The cult of the field marshal prince Piotr Wittgenstein in families of his descendants: portraits of glorious ancestor and family relics

Abstract

The author analyzed the collections of descendants of the marshal prince Piotr Wittgenstein in which the artifacts connected with this historic figure are stored. Special attention is paid to lifetime portraits of the prince and also their copies. Some of works are attributed and dated, historical circumstances of their creation are specified. In 1834 the marshal has last time visited St. Petersburg. The author connects with this event the emergence of several works of art which weren’t earlier known to experts. The most interesting ones among them are works of the French artist A. Ladurner. The article shows the actions of marshal’s descendants for promoting and memorilization of his personality. For the first time the materials from the Central archive Hohenlohe in Neunstein (Germany) are published. On the basis of these documents the author speaks about history of one marshal’s portrait which was transferred in 1892 to the regiment bearing his name. The marshal’s granddaughter princess Maria Hohenlohe became the initiator of writing of a portrait and its transfer. The author of the article associates such a rich iconography of P. Wittgenstein with the manifestation of his personal cult in families of his descendants.