Геркулес і сарматський Марс (про ідейну концепцію фасаду палацу в Чижoві Шляхетському біля Сандомира, 1727–1728 років)

Abstract

According to the system of 16th–18th century concepts, a palace together with its splendour, richness of the functional and ideological programmes, was affiliated with the senator status. Appropriately sumptuous, it was to immortalize its owner’s position, it was to commemorate his senator’s dignity among the generations to come. This postulate proved to be exceptionally urgent for those owner’s families who feeling less strongly established in social hierarchy, were all the more apprehensive about the future. The above is ideally demonstrated in the Czyżów Szlaechcki palace near Sandomierz raised for Jan Aleksander Czyżowski, Bracław Cup-Bearer and Połaniec Castellan in ca. 1723–1728. The sculpture decoration on the palace façade by Tomasz Hutter, including the figure of Hercules in the tip, as well as the entrance portal, tympanum, and panoply in the gable, clearly glorified the chivalry of Czyżowski’s forefathers. The founder emphasized the heroic past of his family, which was supposed to have passed under the auspices of Hercules and Mars.