. 373–374). While Hutten-Czapski was busy in Warsaw, Józef Piłsudski was fighting for the restoration of Poland’s independence, putting his bets on Austria, at the time a loyal ally of Prussia. Piłsudski set up his famous Legions in Kraków and marched off with them to battle. In July 1917, when the Polish Legions were denied the guarantee of a Polish state being established in line with their aspirations despite the great sacrifice of lives they had contributed, they refused to take the oath of loyalty to Germany and Austria. Piłsudski was imprisoned in the fortress of Magdeburg. But in November 1918 when Germany and Austria were defeated he was released and returned to Warsaw. Poland reappeared on the map of Europe. The artists of the Polish State restored after over a century of non-existence often used to address patriotic subjects. Already in the 1880s the people of Warsaw flocked to admire “The Battle of Grunwald”, which had been painted to fortify Polish hearts and was being displayed in the Potocki property. Now the time had come to reflect on Polish-Russian themes, and in 1932 the centenary of the November Upris- Fig. 86. Military review in the Palace court; scene from the ﬁlm The Princess of Łowicz, 1932; NAC 21 The Czartoryski-Potocki Palace on ﬁlm Secrets of the Past Fig. 87. Military parade in the Palace court; scene from the ﬁlm The Princess of Łowicz, 1932; NAC ing was marked in a most interesting way. A film entitled “Księżna Łowicka” (The Princess of Łowicz) was made (Figs. 86–88). Some of the scenes were shot in the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, which was thereby beautifully portrayed on film. The script, by Witold Brumer, was based on a novel by Wacław Gąsiorowski (see Zahorska 1932). The film was directed by Janusz Warnecki and Mieczysław Krawicz, and told the story of Joanna Grudzińska, a Polish lady who married the Russian Grand Duke Constantine, the Tsar’s Viceroy in Warsaw. It lightly drew upon historical facts, like the novel, but it did present the material realities of the period faithfully. As in the novel, its main plot was a fictional romance between the heroine and Walerian Łukasiński, founder of a well-known Polish freemasons’ lodge. The military scenes were shot in the court of the Potocki Palace, with cadets from the Military College at Ostrów Mazowiecka playing walk-on parts. The main characters were played by the beautiful Jadwiga Smosarska as the Princess of Łowicz, Stefan Jaracz as Grand Prince Constantine, and Józef Węgrzyn as Łukasiński. It was not a cinematic masterpiece, but when it was shown in France and the USA Smosarska received an offer from Hollywood to play in a couple of films. Despite the personal backing of Pola Negri, in the end Smosarska decided not to go to the USA and continued to pursue a brilliant film career in Poland (see Hendrykowska 2007). For local historians of Warsaw and enthusiasts of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace the film is an invaluable documentary. There are several long sequences showing military parades and reviews, held in the Palace court, which may be admired in its 98 The Palace’s history Fig. 88. Military parade in the Palace court; scene from the ﬁlm The Princess of Łowicz, 1932; NAC original form, prior to the wartime devastation. You can see the beautiful sculptural decorations on the tympanum of the main building, wings, and corps de garde. We know from written records that the real Princess of Łowicz and her mad husband Constantine visited the Palace on several occasions, while military parades and reviews were held almost every day nearby, on Plac Saski (now Plac Piłsudskiego). Krawicz and Warnecki’s film captures the atmosphere and times of the Congress Kingdom in a fascinating way, and the delicate Smosarska, with her slender figure and big, beautiful and dreamy eyes, is in perfect harmony with the elegance of the Palace and its refined decoration (Fig. 89). Fig. 89. Jadwiga Smosarska as Joanna Grudzińska (the Princess of Łowicz) and Józef Węgrzyn as Walerian Łukasiński in a scene from the ﬁlm The Princess of Łowicz, 1932; NAC 99 2 Secrets of the Past Tableaux vivants: facts and anecdotes from the lives of the princes, counts, and their guests Fig. 90. Unidentiﬁed painter, Maria Zoﬁa Czartoryska née Sieniawska, oils on canvas, 1st half of 18th c.; Wilanów Palace Museum 100 In the previous chapter, in our discussion of the history of the architecture and interior decoration of some of the rooms in the property which is now the headquarters of Poland’s Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, we presented the main characters in our dramatis personæ, the most distinguished personalities among the Palace’s proprietors and tenants. But it was only a partial review of the various archival records, memoirs, portraits, and press reports. Now is the time to relate the anecdotes, the stories of the memorable balls, musical events, and present the tableaux vivants so fashionable in that age, which will help us understand the spirit prevailing in the Palace and the works of art associated with it. In our own times, with their abundance of reconstructions of historic events, it is well to remember that reconstructive performances and displays of this kind were already being presented in the 18th and 19th centuries. One of the most interesting events of the type was held in the CzartoryskiPotocki Palace in 1828 and, like the ball attended by Napoleon and Maria Walewska, was recorded in Leon Potocki’s book. It recalled the times of Poland’s past grandeur Tableaux vivants and was performed with panache and attention to detail; therefore it certainly merits a mention in the context of the national heritage and recollections of great personalities in Poland’s history and outstanding contributors to her culture. But first we shall start with the story of a challenge to a duel which opened up the opportunity for the Czartoryski to vastly increase their assets and build up their status as the renowned, extremely influential and well-nigh legendary Familia. Its doings in the political sphere at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries have earned it a variety of diverse assessments, the best example of which is the opinion of Ludwik Jabłonowski, one of the best Polish 19th-century diarists (Jabłonowski 1963, pp. 74–75). Nonetheless, as patrons, collectors and connoisseurs of the arts, sponsors of education, and proprietors of the Palace on the Krakowskie Przedmieście in Warsaw, they have certainly entered their names in golden letters in the annals of Polish culture. In his memoirs Ludwik Cieszkowski, whom we have already met in this book, writes about an incident that happened around 1730 involving a beautiful young woman by the name of Maria Zofia (Fig. 90): Having returned home from abroad, August [Czartoryski], a Knight of Malta, met a wealthy widow, the last heiress of the House of Sieniawski, a family of considerable rank in Poland, who had been married to Denhoff, also the last in his line. He left her a very substantial estate although without issue, making her the richest widow in Poland. The lady had many suitors, of whom the two attending her most keenly were August, Prince Czartoryski, and Pac, a wealthy lord from Lithuania. When they both arrived in Warsaw for the lady’s name-day, Pac, wanting to humiliate the Prince, discovered on the sly from his manservant in what colours and fashion the Prince would be dressed on the day of the celebration. He waited until the Prince arrived at the lady’s residence, whereupon he turned up with his servants liveried in the same colours. The Prince could not but take this as an insult and was sore offended. Straight away leaving the company, he changed into his Maltese uniform and challenged Pac to a duel. Pac, who had had the audacity to aff ront the Prince, did not shew sufficient boldness to take up the challenge when summoned to a duel with honour at stake. It was an age when bravado was taken for valour and courage, and when Denhoffowa heard of Pac’s cowardice and the Prince’s daring in his readiness to fight for her, she held the latter in greater respect, disclosing her affection for him, and disdain of the former. Fearful of the challenge and its likely outcome, Pac sent the Prince a letter with his apology and declaring the withdrawal of his suit for the hand of Denhoffowa. He left Warsaw in disgrace. Thereby the widow’s troth was won, and prior to the day appointed for the wedding the Prince sent a petition to Rome, asking to be released from his vow of celibacy. Having been granted his request, he then wrote to the Grand Master of the Knights of Malta relinquishing all his duties and honours in the Order and wedded the wealthy heiress of a vast fortune. Her estates were in a disorderly condition with sundry debts and liabilities, but the Prince set to such keen husbandry and business that soon he cleared up the debts on his wife’s properties, putting them in good order and by excellent management throughout his long life increased his assets, accruing large sums of capital (Cieszkowski 1867, pp. 31–47). But what do we know about Prince August Czartoryski’s wife, Princess Maria Zofia? She had a long life, almost as long as his life; she died in 1771. Two children were born of the marriage: a son Adam Kazimierz, General of Podolia and Head of the Szkoła Rycerska military college; and a daughter Izabela, someone we already know A duel that never was, a six-horse carriage, and a magic lantern 101 Secrets of the Past Fig. 91. Unidentiﬁed painter, Portrait of Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski, pastels, 2nd half of 18th c.; Wilanów Palace Museum quite well, who married Stanisław Lubomirski in 1753. Princess Maria Zofia loved luxury and had an opulent six-horse carriage to take her to the nearby Carmelite Church. These short escapades to the other side of the street must have caused a bit of a sensation. But she was also good at managing the family properties when her husband was away abroad for medical treatment in 1736–1737; she also joined forces with other eminent ladies of the times, such as Barbara Sanguszkowa. Their friendship is recorded in a set of letters not only on the latest fashions but also on interesting books (Kuras 2010, pp. 108–109). We shall return once more to Maria Zofia’s husband. His influence on political affairs is best described in a satirical cartoon of 1750, now in the collections of the Jagiellonian Library, also involving a carriage (Kuras 2010, pp. 22–23). It shows King Augustus III and his minister Brühl in a handsome vehicle drawn by eight horses; with Prince August Aleksander Czartoryski as the coachman; Wacław Rzewuski, Voivode of Podolia, as the post-boy; and Stanisław Poniatowski, Voivode of Mazovia, as the equerry. One other character in this little sketch, Józef Potocki, Castellan of Kraków, asks the question, “Your Majesty, where are you going?” to which the King answers, “I don’t know, wherever these Gentlemen will take us.” As we have already said in the description of the Prince’s portrait, his plans to secure the throne for his son Adam Kazimierz following the death of Augustus III came to nothing, despite all the effort and money put into the undertaking (Konopczyński 1938, pp. 70–71). Would Adam Kazimierz have made a better monarch than Stanisław 102 Tableaux vivants August? Could he have prevented the partitioning of Poland-Lithuania? These questions must remain unanswered, even though we do know that Prince Adam Kazimierz was an excellent commander and head of the military college (Fig. 91). On the other hand, we can answer another question: how did foreigners see the founder of the Familia and proprietor of the Czartoryski Palace? This is the impression he made on the traveller Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, who left the following record of him in 1764: He is the worthiest of all the foreigners I have ever met. He is distinguished by an exceptional taste in the arts and profound and comprehensive knowledge (Polska stanisławowska w oczach cudzoziemców 1963, Vol. 1, p. 207). In 1778 the Swiss astronomer and mathematician Johann Bernoulli noted down with pride that the Prince Voivode of Ruthenia had invited him to dinner, writing that those who complained the most at the general moral decline which had crept into Poland alongside refinement called this octogenarian the last of the Poles, in the same way that in Rome Brutus was known as the last of the Romans. All would readily swear he had no debts whatsoever, even though he kept a fine court and an open house. In a word, there was universal agreement on his righteousness, his love of good order, his charitable works, and his other excellent virtues. Neither did one need to enjoy his company for long to be convinced he was the worthiest and bravest of men, inspiring absolutely everyone with his enthusiasm. Moreover, the Prince was distinguished for his extensive and profound knowledge of literature as well as of the natural sciences, as Bernouilli discovered for himself (Polska stanisławowska w oczach cudzoziemców 1963, Vol. 1, p. 382). The Prince’s extant portraits show an exceptionally noble character, with an attentive expression in his eyes and a face indicative of great intelligence. Another individual who commended him and his family was Ernst Ahasverus von Lehndorff, chamberlain at the court of Prussia, who also wrote the following about Adam Kazimierz’s daughter Izabela: Afterwards I went upstairs and paid a call on the daughter of the Prince Voivode of Ruthenia, Mrs Lubomirska, known as the Princess Marshal. She complained of nervous pain, though malicious tongues intimated it was a different kind of ailment. I had met her before in Paris; she seems to represent the highest echelons of social refinement. At any rate all of Warsaw’s social life is remarkable for its exquisite sophistication. During the sick Princess Lubomirska’s meal she received a visit from her relatives, members of the Potocki, Lubomirski, and Czartoryski families, that is the chief aristocrats. When I went downstairs again we sat down to dinner at the Prince Voivode’s table. . . . After dinner we again went to see the Prince Voivode, who can conduct a conversation very gracefully despite his age. I feel as if I had been viewing pictures in a magic lantern (Polska stanisławowska w oczach cudzoziemców 1963, Vol. 2, pp. 26–27). Even if there is a hint of exaggeration in the Prussian chamberlain’s words, there seems to be no doubt that in the latter half of the 18th century the Czartoryski Palace was a nursery of grand culture, replete with social refinement and lordly plenitude. Notwithstanding all the disasters that befell Poland-Lithuania, the same atmosphere persisted in the Palace in the first quarter of the 19th century, when its proprietors were Stanisław Kostka Potocki and his wife Aleksandra née Lubomirska. Let us now look into some more memoirs from the period and the remarks of the historian Władysław Konopczyński on the last years of August Aleksander’s life. His last political move was an attempt to thwart the First Partition and save Poland by putting the country under Austrian protection. This was to be achieved by offering the Polish throne to the Archduke Maximilian in 1774. Turning away from the hopes that had been pinned on Russia, the Prince sought the help of Austria, a country with which he 103 Secrets of the Past III Tableaux vivants Anton Graff, Portrait of Stanisław Kostka Potocki, 1785, oils on canvas, Wilanów Palace Museum This portrait was painted in Karlsbad (Karlovy Vary), in the 18th century a famous health resort which Stanisław Kostka Potocki passed through on his way for one of his numerous Italian travels. Here he met celebrities like Johann W. Goethe and Johann G. Herder (see Ranocchi 2008). Princess Izabela Lubomirska attended by Henryk Lubomirski, Stanisław Zabiełło, and Grzegorz Piramowicz was waiting for Potocki at Karlsbad. Jan Potocki and Prince Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski were also staying in the resort at the time. In a letter of 11th July to his wife Stanisław Kostka wrote that he was pleased with Graff ’s work: mon portrait fait par Graff, qui est vraiment beau. The face is full of joy, showing the high artistic quality of Graff ’s work. Done in liberal brushstrokes with a diversified texture and a rich range of colours, the portrait may be ranked as one of Graff ’s best works. Originally it hung in the Potocki Palace in Warsaw (there is a record of it there in 1798), and since 1821 it has been in Wilanów Palace. Stanisław Kostka Potocki was educated first in the Collegium Nobilium in Warsaw, and subsequently in the Accademia Reale in Turin (1772–1774). He made a deeply committed contribution to the Four-Year Sejm (1788–1792), especially to the drafting of the Third of May Constitution. He was the author of numerous books, including O wymowie i stylu (On Eloquence and Style, 1815), and a history of art entitled Winkelman polski (1815). Around 1780 he designed a project for a museum of the fine arts in Warsaw; and in 1778 drafted a reconstruction of the famous Villa of Pliny the Younger on the outskirts of Rome. In 1805 he established a museum open to the public in his residence at Wilanów. He dedicated the last years of his life to science and education, holding several offices of state under the Duchy of Warsaw, in the Government Commission, the Directorate for Education, the Council of State, and the Council of Ministers (the cabinet). Under the Congress Kingdom he was appointed Minister of Religious Denominations and Public Education, a post he held from 1815 to 1820. In 1813 he was in a dramatic situation; following the Battle of Leipzig he was arrested and detained in prison for a long time. He returned to Wilanów in July 1814, and in May of the following year was appointed head of the Department of Education. Stanisław Kostka Potocki was one of the pioneers of the University of Warsaw, which was organised in 1808–1818 and officially founded in 1816. In December 1820 he lost his office as Minister of Religious Denominations and Public Enlightenment. The pretext for his dismissal by Tsar Alexander was his book Podróż do Ciemnogrodu, a critique of the conservative views prevalent in pre-partitional Poland. He died in September 1821. In his last years as minister Potocki was not popular with the upper echelons of Warsaw society. As Barbara Grochulska writes, he fell into a trap set by Tsar Alexander I, whose views and policy were just as liberal as Potocki’s. However, he managed to escape the trap before it finally snapped shut on him, and saved his reputation, deliberately or unconsciously bringing about his dismissal at the last moment before being obliged to repudiate his true beliefs and admit to his opponents that he had been wrong. The decision cost him his career, but soon it turned out to have earned him a permanent place in the memory of his compatriots. The young people who abandoned him in 1819 two years later manifested their affection for “their Minister”, turning his funeral into a patriotic ceremony (Grochulska 1987, p. 148). Stanisław Kostka Potocki 105 Secrets of the Past had been associated in his youth. As Konopczyński writes, he left his political legacy, that is the Familia’s programme and party, to Stanisław Lubomirski and Ignacy Potocki; and his material estate to Prince Adam (60 million złoty) and Princess Elżbieta [Izabela] (over 25 million złoty). Like his brother, he grew weaker and weaker as he approached death, but fully preserved his wits and peace of mind to the very end. On the day of his death he lost his sight, nonetheless he had himself brought into the drawing room at the usual hour, and when he recognised the papal nuncio on hearing his voice, he apologised jocundly that he would not be able to play their usual game of tryset [a Polish card game] that night. On hearing from his doctor that this was the end, he made his confession and asked all of the members of the household into his room, and as the nuncio was reading the words of the prayer for him, “Now, Lord, into Thy hands I commend my spirit,” he gave him a gentle handshake and died. Crowds of Varsovians attended his funeral in the crypt of the Church of the Holy Cross, for indeed he was worthy of such a farewell (Konopczyński 1938, pp. 72–73). Napoleon, “magnetising enslavement,” and a Bacciarelli painting Fig. 92. Interior of the Library in the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, 1938; MW The numerous actions undertaken by the Czartoryski Family, and the profound commitment of Ignacy and Stanisław Kostka Potocki and many other patriots to the healing of the state did not save it from collapse. Surrogates of revival came with the establishment first of the Duchy of Warsaw (1807–1815), and subsequently of the Congress Kingdom of Poland. Although Napoleon had disappointed many Polish people by setting up just a rather small Duchy of Warsaw, nonetheless it was thanks to that tiny state that the Congress Kingdom could be created (Grochulska 1970). The Polish Enlightenment could mature and bear fruit; the University of Warsaw was founded, and within its confines the Department of Fine Arts; the capital city became one of the metropolises of Central Europe. Kazimierz Brodziński and Fryderyk Chopin opened up the gates for Romanticism, while Stanisław Kostka Potocki laid the foundations for Polish art history and classical archaeology (Pomian 2006). Another phenomenon belonging to the legacy of this period is something that might be labelled “magnetising enslavement”, and has a place in the story of our Palace. Tableaux vivants Fig. 93. Marcello Bacciarelli, Napoleon grants the Duchy of Warsaw its Constitution, 1811, oils on canvas; MNW The already cited Ludwik Jabłonowski, born in Warsaw in 1810, described his fascination with Napoleon in the following way: When the Great One was on his way for Moscow, I must have been a few months short of my second birthday, nonetheless I distinctly remember being held in the arms of a simple woman in an entrance-way to a house, looking at the Emperor at the head of his officers. . . . Perhaps he cast a random glance at me, and with it took my spirit into a magnetising enslavement which has endured and will last until my dying day (Jabłonowski 1963, p. 33). The overwhelming majority of that generation persisted in that magnetising enslavement. The name was used by two of Poland’s great Romantic poets – Adam Napoleon Mickiewicz (according to legend this was the name he took on his confirmation) and Napoleon Zygmunt Krasiński. The latter was an admirer of Napoleon to the end of his life. Jabłonowski himself was baptised Napoleon Ludwik Józef – the last name maybe in honour of Prince Józef Poniatowski. Furthermore, for nearly a decade Warsaw’s ulica Miodowa bore the name of the Emperor of France. As we have already said in the previous chapter, when Count Józef Potocki was redecorating the Palace in the late 19th century, he did not fail to put up a copy of François Gérard’s famous coronation portrait of Napoleon (1805) in the library (Fig. 92). At about the same time another canvas featuring Napoleon, in the company of Stanisław Kostka Potocki and some of the Palace’s tenants and people who later attended the famous ball in 1807, was being painted in Warsaw. But before we go on to a more detailed account of that ball referring to some extensive passages from Leon Potocki’s book, let’s take a closer look at this salient work of art. Painted in 1809–1811, the canvas presents “Napoleon granting the Duchy of Warsaw its Constitution in 1807” and was the work of Marcello Bacciarelli (Fig. 93). The scene is set in an interior of the palace at Dresden, where Frederick Augustus, King of Saxony and grandson of Augustus III, King of Poland, was appointed ruler of the Duchy of Warsaw. Actually Frederick Augustus, whom the Third of May Constitution of 1791 had desig- 107 Secrets of the Past IV Tableaux vivants François Gérard, Napoleon I in his coronation robes, 1805, oil on canvas, Paris, The Louvre On 2nd December 1804, in a ceremony held with pomp and circumstance in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, in the presence of numerous representatives of the diplomatic corps, the Pope and his dignitaries as well as representatives of the people of France, Napoleon crowned himself with the imperial crown and took the oath. Many commemorative paintings were made for the coronation, including a huge canvas by JacquesLouis David, and portraits by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres and François Gérard. Gérard’s picture was chosen as the Emperor’s official portrait, and it became extremely popular. The Napoleonic Foreign Ministry disseminated its reproductions in the form of paintings, embroidered items, and prints, distributing them to diplomatic posts, aristocrats, and celebrities. Unlike the seated figure in Ingres’ painting, here we have Napoleon standing next to a sumptuous throne. Napoleon’s idealised face is in perfect harmony with the golden laurel crown on his head and the crimson and ermine-lined imperial cloak – a symbol of imperial majesty. With a chain made of links in the shape of imperial eagles and the Grand Cross of the Légion d’Honneur on his chest, Napoleon rests against a long-handled sceptre topped with the Napoleonic eagle entwined in the letter N. On a dark blue cushion resting on a stool there is an orb crested with a cross, the symbol of royal authority and power, and a sceptre in the shape of a hand, the symbol of justice. This was the type of sceptre the kings of France had used since the 13th century. In Ingres’ painting Napoleon is holding both sceptres. The success of Gérard’s painting was determined by its superb arrangement of the attributes of power and its colour scheme of subtle blue, gold, white, and crimson. Napoleon’s throne is a modernised version of the throne of Louis XIV, and together with the hand-shaped sceptre of justice it depicts the Emperor as the guardian of tradition. The magnificent coronation robes were made by Charles Percier, the designer of the fashionable Empire pattern-books. Many quality copies were made of the portrait in Gérard’s studio, including replicas done by the painter himself. Some came to be owned by Polish aristocrats. There was a full-size replica in the dining hall of the Potocki Palace, where the ball in honour of Napoleon was held on 22nd January 1807. The inscription engraved on its frame, Donné par Sa Majesté l’Empereur Au PUce de Bénevent, tells us that it was originally owned by Talleyrand, and might have come into the Potocki collection from the auction of 1899. Unfortunately we do not know what happened to this first-rate copy; during the Second World War it was rolled up and presumably survived the fire in the Palace during the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 (Romanowska-Zadrożna and Zadrożny 2000). A rather inferior copy, with a forged Gérard signature, is in the collection of the Polish Army Museum in Warsaw. Another copy used to be in the collection of the Krasiński Estatein-Tail (Polaczek 2005, pp. 179–181). The legend of Napoleon is still alive in Poland today, reappearing in intense waves or soft ripples. At its roots stand the Romantic poets Adam Mickiewicz and Zygmunt Krasiński – both used the great conqueror’s name. It is enough to read a passage from Mickiewicz’s Pan Tadeusz and glance at the poet’s statue standing in the Krakowskie Przedmieście not far from the Potocki Palace, for thoughts of Napoleon to come to mind at once. Ludwik Jabłonowski, who was born in Warsaw in 1810, wrote in his memoirs of the legend’s high horizon and colourful rainbow . . . Perhaps [the Great Napoleon] cast a random glance at me, and with it took my spirit into a magnetising enslavement which has endured and will last until my dying day (Jabłonowski 1963, p. 33). Napoleon Bonaparte 109 Secrets of the Past nated to succeed Stanisław August, is not shown in the painting, instead Napoleon is surrounded with an entourage of distinguished Polish dignitaries – Stanisław Małachowski, Jan P. Łuszczewski, Ludwik Gutakowski, Piotr Bieliński, Ksawery Działyński, Walenty Sobolewski, Stanisław Kostka Potocki, and Józef Wybicki – standing next to Charles Maurice Talleyrand and Hugues Bernard Maret. In the background we see Annibale Carracci’s famous canvas, “The Genius of Victory”. The winged genius presented on it was to be a harbinger of an auspicious future for the small state. In fact no such event ever occurred, and the picture’s meaning is purely symbolic. The Duchy’s Constitution, which Napoleon signed in Dresden on 22nd July 1807, was presented to the Poles on the following day, not by Napoleon himself but by Maret, who had attended the ball in the Potocki Palace exactly six months earlier (Chyczewska 1973, pp. 114–115). Napoleon in the Potocki Palace: the most famous social event of 1807 110 Let’s now look into Leon Potocki’s book and occasionally, into other memoirs, such as those of Anna Potocka née Tyszkiewicz. This is how Leon Potocki introduces us to the Duchy of Warsaw: 1806 came, bringing Europe great political changes, and Warsaw assumed a new form, too. Napoleon the Emperor of France declared war on Prussia, and before six weeks were out his victorious troops were entering Berlin. The King of Prussia fled to Königsberg, and the Prussians left Warsaw. On the evening of 27th November 1806 the vanguard of the French army entered the city, and on the next day at about three o’clock in the afternoon the Emperor’s viceroy Joachim Murat, Grand Duke of Berg and Cleves, arrived on horseback with a fine and large retinue, and was escorted into the city by Prince Józef Poniatowski. . . . Murat was put up in the house of the Raczyński family on ulica Długa, but on the same day moved to the Palace. With the arrival of Napoleon expected imminently, arrangements were made in the Castle, a triumphal arch was put up near Sigismund’s Column, and illuminations were prepared. The people were looking forward with curiosity to the arrival of the Emperor and awaiting him impatiently; finally on the night of the 18th to 19th December he rode into Warsaw on horseback, attended only by two adjutants and the Mameluk Rustan. He stopped in front of the guardhouse and took a drink of water before the gate of the Castle was opened, whereupon he rode into the old residence of our kings. In 1806 Anna née Tyszkiewicz was a resident of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, in which Murat was to stay. This is how she described the circumstances which led to the famous Marshal’s residence at Number 415 (now Number 15), Krakowskie Przedmieście: On the next day Prince Murat, at that time the Grand Duke of Berg, rode into the city on a horse. The inhabitants saw a flurry of plumes, embroidered uniforms, gold and silver galloon etc. He had lodgings ready in the Raczyński mansion, but as he did not like a smoky chimney there he moved to our Palace as a result of that very amusing incident (Memoirs of the Countess Potocka 1901, p. 63). Let’s now return to the story in Leon Potocki’s book, which has several paragraphs on the atmosphere of expectation for the ball. He writes about the military reviews Napoleon conducted every day on the Krakowskie Przedmieście or in the Saxon Garden; about the Sunday Mass he attended in the Castle chapel; and about his audiences. Anna Potocka née Tyszkiewicz and Mrs. Kicka, the Lord Equerry’s wife, were among those lucky enough to attend an audience. Leon Potocki also refers to the memoirs of Fryderyk Skarbek and relates his account of the musical soirées attended by the Emperor, at which Italian singers performed. Music flourished in Warsaw at the time. Despite the city’s militarisation there were dances and other entertainments. Tableaux vivants Fig. 94. François Gérard, Joachim Murat, 1801, oils on canvas, Château de Versailles Secrets of the Past Fig. 95. Leon Potocki, Święcone czyli Pałac Potockich w Warszawie, Poznań 1861, BNW. Title page of the second edition of Leon Potocki’s book on the Potocki Palace (Poznań, 1861). The small volume by Bonawentura of Kochanów (Potocki’s pen-name) must have enjoyed considerable popularity to go into a second, more decorative edition. 112 Finally the day came for the ball in the Potocki Palace. It was not given by Stanisław Potocki and his wife, whose official residence at the time was presumably Wilanów, but by Murat. We should remember that in fact he was designated to be king of Poland in the event of the creation of a real Polish state. As Leon Potocki related, on 22nd January 1807 the apartments of the Potocki Palace were glittering with light; Murat the Prince of Berg was giving a magnificent ball for the Emperor Napoleon. From nine o’clock in the evening on there was a continuous clatter of carriages arriving in the Palace’s court. The spacious halls started to fill up with Warsaw’s foremost belles, an innumerable host of foreign princes, marshals of France, military men, administrative officers, and citizens. The ladies’ elaborate and refined gowns, those rich and diversified uniforms laden with gold and silver, that abundance of medals and distinctions – it was all an extraordinary and charming sight. Among the large company of guests you could observe the King of Bavaria; the Grand Duke of Baden; the Emperor’s brother-in-law, Prince Borghese-Guastalla; the Prince Hohenzollern; the Minister of Saxony; the Prince of Salm, Minister of the Confederation of the Rhine; the Duke de Dalberg, Ambassador of Baden; Baron de Bray, Ambassador of Bavaria; the Ambassadors of Spain and Nassau-Usingen; the Counts de St. Julien; the FieldMarshal and General St. Vincent of the Austrian army; and the Austrian Colonel Neuperg. You could spot the Marshals of France, Masséna and Davoust, in the midst of French generals; Talleyrand, Prince de Bénévent, Minister of Foreign Affairs; the Italian Minister Marescalchi; Maret, Minister Secretary of State; and then the former dignitaries of Poland, Stanisław Małachowski, Grand Referendary of the Kingdom of Poland and Marshal of the Four-Year Parliament [1788-1792]; Stanisław and Aleksander Potocki; Stanisław Sołtyk; Tomasz Ostrowski; and Ludwik Gutakowski; Józef Radzimiński, Voivode of Gniezno; Ossoliński, Starost of Drohiczyn; Walenty Sobolewski, Starost of Warsaw; while Wybicki; Górzeński the Castellan and Górzeński the General; Łubieński and Łuszczewski; and Prince Józef Poniatowski could be seen among the Polish generals and officers (Fig. 95). During the ball the Potocki Palace was like the omphalos, the symbolic navel of the world, the most important place on earth. Never before, perhaps, nor afterwards, would so many celebrities be gathered here. But its culmination was yet to come – finally the anxiously awaited chief guest appeared in the Palace’s cour d’ honneur. This is how Leon Potocki describes the scene: Then the clatter of carriages was heard rolling into the court, the patter of horses’ hooves, the screech of the arms of the guards as they stepped out, and the cry of the people, “vive l’Empereur!” Murat’s adjutant informed him that the Emperor was coming, and Murat ran out to meet him. After a while the doors to the ballroom were opened and General Gouvion, Governor of Warsaw, at the head of the party, cried, “l’Empereur!” All the ladies rose from their chairs, turning their eyes towards the entrance door. A deep silence ensued, all seemed to be breathless, curiosity and expectation seemed to have paralysed life. The chamberlains, Aleksander Prince Sapieha, Michał Prince Radziwiłł, and Aleksander Prince Potocki, and Broniec, came at the head of the retinue. Then came Duroc, Grand Marshal of the Imperial Palace; and then the Emperor. A few paces behind him came Prince Murat, Grand Duke of Berg, the master of the house; after him came Berthier, Minister of War; General Le Marois, the Emperor’s aide de camp; and the rest of the retinue. Leon Potocki met the challenge of building up the drama; he managed to create an atmosphere of loftiness, euphoria, and even the exaltation proper to those times, in which people really believed that Poland’s future would change for the better and that she would be able to enter and prosper in an entity that was not fully defined yet – something between an all-European empire, and an as yet incompletely contrived 19th-century Eu- Tableaux vivants ropean union (it is well to remember that Napoleon had brought in a single currency called the eura). The next passage in Potocki’s book is redolent with the tremendous adulation of Napoleon we have already mentioned. The Emperor was the pioneer of modern political propaganda and visual communication, as we know, and he had an expert hand for exerting an influence on his army and building up his image in the eyes of the aristocracy. Although probably his best-known portraits are the ones which show him in his coronation robes (one, as we have said, hangs in the Palace), for everyday wear, and even at gala balls, his garments were more than modest, in dramatic contrast to the apparel of his marshals and ministers. This point did not escape the notice of Leon Potocki and a number of other eye-witnesses of whose recollections he made use (see Fig. 93). Potocki continued his story: Napoleon took a few steps, stopped for a while and bowed to the ladies, whereupon he hastily approached the Prince of Bavaria and the Prince heir to the throne of Baden, and politely greeted both of them. He was dressed in the uniform of the Chasseurs à Cheval de la Garde Impériale, with a dark green coat and red collar with green lapels and red piping around the edges, white knee-breeches, white silk stockings, and gold buckles on his shoes. He wore gold epaulettes with a bullion fringe and the star of the Légion d’ honneur, the red ribbon of which hung down from his right shoulder to his left side. At his side he had an épée with a golden hilt overlaid with mother-of-pearl and a silver lanyard. In his hand he had the small three-cornered hat to which the crowns of Europe bowed. What a strange contrast that simple and modest apparel on the most powerful man in the world made with the sumptuous uniforms of the company around him – Murat’s theatrically fantastic uniform, the gold embroidery on the French marshals and generals, those multi-coloured hussars’ dolman coats, the diverse colours on the uniforms of the sundry French regiments, the white coats and scarlet breeches of the Austrian officers! Finally the time came to greet the Poles, Prince Józef, who was not at all well known in Warsaw at the time (he only became widely known and famous after the Battle of Raszyn in 1809), the mistress of the Palace, and the other ladies. Potocki went on to describe the Polish ladies: the older ones were dressed in velvet or silk gowns with a long train; the others had robes made of different fabrics and trains, each with a turban or plumes for a headdress. The younger ones were in light dresses of muslin, crepe, or tulle, with a very high bodice and attached to it a pink, blue, green, or beige tunic skirt, all of them with a low neckline, too low in fact; their hair styled à la Grecque and decorated with flowers or a diadem of precious stones. Napoleon came up to the ladies and talked for a while with Mrs. Potocka, the wife of Stanisław; and with her daughter-in law, the wife of Aleksander [Anna née Tyszkiewicz]; with the wife of Mr. Referendary Tyszkiewicz, Prince Józef ’s sister; and with Mrs. Sobolewska, wife of Mr. Starost Sobolewski. Prince Murat informed the Emperor (as Potocki’s account continues) that they were waiting for him with the concert. Napoleon was the first to enter the other hall, followed by the ladies, and then the rest of the company. The women seated themselves on the chairs that had been put out. The Emperor took a seat in the front row between Mrs. Walewska, the wife of Anastazy Walewski; and Mrs. Potocka, the wife of Stanisław. The Prince of Baden sat next to Mrs. Walewska, and the Prince of Bavaria was next to Mrs. Potocka. The concert opened with the overture to Mozart’s Magic Flute, after which Mrs. Puëva and her husband, together or in turn, sang airs from recent operas by Cimarosa and Paër. During the concert the Emperor conversed with the beautiful Walewska, who was able to The concert, the dancing, and the beautiful Maria Walewska 113 Secrets of the Past V Tableaux vivants François Gérard, Maria Walewska, ca. 1810, oils on canvas, Paris, Musée de l’Armée Madame, I had eyes only for you, I had admiration only for you, I have desire only for you. . . . May your swift response assuage my impatient fire. That is what Napoleon wrote to Maria Walewska in a letter of 18th January 1807, the day after he saw her at a ball in the Tepper house on ulica Miodowa in Warsaw. Soon another ball came, this time in the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace. This is how one of Napoleon’s greatest loves, if not the greatest love of his life started, leaving testimonials in the form of portraits of Maria, whose beauty all praised, even the spiteful but very intelligent Anetka Potocka née Tyszkiewicz. In the entry for 24th June 1810 in her memoirs Anetka recorded a conversation she had with her Parisian admirer, who asked her if she would care to have his company to see the portrait of Madame Walewska in Gérard’s studio, as everyone who had seen it said it was the finest work to have been made in his studio (Memoirs of the Countess Potocka 1901, p. 162). Is this painting from the Ornano family collection and now in the Musée de l’Armée a masterpiece, as is often said? Does it give a true picture of Maria’s captivating beauty? What’s most important for us is that this is how she might have looked on that memorable night in the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace during the carnival of 1807, which was also a festival of Poland’s partial revival. In what we think is the latest opinion on this canvas we read that of the very many pictures by Gérard, some of them not so good owing to the excessive number of commissions this artist had, the portrait of Walewska, now in the Musée de l’Armée, stands out for its psychological depth, its serene atmosphere, and the superb quality of the subtly draped fabrics of the gown and shawl. Walewska, who is presented en face and as a full figure, looks as if she were just taking a rest during a walk, leaning against the cornice of a marble wall, and separated from the wall with her elegantly folded cashmere shawl. Her petite figure is presented against the background of Neo-Classical architectural details leading out onto a park with a lake (Sylvie Le Ray-Burimi in Uroda portretu 2009, p. 216). Maria Walewska née Łączyńska (1786–1817) became Napoleon’s official mistress soon after those social events, though not without hesitation. The Emperor brought her to stay with him for three weeks at his headquarters in Schloss Finckenstein in East Prussia. In 1809 she lived with him at Schönbrunn in Vienna, and here she conceived. On 4th May 1810 after her return to Walewice she gave birth to a son, Aleksander Florian Józef. So thanks to Maria Napoleon learned that the cause of there being no progeny from his marriage with Josephine could not be attributed to him. Soon after this discovery he married the daughter of the Austrian Emperor Franz II, Marie Louise, who bore him an heir in March 1811. But Napoleon’s love for Maria endured; he provided her with discreet assistance, granting her a mansion in Paris, in which she lived in 1810. Their son was made a count and given financial security. When Napoleon was exiled to St. Helena Maria married Count Philippe-Antoine d’Ornano, by whom she had her third son (her first-born had been by old Walewski). Soon, however, she fell seriously ill with kidney stones and died on 11th December 1817. After some time her mortal remains returned to Poland and were laid to rest in her birthplace at Kiernozia (Sutherland 1979). Aleksander (Alexandre), Maria’s son by Napoleon, was the spitting image of his father, but he used the surname Colonna-Walewski. He took part in the November Uprising and on its fall emigrated to France. During the reign of Louis Philippe he worked in the French diplomatic service, and was Ambassador to Great Britain in the reign of Napoleon III (1851), then Foreign Minister of the French Empire (to 1860), and finally Minister of Culture. Maria Walewska 115 Secrets of the Past Fig. 96. Unidentiﬁed painter, Portrait of Anna (“Anetka”) Tyszkiewicz née Potocka, ca. 1800; MNW make a lasting impression on him with her delightful charms, the virtues of her spirit making him attached to her. She consoled him in many a difficult moment, visiting him in his exile on the Island of Elba, while Marie Louise forgot that misfortune does not dissolve the bonds entered on before God and was oblivious of her matrimonial duties. The selection of music performed that night is intriguing. Somewhat surprisingly, while Mozart was acknowledged, there were no pieces by Haydn, instead the choice fell on Domenico Cimarosa. The reasons for such a choice become clear when we 116 Tableaux vivants recall that he enjoyed a high level of popularity for the entire first half of the 19th century. An example of the ecstatic reception of Cimarosa, sometimes even preferred to Mozart, may be found in the diary of Eugène Delacroix (Delacroix 1951, pp. 94, 116–117, 192). The recollections of Anna née Tyszkiewicz provide further details to clarify the choice of repertoire: The Emperor had a full orchestra, led by the renowned Paër, in his retinue. There was always Italian music in the programme. Napoleon must have loved it, as he listened attentively and showed his connoisseurship in his applause; the harmony of the music seemed to bear an enormous effect on his spiritual powers. We observed evidence of this one day during a reception (Memoirs of the Countess Potocka 1901, p. 84). A beautiful woman, Maria Walewska, appears in the context of the fine music-making, and receives something of a commendation for standing by the Emperor even in hard times. Leon Potocki’s book is overtly retrospective in character; in his account of the evening he makes interesting forays into the future, a future which at the time the book went to press was already a thing of the past. We shall juxtapose Leon’s account with the observations of Anna, our second eye-witness: Time, which bestows the right colours on every event . . . finally brought Mrs. Walewska into the limelight of the interesting personalities of the period. . . . Delightfully beautiful, she embodied the type of beauty depicted in the paintings of Greuze. Her eyes, mouth, and teeth were charming. Her smile was so fresh, the look in her eyes so gentle, and her face such a completely captivating entity that the defects which did not allow her features to be called classic went unnoticed. Only Greuze managed to depict this kind of beauty (Memoirs of the Countess Potocka 1901, p. 80). In her superbly composed memoirs Anna Potocka née Tyszkiewicz, Stanisław Kostka’s daughter-in-law, affectionately called Anetka (see Fig. 96) does not merely write about the atmosphere of those days, the circumstances of Napoleon’s infatuation, and Walewska’s beauty; she also invokes facts to justify the requiting of the Emperor’s love. But Anetka would not have been true to herself if she had not thrown in the gossip circulating in Warsaw. Maria Walewska had been given in marriage at the age of sixteen to an old man of eighty who had no social life and never appeared in company; therefore her status in the world was like that of a young widow. Her youth in combination with the promising situation gave rise to many a tale, and if Napoleon was the last of her lovers, the word that went round was that he wasn’t the first (Memoirs of the Countess Potocka 1901, p. 80-81). We know that the beautiful Maria was married in late 1804 to Chamberlain Anastazy Walewski of Walewice, to whom she bore a son, Antoni Bazyli Rudolf, in June of the following year, on their return from a honeymoon in Italy. Many contemporaries wondered whether the ancient Chamberlain could have fathered the child. Nonetheless he recognised the boy as his, and in later times the general opinion was that the lad resembled him (Sutherland 1979). Let’s return to the story in Leon Potocki’s memoir, in which the reference to the beautiful Walewska is a sort of introduction to an account of the main dialogues of the night, not only about dancing, but also the political situation of Poland. When the concert was over, he writes, they returned to the ballroom, where there was splendid military music. The ball did not start with the traditional Polish dance [the polonaise], which the Poles had managed to forget already, while the French had not yet learned it. Our quick-witted Polish women had already learned the French dances in just a few weeks since the arrival of the Gallic newcomers in Warsaw. The musicians started up the contredanse. Napoleon partnered Mrs. Walewska, opposite him was Berthier with the fair Bronikowska who had just arrived in Warsaw from Paris; the Prince of Bavaria danced 117 Secrets of the Past Fig. 97. Kazimierz Wojniakowski after an original idea by Wojciech Bogusławski; aquatint by Jan Ligber; “Napoleon as the Rising Sun”: standard displayed in the Teatr Narodowy on 18th January 1807 on the occasion of Napoleon’s attendance at a performance of Ludwik Osiński’s play Andromeda. The aquatint is kept in the Muzeum Teatralne collection in Warsaw. There is a distinct connection between the Emperor’s apotheosis on these artefacts and the warm, well-nigh affectionate attitude to him in Leon Potocki’s book. After nearly half a century Napoleon was still an important person for Poles and affectionately remembered by them. The Theatre Museum, Warsaw 118 with Miss Ewa Kicka, and Murat with Mrs. Cichocka. “Madam, do you know why I always put Berthie opposite me in a dance? I do so impishly, he dances like a bear, thereby I appear to be slightly better.” When the contredanse had finished and other dances ensued Napoleon went up to a group of men in which there were several Poles, and asked, “Tell me, gentlemen, what were the origins of your polonaise?” “The polonaise goes back to the times of Henri de Valois, King of Poland,” Stanisław Potocki replied. “When he was returning to France he stopped in Venice, and a new dance called the polonaise was devised for him, so that he could make his acquaintance with the whole company as they went past in pairs. Thereafter the dance was brought to Poland.” “An Italian dance,” said Napoleon, “introduced in Poland by a French king should return to France. Duroc! Henceforth every ball in Paris shall begin with the polonaise!” We have not managed to find out where this information on the Venetian and French origin of the polonaise came from. It is widely accepted that originally the polonaise was a folk dance done in the manner of a walk to the music and dated back to the late 16th or early 17th century; only later was it adopted in the courts of the nobility. At the court of the kings of Poland the polonaise was part of the court ceremonial; it was danced as the beginning of a ball and constituted a sort of parade of the gentlefolk and nobility for the king to watch. At any rate the memory of Henri de Valois was kept alive in the Palace; his portrait, which has survived to our times and is now in the National Museum in Warsaw, was on display (see Fig. 71). After this brief aside on the polonaise we shall return to Potocki’s relation: At the very back of the room there was a chair prepared for the Emperor in the manner of a throne, but he did not sit in it. That day Napoleon was in an excellent mood; with his arms behind his back, he paced along a long line of men. With some he conversed politely, to others he smiled, he pulled his generals by the ears or gave them a pat on the back, to each he recalled something pleasant, a victory, a brave deed, a laudable achievement. When he reached Prince Józef Poniatowski he asked how much time he needed to have the whole of his division ready for battle. “Six weeks,” the Prince replied. “Good,” said the Emperor, “the spring campaign will not have started by that time yet. My army has taken a large number of cannons from the Prussians, I’ ll give them to the Poles.” Having noticed Józef Szumlański, Prince Poniatowski’s old adjutant and a veteran volunteer from the Egyptian campaign, he waved to him, and when the latter had come up he said, “How are you, my friend, wasn’t it a fine day when we fought a battle near the pyramids?” “Yes, Sir, and even finer for the pyramids. Up to that time they had been the tokens of the pride of despotic monarchs, henceforth they will be able to tell future ages that they witnessed the victories of the great Napoleon!” Napoleon smiled and moved on, and when he came to Stanisław Małachowski, Marshal of the Four-Year Sejm, and a group of ministers of the interim government, he said to them, “Gentlemen, your discords were the cause of the fall of a nation so memorable in history, let the disasters of the past serve as an example and foster unity among you. Let the principal lords take up the lead, and let the gentry, clergy, and townsfolk join them enthusiastically. As soon as I see about 40,000 armed men ready for battle I’ ll declare an independent Poland in Warsaw, and when I do no-one will manage to assail it. Gentlemen,” he added, “show yourselves worthy of your forefathers, who dictated terms to the court of Brandenburg, put tsars on the throne of Muscovy, liberated Vienna and delivered the whole of Christendom from having to pay tribute to the Turk, and then you shall be Polish… It is in the interest of Europe