L’aristocrazia en déshabillé: le vesti ‘a l’anticha’ di Maria Casimira Sobieska

Abstract

Maria Kazimiera de La Grange d’Arquien was sent to Poland at the age of five as a lady-companion of Queen Maria Ludwika Gonzaga Nevers who was to import French fashions into Poland. Following the influences of the Greco-Roman imperial age on the European aristocratic apparel of the second half of XVIIth century, this contribution aims to analyze both modern contaminations and antiquarian motifs present in Maria Kazimiera’s celebratory clothing with a special reference to the following case-studies: Maria Kazimiera’s medallion executed on the occasion of The Queen Widow’s visit to the Campidoglio Hall on December 2nd 1700 (Capitoline Museums); the Portrait of Maria Casimira with Her children, by Jerzy Eleuter Szymonowicz-Siemiginowski dated around 1684 (Museum of King Jan III's Palace at Wilanów).