Barbara Radziwiłłówna in coronation costume

Portrait of Barbara Radziwiłłówna in coronation dress The painting from the former collection of the Potocki family, owners of the Łańcut Castle, shows a portrait (oval in a rectangle) of Barbara Radziwiłłówna, queen of Poland, wife of Sigismund Augustus, the last representative of the Jagiellon dynasty on the Polish throne. The Łańcut portrait is a 19th-century copy of an original painting dating from the 1730s and belonging to the so-called Nesvizh (Nieśwież) portrait series depicting significant members of the Radziwiłł family (the town of Nesvizh belonged to this family). These paintings were characterised by a bust of the model, a painted wreath of laurel leaves and an accompanying banner with an inscription held in its talons by a heraldic eagle (in this case with a mitre on its head) with a heraldic cartouche on its chest (Trumpets of the Radziwiłł family). The Queen is depicted wearing her famous coronation costume, richly decorated with pearls (apparently these were her favourite stones), including a cap with a pearl band around her neck. The dress was embroidered with pearls. The banderol bears an inscription stating who the portrayed was and the dates of the person’s birth, death and place of burial. Barbara Radziwiłłówna (born in 1520 in Vilnius, died in May 1551 in Kraków) was the daughter of Jerzy Radziwiłł, Grand Hetman of Lithuania, and Barbara, née Koła, sister of Hetman Mikołaj Radziwiłł, surnamed Rudy (Ginger). After the death of her first husband, Stanisław Gasztołd, she secretly married in 1547 King Sigismund II Augustus, who was also already a widower. The wedding caused great protests among the nobility, also the king’s parents were against this union, but the king carried out his will and led to the coronation of Barbara as the queen of Poland. Sigismund had great affection for Barbara and took care of his wife during her long illness, which ended with her death. Her person became the subject of many dramatic works and films. The fact that her portrait was included in the Łańcut collection raised the rank of the castle’s owners – the mother of the last Entailer of Łańcut came from the Berlin branch of the Radziwiłł family.