Rocznik Muzeum Narodowego w Warszawie (2(38).2013)

Anna Grochala, Ewa Martyna

I The January Uprising of 1863 and Its Fighters
in the Cameos from the Collection of Henryka
Capelli, née Dzieduszycka. The Reception of
Graphic and Photographic Prototypes
The Glyptotheque and Its Creator
The collections of the National Museum in Warsaw include a very interesting set of cam-
eos carved in seashells, which represent prominent Polish figures and events in national
history. This glyptotheque comes from the collection of the Polish Museum in Rapperswil,
Switzerland, which received it in 1879 fr°m Henryka Capelli, née Dzieduszycka.1 It com-
prised 271 pieces: 40 scenes from history, as well as portraits: 52 Polish kings, 11 the wives of
kings of the Jagiellonian dynasty and Jagiellonian princesses, 35 Polish military leaders, 95
fighters in the November Uprising, 31 participants in the Januaiy Uprising and seven promi-
nent eighteenth- and nineteenth-century personalities. The founder of this Polish museum
in Switzerland, Władysław Broel-Plater, as well as its visitors, commented on the cameos’
originality and emotional power.2 After the museum’s collections were taken over by the

1 Roczne zdanie sprawy Zarządu Muzeum Narodowego w Rapperswylu z dnia 29 listopada 18/9 roku, (Zurich:
s.n., 1879), pp. 8-9; [Wacław Karczewski], Muzeum Narodowe Polskie w Rapperswilu (Krakow: Dyrekcya Muzeum,
1906), pp. 38,39-48, fig.
2 Władysław Broel-Plater wrote: “The cameo collection (271), on which images illustrating Polish history
from Piast, to whom angels appeared, all the way to the sad scene of the march to Siberia represented according to
Grottger’s painting have been carved expertly. Other cameos represent portraits of all the kings of Poland, princesses
from the House of Jagiellon, Polish hetmans and statesmen who acted exceptionally during the uprisings of 1831 and
1863, as well as portraits of men of inspiration and of learning. This is Polish history carved in stone, a collection that
no other Museum owns, a truly royal gift from Mrs Hemyka Capelli, née Countess Dzieduszycka from Florence.”
Roczne zdanie sprawy..., op. cit., pp. 8-9. In 1891 Maria Konopnicka wrote from Zurich in a letter to her uncle: “[...]
the section of cameos is important and beautiful, they are carved with extreme subtlety, and mostly represent mo-
ments in our history. Some of them according to Matejko’s paintings: The Union [of Lublin], The Prussian Homage
and others. The series concludes with a cameo of the strangest beauty representing Grottger’s The March to Siberia,”
Maria Konopnicka, Listy do Ignacego Wasilowskiego (Warsaw: Instytut Badań Literackich PAN, 2005), p. 323. In his
memoirs from a journey to Switzerland in 1903, Father Dr Jakub Górka also wrote about the Rapperswil collection:
“Precious cameos made out of seashells. Bianchini from Naples worked on them for 17 years. They are the gift of
Mrs Henryka Capelli, née Countess Dzieduszycka, from Florence. The collection comprises 271 pieces. It has em-
bellished the Museum since 1879. It is the Museum’s real jewel. These lovely cameos represent Polish kings, then
our hetmans and heroes of the 1831 uprising. We may surmise their value from the fact that some English people
wanted to pay 300 thousand francs for 14 of them.” Jakub Górka, Wspomnienia z podróży. Odczyty wygłoszone w Sali
Kasynowej w Tarnowie (Tarnów: self-published, 1904), p. 15. The writer Stefan Żeromski, the museum’s librarian in
1892-96, was quite critical of its collection, writing in Nowa Gazeta: “A non-Pole can only really see two things of
any grat value there, the Rubens portrait of Ladislaus IV and cameos carved in onyx telling the history of Poland,
[...]” quoted after Tadeusz Rutowski, Rapperswyl (Lvov: Gebethner i Wolff, 1911), p. 13.