and France for there to be a Poland; Poland’s existence depends on you alone, for I’ ll repeat to you what I said in Berlin, I shall see whether the Poles deserve to be a nation.” Tableaux vivants These words, that there should be a Poland, and that he would see if the Poles deserve to be a nation – the most important words in the whole of Leon Potocki’s book – were really uttered by the Emperor, but part of what we have cited was said in Poznań, to Józef Wybicki, who also attended the ball in Warsaw (Kipa 1959). It is quite likely that Napoleon actually said the words on Poland’s glorious past, he was well-versed in history (Skarbek 1860, Vol. 1, pp. 82–83). However, Napoleon’s conversations with the Poles in the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace as recorded in Leon Potocki’s book were drawn up certainly in outcome of Potocki’s research in the archives, although of course in part from the world of poetic licence. But let’s get back to his story. Napoleon asked Ludwik Gutakowski what the government was working on. “First of all it is catering for the needs of the army,” Gutakowski replied. “Good,” the Emperor exclaimed, “Thank you, that’s what I’m most interested in.” Then he turned to Ossoliński, who presided over the supreme court, and asked what legislation was used in the courts. Ossoliński told him that the courts used Polish law, and Frederick II’s [Prussian] laws were resorted to only in the event of want of appropriate Polish regulations. Then Napoleon asked what language was used in the courts, and when told it was Polish, he exclaimed, “So you are Polish!” Whereupon he quickly turned away from the menfolk and hurried back to the dancers (Fig. 97). Soon after the revelling and the dancing came the heavy fighting, in which Prince Józef rose to the rank of national hero (Fig. 98). The fate of the Duchy of Warsaw was uncertain, but its more and more powerful forces did their duty well (Skarbek 1860, Vol. 2, pp. 3–64; Grochulska 1966, pp. 137–142). On 15th April 1809 the 32 thousand-strong Austrian corps commanded by the Archduke Ferdinand d’Este, of the Tuscan line of the Habsburgs, crossed the border of the Duchy of Warsaw. On 19th April the memorable Battle of Raszyn was fought, in which the enemy forces sustained heavy losses. However, after many hours of fighting the Polish units, with only half the numbers of the Austrians, had to retreat. The Archduke Ferdinand entered Warsaw and stayed nearly to the end of May; however, Prince Poniatowski’s military exploits were bringing bigger and bigger successes. On 15th July he took Kraków, and for a time he even controlled Lwów. In these circumstances yet another ball, one in its kind, was held in the Potocki Palace. Leon Potocki left a description of it, just as he had the ball of January 1807, this time in his well-nigh forgotten memoirs of “reminiscences of his youth” During his short stay in Warsaw the Archduke Ferdinand reviewed the troops every day, and at least once a week held a military parade on the Saxon square . . . The Austrian officers had no traffic with the citizens; every Polish house was closed to them, yet every night you could see all the people of the city out on the banks of our native river, all eyes were turned in the direction where our troops were collecting new laurels! The young Archduke, who was used to the merry life of Vienna, was bored in Warsaw. He wanted to take a look at those Polish ladies about whose charms he had heard so much from Count Neuberg, his chief-of-staff, but he did not know how to set about the matter. Finally having called on Mrs. Potocka, the Voivode’s wife, he asked her to arrange an evening for him to meet the Polish ladies. His request was fulfilled, the rooms of the Palace were lit up, but it was a garden with no flowers, there was not a single Polish lady there (Potocki 1876, p. 237). Fig. 98. Josef Grassi, Portrait of Prince Józef Poniatowski, oils on canvas, ca. 1810; ZKW. Photo by A. Ring and B. Tropiło. The Prince has high-ranking military distinctions on his uniform: the Virtuti Militari, which King Stanisław August founded after the Battle of Zieleńce, and the Order of the White Eagle. On hearing of the King’s accession to the proRussian Confederation of Targowica, Prince Józef returned the Orders of the White Eagle and of St. Stanislaus. The Battle of Raszyn and the ball for the Archduke Ferdinand 119 Secrets of the Past Aleksandra Potocka’s tableaux vivants Fig. 99. Louis Marteau, Portrait of Izabela Czartoryska, pastels, ca. 1760; Wilanów Palace Museum 120 Neither marching armies and preparations for the confrontation with Russia, nor the huge expenses on the army attenuated the aristocracy’s demand for social life and entertainment. Many of the houses in the city put on concerts or theatrical performances, or applied the assiduity befitting grand archaeological discoveries to stage les tableaux vivants, “live pictures” – re-enactments of famous paintings or of the ancient frescoes discovered at Pompeii and other Vesuvian towns. The vogue for such tableaux was long-lived and widely disseminated. We know that such events were held in the apartment of the Chopin family in one of the buildings of the University of Warsaw (Miziołek, Kowalski 2010, pp. 172–173). A similar cultural event was held in 1808 on the present-day premises of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. Before we go on to describe it we shall say something about the history of these “live pictures”, which had something of the pantomime and the theatre show about them (Touchette 2000). In his Italian Journey (1787) Johann W. Goethe describes Emma Hamilton’s famous “attitudes” or pantomimes: Sir William Hamilton, who is still living here as English ambassador, has now, after many years of devotion to the arts and the study of nature, found the acme of these delights in the person of an English girl of twenty with a beautiful face and a perfect figure. He has had a Greek costume made for her which becomes her extremely. Dressed in this, she lets down her hair and, with a few shawls, gives so much variety to her poses, gestures, expressions, etc., that the spectator can hardly believe his eyes. He sees what thousands of artists would have liked to express realized before him in movements and surprising transformations – standing, kneeling, sitting, reclining, serious, sad, playful, ecstatic, contrite, alluring, threatening, anxious, one pose follows another without a break. (Goethe 1982, p. 208). Emma’s attitudes were immortalised in the drawings of Friedrich Rehberg, which later served as the basis for Tommaso Piroli’s etchings. These in turn were reproduced for King Stanisław August by Ferdynand Pinck (1761–1797: Miziołek 2010, fig. 112 A–M). Aleksandra Potocka could have been familiar with Pinck’s copies, or with the originals by Piroli, which presented compositions and attitudes from the Pompeian and vase painting. A set of 13 of Pinck’s drawings is in the Print Room of the Library of Warsaw University (Zbiór Król. T. 174). Another artistic form similar to tableaux vivants were charades, performances of little scenes entailing words which spectators had to guess (Komza 1995). The origins of tableaux vivants of the kind performed in the Potocki Palace in 1808 have faded into oblivion (Holmström 1967). However, by the turn of the centuries they had become widespread. A place especially noted for them was the stately home of the Czartoryski family at Puławy, where they were put on by the lady of the house, Izabela Czartoryska née Fleming, wife of Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski (Fig. 99). Leon Dembowski’s sister left a record in her fascinating memoirs of the 1808 performance in the Potocki Palace, and her account later made its way into Dembowski’s book: Yesterday at Mrs. Potocka’s nous avons arrangé des tableaux. Laura [Potocka] and I arranged all the props and did made the arrangements and preparations and bossed everyone around, and it was all a big success. We had a gallery of six living tableaux. First there was une femme de Rubens, performed by Mrs. Potocka, the wife of Antoni (later Branicka). Next there was a reclining Bacchante holding a bunch of grapes and spied on by a little Satyr peeping from behind some flowers; she was played by Mrs. Potocka, the wife of Aleksander, with Ludwik Kicki as the Satyr. The third picture was Domenichini’s Sybil, played by Mrs. Sobolewska. Unfortunately Tableaux vivants Fig. 100. Jan Rustem, Group portrait of Maria Mirska, Barbara Szumska, and Adam Napoleon Mirski, ca. 1808, oils on canvas; MNW she was dressed inappropriately, with a mix of too many colours, which made her costume gaudy. Next Mr. Antoni Potocki portrayed a Van Dyck and he looked marvellous. Then there was une discussion de Carace, presented by Ewusia (Miss Kicka) and Mr. Michał Grabowski, and it was the finest performance. The room was arranged with each tableau separated off by live statues: Lorcia en danseuse d’Herculanum, Mrs. Gabryela Zabiełłowa née Gutakowska en Psyché, myself en Vestale, and Miss Teresa Kicka répresentait une femme faisant danser le Cupidon. The rest of the room was decorated with antique vases, candelabras, and diverse artistic knick-knacks. The event was put on for the Frenchmen. Ils paraissaient enchantés, and were probably being polite when they said that even in Paris there was nothing as beautiful as our performance. After the tableaux dinner was served and the company, which had been put in a good mood, enjoyed the rest of the evening dressing up in a variety of costumes (Dembowski 1898, Vol. 1, pp. 341–342). Thus the Potocki Palace was recurrently seeing moments of great glory; it was a truly international place not only on account of the subject of those tableaux vivants, but also because these entertainments were given in honour of the French. We know of these tableaux vivants from other sources as well, for instance from Antoni Brodowski’s watercolour intended as the never implemented design for a decoration of the gala rooms in the Teatr Wielki (Miziołek 2010, pp. 57–58), and a painting made by Jan Rustem around 1808, now in the National Museum in Warsaw (Figs. 100–101). Fig. 101. Dancer with cymbals, watercolours. Copy made around 1785 of a detail from a painting in the Villa of Cicero at Pompeii, after a drawing in Antichità di Ercolano (vol. 1, tab. XXI); GR BUW. The Pompeian dancers in this publication were undoubtedly an inspiration for painters and palace performances alike. 121 Secrets of the Past With Armenian roots and associated with Wilno and its university, Jan Rustem received his art education in Warsaw, tutored by Piotr Norblin (Jean-Pierre Norblin de La Gourdaine) and subsequently by Marcello Bacciarelli in what was known as the Painting Establishment at the Royal Castle (Malarnia na Zamku Królewskim). He could well have examined the watercolours in the King’s collection depicting many of the fine paintings from Pompeii. These were the works, along with tableaux vivants like Lorcia en danseuse d’Herculanum, in which Lorcia (presumably Laura Potocka) appeared as a dancer from Herculaneum, which inspired him to paint the portrait of Maria Mirska, Barbara Szumska, and Adam Napoleon Mirski. In this painting the central figure is Maria Mirska, presented as a dancer with cymbals in her hands. Her pose may on the one hand be seen as a forerunner of the dancer in Brodowski’s design, and on the other as a visual embodiment of the dancer described in Dembowski’s memoirs. As we have seen and as Dembowski’s reminiscences tell us, tableaux vivants were popular in Warsaw at the time, and Rustem was often asked to stage them. In an age when practically everyone was interested in the excavations carried out in the Vesuvian towns, the reception of the art of Antiquity was being promoted not only directly by ancient works of art, but also by performances of this kind, which were inspired by ancient artworks. The performances given in the Potocki Palace were in perfect harmony with the Neo-Pompeian decoration of the superb Arabesque Room (see Figs. 35–38). Our relation of the Palace’s story would be incomplete without at least one account of the minor theatrical performances given in it. First we shall present a roll-call of the visitors who were its frequent guests after the death of Count Stanisław Kostka. Natalia Kicka wrote that she and her aunt Teresa often used to call on the senior Mrs. Potocka, née Lubomirska, the widow of Stanisław, the Minister of Education. The Dowager Countess lived in the palace on the Krakowskie Przedmieście, opposite the former Radziwiłł Palace, where the statue of Marshal Paskevich now stood. She kept an open house, with balls and dinners, and was visited every day for tea by old Kownacki, the author of a now rare book on history whom the paupers of Warsaw nicknamed Robinson Crusoe; Józef, the old Count Sierakowski; poor Brzozia, who suffered from dropsy; Mrs. Laura Tarnowska née Potocka; the playwright Niemcewicz; Natalia Potocka, who had married Prince Roman Sanguszko; old Metzell the designer of Zofiówka House; and others (Kicka 1972, pp. 181–182). Almost all of these people may be seen on a drawing probably made around 1810, to which we shall return in due course. Now for Kicka’s brief reminiscence of a theatrical event at the Palace: After the ball the ladies wanted a comedy played. Mrs. Potocka’s huge apartment could easily serve as a small playhouse. Rehearsals in it were even more fun than the gala evenings attended by the Grand Duke Constantine. Prince Adam’s wife, newly returned from Paris, appeared in one of these, a short farce by Niemcewicz. She played Pani Madam (“Mrs. Madam”), with a kitten under one arm and a puppy under the other. She was being hired for the post of a governess by a steward played by Sagatyński, who held an enormous whip in his hand. He also held a long register of provisions for the pantry: pepper, spices, coffee etc., and last on the list was an item in which his master and mistress required him to hire a governess for their children (Kicka 1972, pp. 183–184). A fascinating iconographic record has survived from the times when comedies and tableaux vivants were performed in the Potocki Palace. Moreover, it provides a testimonial to a flourishing social life in the Polish style (Fig. 102). It presents a humorous and rather venturesome drawing by Laura Potocka, presumably the Lorcia 122 Tableaux vivants who had dressed up as a lady of Herculaneum (Artystki polskie 1991, p. 288). This cartoon, which is preserved in the National Museum in Warsaw, has commentary and a key to the people depicted in it. Starting from the left we see a group playing cards – General Sułkowski, whose face is somewhat reminiscent of Napoleon, one of the Potocki ladies, and Atanazy Raczyński. Next to them are the standing figures of Michał Grabowski and Colonel Rożniecki, a close collaborator with the Russian functionary Novosiltsov under the Congress Kingdom. In the middle of the picture we have Walenty Gutakowski and Ludwik Kicki, who had played the role of Cupid in the tableau vivant we have already described. The most attention-drawing figure is Artur Potocki, dressed in a Polish kontusz coat and reclining on a sofa due to fatigue from eating and drinking, as the overhead inscription informs us. On the right, almost at the edge of the picture, we see four figures: a thin man with his hands hidden in his sleeves. This is Stanisław Kostka Potocki, the master of the house. Next to him are Teresa Kicka and two other ladies, Sułkowska and Tarnowska. Fig. 102. Laura Potocka, “Un Coup d’Oeil dans l’Avenir!” Cartoon showing the social life of the Potocki Palace under the Duchy of Warsaw, 1809, pen-and-ink and pencil drawing; MNW 123 Secrets of the Past A trip to Bliss and Niemcewicz’s piglet A historical reconstruction in honour of Niemcewicz 124 Still in the humorous vein, we shall look into the memoirs of Andrzej Edward Koźmian, who relates an amusing anecdote about the playwright Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, one of the Palace’s most distinguished residents. Under the Congress Kingdom he had an apartment in one of the wings of the Potocki Palace, while in the same period he purchased a rural property near Natolin called Rozkosz (“Bliss”), which he nicknamed Ursynów, and stayed there during the summer, though often visiting the city. One day Mrs. Potocka said she would like to have dinner with him at his house in the country. He was not too pleased by this, as he was not prepared to receive visitors, especially as having come up to Warsaw, he had intended to spend the whole day in town. However, he did not dare deny her hospitality, but only asked to be allowed a place in her carriage, since he had no vehicle of his own. Mrs. Potocka was a lady of distinction, very attentive to propriety, vigilantly alert to even the minutest details of polite manners, lest her dignity be infringed in any way. She was like one of those erstwhile French duchesses or marchionesses, une grande dame of Bourbon times. A carriage drawn by four spotted horses which she normally used pulled up, and two footmen opened the door, helping their mistress in. Niemcewicz took a seat next to her. Barely had they left the Palace’s court when Her Ladyship felt something moving under her feet. The further they went, the more it moved; when she moved her foot something squeaked. As she was poor-sighted, she put on her lorgnette to take a look at what it was that was moving and making a noise under her feet. The squeaking was becoming louder and more intense. “What is it, Mr. Niemcewicz,” she inquired. “Oh, nothing,” Ursyn replied, trying to change the conversation to other topics. But the concealed little creature was jerking about more and more vehemently and its squeaks were getting louder and louder. “But what is it? I want to know!” the lady said with all the gravity proper to her. “Nothing,” Ursyn replied, “Just a piglet in a sack. You asked yourself into dinner without giving me prior notice. I didn’t have anything to serve for dinner, so I went to the market and bought a suckling pig, which I have to take back to my modest cuisine. “Ah, c’est un peu trop fort!” the horrified Lady Voivode exclaimed. But she was obliged to forgive her old friend the prank and for all her gravity, distinction, and fine ladylike manners suffer a suckling pig in a sack ride with her in her four-horse carriage from Warsaw to Bliss (Koźmian 1867, pp. 274–275). It was not the only incident in the history of the Palace in which a pig played a part. During the November Uprising of 1830–31, a time of hardship for Warsaw and its people, rearing animals became well-nigh a necessity owing to the food shortage. In March 1831 an advertisement was put into the classified columns of the Warsaw newspapers, saying that a sow had disappeared from No. 415 in the Krakowskie Przedmieście. It was lean, having just littered, and had one dug pulled out. A reward would be given to anyone who returned the pig to the above address. Unfortunately we have not managed to find out which of the Palace’s tenants was the owner of this pig, but we do know that at this time other residents kept pigs big and small, as well as cows fattened for meat (Kwiatkowska and Malinowska 1976, pp. 84–85). Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz (1757–1841) is a celebrity in the history of Polish culture, so we shall recapitulate some of the main facts relating to his life. He was educated in Warsaw’s military college known as the Szkoła Rycerska or Korpus Kadetów. He was adjutant to Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski, and during the Uprising of 1794 to Kościuszko himself, its commander-in-chief. He was a deputy representing Livonia to the Great Sejm (1788–1792), took a very active part in Stronnictwo Patriotyczne, a patriotic political association, and contributed to the drafting of the Third of May Tableaux vivants Constitution (1791). After the victory of its adversaries, the pro-Russian Confederation of Targowica, he went into exile. He was taken prisoner after the Battle of Maciejowice during the 1794 Uprising and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg. In 1796 Tsar Paul I reprieved him, and he accompanied Kościuszko to the United States, where he settled and married an American, Susan Livingston Kean. He had a good knowledge of France, England, and Italy, which he visited at least twice. In 1802–1804 he returned home for good, or so he thought (Rusinowa 1999). As of 1822 he settled down in his suburban property at Ursynów and engaged in literary pursuits. He held the office of secretary to the Senate of the Duchy of Warsaw, and also under the Congress Kingdom. As of 1802 he was a member of the learned society known as Towarzystwo Przyjaciół Nauk, and its president as of 1826. He wrote Śpiewy historyczne, a rhymed history of Poland set to music (1816: Fig. 103). He took an active part in the November Uprising, and after its fall emigrated to France, where he died and was buried. His biographer Adam Jerzy Czartoryski wrote of his deep sensitivity to the fate of his country: everything that Niemcewicz aspired to and did was tinged with sadness, resignation, and a desire to separate himself off from the world (Uroda portretu 2009, p. 230). Juliusz Słowacki seconded this opinion, in a reference to Niemcewicz in the opening scene (Przygotowanie) to his play “Kordian”: The old man like a skylark, Hardened in rock of reminiscence, Half-solid, gone to putrescence, Poet – knight – dotard – nothing … But in Warsaw, prior to the November Uprising, Niemcewicz had been happy, respected, and usually in a cheerful mood. He often stayed in his rooms in one of the wings of the Potocki Palace, where in 1828 a special celebration was held for his name day, as Koźmian writes: Mrs. Potocka, wife of Stanisław, had a special surprise for him on his patron saint’s feast-day in 1828. It was just after the publication of his romance “Jan z Tenczyna”, in which he gave a fascinating description of a banquet at the court of Sigismund Augustus, attended by the most eminent personalities of the age. Niemcewicz had received an invitation to luncheon from Mrs. Potocka and arrived at the appointed time, but when he found that no-one was there except for the hostess he was disappointed and angry, complaining that people were so disrespectful with regard to his person even on his name-day. Suddenly the door to the dining room flung open, and the mistress of the house led him in, to find the room full of everyone dressed in the costumes of the characters he had described in the scene of the feast in his novel. There was King Sigismund Augustus and the beautiful Barbara, played by the even more beautiful Natalia Potocka decked in her mother’s diamonds. There was Queen Bona, played by Mrs. Rozalia Rzewuska; and Queen Izabella, played by Mrs. Wąsowiczowa. Then up got the poet Mikołaj Rej of Nagłowice (played by Ogiński) and with his sonorous voice recited a poem he had composed himself, of which the real Rej would probably have had no need to feel ashamed, wishing Niemcewicz many happy returns of the day and assuring him of the whole company’s love and deep respect. Old Ursyn was so pleased he wept for joy, and for the first time in his life forgave the company for keeping him waiting for luncheon (Koźmian 1867 Vol. 1, p. 278). In view of Niemcewicz’s deeds of merit for Warsaw and Polish culture, we shall relate the elaborate account of this event in the memoirs of Fryderyk Skarbek: The Fig. 103. Title page of Julian Ursyn Niemczewicz’s poetic history of Poland set to music (1816), BNW 125 Secrets of the Past Fig. 104. Maria Kalergis, photograph; The Theatre Museum, Warsaw 126 national spirit was bolstered and kept up in Warsaw society most particularly by Niemcewicz, whose malicious wit punished all who dared depart from the path of civic duty; he railed at those who were overtly pro-Russian, and wielded moral authority, well-nigh like a despot, over the whole of society. Accustomed to continuous tributes, he commanded general respect and submissiveness that went so far that whatever he censured was censured by all, and whomever he branded with a word of disparagement would be condemned or fall victim to ridicule. Niemcewicz’s influence made a considerable contribution to fostering enmity between the Poles and the Russians, and of the latter he was full of reproach especially for Novosiltsov and his flatterers and factionists, for whom he coined individual nicknames . . . Each year Niemcewicz’s name-day was celebrated with special pomp in turn in one of the city’s great houses in which he was loved and hosted with familiar admiration. Mrs. Potocka, the Voivode’s wife, gave a magnificent luncheon in his honour. Several chroniclers have made records of it already, nonetheless I think it right to mention it but briefly. It was a faithful imitation of the dinner given by King Sigismund Augustus as described by Niemcewicz in his book “Jan z Tęczyna”. . . . When the guest of honour arrived at the Lady Voivode’s for an ordinary luncheon, not expecting anything unusual, suddenly the doors of the main hall were flung open and in came several ladies in historic Polish costumes, followed by the Dowager Queen Bona with Barbara Radziwiłłówna on her right and Queen Izabella with her son on her left. Then the door at the opposite end of the room opened, and King Sigismund Augustus entered preceded by a large retinue of courtiers led by the marshal of the royal court, who cried out aloud, “His Majesty the King!” At these words a trumpet fanfare was sounded, and a roll of drums, the king went up to Bona and bowed to her, whereupon the chamberlain announced that luncheon was served. Two courtiers came up to the king, one with a golden bowl, the other with an embroidered towel, and when the king had washed his hands and had his rings, which he had taken off, returned by the courtiers, he offered his arm to his mother and escorted her into the dining hall, in which two tables had been laid. At one of them sat the royal family and Niemcewicz the guest of honour, and at the other the persons in the retinue. . . . When everyone had taken their seat a conversation started, literally based on the novel. Only the following passage was added at the end: The King said to Rej of Nagłowice, who was played by Ludwik Osiński, “My Lord of Nagłowice, you should call your Apollo to come hither and say something fitting, especially as today is the feast-day of one of your illustrious colleagues.” Addressed in this manner, Rej responded that Apollo was in the habit of visiting him in the company of Bacchus, and asked the King for permission to raise a toast to the Queen. Then he turned to Jan Kochanowski with the following words, “Good sir, pray put aside your laments today, and instead sing merry songs.” To which Kochanowski made answer, “I am too old for