DOI issue:
Nr. 3
DOI article:Artykuły
DOI article:Polanowska, Jolanta: Mokotów (część górna) maison de plaisance à goût champêtre w tonacji malowniczej*
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.71009#0520
508
Jolanta Polanowska
forms were elaborated for gatehouses, whose models
may have been picked by the Princess (see below).
Mokotów was shaped as a result of overlapping
French and English influences. The reception of
'fashionable models' was fast: almost 25 years'
earlier Hermitage of Madame de Pompadour, some
dozen years' earlier influences of Jean-Jacques
Rousseau's circles, and an almost parallel adoption
of the English garden principles thanks to
Moszyhski's adaptation (1774). Around 1775, the
decision was made to alter the newly built Neo-
Classicist regular ensemble and the necessary plot
was purchased in order to transform it together with
the palace following the picturesque style as of 1776.
In the ideological programme, circles of constant
ideas were present: profound agronomic knowledge,
'picturesque rustic character', the combination of
cognitive verism and natural history, with a senti-
mental attitude to nature grounded in Rousseau's
ideas, as well as personal and family references. The
idea of creating her own fashionable country retreat
amidst a model farm was related to certain agro-
nomic interests the Princess nurtured, the latter
testified to by some guidebooks in her book
collection. The family motif can be traced in the
Princess's concept of the gate pavilions echoing
mediaeval buildings. The name of the 'Flemish
Gloriette', emphasized in Zug's description, may
have been a reference to the Borculo Castle (today
Berkelland) in Gelderland, the Netherlands, in-
herited by her sister-in-law Izabela Czartoryska nee
Flemming. Both structures, namely the Borculo
Castle and the Flemish Gloriette, were solid masses
with a narrow turret (embedded in the corner). When
searching for a contrasting form for the second
gatehouse, Zug may have found inspiration in a
different building in Gelderland, namely the tower
of the Romanesque - Gothic Hochwasser Church in
Roermond. In compliance with the allusive garden
principles, the garden being a peculiar sort of a
charade, the pointed formal and content associations
should be clear to the public. The coincidence of
content motifs, expressing the Princess's convictions
and sentiments, and reflected in Zug's forms,
constituted Mokotów's ciphered message.
It was both the Prince and the Princess who
initiated the creation of the residence, while the
Princess was the source of ideas: she authored the
functional, ideological, and partly formal pro-
grammes, while also having the final say on their
implementation. What strikes is the extent of her
efforts to acquire the selected plots. The project was
first designed and implemented by Ephraim Schro-
ger, Simon Gottlieb Zug only taking over after him.
The important though hard to pinpoint, and to-date
underestimated role was played by the promoter of
the English landscape garden August Fryderyk
Moszyński.
Mokotów, a multi-style work, was created for an
ambitious person of refined taste that the Princess
was; thanks to her being snobbish and following the
Paris fashion, as well as thanks to the mastery of
excellent architects, it was an extremely elitist work,
a next-to contemporary 'style transfer'. Accelerated
perception resulted in contaminating function, form,
and content. Physiocracy was combined with a
cognitive and sentimental attitude to nature; while
curiosity about the works of old art found expression
in picturesque-style buildings within the trend of
associative historicism. Mokotów, being a pioneer
work, was introducing the picturesque style to
Warsaw's architecture.
Translated by Magdalena Iwińska
Jolanta Polanowska
forms were elaborated for gatehouses, whose models
may have been picked by the Princess (see below).
Mokotów was shaped as a result of overlapping
French and English influences. The reception of
'fashionable models' was fast: almost 25 years'
earlier Hermitage of Madame de Pompadour, some
dozen years' earlier influences of Jean-Jacques
Rousseau's circles, and an almost parallel adoption
of the English garden principles thanks to
Moszyhski's adaptation (1774). Around 1775, the
decision was made to alter the newly built Neo-
Classicist regular ensemble and the necessary plot
was purchased in order to transform it together with
the palace following the picturesque style as of 1776.
In the ideological programme, circles of constant
ideas were present: profound agronomic knowledge,
'picturesque rustic character', the combination of
cognitive verism and natural history, with a senti-
mental attitude to nature grounded in Rousseau's
ideas, as well as personal and family references. The
idea of creating her own fashionable country retreat
amidst a model farm was related to certain agro-
nomic interests the Princess nurtured, the latter
testified to by some guidebooks in her book
collection. The family motif can be traced in the
Princess's concept of the gate pavilions echoing
mediaeval buildings. The name of the 'Flemish
Gloriette', emphasized in Zug's description, may
have been a reference to the Borculo Castle (today
Berkelland) in Gelderland, the Netherlands, in-
herited by her sister-in-law Izabela Czartoryska nee
Flemming. Both structures, namely the Borculo
Castle and the Flemish Gloriette, were solid masses
with a narrow turret (embedded in the corner). When
searching for a contrasting form for the second
gatehouse, Zug may have found inspiration in a
different building in Gelderland, namely the tower
of the Romanesque - Gothic Hochwasser Church in
Roermond. In compliance with the allusive garden
principles, the garden being a peculiar sort of a
charade, the pointed formal and content associations
should be clear to the public. The coincidence of
content motifs, expressing the Princess's convictions
and sentiments, and reflected in Zug's forms,
constituted Mokotów's ciphered message.
It was both the Prince and the Princess who
initiated the creation of the residence, while the
Princess was the source of ideas: she authored the
functional, ideological, and partly formal pro-
grammes, while also having the final say on their
implementation. What strikes is the extent of her
efforts to acquire the selected plots. The project was
first designed and implemented by Ephraim Schro-
ger, Simon Gottlieb Zug only taking over after him.
The important though hard to pinpoint, and to-date
underestimated role was played by the promoter of
the English landscape garden August Fryderyk
Moszyński.
Mokotów, a multi-style work, was created for an
ambitious person of refined taste that the Princess
was; thanks to her being snobbish and following the
Paris fashion, as well as thanks to the mastery of
excellent architects, it was an extremely elitist work,
a next-to contemporary 'style transfer'. Accelerated
perception resulted in contaminating function, form,
and content. Physiocracy was combined with a
cognitive and sentimental attitude to nature; while
curiosity about the works of old art found expression
in picturesque-style buildings within the trend of
associative historicism. Mokotów, being a pioneer
work, was introducing the picturesque style to
Warsaw's architecture.
Translated by Magdalena Iwińska