Poglądy Anny Potockiej na ochronę dzieł sztuki jako konsekwencja postawy romantycznej

• Authors: Kiełczewska Ewa

Title variants

EN

VIEWS OF ANNA POTOCKA ON THE CONSERVATION OF WORKS OF ART AS A RESULT OF THE ROMANTIC ATTITUDE

• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

Anna Potocka née Tyszkiewicz, secundo voto Dunin-Wąsowicz (1776—1867), whose views on art and conservation o f art monuments are presented in this article, was an eye-witness o f undertakings serving the idea o f the ancient times and to some extent participated in them. The aristocrat, related to King Stanislaus August Poniatowski, the wife o f Alexander Potocki (S. Kostka Potocki’s son) and at the same time one o f the greatest minds o f the Englihtment, A. Potocka was an amateur drawer, ,,an aesthetizing” woman, art collector and patron (Natolin, Jabłonna, Mokotów, Zator), author o f memoirs. The last volume of the memoirs entitled „Voyage d’Italie 1826—1827” is, next to the correspondence preserved in great number, another source to learn someting of, i.a., her attitude to historic monuments. The memoirs were written in the years when ideas o f monuments protection voiced in letters of enlightened authorities found their shape in the first romantic resotrations. The confrontation o f the views contained therein with activities o f A. Potocka-Wąsowicz provides the picture of her attitude towards history, its relics and her place in the transformations. Although the education o f A. Potocka-Wąsowicz took place at the Englihtment period, under the considerable influence, of S. Kostka Potocki, nonetheless in her opinions she represented a romantic approach. In all hitherto works A. Potocka was shown as a learnt amateur with a conventional taste, who —■ despite her thorough education and peregination through main centres of European art — accepted new trends of the epoch merely superficially. The present article is an attempt to prove her totally romantic attitude, which brought the most important consequences for her views and activities, implying mainy the interest for the problems of monuments protection. Aesthetic views o f A. Potocka on the antique and Gothic art are ruled by irrational categories o f imagination and feeling, recognizing in art monuments their historic value, illustrating the realization of romantic longing for the vivid and worth imitating past. Such a process can take place only when the monument is left without any interference in the shape o f the art work and even o f its environment, with which it constitutes the entity. Any interference falsifies the vision of the past embodied in it. Nature and time do not take away anything from the building’s authenticity, while the stigma o f passing intensifies their picturesqueness and makes them sublime. There are however some limits to it (e.g. decay o f Venetia, crass negligence). Threatening for monuments is also the hand o f the man who would destroy buildings in order to obtain building material (Coloseum), who would scribble on wall-paintings: destructors, heedless owners and uncareful copists. This view is drawn from the Englihtment’s rationalism condemning the lack of respect for relics o f the past, ignorance and foolishness. A. Potocka condemned also rebuildings and redecorations o f structures (plastering) because they gave only the appearance o f age. She also criticized even such changes in the surroundings of historic buildings which resulted from the historic development o f the town; in her opinion the sense o f the past was thus mixed with the spirit of other epoches or even, which is still worse, with the present time. This standpoint had its source in romantic ideas idealizing the past and treating its relics emotionally. In the field o f painting A. Potocka postulated the conservation most faithful to the original, performed by the best painters, in line with their speciality. Sculpture should be preserved but without making up the missing parts. Paintings from her collection were preserved by, i.a. M. Zalewski (Canaletto’s townscapes), sculptures — by L. Kaufmann. When changing the décor and furnishing o f her residence A. Potocka always specified precisely the conditions o f transportation and gave detailed instructions on the packing and transfer. She had a complete list of her collection and portable furnishing in the residences. She also knew the condition o f their preservation. A. Potocka had a good practical knowledge, which enabled her to follow the realization of contracts with craftsmen. She even discussed with them the technique o f storing building materials and the conservation of plate gold. She also used to design new pedestals for sculptures, the method o f assemblying cristal glass, country cottages with detailed plans o f interiors, fences o f birch wood and iron nets. She looked after every beam, mouldering rafters, broken galleries o f the given piece of furniture, a new stretcher. She was very sensitive to aesthetic and technological values o f the material (admiration for „lacelike” treatment o f the marble, for the refinement o f onyx, jasper, porphyry in the decoration o f facades, mosaic and floors). One can thus talk about connoisseurship, respect and practical care she showed for historic monuments and high requirements put to conservation tasks. At the same time A. Potocka was the author of the undertaking criticized still during her life: she was the founder of a new décor in the chapel o f Queen Sophia at the Wawel Hill transformed into her sepulchral chapel. She commissioned the reconstruction (1836—1844) to F. M. Lanci and P. Filipp, the sculptor. Lanci decorated the vaulting and walls with stucco work and pseudo-Gothic figures which were then removed in ca 1900 and the original Gothic vaulting was restored. Such an unceremonious treatment o f the historic substance o f the cathedral lifted, i.a., ancestral pride and the founder’s lack o f the sense o f measure. This architectural and sculptural composition combining Gothic and classicism was one of the first romantic restorations, in which the emphasis was put rather on the sprit and content o f architecture than on archaeological faithfulness, while the neo-Gothic style was a free transposition of the most antique styles. A similar method was employed by Lanci in the rebuilding o f the castle and church at Zator (ca 1830— 1840). This instroduction of a modern and still an entirely „classical” spirit o f art into a medieval castle — family residence as well as into the chapel in the necropolis of Polish kings was to immortalize her name as a continuator o f the best attainments o f the past. It was to prove ta future generations her enlightened mind, artistic taste and learning. Meanwhile, what has been left from the neo-Gothic structure o f Potocka and Lanci is only a trace in the history, unfortunately overshading the memory of the most progressive opinions that she not only voiced but also brought into life.

• Publisher: Narodowy Instytut Dziedzictwa
• Journal: Ochrona Zabytków
• Year: 1980
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 223-232

Dates

published

1980

Contributors

author

Kiełczewska Ewa

• mgr, Warszawa

References

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