‘Salvator mundi’, purchased for the Wilanów collection by Stanisław Kostka Potocki as the work of Leonardo da Vinci; photo by W. Holnicki

On the first floor of the Wilanów Palace, you can currently see excellent paintings from the collection initiated by Stanisław Kostka and Aleksandra Potocki – incl. the famous ‘Salvator Mundi’ (‘Savior of the World’) – once considered the work of Leonardo da Vinci himself.

This painting exhibition does its best to faithfully reproduce the collecting passions of Stanisław Kostka Potocki, whose travels across Europe were interspersed with visits to the most established art galleries. Those foreign collections were a great source of inspiration. A read of Potocki’s travel diaries proves that the magnate planned a gallery of his own already when purchasing paintings from different historic periods. In his notebook with copies of artist signatures (Steganographie des Peintres), Potocki evaluates the oeuvres of painters by awarding points in four categories: composition, drawing skills, colours, and expression (a copy of one sheet is presented in the display case). The Wilanów collection, made available to the public by Aleksandra and Stanisław Kostka Potocki in 1805, was hardly a work of chance. It is the product of a well-thought-out and consistently built collecting concept, which was made a reality in suitable surroundings, with respect to the genius loci of the historic royal residence. For its creation, the collection required not only material means, but also intellectual, emotional and knowledge capital.