DOI Artikel:
Dobrowolski, Witold: Świa̜tynia Diany w Arkadii koło Nieborowa: Świa̜tynia̜ Natury
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.34225#0134
128
WITOLD DOBROWOLSK!
stopniu wszystkim iudziorm diatego uznano ją w XVHI stuieciu za sprawiediiwą, a jej postać w czasach
rewoiucji stała się także personifikacją sprawiediiwości i równości.
Wszystkie te asocjacje dowodzą ponad wszeiką wątpliwość, że patronka arkadyjskiej świątyni nie
mogła uchodzić wyłącznie za dawczynię śmierci. Mauzoieum córek i pianowanie własnego grobu przez
Heienę Radziwiłłową nie wiązało się z chęcią przekształcenia Arkadii w nekropołię. Przeciwnie, powo-
łując się na wiarę sięgającą egipskich misteriów Izydy, budowie te miały wyrażać wiarę w powrót do
życia po śmierci. I to w ogrodzie najwspaniałszym z możliwych. Diana patronująca świątyni arkadyjskiej
byłaby przede wszystkim boginią natury, narzucającą swe prawa wszystkiemu co żyje. A prawo do miło-
ści, zapewniającej życiu ciągłość, byłoby, jak chcemy się domyśiać, zdaniem księżnej najpiękniejszym
i najbardziej istotnym z jej darów.
THE TEMPLE OF DIANA łN NIEBORÓW - TEMPLE OF NATURE
Abstract
The ceiling of the Pantheon in Nieborôw's Tempte of Diana. with its scene of Aurora riding Apollo's horses, became the basis
for the identiflcation of Masonic elements in the iconographic program of the Temple and the whole Arcadian park. The scene acquired
a symbolic meaning as the end of a period of darkness and the beginning of an era of Enlightenment and reason. As a result, the
symbolism of the Temp!e and the park became strong!y associated with the cu!t of Nature and reason. which underpin the Masonic
ideoiogy and more wide!y the Enlightenment.
Yet hnking the mytho!ogical figures of Aurora and Apollo with the light of reason and the worship of Nature. and thereby the
promotion of equality, clashes with potential reasons for the naming of the Temple after Diana, Apollo's sister and one of the twins
who killed twelve or even fourteen of Niobe's children. We know that Princess Helena Radziwiłł, the founder of Arcadia, had three
daughters who died prematurely. and the tragedy of Niobe must have been felt as her own. So what reasons could there be to worship
this goddess, the bearer of death, who was aiso a personification of the night, symbolizing, as we know, superstition and ignorance?
In order to minimise this contradiction in the interpretation of the program, researchers concluded that the Temple and park's
symbolism was from the start infused with elements that were elegiac, serious and melancholy, with the sadness resuiting from the Prin-
cess's obsession with death that had troub!ed her from the start. The Arcadian park would then be conceived as a cemetery. a mausoleum
for her dead daughters and for her own tomb. The Baroque motto T/ /и Тлгла'м' ego (death is even in Arcadia) was transformed into
an affirmation of the omnipresence of death. Thus the Baroque тлстиен^о wor/ has overshadowed the optimism of the Enlightenment.
In order to combat this contradiction, the author invokes the eighteenth-century cult of Nature and the features associated with her
personification. which since the Renaissance took the form of the multi-breasted Artemis of the Ephesians. a goddess quite unlike Apollo's
sister, who was hostile to men and a bearer of death. Ephesia was in fact the heiress to the Eastem Great Mother Goddess, who in the
XV1-XVIII centuries was usually confirsed with Isis. the Lady of Ten Thousand Names and the Empress ot the four elements. a loving
sister and wife who restored life to the assassinated Osiris. She also embodied the loving and caring Nature. playing a tundamental role
in eighteenth-century Masonic ideology. It was her embodiment of Nature that provided a source of beauty, wisdom and justice and above
al! love. Thus she represents a force that brings back life from the emptiness of death. a force granting men optimism. willpower and the
giń of creation. Acceptance of her etemal laws bestows on men an inner balance and peace. Princess Helena's wish that her ftnal resting
place be in the Arcadian park stemmed from the hope of rebirth by Nature-Isis and of overcoming the fatal irreversibility of death. She
was drawing on a belief that hearkened back to the primordial times of Egyptian religion. according to Warsaw's foilowers of royal art.
