WHAT DO THE POTOCKIS NEED AN ART COLLECTIONFOR, NAMELY ON THE ART COLLECTING IN THEPOTOCKI FAMILY EXHIBITION AT THE MUSEUM OFKING JOHN III’S PALACE AT WILANÓW

Abstract

It is the assumptions, goals, and effects of the newpermanent display mounted at the Museum of King John III’sPalace at Wilanów titled Art Collecting in the Potocki Familythat are the topic of the present paper. The Exhibition presentsa less known fragment of the Wilanów Palace’s history whenit was owned by the Potockis: Aleksandra née Lubomirski andStanisław Kostka, their son Aleksander, and grandson Augustand his spouse Aleksandra née Potocki. The three generationsof the Pilawa-coat-of-arms family wrote a new, albeit extremelyimportant chapter in the history of the former royaland magnate residence, placing in it the Museum of Art andthe Memorial Site of the history of the Polish nation for almosta hundred years The Potockis amassed artistic collections andnational mementoes, and introduced changes to the layout ofthe private spaces of the residence in order to adjust them toserving museum purposes. In harmony with the Potockis’ idea,the systematically growing collection turned into a treasureopened to the general public. It is the first entry in the WilanówGuest Book: 5 August 1805 that is regarded to have been thelaunch of the Museum’s public operation.In its narrative and layout the new display refers to thePotockis’ Museum. The interiors of the garden gallery on thePalace’s first floor have been transformed according to ico-nographic records from the 19th and early 20th century. In the southern gallery we remind of the Library once functioninghere, in the northern one, in turn, we recall Warsaw’s importantcultural event from 1856: Exhibition of Antiquities.As a result of the introduced changes new display spaceshave been created: the Historical Cabinet, Print Cabinet, andthe Iconographic Cabinet. The first is dedicated to nationalmementoes, whereas the latter two are cosy display roomsof objects on paper.