Stanisław Kostka Potocki as the General of the Crown Artillery in 1792/pl.wikipedia.org
Stanisław Kostka Potocki – an outstanding Pole of the Enlightenment era
Prof. Jerzy Miziolek
He knew Thomas Jefferson, Napoleon, Alexander I, Goethe and Piranesi. The most outstanding artists portrayed him. An architect, art critic, archaeologist and author of numerous publications, he was also one of the founders of the University of Warsaw, where a research centre bearing his name is being established.
Stanisław Kostka Potocki was truly fortunate throughout his life. Despite the early loss of his parents and a modest upbringing, he was blessed with the care of his generous aunt, Katarzyna Kossakowska. After receiving a comprehensive education in Warsaw, he had the opportunity to study in Turin and explore Europe, particularly Italy, from 1772 to 1775.
The founder of Polish archaeology
On his way back to Poland in Vienna, the 20-year-old almost fell in love with the wealthy Aleksandra Lubomirska, who turned out to be an excellent life partner. They married in June 1776, and over time, he inherited palaces on Krakowskie Przedmieście in Warsaw and in Wilanów, among other things. This enabled him to conduct archaeological excavations in Nola near Naples in 1786. The Greek vases obtained as a result — then known as Etruscan — enabled him to create the spectacular Etruscan Cabinet in Wilanów.
In one of his letters to his wife, he wrote: ‘I have unearthed the most interesting things in the world, and what is more, I had the pleasure of excavating them with my own hands… imagine a large coffin made of stone blocks, the perfectly preserved skeleton of the deceased, and between his legs and next to him a multitude of vases… one of them is exceptionally beautiful… it is a wonderful and inexpensive occupation.’ This is how Polish classical archaeology was born, which gained an additional dimension when Potocki published his three-volume work 'O sztuce u dawnych, czyli Winkelman polski’ [On Art in Ancient Times, or the Polish Winkelman] in 1815.
222 Jacques-Louis David, Equestrian Portrait of Stanisław Kostka Potocki (1780) Museum of the King Jan III Palace in Wilanów/ pl.wikipedia.org
Politics and culture
Following in the footsteps of his brother Ignacy, Potocki actively participated in politics, particularly during the Four-Year Sejm and the formulation of the Constitution of 3 May. As an artillery general, he was unsuccessful in defending it against the Russian army. In one of his letters, he wrote: ‘A terrible war is coming, but we have no choice but to live in freedom or die nobly.’
There is no similar tone in other letters. He did not die, but was arrested and imprisoned, and after his release, he left with his wife for his beloved Italy. Like other patriots, he came to the conclusion that now, since the land had been lost, culture was to be the homeland of the Poles, and he did a great deal for it until the end of his life. After acquiring the palace in Wilanów in 1799, he surrounded the name of John III Sobieski with cult status, and in 1805, after adapting one of the wings of the palace, he set up a museum there, open to the general public.
Founder of the University of Warsaw
The fall of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth slowed down, but did not stop, his political career. The times of the Duchy and the Kingdom were a period of maximum activity and political significance for Potocki. ‘Mr Stanisław,’ wrote Stanisław Staszic about him, ‘became a man-institution.’ Two official paintings from this era give a good impression of this. In the centre of the first, by Marcello Bacciarelli, is Napoleon, and in the centre of the second, by Antoni Brodowski, is Alexander I; in both, Count Potocki is, as it were, the second person. He made a particular contribution to the organisation of education. Although he did not succeed in establishing a university in Warsaw during the Duchy of Warsaw, the School of Law and the School of Medicine founded at that time were designed to be transformed into a university. He realised this ambitious plan, at the cost of various compromises, with the support of Staszic, in the years 1815-1818.
Written and iconographic sources clearly attest that from the moment the first faculty (School of Law) of the future five-faculty university was established in 1808, Potocki oversaw the process of its creation. In May 1811, a decision was made to locate it in the Palace of Casimir and to establish a Botanical Garden next to it for another faculty – the School of Medicine – established in 1809. In the same year, thanks to Potocki, the process of purchasing King Stanisław August’s collections for another faculty (Science and Fine Arts) began. The plans for the development of the area around the Casimir Palace, which Potocki commissioned in 1811-1815, indicate that the idea of shaping the campus on Krakowskie Przedmieście in the form in which it has survived to this day is his work and that of the architects who collaborated with him. He was an outstanding expert on architecture, the Polish equivalent of Lord Burlington in England, so all construction work at the University was almost entirely inspired by him.
Getting to know Potocki’s entire, enormous life’s work leads to the conclusion that he was an outstanding figure not only in Poland but also in Europe.
Prof. JERZY MIZIOLEK
Art historian, professor of humanities, director of the National Museum in Warsaw from 2018 to 2019.
Source:DlaPolonii.pl
