The marble bust of King Stanisław August Poniatowski, made by Giacomo Monaldi, alludes in many of its details—the shape and arrangement of the wig, the depiction of the monarch in plate armour and a cloak—to the bas relief image of the king executed by André Le Brun in 1781 for the overdoors in the Ballroom. His meticulous rendition of the facial features combined with the expressive dynamism inherited from Roman sculptors, is visible in the rendering of the folds of the cloak. The bust is undoubtedly one of the most interesting examples of sculpted portraits made in Poland during Stanisław August’s reign.
The bust is probably identical to the one shown in the portrait of Michał Jerzy Mniszech painted by Marcello Bacciarelli in 1797–8 and may, therefore, have originally belonged to the Mniszech family. No confirmation of this has yet been found in any of the sources.

Later the sculpture was in a private collection in France, where it was identified by Andrzej Ciechanowiecki in the second half of the 1970s and it was acquired for a private collection in London. 1980 – gift of the Federal Republic of Germany to the Royal Castle in Warsaw.

Giacomo (Jakub, Jacobus) Monaldi (Rome 1730–98 Warsaw).
Sculptor from Rome, son of Carlo Monaldi, also a sculptor. He attended the Accademia di San Luca. From 1768 he worked at the court of Stanisław August in Warsaw. He made many statues and busts for the interiors of the Royal Castle, Ujazdów Castle and Royal Łazienki, some in collaboration with André Le Brun.

Stanisław August, born Stanisław Antoni Poniatowski (1732–98) of the Ciołek coat of arms. Son of Stanisław, Castellan of Kraków and Konstancja née Czartoryska. Pantler of Kraków from 1755. King of Poland from 1764. He initiated a series of reforms and co-authored the Constitution of 3 May, but was accused of subservience to Russia. He initiated the founding of the Cadet School and the Commission of National Education; he supported the development of learning and culture and was an outstanding patron of the arts and a collector. After the Third Partition of Poland, he abdicated (in 1795) and went into exile in Russia.