Author Description

Slonim tapestries were made at a workshop set up by Grand Hetman of Lithuania Michał Kazimierz Ogiński around 1782, and run by a Saxon-born weaver Johan Karl Kletsch. The workshop's greatest achievement was a series of 12 tapestries which depicted statues of ancient gods, and were supposed to decorate a garden pavilion of the Slonim palace complex. The tapestries were part of Prince Ogiński's grand project of establishing an aristocratic residence in Slonim - a miniature Versailles. The Słonim residence (in present-day Belarus) was intended to be a miniature copy of the Versailles, and the tapestries - made at a specially built workshop - were the pearl of the garden pavilions. They originally depicted twelve antique figures, but during the First World War some of the collection was destroyed in a fire and the rest was divided up. The seven remaining fabrics from the former "goddess hall" in Słonim have been brought back together in Wawel.