DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.29195#0113
I i i h
Neither marching armies and preparations for the confrontation with Russia, nor
the huge expenses on the army attenuated the aristocracy’s demand for social life and
entertainment. Many of the houses in the city put on concerts or theatrical perfor-
mances, or applied the assiduity befitting grand archaeological discoveries to stage les
tableaux vivants, “live pictures” - re-enactments of famous paintings or of the ancient
frescoes discovered at Pompeii and other Vesuvian towns. The vogue for such tab-
leaux was long-lived and widely disseminated. We know that such events were held
in the apartment of the Chopin family in one of the buildings of the University of
Warsaw (Miziolek, Kowalski 2010, pp. 172-173). A similar cultural event was held
in 1808 on the present-day premises of the Ministry of Culture and National Herit-
age. Before we go on to describe it we shall say something about the history of these
“live pictures”, which had something of the pantomime and the theatre show about
them (Touchette 2000).
In his Italian Journey (1787) Johann W. Goethe describes Emma Hamilton’s fa-
mous “attitudes” or pantomimes: Sir William Hamilton, wbo is still living here as Eng-
lish ambassador, has now, after manyyears ofdevotion to the arts and the study ofnature,
found the acme ofthese delights in theperson ofan English girl oftwenty with a beautiful
face and a perfect figure. He has had a Greek costume made for her which becomes her
extremely. Dressed in this, she lets down her hair and, with a few shawls, gives so much
variety to herposes, gestures, expressions, etc., that the spectator can hardly believe his eyes.
He sees what thousands ofartists would have liked to express realized before him in move-
ments and surprising transformations - standing, kneeling, sitting, reclining, serious, sad,
playful, ecstatic, contrite, alluring, threatening, anxious, oneposefollows another without
a break. (Goethe 1982, p. 208).
Emma’s attitudes were immortalised in the drawings of Friedrich Rehberg, which
later served as the basis for Tommaso Piroli’s etchings. These in turn were reproduced
for King Stanislaw August by Ferdynand Pinck (1761-1797: Miziolek 2010, fig. 112
A-M). Aleksandra Potocka could have been familiar with Pinck’s copies, or with the
originals by Piroli, which presented compositions and attitudes from the Pompeian
and vase painting. A set of 13 of Pinck’s drawings is in the Print Room of the Library
of Warsaw University (Zbidr Krdl. T. 174). Another artistic form similar to tableaux
vivants were charades, performances of little scenes entailing words which spectators
had to guess (Komza 1995). The origins of tableaux vivants of the kind performed in
the Potocki Palace in 1808 have faded into oblivion (Holmstrom 1967). However, by
the turn of the centuries they had become widespread. A place especially noted for
them was the stately home of the Czartoryski family at Pulawy, where they were put
on by the lady of the house, Izabela Czartoryska nee Fleming, wife of Adam Kazi-
mierz Czartoryski (Fig. 99).
Leon Dembowski’s sister left a record in her fascinating memoirs of the 1808
performance in the Potocki Palace, and her account later made its way into Dem-
bowski’s book: Yesterday at Mrs. Potocka's nous avons arrange des tableaux. Laura
[Potocka] and I arranged all the props and did made the arrangements andprepara-
tions and bossed everyone around, and it was all a big success. We had a gallery ofsix
living tableaux. First there was une femme de Rubens, performed by Mrs. Potocka,
the wife of Antoni (later Branicka). Next there was a reclining Bacchante holding
a bunch ofgrapes and spied on by a little Satyr peepingfrom behind some flowers; she
was played by Mrs. Potocka, the wife of Aleksander, with Ludwik Kicki as the Satyr.
The thirdpicture was Domenichini's Sybil, played by Mrs. Sobolewska. Unfortunately
Neither marching armies and preparations for the confrontation with Russia, nor
the huge expenses on the army attenuated the aristocracy’s demand for social life and
entertainment. Many of the houses in the city put on concerts or theatrical perfor-
mances, or applied the assiduity befitting grand archaeological discoveries to stage les
tableaux vivants, “live pictures” - re-enactments of famous paintings or of the ancient
frescoes discovered at Pompeii and other Vesuvian towns. The vogue for such tab-
leaux was long-lived and widely disseminated. We know that such events were held
in the apartment of the Chopin family in one of the buildings of the University of
Warsaw (Miziolek, Kowalski 2010, pp. 172-173). A similar cultural event was held
in 1808 on the present-day premises of the Ministry of Culture and National Herit-
age. Before we go on to describe it we shall say something about the history of these
“live pictures”, which had something of the pantomime and the theatre show about
them (Touchette 2000).
In his Italian Journey (1787) Johann W. Goethe describes Emma Hamilton’s fa-
mous “attitudes” or pantomimes: Sir William Hamilton, wbo is still living here as Eng-
lish ambassador, has now, after manyyears ofdevotion to the arts and the study ofnature,
found the acme ofthese delights in theperson ofan English girl oftwenty with a beautiful
face and a perfect figure. He has had a Greek costume made for her which becomes her
extremely. Dressed in this, she lets down her hair and, with a few shawls, gives so much
variety to herposes, gestures, expressions, etc., that the spectator can hardly believe his eyes.
He sees what thousands ofartists would have liked to express realized before him in move-
ments and surprising transformations - standing, kneeling, sitting, reclining, serious, sad,
playful, ecstatic, contrite, alluring, threatening, anxious, oneposefollows another without
a break. (Goethe 1982, p. 208).
Emma’s attitudes were immortalised in the drawings of Friedrich Rehberg, which
later served as the basis for Tommaso Piroli’s etchings. These in turn were reproduced
for King Stanislaw August by Ferdynand Pinck (1761-1797: Miziolek 2010, fig. 112
A-M). Aleksandra Potocka could have been familiar with Pinck’s copies, or with the
originals by Piroli, which presented compositions and attitudes from the Pompeian
and vase painting. A set of 13 of Pinck’s drawings is in the Print Room of the Library
of Warsaw University (Zbidr Krdl. T. 174). Another artistic form similar to tableaux
vivants were charades, performances of little scenes entailing words which spectators
had to guess (Komza 1995). The origins of tableaux vivants of the kind performed in
the Potocki Palace in 1808 have faded into oblivion (Holmstrom 1967). However, by
the turn of the centuries they had become widespread. A place especially noted for
them was the stately home of the Czartoryski family at Pulawy, where they were put
on by the lady of the house, Izabela Czartoryska nee Fleming, wife of Adam Kazi-
mierz Czartoryski (Fig. 99).
Leon Dembowski’s sister left a record in her fascinating memoirs of the 1808
performance in the Potocki Palace, and her account later made its way into Dem-
bowski’s book: Yesterday at Mrs. Potocka's nous avons arrange des tableaux. Laura
[Potocka] and I arranged all the props and did made the arrangements andprepara-
tions and bossed everyone around, and it was all a big success. We had a gallery ofsix
living tableaux. First there was une femme de Rubens, performed by Mrs. Potocka,
the wife of Antoni (later Branicka). Next there was a reclining Bacchante holding
a bunch ofgrapes and spied on by a little Satyr peepingfrom behind some flowers; she
was played by Mrs. Potocka, the wife of Aleksander, with Ludwik Kicki as the Satyr.
The thirdpicture was Domenichini's Sybil, played by Mrs. Sobolewska. Unfortunately