DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.29195#0100
Tableanx vivants
Fig. 93. Marcello Bacciarelli, Napoleon grants
the Duchy of Warsaw its Constitution, 1811,
oils on canvas; MNW
The already cited Ludwik Jabionowski, born in Warsaw in 1810, described his fas-
cination with Napoleon in the following way: When the Great One was on his wayfor
Moscow, I must have heen a few months short ofmy second birthday, nonetheless I dis-
tinctly remember being held in the arms ofa simple woman in an entrance-way to a house,
looking at the Emperor at the head of his officers. . . . Perhaps he cast a random glance at
me, and with it took my spirit into a magnetising enslavement which has enduredand will
last until my dying day (Jablonowski 1963, p. 33). The overwhelming majority of that
generation persisted in that magnetising enslavement. The name was used by two of
Poland’s great Romantic poets - Adam Napoleon Mickiewicz (according to legend
this was the name he took on his confirmation) and Napoleon Zygmunt Krasiriski.
The latter was an admirer of Napoleon to the end of his life. Jablonowski himself
was baptised Napoleon Ludwik Jozef - the last name maybe in honour of Prince
Jozef Poniatowski. Furthermore, for nearly a decade Warsaw’s ulica Miodowa bore
the name of the Emperor of France. As we have already said in the previous chapter,
when Count Jozef Potocki was redecorating the Palace in the late 19^ century, he did
not fail to put up a copy of Fran^ois Gerard’s famous coronation portrait of Napoleon
(1805) in the library (Fig. 92). At about the same time another canvas featuring Na-
poleon, in the company of Stanislaw Kostka Potocki and some of the Palace’s tenants
and people who later attended the famous ball in 1807, was being painted in Warsaw.
But before we go on to a more detailed account of that ball referring to some extensive
passages from Leon Potocki’s book, let’s take a closer look at this salient work of art.
Painted in 1809—1811, the canvas presents “Napoleon granting the Duchy ofWarsaw
its Constitution in 1807” and was the work of Marcello Bacciarelli (Fig. 93). The scene is
set in an interior of the palace at Dresden, where Frederick Augustus, King of Saxony and
grandson ofAugustus III, King of Poland, was appointed ruler ofthe Duchy ofWarsaw.
Actually Frederick Augustus, whom the Third ofMay Constitudon of 1791 had desig-
107
Fig. 93. Marcello Bacciarelli, Napoleon grants
the Duchy of Warsaw its Constitution, 1811,
oils on canvas; MNW
The already cited Ludwik Jabionowski, born in Warsaw in 1810, described his fas-
cination with Napoleon in the following way: When the Great One was on his wayfor
Moscow, I must have heen a few months short ofmy second birthday, nonetheless I dis-
tinctly remember being held in the arms ofa simple woman in an entrance-way to a house,
looking at the Emperor at the head of his officers. . . . Perhaps he cast a random glance at
me, and with it took my spirit into a magnetising enslavement which has enduredand will
last until my dying day (Jablonowski 1963, p. 33). The overwhelming majority of that
generation persisted in that magnetising enslavement. The name was used by two of
Poland’s great Romantic poets - Adam Napoleon Mickiewicz (according to legend
this was the name he took on his confirmation) and Napoleon Zygmunt Krasiriski.
The latter was an admirer of Napoleon to the end of his life. Jablonowski himself
was baptised Napoleon Ludwik Jozef - the last name maybe in honour of Prince
Jozef Poniatowski. Furthermore, for nearly a decade Warsaw’s ulica Miodowa bore
the name of the Emperor of France. As we have already said in the previous chapter,
when Count Jozef Potocki was redecorating the Palace in the late 19^ century, he did
not fail to put up a copy of Fran^ois Gerard’s famous coronation portrait of Napoleon
(1805) in the library (Fig. 92). At about the same time another canvas featuring Na-
poleon, in the company of Stanislaw Kostka Potocki and some of the Palace’s tenants
and people who later attended the famous ball in 1807, was being painted in Warsaw.
But before we go on to a more detailed account of that ball referring to some extensive
passages from Leon Potocki’s book, let’s take a closer look at this salient work of art.
Painted in 1809—1811, the canvas presents “Napoleon granting the Duchy ofWarsaw
its Constitution in 1807” and was the work of Marcello Bacciarelli (Fig. 93). The scene is
set in an interior of the palace at Dresden, where Frederick Augustus, King of Saxony and
grandson ofAugustus III, King of Poland, was appointed ruler ofthe Duchy ofWarsaw.
Actually Frederick Augustus, whom the Third ofMay Constitudon of 1791 had desig-
107