DOI issue:
Nr. 1-2
DOI article:Pokora, Jakub: Portret wedle zasad rebusu?: Henryk Lubomirski jako Geniusz Sławy Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun (1789) =
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.35031#0059
54
JAKUB POKORA
H Por^^Y conGGzwJ m w^YA ^A^ YAincfp/as'
o/ 7?^A^? Henryk Lubomirski as the Genius of Famę,
AyEA^A^^A Hg^-L^ArM^ (^Y7($P)
Prince Henryk Lubomirski (1777-1850) was brought
up by a blood relation of princess Izabella Lubo-
rnirska of the Czartoryskis. From 1785 to 1791 his
upbringing ensued outside the borders of the Polish-
Lithuanian Commonwealth, and his appearance won
the admiration of Europę's aristocracy. He became
famous as the embodiment of beauty, and his poilrait
was painted by Angelica Rauffmann in Romę
(Gallery of Paintings, Leopolis), Marie-Louise Cos-
way in Paris (prior to 1944 in Łańcut Pałace), as weh
as by the miniaturist Friedrich Heinrich Fuger,
culminating in sculptures by Antonio Canova in
Romę (Museum of Łańcut Pałace) and Annę Sey-
mour Damer in Britain (Oxford, Ashmolean
Museum). These works were carried out in the then
fashionable convention of the historical portrait. In
most cases the boy was depicted in fuli posturę as
Arnour naked.
Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun portrayed the boy three
times. The subject of this article is the portrait
defined by the artiste as p/i/rcg Łz/ńo/n/T^k/,
gn 77/77777//* 7^ (7/ G/77/Tg, almost certainly identified
with the picture removed from Poland in 1944 and
hanging sińce 1974 in Berlin's Gemaldegalerie,
Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz, painted on an
oak board and signed: E.E. Wgfg-Eć'///*//// 77<$9 (cat.
No. 74.4, 105,5 x 83 cm).
His painting is regarded as the most famous of
morę than twenty of the artiste's 'Polish' portraits,
receiving a vast sum for those times of 12,000
franks. It was ęxhibited in Parisian salons in 1789,
winning on the whole flattering opinions as an
embodiment of the classicist ideał and a living
Hellenist sculpture.
The image presents a winged figurę of a naked
boy barely eleven years of age in profile kneeling
heavily on his right knee; virtually, in fact, resting on
his lower leg. Gazing towards the viewer, the
portrayed figurę demonstrates a wreath of laurels
and myrtle, which he is holding with both hands. On
the right side can be seen part of a copper(?) quiver.
The portrait is devoid of the typically linear and
statue-like features of classical portraiture. It is
dominated by an elegantly rococo-like lightness both
in the plasticity and use of light alongside the choice
of colours. The source of the original pose would
appear to have come above all from the statuę
Ap/zwr/ńf Sć/uu/n/łg Łom ca. 228 BC by Doidalses
and known from numerous Roman copies.
It is claimed that the portraifs replica is to be
found in the painting known as Lo Gf/z/T <7g
/'E/77^/f/*^7//* A/^T/nr/rf / (housed in the Hermitage),
which was offered the tsar in 1814 by the same
painter. A Russian museum catalogue from as early
as 1838 records that the likeness of prince Lubo-
mirski had been recomposed as an allegorical
painting in connection with the entrance of
Alexander I into Paris.
In the meantime, there can be no doubt that the
Russian replica relates to some little known portrait of
Lubomirski; in other words, not the one considered
here. Ali that links the two portraits is the figurę of the
winged boy resembling little Henry; everything else is
quite different. G/w/As' of A/oAonr/or is clearly a
personification of his 'Noble-minded self, the
magnanimous victor, as is revealed in the inscription
placed on the shield demonstrated in the painting:
„ALEXANDRE LE / MAGNANIME PARIS / 31
MARS 1814". In this way the tsar was characterised
as a superb ruler following in the footprints of his
namesake, Alexander the Great. Following his
victory over the forces of Napoleon, the tsar was
declared rfjtńntor orńA; i.e. defender of the rights
and liberator of Europę. The theme of the
presentation was not as a consequence genius in the
Greek sense (i.e. daernon) of a person's protective
spirit, but as a personification of his/her virtue.
In this way, the basie question is broached
concerning the role played by Henry Lubomirski in
the portrait. For a start, the standard interpretation
found in previous publications on the subject must
be categorically rejected that he is 'the genius of famę'
(E7//777/). The key to solving the question lies in the
portraifs definition as given by its author as Le pAzń
///'/'/zće Luńo777ń*sk/ e/7 77/77777//* (not in terms of the
mythological divinity, but spelt entirely in the lower-
case!) <7e ń? G/77/Te. The painter thus had in rnind the
child's love for famę and not the God of Love.
