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Majority of confirmed effigies of the Last Polish-Lithuanian Jagiellons are official, popular portraits pertaining to northern school of painting. As in some countries today, in the 16th century, people wanted a portrait of their monarch at home. Such effigies were frequently idealized, simplified and inscribed in Latin, which was the official language, apart from Ruthenian and Polish, of the multicultural country. They provided the official titulature (Rex, Regina), coat of arms and even age (ætatis suæ). Private and paintings dedicated to upper class were less so direct. Painters were operating with a complex set of symbols, which were clear then, however, are no longer so obvious today.

Since the very beginning of the Jagiellonian monarchy in Poland-Lithuania, art was characterized by syncretism and great diversity, which is best illustrated by the churches and chapels founded by the Jagiellons. They were built in a Gothic style with typical pointed arches and ribbed vaults and decorated with Russo-Byzantine frescoes, thus joining Western and Eastern traditions. Perhaps the oldest portraits of the first Jagiellonian monarch - Jogaila of Lithuania (Ladislaus II Jagiellon) are his effigies in the Gothic Holy Trinity Chapel at the Lublin Castle. They were commissioned by Jogaila and created by Ruthenian Master Andrey in 1418. On one, the king was represented as a knight on horseback and on the other as a donor kneeling before the Blessed Virgin Mary. The vault was adorned with the image of Christ Pantocrator above the coat of arms of the Jagiellons (Jagiellonian Cross). Similar church murals were created for Jogaila by the Orthodox priest Hayl around 1420 in the Gothic choir of Sandomierz Cathedral and for his son Casimir IV Jagiellon in the Holy Cross Chapel of the Wawel Cathedral by Pskov painters in 1470. Jogaila's portrait as one of the Magi in the mentioned Holy Cross Chapel (Adoration of the Magi, section of the Our Lady of Sorrows Triptych) is attributed to Stanisław Durink, whose father came from Silesia, and his marble tomb monument in the Wawel Cathedral to artists from Northern Italy.

Poland-Lithuania was the most tolerant country of Renaissance Europe, where in the early years of the Reformation many churches simultaneously served as Protestant and Catholic temples. There are no known sources regarding organized iconoclasm, known from western Europe, in most cases works of art were sold, when churches were completely taken over by the Reformed denominations. Disputes over the nature of the images remained mainly on paper - the Calvinist preacher Stanisław Lutomirski called the Jasna Góra icon of the Black Madonna "an idolatry table", "a board from Częstochowa" that made up the doors of hell, and he described worshiping it as adultery and Jakub Wujek refuted the charges of iconoclasts, saying that "having thrown away the images of the Lord Christ, they replace them with images of Luther, Calvin and their harlots" (after "Ikonoklazm staropolski" by Konrad Morawski). Unlike other countries where effigies of "The Fallen Madonna with the Big Boobies", nude or half-naked images of saints or disguised portraits in churches and public places were destroyed in mob actions by Protestant crowds, in Poland-Lithuania such incidents were rare.

Before the Great Iconoclasm, many temples were filled with nudity and so-called falsum dogma appearing at the time of the the Council of Trent (twenty-fifth session of the Tridentium, on December 3 and 4, 1563), which "means not so much a heretical view, but a lack of orthodoxy from the Catholic point of view. Iconography was to be cleansed of such errors as lewdness (lascivia), superstition (superstitio), shameless charm (procax venustas), and finally disorder and thoughtlessness" (after "O świętych obrazach" by Michał Rożek). The "divine nakedness" of ancient Rome and Greece, rediscovered by the Renaissance, was banished from churches, however many beautiful works of art preserved - like naked Crucifixes by Filippo Brunelleschi (1410-1415, Santa Maria Novella in Florence), by Michelangelo (1492, Church of Santo Spirito in Florence and another from about 1495, Bargello Museum in Florence) and by Benvenuto Cellini (1559-1562, Basilica of Escorial near Madrid). Nudity in Michelangelo's Last Judgment (1536-1541, Sistine Chapel) was censored the year after the artist's death, in 1565 (after "Michelangelo's Last Judgment - uncensored" by Giovanni Garcia-Fenech). In this fresco nearly everyone is naked or seminaked. Daniele da Volterra painted over the more controversial nudity of mainly muscular naked male bodies (Michelangelo's women look more like men with breasts, as the artist had spent too much time with men to understand the female form), earning Daniele the nickname Il Braghettone, "the breeches-maker". He spared some female effigies and obviously homosexual scenes among the Righteous Men (two young men kissing and a young man kissing an old man's beard and two naked young men in a passionate kiss). 

The provisions of Trent reached Poland through administrative ordinances and they were were accepted at the provincial synod in Piotrków in 1577. Diocesan synod of Kraków, convened by Bishop Marcin Szyszkowski in 1621, dealt with issues of sacred art. The resolutions of the synod were an unprecedented event in the artistic culture of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Published in Chapter LI (51) entitled "On sacred images" (De sacris imaginibus) of Reformationes generales ad clerum et populum ..., they created guidelines for the iconographic canon of sacred art. Holy images could not have portrait features, pictures of the naked Adam and Eve, Saint Mary Magdalene half-naked or embracing a cross in an obscene and multi-colored outfit, Saint Anne with three husbands, Virgin Mary painted or carved in too profane, foreign and indecent clothing should be removed from temples, because they contain false dogma, give the simple people an opportunity to fall into dangerous errors or are contrary to Scripture. However, the bans were not overly respected, because representations of the Holy Family, numbering more than twenty people, including Christ's siblings, have been preserved in the vast diocese of Kraków (after "O świętych obrazach" by Michał Rożek). 

The victorious Counter-Reformation and the victorious Reformation opposed shameless lust and shameless charm and a kind of paganism (after "Barok: epoka przeciwieństw" by Janusz Pelc, p. 186), but church officials could not ban "divine nakedness" from lay homes, and nude effigies of saints were still popular after the Council of Trent. Many of such paintings were acquired by clients from the Commonwealth abroad, in the Netherlands and in Venice, like, most likely, the Busty Madonna by Carlo Saraceni from the Krosnowski collection (National Museum in Warsaw, M.Ob.1605 MNW).

In 1565 Flavio Ruggieri from Bologna, who accompanied Giovanni Francesco Commendone, a legate of Pope Pius IV in Poland, described the country in the manuscript preserved in the Vatican Library (Ex codice Vatic. inter Ottobon. 3175, Nr. 36):

"Poland is quite well inhabited, especially Masovia, in other parts there are also dense towns and villages, but all wooden, counting up to 90,000 of them in total, one half of which belongs to the king, the other half to the nobility and clergy, the inhabitants apart from the nobility are a half and a quarter million, that is, two and a half million peasants and a million townspeople.

[...]

Even the craftsmen speak Latin, and it is not difficult to learn this language, because in every city, in almost every village there is a public school. They take over the customs and language of foreign nations with unspeakable ease, and of all transalpine countries, they learn the customs and the Italian language the most, which is very much used and liked by them as well as the Italian costume, namely at court. The national costume is almost the same as the Hungarian, but they like to dress up differently, they change robes often, they even change up several times a day. Since Queen Bona of the House of Sforza, the mother of the present king, introduced the language, clothes and many other Italian customs, some lords began to build in the cities of Lesser Poland and Masovia. The nobility is very rich.

[...]

Only townspeople, Jews, Armenians, and foreigners, Germans and Italians trade. The nobility only sells their own grain, which is the country's greatest wealth. Floated into the Vistula by the rivers flowing into it, it goes along the Vistula to Gdańsk, where it is deposited in intentionally built granaries in a separate part of the city, where the guard does not allow anyone to enter at night. Polish grain feeds almost all of King Philip's Netherlands, even Portuguese and other countries' ships come to Gdańsk for Polish grain, where you will sometimes see 400 and 500 of them, not without surprise. The Lithuanian grain goes along the Neman to the Baltic Sea. The Podolian grain, which, as has been said, perishes miserably, could be floated down the Dniester to the Black Sea, and from there to Constantinople and Venice, which is now being thought of according to the plan given by the Cardinal Kommendoni [Venetian Giovanni Francesco Commendone].

Apart from grain, Poland supplies other countries with flax, hemp, beef hides, honey, wax, tar, potash, amber, wood for shipbuilding, wool, cattle, horses, sheep, beer and some dyer's herb. From other countries they imports costly blue silks, cloth, linen, rugs, carpets, from the east precious stones and jewels, from Moscow, sables, lynxes, bears, ermines and other furs that are absent in Poland, or not as much as their inhabitants need to protect them from cold or for glamor.

[...]
​
The king deliberate on all important matters with the senate, although he has a firm voice, the nobility, as it has been said, has so tightened his power that he has little left over it" (after "Relacye nuncyuszow apostolskich ..." by Erazm Rykaczewski, pp. 125, 128, 131, 132, 136).

Marcin Kromer (1512-1589), Prince-Bishop of Warmia, in his "Poland or About the Geography, Population, Customs, Offices, and Public Matters of the Polish Kingdom in Two Volumes" (Polonia sive de situ, populis, moribus, magistratibus et Republica regni Polonici libri duo), first published in Cologne in 1577, emphasized that "In almost our time, Italian merchants and craftsmen also reached the more important cities; moreover, the Italian language is heard from time to time from the mouths of more educated Poles, because they like to travel to Italy". He also stated that that "even in the very center of Italy it would be difficult to find such a multitude of people of all kinds with whom one could communicate in Latin" and as for the political system, he added that "the Republic of Poland is not much different […] from the contemporary Republic of Venice" (after "W podróży po Europie" by Wojciech Tygielski, Anna Kalinowska, p. 470). Mikołaj Chwałowic (d. 1400), called the Devil of Venice, a nobleman of Nałęcz coat of arms, mentioned as Nicolaus heres de Wenacia in 1390, is said to have named his estate near Żnin and Biskupin where he built a magnificent castle - Wenecja (Wenacia, Veneciae, Wanaczia, Weneczya, Venecia), after returning from his studies in the "Queen of the Adriatic".

Works of art were commissioned from the best masters in Europe - silverware and jewelry in Nuremberg and Augsburg, paintings and fabrics in Venice and Flanders, armours in Nuremberg and Milan and other centers. For the tapestries representing the Deluge (about 5 pieces) commissioned in Flanders by Sigismund II Augustus in the early 1550s, considered one of the finest in Europe, the king paid the staggering sum of 60,000 (or 72,000) ducats. More than a century later, in 1665, their value was estimated at 1 million florins, while the Żywiec land at 600,000 thalers and the richly equipped Casimir Palace in Warsaw at 400,000 florins (after "Kolekcja tapiserii ..." by Ryszard Szmydki, p. 105). It was only a small part of the rich collection of fabrics of the Jagiellons, some of which were also acquired in Persia (like the carpets purchased in 1533 and 1553). Made of precious silk and woven with gold, they were much more valued than paintings. "The average price of a smaller rug on the 16th-century Venetian market was around 60 to 80 ducats, which was equal to the price for an altarpiece commissioned from a famous painter or even for an entire polyptych by a less-known master" (after "Jews and Muslims Made Visible ...", p. 213). In 1586, second-hand rug in Venice cost 85 ducats and 5 soldi and wall hangings bought from Flemish merchants 116 ducats, 5 lire and 8 soldi (after "Marriage in Italy, 1300-1650", p. 37). Around that time, in 1584, Tintoretto was only paid 20 ducats for a large painting of Adoration of the Cross (275 x 175 cm) with 6 figures for the church of San Marcuola and 49 ducats in 1588 for an altarpiece showing Saint Leonard with more then 5 figures for the Saint Mark's Basilica in Venice. In 1564 Titian informed King Philip II of Spain that he would have to pay 200 ducats for an autograph replica of the Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence, but that he could have one by the workshop for just 50 ducats (after "Tintoretto ..." by Tom Nichols, p. 89, 243). The lesser value of the paintings meant that they were not so prominently displayed in inventories and correspondence.

​The royal collections in Spain were largely unaffected by major military conflicts, so many paintings as well as related letters were retained. Perhaps we will never know how many letters Titian sent to the monarchs of Poland-Lithuania, if any. When Poland regained independence in 1918 and quickly began to rebuild the devastated interiors of Wawel Royal Castle, there was no effigy of any monarch inside (possibly except for a portrait of a ruling Emperor of Austria, as the building served the military). In 1919, the systematic collection of museum collections for Wawel began (after "Rekonstrukcja i kreacja w odnowie Zamku na Wawelu" by Piotr M. Stępień, p. 39).

Portrait of Royal jeweller Giovanni Jacopo Caraglio aged 47 receiving a medallion from the Polish Royal Eagle with monogram of King Sigismund Augustus (SA) on his chest by Paris Bordone, 1547-1553, Wawel Royal Castle. 

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Adoration of the Magi with portraits of Elizabeth of Austria, Casimir IV Jagiellon and Jogaila of Lithuania by Stanisław Durink

The portrait of King Ladislaus II Jagiello (Jogaila of Lithuania) as one of the Biblical Magi, venerated as saints in the Catholic Church, in the scene of the Adoration of the Magi is one of the oldest effigies of the first monarch of the united Poland-Lithuania. The painting is a section of the Our Lady of Sorrows Triptych in the Holy Cross Chapel (also known as the Jagiellon Chapel) at the Wawel Cathedral, which was built between 1467-1477 as a burial chapel for King Casimir IV Jagiellon (1427-1492) and his wife Elizabeth of Austria (1436-1505) - lower section, reverse of the right wing. 

The triptych is considered the foundation of Queen Elizabeth mourning the death of her son Casimir Jagiellon (1458-1484), future Saint - her coat of arms, of the Habsburg family, as well as the Polish eagle and Lithuanian knight are in the lower part of the frame. The text of the Stabat Mater anthem on the frame could also indicate this (after "Malarstwo polskie: Gotyk, renesans, wczesny manieryzm" by Michał Walicki, p. 313). It is because of the great and unmistakable resemblance to the king's effigy on his tombstone in the same cathedral, the context and European tradition that one of the Magi is identified as a portrait of Jogaila. He was also depicted as one of the scholars in the scene of the Christ among the doctors in the same triptych. Consequently, the other two Magi are identified as effigies of other Polish rulers - Casimir the Great and Louis of Hungary. The other men in the background could be courtiers, including the painter's self-portrait (the man in the center, looking at the viewer), according to the well-known European tradition. 

