DOI Heft:
Artykuły / Articles
DOI Artikel:Dreścik, Jan Jakub: O kilku pamiątkach dworskich w Muzeum Książąt Czartoryskich w Krakowie
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.31061#0068
66
Jan Jakub Dreścik
On Seyeral Court Memorabiłia at the Princes Czartoryski
Museum in Kraków
Summary
If one asked Poles who was the last king of Poland, the majority would doubtless say:
Stanisław August Poniatowski. Odd as it is, this damnatio memoriae of the subseąuent
monarchs is nourished even by professional historians such as Adam Zamoyski, author of
a book on Stanisław August, The Last King of Poland (first edition: London 1992; Polish
edition: 1994 under the unchanged title Ostatni król Polski), or the organisers of the 2011
exhibition at the Warsaw Royal Castle Stanisław August: The Last King Of Poland, Polit-
ician, Patron And Reformer, 1764-1795.
However, pursuant to the decisions madę at the 1815 Vienna Congress, the Russian
emperor Alexander I (d. 1825) was King of Poland. As the resurrector of the name of Pol-
and, which had been erased from the map of Europę following the partitions, he enjoyed
wide and heartfelt popułarity with the Polish subjects. There is no denying his successor,
Nicholas I, who crowned himself King of Poland on 24 May 1829 in Warsaw, held the title
quite lawfully too, at least until dethroned by Parliament on 25 Jan. 1831.
Modest in the times of Alexander I, the Warsaw royal court grew much larger under
Nicholas I. On his coronation day, the court title of Grand Chamberlain was conferred
upon Duke Adam Jerzy Czartoryski, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Empire
in 1804-1806. In the opinion of the Polish people of the day, who lacked a good under-
standing of the Russian hierarchy, that move was a token of falling from the tsars grace
and of demotion. According to the Russian Table of Ranks, Czartoryski was, in fact, pro-
moted from the third to the second grade (among the imperial court service there were
no first-rank grades).
This brief episode of service at the Warsaw court of Nicholas I, which for Duke Adam
Jerzy ended with the position of Prime Minister of the insurrectionary government,
a death sentence handed down in absentia and emigration, is remembered at the Princes
Czartoryski Museum in a paradę long-jacket, an undress long-jacket and a Grand Cham-
berlains key. Both long-jackets followed the Russian pattern sińce the Russian autocrat
wished to biur the identity of the Kingdom of Poland even in this respect. The Grand
Chamberlains key, which differed from chambellans’ keys for its rich encrustation, was
madę at Henryk Hildebrandt s workshop in Warsaw.
Both long-jackets were used by Jan Matejko in the painting Rejtan. Upadek Polski
[Rejtan. The Fali of Poland; completed 1866], where the venal Adam Poniński, a self-ap-
pointed speaker of the 1733 partitioning parliament, is wearing a red jacket embroidered
with designs copied from Czartoryskis gala uniform. Being a member of the Targowica
Confederation, Ksawery Branicki is dressed in Matejko s painting in Prince Adam Jerzy s
undress with epaulettes added for a morę military effect.
This is arguably the oldest example of Jan Matejko making use of objects from
the Czartoryskis’ collection. The painter drew lavishly on the collection as a repository of
props after the Princes Czartoryski Museum had been installed in Kraków in 1876.
Jan Jakub Dreścik
On Seyeral Court Memorabiłia at the Princes Czartoryski
Museum in Kraków
Summary
If one asked Poles who was the last king of Poland, the majority would doubtless say:
Stanisław August Poniatowski. Odd as it is, this damnatio memoriae of the subseąuent
monarchs is nourished even by professional historians such as Adam Zamoyski, author of
a book on Stanisław August, The Last King of Poland (first edition: London 1992; Polish
edition: 1994 under the unchanged title Ostatni król Polski), or the organisers of the 2011
exhibition at the Warsaw Royal Castle Stanisław August: The Last King Of Poland, Polit-
ician, Patron And Reformer, 1764-1795.
However, pursuant to the decisions madę at the 1815 Vienna Congress, the Russian
emperor Alexander I (d. 1825) was King of Poland. As the resurrector of the name of Pol-
and, which had been erased from the map of Europę following the partitions, he enjoyed
wide and heartfelt popułarity with the Polish subjects. There is no denying his successor,
Nicholas I, who crowned himself King of Poland on 24 May 1829 in Warsaw, held the title
quite lawfully too, at least until dethroned by Parliament on 25 Jan. 1831.
Modest in the times of Alexander I, the Warsaw royal court grew much larger under
Nicholas I. On his coronation day, the court title of Grand Chamberlain was conferred
upon Duke Adam Jerzy Czartoryski, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Empire
in 1804-1806. In the opinion of the Polish people of the day, who lacked a good under-
standing of the Russian hierarchy, that move was a token of falling from the tsars grace
and of demotion. According to the Russian Table of Ranks, Czartoryski was, in fact, pro-
moted from the third to the second grade (among the imperial court service there were
no first-rank grades).
This brief episode of service at the Warsaw court of Nicholas I, which for Duke Adam
Jerzy ended with the position of Prime Minister of the insurrectionary government,
a death sentence handed down in absentia and emigration, is remembered at the Princes
Czartoryski Museum in a paradę long-jacket, an undress long-jacket and a Grand Cham-
berlains key. Both long-jackets followed the Russian pattern sińce the Russian autocrat
wished to biur the identity of the Kingdom of Poland even in this respect. The Grand
Chamberlains key, which differed from chambellans’ keys for its rich encrustation, was
madę at Henryk Hildebrandt s workshop in Warsaw.
Both long-jackets were used by Jan Matejko in the painting Rejtan. Upadek Polski
[Rejtan. The Fali of Poland; completed 1866], where the venal Adam Poniński, a self-ap-
pointed speaker of the 1733 partitioning parliament, is wearing a red jacket embroidered
with designs copied from Czartoryskis gala uniform. Being a member of the Targowica
Confederation, Ksawery Branicki is dressed in Matejko s painting in Prince Adam Jerzy s
undress with epaulettes added for a morę military effect.
This is arguably the oldest example of Jan Matejko making use of objects from
the Czartoryskis’ collection. The painter drew lavishly on the collection as a repository of
props after the Princes Czartoryski Museum had been installed in Kraków in 1876.