DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.38678#0025
burnt-down wing, just by the Grodzka Gate, as early as 1768, Fontana built the main staircase
which gave access to the Mirowska (Mier) Guard Hall and farther on, to the King’s
apartments. The neoclassical staircase and the Guard Hall, with łonie pilasters and decoration
of white stucco, represented the early stage in the development of the Stanislas Augustus
style. In 1768-1771, Fontana reconstructed the baroąue Marble Chamber, which had
survived until the time of Stanislas Augustus in the form it had been given under the Vasas,
but was in a State of complete ruin. Under the Vasas the Marble Chamber had housed a gallery
of the portraits of Polish kings. This intention was maintained. Into the walls of mul-
ticoloured marble were set twenty two oval and rectangular portraits of the monarch
predecessors of Stanislas Augustus, painted by Bacciarelli. A full-size portrait of Stanislas
Augustus in coronation dress was placed over the marble fireplace, as the main accent of the
room. The ceiling painting with an allegorical figurę of Famę was also painted by Bacciarelli.
The conceptual and artistic intention of the chamber was further expressed in allegorical
figures and cartouches. The sculptures were the work of Le Brun. In terms of architectural
decoration, the Marble Chamber, with its colourful and decorative furnishings of the interior,
retained a good deal of the atmosphere of baroąue interiors, despite the many neoclassical
motifs, of which the table “in the Greek taste” was a reflection of a contemporary short-lived
Paris fashion. The baroąue echoes can here be explained with the traditions of the Marble
Chamber from the times of King Ladislas IV.
The Marble Chamber began a historicising trend in the arts, which in terms of the themes of
the Castle interiors was already distinct in Louis’s design and was later so emphatically
present in the paintings in the Knights’ Hall and in the painted and sculpted portraits of great
Poles.
Following Fontana’s death in 1773, Domenico Merlini, the architect of the King and the
Commonwealth, took over as the director of the works. Both he and other architects devised
plans for the enlargement of the Castle. One of the most interesting designs, though
impossible to implement, was proposed by the Warsaw architect Efraim Szreger. His project
envisaged the demolition of the Krakowska Gate and the buildings in the Front Courtyard
and some houses in Krakowskie Przedmieście. In a new Castle Sąuare, the column of John III
Sobieski was to stand by the column of Sigismund III Vasa and through a triumphal arch
Warsaw, draft design of the pałace of the Sanguszko family, S.B. Zug, c. 1778
20
which gave access to the Mirowska (Mier) Guard Hall and farther on, to the King’s
apartments. The neoclassical staircase and the Guard Hall, with łonie pilasters and decoration
of white stucco, represented the early stage in the development of the Stanislas Augustus
style. In 1768-1771, Fontana reconstructed the baroąue Marble Chamber, which had
survived until the time of Stanislas Augustus in the form it had been given under the Vasas,
but was in a State of complete ruin. Under the Vasas the Marble Chamber had housed a gallery
of the portraits of Polish kings. This intention was maintained. Into the walls of mul-
ticoloured marble were set twenty two oval and rectangular portraits of the monarch
predecessors of Stanislas Augustus, painted by Bacciarelli. A full-size portrait of Stanislas
Augustus in coronation dress was placed over the marble fireplace, as the main accent of the
room. The ceiling painting with an allegorical figurę of Famę was also painted by Bacciarelli.
The conceptual and artistic intention of the chamber was further expressed in allegorical
figures and cartouches. The sculptures were the work of Le Brun. In terms of architectural
decoration, the Marble Chamber, with its colourful and decorative furnishings of the interior,
retained a good deal of the atmosphere of baroąue interiors, despite the many neoclassical
motifs, of which the table “in the Greek taste” was a reflection of a contemporary short-lived
Paris fashion. The baroąue echoes can here be explained with the traditions of the Marble
Chamber from the times of King Ladislas IV.
The Marble Chamber began a historicising trend in the arts, which in terms of the themes of
the Castle interiors was already distinct in Louis’s design and was later so emphatically
present in the paintings in the Knights’ Hall and in the painted and sculpted portraits of great
Poles.
Following Fontana’s death in 1773, Domenico Merlini, the architect of the King and the
Commonwealth, took over as the director of the works. Both he and other architects devised
plans for the enlargement of the Castle. One of the most interesting designs, though
impossible to implement, was proposed by the Warsaw architect Efraim Szreger. His project
envisaged the demolition of the Krakowska Gate and the buildings in the Front Courtyard
and some houses in Krakowskie Przedmieście. In a new Castle Sąuare, the column of John III
Sobieski was to stand by the column of Sigismund III Vasa and through a triumphal arch
Warsaw, draft design of the pałace of the Sanguszko family, S.B. Zug, c. 1778
20