DOI issue:
Nr. 3
DOI article:[Inhaltsverzeichnis]
DOI chapter:Artykuły
DOI article:Nestorow, Rafał: Tajemnicze okolicznoś¬ci ś¬mierci Giovanniego Spazzia, nadwornego architekta Elżbiety z Lubomirskich Sieniawskiej: Przyczynek do biografii
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.71008#0521
Tajemnicze okoliczności śmierci Giovanni Spazzia
511
Mysterious Circumstances of the Death of Giovanni
Spazzio, Court Architect of Elzbieta Sieniawska
Nee Lubomirska. Contribution to the Biography
Circumstances of the death of Giovanni Spazzio (d.
29 July 1762), court architect of the wife of Grand
Crown Hetman and Cracow Castellan Elżbieta
Sieniawska nee Lubomirska (1669-1729) are dis-
cussed. Giovanni Spazzio was for a substantial part
of his life associated with her court, while she ranked
among the most influential individuals, and art
decision-makers in the early 18th century. Employed in
1714, Spazzio became Sieniawska's court architect, the
main designer, executor, and organizer of artistic and
construction works at her court. Most of the time the
architect stayed at her main residence in Łubnice,
from where he used to travel in order to supervise
some dozen of Sieniawska's grand-scale foundations.
Spazzio's role cannot be overestimated, not only for
his architectural talents, but mainly organizational
skills; over a relatively short period of time, the artist
who came from the Habsburg Monarchy managed to
group around him a circle of his countrymen (e.g.
architect Frantz Anton Mayer, sculptors Johann
Elias and Heinrich Hoffman, stuccoists Francesco
Fumo and Pietro Innocente Comparetti, carpenter
Konrad Kotschenreiter, or locksmith Gordyan
Mayer) who found employment at the Łubnice court,
turning into efficient executors of her numerous
artistic projects. From 1720 onwards, Spazzio
supervised works conducted on the former royal
residence in Wilanów Elżbieta Sieniawska had
purchased. It was there that following a long disease,
the spreading foot gangrene, the architect died of
Multi Organ Failure. Based on the preserved archival
records, the last days of the architect could be partially
recreated, and it has been possible to diagnose him
"medically", which constitutes a contribution to his
biography.
Following the death of Giovanni Spazzio in
1726, the bonds between her artists and Elżbieta
Sieniawska visibly loosened. The lack of the court
architect supervising the run construction sites as
well the smaller than before commitment of
Sieniawska herself to artistic projects, did not only
slow their pace, but even stopped them altogether.
The key caesurae is to be found in 1726 due to the
death of Adam Mikołaj Sieniawski. His wife was
preoccupied by the preparations for the lavish
funeral, but first of all with the overwhelming burden
of running the huge estate. Some artists abandoned
their court positions, others, taking advantage of the
momentary disruption, undertook some com-
missions of their own accord. They were trying to win
a better financial status and certain independence.
The process climaxed in 1729 when Elżbieta
Sieniawska passed away. After her death, her
daughter Maria Zofia Denhoff began to establish
her own group of artists, this formed by re-
presentatives of the subsequent generation of artists
who represented a new stylistic formation. The
decisive turning point in this respect can be seen in
the marriage of Maria Zofia to August Aleksander
Czartoryski in 1731.
Translated by Magdalena Iwińska
511
Mysterious Circumstances of the Death of Giovanni
Spazzio, Court Architect of Elzbieta Sieniawska
Nee Lubomirska. Contribution to the Biography
Circumstances of the death of Giovanni Spazzio (d.
29 July 1762), court architect of the wife of Grand
Crown Hetman and Cracow Castellan Elżbieta
Sieniawska nee Lubomirska (1669-1729) are dis-
cussed. Giovanni Spazzio was for a substantial part
of his life associated with her court, while she ranked
among the most influential individuals, and art
decision-makers in the early 18th century. Employed in
1714, Spazzio became Sieniawska's court architect, the
main designer, executor, and organizer of artistic and
construction works at her court. Most of the time the
architect stayed at her main residence in Łubnice,
from where he used to travel in order to supervise
some dozen of Sieniawska's grand-scale foundations.
Spazzio's role cannot be overestimated, not only for
his architectural talents, but mainly organizational
skills; over a relatively short period of time, the artist
who came from the Habsburg Monarchy managed to
group around him a circle of his countrymen (e.g.
architect Frantz Anton Mayer, sculptors Johann
Elias and Heinrich Hoffman, stuccoists Francesco
Fumo and Pietro Innocente Comparetti, carpenter
Konrad Kotschenreiter, or locksmith Gordyan
Mayer) who found employment at the Łubnice court,
turning into efficient executors of her numerous
artistic projects. From 1720 onwards, Spazzio
supervised works conducted on the former royal
residence in Wilanów Elżbieta Sieniawska had
purchased. It was there that following a long disease,
the spreading foot gangrene, the architect died of
Multi Organ Failure. Based on the preserved archival
records, the last days of the architect could be partially
recreated, and it has been possible to diagnose him
"medically", which constitutes a contribution to his
biography.
Following the death of Giovanni Spazzio in
1726, the bonds between her artists and Elżbieta
Sieniawska visibly loosened. The lack of the court
architect supervising the run construction sites as
well the smaller than before commitment of
Sieniawska herself to artistic projects, did not only
slow their pace, but even stopped them altogether.
The key caesurae is to be found in 1726 due to the
death of Adam Mikołaj Sieniawski. His wife was
preoccupied by the preparations for the lavish
funeral, but first of all with the overwhelming burden
of running the huge estate. Some artists abandoned
their court positions, others, taking advantage of the
momentary disruption, undertook some com-
missions of their own accord. They were trying to win
a better financial status and certain independence.
The process climaxed in 1729 when Elżbieta
Sieniawska passed away. After her death, her
daughter Maria Zofia Denhoff began to establish
her own group of artists, this formed by re-
presentatives of the subsequent generation of artists
who represented a new stylistic formation. The
decisive turning point in this respect can be seen in
the marriage of Maria Zofia to August Aleksander
Czartoryski in 1731.
Translated by Magdalena Iwińska