1710) Stanisław Wyspiański

Stanisław Mateusz Ignacy Wyspiański (1869 – 1907). Polish playwright, painter, poet, and interior and furniture designer. A patriotic writer, he created symbolic national dramas accordant with the artistic premises of the Young Poland movement.

Wyspiański was one of the most outstanding and multifaceted artists in Poland under the foreign partitions, and combined modernism with traditional Polish folk and Romantic themes.

 Wyspiański's artistic output is very eclectic. Among dramas and poetry, there are views of Cracow (drawings, sketch-books, oil-paintings, pastel drawings), portraits and self-portraits, designs of stained glass windows and paintings, illustrations, graphic art, and designs for furniture and interiors.

1709) Józef Mehoffer

Józef Mehoffer (1869 – 1946). Polish painter and decorative artist, one of the leading artists of the Young Poland movement and one of the most revered Polish artists of his time.

Mehoffer studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, and later at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and in Paris, at the Académie Colarossi. There Mehoffer began painting portraits, often of people of historical significance. He later expanded his work to include different techniques, such as graphic art, stained glass, textiles, chalk drawings, etchings and book illustrations. He produced set designs for theatre, and stylized furniture designs.

Mehoffer received international acclaim for his stained glass windows in the Gothic St Nicholas Collegiate Church in Fribourg, Switzerland produced in 1895–1936. He also produced many stained glasses for several churches in Poland and Austria. Mehoffer explored various media further throughout his career to include a range of applied arts in his projects. He manufactured a multiplicity of book covers, ornaments and posters. Mehoffer – aside from his versatility in studio art – became known for his frescoes often reminiscent of medieval art. 

In September 1899, Mehoffer married Jadwiga Janakowska, whom he had met five years earlier in Paris. They had a son, Zbigniew (1900–1985). Janakowska was the artist's muse and frequently posed for his portrait paintings.

Portrait by Stanisław Wyspiański 

1708) Marie Thérèse Zakrzewska

Marie Thérèse Zakrzewska, also known as Ata or Ama (1880? - 1920). Polish artists' model and noblewoman.

She was born (probably in Krakòw) into an aristocratic family and had a younger sister, Natalia. They were both known for their beauty. 

Ata was the favourite sitter of the painter Teodor Axentowicz, who made her famous in all artistic circles of Poland.

In 1903 she married Italian politician Alessandro Tasca Filangeri, Principe di Cutò (1874 - 1943), who was called "il principe rosso" (the red prince) because of his socialist ideas. The couple had two children: Gioia and Alessandro. One of Filangeri's sisters, Beatrice, was the mother of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, author of the novel Il Gattopardo (The Leopard). 

Ata Zakrzewska and her daughter Gioia

Wiosna (The Spring), by Teodor Axentowicz

Rudowłosa (The Redhead), by Teodor Axentowicz

Poster for the 2nd exhibition of the Society of Polish Artists "Sztuka"  

1703) Jadwiga of Poland

Jadwiga (1373 or 1374 – 1399), also known as Hedwig. First female monarch of the Kingdom of Poland, as well as its last hereditary ruler. She reigned from 16 October 1384 until her death. Born in Buda, she was the youngest daughter of Louis I of Hungary and Poland and his wife, Elizabeth of Bosnia. 

In 1386 she married Jogaila, Grand Duke of Lithuania, who took the Catholic baptismal name Władysław, Jadwiga died due to postpartum complications and as her only daughter predeceased her, the Queen was the last hereditary monarch of Poland. With her death, the throne of Poland became elective. 

In 1997, she was canonized by the Catholic Church.

- "Jadwiga was said to have been tall and beautiful with red hair."   https://www.galwaycathedral.ie/news/saint-month-st-jadwiga#:~:text=Jadwiga%20was%20said%20to%20have,establish%20a%20department%20of%20Theology.

Effigy of Jadwiga on her seal

1702) Faustina Kowalska

Maria Faustyna Kowalska of the Blessed Sacrament (born Helena Kowalska; 1905 – 1938). Polish Catholic religious sister and mystic. Faustyna, popularly spelled Faustina in English, had apparitions of Jesus Christ which inspired the Catholic devotion to the Divine Mercy, therefore she is sometimes called the "secretary" of Divine Mercy.

