Painting decorations on the first floor of the Wilanów Palace
An important element of the modernisation project of the exhibition halls on the first floor of the Wilanów Palace is the conservation work on the uncovered wall paintings decorating the room at the southern staircase leading to the Feast Hall, located on the second floor of the Palace.
These frescos date back to the 1820s and can be linked, with some caution, with decorations made by Giuseppe Rossi, commissioned by the then owner of Wilanów, Elżbieta Sieniawska. At that time, Rossi's works probably covered all the walls of the rooms located on the first floor of the Wilanów Palace between two staircases leading to the Feast Hall. Compositions presenting illusionist architecture, windows open to landscapes, vases with flowers or scenes associated with the life at court optically extended the quite narrow and low rooms, giving them lightness and elegance. Numerous elements referring to nature harmonised with the view of the palace gardens stretching beyond the windows.
On Elżbieta Sieniawska’s order, it was possible to create a coherent painting decoration, referring on the one hand to the decoration from the times of King Jan III, and on the other, to the connection between the palace building and surrounding nature. Luckily, most of the works by Giuseppe Rossi that decorate the first floor of the palace, have survived to this day. The paintings discovered and preserved within the framework of the project are not only a valuable complement to these decorations, but also allow us to better imagine what the Wilanów palace looked like three hundred years ago. They are also priceless works of art – it is impossible to find wall paintings from the Baroque period among the residences in present day Poland that are equally sophisticated in terms of their design and artistic execution. The Wilanów Palace is a unique, inspiring place – every discovery made within its walls in the form of original, artistically valuable decorations is of great importance.
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