Portrait of Jürga Valentin Winther

The man depicted in this portrait, Jurga Valentin Winther (also known as Jürgen Valentin, Valentin Jurga Winter, or Georg Valentin Winther), was born in 1578 as the son of Georg Winter, mayor of Trzebiatów, and his wife Anna (née Krün). He received his education in various cities, including Greifswald, Lübeck, Rostock, Jena, and Strasbourg. Between 1604 and 1606, he traveled through the Netherlands, France, England, and Italy. In 1608, he assumed the position of ducal councillor in Szczecin. Soon after, however, he moved to Basel to earn his doctorate. From 1613 until his death in 1623, Winther worked on a chronicle of Pomerania titled Pomeranographia, commissioned by Duke Philip II (1573–1618). The chronicle, consisting of four volumes, was never published. The manuscript was likely destroyed around 1828 during a fire at the Lettow family library in the palace in Brojce (West Pomeranian Voivodeship). Only fragments of the text survive, cited in other publications. In the early 17th-century portrait, Winter is depicted wearing a dark, embroidered doublet with a white collar. Around his neck hang gold chains and a medallion depicting Duke Philip II of Pomerania and his wife, Sophia of Schleswig-Holstein (1579–1658). This type of jewellery was traditionally given by dukes as a token of recognition. Until the 1820s, the painting was part of Samuel Gottlieb Loeper’s (1712–1778) collection in Strzmiele (West Pomeranian Voivodeship). In 1834, Johann Georg and Johann Ludwig Loeper deposited this collection with the Pomeranian Society for History and Antiquities (1824–1945). The portrait was exhibited in Szczecin in 1836 alongside other portraits of notable Pomeranians and, in 1927, became part of the display at the Pomeranian National Museum (1927–1945). After World War II, it entered the collection of the National Museum in Szczecin. Translated by Justyna Bądkowska