DOI issue:
Rozprawy
DOI article:Grauer, Elise F.: Bridging the gap: Count Athanazy Raczyński and his galleries in Poland and Prussia
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.28199#0036
34
ELISE F. GRAUER
Raczyńskfs catalogues stand apart from those of comparable collectors
such as Count Schack in Munich119 and demonstrate a much more
academic approach to collecting and displaying. For example, he
depicted a full sized reproduction of an inscription on one of the
paintings in his catalogue.120 Containing up to 125 pages in the later
editions, the catalogues provided the visitor with information about the
artists and the size, provenance and price of paintings though the author
was less than consistent in offering these details. Often, information on
the quality and the extent of the restoration of his pictures is included.
Occasionally, Raczyński aimed to give proof of the authenticity of
paintings by quoting the Libri Veritatis or his correspondence with
experts. The count even informed his readers where the Libri were
stored: in the socle underneath Byström’s marble vase.121
As Raczyński used not only German and French in his quotations
but also cited Spanish, Italian and English letters the catalogue
addressed a rather select, intellectual audience. Raczyński even tutored
his readers in the pronunciation of certain foreign names.122 Altogether,
his catalogues demonstrate how well informed Raczyński was about
developments and controversies in Europe’s art world. Apart from that,
they draw a lively picture of his intellectual life, his collecting activities,
his travelling and ambitions.
Raczyńskfs project was without parallel in Europe. No other private
collection was such a shrine of learning and exemplary good taste,
combining the owner’s home with a perfect art museum.123 The whole
was meant to function as a model for both, the stately museums whose
policy of collecting and ways of display Raczyński disapproved as well as
for the new type of bourgeois collector of industrial wealth. The latter
were thereby encouraged to take princely collectors such as count
Raczyński as their point of reference.124 The Polish count contributed
distinctly to the development of the art landscape in Berlin. His gallery
surpassed the state museums when it came to the exhibition of
contemporary German art. Even the King’s collection of contemporary
paintings, open to the public since 1844 at castle Bellevue, was rather
119 Adolf Graf von Schack, Meine Gemäldesammlung, Stuttgart 1891, 6th edition.
120 In question is an inscription on the frame of a Crucifixion by the Netherlandish
school of the 15th century. Raczyński printed a facsimile of the inscription in the
catalogue and quoted his correspondence with an expert for these topics. Also, he
translated the inscription. [Athanasius Raczyński (1876), op. cit. fn. 35, pp. 45-48]
121 Athanasius Raczyński (1876), op. cit. fn. 35, p. 123.
122 Raczyński explained, for instance, in a footnote, how to pronounce the name
‘Carreno da Miranda’ [Athanasius Raczyński (1876), op. cit. fn. 35, p. 73].
123 Zofia Ostrowska-Kębłowska (1980), op. cit. fn. 4, p. 76.
124 Karsten Borgmann (1995), op. cit. fn. 42, p. 98.
ELISE F. GRAUER
Raczyńskfs catalogues stand apart from those of comparable collectors
such as Count Schack in Munich119 and demonstrate a much more
academic approach to collecting and displaying. For example, he
depicted a full sized reproduction of an inscription on one of the
paintings in his catalogue.120 Containing up to 125 pages in the later
editions, the catalogues provided the visitor with information about the
artists and the size, provenance and price of paintings though the author
was less than consistent in offering these details. Often, information on
the quality and the extent of the restoration of his pictures is included.
Occasionally, Raczyński aimed to give proof of the authenticity of
paintings by quoting the Libri Veritatis or his correspondence with
experts. The count even informed his readers where the Libri were
stored: in the socle underneath Byström’s marble vase.121
As Raczyński used not only German and French in his quotations
but also cited Spanish, Italian and English letters the catalogue
addressed a rather select, intellectual audience. Raczyński even tutored
his readers in the pronunciation of certain foreign names.122 Altogether,
his catalogues demonstrate how well informed Raczyński was about
developments and controversies in Europe’s art world. Apart from that,
they draw a lively picture of his intellectual life, his collecting activities,
his travelling and ambitions.
Raczyńskfs project was without parallel in Europe. No other private
collection was such a shrine of learning and exemplary good taste,
combining the owner’s home with a perfect art museum.123 The whole
was meant to function as a model for both, the stately museums whose
policy of collecting and ways of display Raczyński disapproved as well as
for the new type of bourgeois collector of industrial wealth. The latter
were thereby encouraged to take princely collectors such as count
Raczyński as their point of reference.124 The Polish count contributed
distinctly to the development of the art landscape in Berlin. His gallery
surpassed the state museums when it came to the exhibition of
contemporary German art. Even the King’s collection of contemporary
paintings, open to the public since 1844 at castle Bellevue, was rather
119 Adolf Graf von Schack, Meine Gemäldesammlung, Stuttgart 1891, 6th edition.
120 In question is an inscription on the frame of a Crucifixion by the Netherlandish
school of the 15th century. Raczyński printed a facsimile of the inscription in the
catalogue and quoted his correspondence with an expert for these topics. Also, he
translated the inscription. [Athanasius Raczyński (1876), op. cit. fn. 35, pp. 45-48]
121 Athanasius Raczyński (1876), op. cit. fn. 35, p. 123.
122 Raczyński explained, for instance, in a footnote, how to pronounce the name
‘Carreno da Miranda’ [Athanasius Raczyński (1876), op. cit. fn. 35, p. 73].
123 Zofia Ostrowska-Kębłowska (1980), op. cit. fn. 4, p. 76.
124 Karsten Borgmann (1995), op. cit. fn. 42, p. 98.