| In seventeenth and eighteenth-century Poland, amateur and professional architects articulated concerns about social and political impermanence and instability facing Poland, giving shape to a Polish tradition of art and architectural writing. Writers of surviving texts adapted Vitruvian theory to local conditions, shedding light on the way in which they considered and absorbed foreign ideas, and revealing the ways in which they sought to either contest or preserve Polish traditions in architecture. In turn, the texts indicate the durability and even the liability of Polish noble tradition. Divided into a prologue, five chapters, and an excursus, this dissertation discusses the implications art and architectural writing for definitions of early modern Polish culture (1659-1807). It places special emphasis on the reform era of the last king, Stanislaw August Poniatowski (reg. 1764-1795), and examines the ways in which authors of art and architectural theory responded to, adhered to, and challenged aspects of social tradition practiced by the noble estate.; The dissertation provides both a general background to relevant issues in early modern Polish history that affect the interpretation of art and architectural theory. The prologue and first chapter provide a social and political context for the analysis of architectural form and theory found in chapters two, three, four, and five. Chapter two analyzes the Polish domestic architecture, referring to mid-seventeenth century treatise on the subject as well as eighteenth-century writings on rural architecture. Chapter three addresses the subject of the perceptions of Poland by foreigners; an excursus analyzes a Polish treatise on garden design that addresses the perceived shortcomings of the Polish landscape. Chapters four and five consider texts written in the last two decades of the eighteenth century and the first decade of the nineteenth century that use art and architectural theory toward patriotic ends. Drawing on primary source material, readings in Polish political, social and economic history, the history of architectural theory, and secondary Polish art historiography, the study aims to describe and analyze the relationship between writing about art and architecture and Polish cultural consciousness among personalities who were active in both politics and architecture. |
