Kolekcja | 09.09.2015 Large classical amphora with twisted handles, decorated with two depictions: a scene showing a warrior bidding farewell to his wife and father, and a depiction of three cloaked men. In accord with contemporary scholars and connoisseurs, Stanisław Kostka Potocki believed this to be the finest item in his collection of ancient vases.
Compared to similar collections appearing in Poland at the time, this one is unique. It was formed not only through purchases but also thanks to the archaeological excavations personally led by the collector in Nola near Naples in 1785/1786. Potocki's original collection of some one hundred vessels survives complete at the Palace in Wilanów, although it was subsequently merged in 1853 with the collection of the Mikorski family of Słubice, which was purchased by Potocki's grandson August. After World War II, the collection was taken over by the National Museum in Warsaw. The most valuable items (including the work of the Louvre Gigantomachia Painter) enrich the National Museum's permanent collection of ancient vases. From 2017 the amphora – among other valuable objects – is again on the display in Wilanów Palace.
We know that Potocki prized this purchase, and we know it from his own writings. (The credit for identifying the relevant passages in the archives and old print collections goes to the scholarly efforts of the inestimable Maria Ludwika Bernhard.) On 3 February 1786 he writes to his wife to inform her about the new purchase, and in a description of his collection written on 1 April 1786 he says this is the most beautiful specimen of this kind he had ever seen (Letters of Potocki to his Wife, Nos. 50 and 66). In a catalogue of his collection (probably drafted in 1794 and lost in 1944), this amphora proudly opened the list of his one hundred and fifteen ancient vessels. Potocki also mentions it in his important publication, O sztuce u dawnych czyli Winkelman polski [On the art of the ancients, or the Polish Winkelman Catalogue] published in 1815, where he outlines his selection criteria and states that the amphora comes from the former Seminary at Nola: "In my collection it was not so much the size of the pieces that I sought after, but rather after the precision of the drawings, the variety of forms, the beauty of the clay and glazing, and such an ordering of the different art styles as may present the historical chain of artistic development, from feeble beginnings to utmost maturity and power. And although this collection has suffered through the many upheavals that have visited our country, I still have some particularly noteworthy pieces, such as the great amphora of Nola decorated with figures exceeding one span in height, in the finest Greek style; figures of this great size cannot be found in any other amphora at Nola. It used to adorn the seminary of that town, and its extended and laudatory description in the town's history is proof of its high esteem at that fount of ancient vessels in Campagna."
Barbara Szelegejd