Reconstruction of the Radziwill portraits from the 1620s and 1630s

The Radziwills, one of the wealthiest noble families in 17th-century Europe and the most powerful in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, owned one of the most important portrait collections in Sarmatia. As imperial princes, they collected effigies of members of European royal and noble families and owned numerous portraits of various family members and relatives. Extant inventories, such as that of Boguslaus Radziwill (1620-1669) from 1657 (AGAD 1/354/0/26/84), confirm the breadth of their art collections and their European character.

Today, however, apart from a few canvases from the Nesvizh collection, almost nothing has survived. Many original portraits that survived the Deluge (1655-1660) and the Great Northern War were reproduced in a series of engravings produced between 1747 and 1758 by the Jewish-born engraver Hirsz Leybowicz (Lejbowicz). With his father, Lejba Zyskielowicz of Sokal, at the Radziwill court in Nesvizh, they created the copper plates for Marcin Franciszek Wobe's Icones familiæ ducalis Radivilianæ ..., published in Nesvizh in 1758 (National Library of Poland, A.781). 

Earlier, probably shortly before the Deluge, several of these or similar portraits were also reproduced as drawings, most likely intended as preparatory studies for engravings, now in the State Hermitage Museum (known as the "Album of Drawn Portraits of Polish Figures", ink and bistre on paper, 33 x 28 cm). They were transferred from the Library of the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg in 1941 and likely originally formed part of the Nesvizh collection.

The images of Anna Radziwill née Kettler (1567-1617) from the Hermitage collection (inv. OP-45857) and the Leybowicz print, based on similar originals as the painted portraits in the National Museum in Warsaw (inv. MP 2472 MNW) and the Vilnius Picture Gallery, as well as the effigy of Janusz Radziwill the Younger (1612-1655) from the Leybowicz print, similar to that from the full-length portrait in the National Art Museum of Belarus in Minsk (considered as the work of Daniel Schultz), prove that all these images were based on painted originals.

Many of the finest portraits in both series are effigies dating from the first quarter of the 17th century. The portraits of women, in particular, display a rich variety of clothing, fabrics, lace, and sumptuous jewelry, primarily inspired by Spanish fashion with local influences (jeweled headdresses). Among the most remarkable are the portraits of Anna Sapieha (1603-1627), daughter of the Chancellor of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania Leo Sapieha and Elizabeth Radziwill, who married Albert Ladislaus Radziwill in 1618 (Hermitage Museum, inv. ОР-45867), and that of Tekla Anna Valovich (also Valavičiūtė or Wołłowicz, 1608-1637), daughter of the Lithuanian Vice-Chancellor Jerome Valovich and Elżbieta Gosławska, who married Alexander Louis Radziwill in 1623 (Hermitage Museum, inv. ОР-45870). Equally interesting is the image of the Ruthenian princess Lavinia Leonilla Koretska (ca. 1587-1641), daughter of Prince Joachim Koretsky and Anna Chodkiewicz, who married Prince John Albert Radziwill (1591-1626) in 1609, as well as that of her husband in national costume, undoubtedly pendant portraits (Hermitage Museum, inv. ОР-45871, ОР-45872).

Similar portraits of Anna Sophia Zenovich (ca. 1615-1664), daughter of the castellan of Polotsk Nicolaus Boguslaus Zenovich and Anna Chodkiewicz, who in 1628 became the second wife of Albert Ladislaus Radziwill, and that of Regina von Eisenreich (ca. 1589-1637), a Bavarian aristocrat and lady-in-waiting to Queen Constance of Austria, first wife of the Grand Chancellor of Lithuania, Albert Stanislaus Radziwill, whom she married in 1619, probably come from the same series of portraits. The same is true for the portrait of a lady wearing a large ruff and a hat, which, in Leybowicz's engraving, was reproduced as an effigy of Anna Elizabeth Radziwill (1518-1558).