(trans. by Katarzyna Krzyżagórska-Pisarek)
WITOLD DOBROWOLSK!
stopniu wszystkim iudziorm diatego uznano ją w XVHI stuieciu za sprawiediiwą, a jej postać w czasach
rewoiucji stała się także personifikacją sprawiediiwości i równości.
Wszystkie te asocjacje dowodzą ponad wszeiką wątpliwość, że patronka arkadyjskiej świątyni nie
mogła uchodzić wyłącznie za dawczynię śmierci. Mauzoieum córek i pianowanie własnego grobu przez
Heienę Radziwiłłową nie wiązało się z chęcią przekształcenia Arkadii w nekropołię. Przeciwnie, powo-
łując się na wiarę sięgającą egipskich misteriów Izydy, budowie te miały wyrażać wiarę w powrót do
życia po śmierci. I to w ogrodzie najwspaniałszym z możliwych. Diana patronująca świątyni arkadyjskiej
byłaby przede wszystkim boginią natury, narzucającą swe prawa wszystkiemu co żyje. A prawo do miło-
ści, zapewniającej życiu ciągłość, byłoby, jak chcemy się domyśiać, zdaniem księżnej najpiękniejszym
i najbardziej istotnym z jej darów.
THE TEMPLE OF DIANA łN NIEBORÓW - TEMPLE OF NATURE
Abstract
The ceiling of the Pantheon in Nieborôw's Tempte of Diana. with its scene of Aurora riding Apollo's horses, became the basis
for the identiflcation of Masonic elements in the iconographic program of the Temple and the whole Arcadian park. The scene acquired
a symbolic meaning as the end of a period of darkness and the beginning of an era of Enlightenment and reason. As a result, the
symbolism of the Temp!e and the park became strong!y associated with the cu!t of Nature and reason. which underpin the Masonic
ideoiogy and more wide!y the Enlightenment.
Yet hnking the mytho!ogical figures of Aurora and Apollo with the light of reason and the worship of Nature. and thereby the
promotion of equality, clashes with potential reasons for the naming of the Temple after Diana, Apollo's sister and one of the twins
who killed twelve or even fourteen of Niobe's children. We know that Princess Helena Radziwiłł, the founder of Arcadia, had three
daughters who died prematurely. and the tragedy of Niobe must have been felt as her own. So what reasons could there be to worship
this goddess, the bearer of death, who was aiso a personification of the night, symbolizing, as we know, superstition and ignorance?
In order to minimise this contradiction in the interpretation of the program, researchers concluded that the Temple and park's
symbolism was from the start infused with elements that were elegiac, serious and melancholy, with the sadness resuiting from the Prin-
cess's obsession with death that had troub!ed her from the start. The Arcadian park would then be conceived as a cemetery. a mausoleum
for her dead daughters and for her own tomb. The Baroque motto T/ /и Тлгла'м' ego (death is even in Arcadia) was transformed into
an affirmation of the omnipresence of death. Thus the Baroque тлстиен^о wor/ has overshadowed the optimism of the Enlightenment.
In order to combat this contradiction, the author invokes the eighteenth-century cult of Nature and the features associated with her
personification. which since the Renaissance took the form of the multi-breasted Artemis of the Ephesians. a goddess quite unlike Apollo's
sister, who was hostile to men and a bearer of death. Ephesia was in fact the heiress to the Eastem Great Mother Goddess, who in the
XV1-XVIII centuries was usually confirsed with Isis. the Lady of Ten Thousand Names and the Empress ot the four elements. a loving
sister and wife who restored life to the assassinated Osiris. She also embodied the loving and caring Nature. playing a tundamental role
in eighteenth-century Masonic ideology. It was her embodiment of Nature that provided a source of beauty, wisdom and justice and above
al! love. Thus she represents a force that brings back life from the emptiness of death. a force granting men optimism. willpower and the
giń of creation. Acceptance of her etemal laws bestows on men an inner balance and peace. Princess Helena's wish that her ftnal resting
place be in the Arcadian park stemmed from the hope of rebirth by Nature-Isis and of overcoming the fatal irreversibility of death. She
was drawing on a belief that hearkened back to the primordial times of Egyptian religion. according to Warsaw's foilowers of royal art.
(trans. by Katarzyna Krzyżagórska-Pisarek)