Throughout her life, Kowalska reported having visions of Jesus and conversations with him, which she noted in her diary, later published as The Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska: Divine Mercy in My Soul. 

At the age of 20 years, she joined a convent in Warsaw. She was later transferred to Płock and then to Vilnius. The Catholic Church canonized Kowalska as a saint on 30 April 2000. Her tomb is in the Divine Mercy Sanctuary, Kraków, where she spent the end of her life.

- "A red-haired, bouncing Polish baby girl named Helen certainly did when she was born 119 years ago today into the home of a poor, peasant family who had its priorities straight."   https://www.thedivinemercy.org/articles/happy-119th-birthday-st-faustina#:~:text=It%20helps%20to%20have%20a,who%20had%20its%20priorities%20straight.

- "I discovered a red-haired and freckled young woman who, before entering the convent, loved to dress fashionably!" https://www.radiantmagazine.com/2019/02/18/my-friend-st-faustina/ 

Helena Kowalska before entering the convent

Portrait painting of Faustina Kowalska

1700) Pierre Puiseux

 Pierre Henri Puiseux (1855 – 1928). French astronomer.

He created a photographic atlas of the Moon based on 6000 photographs taken by him and Maurice Loewy. In 1892 he was awarded the Valz Prize, and in 1896 was he awarded the Lalande Prize, both from the French Academy of Sciences, which he would later become a member of in 1912.

In 1900, Puiseux received the Prix Jules Janssen, the highest award of the Société astronomique de France (the French astronomical society). He became the Society's president from 1911 to 1913.

The crater Puiseux on the Moon is named after him.

- "His physical appearance was strange: a brush of red hair, dishevelled around the large forehead of a thinker, blue eyes extraordinarily sharp and brilliant..." https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Puiseux/

1668) Arnulf of Orléans

Arnulf of Orléans, also known as Arnulfus Rufus (French: Arnoul le Roux). Grammarian and poet of Latin, active as a teacher in Orléans in the late twelfth century in the monastery of Saint-Euverte.
In Arnulf's time, Orléans was a centre of classical learning in France. He taught the classics in the ancient grammatical style, as opposed to the new "logical" style. In his commentaries on Ovid (Metamorphoses, Fasti, Ars amatoria) and Lucan, which circulated widely, he is sharply critical of his predecessors. Arnulf is the likely author of the elegiac comedy Lidia and possibly also of Miles gloriosus.
He had a famous rivalry with Matthew of Vendôme. Arnulf and Matthew's dispute seems to have involved insulting each other's poetry. Arnulf was not reticent to insult rivals, labelling one commentary as designed for "those who have been fooled by Fulco". Likewise, he vaunted his own skills by facetiously deriving his name from the expression ardua nulla fugiens (flying from no difficulty). Matthew came out the worst and relocated to Vendôme in 1175. He was, however, successful in damaging Arnulf's reputation with his writings.

- " In his [Matthew of Vendôme's] Ars poetica, the name Rufinus and the Latin word rufus (redhead) are used throughout to insult Arnulf... He says that Arnulf proves the proverb right: redheads are cheats who cannot be trusted." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnulf_of_Orl%C3%A9ans_(12th_century)

1637) Marie Thérèse Antoinette Raphaëlle, Dauphine of France

Marie Thérèse Antoinette Raphaëlle, Dauphine of France (1726 – 1746). Daughter of King Philip V of Spain and Elisabeth Farnese and wife of Louis, Dauphin of France, son of King Louis XV. The Dauphine died aged 20, three days after giving birth to a daughter who died in 1748.

 

- "Although the Dauphine was described as beautiful, dignified, pious and well educated, negative remarks were made because of her red hair." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mar%C3%ADa_Teresa_Rafaela_of_Spain

 

1623) Bernard of Clairvaux

Bernard of Clairvaux, (1090 – 1153), venerated as Saint Bernard. Abbot, mystic, co-founder of the Knights Templar, and major leader in the reformation of the Benedictine Order through the nascent Cistercian Order.

