The Antechamber

The walls of the hallway are lined with a beige decoration made of panels crowned with flower garlands. On display in this room are portraits of: King Stanisław August (by Marcello Bacciarelli) and his family – brothers – deputy chamberlain Kazimierz Poniatowski (by Konstanty Aleksandrowicz) and Michał Poniatowski, the Archbishop of Gniezno (by Bacciarelli), as well as the King’s sister, Ludwika Zamoyska née Poniatowska (by Bacciarelli). Alongside the paintings is a copperplate engraving by Claude Randon from c. 1704, depicting Apollo and a Satyr.

The interior is decorated with Classicist furniture: two commodes (made in Warsaw), a cabinet with circular engravings on the doors, two pairs of chairs (including a pair with tall, openwork back rests in the Heppelwhite style), an armchair in the à la Reine style signed by Georges Jacob, a folding table in the English style, as well as an Empire-style basket for needlework. A kontusz belt – an indispensable element of a Polish nobleman’s attire, made in Słuck and signed by Leon Madżarski, who worked there in the late 18th century – is displayed in a glass case. On the commodes stand marble busts of Louis XIV as a boy, sculpted by Jacques Sarazin (1585–1660), and of young Nero (copy of a Roman sculpture from the end of the 18th century). On the columns is positioned a bust known as La Zingarella – one of replicas from Canova’s workshop, as well as a miniaturised marble copy of a well-known sculpture – Apollo (also known as Medici Apollo) from the Uffizi gallery in Florence.