Paintings in this triptych are attributed to Stanisław Durink (Durynk, Doring, Durniik, Durnijk, During, Dozinlk, Durimk), "painter and illuminator of king Casimir of Poland" (pictor et, illuminaitor Casimiri regnis Poloniae), as he is called in the documents of 1451, 1462 and 1463, born in Kraków (Stanislai Durimk de Cracovia). Durink was a son of Petrus Gleywiczer alias Olsleger, an oil merchant from Gliwice in Silesia. He died childless before 26 January 1492.

If the majority of these effigies are disguised portraits of real people, why not the Madonna? This effigy seems too general, however, there are two important features that are not visible at first glance - the protruding lower lip of the Habsburgs and Dukes of Masovia and the depiction of the eyes, similar to the portrait of Queen Elizabeth, presumed founder of the triptych, in Vienna (Kunsthistorisches Museum, GG 4648). Therefore Melchior, the oldest member of the Magi, traditionally called the King of Persia, who brought the gift of gold to Jesus, is not Casimir the Great, but Casimir IV Jagiellon, Elizabeth's husband and the son of Jogaila. His effigy can also be compared to the counterpart of the portrait of Elizabeth in Vienna (GG 4649), which, like the Queen's portrait, was based on the depiction of the couple from the Family Tree of Emperor Maximilian I by Konrad Doll, painted in 1497 (Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, reproduced in a lithograph by Joseph Lanzedelly from 1820). Casimir IV was depicted with a longer beard in a print in Theatrum virorum eruditione singulari clarorum by Paul Freher (Berlin State Library), published in 1688 in Nuremberg. The last monarch (Louis of Hungary on the right) was depicted from behind, so it is less likely to be a "disguised portrait".

The purpose of these informal portraits was ideological - to legitimize the dynastic rule of the Jagiellons in the elective monarchy, a reminder that despite their rule is dependent on the will of the magnates, their power was bestowed on them by God. The Roman Catholic Chapel of the Holy Cross was decorated with Russo-Bizantine frescoes created by Pskov painters in 1470, so its ideological program was dressed for followers of the two main religions of Poland-Lithuania: Greek and Roman. Byzantine Patriarchal cross became the symbol of Jagiellonian dynasty (Cross of Jagiellons) and reliquary of the True Cross (Vera Crux) of Byzantine emperor Manuel I Komnenos (1118-1180), given to Jogaila in 1420 by emperor Manuel II Palaiologos (1350-1425), was a coronation cross of the Polish monarchs (today in the Notre-Dame de Paris - Croix Palatine).

Adoration of the Magi with portraits of Elizabeth of Austria as Madonna and Casimir IV Jagiellon and Jogaila of Lithuania as the Magi by Stanisław Durink, ca. 1484, Wawel Cathedral.

Family of Nicolaus Copernicus as donors by Michel Sittow

In 1484 Michel Sittow (ca. 1469-1525), a painter born in the Hanseatic city of Reval in Livonia (now Tallinn in Estonia) moved to Bruges in the Low Countries, at that time a leading economic center of Europe where painting workshops flourished. It is thought that he worked as an apprentice in the workshop of Hans Memling till 1488 and that he traveled to Italy. When in Bruges Sittow undoubtedly had the opportunity to meet Mikołaj Polak (Claeys Polains), a painter from Poland, who in 1485 was sued by the Bruges Guild of Saint Luke for using inferior Polish lazurite. 

From 1492 Sittow worked in Toledo for Queen Isabella I of Castile as a court painter. He left Spain in 1502 and was presumably working in Flanders for Joanna of Castile and her husband Philip the Handsome. Michel probably visited London between 1503-1505, although this trip is not documented. Several portraits of English monarchs attributed to him could also have been made in Flanders on the basis of drawings sent from London. In 1506 the painter returned to Reval, where he joined the local guild of painters in 1507, and married in 1508. In 1514 he was called to Copenhagen to portray Christian II of Denmark. The portrait was intended to be a gift to Christian's fiancée, Isabella of Austria, a granddaughter of Isabella of Castile. From Denmark he traveled to Flanders, where he entered the service of Margaret of Austria, then regent of the Netherlands, and from there to Spain, where he returned to the service of Ferdinand II of Aragon, husband of Queen Isabella. When Ferdinand died in 1516, Sittow continued as court painter for his grandson Charles I, future Emperor Charles V. On an unknown date (between 1516 and 1518) Michel Sittow returned to Reval, where he married Dorothie, daughter of a merchant named Allunsze. In 1523, Sittow held the position of Aldermann (guild leader) and he died of plague in his hometown between December 20, 1525 and January 20, 1526.

It is possible that between 1488-1492 Sittow returned to Tallinn. If he traveled by sea to or from Bruges or Spain, his possible stop was one of the largest seaports on the Baltic Sea - Gdańsk in Polish Prussia, the main port of Poland-Lithuania. If he traveled by land, he undoubtedly traveled through Polish Prussia and one of the biggest cities on the route from Bruges to Livonia - Toruń, where king Jagiello built a castle between 1424 and 1428 (Dybów Castle). 

One of the major works from this period in Toruń is a late Gothic painting depicting the Descent from the Cross with donors, today in the Diocesan Museum in Pelplin (tempera on oak panel, 214 x 146 cm, inventory number MDP/32/M, earlier 184984). It was earlier in the Toruń Cathedral and originally, probably, in the demolished church of St. Lawrence in Toruń or as the property of the Brotherhood of Corpus Christi at the Cathedral.

The work was showcased during an international exhibition at the National Museum in Warsaw and the Royal Castle in Warsaw - "Europa Jagellonica 1386-1572" in 2012/2013, devoted to the period in which the "Jagiellonian dynasty was the dominant political and cultural force in this part of Europe". Many authors underline inspirations and influences of Netherlandish painting in this panel, especially by Rogier van der Weyden (after "Sztuka gotycka w Toruniu" by Juliusz Raczkowski, ‎Krzysztof Budzowski, p. 58), the master of Memling, who had served his apprenticeship in his Brussels workshop. The landscape and technique can even bring to mind works by Giovanni Bellini (d. 1516), like Deposition (Gallerie dell'Accademia) and colors the works by Spanish masters of the late 15th century.

It is known that in 1494 a Dutch painter named Johannes of Zeerug stayed at the court of king John I Albert. He could be the possible author of Sacra Conversazione with Saint Barbara and Saint Catherine and donors from Przyczyna Górna, created in 1496 (Archdiocesan Museum in Poznań). This painting was founded to the Parish church in Dębno near Nowe Miasto nad Wartą by Ambroży Pampowski of Poronia coat of arms (ca. 1444-1510), Starost General of Greater Poland, an important official close to the royal court, who was depicted as donor with his first wife Zofia Kot of Doliwa coat of arms (d. 1493). The style of the painting in Pelplin is different and resembles the works attributed to Michel Sittow - Portrait of a man with a pink - Callimachus (Getty Center), Portrait of King Christian II of Denmark (Statens Museum for Kunst), Madonna and Child (Gemäldegalerie in Berlin) and Portrait of Diego de Guevara (National Gallery of Art in Washington). He was also the only known artist of this level from this part of Europe, educated in the Netherlands, to whom the work can be attributed.

The Descent from the Cross in Pelplin was a part of a triptych. However, the two other panels were created much later in different workshops. Basing on style and costumes these two other paintings are attributed to local workshop under Netherlandish and Westphalian influences and dated to around 1500. All three paintings were transferred to the Museum in Pelplin in 1928 and the central panel showing the Christ crowned with thorns was lost during World War II. The left wing representing Flagellation of Christ is now back in the Toruń Cathedral. This painting has almost identical dimensions as the Descent from the Cross (tempera on oak panel, 213 x 147 cm) and one of the soldiers tormenting Jesus has a royal monogram under crown embroidered with pearls on his chest. This intertwined monogram can be read as IARP (Ioannes Albertus Rex Poloniae), i.e. John I Albert, King of Poland from 1492 to his death in 1501. The founder of this painting depicted as kneeling donor in the right corner of the panel was therefore closely connected with the royal court. This man bears a striking resemblance to known likenesses of the most famous man from Toruń - Nicolaus Copernicus (born on 19 February 1473), who was baptized in the Toruń Cathedral. Some authors consider it to be an authentic image of the astronomer (after "Utworzenie Kociewskiego Centrum Kultury", 29.06.2022) founded by him in his lifetime. 

If the donor from the Flagellation painting is Copernicus, therefore the donors from the earlier Descent from the Cross should be his parents and siblings. Nicolaus' father, also Nicolaus was a wealthy merchant from Kraków, son of John. He was born around 1420. There is much debate as to whether he was German or Polish, perhaps he was just a typical representative of the Jagiellonian multiculturalism. He moved to Toruń before 1458 and before 1448 he traded in Slovak copper, which was transported by the Vistula to Gdańsk and then exported to other countries. In 1461, he granted a loan to the city of Toruń to fight against the Teutonic Order. 

Copernicus the Elder married Barbara Watzenrode, sister of Lucas Watzenrode (1447-1512), Prince-Bishop of Warmia, who studied in Kraków, Cologne and Bologna. The couple had four children, Andreas, Barbara, Catharina and Nicolaus. Copernicus the father died in 1483 and his wife, who died after 1495, founded him a portrait epitaph, known today only from a copy, on which we can see a man with a mustache, with folded hands in prayer, with similar features to his son. This copy was commissioned in about 1618 by astronomer Jan Brożek (Ioannes Broscius) for the Kraków Academy and it was repainted around 1873 (Jagiellonian University Museum, oil on canvas, 60 x 47 cm). The father of astronomer died at the age of about 63, while depicted man in much younger, therefore the original epithaph was probably based on some earlier effigy. The facial features of a man from the Descent from the Cross are very similar. Elongated face with wider cheekbones of the woman from the painting is similar to effigies of Barbara Watzenrode's brother Lucas and her famous son. 

As it was said Nicolaus the Elder died in 1483, while Sittow moved to the Netherlands in about 1484. Such a wealthy merchant or his widow could afford to order a painting from the artist, who at that time was possibly in Gdańsk or Toruń or even created in Bruges, when he settled there, and sent to Toruń. The appearance of younger of boys match the age of future astronomer, who was 10 when his father died. Barbara and Nicolaus had two daughters Barbara and Catharine, while on the painting there is only one. The elder Barbara, entered the convent in Chełmno, where she later became an abbess and died in 1517. It is generally believed that it was she who was mentioned in the list of nuns under the year 1450 there (after "Cystersi w społeczeństwie Europy Środkowej" by Andrzej Marek Wyrwa, Józef Dobosz, p. 114 and "Leksykon zakonnic polskich epoki przedrozbiorowej" by Małgorzata Borkowska, p. 287), therefore she "left" her family over 20 years before Nicolaus the astronomer was born. 

Apart from costly Polish azurite, painters in Bruges and other locations needed Copernicus' copper, which although is naturally green, "with the addition of ammonia (easily obtained from urine), it turns blue. The color became chemically stable if lime was added, and this chemistry process produced a cheap, bright blue that became an allpurpose paint for walls, wood, and books" (after "All Things Medieval" by Ruth A. Johnston, p. 551). In Gdańsk English and Dutch merchants purchased cenere azzurre, a blue pigment prepared from carbonate of copper (after "Original treatises dating from the XIIth to XVIIIth centuries on the arts of painting in oil ... ", p. cc - cci), similar to that visible in the Descent from the Cross in Pelplin.

Portrait of merchant Nicolaus Copernicus the Elder (d. 1483) and his two sons as donors from the Descent from the Cross by Michel Sittow, ca. 1483-1492, Diocesan Museum in Pelplin. 

Portrait of Barbara Watzenrode and her daughter as donors from the Descent from the Cross by Michel Sittow, ca. 1483-1492, Diocesan Museum in Pelplin. 

Descent from the Cross with family of Nicolaus Copernicus as donors by Michel Sittow, ca. 1483-1492, Diocesan Museum in Pelplin. 

Portraits of Filippo Buonaccorsi, called Callimachus by Michel Sittow and workshop of Giovanni Bellini

"A face brighter than Venus' and the hair of Phoebus Apollo ... [more striking] than the stone polished by Phidias or the paintings of Apelles", this is how Philippus Callimachus Experiens (1437-1496) describes in his poem the beauty of the young clergyman Lucio Fazini Maffei Fosforo (Lucidus Fosforus, d. 1503), who became bishop of Segni near Rome in 1481. He advises elsewhere an elderly man: "Although the reverence of a wrinkled brow with white hair is esteemed ... Quintilius should prefer to be effeminate, so that he might always be ready for the prostitutes and the boys" (after "A Sudden Terror: The Plot to Murder the Pope in Renaissance Rome" by Anthony F. D'Elia, p. 96, 98).

Callimachus, humanist, writer and diplomat, was born Filippo Buonaccorsi de Tebadis Experiens in San Gimignano in Tuscany, in Italy. He moved to Rome in 1462 and he become a member of the Roman Academy of Giulio Pomponio Leto (Julius Pomponius Laetus, 1428-1498), who was later charged with sodomy, conspiracy against Pope Paul II and heresy. Filippo was accused of participating in the assassination attempt on the pope in 1468 and fled through southern Italy (Apulia-Sicily) to Greece (Crete-Cyprus-Chios) and Turkey, and then to Poland (1469/1470). The homo-erotic verses were discovered among his papers, including one dedicated to Fazini. 