He was sent to found Clairvaux Abbey at an isolated clearing in a glen known as the Val d'Absinthe, about 15 kilometres (9 mi) southeast of Bar-sur-Aube. In the year 1128, Bernard attended the Council of Troyes, at which he traced the outlines of the Rule of the Knights Templar, which soon became an ideal of Christian nobility.

Bernard was canonized just 21 years after his death by Pope Alexander III. In 1830 Pope Pius VIII declared him a Doctor of the Church.

 

- "His body was so wasted and worn away, that he seemed to be nothing but skin and bones; his face was ruddie, his hair and beard red, and in his old age white, of a middle stature, rather tall then low." https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=VO1BAQAAMAAJ&newbks=1...

 

San Bernardo by Juan Correa de Vivar

 

1597) John III of Sweden

John III (1537 – 1592). King of Sweden from 1569 until his death.
He was the son of King Gustav I of Sweden and his second wife Margaret Leijonhufvud. He was also, quite autonomously, the ruler of Finland, as Duke John from 1556 to 1563. In 1581 he assumed also the title Grand Prince of Finland. He attained the Swedish throne after a rebellion against his half-brother Eric XIV. He is mainly remembered for his attempts to close the gap between the newly established Lutheran Church of Sweden and the Catholic Church, as well as his conflict with and murder of his brother.
His first wife was Catherine Jagellonica of the Polish-Lithuanian ruling family, and their son Sigismund eventually ascended both the Polish-Lithuanian and Swedish thrones. After her death, he married Gunilla Bielke. They had a son, John, Duke of Finland.
With his mistress Karin Hansdotter he had at least four illegitimate children.

Unidentified painter

Portrait after Johan Baptista van Uther

Unidentified painter

 

1596) Anna Vasa of Sweden

Anna Vasa of Sweden (also Anne, 1568 – 1625). Swedish princess heavily involved in the politics of that country and of Poland. 

She was starosta of Brodnica and Golub. The youngest child of King John III of Sweden and Catherine Jagiellon, she was close to her brother Sigismund Vasa, King of Poland (1587–1632) and King of Sweden (1592–99). Raised a Catholic, Anna converted to Lutheranism in 1584.

Portrait by Lavinia Fontana

Portrait by Lavinia Fontana

 

1561) Alexander Seton, 1st Earl of Dunfermline

Alexander Seton, 1st Earl of Dunfermline (1555–1622). Scottish lawyer, judge and politician. He served as Lord President of the Court of Session from 1598 to 1604, Lord Chancellor of Scotland from 1604 to 1622 and as a Lord High Commissioner to the Parliament of Scotland.

He was the son of George Seton, 7th Lord Seton, and Isobell Hamilton. The Setons remained a Roman Catholic family after the Scottish Reformation of 1560, and continued to support Mary, Queen of Scots, after her abdication and exile in England.

 

Portrait by David Des Granges

Portrait by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger

George Seton, his daughter Margaret and his sons, by Frans Pourbus the Elder (Alexander is the boy on the right)

 

1547) Mario Savio

Mario Savio (1942 – 1996). American activist and key member of the Berkeley Free Speech Movement. He is most famous for his passionate speeches, especially the "Bodies Upon the Gears" address given at Sproul Hall, University of California, Berkeley on December 2, 1964.

Savio remains historically relevant as an icon of the earliest phase of the 1960s counterculture movement.

Savio was born in New York City to a Sicilian-born Italian-American father who designed and manufactured restaurant equipment. Savio's mother was also of Italian ancestry (from Veneto), though born in the US. Both his parents were devout Catholics and, as an altar boy, Savio planned to become a priest.

 

- "He had long, sandy red hair..." https://books.google.it/books?id=iuaeEX-1yKgC&pg=PA83...

 

- "He scowled beneath longish, sandy-red hair." https://books.google.it/books?id=WW2jpQ36kSAC&pg=PA22...

 

 

1510) Isabella Jagiellon

Isabella Jagiellon (1519 – 1559). Queen consort of Hungary. She was the oldest child of Polish King Sigismund I the Old, the Grand Duke of Lithuania and his Italian wife Bona Sforza.

