Grotesque and symbolic representation of kingcraft. Decoration of Dining Room in White House of Lazienki Park in Warsaw

• Authors: Bernatowicz A.
• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

This article is devoted to 'genre arabesque' wall decoration embellishing the Dining Room on the ground floor of the White House, the Polish king Stanislaus Augustus Poniatowski's summer 'maison de plaisance' in the Lazienki Park in Warsaw. The polychromy was made approximately in 1777 by Jan Bogumil Plersch (1732-1817), the king's painter in ordinary. In formal terms, it appears to be closest to the grotesque decoration of Salone d'Ingresso of Villa Borghese in Rome (1778). The decoration of grotesque motives in the Dining Room of the White House was composed of presentations of the Four Elements, four parts of the world, seasons, zodiak signs and country works related to them. The king's role as of the guarantor of fixed law and order as well as of welfare is undoubtedly the key one in that micro cosmos. The allegories of Four Continents stress the ruler's supremacy. The underlain ideas on the walls of Warsaw interior thus appeal to the problems of power wielding, its ideological foundations and values an ideal monarch goes by. Stanislaus Augustus as a ruler of a collapsing state might have consciously taken pattern by an ideological decoration concept of apartments in the Wilanów Palace that belonged to Jan III Sobieski - the last monarch of a mighty Polish Commonwealth. 6 Illustrations.

Keywords

EN

JAN BOGUMIL PLERSCH; LAZIENKI PARK; MAISON DE PLAISANCE; STANISLAUS AUGUSTUS PONIATOWSKI

Discipline

• ARTS_&_ARCHITECTURE: ARTS & ARCHITECTURE

• Publisher: Polska Akademia Nauk
• Journal: Rocznik Historii Sztuki
• Year: 2004
• Volume: 29
• Pages: 183-202
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Bernatowicz A.

• A. Bernatowicz, Instytut Sztuki PAN, ul. Dluga 26/28, 00-950 Warszawa, Poland

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

04PLAAAA0007161