DOI article:
Getka-Kenig, Mikołaj: Traktat Sebastiana Sierakowskiego a problem popularyzacji wiedzy architektonicznej w Księstwie Warszawskim
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.44918#0108
did not write about it directly, it is hard to escape the impression that he was thinking
about his treatise as a manua, providing the summa of standard knowledge, which
would become the subject of universal education - that he so eagerly awaited - both
on the elementary and the academic level. However, notwithstanding the institution-
al forms of public education, Sierakowskis treatise was also to be used as a manua
in everyday construction practice. It had been written in order to be useful not only
to “morę or less perfect” architects, whom this book would help “to develop true
taste, to correct prejudices and to point out errors that in the elementary teachings
were fed to them by their masters”.62 The publication was also supposed to provide
“formation” for the skills of “ordinary masons”, who dealt with constructing “build-
ings with only the need and the convenience for intention”63, that is, including also
the peasant buildings, in which case it was not necessary to take into account the
principle of beauty that held such significance for the architects. For masons, the
“book itself ” was intended as a sort of handy “architect substitute”64, that is to say,
a teacher of correct Solutions. The fact of gathering, in its entirety, all knowledge
about both types of construction - on the one hand, the mundane, and on the other
hand, the representative architecture - goes to show that Sierakowski wanted both
types to be seen as complementary parts of the same skill. Even if apparently his
book was addressed to different groups of users who would benefit from different
chapters, the unification of these different parts into one narrative manifested the
desire for the classic ideals of architecture to reach also the common people, or
at least to signal that the extremely useful “rural building” principles remain in
close relationship with architecture sensu stricto. All these principles, however, had
a natural and therefore a universal pedigree, and their division resulted only from
the diversity of the social standing of the investors and users. Sierakowski, in fact,
placed beauty first among the principles of good building, claiming that “when the
true beauty is known, and when one should become attached to it, the search for
convenience will follow by itself, and the two together shall lead, in order make
the beautiful and the comfortable, also permanent”.65 Therefore, he did not want
to separate the beautiful architecture from the one that was only comfortable and
durable, but instead he decided to disseminate a specific ideał vision of construction,
which basically ennobled the ordinary masonry, and by extension also the social
groups who used it. This was a truły democratic concept, facing and accommo-
dating the social changes taking place in the Duchy of Warsaw. At the same time,
even those widely disseminated principles of classicism madę it possible to keep
the current social hierarchy in check, for instance when following the principle
of strictly defined gradation of ornament - to which Sierakowski devoted much
space in his treatise - allowing to differentiate individual buildings according to the
social position of their users.66 Democratization of access to classicism as theory
and practice was not a manifestation of an attack on the traditional stratification of
62 Ibidem, p. v.
63 Ibidem, p. v.
64 Ibidem, p. v.
65 Ibidem, p. vi.
66 See: M. Getka-Kenig, Ozdoba architektoniczna w służbie „wskrzeszonej” Polski: ideologiczne
motywacje dyskursu dekoracji w traktacie Architektura ks. Sebastiana Sierakowskiego z 1812 roku,
in: Ornament i dekoracja dzieła sztuki: studia z historii sztuki, J. Daranowska-Łukaszewska,
A.Dworzak, A. Betlej (eds.), Warszawa 2015, pp. 299-307.
106
ARTICLES
Mikołaj Getka-Kenig
about his treatise as a manua, providing the summa of standard knowledge, which
would become the subject of universal education - that he so eagerly awaited - both
on the elementary and the academic level. However, notwithstanding the institution-
al forms of public education, Sierakowskis treatise was also to be used as a manua
in everyday construction practice. It had been written in order to be useful not only
to “morę or less perfect” architects, whom this book would help “to develop true
taste, to correct prejudices and to point out errors that in the elementary teachings
were fed to them by their masters”.62 The publication was also supposed to provide
“formation” for the skills of “ordinary masons”, who dealt with constructing “build-
ings with only the need and the convenience for intention”63, that is, including also
the peasant buildings, in which case it was not necessary to take into account the
principle of beauty that held such significance for the architects. For masons, the
“book itself ” was intended as a sort of handy “architect substitute”64, that is to say,
a teacher of correct Solutions. The fact of gathering, in its entirety, all knowledge
about both types of construction - on the one hand, the mundane, and on the other
hand, the representative architecture - goes to show that Sierakowski wanted both
types to be seen as complementary parts of the same skill. Even if apparently his
book was addressed to different groups of users who would benefit from different
chapters, the unification of these different parts into one narrative manifested the
desire for the classic ideals of architecture to reach also the common people, or
at least to signal that the extremely useful “rural building” principles remain in
close relationship with architecture sensu stricto. All these principles, however, had
a natural and therefore a universal pedigree, and their division resulted only from
the diversity of the social standing of the investors and users. Sierakowski, in fact,
placed beauty first among the principles of good building, claiming that “when the
true beauty is known, and when one should become attached to it, the search for
convenience will follow by itself, and the two together shall lead, in order make
the beautiful and the comfortable, also permanent”.65 Therefore, he did not want
to separate the beautiful architecture from the one that was only comfortable and
durable, but instead he decided to disseminate a specific ideał vision of construction,
which basically ennobled the ordinary masonry, and by extension also the social
groups who used it. This was a truły democratic concept, facing and accommo-
dating the social changes taking place in the Duchy of Warsaw. At the same time,
even those widely disseminated principles of classicism madę it possible to keep
the current social hierarchy in check, for instance when following the principle
of strictly defined gradation of ornament - to which Sierakowski devoted much
space in his treatise - allowing to differentiate individual buildings according to the
social position of their users.66 Democratization of access to classicism as theory
and practice was not a manifestation of an attack on the traditional stratification of
62 Ibidem, p. v.
63 Ibidem, p. v.
64 Ibidem, p. v.
65 Ibidem, p. vi.
66 See: M. Getka-Kenig, Ozdoba architektoniczna w służbie „wskrzeszonej” Polski: ideologiczne
motywacje dyskursu dekoracji w traktacie Architektura ks. Sebastiana Sierakowskiego z 1812 roku,
in: Ornament i dekoracja dzieła sztuki: studia z historii sztuki, J. Daranowska-Łukaszewska,
A.Dworzak, A. Betlej (eds.), Warszawa 2015, pp. 299-307.
106
ARTICLES
Mikołaj Getka-Kenig