Szymon Bogumił Zug

A native of Saxony, Szymon Bogumił Zug (1733-1807) started his architectural career at the beginning of the 1750s in the Higher Building Authority (Oberbauamt) in Dresden, from where he arrived with the Saxon court in 1756 to Poland, where he would spend the rest of his life. He worked for the Saxon court and the Polish magnates, and in the times of Stanisławów also for the influential bourgeoisie. Zug's achievements make him one of the most prominent representatives of European architecture of the Classical period. A perfect example of it is the classicist building of the Evangelical-Augsburg Church in Warsaw. In its form we can find inspiration from the ancient Roman tradition, which Zug succumbed to during his trip to Italy in the years 1771-1772.

The medal was created on the initiative of the members of the College of the Evangelical-Augsburg Parish in Warsaw, as a token of gratitude for the architect's disinterested design of the temple and supervision over its construction in 1777-1781. The work was commissioned to the most eminent medallist of the Stanislaus era, Jan Filip Holzhaeusser (1741-1792). His authorship is confirmed by the signature on the obverse. The medal was struck in silver and bronze, and the only gold copy - weighing 64 ducats - was presented to Zug by the representatives of the community on 4 May 1784. From 1829, the gold medal was kept in the church chancellery, from which it was lost during the Warsaw Uprising.

Its obverse is decorated with a bust of the architect in right profile, wearing a wig, tailcoat and waistcoat and wearing a halsband and lace jabot, surrounded by a Latin inscription, translating: "Simon Amadeus Zug architect of the Elector of Saxony". Zug received the title of architect to the Elector of Saxony in 1772. On the reverse side, there is a vertical cross-section of the building, innovative in medallic art at that time, in the interior of which the altar, the pulpit, the organ, the galleries, the lantern crowning the cupola and the architectural ties are visible. The representation is completed by the text in the rim: DEDICATUM D.XXX. DECEMB[ris]:MDCCLXXXI, translated: "Consecrated on 30 December 1781" - and horizontal inscription in segment: INDUSTRIAE GRATUITAE AUG[ustanae]:CONF[essinis] EVANGELICI VARSAVIENSES, translated: "For unselfish activities of Warsaw Evangelicals of the Augsburg Confession".

The medal was bought by the Museum together with Bolesław Minka's collection in 1965.

Tomasz Markiewicz