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

Warsaw, draft design of the “W hi te Eagle” Hotel, S.B. Zug, 80s of the 18th century

character. In the large dining-chamber of the White Pavilion the walls were covered with
arabesque-grotesque paintings, derived from RaphaePs decoration of Logge at the Vatican,
which were very popular in Renaissance art and later on extremely common in the period of
neoclassicism.
The rich, colourful and harmoniously composed decoration of Plersch was thefirst, or oneof
the first, neoclassical arabesque-grotesque decorations to be met in the eighties and later in
a great many pałace interiors in Poland. It was the best example of this type of painting
decoration, which evolved in his art. In the eighties he painted golden-background arabesque
work in the Conference Closet at the Royal Castle and later on in the Solomon Hall at the
Łazienki Pałace. It seems necessary to credit the King’s taste for this version, fulfilling whose
wish Kamsetzer designed in 1784 golden-background arabesque work in the King’s study on
the first floor of Łazienki. The paintings madę in 1783 for the Ballroom, although also
inspired by RaphaePs decoration of the Logge, were different. In these compositions human
figures dominated; the four central panneaux represented the elements, while the extreme
four ones showed the passage of time and human life.
Another type of wali decoration by Plersch was related to the exotic trend in the architecture
of the Łazienki pavilions. In 1777, in the White Pavilion, in a room decorated with Chinese
wali paper, he painted a view of Canton, and in the King’s study at the Pałace on the Island,
a view of Peking. Still another kind was provided by landscapes of this type, like those painted
by Norblin for Powązki. The decoration of the octohedral study at the White Pavilion, treated
as a garden bower, can serve as an example.
The White Pavilion, a Iow villa with a balustraded attic and a belvedere, has never been
rebuilt, preserving its original shape to the present day. Myślewice, however, was enlarged
twice in its first ten years, transforming a tali three-story villa with a large doorway into a smali
pałace, first one-storied and later with double-storey quarter-circular wings. The original
shape of the building and the baroque motifs, along with neoclassical ones, indicate in its
decoration the individual way in which the new style formed in the earlier period.
A turning point for the Łazienki Pałace came in 1784, when a new faęade was built on the
south side. From that time to the present day the view of the pałace from that side, with an
elevation with a recessed four-column doorway between two lateral projections, with
a balustraded attic and a belvedere crowned with sculptures, has been the most typical motif
in the entire design of the park. It was a very characteristic feature of the artistic ideas in the
sphere of royal patronage that the decoration of the doorway included earlier baroque

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