that, but among us there is one who will do so with rhymes more elegant than mine, so that our history will be sung to music, and perhaps he will even mention us in his works. So let us drink to his health. Long live the one who will pass down our story to future generations!” Upon these words the King and all the company raised their ancient cups to drink the toast, and Osiński recited his beautiful poem, specially written for the occasion. Niemcewicz who had been silent up to that point, but deeply moved, wept profusely, expressed his gratitude in words full of emotion, and raised a toast to Osiński. . . . The entire banquet was maintained in the ancient native Polish style; the tables were set with historic silverware brought in from Wilanów Palace; only traditional Polish dishes were served; and the retainers were dressed in Polish kontusz coats or in the Tartar manner; in a word, the entire celebration was marked by a singular richness and grandeur, and after the luncheon many guests invited for the evening arrived to admire the splendour (Skarbek 2009, pp. 208–210). Tableaux vivants Another outstanding but today virtually forgotten personality entered his name in the annals of the Potocki Palace in the times of the Duchy of Warsaw and the Congress Kingdom – Count Józef Sierakowski (1765–1831), counsellor of state and member of the Government Commission for Religious Denominations and Public Education. He gained renown as an art lover, and collector of rare books and historic memorabilia. He was the author of O mitologii Słowian (On the Mythology of the Slavs), and the publisher of the first volume of Adam Naruszewicz’s history of the Polish Nation. Sierakowski made a significant contribution to the founding of the University of Warsaw, especially its Fine Arts Department. He died in his apartment on the first floor of one of the Palace’s wings, and his valuable collections were put up for auction in February and March 1832. They included oil paintings, china, pottery, and glassware; a brand new double carriage and another, hardly used vehicle, a sleigh, and horse harnesses. Andrzej Edward Koźmian devoted a considerable amount of attention to him in his memoirs, writing that water was the element of Nature which Sierakowski considered completely useless, and which he never used. He imported his attire from London and Paris, but it was always stained and soiled with snuff taken from other people’s snuff-boxes, as he never had one of his own on him. His Polish servants were well contented with their master’s disposition, which suited their idleness; his rooms were never swept, and his finest paintings and artworks, sculptures by Benvenuto Cellini, jewellery boxes once belonging to Catherine de’ Medici, or cartoons by the foremost masters were covered with a thick layer of dust accumulated over many years. His face and hands were cloaked with a mantle of dust and dirt just as old, never washed or wiped off; one year when he was off to the seaside for a swim someone parodied the lines from Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” with reference to him: “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this filth / Clean from my hand?” Sierakowski occupied rooms in the same wing of the Potocki Palace in which Niemcewicz lived. The latter held Sierakowski in respect, but made fun of his “fondness” for dirt. One day Sierakowski’s servant told him that there was a young washerwoman sent by Mr. Niemcewicz who wanted to see him. Sierakowski, who liked looking at attractive young women, even if they were washerwomen, let her come in. “Mr. Niemcewicz sent me,” she said as she came in, “to take you to be laundered.” Good old Sierakowski laughed at his neighbour’s prank, but would not let himself be washed and stayed as dirty as before (Koźmian 1867, p. 289; Kicka 1972, p. 184). When Sierakowski died in 1831, hard times came for Warsaw and Poland, with the fall of the November Uprising and the severe reprisals that followed. Soon the Palace would suffer, too, turning from a princely residence into a tenement building. The following remark was recorded in one of the memoirs of the Uprising: Many less affluent families came up to Warsaw for the winter, but after 1831 time and death closed all the doors. . . . Prince Adam Czartoryski took his wife and children into exile in Paris and England; he stood up for his country and was laid to rest in Paris. In 1831 Mrs. Potocka, widow of Stanisław, moved from Warsaw to Kraków, where she died; and Warsaw was left in widow’s weeds, leading the life of the bereaved, weeping and grief-stricken (Kicka 1972, p. 194). Warsaw again turned into a provincial town, but after some time its cultural life revived and flourished, though not as intensively as before. This was true of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace as well. One of the important ingredients of its cultural affairs was music, promoted by Maria Kalergis (1822–1874), one of Chopin’s pupils and the Fig. 105. Eliza Radziwiłłówna, Portrait of Fryderyk Chopin at the piano, drawing, 1826; NIFC In his letter to Tytus Woyciechowski of 30 March 1830 Chopin writes about his meeting with Max Oborski, which took the place in the Potocki Palace on the occasion of a theatrical performance. Music in the Palace and Maria Kalergis 127 Secrets of the Past Fig. 106. Cyprian Kamil Norwid, Portrait of Maria Kalergis with roses in her hair, pen-and-ink drawing, ca. 1848; BNW, Warsaw muse of the poet Cyprian Kamil Norwid (Figs. 104–105). Maria was the daughter of Tekla Nałęcz-Górska and the infamous Count Karl Nesselrode, a German in the service of the Russians. She was born and died in Warsaw, but spent her childhood in St. Petersburg and a few years of her youth in Paris. She travelled a lot, especially in Italy, but was often in Warsaw, lodging in the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace. She was married off at 17 to Jan (Johann, John) Kalergis, a Greek millionaire, but they separated shortly after the wedding; however, they did not divorce. She was beautiful, intelligent, witty, and musical, with blue eyes and glorious golden hair. Norwid, who met her in France in 1844 and a year later in Rome and Naples, made several 128 Tableaux vivants portraits of her (Melbechowska-Luty 2001). In one of them, a pen-and-ink drawing of her profile, she is shown with roses in her hair, radiant with sensuousness, elegance, and a pensive look verging on sadness (Figs. 106–107). When was this portrait made of la donna cigno (as Maria was called)? Probably around 1850, when Norwid, who was deeply in love with her, realised he had no chance of requitement. We now pass on to a description of the music-making and singing in the Palace in the years when la donna cigno was an occasional resident. In a relation of one of its musical soirées we read that its guests included the Princess of Warsaw [the wife of Paskevich] and her daughter, and well over a hundred people. In March 1842 Kurier Warszawski reported that it was not the first time that the Countess’ apartment was hosting a magnificent entertainment. . . . The mistress of the house and her daughters did the honours, with the courteous hospitality for which the family of these ladies had been renowned for many years. The programme of the singing consisted of arias from famous operas: “Norma”, “Lucia di Lammermoor”, “La sonnambula”, and “I puritani”, and their performance brought the listeners genuine pleasure. Vincenzo Bellini received an excellent interpretation worthy of his august concepts from the amateur ladies who performed. They were accompanied on the piano by Mr. Nach, and professionals, Messrs Tejchmann and Ricciardi, also sang (Kwiatkowska and Malinowska 1976, p. 91). In one of its issues for March 1859 the same newspaper informed its readers of the previous night’s musical event in the rooms of the Honourable Maria Kalergis, daughter of Count Nesselrode. It was the first time such an event had been held in the rooms of a lady well-known for her hospitality, and gathered a large number of excellent guests of both sexes for a performance by talented professional and amateur artists. The former included two first-rate virtuosos recently arrived in Warsaw, the pianist Mr. Ludwik Kortmann, and the violinist Mr. Kellner. These brilliant artists were received with great contentment by the audience, for both had an undeniable musical talent, thanks to which their music was in a very high class of quality. . . . It was a genuine pleasure for the audience to hear their illustrious hostess give a solo performance of works by the foremost composers. Not much later Kalergis held a musical matinée, tickets for which were available in her apartment in Count Stanisław Potocki’s Palace on the Krakowskie Przedmieście, as the press wrote. The matinée took place on 10th April 1859, with the performance of music by Bach, Donizetti, Schumann, Wagner, and Sajnello [Santarelli? Salieri? Savinelli?], and the national maestros, Chopin and Moniuszko. The hostess herself played the works of Chopin. Kalergis, who lived in the Palace on and off from the 1840s to the early 1870s, must have faced a formidable dilemma in reconciling the treatment of her father, who was the general of the Russian gendarmes, in the manner due to close relatives, with her ability to find a modus vivendi with the Poles. Apparently she managed this admirably. According to her granddaughter, some time in 1846–1848 one of Maria’s friends got her up in the middle of the night, tapping on her window – she lived on the Palace’s ground floor at the time – and asked her to hide some documents potentially troublesome for a group of Polish conspirators. Madame Kalergis took the papers and dumped them into an open hat-box on the table, and then went back to bed. In the morning her father woke her and angrily declared that the authorities claimed that she was keeping important documents given to her by “rebels”, and therefore she would be searched. Gendarmes appeared and stood in the doorway, preventing her from leaving the room, which they searched thoroughly. But it did not occur to any of them to look into the hat-box which was standing wide open on the table with the wanted documents in it. When the danger had passed Madame Kalergis returned the papers to the plotters (see Szenic 1963). Fig. 107. Maria Kalergis, photograph; The Theatre Museum, Warsaw 129 3 Splendour of the Past The Palace hosts an art gallery and an editorial office Certain places – villas and palaces – seem to be under the special auspices of the Muses. The cult of the arts flourishes in them, artistic patronage thrives and concerts abound in them, sometimes written works on the arts and letters are created in them. The Czartoryski-Potocki Palace is certainly one of those places. All the more so, for when in the mid-19th century, after a period of glory, it turned into a tenement house the guardianesses of the fine arts did not forsake it but again came to its rescue with assistance which seemed rather unsophisticated but turned out to be highly effective. The Palace was transformed into an art gallery. Not within its walls, but on its spacious court, where in 1881 the well-known publisher, printer, and entrepreneur Gracjan Unger (1853–1911: Fig. 108) installed a peculiar building. Not that its structure, designed by Leandro Marconi, was ugly; however, its shape was not at all in concord with the Palace, and that is why it was often referred to as “the shed” (Fig. 109). Unger’s pavilion did not survive for long, only 15 years, but in that time it witnessed many a splendid and memorable artistic event, which did much to neutralise and conceal its “incompatibility” with the Palace’s elegance. Ignacy Baliński noted down in his memoirs that he was not sure in which hall Henryk Siemiradzki’s “Christian Torches” had been displayed, but it was in Unger’s shed that Warsaw had first seen Matejko’s “Battle of Grunwald”. The impression “Grunwald” had made on contemporary society was dramatic, and must have been unforgettable for those who saw the painting. Polish painting had now taken up a place alongside the Nation’s great Romantic poetry and the music of Chopin and Moniuszko – at the peak of the artistic task regarded at the time as its chief and sacred duty: to show the world the vitality, separate identity, and greatness of the Polish Nation. . . . All who saw “Grunwald” came away with a long-lasting image before their eyes of the charging Witold, trampling the ancient enemy (Baliński 1987, p. 155). The growing antagonism between Germany and Russia opened up an opportunity for a reminder in Warsaw of such historic victories won in times of old by Polish arms, and for recollections of the erstwhile grandeur of a nation deprived of its statehood. Of course the recollecting could only be one-sided, not permitting the display of Polish victories over Muscovite Russia, which was a perfectly feasible subject in the Austrian and Prussian zones of partition. Unger’s name is associated with the establishment of a periodical that played an enormous role in Poland’s cultural life. The weekly Tygodnik Ilustrowany was a storehouse of information, into which we have often delved in this book. It was founded by Józef Unger (1817–1874), Gracjan’s adoptive father, in 1859. In 1882, on the initiative of Franciszek Maksymilian Sobieszczański, its editors rented an office in the south wing of the Palace. Like his adoptive father, Gracjan Unger (born Gracjan Jeżyński), made his mark professionally as a printer, publisher, and bookseller. He published a literary weekly entitled Biesiada Literacka, and set up a photo-chemigraphic printing shop which manufactured postcards and reproductions of paintings, and in 1879 opened his gallery, known as Salon Sztuk Pięknych. Oddly enough, it pursued its activities as a business belonging to Józef Unger, by then already deceased. Apart from exhibiting works of art, Gracjan Unger was also an art dealer. The operations of his gallery upset the plans of another cultural institution, Towarzystwo Zachęty Sztuk Pięknych (the Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts), which had Fig. 108. Gracjan Unger, photograph; Archiwum Miasta Stołecznego Warszawy (Warsaw Municipal Archives). 130 Unger`s pavilion been founded in 1860. The Society’s aims were to hold exhibitions, purchase works of art for the national collection, and assist young artists. Unger’s vigorous activities in 1879–1882 practically eclipsed the work of the Society. However, in 1883 the Society took the initiative and became the tenant of the gallery in the court of the Potocki Palace, where it continued its operations until 1896, when the pavilion was demolished. Unger’s short-lived episode as proprietor of the gallery may be divided into two parts: 1879–1881, when the gallery was located on ulica Niecała, and subsequently from 14th December 1881 to the end of 1882, when he was exhibiting in the pavilion set up in the court of the Potocki Palace. An insight into the situation between Unger and the Zachęta is provided by one of Henryk Sienkiewicz’s newspaper columns in 1880, in which the novelist wrote that all the exciting new works in painting went into Unger’s gallery, while the Zachęta could count only on the small fry, the crumbs falling from the artists’ tables. Not much was going on in it; there were not many new pictures, and even fewer visitors. It was believed that when a second gallery was opened this lethargic institution would wake up and be encouraged to introduce changes in its regulations or a reform, but nothing of the sort happened. The exhibition stayed as it was. One could still Fig. 109. Unger’s art gallery in the Palace court, photograph, 1896; Archiwum Miasta Stołecznego Warszawy (Warsaw Municipal Archives) 131 Secrets SSe ecr cret ret e s of of tthe he P he Past ast ast as Unger`s Un U nge nge ger` rsp pa pavilion avili viliioon vi n Secrets of the Past display a picture in it – and that was it. One could, but it was not worth it, the public was coming to ignore it and was far more interested in Unger’s gallery; and above all, anyone who wanted to buy a picture went not to the old exhibition, but to Unger’s. Before we move on to an account of the activities of Unger’s gallery, the weekly Tygodnik Ilustrowany and the other periodicals, art shops, and cultural institutions associated with the Potocki Palace in the latter half of the 19th century, we shall give a brief outline of the history of Warsaw’s public art exhibitions. Such expositions were to a large extent dependent on the operations of an art college. Not even a patron as magnanimous as King Stanisław August managed to found an institution fully meeting these expectations. Nonetheless his collections of drawings and plaster-casts of ancient artworks, and his ideas for a future art college gave rise to the foundations of an institution which was finally established largely thanks to Stanisław Kostka Potocki, the illustrious master of our Palace. In 1808–1818, when Potocki was Minister of Public Education and the University of Warsaw was founded, the plans for an art college were put into practice. It was called the Oddział Sztuk Pięknych (Fine Arts Department), and was an integral unit of the University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences. It had its own building, collections, and studios. In 1817–1830 Warsaw was truly a city of the arts. A national art was developing at the University, and being displayed at public exhibitions which attracted crowds of visitors. In 1881–1896 the gallery set up in the court of the Potocki Palace played a similar role. We shall therefore devote some attention to Warsaw’s earliest art exhibitions and the Zachęta. Warsaw’s ﬁrst art exhibitions Fig. 110. Title page of the catalogue for the University of Warsaw’s 1825 art exhibition; BUW 134 The first real exhibition of the fine arts on Polish territories was held in 1819, in the familiar university buildings near the Potocki Palace. Subsequent exhibitions were held every two years in various buildings on the campus, such as the vice-rector’s building (1819), the fine arts pavilion (1821 and 1823), and the mineralogical building (1828). All of them were tremendous successes. Visitors were so eager to purchase the catalogues published for them that sometimes they even had to run into two re-issues (Figs. 110–111). One of the papers described the opening of the 1819 exhibition as follows: Of the many benefits which the Monarch [Alexander I] has granted us, the foundation of the University of Warsaw may justly be regarded as a characteristic reflecting his soul and way of thinking. Young Poles are no longer obliged to travel abroad for the light of education, and are able to acquire all they need by way of enlightenment in their own country. It is quite right to consider the first exhibition of the fine arts, the fruits of painting, drawing, and carving done by our compatriots, as one of the highlights in the history of the said University. Like other enlightened nations, we have seen paintings and sculptures, delivered unto public judgement, and many a visitor who had thought that talent had to be sought abroad was proved wrong when he saw them (Kozakiewicz 1952, p. 29). It would be hard to overestimate the documentary value for the period of a painting by Wincenty Kasprzycki, a work absolutely in a class of its own for Polish 19thcentury art. It shows the exhibition of 1828, which was held in the mineralogical building (now the University of Warsaw Faculty of Polish Studies). Antoni Blank served as its curator. Kasprzycki depicted the exhibited pictures and Warsaw’s principal painters with well-nigh photographic fidelity. Among the artists visiting the Unger`s pavilion exhibition we observe Kasprzycki himself (seated, first right), Antoni Brodowski (standing, fourth from the right), Antoni Blank (last standing, frontal view), and Aleksander Kokular (centre, profile view, holding a snuff-box). A surviving copy of the catalogue and the reviews in the daily newspapers were a tremendous help in the identification of these figures. At the end of the hall, opposite the entrance, there are two canvasses, Antoni Brodowski’s “Alexander I granting the University of Warsaw its foundation charter”, and Antoni Blank’s “Oedipus at Colonus”. Today’s observers will also find the manner in which the exhibits are displayed extremely interesting. They are arranged in three rows according to size and genre. Kasprzycki managed to finish this extraordinary canvas in time to have it shown in the same exhibition. Kurier Warszawski commented: The work was done during the exhibition, and is most interesting, commended by its completion and precise attention to detail, indicative of the artist’s familiarity with this kind of painting. It is noteworthy as a synopsis of the pictures shown in the fifth exhibition, for it will recall the growth of the fine arts in our country (Kurier Warszawski, 14th July 1828, No. 187). Unfortunately growth was halted three years later. After the fall of the November Uprising the University and its Fine Arts Department were closed down. Exhibitions continued to be held, usually in the city hall on Plac Teatralny, but they did not enjoy the same status, nor were they as popular as before. Not much changed when a new art college was established in 1844; it was closed down already in the mid-1860s. Luckily 1860 saw the foundation of the Zachęta Society, but it did not acquire premises of its own until 1900. The last in the series of exhibitions launched at the University in 1819 took place in 1845. The new art college in operation as of 1844 did not enjoy the privilege of exhibiting the works of its masters and students. However, political events brought a change to this situation, difficult for the artists and people of Warsaw. After years of hegemony in Europe, Russia sustained a severe defeat in the Crimean War, which finished in 1855. Tsar Nicholas I, the second most notorious enemy and oppressor of the Polish people (after Catherine II), did not survive the humiliating blow. There were rumours that the despot, hated not only by the Poles, committed suicide. In the aftermath of the fall of Sebastopol his successor, Alexander II, was forced to relax the iron grip of oppression (Wawrykowa 1998, pp. 15–21 and 51–59). The Zachęta emerged on the crest of the changes, followed two years later, in 1862, by the Muzeum Sztuk Pięknych (Fine Arts Museum) and Szkoła Główna – the restored University (Lorentz 1938; Miziołek 2005, pp. 168–185). The former conducted activities until 1875, and the latter only to 1869. Luckily the Zachęta managed to survive and pursued its activities almost without intermission. In its statute (Ustawa Towarzystwa Zachęty Sztuk Pięknych) of 1860 we read that the Society’s aim is to disseminate the fine arts, and to assist and encourage artists, especially young graduates of the Warsaw art college. This was to be accomplished by 1. the continuous holding of exhibitions of contemporary art regardless of the artists’ nationality; 2. the purchase of the best of the works on exhibition; 3. the publication of graphic works or reproductions, for distribution to members of the Society as bonuses for paying their membership fees; 4. the organisation of competitions with prizes for winners; 5. the accumulation of collections and the purchase of scholarly publications; and 6. the estab- The Zachęta Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts Fig. 111. Catalogue for the University of Warsaw’s 1825 art exhibition; BUW 135 Secrets of the Past Fig. 112. Interior of Józef Unger’s art gallery on ulica Niecała during the exhibition of the works of Maurycy Gottlieb, 1879 Fig. 113. Exhibition of Jan Matejko’s “Battle of Grunwald” and “Prussian Homage” in the pavilion on the Krakowskie Przedmieście, drawing, 1882 lishment of relations and keeping in touch with similar institutions (Wiercińska 1961, pp. 74–75). One of the founders of the Zachęta was the well-known painter Wojciech Gerson; he was supported by people like Rafał Hadziewicz and January Suchodolski, as well as Ignacy Kraszewski and Edward Rastawiecki, individuals regarded as real authorities. The first meeting of the new Society was convened on 13th December 1860 in the aula of the Medical and Surgical Academy (in today’s Staszic House). The new institution’s first headquarters were in the no longer extant Mokronowski Mansion on the corner of the Królewska and the Krakowskie Przedmieście; its second in the Hotel Gerlach (on the site of today’s Hotel Europejski), from 1862 to 136 Unger`s pavilion 1869; and its third premises, from 1869 to 1884, in the former Observantine Monastery next to St. Anne’s Church. All of these locations, where the arts and art exhibitions flourished, were right next to, or in the close vicinity of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, today the headquarters of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. Finally, thanks to Unger, the arts lodged themselves right in the Palace’s court. The Society’s first big success was the exhibition of Józef Simmler’s “Death of Barbara Radziwiłłówna” (Kurier Warszawski, 1860, No. 289, 2nd November). This painting, which was purchased thanks to donations from art lovers, started the Zachęta’s collection. It is now in the National Museum in Warsaw (Wiercińska 1968 and 1969). Exhibitions in the court of the Potocki Palace continued to be held after Unger’s pavilion passed to the Society in 1883. But before we go on to that we shall take a closer look at the exhibitions organised by Gracjan Unger, especially those in the Palace. Dozens of pictures by Maurycy Gottlieb were presented at the exhibition opened in December 1879 in the gallery on the Niecała. One of them was a large canvas showing “Christ preaching at Capharnaum”, and much smaller pictures entitled “A Jewish wedding” and “Self-portrait as a Polish nobleman” (Fig. 112). The drawings documenting Unger’s exhibitions in the pavilion in the Palace court show exhibits well spaced out, though this was due mainly to their size if they were canvases as big as the huge paintings by Matejko, “The Battle of Grunwald” and “The Prussian Homage” (Figs. 113–115). Fig. 114. Interior of Józef Unger’s art gallery in the pavilion in the court of the CzartoryskiPotocki Palace, during the exhibition of Matejko’s “Battle of Grunwald”, 1881 137 Secrets of the Past Fig. 115. Jan Matejko, “The Battle of Grunwald”, 1878, oils on canvas; MNW 138 Unger`s pavilion 139 Secrets of the Past Pictures that stirred hearts Fig. 116. Jan Matejko, “The Battle of Grunwald”, detail, 1878, oils on canvas; MNW 140 Since the opening of his permanent exhibition in Count Krasiński’s house on the corner of the Wierzbowa and the Niecała three years ago, Mr. Unger has made a very substantial contribution to reviving the arts, on the one hand off ering the public an excellent opportunity