The punishment for love between two men in Poland-Lithuania was similar as probably in most of the countries of Medieval/Renaissance Europe, nevertheless in Poland-Lithuania, like Rheticus almost a century later, he easly found powerful protectors, who undobtedly perfectly knew about his "inclinations". First he found work with the Bishop of Lviv, Gregory of Sanok (d. 1477), a professor at the Kraków Academy. Later he became tutor to the sons of the King of Poland Casimir IV Jagiellon and carried out various diplomatic missions. In 1474 he was appointed royal secretary, in 1476 he became ambassador to Constantinople and in 1486 he was the king's representative in Venice. With the accession to the throne of his former pupil John Albert, his power and influence reached its maximum.

In his writings, Buonaccorsi advocated the reinforcement of royal power. He also wrote poems and prose in Latin, although he is best known for his biographies of Bishop Zbigniew Oleśnicki, Bishop Gregory of Sanok, and King Ladislaus III Jagiellon.

When in Poland, he also wrote love poems, many of which were addressed to his benefactress in Lviv with the name of Fannia Sventoka (Ad Fanniam Sventokam elegiacon carmen, In coronam sibi per Fanniam datam, In eum qui nive concreta collum Fanniae percusserat, De passere Fanniae, Narratio ad Fanniam de ejus errore, De gremio Fanniae, In picturam Fanniae, In reuma pro Fannia dolente oculos). This name is sometimes considered to be a pseudonym of Anna Ligęzina, daughter of Jan Feliks Tarnowski, or interpreted as Świętochna or Świętoszka (prude in Polish). The word Sventoka is also similar to Polish świntucha (rake, debauchee). Nevertheless, taking into consideration that some gay guys and transvestites like to use female nicknames, we cannot even be sure the "she" was indeed a woman. After the scandal in Rome, the poet had to be careful, fanatics were everywhere. Almost two centries later, in 1647, transgender people were at the court of Crown Court Marshall Adam Kazanowski and Chancellor Jerzy Ossoliński. They were probably also at the royal court earlier.

As a diplomat, Callimachus traveled a lot. His first stay in the royal city of Toruń is confirmed by his letter from this city to the Florentine merchant and banker Tommaso Portinari, dated June 4, 1474, regarding Hans Memling's altar "The Last Judgment", today in Gdańsk. In 1488 he settled for a few months, or maybe even longer, in the residence of bishop Piotr of Bnin, in Wolbórz near Piotrków and Łódź. That same year he went to Turkey and he took with him his young servant or secretary Nicholo (or Nicholaus), whom he calls "Nicholaus, my inmate", possibly Nicolaus Copernicus. Callimachus was on July 3, 1490 in Toruń and he lived there between 1494-1496, although in 1495 he left for Vilnius, Lublin, and finally to Kraków, where he died on September 1, 1496. Shortly before his death, on February 5, 1496, he purchased two houses in Toruń from Henryk Snellenberg, one was adjacent to the house of Lucas Watzenrode the Elder, maternal grandfather of Nicolaus Copernicus (after "Urania nr 1/2014", Janusz Małłek, p. 51-52). 

During his extended stay in Venice in 1477 and 1486, Callimachus established relations with the most eminent politicians, scholars and artists, like Gentile Bellini (d. 1507) and his younger brother Giovanni (d. 1516), a highly sought-after portraitist, who most probably created his portrait (after "Studia renesansowe", Volume 1, p. 135). 

In Getty Center in Los Angeles there is a "Portrait of a man with a pink", attributed to Michel Sittow (oil on panel, 23.5 cm x 17.4 cm, inventory number 69.PB.9). This painting was before 1938 in different collections in Paris, France and it was formerly attributed to Hans Memling. The man is holding a red carnation, a symbol of pure love (after "Signs & Symbols in Christian Art" by George Ferguson, p. 29). Clear inspiration of Venetian painting is visible in composition, especially by works of Giovanni Bellini (blue background, wooden parapet). The man's black costume, cap and hairstyle are also very Venetian, similar to that visible in Giovanni's self-portrait in the Capitoline Museums in Rome. The self-portrait shows Giovanni as a young man, hence it should be dated to about 1460, as it is generally belived that he was born in about 1430. The costume and apperence of a man from the portrait in Los Angeles also resemble that in bronze epitaph of Filippo Buonaccorsi, called Callimachus, created after 1496 by workshop of Hermann Vischer the Younger in Nuremberg to design by Veit Stoss (Basilica of Holy Trinity in Kraków). An exact copy of the Los Angeles portrait, attributed to Hans Memling or follower, was before World War II in the Czartoryski Museum in Kraków (oil on panel, 24.5 x 19 cm, inventory number V. 192). It was mentioned in a catalogue of the Museum from 1914 by Henryk Ochenkowski (Galerja obrazów: katalog tymczasowy) under the number 110 among other paintings by Italian school and a portrait of a man by school of Giovanni Bellini (oil on panel, 41 x 26.5 cm, item 4). The same catalogue catalogue also lists under number 158 a painting of Madonna and Child sitting before a curtain, which today is attributed to follower of Giovanni Bellini, and dated to about 1480 (Czartoryski Museum, inventory number MNK XII-202).

The same man, although younger, was depicted in a painting attributed to Italian school, sold in Rudolstadt in Germany (oil on panel, 36 x 29 cm, Auktionshaus Wendl, October 29, 2022). His outfit, cap and hairstyle closely resemble those seen on the bronze medal with bust of Giovanni Bellini, created by Vittore Gambello and dated to about 1470/1480. The man stands in front of a curtain, which gives a view of a mountainous landscape. Inscription in English on verso on old adhesive label "The Portrait of Antonio Lanfranco ... at Palermo by J. Bellini", seems unreliable, because Jacopo Bellini, the father of Bellini brothers, died in about 1470 and no such inhabitant of Palermo who might have commissioned his portrait in Venice is mentioned in the sources. The style of this painting is close to workshop of Giovanni Bellini.

It is highly possible that portrait of King John I Albert, Callimachus' pupil, commissioned by Toruń City Council to the Royal Chamber of the City Hall around 1645, which follows the same Venetian/Netherlandish pattern, was based on a lost original by Giovanni Bellini or Michel Sittow, created around 1492.

If the author of inscription in English acquired the painting in Palermo, Sicily, then the mountin depicted in the background could be Mount Etna (Mongibello), an active volcano on the east coast of Sicily between the cities of Messina and Catania. In Quattrocento verse the hellishly boiling Mongibello was symbol of the vain torments of love and the insane fires of passion (after "Strong Words ..." by Lauro Martines, p. 135). The man's costume is also very similar to that seen in the portraits by Antonello da Messina (d. 1479), a painter from Messina, from the 1470s (Louvre Museum, MI 693 and Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, 18 (1964.7)). 

"I said: It's a joke, he pretends to love [...] I believe that you burn not only with the dim, weak, gentle flame of love. But as much violent fire Has ever accumulated on earth, So much of it burns in you with all its might, Or how many islands of the Tyrrhenian Sea and Sicily, famous for their volcanoes Exploding fire, brought here From the depths and locked in you" (Dicebam: Iocus est, amare fingit [...] Flammis et placido tepere amore / Credam, sed rapidi quod ignis usquam / In terris fuerat simul cohactum / In te viribus extuare cunctis / Aut incendivomo inclitas camino / Tyreni ac Siculi insulas profundi), writes Callimachus about his torments in his poem "To Gregory of Sanok" (Ad Gregorium Sanoceum, ad eundem) (after "Antologia poezji polsko-łacińskiej: 1470-1543", Antonina Jelicz, Kazimiera Jeżewska, p. 59).

Portrait of Filippo Buonaccorsi, called Callimachus (1437-1496) by workshop of Giovanni Bellini, ca. 1477 or after, Private collection.

Portrait of Filippo Buonaccorsi, called Callimachus (1437-1496) holding a red carnation by Michel Sittow, ca. 1488-1492, Getty Center.

Portrait of Filippo Buonaccorsi, called Callimachus (1437-1496) holding a red carnation by workshop of Michel Sittow, ca. 1488-1492, Czartoryski Museum, lost.

Portrait of John I Albert, King of Poland (1492-1501) in coronation robes by Toruń workshop, ca. 1645, Old Town City Hall in Toruń.

Portrait of Nicolaus Copernicus by circle of Giovanni Bellini

Szto piszesz do nas o tot wschod, kotoryi esmo tam tobe u Wilni s palacu naszoho do sadu urobiti roskazali, comments in Belarusian (Old Ruthenian) the Italian Queen Bona Sforza on the alterations in the renaissance palace loggia in Vilnius, capital of Lithuania, to be made by Italian architect and sculptor Bernardo Zanobi de Gianottis, called Romanus in a letter of August 25, 1539 from Kraków in Poland (after "Królowa Bona ..." by Władysław Pociecha, p. 185). It is a perfect example of Polish-Lithuanian diversity in the 15th and 16th centuries. 

Many material traces of this diversity and Polish-Italian connetions were lost. When the monarchs of Poland-Lithuania spoke and maintained chancelleries in different languages since the Middle Ages, the countries that partitioned the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth at the end of the 18th century, during the "Age of Enlightenment", tried to eradicate its culture and languages and all traces of its glorious past. Even today it is sometimes hard to believe that the great European artists and scientists could have had anything to do with poor and devastated Poland. Following Cicero's famous dictum "History is life's teacher" (Historia est magistra vitae) it is worth remembering controversial and painful facts, perhaps thanks to this they will not be repeated.  

According to some researchers, it was probably the young Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) who accompanied Filippo Buonaccorsi, called Callimachus, tutor of king's sons and diplomat, on his mission to Turkey in 1488. He also sent him to Venice. Callimachus calls this boy "Nicholaus, my inmate" in a letter of May 15, 1488 from Piotrków to Lactantius Thedaldus (after "Urania nr 1/2014", Janusz Małłek, p. 51). From 1491 to 1494, Copernicus attended the University of Kraków with his brother Andreas and between 1496 and 1503 he studied in Italy, first in Bologna and from 1501 in Padua in the Venetian Republic. According to Jeremi Wasiutyński (1907-2005) it was him who was depicted in a portrait of a young man by Giorgione (Gemäldegalerie in Berlin, inventory number 12A). 

Nicolaus also travelled to other cities in Italy and Poland. In 1500 he left Bologna and spent some time in Rome on the occasion of the Holy Year, before returning to Frombork in 1501. He requested permission to extend his studies in Italy and that same year began studying medicine at the University of Padua. At the same time, he continued his law studies. During this time Copernicus was given the office of scholastic of the Church of the Holy Cross in Wrocław in Silesia, which he did not hold personally and he relinquished the sinecure in 1538. Copernicus and his brother Andreas, who had also received a study permit, also temporarily stayed with the curia in Rome as representatives of the Frombork cathedral chapter, it is however unclear whether Nicolaus was ever ordained a priest. Copernicus received his doctorate on May 31, 1503 at the University of Ferrara to become a Doctor of Canon Law (Doctor iuris canonici).

Copernicus never married and is not known to have had children. Anna Schilling, a live-in housekeeper, is sometimes mentioned as his mistress, however, according to Copernicus' letter of December 2, 1538, she was "a related and honest housekeeper", i.e. his niece named Anna von den Schellings née Krüger (after "Anna Schilling nie była kochanką Mikołaja Kopernika" by Krzysztof Mikulski). It was most likely the young astronomer, who between 1492-1501 founded the painting of Flagellation of Christ, today in the Toruń Cathedral, where he was depicted as a kneeling donor. A soldier showing off his tight panties and buttocks just above his head, could be an allusion to his real "preferences". In 1554 Georg Joachim de Porris (1514-1574), also known as Rheticus, Nicolaus Copernicus's sole pupil, who was found guilty in his trial in absentia and consequently exiled from Leipzig for 101 years following the alleged drunken homosexual assault, relocated to Poland, where he continued his work within mathematics and astronomy, further compiling his calculations of trigonomic functions. Nicolaus undoubtedly also knew personally Callimachus, who wrote poetry with homosexual themes. 

The astronomer died at age 70 on 24 May 1543 in Frombork. Around 1580 the town physician and humanist, Melchior Pirnesius (1526-1589), who came to Toruń from Kraków founded an epitaph of Copernicus in the Toruń Cathedral. Later a portrait of King John I Albert was added to the epitaph in the form of a semi-circular element crowning it. Copernicus' epitaph in Frombork Cathedral was created in 1735. The earlier from 1580, founded by Bishop Marcin Kromer, was destroyed in 1626 by Swedish soldiers.

People often require written confirmation that a particular painter painted a particular person, but there are many inaccuracies in the documents and, as with many works of art, many documents have been lost or destroyed. Princess Izabela Czartoryska saved many items from the royal collections in keeping with her motto: "The Past to the Future". She founded the museum in Puławy to preserve Polish heritage - Temple of the Sibyl, also known as the Temple of Memory, opened in 1801.

Similar to the 1914 catalogue of the Czartoryski collection by Henryk Ochenkowski, the 1929 catalogue by Stefan Saturnin Komornicki (Muzeum Książąt Czartoryskich w Krakowie) also list two important portrait paintings from the collection, both created in the late 15th century. In this publication they were also reproduced - one is a portrait of Callimachus holding a red carnation, a symbol of pure love, by Michel Sittow (V. 192, lost during World War II), attributed there to Hans Memling (item 67), the other is a portrait of a man by school of Giovanni Bellini (oil on panel, 41 x 26.5 cm, inventory number MNK XII-210), attributed in the 1929 catalogue to Filippo Mazzola (1460-1505), item 50: "School of Cremona; educated on the influences of Giovanni Bellini - Portrait of a young man, bust-length; a dark red cap on chestnut hair; an olive green caftan and a black cloak. Gray-brown background". This attribution was later rejected (after "Malarstwo weneckie ..." by Agnes Czobor, p. 51, and "Wystawa malarstwa Trecenta i Quattrocenta" by Marek Rostworowski, p. 100). All authors, however, emphasize the undeniable influence of Giovanni Bellini.

