Agnieszka Emerczanna: portrait of the great hetman

(1673 Szokolya/Hungary – 1757 Dresden) Portrait of Agnes Emeranna Pociejowa, née Warszycka. Created between 1715 and 1722, the painting depicts one of the famous mistresses of Augustus the Strong (1670–1733), Frederick Augustus I, Elector of Saxony, and from 1697, in a personal union, Augustus II, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. Agnes Emeranna (ca. 1690 – after 1759) was the wife of the Grand Treasurer and Grand Hetman of Lithuania, Ludwik Konstanty Pociej. From 1709, she spent increasing time at the royal court in Warsaw and Dresden, where she became Augustus II's mistress. In 1719, she gave birth to a daughter, possibly the king's child. In the early 1730s, Agnes Emeranna was widowed, and that same year she married Count Joseph Alexander de Montmorency de Bours (d. 1759), Commander-in-Chief of the Saxon army. The artist vividly conveys the self-assured yet erotic and coquettish nature of her personality, depicting her in a dynamic pose with masculine attire: she wears a tricorne hat, her justaucorps is opened wide enough to reveal her décolletage, and around her neck is a cheerful, delicate violet bow with a tie. The depiction is rendered in soft tones of gazelle and pink, giving her body and face a fully modeled, sculptural appearance, with full, red lips. The application of women's clothing in this painting ranks among Mányoki’s most impressive achievements. At the same time, it conveys a remarkable impression of the erotically charged atmosphere at the court of Augustus the Strong. A second version, differing only in details, is located at the Łazienki Palace in Warsaw. This painting belongs to a group of portraits that King Stanisław II Augustus Poniatowski of Poland likely acquired around 1764, along with the Ujazdów estate, from Kasper Lubomirski. In the inventory of the Stanisław Augustus Gallery, the painting was listed between 1784 and 1792 as a work by Mányoki. The esteemed portraitist Adam Mányoki was appointed court painter to Augustus the Strong in 1713 and worked in Dresden until 1723. There and during his travels, he created numerous portraits of notable and important figures of the aristocracy and court society. Canvas, restored. Accompanied by an expert opinion from Professor Dr. Helmut Börsch-Supan of Berlin, dated November 13, 2011. Literature (regarding the version at the Łazienki Palace in Warsaw): Enikő Buzási: "Adam Mányoki (1673–1757)", Monograph and Catalogue of Works, Budapest 2003, No. B. 296, color illustration 29/p. 84; Dorota Juszczak and Hanna Małachowicz, Catalogue of the Stanisław Augustus Painting Gallery in the Royal Łazienki Park, Warsaw 2015, catalogue No. 69, pp. 261–263.