to see the latest achievements of our artists working at home and abroad, and on the other hand facilitating the selling of artworks thanks to his services of brokerage. He has now moved his gallery to a new building, put up at his own expense in the court of Count Stanisław Potocki’s property at Number 15 in the Krakowskie Przedmieście. In this custom-built gallery, splendidly illuminated by day through its glass dome roof, and in the evening by electric lights, there are now two of Matejko’s best masterpieces on show, “The Battle of Grunwald” and “The Prussian Homage” (Fig. 116). This is how Henryk Struve commented on Unger’s achievements, in one of the issues of a well-known Warsaw magazine (Kłosy, No. 832, XXXV, 1882, p. 72). Earlier No. XXXIV of the same magazine had written that Varsovians were as excited about Matejko’s second canvas as they had been about “The Battle of Grunwald”, and that shortly the second masterpiece by the great artist from Kraków would be up next to “Grunwald” in Mr. Unger’s gallery, thereby presenting an excellent sequel to the picture showing the crushing defeat of the Teutonic Order. All who see it are immediately spellbound by this painting. Crowds of visitors are thronging Mr. Unger’s gallery to see “The Prussian Homage”; they stand before it overawed and excited, as if under the influence of a magical power emanating from the picture and giving them a strange waking dream (Kłosy, XXXIV, V, 1882, p. 315; Figs. 117–119). The raptures over these paintings were no doubt attributable to Matejko’s genius and the patriotic message in his works; but their success was also due in part to the modern facility and manner in which they were presented. Unger’s gallery provided the best possible conditions for viewing. On fine days a stream of light flows in, giving a bright atmosphere free of shadows; only in such conditions is the richness of the colours to be observed in full bloom, the outlines of the drawing are made more distinct, and justice is done to the whole composition, giving it a tantalising palpability that amplifies its eff ect (Kurier Warszawski, 1882, No. 24, p. 30). But the biggest novelty was the use of electric lighting, which made visiting possible in the evening hours. The press was in raptures, emphasising that this type of illumination in no way curtailed the reception of the artistic quality of the pictures, and indeed, viewed in the white light provided by electricity the paintings seemed better visible than in the natural light of a winter’s day. Electric lighting had just been installed to illuminate “The Battle of Grunwald”. The masterpiece could now shine forth in a riot of colour and composition. . . . Nothing had changed about the painting itself, only the light, that second master and assistant to all creators of the visual arts, had brought out to the full all the marvellous eff ects in Matejko’s masterpiece. . . . Four large electric lamps cast their light on the painting, enveloping the rest of the room in a gentle half-shadow. . . . The shapes and outlines of the figures and accessories stand out with astonishing clarity (Kurier Warszawski, 1882, No. 24, p. 3). Everything seemed to be going smoothly, when suddenly problems appeared and a minor scandal erupted. Here is Ignacy Baliński’s account: Gracjan Unger, the nephew of Józef the printer and long-standing publisher of the popular calendar in a green cover with an abundance of facts and literary information at a price of 50 kopecks (a similar calendar issued by Jan Jaworski competed with it), was extremely ingenious and active. He ran a newspaper and advertising agency in the theatre building on the Wierzbowa street-side. Then he had his provisional pavilion built to exhibit noteworthy Unger`s pavilion Secrets of the Past Fig. 117. Jan Matejko, “The Prussian Homage”, oils on canvas, 1880–1882; The Cloth Hall, National Museum in Kraków 142 Unger`s pavilion 143 SecretsOPIEKĄ POD of the Past MUZ paintings which he managed to procure from time to time. I remember seeing huge canvasses there, “Christ before Pilate” by the Hungarian Munkácsy; “Hus on trial before the Emperor Sigismund” by the Czech Brožik; and Vereshchagin’s cycle on Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow. All these paintings, mostly on historical subjects, which were the most appreciated at the time, attracted large audiences. But once Gracjan elicited a great rough when he exhibited a painting by Marceli Suchorowski showing Nana, the heroine of Emile Zola’s famous novel. The fair courtesan was portrayed nude, “ in her birthday suit”, reclining on a leopard skin with one knee slightly raised. The figure was illuminated all the time with artificial light to amplify the undoubtedly slightly pornographic eff ect. Visitors viewed it from the depths of a darkened corridor. The public outcry contributed to the exhibition being taken off earlier than planned, and the school authorities prohibited its viewing by pupils (Baliński p. 155). Baliński, who recorded his recollections many years later, seems to have got the chronology of the exhibitions wrong. Except for the Suchorowski, all the other canvasses he mentions were put on display in the gallery when it was in the hands of the Zachęta Society. But let’s return to the 1881–1882 interval. Henryk Struve was another contemporary who commented on Unger’s exhibiting policy and his problems following the presentation of “Nana”: After the display of Matejko’s “Prussian Homage” there was such a big slump in Mr. Unger’s exhibition that he had to resort to special measures of arousal, such as Suchorowski’s “Nana” and Makart’s “Leda” to get the public to visit his gallery. It is not a very encouraging symptom, nor a sign of a dignified treatment of art. Regardless of all the doctrinaire points of view, we cannot but acknowledge that counting on the excitement of or appeal to the lowest human instincts does not befit the dignity and aim of art. Even if these paintings were to come up to the standards of artistic quality of Raphael’s “Graces”, Titian’s and Palma the Elder’s “Venuses”, the “Ledas” of Leonardo and Paolo Veronese, or Titian and Correggio’s “Ios” – even then we should have to call all manner of attracting a large public by resorting to such subjects an undignified abuse of art. From the point of view of the dignity of art and public decency there is an essential diff erence between exhibiting this kind of picture in a gallery or museum among numerous other works of beauty, in a place where artworks are viewed chiefly for aesthetic reasons, and displaying it in a separate show and using posters to bring in not only art lovers but all and sundry, excitable by the very nature of the item and its lasciviousness, irrespectively of its artistic appreciation. This is an approach entailing motives which are in conflict not only with art itself, but also with a serious attitude to civic duty. For under no circumstances is it ever right to exploit Man’s low instincts. As regards the artistic quality of these paintings, I shall only say that “Leda” is one of Makart’s earliest, student works, and does not aspire to a high level of artistry. Suchorowski’s “Nana” is but a technical ploy used for the purpose of endowing the presented body with the qualities of a wax figure. It has to be admitted that he achieved this purpose. The dark background, along with the body’s hot complexion, and the diff usion of the source of light in the picture itself along with its removal to beyond the canvas, all work to accomplish the intended optical illusion. But the illusion in itself, coupled with a completely inaesthetic pose and an uncultivated facial expression, bereft not only of dignity but also of the simple, harmonious beauty of the feminine face, cannot endow the composition with a genuine artistic quality. In their works on similar subjects the above-cited Italian masters never forsook their respect for womankind. They presented female nudes to demonstrate the full beauty of their body; even sensual love was no stranger to their women; however, none of them presumed to 144 SALON Unger`sUNGRA pavilion show a woman humiliated to the condition of an animal. That has been done by Mr. Suchorowski (Kłosy, 1882,Vol. XXXV, No. 913, p. 405). How may Gracjan Unger and the work of his gallery in the court of the Potocki Palace be assessed retrospectively? His contemporaries observed that the primary purpose of his gallery was commercial. Its proprietor was interested first and foremost in selling his exhibits as quickly as possible in a viable commercial transaction (Bluszcz, 1880, No. 4, p. 29). Not only did the gallery accept items designated for sale, but it also purchased works to be resold at a profit. The press wrote that his prices were moderate enough for his business to be justified and advantageous both for buyers and sellers. A no less significant source of income came from the tickets to his exhibitions, which changed frequently enough and were diversified enough to draw in the public (Konstantynów 2005). A common observation made by his reviewers was that Unger displayed the works of well-known artists, as well as those who were fashionable and whose work was the talk of the town and sought after. On this list we find the names of virtually all the most popular Polish painters of the latter half of the 19th century: Jan Matejko, Wojciech Gerson, Franciszek Żmurko, Henryk Siemiradzki, Władysław Czachórski, Władysław Bakałowicz, Jan Styka, Tadeusz Ajdukiewicz, Józef Szermentowski, Juliusz and Wojciech Kossak, and Józef Brandt. Unger also exhibited works by deceased artists, such as Maurycy Gottlieb and Artur Grottger. His assortment was exceptionally diversified; he also presented and offered drawings for sale, including illustrations by Michał Elwiro Andriolli to Juliusz Słowacki’s Balladyna, Józef I. Kraszewski’s Stara baśń, Adam Mickiewicz’s Pan Tadeusz, and Władysław Motty’s illustrations to the works of Lucjan Siemieński. In 1882 he put on an exhibition entitled “An Album of Polish Painters”, with watercolours and drawings by Polish artists working in Munich. However, since the gallery’s profit did not satisfy its proprietor he resorted to a measure which was popular in the 19th century: an additional incentive for visitors in the form of a lottery, for which he assigned a total of 36 items. 22 were to be raffled among weekday visitors, and 14 by those attending the gallery on Sundays and holidays. Tygodnik Ilustrowany (1882, No. 256, p. 263) advertised the opportunity: There are many fine works in the gallery with the foremost signatures; those who become their owners will be able to congratulate themselves that they acquired them in an inexpensive and easy way. However, the lottery was not held because the gallery closed shortly after this announcement was published. Nevertheless Unger’s ingenuity and busy activity knew no bounds. After the success, followed by a slight slump, in the exhibition and sales of artworks, he set up Parisian-style news-stands in Warsaw. This investment turned out to be a bull’s-eye winner. Fig. 118–119. Jan Matejko, “The Prussian Homage”, detail, 1880–1882, oils on canvas; The Cloth Hall, National Museum in Kraków 145 Secrets of the Past The Zachęta Society takes over the initiative 146 Despite the short spell for which his gallery was in operation, we can hardly fail to appreciate Unger’s significance. He made a paramount contribution not only to the revival of trade in works of art, but also to a rise in public interest in the works of Polish and foreign artists. In February 1883 the Zachęta Society moved into the pavilion Unger had built. As Baliński remarked, to display its not very large collection for a time, it availed itself of the huge wooden shed Gracjan Unger had installed in the court of Stanisław Potocki’s mansion, which was later the property of Józef Potocki of Antoniny. Henryk Struve was eff usive in his praise of the Society’s decision to move into the court of the Potocki Palace: Two facts of artistic significance are to be observed in particular as evidence for the mobility and vigour of the Zachęta Society under its current management: the temporary exhibition of Polish artists it has arranged in Kiev, and the renting out of Mr. Unger’s gallery for its second exhibition, dedicated chiefly to good works from abroad. The former needs no special reflection, for everyone will readily appreciate its meaning. The latter is significant as one of the most efficient means of stimulating public interest in art. Not once in our opinions have we indicated the pressing need for the work of foreign artists to be brought into our exhibitions. We have certainly not been doing so out of disregard for Polish art, whose magnificent progress we have been observing with great joy. But we cannot deny that such progress has been to a large extent the outcome of Polish artists’ encounters with foreign European art; and that despite the brilliant works created recently in Polish art, there is still a lot we can learn from foreigners; and that this lesson calls for the observation of noteworthy European works of art and the comparison of our art with them. Until outstanding paintings and sculptures come to Warsaw, just as they do to Paris, Vienna, Berlin, Munich, and Dresden, there can be no question of vigorous activity in our visual arts. . . . We are very pleased that thanks to the current management of the Zachęta Society as of the new year we shall be taking the first steps on that road. We are in no doubt that the excellent works of Munkácsy, Makart, and Gallait will draw in more visitors to Mr. Unger’s gallery than Suchorowski’s “Nana”, which had been intended to bring about eff ects that have nothing whatsoever to do with art, being a symptom of a far lower order (Kłosy, 1882, Vol. XXXV, No. 909, p. 348). The Zachęta Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts pursued its activities in Unger’s pavilion until the structure was dismantled. In those twelve years not only did it install a permanent exhibition but also held temporary exhibitions there, as we have said. The temporary exhibitions included works such as Szymon Buchbinder’s “Sigismund III in a goldsmith’s shop”; Louise Abbéma’s “Four seasons”, for which the famous actress Sarah Bernhardt had posed; and “The death of Gedymin” by Kazimierz Alchimowicz. About a thousand photographs acquired from the traveller and naval officer Antoni Prosiński were accorded a place in the gallery. Their subjects were generic scenes, landscapes, and ethnography. Matejko’s masterpiece, “The Battle of Grunwald”, was the highlight of the Society’s permanent exhibition. It had been bought from the artist in 1878, when it had not been fi nished yet, by Dawid Rosenblum, a Warsaw banker. It was soon on display for Unger, and subsequently as a deposit for the Zachęta. The Society did not purchase it until 1902, for a truly symbolic sum; the Rosenblum family made a bequest of it to the Nation and to Warsaw. Today the huge canvas is one of the greatest artistic treasures in the National Museum in Poland’s capital. Unger`s pavilion In October 1896 Kurier Warszawski reported that now that the lease for the site of the exhibition hall had expired Count Józef Potocki wanted to restore his Palace to its former grandeur and was going to have the exhibition pavilion dismantled completely, and no trace of it would be left. There were already several Warsaw periodicals with offices in the Palace before the weekly Tygodnik Ilustrowany moved in. From 1848 to 1864 Gazeta Rządowa Królestwa Polskiego, the official government gazette of the Kingdom of Poland, which was issued in a Polish and a Russian edition, had its editorial and administrative office in the wing on the second court; as of 1861 it appeared under a new title, Dziennik Powszechny – Pismo Urzędowe, Polityczne i Naukowe. The location in the Palace of the editorial office of a daily publication entitled Antrakt dedicated to the theatre was an ambitious undertaking which unfortunately proved ephemeral. Alongside repertoires of the Warsaw theatres and news of cultural events, it provided readers with information on famous actors, playwrights, and theatre personalities, as well as reviews. It was published in 1876–1877, but closed down owing to an insufficient number of subscribers. A similar fate befell the weekly Przyroda i Przemysł, which presented information on science and technology to the general reader and was issued by Gebethner and Wolff ’s publishing company in 1878–1881. One of the tenants whose work was associated with the cultural sphere and who rented premises in the Palace was the bookbinder Karol Bagiński, who bound volumes of a series called Wzory sztuki średniowiecznej on medieval art with lithographs by Maksymilian Fajans, for the scholars Aleksander Przezdziecki and Edward Rastawiecki. For several decades there was a bookshop, Zawadzki and Węcki’s, in the corps de garde. When it moved out in 1855 its place was taken by a new bookshop run by Mr. L. Drwalewski, and Henryk Hirszel’s stationery shop which also sold artists’ equipment. Hirszel also started to act as a broker in the sale of works by Warsaw painters, such as Wojciech Gerson, Franciszek Kostrzewski, Henryk Pillati, Tytus Maleszewski, and others, and his shop turned into a miniature gallery. Hirszel also traded in prints and photographs of famous places and fine buildings, such as Gothic churches and monuments in France, England, and other countries, as his advertisements in the daily press said in 1861. He must have had competition from a company known as Skład Rycin i Obrazów, J. Dazziaro, established in September 1855 with a business address in the Potocki Palace. Franciszek Dazziaro, whose company had branches in Moscow, Paris, and St. Petersburg, offered a wide assortment of the best French, English, and German aquarelles, prints, and lithographs, the last-mentioned of which were usually coloured in. Dazziaro published an album with views of Warsaw which was printed in Paris. Credit is due to him as well for establishing working relations with Polish artists like Wojciech Gerson, who did drawings of Polish peasant costumes for him, which were then printed in Paris and sold in his shop on the Krakowskie Przedmieście. In mid1865 Dazziaro’s was taken over by Mr. Nervo, as we are informed by the Warsaw newspapers. In April 1859 Henryk Natanson’s bookshop was established next to Dazziaro’s. It sold chiefly scientific books, mostly medical works, alongside periodicals, atlases, Watercolours, beautiful prints, and professional printers 147 Secrets of the Past and maps. Natanson published a medical weekly called Tygodnik Lekarski, but also the novels of Józef Ignacy Kraszewski with illustrations by Henryk Pillati. We shall now move on to Tygodnik Ilustrowany which earned a well-deserved reputation for merit (Figs. 120–122). The ﬁnest Polish weekly paper Fig. 120. Franciszek Kostrzewski, Portrait of Józef Unger as The Publisher, ca. 1860, pencil drawing; MNW Fig. 121. Marcin Olszyński, a personalised greeting card for Unger, 1884; MNW 148 From the very start Tygodnik Ilustrowany was never affiliated to any of the political movements. It published articles on history and literary works, as well as engraved reproductions of numerous works of art. From its publications readers learned of the successes of Henryk Siemiradzki, Jan Matejko, and other Polish painters, writers, and actors. Many of the top names in literature, such as Henryk Sienkiewicz, Unger`s pavilion Fig. 122. Front page of a Tygodnik Ilustrowany issue for July 1878 Secrets of the Past Wincenty Pol, Bolesław Prus, and Eliza Orzeszkowa, were its collaborators. The paper also published translations of foreign literature, done by writers like Maria Konopnicka, Zenon Przesmycki, and Czesław Jankowski. It drew its income from subscriptions; in 1859, the year in which it was established, it had 300 subscribers, but by the close of the century, when its office was located in the CzartoryskiPotocki Palace, their numbers had risen to nearly 11,000. It was Poland’s most popular illustrated weekly in the Positivist period. The first editorial office Tygodnik Ilustrowany had when it moved to the Palace in 1882 was in the south wing, above Gebethner and Wolff ’s bookshop. Ten years later it transferred to the wing in the Palace’s second court, at the back of No. 17, the building designed by Lanci. An extant postcard from the period shows this location, which Tygodnik Ilustrowany shared with the daily Kurier Codzienny. Both papers were owned by the Gebethner and Wolff company. Today as you enter the court of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage you can imagine the editorial office of Tygodnik Ilustrowany in the 1880s and famous Polish writers like Sienkiewicz, Prus, Przesmycki, or Konopnicka, entering it. From the Potocki Palace the periodical was distributed to all the Polish territories. It had a circulation that reached Polish people living in Russia, and under Austrian and Prussian rule. Research carried out hitherto indicates that it was read chiefly by middle-aged and older people, usually with conservative views. A feature that made a special contribution to its popularity was a new woodblock technique used for its graphics. The publishers set up their Unger`s pavilion own graphics workshop for the paper, which facilitated the publication of numerous quality reproductions of artworks, by painters like Józef Chełmoński, Stanisław Witkiewicz, Aleksander Gierymski, Henryk Siemiradzki, and Jan Matejko. Tygodnik Ilustrowany was thus a truly modern periodical, skilfully combining word and image. It also published cartoons by Franciszek Kostrzewski and, thanks to the initiative of Juliusz Kossak, who was its artistic director for a time, a regular column on historic costumes and arms. Tygodnik Ilustrowany was special also for its size, 27 x 35 cm, unusual for the period, and its modern style of editing. It ran a copious history section, with the biographies of scholars, politicians, and writers, and articles on important national anniversaries. But its most elaborate part was its literary section, which published numerous well-chosen literary works, apart from reviews, writer’s biographies, and illustrations attached to articles on the life and work of historic and contemporary authors. Tygodnik Ilustrowany was where thousands of readers first read Sienkiewicz’s Ogniem i mieczem (By Fire and Sword), Eliza Orzeszkowa’s Nad Niemnem (On the Banks of the Niemen), and Bolesław Prus’ Faraon (Pharaoh), all published in instalments. In 1893 the paper published Sienkiewicz’s short story Pójdźmy za Nim (Let Us Follow Him), which later inspired its author to write the Nobel prizewinning novel Quo Vadis, with its vibrant knowledge of archaeology and profound reflection on Antiquity, the Early Christian period, and Rome. In a non-fiction corollary to what the novelists wrote, the paper also published articles on archaeological excavations in Egypt, Greece, and Italy. It had particularly interesting, professionally written and well-illustrated articles on the excavations in Pompeii which, as we have said, left their mark on the Palace’s interior decoration and were described in Leon Potocki’s book. Conclusion There can only be a surrogate of a conclusion, a few ideas, something like an introduction to a conclusion for which it is far too soon. Endurance, tradition, the aura of past splendour, attempts to restore its components, the conjuring up of an artistic atmosphere by juxtaposing and aligning historic and contemporary works of art – for many years we have been observing all of this in the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, seeing a continuation in the endeavours that inspired the Czartoryski, the Princess Marshal, Stanisław Kostka Potocki and his cousin Józef Potocki. A red car looking like something from intergalactic space or straight from a racing course and parked on the green lawn in the Palace’s court, with Magdalena Abakanowicz’s “Mutants” quietly grazing nearby. Isn’t there something of the enigma of artistic creation about it, an aspect of the mystery of the world, or perhaps the aura of the exhibitions of times bygone in Unger’s gallery, and Matejko, Siemiradzki, Witkiewicz, and Chełmoński visiting it, or maybe the sound of Sienkiewicz’s footsteps on his way to see the editor of Tygodnik Ilustrowany? And on top of that, an echo of the theatre performances, the tableaux vivants, and concerts, the excitement engendered by the Palace’s magnificent interiors and the masterpieces hanging between the bookcases and cabinets of books, prints and engravings? “There used to be…” says Leon Potocki’s book. But THERE STILL IS! – thanks to the vintage photographs, the memoirs, and the film about “The Princess of Łowicz”. Today the Palace has a mission which is quite different from its original purpose, but it has had the good fortune to stay largely under the auspices of the Muses. Even if not all of the Muses used to abide in the Palace in the old days, even if not all of them are present now, doesn’t the concert very likely given here by the young Fryderyk Chopin, doesn’t the music-making by Maria Kalergis, Napoleon dancing with Maria Walewska, the memoirs Niemcewicz wrote here, the plays and tableaux vivants performed here, the frescoes, drawings, and watercolours by Brenna, Vogel, Bojanowicz, and the other artists – doesn’t all this call to mind at least some of the daughters of Mnemosyne – Calliope, Melpomene, Euterpe, Polyhymnia, Thalia, and Clio? Clio, Polyhymnia, and Euterpe have been extending their special care over the corps de garde for a long time now. Originally built as a guardhouse, a few decades later it ceased to serve this purpose and turned into a bookshop, a shop selling artists’ equip- As the business of the Muses has been our subject… 153 Secrets of the Past ment, and finally a jeweller’s shop for artistically crafted jewellery. For several years now the corps de garde has been used as a gallery and small concert hall. In 2010 it was full of the music of Chopin; in 2011, on the anniversary of the Third of May Constitution, the original document, the Government Act known as the Third of May Constitution compiled by men like Stanisław Kostka Potocki and his friend Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, was exhibited here. In one of his letters to Jan Białobłocki in 1826 Chopin wrote that he had bought the music score his friend had asked for, but I had not passed it on to Wysocki yet, who was going to see Białobłocki. The score was full of Euterpes: it was a collection of arias and other pieces by Rossini (Perświet-Sołtan 1926, p. 48). Not only the arias of Rossini were sung in the Palace, but also those of Bellini and many other maestros of the opera. Led and looked after by Apollo, the Muses – daughters of Mnemosyne, Goddess of the Memory, and Zeus – are