Two paintings from old Polish collections are attributed to circle or workshop of Giovanni Bellini - The Holy Family (Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist and his parents Elizabeth and Zacharias) from the collection of Stanisław Zawadzki (1743-1806), today in the Saint Catherine of Alexandria church in Rzeczyca and Madonna and Child with Saints and a donor from the Potocki collection in Łańcut Castle, exhibited in 1940 in New York, lost. 

The young man is dressed in typical costume known from many Venetian portraits from the turn of the 15th and 16th century. His elongated face with wider cheekbones resemble greatly the features known from the portraits of Copernicus, especially the Gołuchów portrait by Crispin Herrant (inscription in Latin: R · D · NICOLAO COPERNICO), which was most probably commissioned by Jan Dantyszek (1485-1548) in about 1533 (collection of Izabella Działyńska née Czartoryska in the Gołuchów Castle, lost during World War II). A great resemblance to a portrait from the Town Hall in Toruń, created in 1580, can also be indicated, as well as to mentioned effigy as donor from the painting of Flagellation, today in the Toruń Cathedral. This latter painting reveals some similarities with works from Wrocław workshops from the end of the 15th century, notably paintings by Leonhart Hörlen. When he returned to Frombork in 1501 Copernicus possibly travelled via Wrocław and according to Aleksander Birkenmajer, he received the Wrocław sinecure already in 1501 through the intercession of his uncle, Lucas Watzenrode, Bishop of Warmia, who wanted to secure his nephew's Italian studies with the income from this benefice. On this occasion, Copernicus could have ordered a painting from local workshops. 

Portrait of Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) by circle of Giovanni Bellini, 1496-1503, Czartoryski Museum.

Portrait of Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) as donor in the scene of Flagellation of Christ by workshop of Toruń or Wrocław, ca. 1501, Toruń Cathedral.

Venetian portraits by Albrecht Dürer and portraits of Bishop Erazm Ciołek and Agnieszka Ciołkowa ​

In 1923, the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna acquired a portrait of a young "Venetian woman" by Albrecht Dürer from the collection of Witold Klemens Wańkowicz (1888-1948) in Warsaw, signed with a monogram and dated '1505'. Earlier it was most probably in the Potocki collection and in second half of the 18th century the portrait was owned by Gottfried Schwartz (1716-1777), Mayor of Gdańsk, then the main port of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. It is possible that the "Venetian woman" arrived to Poland already in the 16th century. 

Dürer, famous painter and printmaker, arrived in Venice in the late autumn of 1505. As a son of a goldsmith, also Albrecht or Adalbert, who was born around 1427 in Ajtós, near Gyula in Hungary, he undoubtedly had some links with the Jagiellonian elective monarchies. Elder brother of king Sigismund I, Vladislaus II, ruled in Hungary from 1490.

The reason for the trip to Venice is unknown. Perhaps Dürer wanted not only to make money, but was also going to solve the dispute over reprints and copies of his engravings by the artist Marcantonio Raimondi. He also received a commission from the German merchants based at the Fondaco dei Tedeschi to make a painting for their parish church - the Feast of the Rosary, now in the National Gallery in Prague.

By the beginning of the 16th century, Venice become one of the main printing and publishing centers in Europe. Although the first printing house was probably established in Kraków as early as 1465, in the less densely populated Poland-Lithuania printing was still developing at that time, therefore many important publications were published in Venice. The printing shops there offered better quality and were undoubtedly much more competitive. In 1501 Sebastian Hyber, a citizen of Kraków (impensis Sebastiani Hyber Co[n]civis Kracovie[n]sis), publishes Viaticum Wratislaviense in Venice for the diocese of Wrocław. Four years later, in 1505, the same Hyber, together with Jan Haller from Rothenburg, undertakes to publish a missal for the Wrocław diocese (Missale Wratislavien[se]) in Kraków. The privilege for the sale of the missal granted by John V Thurzo, Bishop of Wrocław (and a son of a Hungarian nobleman), together with his coat of arms and effigy of Saint Stanislaus was included in the missal. In 1505 Haller obtained from the Kraków chapter the privilege for the exclusive sale of breviaries imported from Venice and on September 30, that year, Haller's publishing house was granted a royal privilege for the exclusive printing of state printed matter (after "Drukarze dawnej Polski od XV do XVIII wieku" by Alodia Kawecka-Gryczowa, Volume 1, Issue 1, p. 330). Both Haller and Hyber were undoubtedly interested in the work of a well-known graphic artist active in Venice at the time - Albrecht Dürer.

Jan Haller become a citizen of Kraków in 1491 and married Barbara Kunosch, the daughter of a wealthy Kraków furrier and he made a fortune on trading wine and Hungarian copper. Of Hyber, also Hübner or Hybner, very little is known. Judging by his name, he belonged to the German-speaking community in the capital of Poland. Both undoubtedly traveled frequently to Venice. In the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo, a city once in the Republic of Venice, there is a portrait of a red-headed man by Albrecht Dürer or his workshop, created in about 1505. It was acquired in 1866 from Guglielmo Lochis' collection. The man in the picture is holding arrows and according to the inscription in a golden halo around his head - SANCTVS SEBASTIANVS MARTYR, he was depicted as Saint Sebastian.

Among Venetian artists active at that time in Poland-Lithuania were goldsmith and jeweler of king Alexander Jagiellon (1461-1506), Hieronim Loncza or Leoncza (Hieronimus Leoncza aurifer), confirmed in Kraków in 1504 and in 1505, and his son Angelo. The Venetian glass workshops in Murano were the main suppliers of high-quality glass to the Polish-Lithuanian royal court. A Venetian goblet belonging to Alexander Jagiellon with the heraldic symbols of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, created between 1501-1502, is in the Jagiellonian University Museum in Kraków and Bishop Erazm Ciołek ordered a whole service in Venice for Alexander (after "Z kręgu badań nad związkami polsko-weneckimi w czasach jagiellońskich" by Ewelina Lilia Polańska).

Also other works of art were commissioned in Venice since the Middle Ages. Marble tomb monument of King Ladislaus II Jagiello (Jogaila of Lithuania) in the Wawel Cathedral, carved in about 1421, is attributed to an artist from Northern Italy, and, according to the hypothesis of Juliusz Chrościcki, Venetian painter Jacopo Bellini created around 1444 the design for the tomb of his son Ladislaus of Varna. The royal secretary and tutor to the sons of King Casimir IV Jagiellon, including mentioned Alexander and Sigismund I, Callimachus (Filippo Buonaccorsi, a Venetian after his father), eminently known as a homoerotic poet and a diplomat, is said to have returned from his mission to Venice in 1486 with his portrait probably made by Giovanni Bellini.

In 1505, a young royal scribe Jan Dantyszek (1485-1548) from Gdańsk, who received a scholarship from the king, went to Italy to deepen humanistic studies. Having reached Venice, he boarded a ship and went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land (after "Polacy na morzach i oceanach: Do roku 1795" by Jerzy Pertek, p. 79). That same year also Erazm Ciołek (1474-1522), known as Vitellius, Bishop of Płock, diplomat and patron of arts who amassed a large collection of books, visited Venice on his way to Rome. Some minatures in his beautiful missal (Missale Polonicum), created in about 1515 (National Library of Poland, Rps 3306 III), were inspired by Dürer's engravings. 

The popularity of Dürer's prints in Poland-Lithuania is perfectly illustrated by the case of the Prayer Books of Sigismund I the Old and his second wife Bona Sforza by Stanisław Samostrzelnik (British Library and Bodleian Library) in which also many scenes were inspired by his works. Another example is the so-called Trilogy of Piotr Wedelicki in the Museum of the Warsaw Archdiocese, a collection of Dürer's woodcuts: the Apocalypse (1498) - 15 woodcuts, Large Passion (1498-1510) - 11 woodcuts, the life of the Virgin (1501-1511) - 20 woodcuts, created for Piotr Wedelicki (1483-1544) from Oborniki near Poznań, a physician at the court of Sigismund I and Bona Sforza and a rector of the Kraków Academy.

On Ciołek's initiative the Synod of 1506 decided that not only missals and breviaries should be printed, but also synodal statutes and agendas of the Diocese of Płock. It was probably he who commissioned the printing of the Płock Breviary (Breviarium Plocense) in Venice in 1506 (a unique copy from the National Library in Warsaw burned down during the Warsaw Uprising in 1944). In 1520 another Płock Breviary was printed in Venice and almost simultaneously in Kraków a missal for the Płock diocese. After the death of Bishop Ciołek in 1522, his magnificent collection of books, including many incunabula, mainly Venetian, became the property of the Collegiate Church in Pułtusk (after "Miejsce Płocka w kulturze średniowiecznej Polski" by Stefan Krzysztof Kuczyński, p. 25). 

One of the most sublime examples of his patronage is the Kraków Pontifical (Pontificale Cracoviense), created between 1506-1518 by anonymous master called the Master of the Bright Mountain Missal (considered sometimes to be Maciej Ryczyński), today in the Czartoryski Library (1212 V Rkps), with the scene of the Crucifixion being particularly beautiful and comparable to the works of Dürer (possibly created by young Samostrzelnik, as stylistically different from the others). Most of the miniatures in the Pontifical depict various activities of the bishop, like pontifical blessing or blessing of the image of the Virgin, the life of the Virgin, and the coronation and enthronement of the king, two, however, are particularly intriguing. One is a visitation of the construction of the church by the founder, the other is portrait-like miniature of Saint Agnes, the only female saint in the Pontifical. If we consider all miniatures as the accurate observation of real people and events from Ciołek's life including Coronation of the King of Poland (Accipe coronam Regni) as depicting the coronation of Alexander Jagiellon in 1501 or Sigismund I in 1507, also these two miniatures are closely related to him. Ciołek was the founder of many new churches, so the visitation of the construction of the church depicts him in princely attire in the company of his courtiers. The woman in guise of Saint Agnes was apparently very close to him, so that he ordered to put her image in the Pontifical. This effigy can be compared to Young woman with unicorn by Raphael (Galleria Borghese in Rome), created in about 1505-1506, and considered to be the effigy of Giulia Farnese (1474-1524), a mistress to Pope Alexander VI. Erazm was in Rome when this painting was created and his mother as well as his relative's wife, both were named Agnieszka, that is Agnes. The woman from the miniature is too young to be his mother and elderly women at the time, especially widows, wore bonnets, so she should be identified as Agnieszka Ciołkowa née Zasańska (Vitreator), who died in 1518. Agnieszka was a wife of a Kraków burgher, Maciej Ciołek, who made soap. She was a mother of three sons: Erazm Ciołek, born around 1492, abbot of Mogiła Abbey and suffragan of Kraków, Stanisław, canon of Pułtusk and Płock and Jan, a doctor in Kraków. So was Agnieszka a mistress to the Bishop of Płock and her son or sons, were his sons, as was almost customary at the time? While in Rome, Erazm probably had the opportunity to admire the beautiful decorations of the Borgia Apartments, commissioned by Pope Alexander VI, where a fresco in the Hall of the Saints, created by Pinturicchio between 1491-1494, shows the pope's son Cardinal Cesare Borgia (1475-1507) in guise of Roman Emperor Maxentius and his daughter Lucrezia (1480-1519) as Saint Catherine of Alexandria in the scene of Dispute of Saint Catherine. 

The young woman from Dürer's painting is dressed in an Italian outfit and her hair is bleached in the Venetian style. She may have been the wife of a wealthy merchant or printer, like Haller or Hyber, or to be a Venetian noblewoman or courtesan who caught the eye of a famous humanist, like Dantyszek or Ciołek, the last option with the rich bishop being the most likely.

Portrait of a young Venetian woman from the Wańkowicz collection by Albrecht Dürer, 1505, Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

Portrait of a man as Saint Sebastian, possibly Sebastian Hyber from Kraków by Albrecht Dürer or workshop, ca. 1505, Accademia Carrara. ​

Miniature portrait of Erazm Ciołek (1474-1522), Bishop of Płock in the scene of visitation of the construction of the church from the Kraków Pontifical by Master of the Bright Mountain Missal, 1506-1518, Czartoryski Library.

Miniature portrait of Agnieszka Ciołkowa née Zasańska (d. 1518) as Saint Agnes in the Kraków Pontifical by Master of the Bright Mountain Missal, 1506-1518, Czartoryski Library.

Crucifixion of Christ from Pontifical of Erazm Ciołek by Stanisław Samostrzelnik, 1506-1518, Czartoryski Library.

Portraits of Henrique Alemão and monarchs of Portugal by Netherlandish painters

On August 4, 1444 Cardinal Giuliano Cesarini (1398-1444), who insisted that Ladislaus III Jagiellon, King of Poland, Hungary and Croatia should break the treaty with the Turks, absolved the king of his oath given to the infidels with the power bestowed upon him by the pope. Cesarini did so after confirming that a fleet of Venetian galleys had set out for the Bosphorus to prevent the sultan from bringing in reinforcements by sea. Although Ladislaus and the majority of the War Council were in favor of peace, they wanted to comply with the papal will (after "Der Raub der Stephanskrone" by Franz Theuer, pp. 149-153). The decisive Battle of Varna took place on November 10, 1444 in present-day Bulgaria. Ladislaus led an outnumbered army against the Ottomans to attack. The battle ended in a crushing defeat of the Polish-Hungarian coalition and the king himself fell on the battlefield at the age of 20, his body was never found. 

According to Turkish chronicles, Ladislaus' head was cut off and "to keep it from corruption, the king's head was immersed in honey". An envoy was sent from Venice, who was shown a preserved male head in Istanbul, however, it had bright curls, and the king was dark-haired (after "Odyseja ..." by Leopold Kielanowski, p. 19). Due to rumors that Ladislaus survived the battle, the interregnum after his death lasted three years and in 1447 his younger brother, Grand Duke of Lithuania Casimir IV Jagiellon, was elected and crowned. Around that time, the king's sarcophagus was also ordered in Venice, but probably due to the unsuccessful search for his body, it was not created. A drawing by the Venetian painter Jacopo Bellini showing the death of the king was most likely a design for one of the scenes to be placed on the royal tomb in the Wawel Cathedral (after "La vie et la mort de Ladislas III Jagellon ..." by Juliusz Chrościcki, p. 245-264). 

