WŁADYSŁAW TATARKIEWICZ: PIĘĆ STUDJJÓW O ŁAZIENKACH STANISŁAWA AUGUSTA [1925].

Description

This is the first edition of one of the most important works of the prominent Polish historian of philosophy, aesthetics and art – Wladyslaw Tatarkiewicz (1886-1980). The publication was published in 1925 by Ksiaznica-Atlas in Lviv as part of the series “Science and Art” (volume XV) . This is the first edition of this fundamental monograph on Warsaw’s Royal Baths – the summer residence of the last king of the Republic, Stanislaw August Poniatowski .

Tatarkiewicz, considered one of the most prominent Polish humanists of the 20th century, in five studies analyzes the architectural program, sculptural and painting decoration of the Baths, reading them as an allegory of the political and philosophical views of the King-Stanis. As contemporary historiography indicates, the Baths were a symbolic creation of Stanislaw August – a “dream republic” in which the king as Apollo rules the world of justice, peace and prosperity . Tatarkiewicz shows with his usual erudition how the classicist architecture, sculptures and paintings formed a coherent propaganda program, glorifying the wisdom of the ruler and the reformist aspirations of the Great Seym .

The book contains studies devoted to, among others, the Palace, the Hermitage, the Turkish House and the Baths after the departure of Stanislaw August . Lavishly illustrated (with 68 illustrations in the text and on separate plates), it remains to this day an essential reference for scholars of art, architecture and the history of ideas in the Stanislaus Augustus era .