Silva Rerum | 07.09.2015 Sarmatism is a broad and controversial concept. In addition to the external characteristics (specific manner, joviality, ignorance and old nobility conservatism), Sarmatism included a variety of phenomena that occurred in literature, art, social and political consciousness and the morality of the nobility between the 16th and 18th centuries. An assessment of Sarmatism and its role in the history of the Polish culture is not an easy task. It must be conducted in a historical manner; taking into account the Pan-European context and internal changes, in order to avoid excessive apologia or condemnations. In modern studies, we have moved away from negative treatment of the Polish culture of the Sarmatian Baroque period, from an a priori assessment of its standing as inferior to the previous one, known as the Renaissance, or to the later Enlightenment. This stereotypical image, perpetuated by later generations, as well as in school education, has its sources in Enlightenment polemics with the decline of Sarmatian Baroque, which overly forcefully presented it in contrast to the preceding period.
It should be noted, however, that in the last thirty years of the 17th century, within the common Sarmatian culture, an increasingly deeper polarisation began to take place – a gap was created between the magnate intellectual luminaries and the primitive, ordinary nobility. The centre of this intellectual movement and its specific ideology became the intellectual environment of the magnates – patrons of culture and art – gathered in Warsaw. It was represented by the best-educated and most cultured magnates of the era. Art historian Mariusz Karpowicz proposed in 1970 to call this movement the Enlightened Sarmatism. It is a controversial concept, but it seems quite apt in reference to this elite magnate culture.
It is worth examining the main characters of these enlightened magnates operating in Warsaw during the reign of Jan III. Undoubtedly, the King himself became a co-creator of the community. He is widely known as a leader – the victor of Chocim (Khotyn) and Vienna. Often, however, we forget that he was a man who came from a senatorial family, with an educated high personal culture, who had knowledge of the great world as well as versatile capabilities and scientific and artistic interests. He deeply understood the values and importance of art. He was a great patron of the arts as a founder not only of the palace, but also an art school in Wilanów.
One of the greatest connoisseurs and patrons of the art in the Commonwealth was Stanisław Herakliusz Lubomirski (1642–1702), who was a writer, an intellectualist, an author of political writings and philosophical-meditation and religious works, known as the Polish Solomon. He was a man of broad horizons, a refined aesthete, and at the same time a representative of Baroque Catholicism in its intellectual and spiritual variety, as well as the nobility culture. He preached – after the biblical Ecclesiastes – contempt for worldly vanities, while at the same time practicing the art of a kind of double life, according to the motto “it is an art to live in the world, and yet be in heaven”. He was the founder of many sophisticated first-class artistic buildings, as well as – above all – the patron of the greatest architect in Poland of the time – Tylman van Gameren, who took the name Gamerski after his nobilitation (1632–1706). It was this architect who designed and in 1671 began the construction of the villa-palace for Lubomirski in Puławy, with decoration that shows a classicist and harmonious style. From the circles of the patronage of the “Polish Solomon” comes the excellent sculptural work – the headstone of his wife, Zofia Lubomirska née Opalińska in Końskowola (1676).
This figure who stands out from among the Warsaw art patrons was Voivode of Płock Jan Dobrogost Krasiński, who was a close and personal friend of Lubomirski, educated and raised in the cult of France and French culture. He is famous primarily as the founder and initiator of the renowned Krasiński Palace, also known as the Palace of the Commonwealth. He was a patron of the already-mentioned Tylman de Gameren, as well as the sculptor Andrew Schlüter (prior to 1660–1714) and frescoer Michelangelo Palloni (1647–ca. 1714.).
A strong supporter of the political, cultural and artistic influences of France was the Archbishop of Gniezno, Primate Cardinal Michał Radziejowski (1641–1705). He became the known founder of the churches of the Holy Cross and the Carmelites in Warsaw, as well as Palloni’s paintings in Łowicz and the palace in Nieborów.
In addition to the above-mentioned four main patrons, there were still many representatives of the magnate elite, who succumbed to the influences of French culture and fashion on classicist art, which considered harmony and balance to be the ideal. Among them, worth mentioning are Jan Andrzej Morsztyn (1621–1693), one of the most renowned Polish Baroque poets, Jan Wielopolski (d. 1688), the Great Chancellor of the Crown, Kazimierz Bieliński, the Paris-educated owner and founder of Otwock, and Kazimierz Czartoryski, Duke of Klewań and Korets. Active in Lithuania were two members of the Pac family, the Great Hetman of the Crown Michał Kazimierz (1642–1682) and the Great Chancellor of Lithuania Krzysztof Kazimierz (ca. 1642–720), and the later holder of this post, Michał Kazimierz Radziwiłł, known as Rybeńka (Little Fish) (1702–1762). All of the above-mentioned men were founders of classicist works of art. Nevertheless, the most important art centre of the enlightened Sarmatism was Warsaw. What was at the root of this return to antiquity and the art of harmony? There are four main causes:
Sociological – the magnates searched for ancient genealogies of their families, treating the art of antiquity as their own, in order to distinguish themselves from the average nobility. Although this tendency arose from the Sarmatian myth, and was created as part of the Sarmatian ideology, in reality it opposed Sarmatism.
Psychological – representatives of the magnate elite felt fatigue caused by wars and disasters that plagued the Commonwealth in the 17th century, which caused a penchant for art of harmony and peace.
State – for King Jan III, the best model of his own iconography was the glorification of power, developed in antiquity.
Aesthetic – the generation of both patrons and artists felt considered things that were simple, harmonious and peaceful to be particularly beautiful.
Thus, falling within the term “enlightened Sarmatism” is the membership of the aforementioned group of magnates to the culture of Sarmatian Baroque, as well as precursor elements, heralding the Enlightenment proper. Many representatives of the Polish Enlightenment were raised on the traditions of enlightened Sarmatism, such as the Grand Marshal of the Crown Franciszek Bieliński (1683–1766), or Prince Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski (1734–1823) and his wife Izabela, née Fleming (1746–1835). Generally speaking, during the reign of Stanisław August Poniatowski, many concepts, views and phenomena from the time of Jan III Sobieski were directly referred to.
Translation: Lingua Lab
