ANGELIKA KAUFFMANN (1741-1807), author of the painting original; TOMMASO MINARDI (1787 - 1871), drew; PIETRO BETTELINI (1763 - 1829), engraved, PRINCE STANISŁAW PONIATOWSKI, before 1818

copperplate scored/paper, 25 x 18 cm (plate imprint), 27.6 x 20.5 cm (sheet)
in composition maxim: FIDES IN ME MANET ET EGO PER EAM
below composition inscriptions: from left: Angelica Kauffmann dip.; Tomasso Minardi dis.; Pietro Bettellini inc.; below text: Abolition du Servage par l'institution du cens général, commencée par S.A. le Prince Stanislas Poniatowski l'An 1774.

"The most important iconography of Prince Stanislas was created in Italy. He was portrayed twice in Rome by the famous artist Angelica Kauffmann (1786, 1788). The 1788 full-page image, which was lost after 1941, is known today from the painter's preparatory studies and copies taken from the original in the form of drawings, oil paintings, miniatures and engravings. Of the graphic works, one that stands out here is a beautiful scored copperplate engraving by Pietro Bettelini (1763 - 1829), a printmaker active in Paris, London and the Eternal City, based on a drawing by Roman Tommaso Minardi (1787 - 1871). The engraving was included as an illustration in a luxuriously published print: Établissement du Cens Général (Rome 1818). It was meant to perpetuate Poniatowski's greatest success - the introduction of a system of general levies on the Polish peasantry, initiated in 1771 while it was still in Ukraine." Dr. Hanna Widacka