3-069-293 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Noblemen in Voivodeship Uniforms, end of 18th century. Additional Info: The gathering of nobility in national outfits under the tent with the Polish and Lithuanian banners is not a specific historical scene. The purpose of this painting is only to show model colours of garment  kontusz and zupan robes, which were adopted at the Sejm in 1776. From that time on, at the meetings of Sejm, regional councils and various public meetings, the nobles had to wear outfits in unified colours, assigned to the voivodeship in which they lived. By his decision, the Sejm wanted to stop the inflow of foreignness, visible especially in clothing. It was because French short tailcoats and powdered wigs were replacing a traditional Polish kontusz robe and half-shaved hair. The deputies also decided that those so-called voivodeship uniforms were to be sewn exclusively from the cloth of domestic production, thus contributing to the development of industry in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.