DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.38678#0031
a transition to the Empire style had already begun. A set of Bacciarelli’s paintings on the
ceiling and on two side walls was a continuation of the ideas implemented in the Knights’ Hall
at the Royal Castle - in terms of interior composition those paintings constituted a very
significant element, expressing thoughts which the King wished to preserve and transmit to
his contemporaries and futurę generations. In the Knights’ Hall, by means of Bacciarelli’s
paintings, the King indicated what should be considered worthy, referring to examples from
the history of Poland, alluding to contemporary times. At-Łazienki, paintings devoted to the
Biblical story of Solomon, conceived by the King, combined to form an organie whole, which
was permeated with a common idea of a social-philosophical naturę. The idea of this set of
paintings took shape exactly in those years when the Four-Year Parliament sat in session, and
was related to the person of the King himself, the features of whose face could be discerned
very distinctly in the image of the Biblical King in a painting representing “Solomon’s
Offering”. Depicted on the ceiling was God showing himself to Solomon in a dream and
giving him, apart from wisdom for which he had asked, also riches and famę. These three gifts
were shown in the scenes painted on the facet of the Hall. Two large paintings on the walls
contained explicit allusions to Stanislas Augustus. “The Consecration of the Tempie in
Jerusalem” gave evidence to the wisdom and nierits of the King; “Solomon’s Offering”
referred to his old age. In the painted decoration of the Hall, in the reflections of Stanislas
Augustus on his own life and on the stance of an ideał ruler, there also recurred the motifs of
freemasonry which was linked with the King’s membership of the Masonie order and the role
which it played in Europę and Poland in the Age of Enlightenment.
The spacious, well-lighted Ballroom, annexed from the west in 1793, was characterized by
simplicity of architectural divisions and predominantly sculptural features of the interior
decoration. Plersch’s arabesąue painting was of secondary importance here. Over fireplaces
with architectural encasings were set copies of famous ancient sculptures brought from
Romę: the Belvedere Apollo and Farnese Hercules. Le Brun’s reliefs over the frontons of the
fireplaces represented taking-off eagles, referring to an ancient motif, whereas those on a side
wali, showed Hercules and Deianira, Apollo and Daphne.
The Ballroom, doubtless designed by Kamsetzer, represented late Stanislavian neoclassi-
cism, different from that of the Solomon Hall. The direction of its development could be seen
in the last of the halls, the Rotunda, finished in 1795. Although the walls of the Rotunda were
covered with yellow, golden stucco, recalling the gilded Conference Closet at the Castle and
the Solomon Hall, sculpted decoration dominated here. In four niches were set statues of
great Polish kings: Casimir the Great, Sigismund the Old, Stephen Bathory and John III
Sobieski, and over its four doors the busts of renowned Roman emperors. The sculptures
were the work of Le Burn, Monaldi and Pinck. The hardly visible four tondoes in the dome,
painted by Bacciarelli, represented personified virtues: Courage, Justice, Prudence and
Goodness. The finał work, the Rotunda, was thus a Pantheon, as it were, crowning all that
which the King had expressed over his entire reign - in the Marble Chamber, the Knight’s
Hall and the Solomon Hall. A room which used to be a grotto with a fountain in a garden
pavilion became, together with the Solomon Hall, a hoard of subject matter which the King
intended to preserve in his summer pałace.
At a time when the northern expansion of the pałace, begun in 1788, was still under way, the
King conceived of a further enlargement of his summer residence. The Pałace on the Island
was to be kept intact and new parts were to be designed beyond the canals. They were to
communicate with the pałace by smali bridges with łonie colonnades. Meanwhile, in
1792-1793, smali lateral pavilions and bridges with colonnades were built to Kamsetzer’s
design, who also built in 1753 a new smali guardhouse, with a wide, recessed doorway of
Tuscan columns.
26
ceiling and on two side walls was a continuation of the ideas implemented in the Knights’ Hall
at the Royal Castle - in terms of interior composition those paintings constituted a very
significant element, expressing thoughts which the King wished to preserve and transmit to
his contemporaries and futurę generations. In the Knights’ Hall, by means of Bacciarelli’s
paintings, the King indicated what should be considered worthy, referring to examples from
the history of Poland, alluding to contemporary times. At-Łazienki, paintings devoted to the
Biblical story of Solomon, conceived by the King, combined to form an organie whole, which
was permeated with a common idea of a social-philosophical naturę. The idea of this set of
paintings took shape exactly in those years when the Four-Year Parliament sat in session, and
was related to the person of the King himself, the features of whose face could be discerned
very distinctly in the image of the Biblical King in a painting representing “Solomon’s
Offering”. Depicted on the ceiling was God showing himself to Solomon in a dream and
giving him, apart from wisdom for which he had asked, also riches and famę. These three gifts
were shown in the scenes painted on the facet of the Hall. Two large paintings on the walls
contained explicit allusions to Stanislas Augustus. “The Consecration of the Tempie in
Jerusalem” gave evidence to the wisdom and nierits of the King; “Solomon’s Offering”
referred to his old age. In the painted decoration of the Hall, in the reflections of Stanislas
Augustus on his own life and on the stance of an ideał ruler, there also recurred the motifs of
freemasonry which was linked with the King’s membership of the Masonie order and the role
which it played in Europę and Poland in the Age of Enlightenment.
The spacious, well-lighted Ballroom, annexed from the west in 1793, was characterized by
simplicity of architectural divisions and predominantly sculptural features of the interior
decoration. Plersch’s arabesąue painting was of secondary importance here. Over fireplaces
with architectural encasings were set copies of famous ancient sculptures brought from
Romę: the Belvedere Apollo and Farnese Hercules. Le Brun’s reliefs over the frontons of the
fireplaces represented taking-off eagles, referring to an ancient motif, whereas those on a side
wali, showed Hercules and Deianira, Apollo and Daphne.
The Ballroom, doubtless designed by Kamsetzer, represented late Stanislavian neoclassi-
cism, different from that of the Solomon Hall. The direction of its development could be seen
in the last of the halls, the Rotunda, finished in 1795. Although the walls of the Rotunda were
covered with yellow, golden stucco, recalling the gilded Conference Closet at the Castle and
the Solomon Hall, sculpted decoration dominated here. In four niches were set statues of
great Polish kings: Casimir the Great, Sigismund the Old, Stephen Bathory and John III
Sobieski, and over its four doors the busts of renowned Roman emperors. The sculptures
were the work of Le Burn, Monaldi and Pinck. The hardly visible four tondoes in the dome,
painted by Bacciarelli, represented personified virtues: Courage, Justice, Prudence and
Goodness. The finał work, the Rotunda, was thus a Pantheon, as it were, crowning all that
which the King had expressed over his entire reign - in the Marble Chamber, the Knight’s
Hall and the Solomon Hall. A room which used to be a grotto with a fountain in a garden
pavilion became, together with the Solomon Hall, a hoard of subject matter which the King
intended to preserve in his summer pałace.
At a time when the northern expansion of the pałace, begun in 1788, was still under way, the
King conceived of a further enlargement of his summer residence. The Pałace on the Island
was to be kept intact and new parts were to be designed beyond the canals. They were to
communicate with the pałace by smali bridges with łonie colonnades. Meanwhile, in
1792-1793, smali lateral pavilions and bridges with colonnades were built to Kamsetzer’s
design, who also built in 1753 a new smali guardhouse, with a wide, recessed doorway of
Tuscan columns.
26