DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.23229#0190
CHOPIN AND THE VISUAL ARTS
Fig. 194. Plaster casts, once in the Columned ing; they are exhibited in the appropriate order and present a sight which
Hall of the Fine Arts Building, now in Old is pleasant and impressive for lovers of art, and edifying for artists; it is
Orangery at the Royal tazienki Park, photo a sight which can be found in few European capitals"62. The collection
2010. remained in place for many decades. The already mentioned engraving
by Krzyzanowski after a drawing by Tegazzo, published in 1866 clearly
illustrates the monumental dimensions of this room (which so much im-
pressed the author of the text from Kurier Warszawski just quoted above),
and the richness of the collection it housed. It belongs to the group of
iconographic materials which most tellingly render the dignitas of the Uni-
versity of Warsaw in the time of Chopin.
This room still exists in its original shape, whereas the extant part of
the collection, 134 pieces, is exhibited in the tazienki Orangery (fig. 194)
(more than five hundred plaster casts were destroyed during the 2nd
World War). It may be assumed that among those sculptures there are
those which were admired, and possibly even sketched by young Cho-
pin and his friend Biatobtocki. Frederick's visit to the Antiken Kabinet in
Vienna in August 1829 may support the claim that he had earlier been in-
terested in the University collection. His remarks on sculptures in some of
his Paris letters (as the one from 20th July 1845, cited above) may even be
an echo of his wanderings among the statues which had been displayed
next to his home at the University. Those royal and then University's plas-
ter casts were still used as models by Warsaw artists in the late 19th and
the early 20th century. When in 1897 Wojciech Gerson and his colleagues
206
Fig. 194. Plaster casts, once in the Columned ing; they are exhibited in the appropriate order and present a sight which
Hall of the Fine Arts Building, now in Old is pleasant and impressive for lovers of art, and edifying for artists; it is
Orangery at the Royal tazienki Park, photo a sight which can be found in few European capitals"62. The collection
2010. remained in place for many decades. The already mentioned engraving
by Krzyzanowski after a drawing by Tegazzo, published in 1866 clearly
illustrates the monumental dimensions of this room (which so much im-
pressed the author of the text from Kurier Warszawski just quoted above),
and the richness of the collection it housed. It belongs to the group of
iconographic materials which most tellingly render the dignitas of the Uni-
versity of Warsaw in the time of Chopin.
This room still exists in its original shape, whereas the extant part of
the collection, 134 pieces, is exhibited in the tazienki Orangery (fig. 194)
(more than five hundred plaster casts were destroyed during the 2nd
World War). It may be assumed that among those sculptures there are
those which were admired, and possibly even sketched by young Cho-
pin and his friend Biatobtocki. Frederick's visit to the Antiken Kabinet in
Vienna in August 1829 may support the claim that he had earlier been in-
terested in the University collection. His remarks on sculptures in some of
his Paris letters (as the one from 20th July 1845, cited above) may even be
an echo of his wanderings among the statues which had been displayed
next to his home at the University. Those royal and then University's plas-
ter casts were still used as models by Warsaw artists in the late 19th and
the early 20th century. When in 1897 Wojciech Gerson and his colleagues
206