Ladislaus III was the eldest son of Ladislaus II Jagiello (Jogaila of Lithuania), King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, and princess Sophia of Halshany. He had no children and did not marry. The chronicler Jan Długosz alleged that "Ladislaus, King of Hungary and Poland, who was too inclined to the lust of men, himself was the principal author of the downfall of his whole army in his first and in that second campaign against the Turks, which he then continued, his incestuous and abominable pleasures" (ipsum Wladislaum Hungariae et Poloniae Regem suae et totius sui exercitus ruinae principalem auctorem fuisse, qui in marium libidinem proclivus, nec in priori sua contra Turcos, nec in ea secunda, quam tunc gerebat, expeditione incestus suos et abominabiles voluptates, in: "Joannis Długossii seu longini canonici ..." by Żegota Pauli, p. 729). This fragment is interpreted that the king was a homosexual (or bisexual).

A letter found in the archives of the Teutonic Knights in the 20th century, dated 1452 (or 1472) and written from Lisbon by the Monk of the Predicant Order, Nicolau Floris to the Grand Master of the Order, indicates that King Ladislaus III managed to escape after the Battle of Varna and settled on a Portuguese island (vivit in insulis regni Portugaliae): "I personally heard from the owner of this letter, John the Pole, that you are a special friend of King Ladislaus, in another time honorable Sovereign and Lord, by the Grace of God, of the kingdoms of Poland and Hungary. I wish to reveal the miraculous news that king Ladislaus actually lives on the islands of the Kingdom of Portugal and I am his companion and comrade hermit" (after "Nieznana saga ..." by Jordan Michov, p. 36). 

This led to the identification of the king with a certain Henrique Alemão (Henry the German), one of the first settlers of Portuguese island of Madeira. Many Jagiellonian kings were fluent in German, as it was one of the languages of multicultural Poland-Lithuania and of Central Europe in general, which could be a possible explanation for this pseudonym. Henrique was also known as "Knight of Saint Catherine of Mount Sinai" (cavaleiro de Santa Catarina do Monte Sinai), which indicate that he made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and there he become a member of dynastic knightly order of the de Lusignan family, which has existed since the 12th century. The Knights of this Order protected the roads and ensured the safety of pilgrims traveling to Mount Sinai. Madeiran nobles referred to Henrique as príncipe polónio or prince of the nação polónia, i.e. Polish nation (after "Uma nuvem num pote de barro" by Miguel Castro Henriques, p. 13). Little is known about him apart from that in 1457 a land was assigned to him under a sesmaria regime by João Gonçalves Zarco and confirmed in a letter by Prince Henry the Navigator and by King Afonso V of Portugal, that same year. He married a woman from Algarve called Senhorinha Anes de Sá. The couple had two children, Segismundo (Sigismund) Henriques (the true identity of Christopher Columbus, according to Portuguese historian Manuel da Silva Rosa), who was lost at sea on his way to Lisbon, and Bárbara Henriques, who married Afonso Anes do Fraguedo. Called to the court by the king, Henrique died in a landslide, in the Cabo Girão area, when he was returning from Algarve. Senhorinha Anes later married João Rodrigues. 

Henrique ordered the construction of the first chapel in Madalena do Mar between 1454-1457. A small painting from the church in Madalena do Mar, today in the Museu de Arte Sacra do Funchal, is believed to represent the founder of the first temple - Henrique Alemão and his wife Anes de Sá in guise of biblical parents of the Virgin Mary - Saint Joachim and Saint Anne, in a popular scene of Meeting at the Golden Gate of Jerusalem, upon learning that she will bear a child (oil on panel, 51 x 39 cm, inventory number MASF26). The rich costume of Saint Joachim and the portrait like depiction of their faces reinforce this interpretation. This work is generally dated to the last decade of the 15th century or early 16th century and representation as parents of the Virgin suggest that it was probably the children of the couple that founded the painting. Henrique was also depicted in the background in the scene of the Annunciation of the Angel to Saint Joachim. The man bears a striking resemblance to the alleged father of Henrique Alemão - Jogaila of Lithuania from his tomb in the Wawel Cathedral, possibly by circle of Donatello, created in about 1421, and painted effigies in the scenes of Adoration of the Magi (as one of the Magi) and Christ among the doctors (as one of the scholars) by Stanisław Durink, also in the Wawel Cathedral, created between 1475-1485 (Triptych of Our Lady of Sorrows). The shape of the nose and the downward-pointing mouth are almost identical. It is often said that children resemble their parents.
 
The prayer book of King Ladislaus III Jagiellon (of Varna) dealing with divination by means of a crystal (crystallomancy), created in Kraków between 1434-1440 (Bodleian Library), is filled with effigies of the owner in different poses. In most of the prayers Ladislaus, the unworthy sinner and servant of God, prays for the angels to clarify and illuminate the crystal in order that he may learn all the secrets of the world (after "Angels around the Crystal: the Prayer Book of King Wladislas ..." by Benedek Lang, p. 5). It is another mysterious aspect of the king's life and patronage.

What is also intriguing about the painting from Madalena do Mar is that it is attributed to the so-called Master of Adoration of Machico, anonymous painter, active in Antwerp in the last decades of the 15th century and beginning of the 16th century, and his works show the influence of Joos van Cleve, as well as the Master of 1518 (after "Arte Flamenga, Museu de Arte Sacra do Funchal", Luiza Clode, Fernando António Baptista Pereira, p. 56). So the painting is an import to Madeira, like the Adoration of the Magi with a donor of Odrowąż coat of arms by Master of 1518 was an import to Poland (National Museum in Warsaw).
 
There are two other important paintings by Master of the Adoration of Machico in the same museum - Adoration of the Magi and Saint Nicholas. The first is the central panel of what was probably a triptych ordered for the Chapel of the Magi at the Parish Church of Machico, founded by Branca Teixeira, daughter of the first donatory captain of Machico (most likely disguised portraits of Branca's family, including her father Tristão Vaz Teixeira). The other comes from the House of Mercy in Funchal (possibly a disguised portrait of Diogo Pinheiro Lobo, first bishop of Funchal). The style of all these paintings can be compared with works attributed to Jan Joest van Calcar (d. 1519), a Dutch painter born around 1455 in Kalkar or Wesel in the Duchy of Cleves, who visited Genoa and Naples, among other places, especially the wings of the high altar in the St. Nicholas' Church in Kalkar.

The mentioned museum in Funchal (Museu de Arte Sacra) is a veritable treasure trove of early Netherlandish paintings. Large triptychs and other works by painters such as Dieric Bouts (Saint James from the former Chapel of Santiago at Funchal Cathedral), Jan Provoost (panels with Annunciation scene from the Matriz da Calheta church), Joos van Cleve (triptych of the Incarnation from the Church of Nossa Senhora da Encaração in Funchal, Annunciation from the Church of Bom Jesus da Ribeira in Funchal and triptych of Saint Peter, Saint Paul and Saint Andrew, commissioned by Simão Gonçalves da Câmara, Funchal's third captain-major) and follower of Jan Gossaert (Virgin of Amparo from the chapel of Nossa Senhora do Amparo in the Funchal Cathedral) are on display. Commissioning artworks from Flanders was widely practised among Madeiran merchants throughout the 15th and 16th centuries and some of these works could be disguised portraits, while in others the effigy of a patron was included in the sacred scene in the popular form of a donor. Triptych of the Descent from the Cross with portrait of Jorge Lomelino, the only son of Giovan Batista Lomellini from Genoa, and his wife Maria Adão Ferreira by Gerard David or workshop and triptych of Saint James the Minor and Saint Philip with portraits of D. Isabel Silva and her husband Simão Gonçalves da Câmara and members of their family as a donors by Pieter Coecke van Aelst, are the best examples. 

Art historians outside of Madeira often forget that the successful painting workshops of the 16th century were above all well-functioning businesses which, in order to gain a customer and money, could not look only locally. These portraits in religious scenes were therefore based on drawings sent from Madeira, made by a local painter or a member of the workshop sent from Flanders to the island, because it is difficult to imagine that the whole workshop would move from Flanders or the whole family from Madeira will travel to the Netherlands just to pose for a painting.

Other exquisite Flemish orders from Madeira were presented during an exhibition on the occasion of the 600th anniversary of the discovery of Madeira and Porto Santo in the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga in Lisbon - "The islands of the White Gold. Art Commissions in Madeira: 15th-16th Centuries" (November 16, 2017 to March 31, 2018). "The introduction of sugar cane farming into the archipelago of Madeira towards the end of the first half of the fifteenth century, coupled with the subsequent large-scale development of its production, meant that sugar could be exported, at first through Lisbon and then directly, to the ports of Flanders. [...] The newly-formed local elites cemented their status by commissioning works of art - paintings, sculptures and silverware - from Flanders, the Portuguese mainland, and even from the Orient" (description by curators Fernando António Baptista Pereira, Francisco Clode de Sousa). Flourishing sugar industry and export attracted foreigners, Flemings and Italians, such as Lomelino from Genoa and Acciaiuoli from Florence. 

One of such Madeiran commissions not in Funchal, displayed during the exhibition in Lisbon, is the triptych of Adoration of the Magi with portrait of a nobleman Francisco Homem de Gouveia and his wife Isabel Afonso de Azevedo as donors by circle of Pieter Coecke van Aelst, created in the 1520s (Reis Magos Chapel in Estreito da Calheta). The other is a large triptych of Our Lady of Mercy in the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga in Lisbon, created by Jan Provoost, who run two workshops, one in Bruges, where he was made a burgher in 1494, the other simultaneously in Antwerp (oil on panel, 155 x 145 cm - central panel, inventory number 697 Pint). It comes from the church of Saint John Lateran (igreja de S. João de Latrão) in Gaula and was purchased in 1876 from Agostinho de Ornellas from Madeira. The triptych is most likely tantamount to the painting mentioned in the will of the wealthy merchant and sugar producer, Nuno Fernandes Cardoso and his wife, Leonor Dias, who ordered the building of the church of Saint John Lateran, in 1511, in the their lands of Gaula. It is dated to around 1515. 

The figures kneeling in veneration in the lower part of the painting are identified as Pope Leo X (1475-1521) and King Manuel I of Portugal (1469-1521), based on attributes (crowns) and traditional iconography. Similar effigy of the king was included in another large painting ordered in Flanders - the Fons Vitae (Fountain of Life), attributed to Colijn de Coter and dated to around 1515-1517 (oil on panel, 267 x 210 cm, Museu da Misericórdia do Porto). He is accompanied by his second wife Maria of Aragon (1482-1517), followed by king's daughters from the first marriage Isabella of Portugal (1503-1539), future empress, and Beatrice of Portugal (1504-1538), future Duchess of Savoy. Consequently the women behind the king in the Lisbon triptych by Jan Provoost are his wife, two daughters and his sister, the widowed queen Eleanor of Viseu (1458-1525). The young age of the king's wife, in green dress, indicates that it was based on an earlier effigy and unlike other women, she wears no headdress, indicating that this is her "heavenly effigy". This woman bear a great resemblance to effigies of Manuel's first wife (and elder sister of the second) Isabella of Aragon (1470-1498), especially in the painting of Virgin of Mercy with the Catholic Kings and their family by Diego de la Cruz (Abbey of Santa María la Real de Las Huelgas near Burgos). If the first wife was depicted as a donor near the king and her daughters, the second, Maria of Aragon, is depicted as the Virgin Mary. On October 7, 1515 Maria gave bith to her son Duarte (d. 1540), Duke of Guimarães. Later Duarte and his elder brother, Louis of Portugal (1506-1555), Duke of Beja, were depicted in guise of Christian saints - Saint Edward the Confessor and Saint Louis, King of France in paintings by Portuguese painter, today in the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga (431 Pint, 188 Pint). The family resemblance of two women - Madonna and the first wife of king Manuel, to mother of the two queens, Isabella I of Castile (1451-1504), is undeniable. The shape of their nose and lower lip as well as the hair color is very similar to that seen in Isabella's portrait by Juan de Flandes (Royal Palace of Madrid).

Like in the Fons Vitae by Colijn de Coter, Isabella of Portugal, future empress, the first daughter of king Manuel and Isabella of Aragon, in dark dress, was represented first, closer to her mother and father. The same woman, in similar costume, was depicted in another painting attributed to Jan Provoost - a portrait, traditionally identified as Queen Isabella of Castile, today in the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven (oil on panel, 33.3 x 23.5 cm, 2020.37.4). It comes from the collection of German Emperor and King of Prussia Frederick III (1831-1888) and his wife Victoria, Princess Royal (1840-1901) in Schloss Friedrichshof (Friedrichshof Castle) in Kronberg im Taunus. Her attire is also similar to that visible in the Fons Vitae and facial features to the portrait of the empress by a follower of Titian from the English Royal collection, today in the Charlecote Park, Warwickshire (NT 533873, Charles II's inventory in Whitehall, number 223).

Another interesting Flemish painting in the Museu de Arte Sacra in Funchal is very portrait like Saint Mary Magdalene, attributed to Jan Provoost (oil on panel, 216 x 120 cm, MASF29). It comes from the same church as effigy of Henrique Alemão and his wife - Church of Saint Mary Magdalene in Madalena do Mar, founded by Henrique. This large panel was commissioned by Isabel Lopes, according to her will dated 1524, intended for the high altar of the Church in Madalena do Mar. According to the terms of her will, the commission for the painting was to be completed within a maximum of two years of her death. 

