The alabaster, almost shimmering skin definitely distinguishes the figure of Fortuna, who was placed by Tadeusz Kuntze in the centre of the painting for a reason. The viewer has to pay attention to her figure - massive thighs, delicately marked breasts, tiny feet that lightly touch the ball rolling underneath them, symbolising instability and futility.

Her eyes are tightly veiled with a shawl. The goddess does not see the pleading gaze and wry lips of those hoping to win her favour. She is surrounded by a cluster of people. Some kneel in an imploring gesture, others seem to be shouting for mercy, others are pushing their way to touch the divine figure, to snatch the jewels that hang from her hands. Fortune remains unmoved, insubordinate in the distribution of gifts. Her closest companions are, not coincidentally, Ignorance and Wrath. When you focus on the painting, you can almost hear the wailing, the screams, the pleas, feel the accumulating breaths. Intrusively, the question arises as to whether we ourselves would not also join the crowd asking for the goddess's favour, isn't this the eternal human tendency to possess her gifts?

The painter Tadeusz Kuntze, known as Taddeo Polacco, can be considered Fortune's chosen one. Gifted with an extraordinary talent, after receiving a thorough artistic education (Académie de France à Rome and Accademia di San Luca), he pursued and developed his passions mainly in Italy. There, he left works that secured him recognition and a lasting place in art history. In his work he combined the late Baroque tradition with an academic current, and his works were not inferior in level to those of Western European painting.

Kuntze was born in Zielona Góra, spent his teenage years in Kraków, but permanently attached his life to Lazio. His works decorate, among others, the bishop's palace and the library and seminary chapel in Frascati, the Palazzo Borghese and the Palazzo Bonaparte in Rome. The artistry of the 18th-century painter can also be admired in Krakow and Warsaw. The purchase of the painting 'The Death of Priam' by the Wawel Royal Castle became an event in 2012. On the institution's website we can read that it is "one of the three most beautiful non-religious works by Kuntze in the Polish collection, in which the artist most fully revealed his high artistry" [more: https://wawel.krakow.pl/dofinansowanie/tadeusz-kuntze-smierc-priama].

The Polonica Institute, together with Dr Mirosława Sobczyńska-Szczepańska, has launched a research project in 2023 that will enrich the history of art with a complete monograph on the artist's work. The researcher intends to undertake a series of research trips to Italy and queries at the Vatican Apostolic Archives, the Biblioteca Giovardiana in Verola, the Archivio della Fondazione Caetani in Rome, the Archivio Corsini in San Casciano in Val di Pesa and the Archivio di Stato di Firenze, among others. Following in Kuntze's footsteps, it will visit places central to the painter's talent and life. The publication that will conclude the project will complete and structure the knowledge of the artist's life and work. It will be of interest to art historians, institutions with Kuntze's works in their collections, but also to admirers of his rich imagination.

Dr Mirosława Sobczyńska-Szczepańska is affiliated with the University of Silesia in Katowice, where she works as a professor at the university and serves as deputy director of the Institute of Art Sciences. Her research interests include the modern art of Central Europe, especially architecture and monumental painting. Dr. Sobczyńska-Szczepańska has received scholarships from the Mexican government, the Italian government and the Lanckoroński Foundation. She was also a contractor in the projects 'Baroque Painting in Silesia and Cultural Heritage after the Monasteries Killed in the Lands of the Former Republic of Poland and in Silesia in the 18th and 19th centuries: Fate, Significance'. She led the project 'The painter Joseph Prechtl and his work in the light of sources'.