DOI Artikel:
Michalski, Sergiusz: Romantyczene wizerunki pokonanego wodza: próba rozszerzenia ikonografii
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20622#0100
podobieństwa ogólnego jak i szczegółów (zaciśnięta
dłoń, ujęcie tła) — wizerunek Dembińskiego. Jest
to obraz berlińskiego malarza Juliusza Schradera
(1815—1900) przedstawiający scenę tu już wspo-
mnianą, a mianowicie Fryderyka IIpo klęsce w bitwie
pod Kolinem (1849, Lipsk, Museum der bildenden
Kiinste, il. 11). Obraz Schradera powstał na trzy
lata przed Dembińskim i transportuje w sposób
oczywisty motywy sztychu Hampego. Schrader
znajdował się w latach czterdziestych pod silnym
wpływem Delaroche’a — jak wiadomo twórcy kilku
wizerunków zwyciężonego Napoleona — i sam też
stworzył wiele obrazów historycznych ukazujących
przegranych władców (np. Karola I Stuarta). Książ-
ce Gisolda Lammela Adolf Menzel. Freiederiziana
und Wilhelmiana, Dresden 1988 (tam s. 62/63
oraz przyp. 108, s. 174) zawdzięczam nie tylko
znajomość obrazu Schradera, ale też informacje,
iż temat Fryderyk po klęsce kolińskiej był w sztuce
berlińskiej tego czasu dość popularny (Meno Haas,
Johan Jakob Kirchoff, Christian Daniel Rauch,
Clara Wilhelminę Oenicke)
Romantic Images of the Defeated Leader: Further Iconographic Deriyates
In his seminal study devoted to Henryk Rodakowskim
famous painting Portrait of General Dembiński (1852, Cracow,
National Museum) the eminent Polish art historian Mieczysław
Porębski described in 1977 the characteristic traits of a pecu-
liar romantic iconographic theme linked with the vicissitudes
of Polish history, namely that of the „defeated leader”. Other
supplementary studies (i.a. Jan Białostocki, Andrzej Ryszkie-
wicz, Wojciech Bałus, Michał Haake) linked the iconography
of Rodakowskim portrait — which shows a Polish veteran of the
abortive 1848/49 Hungarian revolution — with similar themes
like Marius sitting on the ruins of Carthage ( a painting by John
Vanderlyn, 1807) and also with a number of prints and paintings
which showed the defeated or exiled Napoleon (f.e. Delaroche,
Napoleon in Fontainebleau, 1845). Further iconographic references
included the type of the sitting „melancholie figurę”.
In this short contribution I would like to refer to an over-
looked thematic field linked with the motif of the „defeated lead-
er”. In the last decade of the 18th century a specific iconography
portraying the melancholy of defeated heroes or politicians madę
its appearance, a number of such paintings is discussed here (i.a.
Fabre, Brzostowski, Diogg, Ulysses von Salis-Marschlins). Around
1800 the motif of the grief-stricken, defeated political figurę
was transferred to sonie episodes in various biographical graphic
cycles depicting the life of Frederick II of Prussia. Popular prints
(f.e. Hampe, 1800) but also Julius Schrader’s leipzig painting
(ill. 11) showed a dejected, pensive Frederick II of Prussia sit-
ting on a wooden water conduit-pipe on the morning after his
defeat at Kolin (18th June 1757). Interestingly enough this
particular motif was compared by contemporary historians
(Johann Wilhelm Archenholtz, 1791) to the Marius-scene.
The nascent iconography of the „Old Fritz” was particularly
characterized by the inclusion of scenes showing defeats, though
these were deliberately concieved as dramaturgie interruptions
in an otherwise- triumphal narrative. As such they play also
an important role in Adolph MenzeFs famous illustrations for
Franz Kugler’s Geschichte Friedrichs des Grossen (Leipzig 1840).
