While we are figuring out who made mistakes (if any) while restoring this piece, here is a translation of the text accompanying the Flash gallery on the Wilanow Palace page at http://www.wilanow-palac.art.pl/index.php?id=195 :
[First page] Vertical sundial situated on the southern facade of the southeast alcove. [page 2] A very elaborate composition occupies the entire width of the facade. [page 3] Its central element is a round medallion with the leaning figure of the god of time, Chronos. He holds a scythe in his left hand, a symbol of time the destroyer of all things, and in his right hand he holds a quill which also acts as the gnomon. [page 4] Under the figure of Chronos we can see the drapery spread out and held up by putti, onto which three dials are engraved. [page 5] The largest dial is an ordinary south-facing sundial with hours denoted by Roman numerals. On its sides there are Zodiac signs, with summer and autumn signs on the left, and winter and spring signs on the right. Underneath we can see the symbols for the days of the week represented by the heavenly bodies assigned to them. [Mouseovers following the zodiac signs on the left: crescent moon - Monday, shield/Mars - Tuesday, caduceus/Mercury - Wednesday, torch/Jupiter - Thursday, mirror/Venus - Friday, scythe/Saturn - Saturday. On top: the Sun - Sunday] [page 6] The side dials with Arabic numerals show the number of hours since sunrise (so-called Babylonian dial)... [page 7] ...and since last sunset (so-called Italian dial). The gnomons are held by the putti on top of the drapery. Both of the smaller dials feature similarly positioned zodiac signs. [page 8] At the bottom of each dial there is a bell indicating the time of bell-ringing for morning, noon, and evening, signalling the beginning of workday, the dinner break, and the end of day's work. [page 9] Keeping with the spirit of Baroque, the sundial also fulfilled a symbolic function: [etc. - nothing interesting :-) ] [page 10] The sundial is most likely from about 1684 and is thought to be the work of the well-known Gdansk [Danzig] astronomer Jan Hevelius who was the scientific advisor and librarian to King Jan III. -- Jan (no numeral) --------------------------------------------------- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
