King John Sobieski III surrounded by a lady in a sedan chair and other figures possibly in the gardens of Wilanów Palace

Few works are still known by Bencini, miniaturist at the Viennese court of Empress Maria Theresa (1717-1780). He often depicted members of the Imperial family, but this delicately executed gouache represents an imaginary encounter of several men and a lady, among which only the Polish King Jan Sobieski III (1629-1696) can be recognized by his facial features, characteristic hairstyle and mustache. He wears a Polish costume with a fur collared coat and the insignia of the Golden Fleece. He is engaged in conversation with a man wearing eighteenth-century court dress, decorated with the French order of the Holy Spirit. The sedan chair, in which the composition’s only woman sits, is decorated with Sobieski’s coat of arms, but given her eighteenth-century clothes, she is probably not his wife, the French-born Marie-Casimire-Louise de La Grange d’Arquien (1641-1716). She turns her attention to a man bowing to kiss her hand, whose sash is decorated with the insignia of the Polish order of the White Eagle.

It has been suggested that this depicts represents the gardens of Wilanów Palace in Warsaw, the royal residence constructed by Sobieski in 1677. The castle was much altered in the eighteenth century, and the present work documents its appearance probably before these campaigns, as attested by the comparison with Bernado Bellotto’s painted view from 1776 in the Royal Castle in Warsaw (inv. ZKM 448; see S. Kozakiewicz, Bernardo Bellotto, London, 1972, II, no. 425, ill.).

We are grateful to Philippe Guégan for his help in writing this note.