ubiquitously present in the arts and culture. Once upon a time people called them to mind far more often than we do today. Chopin penned his letter in the environs of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, and sent it off from the post-office which was just round the corner, on the site of what is now the Telimena café, named after Mickiewicz’s stylish heroine. Located on Warsaw’s Royal Route, the headquarters of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage is preserving and cherishing the memory of many works of art and literature and their most distinguished makers. Fate has been kind to the beautiful building at Number 15 on the Krakowskie Przedmieście: it has come down to our times, and so has the memory of what once USED TO BE in it (to use one of the key phrases in Leon Potocki’s book)… Artur Oppman (1867–1931), a well-known Warsaw poet who wrote under the nomde-plume “Or-Ot”, used simple words to describe the swift passage of time and the dramatic oblivion it causes, the fleeting visions of the past, but also the phenomenon of human memory. He was probably thinking of the Warsaw of bygone times, its culture, and perhaps its finest houses, such as the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, thanks to which the national culture managed to survive the long age of dismemberment and non-existence of the Polish State. The atmosphere created by great artists, writers, and poets, and what they achieved lingers on within the confines of these magnificent houses. May that atmosphere and those memories provide us with a wonderful source of inspiration. Here’s how Or-Ot put it: Strange how this world turns and twists, Like a ﬁlm hobgoblins have scrolled… A ﬂash and you’re gone, and won’t be missed, But not in my mind’s eye – there you’re on hold (Moja Warszawa 1949, p. 27) 154 POD OPIEKĄ MUZ 1156 15 56 The Ministry of Culture and National Heritage in a nutshell… The history of the Polish ministry of culture goes back to the restoration of Poland’s independence in 1918 and the establishment of national institutions in the Second Republic of Poland. That was when the Ministry for the Protection of Culture and Fine Arts (Ministerstwo Ochrony Kultury i Sztuk Pięknych) was founded. In 1922 it was amalgamated with the Ministry of Religious Denominations and Public Education (Ministerstwo Wyznań Religijnych i Oświecenia Publicznego) as a department for the arts (Departament Sztuki), and its head was the well-known painter Julian Fałat (1853–1929), one of the most distinguished Polish watercolourists, an individual deeply committed to the revival of Polish cultural life on the restoration of independence. During the Second World War Poland’s government operated in exile, and there was a Department for Cultural Affairs (Dział Spraw Kulturalnych) attached to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Its chief concern was the preservation and care of the national cultural heritage, and assistance for artists living in Poland and in exile. When the People’s Republic of Poland was established in 1944 a department of art and culture was set up, and its first minister was the journalist and politician Wincenty Rzymowski (1883–1950). The Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, which had been gutted by fire during the War, was reconstructed in the late 1940s after a design by Jan Zachwatowicz (1900–1983). Ever since it has housed the Ministry of Art and Culture (Ministerstwo Kultury i Sztuki), the name we have been known by for the longest time. In 1999 it was changed to Ministerstwo Kultury i Dziedzictwa Narodowego (the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage); in 2001 it was shortened to Ministerstwo Kultury (the Ministry of Culture), and in 2005 it reverted to Ministerstwo Kultury i Dziedzictwa Narodowego, the current name. 157 Secrets of the Past In the Ministry’s nigh-on centennial existence we have had many changes in our organisation and range of powers. Currently the Ministry is responsible for culture both in the sense of activity in the arts, educating artists, and looking after the national heritage; as well as for promoting artists and their work, in Poland and abroad. We coordinate the development of cultural and artistic activities by supervising the national and jointly managed cultural institutions, as well as public education in the arts, from the primary schools providing a special music education to the institutions of higher education for the arts. The Ministry also acts as patron of the arts by conducting programmes addressed to a wide circle of recipients and by supporting the best and most promising cultural phenomena. We also manage a pool of EU structural funds and EEA Financial Mechanism funds, thanks to which Poland has been able to enjoy a rapid rate of growth in its cultural infrastructure, thereby enhancing its cultural image in Europe and worldwide. The Ministry is devoting special attention to the dissemination of cultural education in the broad sense of the term – as an instrument to foster the social potential which is helping to create good conditions for the growth of artistic creativity, encouraging more people to take part in cultural affairs, and developing their ability as recipients to make an informed choice in the arts. 158 159 Ministers of Culture 1. Wincenty Rzymowski (21.07.1944 – 2.05.1945) 2. Edmund Zalewski (2.05.1945 – 28.06.1945) 3. Władysław Kowalski (28.06.1945 – 5.02.1947) 4. Stefan Dybowski 5. Włodzimierz Sokorski 6. Karol Kuryluk 7. Kazimierz Rusinek – head of the Ministry 8. Tadeusz Galiński (6.02.1947 – 20.11.1952) (21.11.1952 – 19.04.1956) (19.04.1956 – 29.04.1958) (3.05.1958 – 2.07.1958) (2.07.1958 – 12.12.1964) 9. Lucjan Motyka (12.12.1964 – 26.10.1971) 10. Czesław Wiśniewski – head of the Ministry (26.10.1971 – 22.12.1971) 11. Stanisław Wroński (22.12.1971 – 16.02.1974) 12. Józef Tejchma (16.02.1974 – 26.01.1978) 160 13. Janusz Wilhelmi – head of the Ministry (26.01.1978 – 16.03.1978) 14. Jan Mietkowski (29.03.1978 – 4.07.1978) 15. Zygmunt Najdowski (20.07.1978 – 8.10.1980) 16. Józef Tejchma (8.10.1980 – 9.10.1982) 17. Kazimierz Żygulski (9.10.1982 – 29.09.1986) 18. Aleksander Krawczuk (29.09.1986 – 1.08.1989) 19. Izabella Cywińska (12.09.1989 – 14.12.1990) 20. Marek Rostworowski (12.01.1991 – 5.12.1991) 21. Andrzej Siciński (23.12.1991 – 15.07.1992) 22. Piotr Łukasiewicz – head of the Ministry (15.07.1992 – 17.02.1993) 23. Jerzy Góral (9.02.1993 – 26.10.1993) 24. Kazimierz Dejmek (26.10.1993 – 7.02.1996) 25. Zdzisław Podkański (7.02.1996 – 31.10.1997) 26. Joanna Wnuk-Nazarowa (31.10.1997 – 25.03.1999) 27. Andrzej Zakrzewski (26.03.1999 – 10.02.2000) 28. Kazimierz Michał Ujazdowski (16.03.2000 – 12.07.2001) 29. Andrzej Zieliński (13.07.2001 – 18.10.2001) 30. Andrzej Celiński (19.10.2001 – 5.07.2002) 31. Waldemar Dąbrowski (5.07.2002 – 31.10.2005) 32. Kazimierz Michał Ujazdowski (31.10.2005 – 16.11.2007) 33. Bogdan Zdrojewski (16.11.2007 – 16.06.2014) 34. Małgorzata Omilanowska (since 17.06.2014) 161 Inventory Inventory of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace The Palace at No. 15 on the Krakowskie Przedmieście was built in the Louis XV style in the ﬁrst half of the 18th century by the Sieniawski family. With its two wings and corps de garde, it is one of Warsaw’s major sites of museum value. It has always been regarded as a museum asset rather than as a commercial property. It contains the following works of art valued as museum items and not designated for commercial purposes: I. THE VESTIBULE 1 Old Venetian pearwood bench with back and arm rests, elaborately carved, with an enclosed chest 1 Oak grandfather clock, by Lamreghts [Lambrechts?] of Paris 1 Marble statue of Venus on a marble pedestal Pair of giltwood console tables Pair of Japanese porcelain dishes 1 Antique Louis XVI litter 1 Portrait in oils of Stanisław Potocki, by Brodowski 1 Portrait in oils of King Stanisław August, by Baciarelli II. THE BILLIARD ROOM 1 Wooden console table, with a gilded base and black top 1 carved oak sideboard, containing: 1 Porcelain tureen and lid, vintage Saxon (ﬁrst period), dragon decoration 1 Porcelain tureen and lid, Louis XV, bird and vegetable decoration Pair of Japanese porcelain vases and lids 1 Small porcelain jug and lid, vintage Saxon, landscape decoration 32-piece porcelain tea and coffee set, vintage Saxon, ﬁgural and landscape decoration with a green edge, comprising 14 cups, 14 saucers, 1 sugar bowl, 1 milk jug, 1 teapot, and 1 coffeepot 4 Japanese porcelain dessert bowls 1 Vintage Saxon porcelain plate, relief ﬂower decoration 1 Antique oak cabinet on high legs 165 Secrets of the Past 1 German Renaissance (1560) cabinet, black wood inlaid with ivory 1 Chinese porcelain dish 1 Faience ﬂower basket 1 Japanese porcelain dish (on the wall) 1 Marble bust on a console table Pair of oak console tables Pair of Japanese porcelain dishes 1 Painted faience plate, with the Pilawa arms 1 Enamelled copper plate Pair of Japanese embroidered green velvet cloths III. THE LIBRARY 1 Solid mahogany table, rectangular with gilded decorations (Jacob style) 1 Carved oak extending table, made in the Gdańsk style Pair of gilded mahogany card tables 1 Mahogany folding table (set of 4 small tables with illustrated tops) 1 Gilded mahogany console with a marble top, Empire style Pair of gilded mahogany semi-circular console tables with marble tops, Empire style 1 Wooden chest with bronze trimmings 1 Large globe 1 Portrait in oils of Georgius Cyriakus Potocki, in a gilt frame 1 Portrait in oils of King Stanisław August in his coronation robes, by Marcello Baciarelli 1 Portrait in oils of King Vladislaus IV in his coronation robes, by P. Soutman 1 Portrait in oils of King Henri de Valois, by a follower of Clouet 1 Marble bust of Count Potocki, on a marble column 1 Bronze postument (lion) 1 Bronze postument (two female ﬁgures) 1 Small white marble bust of Napoleon I 1 Bronze clock by Deuier of Paris Pair of porcelain dishes 1 Portrait in oils on an easel, of King Stephen Báthory 1 Clock, “Neptune”, Empire style, standing on a table 1 Wall-to-wall ﬁtted carpet Set of 4 portières with haberdashery decorations 1 Antique (16th century) cloth embroidered with the words “Ave Maria” Set of 4 bronze wall lamps, Empire style decorated with eagles 1 Empire-style gilded chandelier IV. THE COUNT’S BEDROOM 1 Bronze and marble office clock, Louis XVI style 1 Bronze candlestick Pair of bronze candelabra 1 Paperweight in the shape of a fox 1 carved oak table Mahogany and bronze suite (in the Jacob style), comprising 1 Table 166 Inventory 167 Secrets of the Past 168 Inventory 4 Armchairs with velvet and fabric upholstery 4 Chairs with velvet and fabric upholstery 1 Oak cupboard, elaborately carved in the Italian Renaissance style 1 Buczacz wall tapestry 1 Polish gentleman’s ornamental belt 1 Oriental woollen wall tapestry 1 17th -century rug 1 Picture, “The Poacher”, by J. Fałat, in a bronze frame 1 Picture, “Two Soldiers”, by A. Orłowski, in a black frame 1 Picture, “A grey horse”, by A. Orłowski, in a bronze frame 1 Picture, “A soldier on a grey horse”, by A. Orłowski, in a bronze frame 1 Picture, “Head of an old man”, by A. Orłowski, in a gilded frame 1 Picture, “The return of the prisoners-of-war”, by J. Kossak, in a bronze frame 1 Picture, “A horse”, by W. Kossak, in a bronze frame 1 Picture, “The ferry”, by J. Rybkowski 1 Heavy bronze Renaissance candelabrum V. THE COUNT’S WARDROBE 1 Mahogany three-door wardrobe (Jacob style) 1 Mahogany cabinet (Jacob style) 1 Bronze postument (a reclining female ﬁgure) 1 Wall-to-wall ﬁtted carpet VI. THE DINING ROOM 14 White and gilded chairs, upholstered with yellow fabric 1 White and gilded console table with a marble top Pair of white and gilded console tables with marble tops 1 White and gilded console table with a marble top 1 Portrait in oils, “Napoleon I” (Italian school) 1 Empire crystal chandelier VII. THE BALLROOM 1 Venetian glass chandelier 10 Bronze four-candle chandeliers 17-Piece suite of Empire furniture 6 Gilded Empire armchairs with red velvet upholstery (antiques from Rome) Pair of gilded white Empire armchairs 1 Empire étagère with bronze trimmings 1 Mahogany four-panel screen decorated with prints Pair of Empire cabinets with bronze trimmings 1 Empire sofa with green upholstery à caissons et bronzes 1 Large Empire mahogany screen Pair of bronze Empire incense-burners VIII. THE WHITE ROOM 1 Table made of black wood with rich gilding 1 Gilded armchair, upholstered with damask 1 Small walnut armchair, upholstered with damask 169 Secrets of the Past 5 High-backed oak chairs upholstered with damask 1 Antique Italian desk with inlaid decoration 1 Spanish chair, inlaid with bone 1 Cabinet made of gilded black wood 1 Ebony cabinet, with a Florentine mosaic decoration and bronze trimmings 1 Louis XIV cabinet made of red wood with inlaid decorations and gilded bronze trimmings This cabinet contains A set of 24 Sèvres porcelain plates, ca. 1830–1840, sumptuously gilded and decorated with portraits of the ladies of the court of Louis XV A set of 4 square Sèvres porcelain dessert bowls A set of 3 round Sèvres porcelain dessert bowls A pair of similar dessert bowls, shell-shaped Pair of Sèvres porcelain sugar bowls with lids 1 inlaid cupboard with drawers 1 marble statue (of Bacchus and a Bacchante) on a marble plinth Pair of blue gilded Chinese vases 1 Japanese vase 1 Large Japanese antique vase, porcelain 1 Louis XIV bronze clock Pair of Louis XVI bronze candelabras Pair of large Italian faience plates 1 Large Spanish faience plate 1 Oil painting of Bishop Kajetan Sołtyk, by Baciarelli [sic!] 1 Portrait in oils of a man, early 18th century 1 Oil painting, “A Bivouac”, by H. Pillati 1 Oil painting of the drawing room in Wilanów Palace, by Gryglewski 1 Chinese porcelain statue of a dog Pair of Frankenthal porcelain candlesticks, Louis XV style 1 New Saxon porcelain écritoire, with the following on it: Pair of Japanese bronze ﬁgures of cranes 1 Japanese bronze ﬁgure of a peacock on a column 1 Japanese bronze bell 1 ivory ﬁgure of a Chinaman Pair of Chinese marble ﬁgures 1 barometer 1 Glass ﬂower vase 1 Persian carpet 1 Directoire crystal chandelier 1 Louis XV Bergère armchair upholstered with heavy Spanish damask 1 Small gilded table (Louis XVI) with a marble top IX. ANTECHAMBER 1 Louis XIV gilded sofa, upholstered with tapestry Pair of Louis XIV gilded armchairs, upholstered with tapestry 1 Footstool, upholstered with tapestry 1 Table with carved and gilded legs and a marble top 170 Secrets of the Past 172 Inventory 1 Stool with gilded legs and upholstered with black fabric with a ﬂoral pattern Pair of Louis XVI armchairs, upholstered with silk 1 Tea table made of red wood 1 Gilded Louis XIV table with a marble top 1 Louis XVI-style walnut étagère with bronze trimmings, containing: 2 Large Saxon porcelain vases 2 Small Saxon porcelain vases Set of 4 Saxon porcelain openwork baskets, ﬂoral decoration Pair of porcelain vases with new Sèvres painted ﬁgures Pair of new Saxon porcelain vases with lids, with painted tableaux and ﬁgures 1 Gilded étagère made of black wood, containing: 1 New Saxon porcelain group, “The Apotheosis of Augustus III”, with the arms of Saxony 1 Yellow Saxon porcelain vase, on a stand 1 Saxon porcelain teapot, with pictures (music and painting) 1 New Saxon porcelain vase, with a relief ﬂower decoration 1 Cup and saucer, blue Viennese porcelain 1 Similar cup, yellow 1 Similar cup, sapphire blue with gilding 1 Similar cup, pink 1 Cup and saucer, white Berlin porcelain with deer decoration 1 Similar cup, yellow with gilding 1 Gold enamelled watch decorated with pearls 1 Yellow Chinese plaque 1 Wall clock, wood inlaid with tortoiseshell and bronze trimmings, in the Louis XV en boulle style 1 Gilded marble vase 1 Italian mirror, in a gilded grape-cluster frame 1 Portrait in oils of a lady, the wife of Gaston d’Orléans [Marguerite of Lorraine], a copy after van Dyck, in a carved wooden frame (Louis XIV) 1 Oil painting, Marcin Zalewski, “The Church of the Holy Cross” 1 Oil painting, S. La Fontaine, “Church interior”, 1796 1 Oil painting, V.S. Hugues, “ Landscape” 1 Oil painting, genre scene, original Dt monogram 1 Oil painting, F. Esselius, “The Seacoast” 1 Oil painting, signed T. Wynands 1 Oil painting, landscape, Italian school 2 Oil paintings, Bourguignon [Burgundy], battle scenes 2 Oil paintings, generic scenes à la Wouwerman, the smaller one with horses 1 Oil paintig, L. Veverschnur, “Sea landscape” Pair of elephants, Japanese ﬁreside statues made of enamelled copper 1 Louis XVI porcelain clock, bisquit with bronze trimmings Pair of Louis XV porcelain candelabra, bisquit with bronze trimmings 1 Venetian glass chandelier, original 1 Wall-to-wall ﬁtted carpet 1 Chinese carved ivory etui 173 Secrets of the Past X. THE COUNTESS’ BOUDOIR 1 Sofa, with silk upholstery, Louis XVI style Pair of armchairs, with silk upholstery, Louis XVI style 1 Sofa, with damask upholstery, Louis XVI style Pair of Louis XVI armchairs, with damask upholstery 1 Louis XV gilded sofa, with silk upholstery 1 Small Louis XVI sofa, upholstered with pink silk 1 Louis XVI gilded chaise longue, upholstered with silk with a ﬂoral pattern 1 Louis XVI sofa, upholstered with silk 1 Louis XVI armchair, upholstered with silk 1 Small Louis XVI armchair, upholstered 1 Small Viennese armchair, upholstered, Louis XVI style 1 Bench, gilded and upholstered, Louis XIV style 1 Jacob rosewood table with a mosaic top and bronze ﬁttings 1 Rosewood table with bronze trimmings, Louis XVI style 1 Rosewood table with inlay, Louis XV style 1 Antique Italian Renaissance chest of drawers 1 Desk, inlaid and with a marble top, Louis XV style 1 Tall bronze standing lamp 1 Glass cabinet, gilded, containing: 2 Large antique Saxon porcelain groups of amoretti A small coffee set, antique Berlin porcelain 1 Antique Saxon porcelain plate 1 écritoire, a pair of porcelain candlesticks, and a small Sèvres vase mounted in bronze, Louis XV 1 Antique Saxon porcelain plate 1 Blue Saxon porcelain plate 1 Saxon porcelain plate, with a bird decoration 1 Cup and saucer, celadon Saxon porcelain 1 Cup and saucer, Saxon porcelain 1 Cup and saucer, Viennese porcelain 1 similar cup, butterﬂy decoration 1 Louis XVI screen with mirrors 1 Louis XVI screen decorated with prints 1 Portrait in oils, “Portrait of a lady” 1 Oil painting (Prince Marshal Lubomirski) 1 Oil painting, portrait of a lady, on an easel (Princess Ludwika Radziwiłłowa) 1 Saxon porcelain vase (King August), mounted in bronze, Louis XV style 1 White marble statuette of Venus 5-Piece bisquit mantelpiece set 1 Oil painting, Dupré, “Landscape” 1 Pastel picture, Etienne Liotard, “The coffee girl” 2 Small carpets 1 Crystal chandelier mounted in bronze ﬁttings 1 Pastel picture (Prince A. Radziwiłł) PAINTINGS AND SCULPTURES 1 Portrait in oils of Count J. Potocki (Pochwalski) 174 8 7 6 1 5 4 2 3 Ground-ﬂoor plan of the main building of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace 1. Vestibule 2. Library 3. Study 4. Golden Room/Dining Room/Drawing Room III 5. Arabesque Room/ Ballroom/Drawing Room II 6. White Room/Drawing Room I 7. Small Drawing Room/Antechamber 8. Boudoir 175 Secrets of the Past 1 Portrait in oils of Counts Adam and Alfred Potocki, 1832 (Stadler) 1 Oil painting, “King John III in battle against Kara Mustapha, 1683” 1 Oil painting, “Prince Janusz Sanguszko, Lord of the Ostróg Estate-in-Tail” 1 Portrait in oils of Prince Paweł Sanguszko 1 Oil painting, “The Partitioning of Poland” 1 Watercolour by Kossak, “Prince Alfred Potocki on horseback” 1 Painting, “Hunting at Zakrynicze”, by Kossak Senior 1 Painting, “Hunting at Zakrynicze”, by Kossak Senior 1 Painting, “Hunting at Zakrynicze”, (Tally-ho!) 1 Painting, “Achmet the black horse”, by Kossak 1 Jubilee painting by Kossak, “The Hunt” 3 Paintings, “Bison” 1 Oil painting by Kossak, “A Mounted Frenchman” 1 Oil painting by Kossak, “A Four-in-hand carriage next to the stable at Antoniny” 1 Oil painting by Kossak, “Kadi the race horse on the racetrack” 1 Oil painting by Fałat, “Hunting at Nieśwież” 1 Portrait in oils, “Count Józef Potocki on horseback”, by Kossak 1 Oil painting, “Bonaparte” 1 Oil painting, “St. Dorothy’s Church at Sławuta” 1 Portrait in oils of Prince Roman Sanguszko 1 Watercolour, “Stockholm Palace” 1 French print, “War” 1 Oil painting, “Lakeside view” 1 Print, “Kościuszko and Tsar Paul” 1 Watercolour by Rybkowski, “A poplar and the chapel at Antoniny” 1 Oil painting, “An Eagle” 1 Portrait in oils of Count Alfred Potocki 1 Portrait in oils of Count Roman 1 Portrait in oils of Count Józef 1 Oil painting, “Hunting a bear” 1 Watercolour, “Prince Sanguszko and a dwarf”, 1837 1 Watercolour, “Prince Roman and Jadwiga Sanguszko” 1 Painting, “Prince Roman E. Sanguszko in prison” 1 Painting, “Prince Roman E. Sanguszko in Tbilisi” 1 Silver statue, “Count J. Potocki on horseback” 1 Portrait in oils, by Matejko (Exc. Countess Potocka) 1 Portrait in oils of the Duchess of Württemberg 1 Portrait in oils of Count Feliks Potocki 1 Bronze sculpture by Canonica of Count J. Potocki 1 Golden Polish Eagle on a marble plinth 1 Bronze Japanese sculpture, “A lion and a bear” 1 Sculpture, “King John Sobieski” 1 Marble sculpture, “King Stanisław August” 1 Marble sculpture, “The Primate of Poland” 1 Portrait in oils of King Stanisław Leszczyński 1 Portrait in oils, “Prince Michał Poniatowski”, by Bacciarelli 1 Portrait in oils of Queen Maria Leszczyńska 176 Inventory 1 Portrait in oils of Count Mniszech 1 Porcelain ﬁgure of King John Sobieski 1 Louis XV-style sofa Pair of Louis XV-style armchairs 1 Small sofa, Louis XV style 1 Louis XV-style footstool 1 Sławuta carpet, green with deer pattern 1 Grand piano *This inventory for the Palace, which dates back to the times of Józef Mikołaj Potocki (1862–1922) and is kept in the Archives of the Institute of Art History of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, has never been published before. It gives a very good idea of the extraordinary opulence of the collection of artefacts in Count Potocki’s Warsaw residence, and its overtly Polish patriotic nature, as evidenced by the large number of portraits of the kings of Poland and of paintings by Polish artists such as Jan Matejko, Juliusz Kossak, and Julian Fałat. Józef Potocki, who inherited vast estates amounting to nearly 70 thousand hectares in what is now Ukraine, read Law and Administration at the Universities of Lwów, Wilno, and ﬁnally Vienna. As Walerian Meysztowicz writes, he was a ﬁrst-rate landlord and manager of his properties, as well as a grand aristocrat, even prouder than the Russian aristocracy (Meysztowicz 2008, pp. 128–131). His principal residence, Antoniny, 4 km from Zasław (now in Ukraine), designed by the renowned architect Ferdinand Fellner of Vienna, was full of books and works of art such as paintings by Jan Matejko, Józef Brandt, Piotr Stachiewicz, Józef Chełmoński, and Kazimierz Pochwalski. Potocki allowed others to enjoy a share in his wealth; he was the ﬁnancial patron of periodicals Kraj and Słowo, and a benefactor and curator of the Warsaw learned society Towarzystwo Naukowe Warszawskie. His hobbies and favourite pastimes were horses, natural history, travel, and hunting. He published several books on hunting in Africa, and some of them were translated into English and published in London. In 1920 he transferred part of his Antoniny collection, particularly the books, archives, and paintings, to the Potocki Palace in Warsaw, where most of them were destroyed in the ﬁre of 1944 (PSB, Vol. XXVIII, pp. 78-81). The portrait of Potocki in oils on canvas (ca. 1890) we have reproduced in this book, painted and signed by Teodor Axentowicz, comes from the Museum collection at Łańcut Castle. According to the Inventory there was a portrait of Count Józef Potocki by Kazimierz Pochwalski in the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, but its current whereabouts are unknown. 177 Secrets of the Past *We were able to write this book thanks to the work of authors like Antoni Magier, Piotr Bohdziewicz, Aleksander Kraushar, Władysław Konopczyński, Tadeusz Jaroszewski, Marek Kwiatkowski; and above all the authors of the only monograph written on the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace so far, Irena Malinowska and Maria I. Kwiatkowska. We also found the recently published books by Katarzyna Kuras and Jakub Sito an invaluable help; the former sheds new light on the character and achievements of August Aleksander Czartoryski, and the latter on the construction of his Palace on the Krakowskie Przedmieście. Our remarks on the Rococo, the style in which the Palace was built (and not in the Baroque style), owe a lot to the work of Jan Białostocki, Mariusz Karpowicz, and Władysław Tomkiewicz. 