PRINCE STANISŁAW PONIATOWSKI: EXPERT ON AND COLLECTOR OF ANCIENT AND ITALIAN ART

The current state of research into the patronageand collecting activities of Prince Stanisław Poniatowski(1754–1833) in Italy with which he was connected foralmost 40 years of his life is outlined. Over the period, thePrince made 3 long trips there which preceded 30 years ofliving in Italy on a permanent basis, first in Rome, and thenin Florence where he was buried.Despite his many accomplishments and extraordinarypersonal history, the Prince has not taken as prominenta position either in academic research or in the collectivememory of Poles as his junior cousin Prince Józef whodrowned in the Elster River giving his life for the homeland.Although no monograph has as yet been publishedon Stanisław Poniatowski, he is not entirely forgotten.However, the major studies dedicated to him werepublished a relatively long time ago. The most extensive,i.e. the book I Poniatowski a Roma (Firenze 1972), speakingof the history of Prince Stanisław and the Poniatowskifamily, was written by the Italian writer and columnistAndrea Busiri Vici and has never been translated intoPolish. As the current state of research shows, very fewPolish art historians have taken any in depth interest inthe Prince’s activity. Apart from the mentions scatteredin different studies, there are merely four articles dealingwith some selected aspects of the Prince’s patronageand collecting activity (by Janina Michałkowa, ElżbietaBudzińska, Tadeusz Jaroszewski, Dominika Wronikowska).Historically the most complete study dedicated to PrinceStanisław is to be found in Jerzy Michalski’s paper from50 years ago published in the Polish Biographical Dictionary.The to-date Polish and foreign publications in history,history of art and archaeology do not exhaust many issuesrelated to the person, activity, and the collecting passion ofPrince Stanisław.