Several of these women came from Calvinist (originally Orthodox) families, who converted to Catholicism at the beginning of the 17th century. Based on the costumes and the age of the sitters, all of these portraits can be dated to the 1620s. The likely author of the portraits could be Jacob van Doort (d. 1629), a Flemish or Dutch painter who, according to my findings, painted portraits of members of the Calvinist branch of the Radziwill family at that time. The style of the work suggests that van Doort is the most likely author of the portrait of Teodor Denhoff (ca. 1570-1622), Voivode of Pärnu, now in Wilanów Palace. This portrait would have been painted around 1620-1622, when Denhoff was Voivode of Cēsis (Venden) in Latvia (inscription at top right: TEODORVS / DENHOF PALAT: / VINDENSIS). The same is likely true for the portraits of Countess Maria von Rautter (1576-1626) and her husband, Count Friedrich zu Dohna-Schlobitten (1570-1627), which come from the Drogosze Palace and were lost during World War II.

The second group of effigies is the one which, according to the costumes of the models and their dates of life, can be dated to the 1630s. This group, among the drawings kept in the Hermitage Museum, includes the effigy of Janusz Radziwill the Younger in Sarmatian costume, coat and hat lined with fur (inv. OP-45876), the portrait of his first wife Catherine Potocka (d. 1642), daughter of Stefan Potocki and Maria Mohylanka and granddaughter of the Prince of Moldavia Ieremia Movilă (inv. OP-45877), and that of Albert Stanislaus Radziwill (1593-1656) in a dark doublet, with a seal matrix on the table (inv. ОР-45874). These portraits are characterized by the richness of fabrics, lace, and jewelry, which, combined with a characteristic pose, hand resting on the table, and a three-quarter length representation, brings them close to the portrait of Prince Zaslavski by Bartholomeus Strobel and, more specifically in this context, to the portrait of Janusz Radziwill the Younger in a red and silver doublet, also by Strobel, housed in the National Art Museum of Belarus (oil on canvas, 114 x 90 cm, inv. ЗЖ-109). This latter portrait was painted in 1634, approximately two years after his return from the Netherlands. 

Janusz came from a Calvinist branch of a Lithuanian magnate family. In September 1628, he embarked on a four-year journey, primarily through Germany and the Netherlands, returning to Warsaw in the autumn of 1632. He began his studies in 1629 at the University of Leipzig, and from 1631, studied in Altdorf. He completed his higher education at the University of Leiden. Shortly before his return to Sarmatia, a magnificent full-length portrait of the prince, dressed in a silver and gold doublet and breeches, was painted in Leiden by David Bailly (1584-1657). This painting comes from the collection of King Frederick I of Prussia (1657-1713) and is now in the National Museum in Wrocław (oil on canvas, 202 x 114.7 cm, inv. MNWr VIII-578). It is interesting to note that in 1633, when the prince was back in his native country, the Dutch engraver Willem Hondius produced in The Hague an engraving reproducing a similar effigy of Janusz, but in bust form and wearing armor (Czartoryski Museum in Kraków). The inscription at the bottom confirms the identity of the portrayed person and that the engraving was published in 1633 in The Hague, as well as the fact that the original painting was painted by Bailly (Cujus effigiem à Celeberrimo Bailio depictam ...). The prince's age indicated on the print (ÆT SVÆ XIX) suggests that the original portrait dates from around 1631. Bailly likely continued to work for Radziwill after his return to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, as well as for other Polish-Lithuanian-Ruthenian clients, as evidenced by his self-portrait from the 1640s, now in Wilanów Palace (inv. Wil.1752). He could potentially be the author of the portrait of Janusz's first wife, Catherine Potocka, reproduced in the Leybowicz print, resembling the posthumous portrait of her with the prince's second wife, Maria Lupu, painted by Johann Schretter in 1646 (National Art Museum of Belarus, inv. 3Ж-125). It is certain that Leybowicz did not base his portrait of Catherine on the one by Schretter, as he mistakenly confused a similar image of Maria Lupu with that of Katarzyna Tomicka (ca. 1517-1551). Therefore, there undoubtedly existed separate portraits of Janusz the Younger's two wives. Since Catherine's features differ from the drawing in the Hermitage, where she wears a similar costume but has a more elongated nose, it is highly probable that the prototype was created by different painter. Janusz married the Catholic Potocka in September 1638, against the wishes of his father.

