Lorentz, Stanisław; Rottermund, Andrzej: Neoclassicism in Poland (Warsaw, 1986)

Warsaw, draft design of the National Theatre, S.B. Zug, c. 1776

The Stanislas Augustus Style and His Cultural
Patronage
King Stanislas Augustus Poniatowski played an outstanding role in the history of Polish
culture in the second half of the 18th century. A typical man of the Enlightenment, highly
educated, a supporter of French culture, but at the same time of the English political system,
an admirer of Voltaire and Shakespeare, promotor of political and social reforms, he
supported the development of Sciences and created around him a court of artists. He imported
foreign artists and used the services of those who had settled in Poland, also those passing
through, but nevertheless he consciously worked towards the formation of Polish art and
contributed to the education of artists of Polish nationality. He gathered large valuable art
collections, as he was a true admirer of art, but he also thought that these collections should be
open to the public.
The significance of the presence in Warsaw of the King’s court of artists in the years when the
independence of Poland was threatened may be realized by referring to the previous State.
Under the reign of the two Saxon kings, Dresden was the true cultural Capital of the governing
dynasts and Warsaw was regarded as a residence of secondary importance. It was in Dresden
that the most outstanding artists who worked for the King and the magnates related to the
court gathered, and it was as if on tour that they came to Warsaw. In Poland, there weremany
outstanding and minor Dresden artists and builders, while Warsaw and the whole of Poland
was overrun by Saxon craftsmen: stucco workers, stone cutters, painters, carpenters,
tinsmiths and glaziers. If French or Italian artists - as earlier Zacharias Longuelune and Louis

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