The_University_of_Warsaw_e_0yss.pdf

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I.
Warsaw in the time
of the Duchy of Warsaw and
the Congress Kingdom
(1807–1831)
Im ages and symbols
Three paintings, all made in Warsaw in the first thirty years of
the nineteenth century, commemorate the key events in the history of
post-Partition Poland. The first, by Kazimierz Wojniakowski, known
only from an aquatint by Jan Ligber, refers to Napoleon’s arrival in
Warsaw and the city’s resulting liberation from the Prussians (Fig. 1).
1
On 18 January 1807 the National Theatre on Krasiński Square staged
Perseus and Andromeda,
a lyrical drama by Ludwik Osiński with music
by Józef Elsner, in honour of Napoleon. Perseus’ rescue of Androme-
da from monsters was an obvious allusion to Napoleon freeing Poland
from the aggressive partitioning states. The highlight of the performance
was Wojniakowski’s tableau, produced according to ideas proposed by
Osiński and Wojciech Bogusławski, the director of the National Theatre.
A radiant medallion with Napoleon’s likeness was placed in the centre,
with a winged figure of Fame rising above it and blowing a trumpet. Be-
low, to the right, a Genius was depicted liberating an armoured knight
from his grave by pulling back a board with the word RESURGAM,
while a female figure knelt to the left, with her face turned to the Na-
poleonic Sun and her open arms indicating the royal insignia with the
Polish emblem abandoned at her feet. From her lips emerged the motto
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SPES IN TE. This is how Warsaw, full of hopes of a better future, re-
sorted to a prospect named ORIENS, already known in antiquity.
The second painting, produced in 1809–1811, is entitled
Napo-
leon Conferring the Constitution on the Duchy of Warsaw in 1807
(Fig. 2),
while the title of the other, dating from 1828, is
Tsar and King Alexander
I Conferring the Document Founding the University of Warsaw
(Fig. 3).
The authors of these works are Marcello Bacciarelli (1731–1818), at
one time court painter to King Stanisław Augustus, and Antoni Bro-
dowski (1784–1832), Professor of Painting at the University of War-
saw.
2
Bacciarelli’s canvas shows the scene as taking place in an interior
at the palace in Dresden. King Frederick Augustus of Saxony, grandson
of King Augustus III of Poland and Elector of Saxony – not shown in
the painting – was designated to rule the Duchy; he was named heir
to the throne in the Constitution of 3 May 1791.
3
Napoleon is shown
sitting on a dais, with Charles Maurice Talleyrand and Hugo-Bernard
Maret standing by his side, surrounded by Polish dignitaries: Stanisław
1807
1. Jan Ligber after Kazimierz
Wojniakowski, Napoleon
as Oriens,
a banner made
for the National Theatre
in Warsaw in January 1807,
aquatinta, the National Theatre,
Warsaw
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Kup książkę
1807
2. Marcello Bacciarelli,
Napoleon Conferring
the Constitution
of the Duchy of Warsaw
in 1807,
oil on canvas,
1811, MNW
Małachowski, Jan P. Łuszczewski, Ludwik Gutakowski, Piotr Bieliński,
Ksawery Działyński, Wincenty Sobolewski, Stanisław Kostka Potocki,
and Józef Wybicki. Annibale Carracci’s painting,
The Genius of Fame,
is
discernible in the background – the Fame depicted in it was to prophesy
good fortune to the Congress Kingdom.
1828
3. Antoni Brodowski,
Tsar and King Alexander I
Conferring the Document
Founding the University
of Warsaw,
reproduction
of a lost painting, 1828
Kup książkę
In Brodowski’s canvas, painted to commemorate the tenth an-
niversary of the founding of the University, Napoleon’s vanquisher, Al-
exander I, tsar of Russia and uncrowned king of Poland, is seen handing
the document to the first rector of the University, the Reverend Wo-
jciech Anzelm Szweykowski.
4
This momentous event is witnessed by the
Minister of State, Stanisław Staszic (see Fig. 5), the Minister of Public
Enlightenment, Stanisław Kostka Potocki – both on the right – and Jan
Wincenty Bandkie, Feliks Jan Bentkowski, Jacek August Dziarkowski,
Paweł Szymański, and Michał Szubert. The composition of both paint-
ings follows the same convention, but it is not clear whether the events
really took place. The constitution of the Duchy, although signed by
Napoleon on 22 July 1807 in Dresden, was handed to the delegates
not by the emperor himself, but by the same Hugo-Bernard Maret who
is depicted in the painting. When Alexander I signed the document
founding the University on 19 November 1816 in St. Petersburg, Szwey-
kowski had not yet been appointed rector. Nor was the tsar present at
the University’s official inauguration which took place in Warsaw on
14 May 1818, although he had visited the city in the last days of April
and been shown around the university’s grounds.
5
In the supplement to
No. 35 of
Gazeta Warszawska
we read:
On the same day [28 April] around noon, His Imperial Majesty
condescended to visit the local public Library located in the Kazi-
mierzowski Palace. The members of the Royal University of War-
saw, apprised of this intention beforehand, gathered in the main
hall of said Library and awaited his arrival: when it had taken place,
the Monarch, who was received at the entrance to the palace by
His Excellency Count Stanisław Potocki, Minister of Religious De-
nominations and Public Enlightenment, with the assistance of Their
Excellencies Staszic, Sierakowski, Lipiński, and Linde, Members of
the Government Commission, viewed the peristyle and the marble
plaque, installed on the wall above the stairs, with the Latin inscrip-
tion: Regnante Alexandro I. Consilium Institutionis publicae, aedes
has, vetustate et flammis dirutas, restituit, auxit, Musis dicavit 1817
[‘In the reign of Alexander I this building, despoiled by time and
flames, the Council of Public Institutions has rebuilt, enlarged and
given to the Muses as their residence in the year 1817’]. Having
passed through the first room, assigned for the use of the readers,
he viewed the room where there is a collection of Slavic and Polish
books including also the incunabula and manuscripts; from there
he passed into the Great Room, which comprised three rooms put
together and which houses foreign literature. There the Rector of the
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Kup książkę
4. Anonymous artist,
The Founding of the Faculty of Science
and Fine Art at the University of Warsaw,
oil on canvas,
c. 1830, MNW
1830
Royal University of Warsaw, His Excellency the Dean, the Reverend
Szweykowski was introduced to the Monarch by the Minister, as
well as the Professors, in the order of the five Academic Faculties.
6
Whereas Bacciarelli’s painting is of a rather symbolic character,
Brodowski’s shows a situation which may have taken place during the
event described above, although this fact has thus far not received any
attention from scholars. Nevertheless, the composition of both works is
similar, and they share a similarly dramatic history. Although the origi-
nals have not survived, Bacciarelli’s painting is known from a reduced
copy in the National Museum in Warsaw, and Brodowski’s from an oil
sketch in the National Museum in Poznań. Brodowski’s finished paint-
ing, of a much larger format, used to hang in the halls of the University;
unfortunately it was taken to Russia in 1915 and destroyed by fire dur-
ing the Bolshevik Revolution.
Both Brodowski and Bacciarelli’s paintings are known from
several prints; Brodowski’s work was also adapted by an anonymous
painter of limited talent, active in the 1830s or 1840s, in a small-format
painting (Fig. 4). This little-known painting, like
Napoleon Conferring
the Constitution,
belongs to the National Museum in Warsaw. It is almost
a mirror image of Brodowski’s canvas, but the rector, clad in an ermine-
lined robe, is seen to the left of Napoleon, like Staszic and Potocki (and
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Kup książkę

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