The depiction of the poet Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski, in a cassock with high collar and laurel wreath on his head was in the Royal Castle’s historic collections. Together with the sculptures of Chronos and Fame and a series of bronze busts of famous Polish personages and the painted decoration it constitutes the iconographic scheme of the Knights’ Hall which was furnished in the years 1781–6 and was intended to commemorate distinguished individuals as well as glorious events in Polish history. The sculpture is one of 18 smaller busts that were placed in the Knights’ Hall. It is very likely that the bust was based on a portrait of the poet dating from the 2nd quarter of the 17th century by an unidentified artist, which at the time the bust was being made was in the collection of King Stanisław August (currently in the Czartoryski Museum in Kraków). Inscribed SaRBiewski on left, under the bust. Inscribed MAT: SARBIEWSKI / + MDCXL. in gold letters on front of base. Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski – Sarbievius of the Prawdzic coat of arms (1595–1640). Son of Mateusz and Anastazja née Milewska. Jesuit, poet and literary theoretician. Professor at the Jesuit Collegium in Vilnius, court preacher to Władysław IV Vasa. His Latin poetry brought him international acclaim and his cognomen the “Christian Horace". Friend of Pope Urban VIII who awarded Sarbiewski laurels for his poetry.