Rubensiana. Collecting Fascinations in Poland, 17th-21st Centuries

In the palace’s north wing, on view until 31 December 2026. This is not a Rubens survey - it is a study of when a workshop replica stopped being counted as the equal of a painting made by the master’s own hand.

The Museum of King Jan III’s Palace at Wilanów on the exhibition:

This is the culmination of the multi-year research project “Rubensiana and the portrait of Anna Jagiellon”, begun in 2022 and carried out with the financial support of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. The presentation goes beyond the traditional format of a thematic exhibition, becoming an in-depth study in attribution and connoisseurship. It shows the character of early modern artistic production, in which the boundary between the master’s own brushwork and a workshop repetition remained fluid, determined by the art theory of the day and by the conditions of the painting market.

The exhibition poses the key question of how the notion of authenticity and the triad “original - replica - copy” evolved over time, and shows how fundamentally the value placed on these terms changed. In the 17th century the foundation of a work’s value was inventio - the master’s own idea and composition, whose material execution within the workshop was often a fully acceptable collective effort. A workshop replica, retouched by the master, then held a status equal to a work made by his own hand. The Enlightenment brought the first attempts at systematisation, but only the 19th century, with its Romantic cult of unique genius, introduced a sharp dichotomy. The copy came to be seen as secondary and devoid of “soul”, and the sole measure of value became execution by the artist’s own hand. The contemporary view presented in the exhibition restores workshop works to their rightful place, recognising in them not only high artistic quality but also important evidence of historical reception and of the dissemination of an artistic idea.

What to expect

The exhibition is included in the palace ticket and sits in the north wing - the same wing as “The Sobieskis and the Stuarts”, so you can see both on one visit. Self-guided. This one is aimed at anyone curious about how art historians actually work - attribution, connoisseurship, the argument over authenticity - rather than at a quick run past famous names.

Tickets and opening hours are on the museum’s website.

Museum profile: Wilanów Palace.