Franciszek Salezy Potocki

Franciszek Salezy Potocki (1700-1772) was the son of Józef, Grand Warden of the Crown, and Teofila, née Cetnar, founder of the Tulczyn branch of the Potocki family in the Hetman line. He was Voivode of Kiyv, one of the richest magnates in Poland. The marble bust of Franciszek Salezy Potocki was made around 1782 in Rome by the outstanding sculptor Christopher Hewetson (ca. 1736 - 1798), who belonged to the artistic circle of Antonio Canova, the most famous Italian sculptor of the Neoclassical period. The bust depicts an older man with his head shaved and only a few tufts on top of it. His oval face is distinguished by a prominent, thick nose. The eyes are small, deeply set, and the eyebrows bushy. A luxuriant, curled moustache is set along his parted lips. Potocki is portrayed in armour, with the Orders of White Eagle and Saint Andrew. The bust was probably commissioned from Hewetson by Potocki's son, Stanisław Szczęsny Potocki, who in 1781-1782 stayed with his wife Józefa Amalia, née Mniszech, in Italy, including Rome. Hewetson based the sculpture on a copper engraving made in 1782 by Domenic Cunego, based on a portrait of Franciszek Salezy Potocki painted by Marceli Bacciarelli around 1766. The sculpture arrived at the Castle in Łańcut in 1923 and was bequeathed to Alfred Potocki by his distant relative, Mikołaj Potocki, who died in Paris in 1921, Franciszek Salezy Potocki’s great-grandson.