„Z wielką pompą do nieba” – pogrzebowe „Theatrum” w Rzeczypospolitej w XVIII wieku

Funeral ceremonies deserve special attention among the ceremonies organised in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 18 th century. For obvious reasons, they constitute the most extensive research material, which on the symbolic, propagandist and artistic level reflect the social needs and tastes of the period. Their lavishness corresponded to a specific Sarmatian devotion associated with traditionalism, provincialism and a certain orientalisation, leading to exaggeration and extravagance in order to achieve maximum splen- dour. Although Polish funeral ceremonies drew on their European models, in many respects they also showed significant differences and became a particular cultural phenomenon – a long and splendid theatrical performance. Preserved archive material allows for the identification of about two hundred funeral ceremonies, which received more or less impressive ephemeral artistic settings. However, it did not provide a basis for estimating the average cost of a noble burial, nor the expenses associated with its individual stages, although most probably the largest sums were spent on payments to the clergy for pastoral services, the purchase of fabrics, haberdashery and lighting, and the organisation of daily copious funeral feasts. Funerary decorations were as varied in terms of form, content and artistic expression as were the tastes and requirements of the clients and the possibilities of the employed designers and craftsmen. Despite an extremely modest iconography, one can attempt a synthetic reconstruction of an important multi-day funeral scenario and the church interior design systems, with a particular emphasis on the artistic and content-based dominant – the castrum doloris.