Wilanów Palace
Wilanów Palace is a royal palace located in the Wilanów district, Warsaw. Wilanów Palace survived Poland's partitions and both World Wars, and so serves as a reminder of the culture of the Polish state as it was before the misfortunes of the 18th century.
It is one of Poland's most important monuments. The palace's museum, established in 1805, is a repository of the country's royal and artistic heritage and receives around 3 million visitors annually. The palace and park in Wilanów hosts cultural events and concerts, including Summer Royal Concerts in the Rose Garden and the International Summer Early Music Academy.
The palace, together with other elements of Warsaw Old Town, is one of Poland's official national Historic Monuments, as designated on 16th September 1994. Its listing is maintained by the National Heritage Board of Poland.
Since 2006, the palace has been a member of the international association of European Royal Residences.
History
Wilanów Palace was built for king John III Sobieski in the last quarter of the 17th century and later was enlarged by other owners. It represents the characteristic type of baroque suburban residence built entre cour et jardin. Its architecture is original, a merger of generally European art with distinctively Polish building traditions. Upon its elevations and in the palace interiors ancient symbols glorify the Sobieski family, especially the military triumphs of the king..
After the death of John III Sobieski in 1696, the palace was owned by his sons and later by the famous magnate families Sieniawskis, Czartoryskis, Lubomirskis, Potockis and Branicki family of the Korczak coat of arms. In 1720, the property was purchased by Polish stateswoman Elżbieta Sieniawska who enlarged the palace. Between 1730 and 1733 it was a residence of Augustus II the Strong, also a king of Poland, and after his death the property came to Sieniawska's daughter Maria Zofia Czartoryska. Every owner changed the interiors of the palace, as well as the gardens and grounds, according to the current fashion and needs. In 1778 the estate was inherited by Izabela Lubomirska, called The Blue Marquise. She refurbished some of the interiors in the neoclassical style between 1792–1793 and build a corps de garde, a kitchen building and a bathroom building under the supervision of Szymon Bogumił Zug.
In the year 1805, the owner Stanisław Kostka Potocki, opened a museum in a part of the palace, one of the first public museums in Poland. A most notable example of the collections is Potocki's equestrian portrait made by renowned neoclassical French artist Jacques-Louis David in 1781. Besides European and Oriental art, the central part of the palace displayed a commemoration of king John III Sobieski and the glorious national past. The palace was damaged by German forces in World War II, but it was not demolished after the 1944 Warsaw Uprising. After the war, the palace was renovated, and most of the collection stolen by Germany was repatriated. In 1962 it was reopened to the public.
Design
Exterior structure
The structure was designed by Augustyn Wincenty Locci. The architecture of the palace is a unique example of different building traditions - reminiscent of Polish aristocratic mansions with side towers, the Italian suburban villa and French palaces entre cour et jardin with two oblong wings on each side of the cour d'honneur.During the first stage of construction, between 1677 and 1680 it was a typical Polish manor house with four alcove towers attached to the one-storeyed square building. Between 1681-1688, the building was enhanced and two gallery wings ending with towers were added. This new appearance was probably inspired by Palladio's Villa Montagnana. Shortly after the king's death the third stage of the reconstruction was accomplished. Between 1688-1696 the pavilion above the main building was erected and the towers were covered with baroque spires, all resembling the Villa Doria Pamphili in Rome.
The king and his librarian Adam Adamandy Kochański took active part in the design and construction of the palace. The latter was responsible for the ideological and artistic programme, where motives and decoration elements played an essential role in glorifying the monarch, his wife and the Republic - busts of king and queen among the effigies of ancient characters, gods and goddesses, Roman emperors and empresses, Eagle and Pogonia, personifications of the Commonwealth regions. They were issued by sculptors Andreas Schlüter, Stefan Szwaner and a stucco decorator named Antoni of Wilanów. Some of the sculptures were made in the Low Countries by Louis Willemsens and Artus Quellinus the Elder' workshop, shipped to Gdańsk and then transported to Warsaw. An ornate sundial on the south wall with Chronos, together with the opposite composition with Uranus on the north wall, were intended to underline the king's patronage of science and orderliness in the Serenissima during his reign. They were executed by Antoni of Wilanów, according to the design by Johannes Hevelius, Adam Adamandy Kochański and Augustyn Locci.