In 1539, she married John Zápolya, Voivode of Transylvania and King of Hungary. At the time Hungary was contested between Archduke Ferdinand of Austria who wanted to add it to the Habsburg domains (see Royal Hungary), local nobles who wanted to keep Hungary independent, and Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent who saw it as a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire. While Isabella's marriage lasted only a year and a half, it did produce a male heir – John Sigismund Zápolya born just two weeks before his father's death in July 1540. She spent the rest of her life embroiled in succession disputes on behalf of her son. Her husband's death sparked renewed hostilities but Sultan Suleiman established her as a regent of the eastern regions of the medieval Kingdom of Hungary on behalf of her infant son. 

The region developed as a semi-independent buffer state noted for its freedom of religion. Ferdinand, however, never renounced his claims to reunite Hungary and conspired with Bishop George Martinuzzi who forced Isabella to abdicate in 1551. She returned to her native Poland to live with her family. Sultan Suleiman retaliated and threatened to invade Hungary in 1555–56 forcing nobles to invite Isabella back to Transylvania. She returned in 1556 and ruled as her son's regent until her death in 1559.

Her siblings were Sophia Jagiellon, Sigismund II Augustus, Anna Jagiellon, Catherine Jagiellon and Albert Jagiellon.

 

by Jacopino del Conte

Isabella Jagiellon Holding a Fan, after lost original by Titian or Jacopino del Conte

Isabella Jagiellon Holding a Zibellino, by Jacopino del Conte

 

source

1509) Hedwig Jagiellon

Hedwig Jagiellon (1513 – 1573). Member of the Jagiellonian dynasty as daughter of Sigismund I the Old of Poland. She was Electress of Brandenburg by marriage to Joachim II Hector, Elector of Brandenburg.

She was the eldest daughter of King Sigismund I the Old of Poland and his first wife, Hungarian Countess Barbara Zápolya, sister of the later King John I of Hungary. Her only full sibling, Anna, died at age 5. In 1515 Barbara Zàpolya died and King Sigismund remarried, and had six children with his second wife Bona Sforza. Although she grew up with her half brothers and sisters, Hedwig had personal tutors, and in the court she received the nickname of "reginula".

Her half siblings were: Anna Jagiellon,  Sophia Jagiellon, Isabella Jagiellon, Sigismund II Augustus, Catherine Jagiellon.

All paintings below are by Lucas Cranach the Elder but the last one.

 

Madonna and Child with Grapes

Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John

Madonna and Child

Madonna lactans

Hedwig Jagiellon in a Black Dress, by Giovanni Cariani

 source

1508) Stanisław of Masovia

Stanisław of Masovia (1501 – 1524). Polish prince member of the House of Piast in the Masovian branch. He was a Duke of Czersk, Warsaw, Liw, Zakroczym and Nur during 1503-1524 (under regency until 1518) jointly with his brother.

He was the eldest son of Konrad III the Red and his third wife Anna, a daughter of Mikolaj Radziwiłł the Old, Voivod of Vilnius and the first Grand Chancellor of Lithuania.

In their private lives, both Stanisław and his younger brother Janusz III were heavily inclined to drink and women; however, in order to continue his bloodline, in 1523 Stanisław started negotiations for marriage with Princess Hedwig of Poland, only surviving daughter of King Sigismund I and his first wife, Barbara Zápolya. The wedding never took place; one year later, and likely as a result of his dissolute lifestyle, Stanisław died in 1524.

The sudden death of Stanisław, and that two years later of his younger brother Janusz III, were considered suspicious at the time. According to cronichler Jan Długosz, the real cause of the death of both princes could be an inherited disease of the Masovian princes: tuberculosis.

Anna of Masovia, sister of Janusz and Stanisław, was the last representative of the line of Masovian-Piast.

 

by Hans Krell

 

1507) Stanisław Lubomirski

Stanisław Lubomirski (d. 1577). Polish nobleman and owner of the Sławkowice and Zabłocie estates.

In 1537 he married Laura de Effremis, from an old noble family of Bari (Italy). She died in 1542 and later Lubomirski married Barbara Hruszowska, with whom he had three children: Sebastian Lubomirski, Katarzyna Lubomirska and Anna Lubomirska.

 

by Giovanni Cariani

 

source

1505) Catherine Telegdi

Catherine Telegdi (1492–1547). Hungarian noble lady, daughter of royal treasurer Stephen Telegdi and his wife Margit Bebek de Pelsőcz.