According to Diderofs and d'Alambert's
E/7cyc/77pd4/'e, 77/77777//' Lz G/77/re is related to
G/z/z/T/zA^: 'craving, desire', in a positive sense, as
ambition and the strength to carry out great acts. It is
likely that the similarity of meanings of this pair of
notions led to the similar way of imagining them, as
resulting from the figurę of the winged boy or
adolescent whose attributes were trophies, otherwise
in the form of three laurels (A/7777/* g/T/rme), 01* else
one laurel and two palm leaves (Gzz/7Z7/z'A^). For this
JAKUB POKORA
H Por^^Y conGGzwJ m w^YA ^A^ YAincfp/as'
o/ 7?^A^? Henryk Lubomirski as the Genius of Famę,
AyEA^A^^A Hg^-L^ArM^ (^Y7($P)
Prince Henryk Lubomirski (1777-1850) was brought
up by a blood relation of princess Izabella Lubo-
rnirska of the Czartoryskis. From 1785 to 1791 his
upbringing ensued outside the borders of the Polish-
Lithuanian Commonwealth, and his appearance won
the admiration of Europę's aristocracy. He became
famous as the embodiment of beauty, and his poilrait
was painted by Angelica Rauffmann in Romę
(Gallery of Paintings, Leopolis), Marie-Louise Cos-
way in Paris (prior to 1944 in Łańcut Pałace), as weh
as by the miniaturist Friedrich Heinrich Fuger,
culminating in sculptures by Antonio Canova in
Romę (Museum of Łańcut Pałace) and Annę Sey-
mour Damer in Britain (Oxford, Ashmolean
Museum). These works were carried out in the then
fashionable convention of the historical portrait. In
most cases the boy was depicted in fuli posturę as
Arnour naked.
Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun portrayed the boy three
times. The subject of this article is the portrait
defined by the artiste as p/i/rcg Łz/ńo/n/T^k/,
gn 77/77777//* 7^ (7/ G/77/Tg, almost certainly identified
with the picture removed from Poland in 1944 and
hanging sińce 1974 in Berlin's Gemaldegalerie,
Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz, painted on an
oak board and signed: E.E. Wgfg-Eć'///*//// 77<$9 (cat.
No. 74.4, 105,5 x 83 cm).
His painting is regarded as the most famous of
morę than twenty of the artiste's 'Polish' portraits,
receiving a vast sum for those times of 12,000
franks. It was ęxhibited in Parisian salons in 1789,
winning on the whole flattering opinions as an
embodiment of the classicist ideał and a living
Hellenist sculpture.
The image presents a winged figurę of a naked
boy barely eleven years of age in profile kneeling
heavily on his right knee; virtually, in fact, resting on
his lower leg. Gazing towards the viewer, the
portrayed figurę demonstrates a wreath of laurels
and myrtle, which he is holding with both hands. On
the right side can be seen part of a copper(?) quiver.
The portrait is devoid of the typically linear and
statue-like features of classical portraiture. It is
dominated by an elegantly rococo-like lightness both
in the plasticity and use of light alongside the choice
of colours. The source of the original pose would
appear to have come above all from the statuę
Ap/zwr/ńf Sć/uu/n/łg Łom ca. 228 BC by Doidalses
and known from numerous Roman copies.
It is claimed that the portraifs replica is to be
found in the painting known as Lo Gf/z/T <7g
/'E/77^/f/*^7//* A/^T/nr/rf / (housed in the Hermitage),
which was offered the tsar in 1814 by the same
painter. A Russian museum catalogue from as early
as 1838 records that the likeness of prince Lubo-
mirski had been recomposed as an allegorical
painting in connection with the entrance of
Alexander I into Paris.
In the meantime, there can be no doubt that the
Russian replica relates to some little known portrait of
Lubomirski; in other words, not the one considered
here. Ali that links the two portraits is the figurę of the
winged boy resembling little Henry; everything else is
quite different. G/w/As' of A/oAonr/or is clearly a
personification of his 'Noble-minded self, the
magnanimous victor, as is revealed in the inscription
placed on the shield demonstrated in the painting:
„ALEXANDRE LE / MAGNANIME PARIS / 31
MARS 1814". In this way the tsar was characterised
as a superb ruler following in the footprints of his
namesake, Alexander the Great. Following his
victory over the forces of Napoleon, the tsar was
declared rfjtńntor orńA; i.e. defender of the rights
and liberator of Europę. The theme of the
presentation was not as a consequence genius in the
Greek sense (i.e. daernon) of a person's protective
spirit, but as a personification of his/her virtue.
In this way, the basie question is broached
concerning the role played by Henry Lubomirski in
the portrait. For a start, the standard interpretation
found in previous publications on the subject must
be categorically rejected that he is 'the genius of famę'
(E7//777/). The key to solving the question lies in the
portraifs definition as given by its author as Le pAzń
///'/'/zće Luńo777ń*sk/ e/7 77/77777//* (not in terms of the
mythological divinity, but spelt entirely in the lower-
case!) <7e ń? G/77/Te. The painter thus had in rnind the
child's love for famę and not the God of Love.
According to Diderofs and d'Alambert's
E/7cyc/77pd4/'e, 77/77777//' Lz G/77/re is related to
G/z/z/T/zA^: 'craving, desire', in a positive sense, as
ambition and the strength to carry out great acts. It is
likely that the similarity of meanings of this pair of
notions led to the similar way of imagining them, as
resulting from the figurę of the winged boy or
adolescent whose attributes were trophies, otherwise
in the form of three laurels (A/7777/* g/T/rme), 01* else
one laurel and two palm leaves (Gzz/7Z7/z'A^). For this