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Myers, French Architectural and Ornament Drawings of the Eighteenth Century, New York 1991 Nieco o słusznej nienawiści 1902 – Nieco o słusznej nienawiści Polaków do Moskali, Warsaw 1902 Niemcewicz 1871 – Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, Pamiętniki 1809–1820, vols. 1–2, Poznań 1871 Nieuważny 1999 – Andrzej Nieuważny, My z Napoleonem, Wrocław 1999 Nouvel-Kammerer 2007 – Odile Nouvel-Kammerer, Napoleon and the Art of the Empire Style, New York 2007 Perświet-Sołtan 1926 – Stanisław Perświet-Sołtan, Listy Fryderyka Chopina do Jana Białobłockiego, Warsaw 1926 Bowron, Kerber 2007 – Edgar Peters Bowron, Peter Björn Kerber, Pompeo Batoni – Prince of Painters in Eighteen-Century Rome, New Haven-London, Houston, 2007 Pevsner 1945 – Nikolaus Pevsner, Outline of European Architecture, Harmondsworth 1945 Pokora 1993 – Jakub Pokora, Obraz Najjaśniejszego Pana Stanisława Augusta, Warsaw 1993 Polaczek 2005 – Janusz Polaczek, Sztuka i polityka w Księstwie Warszawskim. Dzieje, forma, treść i dziedzictwo, Rzeszów 2005 Polska stanisławowska w oczach cudzoziemców 1963 – Polska stanisławowska w oczach cudzoziemców, vols. 1–2, Wacław Zawadzki (ed.), Warsaw 1963 Pomian 2006 – Krzysztof Pomian, “Winkelman polski”, [w:] 200 lat muzealnictwa warszawskiego. Dzieje i perspektywy, Warsaw 2006, pp. 15–24 Pompeii as Source and Inspiration 1977 – Pompeii as Source and Inspiration: Reflections In Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Art – an exhibition, Ann Arbor 1977 Popiołek 2003 – Barbara Popiołek, Kobiecy świat w czasach Augusta II. Studia nad mentalnością kobiet z kręgów szlacheckich, Cracow 2003 Porębski 1961 – Mieczysław Porębski, Malowane dzieje, Warsaw 1961 Potocka-Wąsowiczowa Anna z Tyszkiewiczów 1901 – see Memoirs of the Countess Potocka 1901 Potocki 1876 – Leon Potocki, Urywek ze wspomnień pierwszej mej młodości, Poznań 1876 Potocki 1815 – Stanisław Kostka Potocki, O sztuce u dawnych, czyli Winkelman polski, vols. 1–3, Warsaw 1815 Portrety osobistości 1967 – Portrety osobistości polskich znajdujące się w pokojach i w galerii pałacu w Wilanowie, catalogue, Warsaw 1967 Przybylski 1983 – Ryszard Przybylski, Klasycyzm, czyli prawdziwy koniec Królestwa Polskiego, Warsaw 1983 Putkowska 2005 – Jolanta Putkowska, “Pałac Wielopolskich i Franciszka Ksawerego Branickiego przy Nowym Świecie w Warszawie w 2. połowie XVII i XVIII wieku”, Rocznik Historii Sztuki, 2005, pp. 241–246 184 Bibliography Ranocchi 2008 – Emiliano Ranocchi, “Karlsbad, Estate 1785”, [in:] Archeologia-letteratura-collezionismo. Atti del Convegno dedicato a Jan e Stanisław Kostka Potocki 17–18 aprile 2007, Elżbieta Jastrzębowska, Monika Niewójt (eds.), Roma 2008, pp. 32–59 Republic of Nobles 1982 – The Republic of Nobles. Studies in Polish History to 1864, J.K. Fedorowicz, Maria Bogucka, Henryk Samsonowicz (eds.), Cambridge 1982 Romanowska-Zadrożna, Zadrożny 2000 – Maria Romanowska-Zadrożna, Tadeusz Zadrożny, Straty wojenne. Malarstwo obce, Poznań 2000 Romanticism 2000 – Romanticism. Painting in the time of Frederic Chopin / Romantyzm. Malarstwo w czasach Fryderyka Chopina, exhibition catalogue, A. Morawińska (ed.), Warsaw 2000 Rosset, Triaire 2006 – François Rosset, Dominique Triaire, Jan Potocki. Biografia, Anna Wasilewska trad., Warsaw 2006 Rudnicka 1967 – Jadwiga Rudnicka, Biblioteka Wilanowska. Dwieście lat jej dziejów (1741–1932), Warsaw 1967 Rusinowa 1999 – Izabella Rusinowa, Pana Juliana przypadki życia: Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz 1797–1841, Warsaw 1999 Ryszkiewicz 1963 – Andrzej Ryszkiewicz, “Portrait equestre de Stanislas Kostka Potocki par Jacques-Louis David”, Bulletin du Musée National de Varsovie, vol. 4, (3) 1963, pp. 77–95 Ryszkiewicz 1967 – Andrzej Ryszkiewicz, Francusko-polskie związki artystyczne. W kręgu J.L. Davida, Warsaw 1967 Szczublewski 1963 – Józef Szczublewski, Wielki i smutny teatr warszawski (1868– 1880), Warsaw 1963 Semper Polonia 2004 – Semper Polonia. L’art en Pologne des Lumieres au romanticisme (1764–1849), exhibition catalogue, Paris 2004 Sito 2010 – Jakub Sito, Warszawskie inicjatywy budowlano-artystyczne Augusta Aleksandra Czartoryskiego w świetle materiałów archiwalnych z Biblioteki Czartoryskich w Krakowie, Warsaw 2010 Skarbek 1860 – Fryderyk Skarbek, Dzieje Xsięstwa warszawskiego, vols. 1–2, Poznań 1860 Skarbek 1959 – Fryderyk Skarbek, Pamiętniki Seglasa, Kazimierz Bartoszyński (ed.), Warsaw 1959 Skarbek 2009 – Pamiętniki Fryderyka hrabiego Skarbka, Piotr Mysłakowski (ed.), Warsaw 2009 Sroczyńska 1969 – Krystyna Sroczyńska, Zygmunt Vogel – rysownik gabinetowy Stanisława Augusta, Wrocław 1969 Sroczyńska 1985 – Krystyna Sroczyńska, Antoni Brodowski 1784–1832, życie i dzieło, Warsaw 1985 Sulerzyska 1970 – Teresa Sulerzyska, “Architekt Piotr Hiż. Problem autorstwa”, Biuletyn Historii Sztuki, 32, 1970, 3–4, pp. 377–378 Sutherland 1979 – Christine Sutherland, Marie Walewska, Napoleon’s Great Love, London 1979 Starzyński 1956 – Juliusz Starzyński, “Stanisław Kostka Potocki jako historyk i teoretyk sztuki”, Rocznik Historii Sztuki I, 1956, pp. 425–430 Sublime 2000 – The Sublime: A Reader in British Eighteenth-century Aesthetic Theory, Andrew Ashfield, Peter de Bolla (eds.), Cambridge 2000 Szenic 1963 – Stanisław Szenic, Maria Kalergis, Warsaw 1963 Święcone 1854 – Bonawentura z Kochanowa (Leon Potocki), Święcone czyli Pałac Potockich w Warszawie, Poznań 1854 185 SecretsOPIEKĄ POD of the Past MUZ 186 Bibliography Tomkiewicz 2005 – Władysław Tomkiewicz, Rokoko, Warsaw 2005 Touchette 2000 – Lori-Ann Touchette, “Sir William Hamilton’s ‘Pantomime Mistress’: Emma Hamilton and Her Attitudes”, [in:] The Impact of Italy. The Grand Tour and Beyond, Clare Hornsby (ed.), London 2000, pp. 123-146 Tuszyńska 1990 – Agata Tuszyńska, Rosjanie w Warszawie, Warsaw 1990 Urbański 1924 – Antoni Urbański, “Przyjęcie w pałacu Potockich przed stu pięćdziesięciu laty i teraz”, Pani, 3, 1924, No. 12 (December), pp. 28–31 Uroda portretu 2009 – Uroda portretu, exhibition catalogue, Warsaw 2009 Varsavia 1987 – Varsavia. Immagine e storia di una capitale, exhibition catalogue, Ferrara 1987 Voisé, Głowacka-Pocheć 1975 – Irena Voisé, Teresa Głowacka-Pocheć, Galeria malarstwa Stanisława Kostki Potockiego w Wilanowie, Warsaw 1975 Waliszewski 1887 – Kazimierz Waliszewski, Potoccy i Czartoryscy, Cracow 1887 Wasylewski 1962 – Stanisław Wasylewski, Życie polskie w XIX wieku, Warsaw 1962 Wawrykowa 1998 – Maria Wawrykowa, Historia powszechna: 1850–1914, Warsaw 1998 Wiercińska 1961 – Janina Wiercińska, “Towarzystwo Zachęty Sztuk Pięknych w Warszawie (1860-1914). W setną rocznicę powstania”, [in:] Rocznik Warszawski, 1961 (1962), vol. 2, pp. 64-99 Wiercińska 1968 – Janina Wiercińska, Towarzystwo Zachęty Sztuk Pięknych w Warszawie: zarys działalności, Wrocław 1968 Wiercińska 1969 – Janina Wiercińska, Katalog prac wystawionych w Towarzystwie Zachęty Sztuk Pięknych w Warszawie w latach 1860–1914, Wrocław 1969 Wilanów Collection 2005 – Wilanów Collection, Jadwiga Mieleszko (ed.), Warsaw 2005 Wilson-Smith 1996 – Timothy Wilson-Smith, Napoleon and his artists, London 1996 Zahorska 1932 – Stefania Zahorska, “Kronika filmowa”, Wiadomości Literackie, 1932, No. 44, p. 5 Zaleski 1971 – Antoni Zaleski, Towarzystwo warszawskie. Listy do przyjaciółki przez baronową XYZ, Warsaw 1971 Zdziechowski 1920 – Marian Zdziechowski, Wpływy rosyjskie na duszę polską, Cracow 1920 Zielińska 1983 – Zofia Zielińska, Walka “Familii” o reformę Rzeczypospolitej 1743– 1752, Warsaw 1983 Zieliński 2001 – Jarosław Zieliński, Atlas dawnej architektury Warszawy, t. 7, Warsaw 2001 187 POD P PO D OP OPIE OPIEKĄ I KĄ M IE MUZ UZ Z 1888 18 189 18 89 Secrets of the Past List of Illustrations 1. Leon Potocki, Święcone czyli Pałac Potockich w Warszawie, Poznań 1854; BNW. Title page of Leon Potocki’s book on the Potocki Palace 2. The Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, Warsaw, in 2011. Photo by Hubert Kowalski 3. Peter Schenk, View of the court of Marywil, copperplate engraving, 1703; MNW. Photo by Piotr Ligier 4. Plan of the City of Warsaw, dedicated to His Majesty Augustus III, King of Poland, Elector of Saxony, made by order of Count Bieliński, Lord Grand Marshal of Poland, by the engineer Lt.-Col. P. Ricaud de Tirregaille in the service of His Majesty and the Republic of Poland, 1762; AGAD 5. Peter Schenk, The Denhoff residence, detail of Fig. 3; MNW 6. Unidentified painter, Portrait of Lord Hetman Sieniawski and his wife, with their daughter Maria Zofia and her first husband, Stanisław Denhoff, oils on canvas, 1724–26; Wilanów Palace Museum 7. Unidentified painter, Portrait of Stanisław Ernest Denhoff, Lord Field Hetman of Lithuania, oils on canvas, ca. 1720; Royal Łazienki Museum in Warsaw 8. Unidentified painter, Portrait of August Aleksander Czartoryski, oils on canvas, 1730s; Wilanów Palace Museum. On what is probably the best of all the Prince’s known portraits we see a self-confident, proud, and intelligent man in his mid-thirties. His apparel, a breastplate and ermine-lined cloak, displayed against a homogeneous dark background, endow him with an air of nobility, a perfect match, it seems, for his ambition to obtain the throne. The exquisitely painted face, the highlights on the breastplate, the delicately applied Crimson verging on purple, and the unobtrusively presented cross of honour make this painting an outstanding work of art. 9. Elevation of the main building of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, 1762; detail from the vignette of Ricaud de Tirregaille’s plan of Warsaw; AGAD 10. Design for the elevation of the Palace’s main building and portico, ca. 1840, pen-andink drawing; BNW. A question arises: when was the Palace’s Classicising conversion, including the addition of its Doric portico, done? Perhaps not until the 19th century? 11. View of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, ca. 1928. Photo by Henryk Poddębski; ISPAN 12. Ruins of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, façade of the main building, 1945. Photo by Leonard Sempoliński; NID 13. View of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace in 2011. Photo by Hubert Kowalski 14. Design for the elevation of the Palace’s north wing, ca. 1840, pen-and-ink drawing; BNW 15. Elevation of the Palace’s north wing, ca. 1915–18; ISPAN 16. Detail on the south wing of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, 2011. Photo by Hubert Kowalski 17. Vase at the top of the attic on the south wing of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, 2011. Photo by Hubert Kowalski 18. View of the Palace’s corps de garde, 1930; ISPAN. Photo by Henryk Poddębski 19. View of the Palace’s corps de garde, 2011. Photo by Hubert Kowalski 20. View of the Palace’s corps de garde, 2011. Photo by Hubert Kowalski 21. View of the corps de garde from the Palace’s court, 1895; MNW. Photo by Piotr Ligier 22. View of the corps de garde from the Palace’s court, before 1939; BNW. Photo by Leonard Sempoliński 190 List of illustrations 23. View of the corps de garde from the Palace’s court, 2011. Photo by Hubert Kowalski 24. Statue of Mars (or Bellona) on the corps de garde, 1951; ISPAN 25. Statue of Mars (or Bellona) on the corps de garde, 2011. Photo by Hubert Kowalski 26. Statues of putti on the corps de garde, 2011. Photo by Hubert Kowalski 27. Sculptural decoration of the corps de garde, 2011. Photo by Hubert Kowalski 28. Sculptural group decorating the corps de garde, 2011. Photo by Hubert Kowalski 29. Anton Raphael Mengs (?), Portrait of Giacomo Casanova, oils on canvas, 1768; private collection. The frame is an excellent example of the Rococo style with an elegant rocaille ornament. 30. Efraim Szreger, Design for the fountain put up in Warsaw for King Stanisław August’s name day in 1766, drawing; GR BUW 31. Marcello Bacciarelli, Portrait of Prince Stanisław Lubomirski, oils on canvas, ca. 1770; Wilanów Palace Museum 32. Alexander Roslin, Portrait of the Princess Marshal Izabela Lubomirska née Czartoryska, before 1781, oils on canvas; Wilanów Palace Museum 33. The Doric portico on the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, 2011. Photo by Hubert Kowalski 34. The Golden Room, before 1939 [ca. 1924]; ISPAN 35. Interior of the Arabesque/Pompeian Room, 1938; MW. Photo by Zofia Chomętowska 36. Interior of the Arabesque/Pompeian Room, ca. 1924; MNW. Photo by Piotr Ligier 37. Interior of the Arabesque/Pompeian Room, 1938; MW. Photo by Zofia Chomętowska 38. Interior of the Arabesque/Pompeian Room, 1895; MNW. Photo by Piotr Ligier 39. A Centauride and Bacchant; watercolour (copy made ca. 1785 of a detail from a painting in the Villa of Cicero at Pompeii; after an engraving in Antichita di Ercolano, vol. 1, tab. XXVIII); GR BUW 40. Count Soter Krasicki, Plan of the Hon. Princess Marshal Lubomirska’s garden, 1783– 1794; GR BUW 41. Charles Bechon, Portrait of Jan Chrystian Kamsetzer, miniature, 1789; MNW. Photo by Piotr Ligier 42. Jan Chrystian Kamsetzer, Design for interior decoration, ca. 1785; GR BUW 43. Interior of the vestibule of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, with the portraits of King Stanisław August and Stanisław Kostka Potocki, ca. 1924; ISPAN 44. Marcello Bacciarelli, Portrait of Stanisław August Poniatowski and the bust of Pius VI, oils on canvas. A copy of this painting used to hang in the vestibule of the Palace (see Fig. 43). The Ciechanowiecki Foundation at the Royal Castle of Warsaw 45. Angelika Kauffmann, Henryk Lubomirski as Cupid, oils on canvas, 1786; Lviv, Lviv National Art Gallery (Ukraine) 46. Elisabeth-Louise Vigée Lebrun, Portrait of Henryk Lubomirski as the genius of fame; oils on oak board, 1789; Berlin, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Photo by Jörg P. Anders, The BPK/BE&W Agency 47. Domenico Zampieri (Domenichino), “The Guardian Angel”, workshop version, slightly smaller than the original, oils on canvas, early 17th c.; Wilanów Palace Museum 48. Pompeo Batoni, Aleksandra Potocka née Lubomirska (the wife of Stanisław Kostka) as Melpomene, oils on canvas, 1780; Wilanów Palace Museum 49. Jacques-Louis David, Portrait of Stanisław Kostka Potocki on horseback, oils on canvas, 1781; Wilanów Palace Museum 50. Pompeo Batoni, Apollo and two Muses, Euterpe and Urania, replica, oils on canvas, after 1741; Wilanów Palace Museum 51. Antoni Blank, Portrait of Stanisław Kostka Potocki, oils on canvas, ca. 1815; Wilanów Palace Museum 191 Secrets of the Past 52. Antoni Brodowski, Portrait of Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, oils on canvas, 1820; Wilanów Palace Museum 53. The Wilanów Library in the Palace of the Republic of Poland: the Special Collections of the National Library. Reproduction by courtesy of the National Library of Poland. Photo by Jan Kriwol 54. Aleksander Kokular, Portrait of Aleksander Potocki, son of Stanisław Kostka, oils on canvas, ca. 1830; Wilanów Palace Museum 55. Johann Ender, Portrait of Natalia Sanguszkowa née Potocka, daughter of Aleksander Potocki, oils on canvas, 1829; Wilanów Palace Museum 56. Design for the arrangement of Aleksander Potocki’s study, ca. 1820, pencil drawing; BNW 57. The Corpus Christi procession on the Krakowskie Przedmieście and Czysta street corner, 30th May 1861. Photo by Karol Beyer 58. Gebethner and Wolff ’s bookshop on the Krakowskie Przedmieście, May 1933; NAC 59. German bookshop in Warsaw under wartime occupation, July 1941. Photo by Mieczysław Bilażewski-Bil; NAC 60. P. Tyrowicz, Portrait of Stanisław Potocki in the Polish national costume, oils on canvas, 1848; Wilanów Palace Museum 61. No. 17 on the Krakowskie Przedmieście in 2011. Photo by Hubert Kowalski 62. View of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace ca. 1900; ISPAN 63. View of the Krakowskie Przedmieście – Czysta junction, before 1886; ISPAN 64. View of the entrance gate to the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, 1938; MW. Photo by Zofia Chomętowska 65. View of the entrance gate to the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, period between the World Wars; ISPAN 66. Detail on the Palace gate, with the Pilawa arms, 2011. Photo by Hubert Kowalski 67. The Boudoir/Green Drawing Room, ca. 1924; ISPAN. Photo by Leonard Kowalski 68. The Small Drawing Room, ca. 1924; ISPAN. Photo by Leonard Kowalski 69. The Boudoir/Green Drawing Room, ca. 1924; ISPAN. Photo by Leonard Kowalski 70. The Small Drawing Room, ca. 1924; ISPAN. Photo by Leonard Kowalski 71. Interior of the Library, ca. 1924; ISPAN 72. Bartholomeus Milwitz, Portrait of Vladislaus IV in his coronation robes, after 1636, oils on canvas; MNW. Photo by Piotr Ligier 73. Interior of the Drawing Room/Golden Room/Dining Hall, 1938; MW. Photo by Zofia Chomętowska 74. Marcello Bacciarelli, Portrait of Stanisław August Poniatowski in his coronation robes, oils on canvas, 1764; Muzeum Lubelskie, Lublin. Photo by Piotr Maciuk 75. The ground-floor study in the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, ca. 1924; ISPAN 76. Marcello Bacciarelli, Portrait of Kajetan Sołtyk, oils on canvas, 1768; Wawel Royal Castle. A replica of this painting used to be part of the decoration of the Palace’s White Room 77. Interior of the White Room in the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, with a marble sculptural group of a Satyr and a Bacchante, before 1939; ISPAN 78. Interior of the Library in the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, ca. 1924; ISPAN 79. Portrait of Jan Potocki, photograph, ca. 1924; MNW. Photo by Piotr Ligier 80. Jan Chrzciciel Lampi (Giovanni Battista Lampi) the Elder (?), Portrait of Jan Potocki, copy, oils on canvas; Wilanów Palace Museum 81. Ruins of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace in the aftermath of wartime devastation, 1945; MW. Photo by A. Funkiewicz 192 List of illustrations 82. Ruins of the south wing of the Palace from ulica Czysta in the aftermath of wartime devastation, 1945; MW. Photo by A. Funkiewicz 83. Interior of the Drawing Room/Arabesque Room in the aftermath of wartime devastation, 1945; MW. Photo by Zofia Chomętowska 84. Entrance way to the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace in the aftermath of wartime devastation, 1945; MW. Photo by Zofia Chomętowska 85. Interior of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace in the aftermath of wartime devastation, 1945; MW. Photo by Zofia Chomętowska 86. Military review in the Palace court; scene from the film The Princess of Łowicz, 1932; NAC 87. Military parade in the Palace court; scene from the film The Princess of Łowicz, 1932; NAC 88. Military parade in the Palace court; scene from the film The Princess of Łowicz, 1932; NAC 89. Jadwiga Smosarska as Joanna Grudzińska (the Princess of Łowicz) and Józef Węgrzyn as Walerian Łukasiński in a scene from the film The Princess of Łowicz, 1932; NAC 90. Unidentified painter, Maria Zofia Czartoryska née Sieniawska, oils on canvas, 1st half of 18th c., Wilanów Palace Museum 91. Unidentified painter, Portrait of Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski, pastels, 2nd half of 18th c.; Wilanów Palace Museum 92. Interior of the Library in the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, 1938; MW. Photo by Zofia Chomętowska 93. Marcello Bacciarelli, Napoleon grants the Duchy of Warsaw its Constitution, 1811, oils on canvas; MNW. Photo by Krzysztof Wilczyński 94. François Gérard, Joachim Murat, 1801, oils on canvas; Château de Versailles. Photo by Philippe Sébert, The RMN/BE&W Agency 95. Leon Potocki, Święcone czyli Pałac Potockich w Warszawie, Poznań 1861; BNW. Title page of the second edition of Leon Potocki’s book on the Potocki Palace (Poznań, 1861). The small volume by Bonawentura of Kochanów (Potocki’s pen-name) must have enjoyed considerable popularity to go into a second, more decorative edition. 96. Unidentified painter, Portrait of Anna (“Anetka”) Tyszkiewicz née Potocka, ca. 1800; MNW. Photo by Piotr Ligier 97. Kazimierz Wojniakowski after an original idea by Wojciech Bogusławski; aquatint by Jan Ligber; “Napoleon as the Rising Sun”: standard displayed in the Teatr Narodowy on 18th January 1807 on the occasion of Napoleon’s attendance at a performance of Ludwik Osiński’s play Andromeda. The aquatint is kept in the Muzeum Teatralne collection in Warsaw. There is a distinct connection between the Emperor’s apotheosis on these artefacts and the warm, well-nigh affectionate attitude to him in Leon Potocki’s book. After nearly half a century Napoleon was still an important person for Poles and affectionately remembered by them. The Theatre Museum, Warsaw 98. Josef Grassi, Portrait of Prince Józef Poniatowski, oils on canvas, ca. 1810; ZKW. Photo by A. Ring and B. Tropiło. The Prince has high-ranking military distinctions on his uniform: the Virtuti Militari, which King Stanisław August founded after the Battle of Zieleńce, and the Order of the White Eagle. On hearing of the King’s accession to the proRussian Confederation of Targowica, Prince Józef returned the Orders of the White Eagle and of St. Stanislaus. 99. Louis Marteau, Portrait of Izabela Czartoryska, pastels, ca. 1760; Wilanów Palace Museum 100. Jan Rustem, Group portrait of Maria Mirska, Barbara Szumska, and Adam Napoleon Mirski, ca. 1808, oils on canvas; MNW. Photo by Piotr Ligier 193 SecretsOPIEKĄ POD of the Past MUZ 194 List of illustrations 101. Dancer with cymbals, watercolours. Copy made around 1785 of a detail from a painting in the Villa of Cicero at Pompeii, after a drawing in Antichità di Ercolano (vol. 1, tab. XXI); GR BUW. The Pompeian dancers in this publication were undoubtedly an inspiration for painters and palace performances alike. 102. Laura Potocka, “Un Coup d’Oeil dans l’Avenir!” Cartoon showing the social life of the Potocki Palace under the Duchy of Warsaw, 1809, pen-and-ink and pencil drawing; MNW. Photo by Piotr Ligier 103. Title page of Julian Ursyn Niemczewicz’s poetic history of Poland set to music (1816) 104. Maria Kalergis, photograph; The Theatre Museum, Warsaw 105. Eliza Radziwiłłówna, Portrait of Fryderyk Chopin at the piano, drawing, 1826; NIFC 106. Cyprian Kamil Norwid, Portrait of Maria Kalergis with roses in her hair, pen-and-ink drawing, ca. 1848; BNW, Warsaw 107. Maria Kalergis, photograph; The Theatre Museum, Warsaw. Photo by Karol Beyer 108. Gracjan Unger, photograph; Archiwum Miasta Stołecznego Warszawy (Warsaw Municipal Archives). Photo by W. Twardzicki 109. Unger’s art gallery in the Palace court, photograph, 1896; Archiwum Miasta Stołecznego Warszawy (Warsaw Municipal Archives) 110. Title page of the catalogue for the University of Warsaw’s 1825 art exhibition; BUW 111. Catalogue for the University of Warsaw’s 1825 art exhibition; BUW 112. Interior of Józef Unger’s art gallery on ulica Niecała during the exhibition of the works of Maurycy Gottlieb, 1879 113. Exhibition of Jan Matejko’s “Battle of Grunwald” and “Prussian Homage” in the pavilion on the Krakowskie Przedmieście, drawing, 1882 114. Interior of Józef Unger’s art gallery in the pavilion in the court of the CzartoryskiPotocki Palace, during the exhibition of Matejko’s “Battle of Grunwald”, 1881 115. Jan Matejko, “The Battle of Grunwald”, 1878, oils on canvas; MNW. Photo by Piotr Ligier 116. Jan Matejko, “The Battle of Grunwald”, detail, 1878, oils on canvas; MNW. Photo by Piotr Ligier 117. Jan Matejko, “The Prussian Homage”, oils on canvas, 1880–1882; The Cloth Hall, National Museum in Kraków 118. Jan Matejko, “The Prussian Homage”, detail, 1880–1882, oils on canvas; The Cloth Hall, National Museum in Kraków 119. Jan Matejko, “The Prussian Homage”, detail, 1880–1882, oils on canvas; The Cloth Hall, National Museum in Kraków 120. Franciszek Kostrzewski, Portrait of Józef Unger as The Publisher, ca. 1860, pencil drawing; MNW. Photo by Piotr Ligier 121. Marcin Olszyński, a personalised greeting card for Unger, 1884; MNW. Photo by Piotr Ligier 122. Front page of a Tygodnik Ilustrowany issue for July 1878 p. 2. The Czartoryski-Potocki Palace in 1930; ISPAN. Photo by Henryk Poddębski p. 6. The corps de garde by night, 2011. Photo by Hubert Kowalski p. 20. Unidentified painter, Portrait of Aleksander Czartoryski, 1730, oils on canvas; Wilanów Palace Museum p. 26. The Czartoryski-Potocki Palace ca. 1928; ISPAN. Photo by Henryk Poddębski p. 34. View of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace from the court of the Governor’s (Presidential) Palace, ca. 1925; ISPAN p. 58. Marcello Bacciarelli, Izabela Lubomirska née Czartoryska, wife of Stanislaw Czartoryski, Lord Grand Marshal of Poland, 1757; Wilanów Palace Museum 195 Secrets of the Past p. 72. The Krakowskie Przedmieście – Czysta junction, ca. 1918–20; ISPAN p. 104. Anton Graff , Portrait of Stanisław Kostka Potocki, 1785; Wilanów Palace Museum p. 108. François Gérard, Napoleon I in his coronation robes, 1805, oils on canvas; The Louvre, Paris. Photo by Philippe Sébert, The RMN/BE&W Agency p. 114. François Gérard, Maria Walewska, ca. 1810, oils on canvas, Paris, Musée de l’Armée. Photo by Philippe Sébert, The RMN/BE&W Agency p. 132–133. William H. Lindley, Plan of Warsaw, scale 1:250 [?], 1897; Biuro Geodezji i Katastru, Wydział Warszawskiego Systemu Informacji o Terenie (Surveying and Cadastral Office, Department for the Warsaw Land Data System) p. 150–151. The Krakowskie Przedmieście – Czysta junction, postcard; Archiwum Miasta Stołecznego Warszawy (Warsaw Municipal Archives) p. 152. The court of the Palace, 2011. Photo by Hubert Kowalski p. 155. Detail on the entrance gate to the Palace, 2011. Photo by Hubert Kowalski p. 156. The corps de garde, 2011. Photo by Hubert Kowalski p. 158. The White Room, now the Minister’s office, 2011. Photo by Hubert Kowalski p. 159. The Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, 2011. Photo by Hubert Kowalski p. 162–163. The White Room in the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, ca. 1924; ISPAN p. 164. Ground-floor plan of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace ca. 1920; ISPAN. p. 167. Carved walnut grandfather clock, 1895, Album architektoniczne; MNW. Photo by Piotr Ligier p. 168. Gilded Venetian console table, 1895, Album architektoniczne; MNW. Photo by Piotr Ligier p. 171. Italian inlaid and carved cabinet, 1895, Album architektoniczne; MNW. Photo by Piotr Ligier p. 172. Italian carved bench, 1895, Album architektoniczne; MNW. Photo by Piotr Ligier p. 175. Ground-floor plan of the main building of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, 1930–31; ISPAN. 1. Vestibule 2. Library 3. Study 4. Golden Room/Dining Room/Drawing Room III 5. Arabesque Room/ Ballroom/ Drawing Room II 6. White Room/Drawing Room I 7. Small Drawing Room/Antechamber 8. Boudoir p. 177. Teodor Axentowicz, Portrait of Józef Potocki, oils on canvas, ca. 1890; Łańcut Castle Museum p. 178–179. Elevation of the north wing of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, ca. 1915–18; ISPAN p. 186. Interior of the White Room in the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, 1895 p. 187. Detail of the rosette in the Golden/Dining Room, 1895 p. 188–189. Vestibule of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, 1930s; ISPAN p. 194. Garden elevation of the Czartoryski-Potocki Palace, 2011. Photo by Hubert Kowalski p. 197. Putto on the corps de garde, 2011. Photo by Hubert Kowalski p. 198. Design for the court of the Palace, ca. 1840; BNW p. 200–201. Antonio Rizzi Zannoni, Plan of Warsaw, 1772; Archiwum Miasta Stołecznego Warszawy (Warsaw Municipal Archives) p. 202. Decoration on the Palace’s entrance gate, 2011. Photo by Hubert Kowalski p. 216. Supraporte in the Palace’s Arabesque Room, 1895, Album architektoniczne; MNW. Photo by Piotr Ligier Flyleaves: Count Józef Potocki’s Palace, Warschau 1916, photo album published by the German Occupation Government, Warsaw, 1917; BUW 196 List of illustrations INDEKS 197 POD PO P OD O OP OPIEKĄ PIE IEKĄ KĄ M MUZ UZ UZ 198 119 98 List of abbreviations List of abbreviations AGAD – Archiwum Główne Akt Dawnych w Warszawie, Central Archives of Historical Records BHS – Biuletyn Historii Sztuki, the leading Polish academic periodical on art history BNW – Biblioteka Narodowa w Warszawie, The National Library of Poland BUW – Biblioteka Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, The University of Warsaw Library GR BUW – Gabinet Rycin Biblioteki Uniwersyteckiej w Warszawie, The Print Room in the University of Warsaw Library ISPAN – Instytut Sztuki Polskiej Akademii Nauk, The Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences MNK – Muzeum Narodowe w Krakowie, The National Museum in Kraków MNW – Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie, The National Museum in Warsaw MW – Muzeum Warszawy, The Museum of Warsaw NAC – Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe, The National Digital Archives of Poland NID – Narodowy Instytut Dziedzictwa, The National Heritage Board of Poland NIFC – Narodowy Instytut Fryderyka Chopina, The Fryderyk Chopin Institute PSB – Polski Słownik Biograﬁczny, the multi-volume Polish national biographical dictionary ZKW – Zamek Królewski w Warszawie, The Royal Castle in Warsaw 199 POD PO P OD O OP OPIEKĄ PIE EK KĄ ĄM MUZ UZ UZ 200 220 00 INDEKS IIN NDE DEK KSS 201 220 01 SecretsOPIEKĄ POD of the Past MUZ 202 Index Index Abakanowicz, Magdalena 153 Abbéma, Louise 146 Ajdukiewicz, Tadeusz 145 Ajnenkiel, Andrzej 180 Alchimowicz, Kazimierz 146 Alexander I Romanov, Tsar of Russia and “king of Poland” 67, 105, 134, 135 Alexander II Romanov, Tsar of Russia 135 Amor (Cupid), myth. 54–55 Andriolli, Michał Elwiro 145 Apollo, myth. 40, 52, 60, 126, 154, 191 Ashfield, Andrew 185 Augustus II, King of Poland 16, 17, 21, 184 Augustus III, King of Poland 14, 21, 44, 84, 88, 102, 103, 173, 190 Averlino, Antonio, Filarete 76 Axentowicz, Teodor 93, 177, 196 Babst (ébéniste) 52 Bacchant, myth. 51, 191 Bacchante, myth. 88, 120, 170, 192 Bacchus, myth. 45, 126, 170 Bacciarelli, Marcello 7, 45, 54, 59, 86, 88, 106, 107, 122, 165, 166, 170, 176, 181, 191–193, 195 Bach, Johann Sebastian 129 Baden, Grand Duke of, see Charles, Grand Duke of Baden Bagiński, Karol 147 Bakałowicz, Władysław 145 Baliński, Ignacy 74, 130, 140, 144, 146, 180 Baliszewski, Mikołaj 183 Barbara Radziwiłłówna, Queen of Poland 126, 137 Bartczakowa, Aldona 180 Bartoszyński, Kazimierz 185 Batoni, Pompeo Girolamo 56, 57, 60, 184, 191 Batowska, Natalia 180 Batowski, Zygmunt 180 Bavaria, King (Prince) of, see Maximilian I Joseph Bavaria, King of, see Ludwig III Bąbiak, Grzegorz 69, 76, 180 Beaufort, Duchess of (Berkeley, Elizabeth, wife of 4th Duke of Beaufort?) 