Portrait of John III Sobieski (1629–1696), King of Poland
Artist: Attributed to Daniel Schultz (Polish, 1615–1683)
Date: After 1680
Medium: Oil on canvas
Collection: National Museum, Warsaw, Poland
John III Sobieski
John III Sobieski (1629 – 1696) was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1674 until his death in 1696.
John III Sobieski is inextricably linked with the history of Vienna: as commander-in-chief of the allied relief army, the Polish king freed the city, which had been deemed lost, from the Ottomans’ siege of several weeks on 12 September 1683. With this crucial victory, he went down in the annals of global history. The sovereign of the once-powerful Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and a victorious military leader, he became a national figure of identification in his native country, which had meanwhile fallen apart, not least due to Poland’s fateful partitions in the eighteenth century. His fame in Poland continues to this day. In the Habsburg Empire, he was recognized for his share in the city’s successful relief, although the country naturally remained primarily indebted to the emperor, despite the latter’s absence in the battle.
