Putto on a sphynx

The sculptures decorating the balustrade of the retaining wall and the stairs connecting the upper and lower terraces of the Baroque Garden are the most historically and artistically valuable sculptural elements of the Wilanów gardens. Their authorship is associated with one of the most outstanding representatives of the Warsaw Rococo sculpture, sculptor Johann Chrisostom Redler, and his workshop. They include the allegories of the Four Seasons, which can also be interpreted as the four stages of human life, made in Kunów sandstone, as well as four pairs of putti, symbolizing the Stages of Love, a pair of putti with sphinxes and flower baskets and vases. These themes which stem from the ancient era were one of the favourite themes in the late Baroque era. The number four, which characterizes both cycles, was considered the symbol of durability and universality of the material world. Therefore, it was used to recreate the spatial and temporal aspects of the universe. Hence the four directions of the world, four elements, four wind directions and four seasons. Both the four stages of love: Courtship, Kiss, Fear and Quarrel, as shown in the form of pairs of putti remaining in mutual, dynamic, expressive relationships, as well as the personifications of the Four Seasons, are subject to the relentless course of time, passing and changes, just like the surrounding garden. They are the reflection of the cyclically repeated periods both in nature and human life – from flowering to vegetation, from birth to death. The frame of the sculptural composition on the upper terrace is composed of two lying sphinxes with putti on their back, referring to the sphinxes decorating the Park of Versailles. These creatures, combining the human and animal elements, were considered the guardians of temples and palaces. They also symbolized royal power. The figures of sphinxes were symbols of such qualities as knowledge and wisdom, harmonious unity of body and spirit, intelligence, acuteness of the mind and the secrecy attributed to reasonable people. Sphinxes with putti on their back, on the other hand, are interpreted as the symbol of the ruler's reign over his or her subjects.

Agnieszka Świtek