(Szokolya 1673–1757 Dresden)
A state portrait of Frederick August II, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland (1696–1763), as crown prince wearing armour, an ermine-lined red cloak, the sash of the Order of the White Eagle of Poland and the Order of the Golden Fleece, holding a commander’s baton,
oil on canvas, 136 x 97 cm, framed

We are grateful to Helmut Börsch-Supan and Georg Lechner for independently suggesting the attribution and for their help in cataloguing the present painting. A written certificate by Börsch-Supan accompanies the present painting.

Previously unknown and unrecorded, this important portrait was painted shortly before Friedrich August’s ascension to the Saxon Throne. He was arguably one of the most important patrons of the arts and the most successful collector of all the German principalities. The present portrait type is unrecorded in engravings or drawings. Börsch-Supan remarks that the sale catalogue of the auction of Manyoki’s inventory, following the artist’s death in 1758, listed three replicas of a portrait of King August III as crown prince, all of which, including the model, remain untraced. He concludes that the present painting could possibly be identified as that lost model.

Striking in its majestic appearance and artistic quality, this portrait demonstrates why Manyoki was so popular at European courts of the time. Relatively little-known nowadays, Manyoki was one of the eighteenth century’s most interesting and international artists. August invited important painters like Bernardo Bellotto to Dresden, amassed an incomparable art collection (he acquired Raphael’s Sistine Madonna for Dresden) and commissioned portraits from the most famous European artists such as Hyacinthe Rigaud or later Pietro Rotari. It would have been unlikely for him to have sat for a portraitist he did not consider of sufficient quality.

Indeed, if one compares the present painting with the work most closely related to it by the then eminent Dresden court painter Louis de Silvestre, the quality of this rediscovered work becomes obvious. A full-length portrait by Louis de Silvestre, generally dated to the 1720s (private collection, a bust-length variant is in the Muzeum Narodowe in Wroclaw), shows a very similar pose of the sitter in the ermine-lined cloak and with the commander’s baton. Yet whilst that portrait, with its statuary appearance, pale facial characteristics, and an elegant yet lifeless hand nonchalantly pointing to the background, has all the features of an almost archaic and characteristically Baroque royal portrait, the present painting is full of life. The young prince soon to become monarch is shown with an apparently non-idealised physiognomy. In this depiction, the prince appears to be in command of the battle in the background. It is impossible to determine whether Manyoki was inspired by Silvestre’s compositional scheme and combined it with head studies made from life or if Silvestre and his workshop used Manyoki’s painting as a model.

Apart from the aforementioned paintings of which replicas were sold in 1758, Bösch-Supan points to another portrait of the young prince by Manyoki. This must have been executed before the admission of the prince into the Order of the Golden Fleece in 1722, as this most prestigious order is not depicted. Whilst this early portrait is now lost, an engraving by Martin Bernigeroth (1670–1733) records its appearance (engraving, 428 x 325 mm, Warsaw, Múzeum Narodowe, inscribed: ‘fait à Leipzig par Bernigeroth Grav. Royal bey Ieremias Wolff in Augsburg / Friedrich August / Königl. Polnischer Printz / Herzog zu Sachsen, Jülich, Cleve u. Berg, auch Engern und Westphalen, etc. etc. / Erb=Printz der ChurSachsen’, see fig. 1). As the present painting clearly shows the prince wearing the order, a date of execution around 1725–1727 appears plausible.

Manyoki studied with Adam Scheitz in Hanover. He served at the Prussian court under Frederick William I, before being appointed painter to Prince Ferenc Rákóczi II. Upon the recommendation of Rákóczi, Manyoki entered the service of the elector-kings of Saxony-Poland. He worked for the Dresden court, but also in Berlin, Poland, Vienna and Hungary.

Dresden probably owes more to August III than to any of the electors. He bought hundreds of works of art and invited great artists to Dresden. August III paid 25,000 Scudi Romani for the Sistine Madonna, an enormous amount of money for a painting during that period.