Isabel Lopes was the maid of Dona Maria de Noronha, wife of Simão Gonçalves da Câmara, captain-major of Funchal. She was married to João Rodrigues de Freitas, a native of the Algarve and widower of Senhorinha Anes who, in turn, was the widow of Henrique Alemão. Exactly as in the triptych of Our Lady of Mercy by Provoost, it is also an effigy of a royal, and the face of the woman bears a strong resemblance to the portraits of Eleanor of Austria (1498-1558), third wife of king Manuel, by Joos van Cleve and his workshop (Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga - 1981 Pint, Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna - GG 6079 and Musée Condé - PE 98). She became a widow in 1521. As Queen Dowager of Portugal, she went to Xabregas (or Enxobregas), where she lived almost like a nun and left Portugal in May 1530 to marry King Francis I of France. Around that time, Eleanor's younger sister, Catherine of Austria (1507-1578), who married her cousin, King John III of Portugal (son of King Manuel I) in February 1525, was represented as Saint Catherine of Alexandria in a painting by the Portuguese painter Domingo Carvalho, which was sent to her relatives in Spain (Prado Museum in Madrid, P001320).

Like in the disguised portrait of Alemão, also here there is a secondary scene of penitent Mary Magdalene, praying naked in front of a cave. Such naked effigies were known since the ancient times. "During the Republican period nudity and other divine guises as well as the cuirass were worn by generals and politicians as signs of outstanding, even super-human achievements, but during the imperial period, when displayed in public spaces, these costumes were reserved for members of the imperial family and very few high officials. In people's houses, villas, and tombs, other rules applied and freedmen typically preferred the divine guise for their tomb statues" (after "A Companion to Roman Art. Roman Portraits" by Jane Feifer, p. 245). 

Following death of his handsome favourite and lover Antinous (ca. 111-ca. 130 AD), the Roman emperor Hadrian (76-138) deified him and founded an organised cult devoted to his worship that spread throughout the Empire. The worship of Antinous proved to be one of the most enduring and popular of cults of deified humans in the Roman empire, and events continued to be founded in his honour long after Hadrian's death - "we have more portrait statues of Antinous than of anyone else in antiquity except Augustus and Hadrian himself" (after "Mark Golden on Caroline Vout, Power and Eroticism", pp. 64-66). Naked and disguised sculptures of this divine gay youth can be found in major museums around the world, including the National Museum in Warsaw (inventory number 148819 MNW). The renaissance "rediscovered" many forgotten aspects of Roman culture, such as the concept of "divine nakedness" or disguised portraits. Leonardo da Vinci used the effigy of his lover and lifelong companion Gian Giacomo Caprotti da Oreno (1480-1524), better known as Salaì, as the model for his Saint John the Baptist, Bacchus and Angelo incarnato (after "Leonardo da Vinci : l'Angelo incarnato & Salai ..." by Carlo Pedretti, Margherita Melani, Daniel Arasse, p. 201). Salaì, which means "little dirty one" or "little devil" and comes from Arabic (after "The Renaissance in Italy: A History" by Kenneth Bartlett, p. 138), portrayed himself as Monna Vanna (nude Mona Lisa, Museo Ideale Leonardo da Vinci), almost like a reminiscence of bust of Antinous Mondragone, similar to the Lemnian Athena (Louvre Museum). He also depicted himself as Christ the Redeemer and Saint John the Baptist in two paintings, now at the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana in Milan (inventory number 2686 and 98).

Yet the renaissance was also a time when the majority of people unreservedly believed in traditional canons, so Copernicus with his theory that the sun, not the earth, is the center of the universe (Copernican heliocentrism) was considered a fool. Martin Luther referred to Copernicus as that fool who wished "to reverse the entire science of astronomy" (Der Narr will die ganze Kunst Astronomiae umkehren, 1539) and he was seconded by Philip Melanchthon, who cited the Bible at length on behalf of the traditional world view (1549). In 1616 the Holy Office branded the heliocentric theory as "foolish and absurd philosophically, and formally heretical" (after "Man and Nature in the Renaissance" by Allen G. Debus, p. 98). 

Many valuable works of art in Portugal were destroyed in horrific earthquakes (in 1531, 1755, 1761 in Lisbon and in 1748 in Madeira), but many have also been preserved. In Poland, wars, invasions and the subsequent impoverishment of the country, when many paintings that survived were sold, were much more effective in stripping it of the paintings of the so-called European Old Masters, so now very few original works ordered by the clienst from Poland-Lithuania can be seen. Among the few surviving orders from the territories of today's Poland to the Netherlands are the Pruszcz Polyptych by Colijn de Coter and Saint Reinhold Altar by Joos van Cleve (both in the National Museum in Warsaw), as well as pentaptych with Passion of Christ by workshop Jan de Molder (Church of the Assumption in Żukowo). ​The Baptism of Christ group by Dutch sculptor Nikolaus Gerhaert van Leyden in St. Florian's Collegiate Church in Kraków was most likely also an import as his stay in Poland is unconfirmed.

Portrait of Henrique Alemão (probably Ladislaus III Jagiellon) and his wife Anes de Sá as Saint Joachim and Saint Anne by Master of the Adoration of Machico, possibly Jan Joest van Calcar, 1490s or early 16th century, Museu de Arte Sacra in Funchal.

Central panel of triptych of Our Lady of Mercy with Queen Maria of Aragon (1482-1517) as Madonna and King Manuel I of Portugal (1469-1521) and members of his family as donors by Jan Provoost, ca. 1515, Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga in Lisbon.

Portrait of Infanta Isabella of Portugal (1503-1539) by Jan Provoost, ca. 1515-1517, Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven.

Detail of portrait of Eleanor of Austria (1498-1558) as Saint Mary Magdalene by Jan Provoost, ca. 1524-1526, Museu de Arte Sacra in Funchal.

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Portraits of Simonetta Vespucci, Beatrice d'Aragona and Barbara Zapolya as Venus and as Madonna 

Around 850 the church of Santa Maria Nova (New St Mary), was built on the ruins of the Temple of Venus and Roma between the eastern edge of the Forum Romanum and the Colosseum in Rome. The temple was dedicated to the goddesses Venus Felix (Venus the Bringer of Good Fortune) and Roma Aeterna (Eternal Rome) and thought to have been the largest temple in Ancient Rome. Virgin Mary was from now on to be venerated in ancient site dedicated to the ancestor of the Roman people, as mother of Aeneas, the founder of Rome. Julius Caesar claimed Venus as his ancestor, dictator Sulla and Pompey as their protectress, she was the goddess of love, beauty, desire, sex, fertility, prosperity, and victory.

In April 1469, at age of sixteen, a Genoese noblewoman Simonetta Cattaneo (1453-1476), married in Genoa in the presence of the Doge and all the city's aristocracy Marco Vespucci from the Republic of Florence, a distant cousin of the navigator Amerigo Vespucci.
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After the wedding, the couple settled in Florence. Simonetta quickly became popular at the Florentine court, and attracted the interest of the Medici brothers, Lorenzo and Giuliano. When in 1475 Giuliano won a jousting tournament after bearing a banner upon which was a picture of Simonetta as a helmeted Pallas Athene, painted by Sandro Botticelli, beneath which was the French inscription La Sans Pareille, meaning "The Unparalleled One", and he nominated Simonetta as "The Queen of Beauty" at that event, her reputation as an exceptional beauty further increased. 

She died just one year later on the night of 26/27 April 1476. On the day of her funeral she was carried through Florence in an uncovered coffin dressed in white for the people to admire her one last time and there may have existed a posthumous cult about her in Florence. She become a model for different artists and Botticelli frequently depicted her as Venus and the Virigin, the most important deities of the Renaissance, both of which had pearls and roses as their symbol. 

If the greatest contemporary celebrity lend her appearance to goddess of love and the Virgin, it is more than obvious that other wealthy ladies wanted to be represented similarly. 

On 22 December 1476 Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary, Bohemia and Croatia married other Renaissance beauty Beatrice d'Aragona of Naples, a relative of Bona Sforza, Queen of Poland (Bona's grandfather Alfonso II of Naples was Beatrice's brother). Matthias was fascinated by his young, intelligent and well-educated wife. Her marble bust created by Francesco Laurana in the 1470s (The Frick Collection in New York) is inscribed DIVA BEATRIX ARAGONIA (Divine Beatrice of Aragon) to further enhance her remote and ethereal beauty. Numerous Italians followed Beatrice to Hungary, among them Bernardo Vespucci, brother to Amerigo, after whom America was named (after Catherine Fletcher's "The Beauty and the Terror: The Italian Renaissance and the Rise of the West", 2020, p. 36).

Corvinus commissioned works of art in Florence and the painters Filippino Lippi, Attavante degli Attavanti and Andrea Mantegna worked for him. He also recived works of art from his friend Lorenzo de' Medici, like metal reliefs of the heads of Alexander the Great and Darius by Andrea da Verrocchio, as Vasari cites. 

It is highly possible that Venus by Sandro Botticelli or workshop in the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin was also sent from Florence to Matthias Corvinus or brought by Beatrice to Hungary. 

After Corvinus' death, Beatrice married in 1491 her second husband, Vladislaus II, son of Casimir IV, King of Poland and elder brother of Sigismund I. 

Two paintings of Madonna and Child from the 1490s by Perugino, a painter who between 1486 and 1499 worked mostly in Florence, in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (from old imperial collection) and in the Städel Museum (acquired in 1832) depict the same woman as the Virgin. Both effigies are very similar to Beatrice's bust by Francesco Laurana.

The painting in the Städel Museum was most probably copied or re-created basing on the same set of study drawings by other artists, including young Lucas Cranach the Elder. One version, attributed to Timoteo Viti, was offered to the Collegiate Church in Opatów in 1515 by Krzysztof Szydłowiecki, who was initially Treasurer and Marshal of the Court of Prince Sigismund since 1505, and from 1515 Great Chancellor of the Crown. He was a friend of king Sigismund and frequently travelled to Hungary and Austria. Other two versions by Lucas Cranach the Elder are in private collections.

The same woman was also depicted as Venus Pudica in a painting attributed to Lorenzo Costa in the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest. It was purchased by the Budapest Museum in Brescia in 1895 from Achille Glisenti, an Italian painter who also worked in Germany. 

Between 1498-1501 and 1502-1506 the fifth of six sons of Polish King Casimir IV Jagiellon, Prince Sigismund frequently travelled to Buda, to live at the illustrous court of his elder brother King Vladislaus II. On his way there his stop was Trenčín Castle, owned by Stephen Zapolya, Palatine of the Kingdom of Hungary. Stephen was married to Polish princess Hedwig of Cieszyn of the Piast dynasty and also owned 72 other castles and towns, and drew income from Transylvanian mines. He and his family was also a frequent guest at the royal court in Buda. 

At the Piotrków Sejm of 1509 the lords of the Kingdom insisted on Sigismund, who was elected king in 1506, to get married and give the Crown and Lithuania a legitimate male heir. In 1509 the youngest daughter of Zapolya, Barbara, reached the age of 14 and Lucas Cranach, then Court painter to the Duke of Saxony, was despatched by the Duke to Nuremberg for the purpose of taking charge of the picture painted by Albrecht Dürer, son of a Hungarian goldsmith, for the Duke. That same year Cranach created two paintings showing a woman as Venus and as the Virgin. 

The painting of Venus and Cupid, signed with initials LC and dated 1509 on the cartellino positioned against a dark background was acquired by Empress Catherine II of Russia in 1769 with the collection of Count Heinrich von Brühl in Dresden. Its prior history is unknown, therefore it cannot be excluded that Count Brühl, a Polish-Saxon statesman at the court of Saxony and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, purchased it in Poland. The painting is inspired by Botticelli and Lorenzo Costa's Venuses.

The second painting, very similar to effigies of Beatrice of Naples as Madonna, shows a woman against the landscape which is very similar to topography of the Trenčín Castle, where Barbara Zapolya spent her childhood and where she met Sigismund. She offeres the Child a bunch of grapes a Christian symbol of the redemptive sacrifice, but also a popular Renaissance symbol for fertility borrowed from the Roman god of the grape-harvest and fertility, Bacchus. Both women resemble greatly Barbara Zapolya from her portrait with B&S monogram. ​In the main altar of the 13th century church in Strońsko near Sieradz in central Poland, there is very similar version of this painting by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder.

Portrait of Simonetta Vespucci as Madonna and Child with St. John the Baptist and an angel by Sandro Botticelli, 1470s, National Museum in Warsaw.

Portrait of Simonetta Vespucci as Madonna and Child with angels by Sandro Botticelli, 1470s, Wawel Royal Castle in Kraków.

The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli, 1484-1485, Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

Portrait of Simonetta Vespucci as Venus by Sandro Botticelli or workshop, fourth quarter of the 15th century, Gemäldegalerie in Berlin.

Venus by Sandro Botticelli or workshop, fourth quarter of the 15th century, Sabauda Gallery in Turin.

Portrait of Beatrice of Naples as Venus by Lorenzo Costa, fourth quarter of the 15th century, Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest.

Portrait of Beatrice of Naples as Madonna and Child with Saints by Perugino, 1490s, Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

Portrait of Beatrice of Naples as Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist by Perugino, 1490s, Städel Museum in Frankfurt am Main.

Portrait of Beatrice of Naples as Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist by Timoteo Viti or Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1490s, St. Martin's Collegiate Church in Opatów.

Portrait of Beatrice of Naples as Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1490s, Private collection.

Portrait of Barbara Zapolya as Venus and Cupid by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1509, The State Hermitage Museum.

​Portrait of Barbara Zapolya as Madonna and Child with a bunch of grapes by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1509-1512, Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid.

Portrait of Barbara Zapolya as Madonna and Child against a landscape by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1509-1512, Parish church in Strońsko.

Portrait of Magdalena Thurzo by Lucas Cranach the Elder

One of the earliest and the best of Cranach's Madonnas is in the Archdiocesan Museum in Wrocław. The work was initially in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Wrocław and is believed to have been offered there in 1517 by John V Thurzo, Prince-Bishop of Wrocław, who also founded a new sacristy portal, considered to be the first work of the Renaissance in Silesia. Thurzo, who came from the Hungarian-Slovak-Polish-German patrician family, was born on April 16, 1464 or 1466 in Kraków, where his father built a smelter in Mogiła. He studied in Kraków and in Italy and he began his ecclesiastical career in Poland (scholastic in Gniezno and in Poznań, a canon in Kraków). Polish King John I Albert sent him on several diplomatic missions. Soon afterwards he moved to Wrocław in Silesia and become a canon and dean of the cathedral chapter in 1502 and Bishop of Wrocław from 1506.

