QUEEN OF POLAND - PRINCESS OF LORRAINE: ON THE PORTRAITS OF ELEONORA HABSBURG

The etched iconography relating to the Habsburg Eleonora Maria Josepha (1653-1697), wife to the Polish monarch, Michael Korybut Wisniowiecki (1670), and subsequently the prince of Lorraine, Charles V (1678), arose mainly in Germany, Italy, France and Lorraine, while no more than a small number of painted objects have been preserved, confirmed only in the graphics available. The portraiture of the Habsburg princess, much as paintings depicting the same figure, present her as queen of Polish and princess of Lorraine. Two main groups of portraits are dealt with, one containing mainly undated pictures prior to 1678 and the other in her capacity as princess of Lorraine. All iconographic sources present for prosperity the picture of a young woman of slim figure and subtle, delicate and even original charm, a woman dressed in great splendour and not lacking in taste who must have adored costly jewellery. The etchings almost certainly relate to the artistic patronage of the courts of king Michael Korybut Wisniowiecki in Warsaw and Leopold I in Vienna (brother of Eleonora), as well as Charles V of Lorraine at Innsbruck.