ISBN: 83-915126-7-3
Description: hardback, jacket, 278 pp. (31x25cm)
Condition: very good (two upper corners slightly bumped)
Weight: 1850g.

Grand Tour. The Birth of a Collection of Stanislaw Kostka Potocki. A Journal of the Exhibition 15th November 2005 - 9th April 2006, Warsaw 2006



The exibition entitled The Birth of a Collection. Grand Tour of Stanislaw Kostka Potocki and its catalogue celebrate the 200th anniversary of the existence of a museum in the Wilanow Palace and  illustrate the very beginnings of this institution. The November vernissage commemorates also the  250th birth anniversary of the founder of our collection.
The exhibition illustrates, on the basis of existing source material, the programme of young Stanislaw Kostka Potocki's initial education, which was designed by his tutors, and later his independent studies, the shaping of his worldview and attainment of maturity as a collector, as a man f of many accomplishments, and as an erudite with wide knowledge of Northern-European and Antique art. In our studies, special attention was devoted to the research workshop of this archeologist and historian of art, who was one of the first in Poland to be fully aware of his research goals. Thus, examined were Potocki's methods of stylistic analysis, as well as methods according to which he selected individual features of given works of art and later recalled them to mind. His written material on these topics is still insufficiently researched; therefore this catalogue is exceptionally rich in quotations concerning his thoughts and reflections, coming from his own letters and notes, mainly those written during his many European, and especially Italian travels. These excerpts acquaint the reader with reasons for Potocki's journeys — first in order to complete his education, later for study and research, finally to bolster his failing health. The archive material is ordered chronologically, according to the sequence of his most important travels, the towns he visited, and also the works of art he purchased.