Silva Rerum | 04.02.2011 The etched iconography of Jan III Sobieski assigns a special place to images organically connected with contemporary prints, calendars and occasional news-sheets. Period prints made ample use of graphic arts. Apart from full-page illustrations placed in-between pages or before the title page (frontispieces), etched was also the title page itself. The composition and the complementing inscriptions contained a (frequently long baroque) title, the author’s name and surname and the publisher’s address.
A native example of such a print is the burin-executed title page of Mikołaj Chwałkowski’s work Regni Poloniae Ius Publicum ex statutis ac constitutionibus depromptum, published by Fryderyk Reusner in Königsberg in 1676, i.e. the year of Sobieski’s coronation. The small-size print divides into two areas collated somewhat mechanically. The upper area depicts an image of Jan III wearing a karacena (a type of scale armour), a bevor and a fur-lined delia, holding an upright sabre in his right hand. The monarch’s half figure is flanked by cartouches which contain a hetman’s mace crossed with a baton and the Janina coat of arms. Above, there are two angels triumphantly blowing trumpets and placing a laurel wreath and a royal crown on the hero’s head. The lower area is filled with an inscription and decoratively arranged militaria. Although the print is unsigned (rendering it impossible to identify the maker), its poor quality argues for home production. The etching is gauche yet charming and, significantly, rare.
Mikołaj Chwałkowski, bearer of the Odrowąż coat of arms (died shortly after 1700), was born in the Wielkopolska region. Of evangelical belief, he went into service with Jacob, Prince of Courland, became his advisor and resident initially at the court of Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki and later Jan III Sobieski. He maintained excellent relations with the court and the whole Sobieski family and enjoyed the monarch’s sympathy and appreciation of his legal and historical knowledge. Regni Poloniae Ius Publicum, Chwałkowski’s most important work, had a number of publications, the first of which appeared in 1676 and was dedicated to Prince Jakub Ludwik Sobieski (the following expanded editions were printed in 1683 and 1685). Despite its popularity the publication was severely criticized by lawyer Christoph Joannes Hartknoch (1685) and Bishop Józef Andrzej Załuski.
An anonymous Polish engraver: Printed title page of Mikołaj Chwałkowski’s work Regni Poloniae Ius Publicum ex statutis ac constitutionibus depromptum, with portrait of Jan III Sobieski, copperplate engraving, publ. 1676.