59 Bechon, Charles 52, 191 Bellini, Vincenzo 129, 154 Benjamin, Walter 54, 180 Benke (ébéniste) 52 Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, Jacques Henri 103 Bernatowicz, Aleksandra 180 Bernhardt, Sarah (born Henriette Rosine Bernardt) 146 Bernoulli, Johann 103 Berthier, Louis Alexandre 112, 117 Beseler, Hans Hartwig von 97 Beyer, Karol 192, 195 Białobłocki, Jan 154, 184 Białostocki, Jan 42, 180, 181 Bieliński, Franciszek 14, 23, 190 Bieliński, Piotr 110 203 Secrets of the Past Bilażewski-Bil, Mieczysław 192 Blank (Blank-Białecki), Jan Antoni 62, 134, 135, 191 Blondel, Nicolas François 52 Boehn, Max von 181 Boerhaave, Hermann 44 Boffrand, Germain 42 Bogucka, Maria 185 Bogusławski, Wojciech 118, 193 Bohdziewicz, Piotr 22, 180, 181 Bojanowicz, Jan 41, 153 Bolla, Peter de 185 Boisgelin de Kerdu de, Pierre-Marie-Louis, (Caillot-Duval) 54 Bona Sforza d’Aragona, Queen of Poland 125, 126 Bonawentura of Kochanów, see Potocki, Leon Borghese-Guastalla, Prince: Don Camillo Filippo Ludovico Borghese, Prince of Sulmona and of Rossano, Duke and Prince of Guastalla 112 Boucher, François 54, 88 Bourbon royal family 47, 124 Bowron, Edgar Peters 184 Brandes, George 67, 181 Brandt, Józef 145, 177 Branicki family 42 Branicki, Franciszek Ksawery 184 Bray, Baron de – Bray, François-Gabriel, Comte de 112 Brenna, Vincenzo 49, 52, 53, 153 Brodowski, Antoni 64, 121, 122, 135, 165, 185, 192 Brodziński, Kazimierz 43, 106, 181 Broniec, Adam (?) 112 Bronikowska (Amelia, daughter of Mikołaj Oppeln-Bronikowski?) 117 Brožík, Václav 144 Brühl, Henrich von 102 Brumer, Witold 98 Brutus (Marcus Iunius Brutus) 103 “Brzozia” (unidentified aristocratic lady) 122 Buchbinder, Szymon 146 Burke, Edmund 43 Calliope, myth. 153 Carace, see Carracci, Hannibal Carracci, Hannibal (Annibale) 54, 110, 121 Casanova, Giacomo 7, 42–44, 181, 191 Catherine de Medici, Queen of France 127 Catherine II (Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg), Empress of Russia 135 Cecylia Renata, Queen of Poland 16 Celiński, Andrzej 161 Cellary, Dominik 64, 66 Cellini, Benvenuto (Bonaventura) 127 Centauride, myth. 51, 54 191 Ceres, myth. 29 Charles, Grand Duke of Baden 112, 113 Chełmoński, Józef 151, 153, 177 Chłędowski, Kazimierz 181 Chomętowska, Zofia 191–193 Chopin family 120 Chopin, Frédéric (Szopen, Fryderyk) 11, 40, 64–66, 75, 106, 127, 129, 130, 153, 154, 181, 184, 185, 195, 199 Chrościcki, Juliusz A. 180 Chyczewska, Alina 110, 181 204 Index Cicero (Marcus Tullius Cicero) 9, 51, 54, 121, 191, 195 Cichocka 118 Ciechanowiecki family 54, 191 Cieszkowski, Ludwik 39, 101, 181 Cimarosa, Domenico 113, 116, 117 Clio, myth. 40, 153 Clouet, François (Janet) 166 Colonna-Walewski, Alexandre Florian Joseph115 Constantine, Grand Duke 98, 99, 122 Contessa, Samuel 41 Correggio (Antonio Allegri da Correggio) 144 Cupid (Amor), myth. 55 Cywińska, Izabella 161 Czachórski, Władysław 145 Czapski family 65 Czarniecki, Stefan 11 Czartoryska née Fleming, Izabela, Princess 56, 120, 193 Czartoryska née Sieniawska, Maria Zofia, Princess 16–18, 21, 22, 59, 100–102, 182, 193 Czartoryska née Zamoyska, Zofia, Princess 70 Czartoryska, Izabela, see Lubomirska née Czartoryska, Izabela Czartoryski family 7, 9–13, 18, 19, 21–23, 28–31, 34, 39, 41, 42, 46, 53–55, 59, 66, 67, 70, 78–80, 88, 90, 93, 95–98, 100, 101, 103, 106, 110, 115, 119, 127, 128, 130, 134, 136, 137, 145, 150, 151, 153, 154, 157, 180, 181, 182, 185, 186, 190–193 Czartoryski, Adam Jerzy, Prince 125 Czartoryski, Adam Kazimierz, Prince 21, 44, 45, 54, 56, 59, 101–106, 120, 124, 127, 193 Czartoryski, August Aleksander, Prince 9, 18, 19, 21–23, 39, 43–46, 59, 101-103, 180, 182, 185, 190, 191 Dahlberg, Duke de (Emmerich Joseph von Dahlberg) 112 David, Jacques-Louis 57, 62, 109, 185, 191 Davies, Norman 181 Dazziaro, Franciszek 147 Dazziaro, Józef 147 Dąbrowski, Waldemar 161 Dejmek, Kazimierz 161 Delacroix, Eugène 117, 181 Dembowska see Grabowska née Dembowska, Cecylia Dembowski, Edward 122 Dembowski, Leon 54, 120, 121, 181 Denhoff family 7, 11–13, 16–18, 24, 190 Denhoff, Kacper 16 Denhoff, Aleksander 16 Denhoff, Ernest 16 Denhoff, Stanisław Ernest 17, 18, 101, 190 Denhoffowa née Sieniawska, Maria Zofia, see Czartoryska née Sieniawska, Maria Zofia, Princess Deuier (clockmaker) 166 Diomedes, myth. 9 Dobrowolski, Witold 181 Dogrumowa, Teresa 59 Dolabella, Tommaso 86 Dollinger, Michał 41 Donizetti, Gaetano 129 Drwalewski, Leonard 147 Dunin-Wąsowicz, Krzysztof 96, 181 Dupré, Jules 174 Dutkiewicz, Józef 182 Dybowski, Stefan 160 Dyck, Anton van 121, 173 Działyński, Ksawery Szymon 110 205 Secrets of the Past Edward VII, King of Great Britain and Ireland 76 Ender, Johann 69, 192 Esselius, F. 173 Eugene of Savoy, Duke 21 Euterpe, myth. 40, 60, 153, 154, 191 Fabre, Jean-Henri 181 Fajans, Maksymilian 147 Fałat, Julian 88, 157, 169, 176, 177 Fedorowicz, J.K. 185 Ferdinand Karl Joseph of Austria-Este, Archduke 119 Fidanza, Gregorio 54 Fiske Kimball, Sidney 182 Fiszman, Samuel 181 Fontana, Jakub 22, 42, 180 Fortia de Piles de, Alphonse-Toussaint 54 Franaszek, J. 12, 13 Franz (Francis) II, Emperor of Austria 115 Frederick (Friedrich) Augustus I, King of Saxony 107 Frederick (Friedrich) Augustus III, King of Saxony 96 Frederick William II, King of Prussia 119 Frederick William III, King of Prussia 110 Friedrich-Hermann-Otto, Prince of Hohenzollern-Hechingen, Prince 112, 119 Funkiewicz, Alfred 192, 193 Gainsborough, Thomas 59 Galiński, Tadeusz 160 Gallait, Louis 146 Ganymede, myth. 29 Gaston Bourbon, Duke of Orléans 173 Gąsiorowski, Wacław 98 Gebethner, Gustaw A. 12, 13, 71, 74, 77, 147, 150, 192 Gérard, François 86, 107, 109, 111, 115, 193, 196 Gereke, Major General and German Governor of Warsaw (1915) 96 Gerson, Wojciech 136, 145, 147 Gervaso, Roberto 181 Ghiberti, Lorenzo 76 Gierowski, Józef Andrzej 181 Gierymski, Aleksander 151 Gieysztor, Stanisław 12, 13, 77, 181 Głowacka-Pocheć, Teresa 187 Goethe, Johann Wolfgang 62, 105, 120, 181 Goldberg, Halina 181 Gołębiowski, Łukasz 181 Gorzeński, Augustyn (Ignacy Augustyn Michał Gorzeński), Major General, Senator and Castellan of the Duchy of Warsaw, 112 Gorzeński, Tymoteusz (?), Bishop of Poznań 112 Gottlieb, Maurycy 136, 137, 145, 195 Gouvion Saint-Cyr, Laurent de, Marquis and Marshal of France 112 Góral, Jerzy 161 Grabowska née Dembowska, Cecylia 120 Grabowski, Michał 121, 123 Graff, Anton 62, 105, 196 Greuze, Jean-Baptiste 117 Grochulska, Barbara 105, 106, 119, 181 Gronowski, Tadeusz 13 Grottger, Artur 145 Grudzińska, Joanna 98, 99, 193 206 Index Gryglewski, Aleksander 86, 170 Gutakowski, Ludwik 110, 112, 119 Gutakowski, Walenty 123 Gutowski, Bartłomiej 59, 182 Habsburg royal family 119 Hadziewicz, Rafał 136 Hamilton, Emma 120, 187 Hamilton, William 120, 187 Haydn, Joseph 116 Heckel, Johann Jakob the Younger 60 Hendrykowska, Małgorzata 98, 182 Henning, Mrs., a Potocki tenant (Marie, wife of painter Carl Adof Henning?) 71 Henri de Valois, King of Poland and France 84, 118, 166 Hentschel, Walter 182 Herder, Johann Gottfried 105 Hermann-Maria-Friedrich-Otto of Hohenzollern-Hechingen, Prince 112, 119 Hiche, Piotr (Piotr Hiż) 22, 23, 185 Hirszel, Henryk 147 Hiż, see Hiche, Piotr Hoesick, Ferdynand 182 Hohenzollern-Hechingen, Prince, see Hermann-Maria-Friedrich-Otto of Hohenzollern-Hechingen, and Friedrich-Hermann-Otto, Prince of Hohenzollern-Hechingen Holbein, Hans the Younger 54 Holmström, Kirsten Gram 120, 182 Hornsby, Clare 187 Hugues, V.S. 173 Hus, Jan 144 Hutten-Czapski, Bogdan 96, 97, 182 Ingres, Jean-Auguste-Dominique 109 Inklewicz (Stanisław K. Potocki’s steward) 64 Izabella Jagiellon, Queen of Hungary 125, 126 Jabłonowski, Ludwik Józef Napoleon 101, 107, 109, 182 Jan z Tęczyna (Jan of Tęczyn, c.1410–1470), Voivode of Kraków, 125, 126 Janion, Maria 182 Jankowski, Czesław 150 Jaracz, Stefan 98 Jaroszewski, Tadeusz Stefan 62, 180, 182, 183 Jarzębski, Adam 13, 16, 182 Jasieński, Wawrzyniec 45 Jastrzębowska, Elżbieta 185 Jaworski, Jan 140 Jentsch (ébéniste) 52 Joanna, Queen (Joanna the Mad of Castile?) 54 John (Jan) III Sobieski, King of Poland 176, 177 John of Austria 54 Joséphine de Beauharnais, Empress of the French, 115 Kaczmarek, Marian 183 Kalergis (Calergis-Nesselrode, Calegris-Mukhanov) Maria 8, 11, 75, 126–129, 153, 185, 195 Kalergis, Jan (Johann, John) 128 Kamsetzer, Jan Chrystian (Kammsetzer, Johann Christian) 52, 53, 180, 191 Kara Mustapha Pasha (Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Paşa), Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire 176 Karpowicz, Mariusz 180 Kasprzycki, Wincenty 134, 135 Kauffmann, Angelika 54, 191 207 Secrets of the Past Kayserling (Keyserling), Hermann-Karl von 21 Kellner (violinist) 129 Kerber, Peter Björn 184 Kicka, Mrs. – Józefa née Szydłowska, wife of Onufry Kicki 110 Kicka Natalia 67, 112, 122, 127, 182 Kicka, Ewa 118, 121, 123 Kicka, Teresa 121, 122, 123 Kicki, Ludwik 120, 123 Kicki, Onufry (royal equerry) 110 Kieniewicz, Stefan 181, 182 Kipa, Emil 119, 182 Kirkow, Jerzy 76 Kitowicz, Jędrzej 182 Kochanowski, Jan 126 Kokular, Aleksander 68, 135, 192 Komar (Stanisław K. Potocki’s tenant) 65 Komza, Małgorzata 120, 182 Konopczyński, Władysław 18, 21, 102, 103, 106, 180, 182 Konopnicka, Maria 150 Konstantynów, Dariusz 145, 182 Kortmann, Ludwik 129 Kossak, Juliusz (Fortunat Juliusz Kossak) 88, 145, 151, 169, 176, 177 Kossak, Wojciech 145, 169 Kostrzewski, Franciszek 147, 148, 151, 195 Kościuszko, Tadeusz Andrzej Bonawentura 124, 125, 176, 182 Kowalski, Hubert 4, 66, 120, 184, 190–192, 195–19 Kowalski, Władysław 160 Kownacki, Hipolit Tymoteusz 122 Kozakiewicz, Stefan 134, 182 Kozerowicz (upholsterer) 41 Koźmian, Andrzej Edward 69, 70, 124, 125, 127, 183 Koźmian, Kajetan 69, 183 Kraff t, Per, the Elder 86 Kralowa, Halina 181 Krasicki, Soter 52, 140, 191 Krasiński family 42, 65, 67, 109 Krasiński, Count (Władysław Wincenty or Adam?) 140 Krasiński, Zygmunt Napoleon 107, 109 Kraszewski, Józef Ignacy 136, 145, 148, 181 Kraushar, Aleksander 12, 78, 86, 88, 180, 183 Krawczuk, Aleksander 161 Krawicz, Mieczysław 98, 99 Kriwol, Jan 192 Krzeczkowski, Henryk 181 Kuras, Katarzyna 18, 21, 102, 180, 183 Kuryluk, Karol 160 Kwiatkowska, Maria I. 23, 65, 76, 82, 124, 129, 180, 182 Kwiatkowski, Marek 22, 180, 182 La Fontaine, S. (Pierre-Joseph?), painter 173 Labruzzi, Carlo 60 Lampi, Giovanni Battista 92, 93, 192 Lanci, Franciszek Maria (Francesco Maria Lanci) 76, 77, 150 Lantara, Simon Mathurin 54 Le Marois (Lemarrois), Jean 112 Le Ray-Burimi, Sylvie 115 Lednicki, Wacław 183 Lehndorff, Ernst Ahasverus von, 42, 103 208 Index Leonardo da Vinci 144 Lewicki, Karol 182 Ligber, Jan 118, 193 Liotard, Jean-Etienne 174 Livingston Kean (Livinston Kean Niemcewicz), Susan 125 Lob, Augustyn 41 Loch (joiner) 52 Lorentz, Stanisław 44, 135, 183 Louis XIV, King of France 46, 109, 170, 173, 174 Louis XV, King of France 12, 86, 88, 165, 170, 173, 174, 177 Louis XVI, King of France 165, 166, 170, 173 , 174 Louis Philippe I, King of the French 115 Lubomirska née Czartoryska, Izabela, Princess 7, 18, 25, 41, 42, 45–47, 49, 52–56 , 58, 59, 66, 91, 101, 103, 105, 183, 191 Lubomirska, Aleksandra, see Potocka née Lubomirska, Aleksandra Lubomirska, Izabela Elżbieta 59, 60, 106 Lubomirska, Julia 59, 91, 191 Lubomirska, Konstancja see Rzewuska née Lubomirska, Konstancja Lubomirski family 9, 12, 96, 103, 182 Lubomirski, Stanisław, Prince 18, 45, 52, 59, 102, 106, 174, 183, 191 Lubomirski, Henryk 54, 55, 105, 191 Ludwig III, King of Bavaria 96 Łętowski, Ludwik, Bishop 67, 183 Łojek, Jerzy 183 Łubieński, Feliks 112 Łukasiewicz, Piotr 161 Łukasiński, Walerian 98, 99, 193 Łuszczewski, Jan P. 110, 112 Magier, Antoni 22, 180, 183 Majewska-Maszkowska, Bożena 62, 183 Makart, Hans 144, 146 Maleszewski, Tytus 147 Malinowska, Irena 19, 23, 65, 76, 124, 129, 180, 182 Małachowski, Stanisław 110, 112, 118 Marconi, Jan 180 Marconi, Leandro (Leander) 74, 78, 79, 130 Marconi, Władysław 12, 78, 180 Maret, Hugues-Bernard 110, 112 Marescalchi, Ferdinando, Count 112 Marguerite of Lorraine (wife of Gaston d’Orléans) 173 Maria Leszczyńska, Queen of France 176 Marie Louise Habsburg, Empress of the French 115, 116 Mars, myth. 38–39, 191 Marteau, Louis François 120, 193 Masséna, André (Andrea Massena) 112 Matejko, Jan 11, 74, 86, 130, 136–138, 140–142, 144–148, 151, 153, 176, 177, 182, 183, 195 Matuszewska, Przemysława 182 Maximilian Habsburg, Archduke of Austria (1756–1801) 103 Maximilian I Joseph, King (Prince) of Bavaria 112, 113, 117 Meissonnier, Justin-Aurèle 42 Melbechowska-Luty Aleksandra 129, 183 Melpomene, myth. 56, 60, 153, 191 Mengs, Anton Raphael 43, 191 Mercury, myth. 29 Metzell, Ludwik Christian 122 Meysztowicz, Walerian 177, 183 209 Secrets of the Past Mickiewicz, Adam 65, 107, 109, 145, 154 Mieleszko, Jadwiga 187 Mietkowski, Jan 161 Milwitz, Bartholomeus 85, 192 Minerva, myth. 39 Mirska, Maria 121, 122, 193 Mirski, Adam Napoleon 121, 122, 174, 193 Mithridates, King of Pontus 54 Miziołek Jerzy 4, 54, 57, 66, 67, 120, 121, 135, 180, 183, 184 Mnemosyne, myth. 153, 154 Mniszech, Jerzy August Wandalin 177 Mokronowski family 136 Moniuszko, Stanisław 129, 130 Morawińska, Agnieszka 184, 185 Mostowska, Izabella, see Potocka née Mostowska, Izabella Motty, Władysław 145 Motyka, Lucjan 160 Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus 113, 116, 117 Mrozowski, Przemysław 187 Müller, Michael 184 Munkácsy, Mihály 144, 146 Murat, Joachim 9, 55, 96, 110–113, 118, 193 Myers, Mary L. 184 Mysłakowski, Piotr 185 Nach, J.P. 129 Najdowski, Zygmunt 161 Nałęcz-Górska, Tekla, see Nesselrode née Nałęcz-Górska, Tekla Napoleon I Bonaparte, Emperor of the French 7, 9, 11, 47, 54, 55, 63, 67, 69, 86, 96, 100, 106, 107, 109, 110, 112, 113, 115, 117–119, 123, 144, 153, 166, 169, 176, 182, 184–187, 193, 196 Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte), Emperor of the French 115 Naruszewicz, Adam Stanisław 127 Nassau-Usingen, Ambassador of – envoy of Friedrich August, Duke of Nassau-Usingen 112 Natanson, Henryk 147 Negri, Pola (Barbara Apolonia Chałupiec) 98 Nervo (Warsaw bookseller) 147 Nesselrode, Karl Robert 74, 75, 128, 129 Nesselrode née Nałęcz-Górska, Tekla 128 Neufforge, Jean-François de 52 Neuperg (von Neipperg, Neuberg), Adam Albert 112, 119 Nicholas I Romanov, Tsar of Russia 67, 69, 135 Nicholas II Romanov, Tsar of Russia 96 Niemcewicz, Julian Ursyn 8, 9, 45–47, 64–67, 70, 122, 124–127, 153, 154, 184, 185, 192 Nieuważny, Andrzej 184 Niewójt, Monika 185 Norblin, Jan Piotr (Jean-Pierre Norblin de La Gourdaine) 122 Norton, Lucy 181 Norwid, Cyprian Kamil 128–129, 183, 195 Nouvel-Kammerer, Odile 184 Novosiltsov, Nikolai N., 65, 123, 126 Ogiński, Michał Kleofas, Prince 125 Olszyński, Marcin 148, 195 Oppman, Artur (nom de plume Or-Ot) 154, 184 Orłowski, Aleksander 88, 169 Ornano family, 115 Ornano, Philippe-Antoine d’ 115 Ornano, Rodolphe-Auguste d’ 115 210 Index Orzeszkowa, Eliza 150, 151 Osiński, Ludwik 118, 126, 193 Ossoliński family 12, 71 Ossoliński, Józef Maksymilian 112, 119 Ostrowski, Tomasz Adam 112 Pac family 18 Pac, Ludwik Michał 18, 101 Paer (Pär, Paër), Ferdinando 113, 117 Palma the Elder (Jacopo Negretti, Palma il Vecchio) 144 Paskevich, Ivan 67, 122, 129 Paskevicheva (wife of Ivan Paskevicz) 129 Paul I Romanov, Tsar of Russia 125 Pawlikowska, Hanna 184 Pecold, Kazimierz 183 Percier, Charles 109 Perświet-Sołtan, Stanisław 154, 184 Pevsner, Nikolaus 42, 43, 184 Pichler, Luigi 60 Piles, Fortia de, see de Fortia de Piles Pillati, Henryk 147, 148, 170 Piłsudski, Józef 13, 97 Pimer (stonemason) 52 Pinck, Ferdynand 120 Piola, Józef 16 Piramowicz, Grzegorz 105 Piroli, Tommaso 120 Pius VI (Giovanni Angelo Braschi), Pope 54, 191 Pliny the Younger (Caius Plinius Caecilius Secundus) 57, 66, 105 Poddębski, Henryk 190, 195 Podkański, Zdzisław 161 Pokora, Jakub 45, 184 Pol, Wincenty 150 Polaczek, Janusz 109, 184 Polyhymnia, myth. 40, 60, 153 Pomian, Krzysztof Andrzej 106, 184 Pompadour, Jeanne Antoinette de (Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour) 59 Poniatowski, Józef Antoni, Prince 107, 110, 112, 113, 118, 119, 193 Poniatowski, Michał, Prince 176 Poniatowski, Stanisław, Prince 102 Popiołek, Barbara 184 Poprzęcka, Maria 182 Porębski, Mieczysław 184 Potocka, Helena, Countess 86 Potocka née Sapieha (Sapieżanka), Maria 76 Potocka née Cetner, Anna 116, 193 Potocka née Lubomirska, Aleksandra 7, 8, 18, 19, 55–63, 66, 67, 70, 103, 113, 119, 120, 122, 124–127, 176, 191, 192 Potocka née Mostowska, Izabella 67, 70 Potocka, Natalia 125 Potocka, Laura (Lorcia) 120–123, 195 Potocka née Potocka (Branicka by her second marriage), Róża 120 Potocka-Wasowiczowa née Tyszkiewicz, Anna 5, 45–47, 55, 62–64, 66–68, 70, 110, 112, 113, 115, 116, 117, 119, 120, 122, 184, 193 Potocki, Adam 176 Potocki, Aleksander 67–70, 75, 86, 112, 192 Potocki, Alfred 86, 176 Potocki, Antoni 121, 146 211 Secrets of the Past Potocki, Artur 123 Potocki, August 70, 76 Potocki family 7–12, 22, 23, 28–31, 34, 42, 46, 53–55, 65-67, 70, 71, 76–80, 88, 90, 93, 95–98, 100, 103, 105, 106, 109, 110, 112, 115, 119, 120, 122–125, 127–130, 134, 136, 137, 145–147, 150, 151, 153, 154, 157, 180, 182, 185, 186, 190–193 Potocki, Feliks (Stanisław Szczęsny) 176 Potocki, Ignacy 62, 106 Potocki, Jan 90–93, 105, 184, 185, 192 Potocki, Jerzy 86, 166, 176 Potocki, Józef 12, 78, 84, 86, 93, 96, 102, 107, 146, 147, 153, 174, 176, 177, 196 Potocki, Józef Jun. 93 Potocki, Leon (nom de plume Bonawentura of Kochanów) 9, 11, 54, 60, 81, 100, 107, 110, 112, 113, 117–119, 151, 153, 154, 184, 185, 190, 193 Potocki, Roman 96, 176 Potocki, Stanisław 70, 76, 77, 192 Potocki, Stanisław Kostka 5, 7, 9, 11, 18, 43, 49, 53, 54–57, 59, 60, 62–64, 66, 67, 69, 75, 76, 78, 103, 105–107, 110, 112, 117, 118, 122, 123, 129, 134, 140, 146, 153, 154, 165, 166, 181–187, 191, 192, 196 Potocki, Stanisław Rewera 11 Poussin, Nicolas 54 Prince Adam’s wife – Potocka née Rostworowska, Maria Antonina, wife of Prince Adam Potocki (?) 122 Prosiński, Antoni 146 Prus, Bolesław (Aleksander Głowacki) 11, 150, 151 Przesmycki, Zenon 150 Przezdziecki, Aleksander 147 Przyborowski, Walery 12, 79 Przybylski, Ryszard 184 Puëva (husband-and-wife opera duet) 113 Putkowska, Jolanta 23, 184 Raczyński family 110 Raczyński, Atanazy 123 Radzimiński, Józef 112 Radziwiłł family 11, 12, 45 Radziwiłł, A., Prince 174 Radziwiłł, Michał Gedeon, Prince 112 Radziwiłłowa, Ludwika 174 Radziwiłłówna, Barbara, see Barbara Radziwiłłówna Radziwiłłówna, Eliza 127, 195 Ranocchi, Emiliano 105, 185 Raphael (Raffaelo Santi) 144 Rastawiecki, Edward 136, 147 Redler, Jan (Johann) Chryzostom 41 Rehberg, Friedrich 120 Reimann (medical practitioner) 44 Rej, Mikołaj 125, 126 Repnin, Mikhail 183 Ricaud de Tirregaille, Pierre 13, 14, 23, 25, 42, 190 Ricciardi (musician) 129 Richter, Józef 52 Ring, Andrzej 193 Romanowska-Zadrożna, Maria 109, 180, 185 Rosenblum family 146 Rosenblum, Dawid 146 Roslin, Alexander 45, 191 Rosset, François 93, 185 Rossini, Gioacchino 154 Rostworowski, Marek 161 Rottermund, Andrzej 183, 187 212 Index Rozen (Rosen), Jan 88 Rożniecki, Aleksander 123 Rudnicka, Jadwiga 67, 185 Ruisdael, Jacob van 76 Ruisdael, Salomon van 76 Rusinek, Kazimierz 160 Rusinowa, Izabella 125, 185 Rustem, Jan 121, 122, 193 Rybkowski, Tadeusz 88, 169, 176 Ryszkiewicz, Andrzej 62, 185 Rzewuska née Lubomirska, Konstancja 59 Rzewuska, Rozalia 125 Rzewuski, Wacław 102 Rzymowski, Wincenty 157, 160 Sagatyński, Antoni 122 Saint-Julien, Franz Xaver de (François-Xavier de Guyard) Count (Austrian Ambassador to Napoleon) 112 Saint-Julien, Joseph de, Count 112 Salieri, Antonio 129 Sallust (Gaius Sallustius Crispus) 9 Salm, Prince of (either Konstantin-Alexander-Joseph, Prince of Salm-Salm, or Friedrich IV, Prince of Salm-Kyburg) 112 Samsonowicz, Henryk 185 Sanguszko, Jadwiga 176 Sanguszko, Paweł Karol, Prince 176 Sanguszko, Hieronim Janusz, Prince 176 Sanguszko, Roman, Prince 69, 122, 176 Sanguszkowa, Barbara 102 Sanguszkowa née Potocka, Natalia, Princess 69, 70, 78, 102, 122, 192 Santarelli, Giuseppe 129 Sapieha, Aleksander Michał, Prince 112 Savinelli, Angelo 129 Saxony, King of, see Frederick Augustus III Saxony, Minister of (envoy of Frederick Augustus I, King of Saxony) 112 Schenk, Peter (Piotr) 13, 16, 190 Schopfer (stonemason) 52 Schreger, Efraim (Ephraim Schröger, Szreger) 22, 23, 44, 46, 183, 190, 191 Schumann, Robert 129 Scipio Africanus the Elder (Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus Maior) 62 Scipio Africanus the Younger (Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus Africanus Minor) 62 Sempoliński, Leonard 190 Sévigné, Marie de Rabutin-Chantal de 54 Shakespeare, William 127 Siciński, Andrzej 161 Siemieński, Lucjan 145 Siemiradzki, Henryk 130, 145, 148, 151, 153 Sieniawska née Lubomirska, Elżbieta Helena 17, 181, 190 Sieniawski family 12, 16, 17, 101, 165, 190 Sieniawski, Adam Mikołaj 17, 22, 86, 190 Sienkiewicz, Henryk 11, 131, 148, 150, 151, 153 Sierakowski, Józef 122, 127 Sigismund III Vasa, King of Poland 11, 110, 146 Sigismund II Augustus, King of Poland 125, 126 Sigismund of Luxemburg, Holy Roman Emperor 144 Sikorski, Janusz 180 Simmler, Józef 137 Simonetti, Luigi (or his son Achille?), sculptor 88 213 Secrets of the Past Sito, Jakub 4, 22, 23, 45, 180, 185 Skarbek, Fryderyk 63, 64, 67, 110, 119, 125, 126, 185 Słowacki, Juliusz 125, 145 Smosarska, Jadwiga 98, 99, 182, 193 Smuglewicz, Franciszek 45 Smuglewicz, Łukasz 45 Sobieszczański, Franciszek Maksymilian (Władysław Sobieszczański) 130 Sobolewska née Grabowska, Izabela (wife of Walenty Sobolewski, presumed daughter of King Stanisław August Poniatowski) 113, 120 Sobolewski, Ignacy 65, 66 Sobolewski, Walenty 65, 66, 110, 112, 113 Sokorski, Włodzimierz 160 Sołtyk, Kajetan Ignacy, Bishop 86, 88, 112, 170, 192 Sołtyk, Stanisław 112 Soutman, Pieter Claesz 166 Spain, Ambassador of – envoy of Napoleon’s brother Joseph Bonaparte, installed on the Spanish throne 112 Sroczyńska, Krystyna 66, 183, 185 St. Vincent (De Saint-Vincent d’Aiglun, Francois-Pierre-Jean?) 112 Stadler (painter) 176 Stanisław August Poniatowski, King of Poland 12, 21, 23, 39, 44, 45, 53, 54, 59, 65, 84, 86, 102–103 , 110, 119, 120, 122, 134, 165, 166, 176, 180, 181, 184, 191, 192, 193 Stanisław Leszczyński, King of Poland 21, 176 Starkman (owner of tailor’s shop) 77 Starzyński, Juliusz 185 Staszic, Stanisław 11, 136 Staude, Johann 41 Stephen Báthory, King of Poland 11, 84, 86, 166 Stępiński, Zdzisław 77 Struve, Henryk 140, 144, 146 Styka, Jan 145 Suchodolski, January 136 Suchorowski, Marceli 144–146 Sulerzyska, Teresa 23, 185 Sułkowska née Kicka, Ewa 123 Sułkowski, Antoni Paweł, Prince 123 Sutherland, Christine 115, 117, 185 Szafrański, Tadeusz 182 Szenic, Stanisław 75, 129, 185 Szermentowski, Józef 145 Szreger, see Schreger Szumlański, Józef 118 Szumska, Barbara 121, 122, 193 Talleyrand-Périgord, Charles-Maurice de 86, 109, 110, 112 Tarło, Karol 18 Tarnowska née Potocka, Laura 122, 123 Tarnowski, Jan Amor 11 Tejchma, Józef 160, 161 Tejchmann (musician) 129 Telimena (fictional character) 154 Tepper family 115 Thalia, myth. 153 Tilman van Gameren 16, 42 Titian (Tiziano Vecellio) 54, 144 Tombari, Antonio 53 Tomkiewicz, Władysław 42, 180, 183, 187 Touchette, Lori-Ann 120, 187 214 Index Triaire, Dominique 93, 185 Tropiło, Bartosz 193 Twardzicki, Walerian 130, 195 Tyrowicz, P. 76, 192 Tyszkiewicz family 11 Ujazdowski, Kazimierz Michał 161 Unger, Gracjan (Gracjan Jeżyński) 9, 11, 74, 78, 130–153, 193 Unger, Józef 130, 136, 137, 140, 144–146, 148, 153, 182, 195 Urania, myth. 60, 191 Urbański, Antoni 187 Vasa royal family 13 Venus, myth. 52, 144, 165, 174 Vereshchagin, Vasily 144 Vernet, Horace 54 Victoria, Queen of Great Britain and Ireland 76 Vigée-Lebrun, Élisabeth-Marie-Louise 54, 55, 191 Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro) 5, 62 Vladislaus IV Vasa, King of Poland 13, 84–86, 166, 192 Vogel (Vogiel), Zygmunt 9, 65, 66, 153, 185 Voisé, Irena 187 Voltaire (François Marie Arouet) 42 Wagner, Richard 129 Walewska née Łączyńska, Maria (Anastazowa Walewska) 7, 70, 86, 100, 113, 115–117, 153, 185, 196 Walewski, Anastazy 113, 115, 117 Walewski, Antoni Bazyli Rudolf 117 Waliszewski, Kazimierz 187 Warnecki, Janusz (Jan Maria Kozłowski) 98, 99 Warneck, Alexander G. 93 Wasilewska, Anna 185 Wasylewski, Stanisław 187 Watteau, Jean-Antoine 54, 59 Wawrykowa, Maria 135, 187 Wąsowiczowa, see Potocka-Wąsowiczowa née Tyszkiewicz, Anna Wentzlowa (Stanisław K. Potocki’s tenant) 65 Węcki, Józef 147 Węgrzyn, Józef 98, 99, 193 Wielopolski family 184 Wielopolski, Hieronim 23 Wiercińska, Janina 136, 137, 187 Wilczyński, Krzysztof 193 Wilhelm II, King of Württemberg 96 Wilhelmi, Janusz 161 Wilson-Smith, Timothy 187 Wiśniewski, Czesław 160 Witkiewicz, Stanisław 151, 153 Witkowska, Alina 181 Witkowski, Mikołaj 19 Wnuk-Nazarowa, Joanna 161 Wojniakowski, Kazimierz 118, 193 Wolff, August R. 12, 71, 74, 147, 150, 192 Wouwerman, Philips 88, 173 Wroński, Stanisław 160 Wrzosek-Müller, Monika 184 Württemberg, Duchess of (Wirtemberska née Czartoryska, Maria) 176 215 Secrets of the Past Wybicki, Józef 110, 112, 119 Wynands, T. 173 Wysocki, Józef 154 Zabiełło, Stanisław 105 Zabiełłowa née Gutakowska, Gabryela 121 Zachwatowicz, Jan 12, 157 Zadrożny, Tadeusz 109, 180, 185 Zahorska, Stefania 98, 187 Zakrzewski, Andrzej 161 Zalewski, Edmund 160 Zalewski, Marcin 173 Zamoyski, Jan 11 Zampieri, Domenico (Domenichino) 55 Zawadzki, Józef 147 Zawadzki, P. 19 Zawadzki, Wacław 184 Zdrojewski, Bogdan 161 Zeisel, Sebastian 41 Zeus, myth. 154 Zieleziński, Stanisław 79 Zielińska, Zofia 187 Zieliński, Andrzej 161 Zieliński, Jarosław 187 Zola, Emile 74, 144 Zug, Szymon Bogumił (Simon Gottlieb Zug) 49, 52 Żebrowski, Walenty (Antoni Żebrowski) 52 Żelisławski (jeweller)12 Żmigrodzka, Maria 182 Żmurko, Franciszek 145 Żółkiewski, Stanisław 11 Żygulski, Kazimierz 161

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