Rosette from cap of Prince Philip II (1573-1618)

The rosettes decorating Duke Francis I's cap were preserved on two images of this ruler. The earliest depiction is the lost portrait by Johann Leonisch from 1616, showing rosettes chained on the brim of the Duke's hat together with an aigrette fastening a magnificent plume of ostrich feathers. The second painting, fortunately preserved to our times, is a posthumous portrait of Francis I from 1621, from the collection of the Cathedral Chapters of Merseburg and Naumburg and the Collegiate Church of Zeitz (Vereinigte Domstifter zu Merseburg und Naumburg und des Kollegiatstifts Zeitz). It illustrates that part of the funeral ceremony during which a duke's body, dressed in the representative attire, was on public display in the Castle for several weeks. His last portrait, usually life-size and showing the ruler with all splendour, was also painted then. The miniature posthumous portrait of Francis I was probably painted from the original as a gift for the Electors of Saxony, with whom the deceased was related. Until World War II, four posthumous portraits of the Pomeranian dukes hung in the Castle Church in Szczecin, three of which are now lost, and the fourth, of Anna Maria Brandenburg, is now in the collection of the National Museum in Krakow.

Monika Frankowska-Makała