Painting Décor of the Radzyń Podlaski Palace and the Role of Jan Bogumił Plersch
Aleksandra Bernatowicz
Warsaw, Institute of Art History of the Polish Academy of Sciences (Poland)
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9001-0071
Abstract
The unpreserved interiors of the Potocki Palace in Radzyń Podlaski designed by Jakub Fontana were one of the last original manifestations of Rococo aesthetics in Poland. The decoration was characterized by moderate ornamentation, a clear articulation of white panelling with the use of gilded moulds, frames, and pilaster strips, as well as overdoors in fancy, yet symmetrical frames. Some of the rooms were given wall decoration, according to archival records possibly executed entirely by Jan Bogumił Plersch, the main (however not only) painter employed for the Palace’s décor. He was also most likely the one to execute the overdoors whose affiliation with definite interiors as well as the definition of the significance in the whole decoration structure is undertaken by the Author: seascapes, mountain views, pastoral scenes, and compositions with fruit and flowers shown against park vistas. The latter reveal the closest affinity with still lifes of the French painter Augustin Dubuisson who decorated Sanssouci and the Royal Palace in Wrocław. The seascapes, instead, may have been modelled on Dutch prints, and were a reflection of Hollandism, a vogue imported from France of the time. Therefore, French affiliations are an important feature in the painting decoration of the Radzyń Palace, though in Fontana’s genuine design no direct model for it can be identified. Some of Plersch’s paintings are of a metaphorical undertone, and find their ideological confirmation in the decoration of the Palace’s elevation: the idea of a knight’s residence manifested with the use of panoplies in the Ball Room polychrome and the concept of a palace as a shrine of beauty and art, clear in the overdoors decorating the Library, and showing liberal arts, as well as Civil and Military Architecture. The programme made reference to the pax et bellum topos: heroic accomplishments of the ancestors were balanced by emphasizing peaceful initiatives of Eustachy Potocki, owner of the residence at the time.
Supporting Agencies
Keywords:
Rococo, Painting, Painting Décor, Wall Paintings, Supraporters (Overdoors), Jan Bogumił Plersch, Jakub Fontana, Radzyń Podlaski PalaceReferences
Bartczakowa, Aldona. Jakub Fontana, architekt warszawski XVIII wieku. Warszawa: PWN, 1970.
Google Scholar
Chrościcki, Juliusz A. “Meissonnier’s Designs for Polish Magnates.” W Polish and English Responses to French Art and Architecture: Contrasts and Similarities. Papers Delivered at the University of London/University of Warsaw History of Art Conference, January and September 1993, redakcja Francis Ames-Lewis, 85–94. London: Birkbeck College, University of London, Department of History of Art, 1995.
Google Scholar
Eggeling, Tilo. Raum und Ornament. Georg Wenceslaus von Knobelsdorff und das friederizianische Rokoko. Regensburg: Schnell & Steiner, 2003.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T046997
Google Scholar
Giersberg, Hans-Joachim. Schloss Sanssouci. Die Sommerresidenz Friedrichs des Grossen. Berlin: Nicolai, 2005.
Google Scholar
Gombin, Krzysztof. Inicjatywy artystyczne Eustachego Potockiego. Lublin: Towarzystwo Naukowe KUL, 2009.
Google Scholar
Gombin, Krzysztof. “Das Schloss Eustachy Potockis in Radzyń Podlaski.” W Architektur und Kunst in der Ära des sächsischen Ministers Heinrich Graf von Brühl (1738–1763), redakcja Tomasz Torbus, Markus Hörsch, 181–195. Ostfildern: Thorbecke, 2014.
Google Scholar
Gutowska-Dudek, Krystyna, i Gutowska Magdalena. “Zbiory pałacu w Radzyniu Podlaskim – relikty minionej świetności.” W Radzyń Podlaski. Miasto i rezydencja, redakcja Grażyna Michalska, Dominika Leszczyńska, 137–170. Radzyń Podlaski: Powiat Radzyński, 2011.
Google Scholar
Kowalik, Joanna. “Rezydencja Potockich w Radzyniu – zbiory biblioteczne i archiwalia w świetle zachowanych dokumentów.” W Muzea-rezydencje w Polsce. Materiały sesji naukowej zorganizowanej w Muzeum Zamoyskich w Kozłówce 14–16 października 2004, 517–524. Kozłówka: Muzeum Zamoyskich w Kozłówce, 2004.
Google Scholar
Lorentz, Stanisław. “Projets pour la Pologne de J.A. Meissonnier.” Biuletyn Historii Sztuki 20, nr 2 (1958): 186–198.
Google Scholar
Popow, Samanta. “Meissonnierowski salon Franciszka Bielińskiego – historia rokokowej dekoracji dworu magnackiego.” W Dwory magnackie w XVIII wieku. Rola i znaczenie kulturowe, redakcja Teresa Kostkiewiczowa, Agata Roćko, 295–320. Warszawa: DiG, 2005.
Google Scholar
Pullins, David. “Quelques misérables places à remplir. Locating Shaped Painting in Eighteenth-Century France.” Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 80, nr 4 (2017): 544–571.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/ZKG-2017-0029
Google Scholar
Sito, Jakub. “Złoty Salon Juste-Aurèle Meissoniera w Puławach w świetle nieznanych materiałów archiwalnych.” W Polska i Europa w dobie nowożytnej. L’Europe moderne: nouveau monde, nouvelle civilisation?/ Modern Europe – New World, New Civilisation? Prace naukowe dedykowane Juliuszowi A. Chrościckiemu, redakcja Tadeusz Bernatowicz et al., 571–578. Warszawa: Arx Regia. Ośrodek Wydawniczy Zamku Królewskiego, 2009.
Google Scholar
Sito, Jakub. “Fenomen rzeźb Johanna Chrisostoma Redlera.” W Radzyń Podlaski. Miasto i rezydencja, redakcja Grażyna Michalska, Dominika Leszczyńska, 101–119. Radzyń Podlaski: Powiat Radzyński, 2011.
Google Scholar
Wojtyła, Arkadiusz. “La noble simplicité – wrocławska rezydencja Fryderyka II Hohenzollerna a zjawisko klasycyzacji rokoka.” Biuletyn Historii Sztuki 82, nr 2 (2020): 239–272.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36744/bhs.642
Google Scholar
Wyszomirska, Monika. “Architekt Jakub Fontana w służbie marszałka Franciszka Bielińskiego.” Biuletyn Historii Sztuki 81, nr 3 (2019): 499–528.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36744/bhs.484
Google Scholar
Authors
Aleksandra BernatowiczWarsaw, Institute of Art History of the Polish Academy of Sciences Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9001-0071
Statistics
Abstract views: 475PDF downloads: 738
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Most read articles by the same author(s)
- Aleksandra Bernatowicz, Offer for the King. Album with Joseph Wahl’s Prints , Biuletyn Historii Sztuki: Vol. 81 No. 2 (2019)
- Andrzej Rottermund, Aleksandra Bernatowicz, Juliusz A. Chrościcki (1942–2024) , Biuletyn Historii Sztuki: Vol. 86 No. 3 (2024)
