%0 Journal Article
%T Stanisław Staszic’s Tombstone and the Image-Building Policy of the Warsaw Society of Friends of Sciences
%A Getka-Kenig, Mikołaj
%J Quarterly Journal of the History of Science and Technology
%V 2021
%R 10.4467/0023589XKHNT.21.017.14178
%N Volume 66, Issue 3
%P 31-49
%K Stanisław Staszic, Warsaw, memorial, tombstone, commemoration, elite, learned society
%@ 0023-589X
%D 2021
%U https://ejournals.eu/en/journal/kwartalnik-historii-nauki-i-techniki/article/nagrobek-stanislawa-staszica-a-polityka-wizerunkowa-towarzystwa-warszawskiego-przyjaciol-nauk
%X The article is devoted to the artistic setting of Stanisław Staszic’s (1755–1826) burial place, for which his main heir, the Warsaw Royal Society of the Friends of Sciences (TKWPN), was responsible. The inspiration to raise this topic was the discovery of two previously unknown Jakub Tatarkiewicz’s designs of Staszic’s unrealized neoclassical tombstone in the collections of the Central Archives of Historical Records in Warsaw (AGAD). However, the projects were never commissioned by TKWPN but were the sculptor’s proposal. By analysing the relationship between these artistic projects and the initiatives concerning Staszic’s tomb which stemmed directly from the Society (a big raw stone as memorial), the article highlights the problem of TKWPN’s participation in creating the posthumous cult of its long-time president and most important benefactor. The TKWPN’s seemingly paradoxical reluctance to glorify Staszic by means of traditional (artistic) forms of commemoration can be interpreted as a logical action calculated to benefit the Society’s image. Therefore, focusing on this single aspect of the posthumous cult of Staszic, directly related to the TKWPN, this article refers to the image-building policy of this institution, and thus to the ways of building its social status. At the same time, it tackles the issue of the prestige of science and scientific patronage as a new (from the early 19th-century perspective) form of public merit.