Courtly Figures: Collecting Meissen and the Creation of National Identity in the Court of Augustus II and Beyond (original) (raw)
Related papers
The Emergence of a Polish National Dress and Its Perception
Dress and Cultural Difference in Early Modern Europe, 2019
This article examines the evolution of an early modern Polish national dress called the kontusz ensemble. It differed from the fashion of the West both in cut and look. The garment was mostly worn by the Polish nobility and was one of the distinguishing features of this estate and its ideology. It started forming in the sixteenth century, when knighthood was gradually abandoned and eventually replaced by an estate of landowners mainly involved in agriculture. These noblemen identified with the Sarmatian tradition and tried to prove their Sarmatian origins. Throughout the early modern period this garment was subject to modifications, but it retained its essential Eastern form.
This article analyses how it was that the Sarmatian portrait, a phenomenon typical of Polish Baroque art, came to be a symbol of Polishness in the twentieth century, and to what extent this pop-cultural vision of the ‘Polish Baroque’ was formed by contemporary art historiography. Looking at exhibition catalogues and works published on Baroque art and the Baroque portrait, it explores the origins of the popularity of the Sarmatian Portrait in Cold-War Poland. Despite its direct connection to the ideologically problematic history of the Polish ruling class – the szlachta or gentry – there were many retrospective exhibitions on Polish Baroque portrait art held during the time of the People’s Republic. Due to their supposed realism they were regarded as the emanation of a timeless Polish spirit, and were often juxtaposed to western European portraits of the same period, which were described in negative terms as artificially idealistic and excessively courtly.
The Stateless Nation’s Elite: Artistic Collections of Polish Aristocracy, 1795–1918
Acta Historiae Artis Slovenica, 2023
The article aims to investigate aristocratic collecting practices in the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 19th century, focusing on three points. First, we highlight the specific situation of the Polish aristocracy compared to most European countries and note the weakness of collecting culture in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the early modern period, followed by its slow emergence at the end of the 18th century. Then, we investigate the most important phenomena of 19th-century aristocratic collecting and distinguish two major trends within it: collecting art and collecting national memorabilia. We also highlight the importance of aristocratic collections for a stateless nation. Finally, to illustrate the overview, using a specific example to underline the key issues, we discuss the collections of Princes Czartoryski. In this essay, we summarize our previous research on the collections of Polish aristocracy and provide, for the first time, a comprehensive and systematic panorama of this phenomenon.
FROM CARMEN SYLVA AND EMPRESS SISSI TO CAROL II. THE HISTORY OF A ROMANIAN NATIONAL COSTUME
Society and Politics/Societate și Politică, 2021
In 1932, Baroness Ilona Nopcsa wrote a letter to King Carol II of Romania in which she informed him about a Romanian national costume that was in her possession. This traditional dress, which originally belonged to Carmen Sylva, was a gift from King Carol I and the ladies from the Romanian elite. At Vienna International Exhibition, this dress had been a central exhibit in Romania"s gallery. The Romanian traditional costume hadbecome a part of Nopcsa"s family patrimony thanks to Ilona"s uncle, Ferenc Nopcsa, master of the court to Empress Sissi between 1868 and 1894. She had proffered the Romanian dress to the Baron for his services. In exchange for the Romanian costume, Ilona Nopcsa asked the King of Romania for 300 jugars from her former domain located in Aradul Nou and Zădârlac from Arad County which had been expropriated in the 1920s, or from State reserves.This paper will analyse the journey of this Romanian traditional costume, from the middle 19th century until 1932, emphasising on the contexts in which it was presented. The second part of this paper will focus on the social and economic circumstances in which Ilona Nopcsa proposed to return the dress to Romania"s king.
The figure of the first Roman emperor in many ways had an impact on the Polish culture, especially in historiography and literature. In my paper I focus on some issues connected with the subject. I discuss the ideas presented by Tadeusz Zieliński, one of the most eminent researchers of the ancient world in Europe in the first part of 20th century. He devoted a significant part of his opus to present his own vision of Augustus seen as a reformer of the Roman state religion. Zieliński built the emperor’s image as the saviour of the Roman world in the face of „the end of times”. This term played significant role in Zieliński’s thinking about Roman history at the end of the Republic. For the Polish scholar celebration of the secular game in 17 BC was the final task done by Augustus. This task Zieliński defined as the sacred mission and connected with the figure of Sibyl and the impact of the Etruscan theory of saeculum. For Zieliński, Augustus belonged to the most important men of providence in Roman history. In the same way I discuss the ideas presented by Ludwik Piotrowicz andMieczysław St. Popławski. Both scholars analised the question of imperial cult in depth. Popławski expressed original view on Augustus apotheosis seen as the development of imperial cult in transcendental perspective. Piotrowicz instead saw this problem as a purely political phenomenon. Last part of my paper is devoted to short presentation of the echos of Augustus’ bimillenium in Polish scholar activity.
Classical Images in the Dissemination of Royal Imagery in Early Modern Poland
Classical Images in the Dissemination of Royal Imagery in Early Modern Poland, Epoch, no. 1, pp. 106-115., 2020
This article for the first issue of postgraduate historical magazine at Lancaster University features the royal imagery of the last Jagiellonian rulers in sixteenth-century Poland. I elaborate on the classical images used in the representation of Sigismund I the Old (Zygmunt Stary) and Sigismund II Augustus (Zygmunt August) via different technics in art and literature, demonstrating diverse approaches used by the last Jagiellonians in an attempt to put them in a broader European Renaissance framework.
In our work we make an attempt tro describe lhe cosiume and its accessories oí the sarmatians of the carpathian basin using thlee §oürces, namely: the rvorks of Greek and Latin arrthors, antique repfe §entatiol! § o{ barbarjans and the archaeological evidence. !'irst v,e have to speak about the value ol these ilformat,ions, l,he ady&ntages and disadvantages of these sources, Lí,terura sourceg Ther.e are suiíicierii differenccs bcfrr.cctr tlre texts oJ differettt Greek alid Latirr authors.