Michał Radziwiłł

Portrait of Michał Radziwiłł The painting from the collection of the Potocki family, former owners of Łańcut and the castle, depicts one of the surviving portraits in the so-called Sarmatian style, depicting Michał Radziwiłł (born in June 1702 in Olyka, died in May 1762 in Vilnius), also known as Great and ‘Rybeńko’, the Grand Hetman of Lithuania, duke of Olyka, Biržai and Nesvizh (the eastern borderlands of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth). He was the son of Karol Stanisław Radziwiłł, Great Chancellor of Lithuania, and Anna Katarzyna, née Sanguszko. He was not particularly talented either in politics or in the army, but he gained great popularity among the gentry by throwing lavish parties and hunting trips. He was a supporter of the Saxons on the Polish throne and during the election, he voted for Augustus III Saxon, for which the latter, after becoming king of Poland, bestowed on ‘Rybeńko’ the dignity of Grand Hetman of Lithuania. The Łańcut painting comes from the 19th century and faithfully refer to Sarmatian style and retains all its attributes. Sarmatian portrait spread in Poland during the Baroque period, usually depicting the magnates and nobility in full figure, in Polish costume (zupan, kontusz or delia lined with fur, less often armour, kontusz belt, calpac on the head), holding the insignia of power (mace or baton, depending on the function), against a column or suspended curtain. The portrait was usually accompanied by an inscription specifying the merits or functions of the portrayed person. The portraits were very simplified in terms of composition with the so-called inverted perspective, very flat, with an accentuation of the attributes indicating the model’s power and, above all, they were very veristic in nature, truly reflecting the portrayed person, without idealisation or embellishment. The author of this painting is unknown, and the portrait was probably commissioned by the Potocki family, who in this way wished to enlarge their collection of ancestors (the Potocki family was related to the Radziwiłł family through the mother of the last entailer, Elżbieta, née Radziwiłł).