DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.29195#0071
Secrets of the Past
The Palace
and the
house
at Number 17
in the times
of Stanistaw
Potocki
(1845-1886)
Fig. 60. P. Tyrowicz, Portrait of Stanistaw
Potocki in the Polish national costume, oils on
canvas, 1848; Wilanow Palace Museum
Stanistaw Kostka Potocki’s grandson, another Stanistaw, did not distinguish him-
self with any notable achievements, perhaps apart from raising the house at Num-
ber 17 on the Krakowskie Przedmiescie (Figs. 60-61). Although he resided on and
off in the Palace, he treated it largely as a source of revenue from the letting out
of its premises. Like his father, he had an unhappy marriage. In the mid-1850s he
wedded Maria Sapieha and divorced her in 1866. Thereafter he paid frequent vis-
its to Paris, where according to contemporary reports he lived a rather rakish life,
while the Palace was left to deteriorate more and more. Like his great forebear, he
was interested in art (Bqbiak 2010, p. 554). In 1855 during his travels abroad he
purchased a picture by a 17th-century Dutch landscape painter named Ruisdael for
his collection in the Palace. Today it is hard to tell whether the painter in question
was Salomon or Jacob van Ruisdael. A good idea of the latter’s work is to be had
from a canvas entitled “Landscape with a waterfall”, which is now in Wilanow Pal-
ace (Wilanow Collection 2005, pp. 60-61). Another intriguing event is associated
with this Stanislaw. In 1869 the Prince of Wales, Queen Victoria’s eldest son, later
King Edward VII, made a secret visit to Warsaw. So far we know very few facts
concerning the future monarch’s stay in the Palace.
Let’s return to the story of No. 17 on the Krakowskie Przedmiescie. There is an
interesting document from that period relating to this house, describing a new
technology used in its construction: The newpart ofthe Potocki Palace is being built
with the modern application ofcast iron. Each ofits arcades is to be supported on four
slender columns made ofcast iron with windows in between them. The house is to have
three storeys and large windows with delicate decorations suited to the lightweight base.
Mr. Lanci thereby wants to avoid the error now most frequently committed by the
English and French, ofputting heavy loads in the style ofGreek or Roman architecture
on the seemingly flimsy (but in reality strong) support offered by thin iron columns, or
by topping such supports with Gothic architecture, no longer a good match for today’s
industrial age, which pays more attention to comfort and convenience, cost effectiveness,
and utility, rather than to pomp and useless splendour (Kwiatkowska and Malinowska
1976, pp. 109-110).
These were the words of August Potocki, who in 1846 was supporting his half-
brother in his most ambitious investment in connection with the Palace, or rather
with the adjoining property. The plan involved the redevelopment of the old build-
ing situated between the north wing of the Palace and Mr. Kirkow’s house. The
property at No. 17 on the Krakowskie Przedmiescie is one of the best achievements
of Francesco Maria Lanci (1799-1875). It took the form of an irregular quadrangle
with two upper floors, two tracts, and nine axes. Lanci employed structural details
which were novel at the time. On the ground floor he had pairs of slender cast iron
columns topped with stone caps supporting the storey above. On the upper floors
he had narrow lesenes between the windows of the first floor, and Tuscan pilasters
and cornices on the second floor, along with ornamentation consisting of plant mo-
tifs, portraits set in tondi, meandering friezes, intersecting lines, and flat caissons.
In the central part of the fagade there is a balcony with a delicately shaped iron trel-
lis. The harmonious and subtle divisions in the house’s architecture are reminiscent
of Italian Renaissance buildings, and the tondi enclosing portraits call to mind
the tondi on Lorenzo Ghiberti’s famous second door to the Baptistery of Florence
Cathedral, or on the fagade of another Renaissance edifice, the Ospedale Maggiore
of Milan, designed by Antonio Averlino (Filarete).
76
The Palace
and the
house
at Number 17
in the times
of Stanistaw
Potocki
(1845-1886)
Fig. 60. P. Tyrowicz, Portrait of Stanistaw
Potocki in the Polish national costume, oils on
canvas, 1848; Wilanow Palace Museum
Stanistaw Kostka Potocki’s grandson, another Stanistaw, did not distinguish him-
self with any notable achievements, perhaps apart from raising the house at Num-
ber 17 on the Krakowskie Przedmiescie (Figs. 60-61). Although he resided on and
off in the Palace, he treated it largely as a source of revenue from the letting out
of its premises. Like his father, he had an unhappy marriage. In the mid-1850s he
wedded Maria Sapieha and divorced her in 1866. Thereafter he paid frequent vis-
its to Paris, where according to contemporary reports he lived a rather rakish life,
while the Palace was left to deteriorate more and more. Like his great forebear, he
was interested in art (Bqbiak 2010, p. 554). In 1855 during his travels abroad he
purchased a picture by a 17th-century Dutch landscape painter named Ruisdael for
his collection in the Palace. Today it is hard to tell whether the painter in question
was Salomon or Jacob van Ruisdael. A good idea of the latter’s work is to be had
from a canvas entitled “Landscape with a waterfall”, which is now in Wilanow Pal-
ace (Wilanow Collection 2005, pp. 60-61). Another intriguing event is associated
with this Stanislaw. In 1869 the Prince of Wales, Queen Victoria’s eldest son, later
King Edward VII, made a secret visit to Warsaw. So far we know very few facts
concerning the future monarch’s stay in the Palace.
Let’s return to the story of No. 17 on the Krakowskie Przedmiescie. There is an
interesting document from that period relating to this house, describing a new
technology used in its construction: The newpart ofthe Potocki Palace is being built
with the modern application ofcast iron. Each ofits arcades is to be supported on four
slender columns made ofcast iron with windows in between them. The house is to have
three storeys and large windows with delicate decorations suited to the lightweight base.
Mr. Lanci thereby wants to avoid the error now most frequently committed by the
English and French, ofputting heavy loads in the style ofGreek or Roman architecture
on the seemingly flimsy (but in reality strong) support offered by thin iron columns, or
by topping such supports with Gothic architecture, no longer a good match for today’s
industrial age, which pays more attention to comfort and convenience, cost effectiveness,
and utility, rather than to pomp and useless splendour (Kwiatkowska and Malinowska
1976, pp. 109-110).
These were the words of August Potocki, who in 1846 was supporting his half-
brother in his most ambitious investment in connection with the Palace, or rather
with the adjoining property. The plan involved the redevelopment of the old build-
ing situated between the north wing of the Palace and Mr. Kirkow’s house. The
property at No. 17 on the Krakowskie Przedmiescie is one of the best achievements
of Francesco Maria Lanci (1799-1875). It took the form of an irregular quadrangle
with two upper floors, two tracts, and nine axes. Lanci employed structural details
which were novel at the time. On the ground floor he had pairs of slender cast iron
columns topped with stone caps supporting the storey above. On the upper floors
he had narrow lesenes between the windows of the first floor, and Tuscan pilasters
and cornices on the second floor, along with ornamentation consisting of plant mo-
tifs, portraits set in tondi, meandering friezes, intersecting lines, and flat caissons.
In the central part of the fagade there is a balcony with a delicately shaped iron trel-
lis. The harmonious and subtle divisions in the house’s architecture are reminiscent
of Italian Renaissance buildings, and the tondi enclosing portraits call to mind
the tondi on Lorenzo Ghiberti’s famous second door to the Baptistery of Florence
Cathedral, or on the fagade of another Renaissance edifice, the Ospedale Maggiore
of Milan, designed by Antonio Averlino (Filarete).
76