Thurzo owned a sizable library and numerous works of art. In 1508 he paid 72 florins to Albrecht Dürer, the son of a Hungarian goldsmith, for a painting of Virgin Mary (Item jhr dörfft nach keinen kaufman trachten zu meinem Maria bildt. Den der bischoff zu Preßlau hat mir 72 fl. dafür geben. Habs wohl verkhaufft.), according to artist's letter from November 4, 1508. According to Jan Dubravius, he also owned Dürer's Adam and Eve, for which he paid 120 florins. In 1515, John's younger brother Stanislaus Thurzo, Bishop of Olomouc commissioned Lucas Cranach the Elder to create an altarpiece on the themes of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist and the Beheading of St. Catherine (Kroměříž Castle), while his other brother George, who married Anna Fugger, was portrayed by Hans Holbein the Elder (Kupferstichkabinett in Berlin).

In 1509 or shortly after, he completed the reconstruction of the episcopal summer residence in Javorník. The medieval castle built by the Piast duke Bolko II of Świdnica was converted into a Renaissance palace from 1505, according to two stone plaques on the castle wall created by the workshop of Francesco Fiorentino (who later worked in Poland) in Kroměříž, one starting with the words "John Thurzo, bishop of Wroclaw, a Pole, repaired this citadel" (Johannes Thurzo, episcopus Vratislaviensis, Polonus, arcem hanc bellorum ac temporum injuriis solo aequatam suo aere restauravit, mutato nomine montem divi Joannis felicius appellari voluit M. D. V.). He also renamed the castle as John's Hill (Mons S. Joannis, Jánský Vrch, Johannisberg or Johannesberg), to honor the patron of the Bishops of Wrocław, Saint John the Baptist. In Thurzo's time, the castle became a meeting place for artists and scholars, including the canon of Toruń, Nicholas Copernicus. Together with his brother Stanislaus, the bishop of Olomouc, he crowned the three-year-old Louis Jagiellon as King of Bohemia on March 11, 1509 in Prague. 

Bishop Thurzo had two sisters. The younger Margaret married Konrad Krupka, a merchant from Kraków and the elder Magdalena was first married to Max Mölich from Wrocław and in 1510 she married Georg Zebart from Kraków, who were both involved in financial undertakings of her father John III Turzo in Poland, Slovakia and Hungary.

The paining of the Wrocław Madonna is generally dated to about 1510 or shortly after 1508, when Cranach was ennobled by Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony, because a signet ring decorated with the inverted initials 'L.C' and Cranach's serpent insignia is one of the most important items in the painting. The castle on a fantastic rock in the background with two round towers, a small inner courtyard and a gate tower on the right match perfectly the layout and the view of the Jánský Vrch Castle in the early 16th century (hypothetical reconstruction drawings by Rostislav Vojkovský). Scaffolding and a ladder are also visible, the building is clearly being rebuilt and extended. The child is holding grapes, Christian symbol of Redemption, but also an ancient symbol of fertility. The woman depicted as the Virgin bears resemblance to effigies of George Thurzo (Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid and Kupferstichkabinett in Berlin), she sould be therefore identified as Magdalena Thurzo, who around that time was about to get married.  

Portrait of Magdalena Thurzo as Madonna and Child with a bunch of grapes against the idealized view of Jánský Vrch Castle by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1509-1510, Archdiocesan Museum in Wrocław.

Portrait of Barbara Zapolya as Salome with the Head of Saint John the Baptist by Lucas Cranach the Elder

"In the Christian world well through the Renaissance, males were associated with the head (and therefore with thinking, reason, and self-control) and females with the body (and therefore with senses, physicality, and the passions)" (Gail P. Streete's "The Salome Project: Salome and Her Afterlives", 2018, p. 41).
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During Renaissance Salome became an erotic symbol of daring, uncontrollable female lust, dangerous female seductiveness, woman's evil nature, the power of female perversity, but also a symbol of beauty and complexity. One of the oldest representations of Dance of Salome is a fresco in the Prato Cathedral, created between 1452 and 1465 by Filippo Lippi, who also created some paintings for Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary.

In April 1511, Sigismund informed his brother, King Vladislaus, that she wants to marry a Hungarian noblewoman. He chose Barbara Zapolya. The marriage treaty was signed on 2 December 1511 and Barbara's dowry was fixed at 100,000 red złotys. Barbara was praised for her virtues, Marcin Bielski wrote of her devotion to God and obedience to husband, kindheartedness and generosity. 

The painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder in Lisbon depict her as Salome wearing a fur-trimmed coat and a fur hat. It was offered to the Museum of Ancient Art in Lisbon by Luis Augusto Ferreira de Almeida, 1st Count of Carvalhido. It is possible that the painting was sent to Portugal in the 16th century by the Polish-Lithuanian court. In 1516 Jan Amor Tarnowski, who was educated at the court of the Jagiellonian monarchs, and two other Polish lords were knighted in the church of St. John in Lisbon by King Manuel I. More than one decade later, in 1529 and again in 1531 arrived to Poland-Lithuania Damião de Góis, who was entrusted by King John III of Portugal with a mission to negotiate the marriage of Princess Hedwig Jagiellon, a daughter of Barbara Zapolya, with king's brother. 

Few years later Laura Dianti (d. 1573), mistress of Alfonso I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, was depicted in several disguised portraits by Titian and his workshop. Her portrait with an African page boy (Kisters Collection at Kreuzlingen) is known from several copies and other versions, some of which depict her as Salome. The original by Titian in guise of biblical femme fatale was probably lost. Paintings of Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist by Titian and his workshop (Uffizi Gallery in Florence and Musée Fesch in Ajaccio) are also identified to depict Laura as well as Saint Mary Magdalene by circle of Titian (Private collection). They all followed the same Roman pattern of portraits in the guise of deities and mythological heroes.

The image of Herodias/Salome preserved in the Augustinian monastery in Kraków and the posthumous inventory of Melchior Czyżewski, who died in Kraków in 1542, lists as many as two such paintings. The popularity of such images in Poland-Lithuania is reflected in poetry. In the fragmentarily preserved works of Mikołaj Sęp Szarzyński (ca. 1550 - ca. 1581) there are four epigrams on paintings, including "On the image of Saint Mary Magdalene" and "On the image of Herodias with the head of Saint John" (after "Od icones do ekfrazy ..." by Radosław Grześkowiak). 

Portrait of Barbara Zapolya as Salome with the Head of Saint John the Baptist by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1510-1515, National Museum of Ancient Art in Lisbon.

Portraits of Barbara Zapolya and Barbara Jagiellon by Lucas Cranach the Elder

On November 21, 1496 in Leipzig, Barbara Jagiellon, the fourth daughter of Casimir IV Jagiellon, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania and Elizabeth of Austria, Princess of Bohemia and Hungary, that reached adulthood, married George of Saxony, son and successor of Albert III the Bold, Duke of Saxony and Sidonie of Podebrady, a daughter of George, King of Bohemia, in a glamorous and elaborate ceremony. 6,286 German and Polish nobles are said to have attended the wedding. The marriage was important for the Jagiellons because of the rivalry with the Habsburgs in Central Europe.

As early as 1488, while his father was away on campaigns in Flanders and Friesland, George, Barbara's husband, held various official duties on his behalf, and succeeded him after his death in 1500. 

George's cousin, prince-elector Frederick the Wise, was a very pious man and he collected many relics, including a sample of breast milk from the Blessed Virgin Mary. In 1509 the elector had printed a catalogue of this collection, produced by his court artist Lucas Cranach and his inventory of 1518 listed 17,443 items. In 1522, Emperor Charles V proposed engagement of Hedwig Jagiellon, the eldest daughter of Sigismund I, Barbara's brother, with John Frederick, heir to the Saxon throne and Frederick the Wise's nephew, as the elector most probably homosexual in relationship with Degenhart Pfäffinger, remained unmarried. The portrait of Frederick by circle of Lucas Cranach the Elder from the 1510s is in the Kórnik Castle near Poznań. 

On 20 November 1509 in Wolfenbüttel, Catherine (1488-1563), a daughter of the Duke Henry IV of Brunswick-Lüneburg, married Duke Magnus I of Saxe-Lauenburg (1470-1543). Soon after the wedding she bore him a son, future Francis I (1510-1581). Magnus was the first of the Dukes of Saxe-Lauenburg to renounce Electoral claims, which had long been in dispute between the two lines of the Saxon ducal house. He carried neither the electoral title nor the electoral swords (Kurschwerter) in his coat of arms. The electoral swords indicated the office as Imperial Arch-Marshal (Erzmarschall, Archimarescallus), pertaining to the privilege as prince-elector. On 12 August 1537, the eldest daughter of Catherine and Magnus, Dorothea of Saxe-Lauenburg (1511-1571), was crowned Queen of Denmark and Norway in the Copenhagen Cathedral.

"That they may see a great kingdom and a mighty people, that they may bear their lord's queen under the stars, O happy virgin, happy stars who have borne you, for the glory of your country" (Ut videant regnum immensum populumque potentem: Reginam domini ferre sub astra sui, O felix virgo, felicia sidera, que te, Ad tantum patrie progenuere decus), wrote in his "Hymn for the Coronation of Queen Barbara" (In Augustissimu[m] Sigisimu[n]di regis Poloniae et reginae Barbarae connubiu[m]), published in Kraków in 1512, the queen's secretary Andrzej Krzycki. Queen Barbara Zapolya was crowned on 8 February 1512 in the Wawel Cathedral. She brought Sigismund a huge dowry of 100,000 red zlotys, equal to the imperial daughters. Their wedding was very expensive and cost 34,365 zlotys, financed by a wealthy Kraków banker Jan Boner.

A painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder in the National Gallery of Denmark in Copenhagen dated to about 1510-1512 shows a scene of the Mystical marriage of Saint Catherine. The Saint "as a wife should share in the life of her husband, and as Christ suffered for the redemption of mankind, the mystical spouse enters into a more intimate participation in His sufferings" (after Catholic Encyclopaedia). Virgin Mary bears features of Queen Barbara Zapolya, similar to paintings in the Parish church in Strońsko or in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid. The woman on the right, depicted in a pose similar to some donor portraits, is identified as effigy of Saint Barbara. It was therefore she who commissioned the painting. Her facial features bears great resemblance to the portrait of Barbara Jagiellon by Cranach from the Silesian Museum of Fine Arts in Wrocław, today in the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin. The effigy of Saint Catherine bears strong resemblance to the portrait of Dorothea of Saxe-Lauenburg, queen of Denmark and daughter of Catherine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, Duchess of Saxe-Lauenburg, in the Frederiksborg Castle, near Copenhagen. Described painting comes from the Danish royal collection and before 1784 it was in the Furniture Chamber of the royal Christiansborg Palace in Copenhagen. The painting bears coat of arms of the Electorate of Saxony in upper part. The message is therefore that Saxe-Lauenburg should join the "Jagiellonian family" and thanks to this union they can regain the electoral title. 

The painting is very similar to other Mystical marriage of Saint Catherine by Lucas Cranach the Elder, which was in the Bode Museum in Berlin before World War II, lost. In this scene Queen Barbara is most probably surrounded by her Hungarian and Moravian court ladies in guise of Saints Margaret, Catherine, Barbara and Dorothea. It was purchased from a private collection in Paris, hence the provenance from the Polish royal collection cannot be excluded - John Casimir Vasa, great-grandson of Sigismund I in 1668 and many other Polish aristocrats transferred to Paris their collections in the 17th century and later. The copy of this painting from about 1520 is in the church in Jachymov (Sankt Joachimsthal), where from 1519 Louis II, King of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia minted his famous gold coin, Joachim thaler. 

The woman in an effigy of Lucretia, a model of virtuous woman by Lucas Cranach the Elder, which was in the late 19th century in the collection of Wilhelm Lowenfeld in Munich, is very similar to the effigy of Barbara Jagiellon in Copenhagen. It is one of the earliest of the surviving versions of this subject by Cranach and is considered a pendant piece to the Salome in Lisbon (Friedländer). Both paintings have similar dimensions, composition, style, the subject of an ancient femme fatale and were created in the same period. The work in Lisbon depicts Barbara Jagiellon's sister-in-law, Queen Barbara Zapolya. Similar effigy of Lucretia, also by Cranach the Elder, was auctioned at Art Collectors Association Gallery in London in 1920. 

The effigy of the Virgin of Sorrows in the National Gallery in Prague, which was donated in 1885 by Baron Vojtech (Adalbert) Lanna (1836-1909), is almost identical with the face of Saint Barbara in the Copenhagen painting. In 1634 the work was owned by some unidentified abbot who added his coat of arms with his initiatials "A. A. / Z. G." in right upper corner of the painting. On the other hand, the face of Madonna from a painting in the National Museum in Warsaw (inventory number M.Ob.2542 MNW) is very similar to that of Salome in Munich. This painting is attributed to follower of Lucas Cranach the Elder and dated to the first quarter of the 16th century. 

​The effigy of Salome from the same period by Lucas Cranach the Elder, acquired in 1906 by the Bavarian National Museum in Munich from the Catholic Rectory in Bayreuth, also depict Barbara Jagiellon. Possibly around that time or later, when her sister-in-law Bona Sforza ordered her portraits in about 1530, the Duchess also commissioned a series of her portraits as another biblical femme fatale, Judith. The portrait by workshop or follower of Cranach from private collection, sold in 2014, is very similar to the painting in Munich, while the pose essentially corresponds to the portrait of her niece Hedwig Jagiellon from the Suermondt collection, dated 1531.