The portraits of Albert Stanislaus made by Strobel were probably all destroyed during the Deluge and the Great Northern War, as Leybowicz reproduced in his engraving another likeness of the Grand Chancellor of Lithuania, similar to the full-length portrait held in Minsk (inv. ЗЖ-141). Another interesting fact is that the likeness of Albert Stanislaus's second wife, Anna Krystyna Lubomirska (1618-1667), in Leybowicz's series depicts her at an advanced age (CHRISTINA ANNA COMITISSA in Wisnic ...); it should therefore be dated to the 1660s, so several years after her husband's death. Anna Krystyna was the daughter of the Voivode of Ruthenia and Kraków Stanisław Lubomirski (1583-1649) and Zofia Ostrogska (1595-1622) and she married Albert Stanislaus on March 30, 1638 (therefore shortly before Janusz's marriage to Potocka). A portrait depicting her at the time of her marriage to Radziwill undoubtedly existed. In this regard, the portrait of Zofia Zborowska (SOPHIA De Zborow / ZBOROWSKA ...), who died after 1618 and was the wife of George Radziwill (1578-1613), castellan of Trakai, is particularly interesting. This is due to the fact that the lady is dressed in a fashion typical of the 1630s or early 1640s and is reminiscent of the aforementioned portraits of Catherine Potocka and Maria Lupu, as well as Lucretia Strozzi from Leybowicz's series. It is possible that, as with the image of Katarzyna Tomicka, Leybowicz confused the portrait of Anna Krystyna Lubomirska from around 1638 with a lost portrait of Zofia Zborowska.

​Portrait of Teodor Denhoff (ca. 1570-1622) by Jacob van Doort, ca. 1620-1622, Wilanów Palace in Warsaw. Virtual reconstruction, © Marcin Latka

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Anna Sapieha (1603-1627) by Jacob van Doort, 1620s, lost. © Marcin Latka

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Tekla Anna Valovich (1608-1637) by Jacob van Doort, 1620s, lost. © Marcin Latka

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Lavinia Leonilla Koretska (ca. 1587-1641) by Jacob van Doort, 1620s, lost. © Marcin Latka

Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of John Albert Radziwill (1591-1626) by Jacob van Doort, 1620s, lost. © Marcin Latka

Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of a lady, said to be Anna Elizabeth Radziwill (1518-1558) by Jacob van Doort, 1620s, lost. © Marcin Latka

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Regina von Eisenreich (ca. 1589-1637) by Jacob van Doort, 1620s, lost. © Marcin Latka

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Anna Sophia Zenovich (ca. 1615-1664) by Jacob van Doort, 1620s, lost. © Marcin Latka

Portrait of Janusz Radziwill the Younger (1612-1655) by David Bailly, ca. 1631-1632, National Museum in Wrocław.

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Janusz Radziwill the Younger (1612-1655) by David Bailly, ca. 1631, lost. © Marcin Latka

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Janusz Radziwill the Younger (1612-1655) by David Bailly, ca. 1631, lost. © Marcin Latka

Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Janusz Radziwill the Younger (1612-1655) by David Bailly, ca. 1638, lost. © Marcin Latka

Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Catherine Potocka (d. 1642) by David Bailly, ca. 1638, lost. © Marcin Latka

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Catherine Potocka (d. 1642) by David Bailly, ca. 1638, lost. © Marcin Latka

Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Catherine Potocka (d. 1642) by David Bailly, ca. 1638, lost. © Marcin Latka

Portrait of Janusz Radziwill the Younger (1612-1655) by Bartholomeus Strobel, ca. 1634, National Art Museum of Belarus in Minsk.

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Janusz Radziwill the Younger (1612-1655) by Bartholomeus Strobel, ca. 1638, lost. © Marcin Latka

Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Catherine Potocka (d. 1642) by Bartholomeus Strobel, ca. 1638, lost. © Marcin Latka

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Albert Stanislaus Radziwill (1593-1656) by Bartholomeus Strobel, ca. 1638-1646, lost. © Marcin Latka

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Anna Krystyna Lubomirska (1618-1667) by Bartholomeus Strobel, ca. 1638-1646, lost. © Marcin Latka