The side wings embracing a courtyard, initiated by the king, were built long after his death by Elżbieta Sieniawska. They were constructed in the fourth stage of the enlargement between 1720-1729. Powerful Sieniawska was very concerned in maintaining the substantial historical residence of the Rex victoriossimus, as it was called. Despite that she transformed the palace into a French style palais enchanté according to design by Giovanni Spazzio, with two new wings harmonious with the 17th century corps de logis. She employed the most renowned architects and artists for this undertaking, such as previously mentioned Spazzio, Johann Sigmund Deybel, Józef Fontana, Jan Jerzy Plersch and Giovanni Rossi. While the original royal palace was decorated with reliefs depicting the deeds of John III, the new wings were adorned with battlefield achievements of Sieniawska's husband and father-in-law - Adam Mikołaj and Mikołaj Hieronim Sieniawski.
Interior space
The most prominent Polish and foreign artists participated in the decoration of the palace interiors. It was entrusted to painters Martino Altomonte, Jan Rayzner of Lviv, Michelangelo Palloni, sculptor Stefan Szwaner and stucco decorators Szymon Józef Bellotti, Antoni of Wilanów and Abraham Paris. They were supervised by the official court painters Claude Callot and later by Jerzy Siemiginowski-Eleuter. The latter, one of the greatest Polish painters of that time, had a significant influence on the palace's subsequent internal aspects. Internal decoration was also superintended by Adam Kochański, a great admirer of China, who supported closer economic relations of the Commonwealth with the "Central nation". Due to his influence, Wilanów and other residencies were full of luxury Chinese imports and chinoiserie.The 17th-century palace inventories included the works of the greatest contemporary and ancient masters, like Rembrandt, Pieter van Laer, called Bamboccio, Anthony van Dyck, Ferdinand van Kessel, Raphael, Caracci brothers, Guido Reni and Bernardo Strozzi. The chambers were filled with precious furnishings, like silver folding screen, silver pyramid with 11 baskets, a three-storeyed silver fountain or a silk baldachin presented by the Shah of Persia. Unfortunately they were scattered by the successive proprietors, appropriated by Friedrich August of Saxony and transported to Dresden or looted by the Germans during World War II.
Among the artists appointed for decoration of the palace's interiors in the 18th century were Giuseppe Rossi, an Italian fresco painter, who adorned the chambers with trompe-l'œil paintings and stucco decorators Francesco Fumo and Pietro Innocente Comparetti. Following the example of Queen Marie Casimire, who ordered a painting of herself as a goddess on the palace plafonds, Elżbieta Sieniawska embellished the Lower Vestibule with a fresco of Flora. On her initiative the walls in the royal chambers were covered with Genoan velvet. The walls of the second floor, that is the Great Dining Room, were covered with frescoes depicting Apollo, Minerva and Hercules as an allegory of Virtus Heroica, Hebe symbolizing Venustas completed with panoplies. Sieniawska's daughter, Maria Zofia Czartoryska, furnished the palace with new fireplaces made of white-cherry marble and crowned with mirrors in rich rococo frames.
In the contract with King Augustus II Maria Zofia obliged him to preserve the palace unchanged. Therefore, his actions were limited to finishing the new dining room, called the White Room in the southern wing and to the decoration of some unfinished interiors. The plafonds and other paintings were executed by Julien Poison, Johann Samuel Mock and Lorenzo Rossi, while the decorative lacquer panneaux in the Chinese Room were made by Martin Schnell.