A further, hitherto overlooked example connected with the
Polish reception of theme of the „defeated leader” offers a pain-
ting by the artist Stanisław Chlebowski (1866, location un-
known) showing the valiant Algerian rebel leader Abd-el Kader
in Istanbul, twenty years after the defeat he incurred from the
French occupiers. Chlebowski, who might have known Roda-
kowskim painting, depicts with great empathy the melancholie
aura surrounding the defeated oriental military commander.
dłoń, ujęcie tła) — wizerunek Dembińskiego. Jest
to obraz berlińskiego malarza Juliusza Schradera
(1815—1900) przedstawiający scenę tu już wspo-
mnianą, a mianowicie Fryderyka IIpo klęsce w bitwie
pod Kolinem (1849, Lipsk, Museum der bildenden
Kiinste, il. 11). Obraz Schradera powstał na trzy
lata przed Dembińskim i transportuje w sposób
oczywisty motywy sztychu Hampego. Schrader
znajdował się w latach czterdziestych pod silnym
wpływem Delaroche’a — jak wiadomo twórcy kilku
wizerunków zwyciężonego Napoleona — i sam też
stworzył wiele obrazów historycznych ukazujących
przegranych władców (np. Karola I Stuarta). Książ-
ce Gisolda Lammela Adolf Menzel. Freiederiziana
und Wilhelmiana, Dresden 1988 (tam s. 62/63
oraz przyp. 108, s. 174) zawdzięczam nie tylko
znajomość obrazu Schradera, ale też informacje,
iż temat Fryderyk po klęsce kolińskiej był w sztuce
berlińskiej tego czasu dość popularny (Meno Haas,
Johan Jakob Kirchoff, Christian Daniel Rauch,
Clara Wilhelminę Oenicke)
Romantic Images of the Defeated Leader: Further Iconographic Deriyates
In his seminal study devoted to Henryk Rodakowskim
famous painting Portrait of General Dembiński (1852, Cracow,
National Museum) the eminent Polish art historian Mieczysław
Porębski described in 1977 the characteristic traits of a pecu-
liar romantic iconographic theme linked with the vicissitudes
of Polish history, namely that of the „defeated leader”. Other
supplementary studies (i.a. Jan Białostocki, Andrzej Ryszkie-
wicz, Wojciech Bałus, Michał Haake) linked the iconography
of Rodakowskim portrait — which shows a Polish veteran of the
abortive 1848/49 Hungarian revolution — with similar themes
like Marius sitting on the ruins of Carthage ( a painting by John
Vanderlyn, 1807) and also with a number of prints and paintings
which showed the defeated or exiled Napoleon (f.e. Delaroche,
Napoleon in Fontainebleau, 1845). Further iconographic references
included the type of the sitting „melancholie figurę”.
In this short contribution I would like to refer to an over-
looked thematic field linked with the motif of the „defeated lead-
er”. In the last decade of the 18th century a specific iconography
portraying the melancholy of defeated heroes or politicians madę
its appearance, a number of such paintings is discussed here (i.a.
Fabre, Brzostowski, Diogg, Ulysses von Salis-Marschlins). Around
1800 the motif of the grief-stricken, defeated political figurę
was transferred to sonie episodes in various biographical graphic
cycles depicting the life of Frederick II of Prussia. Popular prints
(f.e. Hampe, 1800) but also Julius Schrader’s leipzig painting
(ill. 11) showed a dejected, pensive Frederick II of Prussia sit-
ting on a wooden water conduit-pipe on the morning after his
defeat at Kolin (18th June 1757). Interestingly enough this
particular motif was compared by contemporary historians
(Johann Wilhelm Archenholtz, 1791) to the Marius-scene.
The nascent iconography of the „Old Fritz” was particularly
characterized by the inclusion of scenes showing defeats, though
these were deliberately concieved as dramaturgie interruptions
in an otherwise- triumphal narrative. As such they play also
an important role in Adolph MenzeFs famous illustrations for
Franz Kugler’s Geschichte Friedrichs des Grossen (Leipzig 1840).
A further, hitherto overlooked example connected with the
Polish reception of theme of the „defeated leader” offers a pain-
ting by the artist Stanisław Chlebowski (1866, location un-
known) showing the valiant Algerian rebel leader Abd-el Kader
in Istanbul, twenty years after the defeat he incurred from the
French occupiers. Chlebowski, who might have known Roda-
kowskim painting, depicts with great empathy the melancholie
aura surrounding the defeated oriental military commander.