Die Gräfin Ursula Katharina Lubomirska (1680-1743)

Ursula Katharina Lubomirska was a Polish noblewoman of remarkable life history — born to the union of Augustus the Strong and his mistress Countess Aurora von Königsmarck, she was thus a natural daughter of the Saxon elector-king and moved in the highest circles of Polish-Saxon court life. Carriera's 1730 pastel in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister captures her at around fifty, a mature woman of considerable experience and social position. Her Polish noble title came through marriage into the Lubomirski family. The work's Dresden provenance reflects the Saxon court's natural interest in a figure so intimately connected with its own ruling house. Carriera's sensitivity to the complexity of her sitter's position — noble, mature, connected to royal power through an irregular birth — is visible in the portrait's dignified but unsentimental characterisation.

Portraying a woman in her fifties required Carriera to apply her skills with mature female faces — neither flattering through full idealization nor dwelling on the signs of age. The result is characteristically balanced: features are softened but not smoothed out, and the quality of the dress indicates status without overwhelming the face.