„Przedmioty budownictwa” na warszawskich wystawach sztuk pięknych z lat 1819–1828 a problem modernizacji kultury architektonicznej w konstytucyjnym Królestwie Polskim

Abstrakt

Five public fine arts exhibitions in the capital of the constitutional Kingdom of Poland, held between 1819 and 1828, seemingly brought modest results in terms of architecture. Only a few architects participated in the competition and, what is more, the jury rarely awarded prizes for projects in the field. On the other hand, the presence of architecture at these exhibitions is an important signum temporis. The analysis of applications from this scope deepens our knowledge about the modernization of the architectural culture of contemporary Warsaw. the modernization, which proceeded along with the democratization of socio-political relations in the Kingdom.

Characteristically, the confrontation with public opinion turned out to be an attractive promotion tool not for those well-established at official summits or in the university hierarchy, but for the less well-off architects, not to mention students. This fact made the architect milieu different from that of the painters, since professors of painting were constantly feeding Warsaw exhibitions with the fruits of their work. Particularly significant in this respect was the participation of Hilary Szpilowski, who had been dismissed from the University and could thus have wanted to prove his academic competence.

In this respect, an exceptional instance was the case of the architectural dignitary Henri Marconi, who, however, cared more about the prestige of classical architectural education than about his own position (which in any case was very strong). However, the presence of this important figure among the exhibitors is significant. The exceptional willingness among architects of this status to confront public opinion indicated a new model of career, based not only on aristocratic patronage (and a network of family-millieu commisions) or official authority, but also open to direct contacts with a wide audience.