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

Warsaw, Royal Castle, draft design of the Bedchamber and Study, J.Ch. Kamsetzer, 1792
In Poland, it is particularly important to notę the consciousness of the need for the creation of
a national art which formed in the Age of Enlightenment. The credit for this is to a large extent
due to the King who began to work towards it as soon as he came to the throne; this is one of
the reasons why we consider his artistic patronage to have had features not only of court but
also State patronage. Already the first project of the Academy of Fine Arts, which Bacciarelli
drafted at the order of the King, included the significant view that it was not sufficient for
foreign artists to be brought to Poland, so that fine arts could flourish here, but it was also
necessary to produce a situation in which the natives of Poland would ply the arts. And in 1790
Antoni Albertrandi, when he published a handbook in Polish on painting skills, in verse,
wrote in his preface: “...in order to satisfy the intentions of His Most Generous Royal
Highness, feeling it my responsibility to take to the righteous ways the youth in my custody
[...] that which I have long and dilligently pondered, that which I havefoundfrom my own
experience, I am hereby presenting to it in my mother tongue.”
From the middle of the 18th century Academies of Fine Arts arose in many a country of
enlightened Europę, to mention only the Academy in Venice, founded in 1756, the Academy
in St. Petersburg, 1757, and the Academy in Dresden, 1764. The Royal Academy in Warsaw
was, according to the King’s intention, to play a role which went beyond the limits of the arts;
it was needed to ensure the undertaking of a broad programme not only in culture, but also in
national education, which was an urgent necessity in the wake of the reigns of the Saxon
kings. However, political circumstances and financial difficulties prevented the King from
establishing the Academy of Fine Arts or the planned Academy of Sciences. Instead there
arose an educational institution of a different naturę, on a lower level of organization, called
the Atelier or Royal Painting Studio, financed by the King and directed by Bacciarelli. The
projected Academy was to have three departments: of painting, sculpture and architecture. In
organizing the Atelier, the last of these was given up entirely. In the department of painting
the project had envisaged the following professors: one expert in the composition of each of
the following: history painting, portraiture, landscape and miniaturę painting. Since
attempts to acąuire a history painter had failed, of necessity Bacciarelli, whose specialty was
portraiture, took over this department. Canaletto was considered a landscape painter, which
was not exact, sińce he plied a peculiar version of it - vedute. The project envisaged the
engagement of a professor of sculpture. Andre Le Brun took this post.
The Atelier was not basically a school to educate the young. Its essential purpose was to fulfill

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