The historical Wilanów collection preserved portraits of Izabella Lubomirska of the Czartoryski family and her loved ones. This elegant, sophisticated lady of the rococo age was portrayed by the best painters of the period: Marcello Bacciarelli, Aleksander Roslin and Per Kraft. The images of Izabella are arranged into a portrait history of her life, showing her as a charming young lady, an aristocrat of the social elite and a sophisticated savant, and as a noble elderly lady in a white bonnet. These paintings were intended as private portraits, devoid of the great lady's attendants, often painted with pastels, a light dash of bright colors - and with Izabella, with her face and gaze, as the main protagonist.
The exhibition The Lubomirski Family in Wilanów. Politics and Private Life is divided into two parts. The first part, Politics, presents full-format portraits of the most noble representatives of the Lubomirski family: Stanisław, Jerzy Sebastian, Hieronim Augustyn and Stanisław Herakliusz. "The gallery of ancestral portraits displayed in the White Room is a peculiar journey through time", says Anna Ekielska, curator of the exhibition. "The Lubomirski portraits from the Wilanów historic collection allow us to bring back their now nonexistant portrait gallery from the 19th century".
The second part, Privacy, is devoted to Izabella Lubomirska of the Czartoryski family, and her family. The paintings are presented in her apartment in the palace's south wing, and hang through the Hall, Salon and Golden Bedroom. During the exhibition, one can also explore the bath apartment, called Lubomirska's Baths, which are usually not open to visitors.
The interiors of the palace also hold a thematic path dedicated to the Lubomirski patronage in Wilanów. It is arranged in ten stops, at each of which are displayed artistic certificates of the family's activities.
"At the exhibition you can see for yourself what the representative rooms of aristocratic residences of the XVII and XVIII century looked like" Ekielska emphasises, "with respectful portrait galleries of the family's ancestors. We present completely unknown paintings- till now hidden in museum storages- in the full space and context for which they were created".
The exhibition is prepared in cooperation with the Lubomirski Princes Foundation. It is accompanied by a guidebook catalogue.
Curator: Anna Ekielska.
Opening: 14 October 2011 at 18:00.
The exhibition is part of a permanent exhibition, and is expected to remain until 2014.
The Wilanów Palace Museum
ul. Stanisława Kostki-Potockiego 10/16
02-958 Warsaw
www.wilanow-palac.art.pl
Source: press release