In 1516 she married the deputy voivode of Transylvania Stephen VIII Báthory. They had four sons and four daughters, but Bàthory died in 1534. Their daughter Anna is mother of the famous countess Elizabeth Bàthory. 

 

Portrait of Catherine Telegdi in a Green Dress, by Palma Vecchio

Madonna and Child, by Lucas Cranach the Elder

Sacra conversazione, with Catherine Telegdi as Saint Catherine, by Giovanni Cariani

Venus, by Bernardino Licinio

 

 

source

1503) Sigismund II Augustus

Sigismund II Augustus (1520 – 1572). King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, son of Sigismund I the Old, whom Sigismund II succeeded in 1548. He was the first ruler of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the last male monarch from the Jagiellonian dynasty.

Sigismund was the only son of Italian-born Bona Sforza and Sigismund the Old. From the beginning he was groomed and extensively educated as a successor. In 1529 he was crowned vivente rege while his father was still alive. Sigismund Augustus continued a tolerance policy towards minorities and maintained peaceful relations with neighbouring countries, with the exception of the Northern Seven Years' War which aimed to secure Baltic trade. Under his patronage, culture flourished in Poland; he was a collector of tapestries from the Low Countries and collected military memorabilia as well as swords, armours and jewellery. Sigismund Augustus' rule is widely considered as the apex of the Polish Golden Age; he established the first regular Polish navy and the first regular postal service in Poland, known today as Poczta Polska. In 1569 he oversaw the signing of the Union of Lublin between Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and introduced an elective monarchy.

Sigismund Augustus married three times; his first wife, Elizabeth of Austria, died in 1545 at just eighteen. He was then involved in several relationships with mistresses, the most famous being Barbara Radziwiłł, who became Sigismund's second wife and Queen of Poland in spite of his mother's disapproval. The marriage was deemed scandalous and was fiercely opposed by the royal court and the nobility. Barbara died five months after her coronation, presumably due to ill health, however, rumours circulated that she was poisoned. Sigismund finally wedded Catherine of Austria, but remained childless throughout his life.

Following the death of his sister Anna in 1596 the Jagiellonian dynasty came to an end. Besides Anna, he had more siblings: Sophia Jagiellon, Isabella Jagiellon, Catherine Jagiellon and Albert Jagiellon.

 

by the circle of Tintoretto

 

by Tintoretto

by Jan Van Calcar

by Christoph Amberger

by Paris Bordone

 

 

source

1498) Saint Stanislaus Kostka

Stanisław Kostka (1550 – 1568). Polish novice of the Society of Jesus. He is venerated in the Catholic Church as Saint Stanislaus Kostka.

He entered the Society of Jesus in Rome on his 17th birthday (28 October 1567).

On the evening of the feast of Saint Lawrence (10 August), Stanislaus fell ill with a high fever, and clearly saw that his last hour had come. He wrote a letter to the Blessed Virgin begging her to call him to the skies there to celebrate with her the glorious anniversary of her Assumption (15 August). His confidence in the Blessed Virgin, which had already brought him many favours, was this time again rewarded; on 15 August 1568, towards 4:00 in the morning, while he prayed he died.

The Holy See ratified his beatification in 1605; he was canonized in 1726. St. Stanislaus is a popular saint of Poland, and many religious institutions have chosen him as the protector of their novitiates. The representations of him in art are quite varied; he is sometimes depicted receiving Holy Communion from the hands of angels, or receiving the Infant Jesus from the hands of the Virgin, or in the midst of a battle putting to flight the enemies of his country. At times he is depicted near a fountain putting a wet linen cloth on his breast. He is invoked for palpitations of the heart and for dangerous cases of illness.

On 15 August 2018 Pope Francis wrote to the Bishop of Płock in honor of the 450th anniversary of Stanislaus's death. In his message, Pope Francis cites a maxim of Stanislaus's: “Ad maiora natus sum – 'I was born for greater things'".

 

- "He was of middle stature, of a fair height, his hair dark auburn, his face gently rounded..." https://archive.org/.../storyofststanisl00cole_djvu.txt