Roch Solari, the Warsaw Artist

Abstract

The sculptor and mason, Roch Solari, who worked in Warsaw in the years 1689-1721, came from a great family of artists, who were active in the 15^th and 16^th centuries in all of Italy, being outstanding leaders of the Renaissance in Venice and Lombardy. The cradle of the family is the Alpine Lake District, and this is where, on Lake Lugano, in the village of Cureglia, Rocco was born on 13 February 1660. It was also there that on 25 January 1688 he married Margarita Brilli (1665-1708) whom he soon had to take with him to Warsaw. This was because in the next year he made sculptures for the Krasińskis' Palace. Also his works for Elżbieta Sieniawska (Warsaw, Łubnice) are known. Solari was friends with the local Italian artists (J. S. Bellotti, J. Fontana II, the Ceroni brothers). These friendships passed to the next generations – Antoni Solari (1700-1763), Rocco's son, from 1741 “the Polish Republic's and the King's First Architect”, an outstanding figure, owed the beginnings of his career to the support of the Italian clique on the River Vistula. However, he also owed it to his father's far-sighted actions, like sending him to study art in Italy. In this way, Rocco Solari, the modest sculptor, secured his son a great career and he became the founder of a whole dynasty of Warsaw architects.