DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.23396#0336
Uniwersytet Warszawski i młody Chopin
While living for a decade on the University of Warsaw campus, Chopin was able to visit not
only the smali uniyersity picture gallery and the fine arts exhibitions but also the huge collection
of plaster casts of ancient sculptures on permanent display in the building which is partially vis-
ible on the right side of Horwarfs lithograph; so it stood less than fifty metres from his home.
As the Kurier Warszawski reported:
In one of the earlier issues of our publication, we reported on the scientific collections which are the
pride and treasure of our University. At that time, the sculpture collection was incomplete; now, arranged
in perfect order in one of the most impressive halls of our Capital, it is visited with great interest by the con-
noisseurs and lovers of that branch of art. The tasteful arrangement of the exhibits is the work of Mr Blank,
a professor of painting at our University. He discovered a way of whitening those plasters which preseryes
even the minutest detail of their surface, so that they all seem entirely new. Entering the hall from the front,
we see the famous group representing Laocoon and his sons in great pain from a serpent throttling them
in its numerous coils. The Fighting Gladiator, the Apollo Belvedere, the Medici Venus and many other
antiquities are placed in four rows on either side of that hall. Among works of modern times, there are only
a few by Canova. Few cities in Europę can boast such a collection. Apparently, several dozen morę works
are to be added to it, mostly of gigantic proportions, which the government has ordered to be purchased
in Paris.
The collection remained in place for many decades. An etching by Kazimierz Krzyżanowski,
after a drawing by Franciszek Tegazzo, pubłished in 1866, clearly illustrates the monumental
dimensions of this hall and the riches of the collection it housed. This etching is one of the most
vivid depictions of the splendour of the Uniyersity of Warsaw in Chopin s day. The hall remains
intact today, whilst the extant part of the collection of plaster casts, numbering some 150 items,
is displayed in the Orangery in the Łazienki Park in Warsaw.
There is no mention of this collection in the composers extant letters; however, his visit to the
Antiken Kabinet in Vienna in August 1829 and his beautiful letter to his family of 20 July 1845,
referring to Hercules arretant la chevre dAmalthee, may echo the interest in sculpture inspired
in him by the uniyersity collections. The letter reads as follows: ‘Speaking of monuments, the
eąuestrian statuę of the duke of Orleans (who was killed, jumping out of his coach) will be fin-
ished in a few days. It stands on the Louvre sąuare, in Algerian bronze, probably with bas-reliefs.
It is the work of Marochetti, one of the most famous sculptors here. Marochetti, for all his Ital-
ian name, is a Frenchman, and is a man of very great talent; all the most important works are
334
While living for a decade on the University of Warsaw campus, Chopin was able to visit not
only the smali uniyersity picture gallery and the fine arts exhibitions but also the huge collection
of plaster casts of ancient sculptures on permanent display in the building which is partially vis-
ible on the right side of Horwarfs lithograph; so it stood less than fifty metres from his home.
As the Kurier Warszawski reported:
In one of the earlier issues of our publication, we reported on the scientific collections which are the
pride and treasure of our University. At that time, the sculpture collection was incomplete; now, arranged
in perfect order in one of the most impressive halls of our Capital, it is visited with great interest by the con-
noisseurs and lovers of that branch of art. The tasteful arrangement of the exhibits is the work of Mr Blank,
a professor of painting at our University. He discovered a way of whitening those plasters which preseryes
even the minutest detail of their surface, so that they all seem entirely new. Entering the hall from the front,
we see the famous group representing Laocoon and his sons in great pain from a serpent throttling them
in its numerous coils. The Fighting Gladiator, the Apollo Belvedere, the Medici Venus and many other
antiquities are placed in four rows on either side of that hall. Among works of modern times, there are only
a few by Canova. Few cities in Europę can boast such a collection. Apparently, several dozen morę works
are to be added to it, mostly of gigantic proportions, which the government has ordered to be purchased
in Paris.
The collection remained in place for many decades. An etching by Kazimierz Krzyżanowski,
after a drawing by Franciszek Tegazzo, pubłished in 1866, clearly illustrates the monumental
dimensions of this hall and the riches of the collection it housed. This etching is one of the most
vivid depictions of the splendour of the Uniyersity of Warsaw in Chopin s day. The hall remains
intact today, whilst the extant part of the collection of plaster casts, numbering some 150 items,
is displayed in the Orangery in the Łazienki Park in Warsaw.
There is no mention of this collection in the composers extant letters; however, his visit to the
Antiken Kabinet in Vienna in August 1829 and his beautiful letter to his family of 20 July 1845,
referring to Hercules arretant la chevre dAmalthee, may echo the interest in sculpture inspired
in him by the uniyersity collections. The letter reads as follows: ‘Speaking of monuments, the
eąuestrian statuę of the duke of Orleans (who was killed, jumping out of his coach) will be fin-
ished in a few days. It stands on the Louvre sąuare, in Algerian bronze, probably with bas-reliefs.
It is the work of Marochetti, one of the most famous sculptors here. Marochetti, for all his Ital-
ian name, is a Frenchman, and is a man of very great talent; all the most important works are
334