Michał Kleofas Oginski

Michał Kleofas Oginski (1764/1765-1833) was born the son of Andrzej Oginski (1740-1787) , Lithuanian swordsman, later Voivode of Troki , and Paula née Szembek (1737-1798, 1° voto Łubieńska, 2° voto Potocka) . Until now, it was believed to have taken place on 25 September 1765 at Guzów near Sochaczew, some 50 km from Warsaw (as Ogiński himself wrote in his memoirs). In 2025, however, Lithuanian genealogists found a baptismal certificate according to which Michał Kleofas Oginski was born on 25 September 1764 near Salanta in Samogitia and was baptised on 29 September that year in the local Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

He initially pursued a political career , being a treasury commissioner and a member of the Sejm. During the Great Sejm, he secretly paid homage to Tsarina Catherine II ; he was then the diplomatic representative of the Polish-Lithuanian monarchy in the Netherlands (Republic of the United Provinces) and Great Britain. He joined the Targowice Confederation; during the Sejm of Grodno (1793) he was appointed by Stanisław August Poniatowski as a member of the deputation for negotiations with the Russian deputation. He signed the act of the second partition of the Commonwealth by Russia and Prussia , and was appointed to the Permanent Council (the highest organ of governmental and administrative power at the end of the First Republic, established in 1775). He took part in the Kościuszko Uprising in Lithuania (1794), and after the Third Partition participated in exile activities. After withdrawing from public and political activity , he settled permanently in Florence in 1823 .

Artistic career

Oginski is best known , however, not as a politician or Russian subject, but as a composer . His versatile repertoire was dominated by piano polonaises, but he also composed romances, waltz songs or minuets, and one opera. He is best known as the author of the polonaise in A minor Farewell to the Homeland, which, however, according to recent research, was composed by Kacper Napoleon Wysocki. Recent attempts have also been made to prove that Oginski was the author of the melody to the Dąbrowski Mazurka.

Michał Kleofas Oginski died on 15 October 1833 in Florence and, probably because of his musical achievements, was buried in the Pantheon of great personalities in the Franciscan church of Santa Croce .

Tombstone of Michał Kleofas Oginski

Oginski's tombstone was set in a shallow niche. It consists of a cuboidal base on which a pedestal is set, topped with palmettes (decorative motifs in the shape of a stylised palm leaf) at the corners. It serves as a base for Oginsky's bust. On the side there is a lamppost leaning against the pedestal, on the other side there is a flame vase. On the front of the pedestal is a bas-relief of Oginsky's coat of arms, surrounded by a chain with three orders (Saint Stanislaus and the White Eagle) against a background of a paludament (an ornamental motif derived from the tradition of the Roman military cloak), surmounted by a ducal mitre. On his portrait bust, Michał Kleofas is shown wearing an antique toga, and the whole portrait is very classical.

The pedestal below the bust bears a Latin inscription in cast bronze letters commemorating the composer:

"A ☧ Ω
MICHAELI CLEOPHAE
In KOZIELSKI OGINSKI ab atavis Principi
VII kal. octobris anni MDCCLXV
in Polonia nato
Florentiae vero XVIII kal. novembris
an MDCCCXXXIII vita fvncto
vxor cvm lacrimvis
viro svi desideratissimo
P.H.M.
Michael ave in pace cvm XTO
et pere pro tvis".

Translated into Polish, the inscription reads: " A ☧ Ω / MICHAŁOWI KLEOFASOWI / Na KOZIELSKU OGIŃSKI of princely ancestors / born in Poland / on the seventh day before the calends of October in the year 1765 / in Florence while on the eighteenth day before the calends of November / r. 1833 deceased / his wife mourns her dearest husband / the late / Michael rest in peace with Christ / and pray for his own.

Francesco Pozzi - author of the tombstone

The author of the tombstone is the Italian sculptor, medallist and precious stone engraver, Francesco Pozzi (1790-1844). He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence (1816). In Rome he studied the work of renowned sculptors : Antonio Canova and Bertel Thorvaldsen, whose works strongly influenced his style. Already one year after graduation, he was appointed a member of the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, and in 1823 he was appointed a teacher of sculpture. He worked in the neo-classical spirit , mainly monuments (e.g. Ferdinand III of Tuscany in Livorno, 1847) and tombstones (e.g. Prince Philip Colonna in the Church of Santi Apostoli in Rome, 1822, Leopoldo Nobili in the Church of Santa Croce in Florence, c. 1835). At the same time, he sculpted bust portraits, mythological scenes and sculptures of saints (e.g. for the façade of the Galleria degli Ufizzi in Florence). He also specialised in sculpture (or rather ritual) on the surface of expensive stones and gems and in wax. Francesco Pozzi died in Florence and was buried in the basilica of Santa Croce.

Oginski's tombstone is one of Pozzi's more important works , but it does not deviate from the conventions of the classicist monuments of the time.