Press releases

MINSK, 14 February (BelTA) - Paintings from the collection of Maciej Radziwill will be exhibited in Minsk, BelTA learned from the National Art Museum of Belarus.

The exhibition “The Radziwills: the Fate of the Country and the Family” includes portraits, paintings, drawings, miniatures, medals, and art fabrics from Maciej Radziwill’s collection and will open in Minsk on 15 February.

The exhibition will present a gallery of famous representatives of the family: Barbara Radziwill, the Queen of Poland; her father Jerzy Radziwill; Mikolaj Krzysztof "the Orphan" Radziwill, the founder of the Nesvizh residence; his brother Grzegorz was the Cardinal, Bishop of Krakow; Michal Kazimierz "Rybenko" Radziwill, the founder of the manufactory of Slutsk sashes; Karol Stanislaw "Panie Kochanku" Radziwill, a shining example of freedom and independence of the nobility of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and others. Some of these portraits may have survived in a single copy.

The exhibition will also showcase the portraits by famous European artists: Italian Marcello Bacciarelli, who worked at the Court of Stanislaw August Poniatowski, Austrian Franz Xaver Lampi, and others.

The exhibition will also include the portraits of the Radziwill Princes from the holdings of the National Art Museum of Belarus which were kept in Nesvizh Castle until 1939.

The exhibition marks the importance of the historical memory of the Belarusian people. It is hard to name another family which played such a significant role in the history of the country. It is impossible to overestimate the activity of its descendants who continue the tradition of charity and peacemaking. The exhibition emphasizes the common historical past and will help strengthen cultural ties of Belarus with Ukrainians, Lithuanians, and Poles.