George of Saxony and Barbara Jagiellon were married for 38 years. After her death on 15 February 1534, he grew a beard as a sign of his grief, earning him the nickname the Bearded. He died in Dresden in 1539 and was buried next to his wife in a burial chapel in Meissen Cathedral.

Portrait of Queen Barbara Zapolya (1495-1515), Barbara Jagiellon (1478-1534), Duchess of Saxony and Catherine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (1488-1563), Duchess of Saxe-Lauenburg as the Virgin and Child with Saints Barbara and Catherine by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1512-1514, National Gallery of Denmark.

Portrait of Queen Barbara Zapolya (1495-1515) and her court ladies as the Virgin and Saints by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1512-1514, Bode Museum in Berlin, lost.

Portrait of Barbara Jagiellon (1478-1534), Duchess of Saxony as Salome by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1512, Bavarian National Museum in Munich.

Portrait of Barbara Jagiellon (1478-1534), Duchess of Saxony as Judith with the head of Holofernes by workshop or follower of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1512-1531, Private collection.

Portrait of Barbara Jagiellon (1478-1534), Duchess of Saxony as Lucretia by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1512-1514, Private collection.

Portrait of Barbara Jagiellon (1478-1534), Duchess of Saxony as Lucretia by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1512-1514, Private collection.

Portrait of Barbara Jagiellon (1478-1534), Duchess of Saxony as the Virgin of Sorrows by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1512-1514, National Gallery in Prague.

Portrait of Barbara Jagiellon (1478-1534), Duchess of Saxony as Madonna and Child by follower of Lucas Cranach the Elder, first quarter of the 16th century, National Museum in Warsaw.

Portraits of Elizabeth Jagiellon by Lucas Cranach the Elder and workshop

"Towns and villages are scarce in Lithuania; the main wealth among them are particularly animal skins, to which our age gave the names of Zibellini and armelli (ermine). Unknown use of money, skins take its place. The lower classes use copper and silver; more precious than gold. Noble ladies have lovers in public, with the permission of their husbands, whom they call assistants of marriage. It is a shame for men to add a mistress to their legitimate wife. Marriages are easily dissolved by mutual consent, and they marry again. There is a lot of wax and honey here which wild bees make in the woods. The wine use is very rare, and the bread is very black. Cattle provide food to those who use much milk" (Rara inter Lithuanos oppida, neque frequentes villae: opes apud eos, praecipuae animalis pelles, quibus nostra aetas Zibellinis, armellinosque nomina indidit. Usus pecuniae ignotus, locum eius pelles obtinent. Viliores cupri atque argenti vices implent; pro auro signato, pretiosiores. Matronae nobiles, publice concubinos habent, permittentibus viris, quos matrimonii adiutores vocant. Viris turpe est, ad legitimam coniugem pellicem adiicere. Solvuntur tamen facile matrimonia mutuo consensu, et iterum nubunt. Multum hic cerae et mellis est quod sylvestres in sylvis apes conficiunt. Vini rarissimus usus est, panis nigerrimus. Armenta victum praebent multo lacte utentibus.), wrote in the mid-15th century Pope Pius II (Enea Silvio Piccolomini, 1405-1464) in his texts published in Basel in 1551 by Henricus Petrus, who also published the second edition of De revolutionibus orbium coelestium by Nicolaus Copernicus (Aeneae Sylvii Piccolominei Senensis, qui post adeptum ..., p. 417). Some conservative 19th century authors, clearly shocked and terrified by this description, have suggested that the Pope was lying or spreading false rumors. 

Elizabeth Jagiellon, the thirteenth and the last child of Casimir IV, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania and his wife Elizabeth of Austria (1436-1505), was most probably born on November 13, 1482 in Vilnius, when her mother was 47 years old. In 1479 Elizabeth of Austria with her husband and younger children, left Kraków for Vilnius for five years. The Princess was baptized with her mother's name. Just few months later on March 4, 1484 in Grodno died Prince Casimir, the heir apparent and future saint, and was buried in the Vilnius Cathedral. 

Casimir IV died in 1492 in the Old Grodno Castle in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. After her father's death Elizabeth strengthen her relationship with her mother. In 1495, together with her mother and sister Barbara, she returned to Lithuania to visit her brother Alexander Jagiellon, Grand Duke of Lithuania. 

When she was 13 years old, in 1496, John Cicero, Elector of Brandenburg intended to marry her to his son Joachim, but the marriage did not materialize and on April 10, 1502 Joachim married Elizabeth of Denmark, daughter of King John of Denmark. In 1504, Alexander, who became the king of Poland in 1501, granted her a jointure (lifetime provision), secured on Łęczyca, Radom, Przedecz and the village of Zielonki. Between 1505-1509, the Voivode of Moldavia, Bogdan III the One-Eyed, sought to win Elizabeth's hand, but the girl was categorically against it. In the following years, marriage proposals from the Italian, German and Danish princes were considered, and it was even planned to marry Elizabeth to the widowed Emperor Maximilian I, who was over 50 when in 1510 died his third wife Bianca Maria Sforza. 

In 1509 Princess Elizabeth purchased a house at the Wawel Hill from the cathedral vicars, situated between the houses of Szydłowiecki, Gabryielowa, Ligęza and Filipowski and her brother, king Sigismund I, commissioned in Nuremberg a silver altar for the Wawel Cathedral after victory over Bogdan III the One-Eyed, created in 1512 by Albrecht Glim. Elizabeth also raised the children of the king.

Without waiting for a clear response from Emperor Maximilian, Sigismund and his brother Vladislaus II decided to marry their sister to Duke Frederick II of Legnica. First, however, Sigismund wanted to communicate with his sister for her opinion. "We have no doubts, that she would easily agree to everything that Your Highness and We will consider right and grateful", he wrote to Vladislaus. The union was supposed to strengthen King Sigismund's ties with the Duchy of Legnica. The marriage contract was signed in Kraków on September 12, 1515 by John V Thurzo, Bishop of Wrocław, who was replacing the groom.

Elizabeth received a dowry of 20,000 zlotys, of which 6,000 were to be paid upon marriage, 7,000 on St. Elizabeth's day in a year, and the last 7,000 on St. Elizabeth's day in 1517. In addition, the princess was given a trousseau in gold, silver, pearls and precious stones, estimated at 20,000 zlotys, apart from the robes of gold and silk and ermine and sable furs. The husband was to transfer a jointure of 40,000 zlotys, secured on all income from Legnica and to pay her annually 2,400 zlotys.

On November 8, 1515, Elizabeth set off for Legnica from Sandomierz, accompanied by Stanisław Chodecki, Grand Marshal of the Crown, priests Latalski and Lubrański, voivode of Poznań and bishop Thurzo. The wedding of 32-year-old Elizabeth with 35-year-old Frederick took place on November 21 or 26 in Legnica and the couple lived in the Piast castle there. On February 2, 1517, she gave birth to a daughter, Hedwig, who died two weeks later, followed her mother on February 17. The duchess was buried in the Carthusian church in Legnica and in 1548, her body was transferred to another temple in Legnica - the Church of St. John.

A painting of Lucretia, the epitome of female virtue and beauty, by Lucas Cranach the Elder or his workshop was acquired by Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Kassel from the art dealer Gutekunst in Stuttgart in 1885. According to inscription on reverse of the panel it was earlier in private collection in Augsburg, a city frequently visited by Emperor Maximilian I. The tower on a hilltop visible on the left in the background is astonishingly similar to the dominant of the 16th century Vilnius, the medieval Gediminas Tower of the Upper Castle. Lucretia's pose, costume and even facial features are very similar to the portrait of Elizabeth's elder sister Barbara Jagiellon (1478-1534), Duchess of Saxony as Lucretia from Wilhelm Löwenfeld's collection in Munich. 

The same woman was also depicted as reclining water nymph Egeria, today in the Grunewald hunting lodge in Berlin. The painter most likely used the same template drawing to create both effigies (in Kassel and in Berlin). Egeria, the nymph of the sacred source, probably a native Italic water goddess, had the power to assist in conception. "Her fountain was said to have sprung from the trunk of an oak tree and whoever drank it water was blessed with fertility, prophetic visions, and wisdom" (after Theresa Bane's "Encyclopedia of Fairies in World Folklore and Mythology", p. 119). Medieval tower on a steep slope in the background is also similar on both paintings. This painting was presumably in the Berlin City Palace since the 16th century and in 1699 it was recorded in the Potsdam City Palace. It cannot be excluded that it was sent to Joachim I Nestor, Elector of Brandenburg or his brother Albert of Brandenburg, future cardinal, or it was taken from Poland during the Deluge (1655-1660).

Another similar Lucretia was sold in Brussels in 1922. Brussels was a capital of the Habsburg Netherlands, a dominium of Emperor Maximilian. It is highly possible that his daughter Archduchess Margaret of Austria, Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands from 1507 to 1515, who resided in nearby Mechelen, received a portrait of possible stepmother. This portrait is also very similar to another portrait of Elizabeth's sister Barbara as Lucretia, which was auctioned in London in 1920.

The Lucretia from Brussels was copied in another painting, today in Veste Coburg, which according to later inscription is known as Dido the Queen of Carthage. It was initially in the Art Cabinet (Kunstkammer) of the Friedenstein Palace in Gotha, like the portrait of Elizabeth's niece Hedwig Jagiellon by Cranach from 1534. The costume of Dido is very similar to the dress of Salome visible in a painting of the Beheading of Saint John the Baptist (Kroměříž Castle), dated '1515' and created by Cranach for Stanislaus Thurzo, Bishop of Olomouc, brother of Bishop John V Thurzo. This painting bears the inscription in Latin DIDO REGINA and date M.D.XLVII (1547). Friedenstein Palace was built for Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha, and one of the most important events in the history of his family was the Battle of Mühlberg in 1547, lost by his great-grandfather John Frederick I, who was stripped of his title as Elector of Saxony and imperial forces blew up the fortifications of Grimmenstein Castle, the predecessor of the Friedenstein Palace. It is possible that a portrait of Elizabeth as Lucretia, whose identity was already lost by 1547, become for John Frederick's family a symbol of their glorious past and tragic fall, exactly like in the Story of Dido and Aeneas.

The same facial features were also used in a series of paintings of Nursing Madonna (Madonna lactans), a symbol of maternity and Virgin's capacity for protection. This popular image of Mary with the infant Jesus is similar to the ancient statues of Isis lactans that is the Egyptian goddess Isis, worshiped as the ideal, fertile mother, shown suckling her son Horus. The best version is now in the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest. This painting was donated to the museum in 1912 by Count János Pálffy from his collection in the Pezinok Castle in Slovakia. The painting was earlier, most probably, in Principe Fondi's collection which was auctioned in Rome in 1895. The work is exquisitely painted and the landscape in the background resemble the view of Vilnius and Neris river in about 1576, however the face, was not very skilfully added to the painting, most likely as the last part, and the whole effigy looks unnatural. The same mistake was replicated in copies and the face of the Virgin in the copy in the Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt has almost grotesque appearance. The latter painting was acquired before 1820, probably from the collection of the Landgraves of Hesse-Darmstadt and the hilltop tower behind the Virgin is almost identical with that in the painting of Lucretia in Kassel. Other versions are in the Capuchin monastery in Vienna, most probably from the Habsburg collection, one was sold in Lucerne in 2006 (Galerie Fischer) and another in 2011 in Prague (Arcimboldo). The sitter's face in all mentioned effigies with distinguish Habsburg/Masovian lip, resemble greatly Elizabeth's sister Barbara Jagiellon, her mother Elizabeth of Austria and her brother Sigismund I. 

There is also a painting in the Klassik Stiftung Weimar, created by workshop or follower of Lucas Cranach the Elder, representing the Virgin Mary flanked by two female saints, very similar to the compositions in the National Gallery of Denmark in Copenhagen and in the Bode Museum in Berlin, lost during World War II. The painting was acquired before 1932 on the Berlin art market. The effigy of Mary is a copy of a painting in Strońsko near Sieradz in central Poland, the portrait of Barbara Zapolya. The woman on the left, receiving an apple from the Child, is identical with effigies of Barbara Jagiellon, Duchess of Saxony and the one on the right resemble Elizabeth Jagiellon. The castle in the background match perfectly the layout of the Royal Sandomierz Castle in about 1515 as seen from the west. The Gothic castle in Sandomierz was built by king Casimir the Great after 1349 and it was rebuilt and extended in about 1480. On July 15, 1478 Queen Elizabeth of Austria gave birth to Barbara Jagiellon there and the royal family lived in the castle from about 1513. In 1513 Sigismund I ordered to demolish some ruined, medieval structures and to extend and reconstruct the building in the renaissance style. Two-storey arcaded cloisters around a closed courtyard (west, south and east wings) were constructed between 1520-1527. The castle was destroyed during the Deluge in 1656 and the west wing was rebuilt between 1680-1688 for King John III Sobieski. 

Portrait of Princess Elizabeth Jagiellon (1482-1517) as reclining water nymph Egeria by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1510-1515, Grunewald hunting lodge.

Portrait of Princess Elizabeth Jagiellon (1482-1517) as Lucretia by Lucas Cranach the Elder or workshop, ca. 1510-1515, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Kassel. 

Portrait of Princess Elizabeth Jagiellon (1482-1517) as Lucretia by Lucas Cranach the Elder or workshop, ca. 1510-1515, Private collection. 

Portrait of Elizabeth Jagiellon (1482-1517), Duchess of Legnica as Lucretia (Dido Regina) by workshop or follower of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1515, Veste Coburg. 

Portrait of Elizabeth Jagiellon (1482-1517), Duchess of Legnica as Madonna lactans by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1515, Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest. 

Portrait of Elizabeth Jagiellon (1482-1517), Duchess of Legnica as Madonna lactans by workshop or follower of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1515, Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt. 

Portrait of Queen Barbara Zapolya (1495-1515), Barbara Jagiellon (1478-1534), Duchess of Saxony and Elizabeth Jagiellon (1482-1517), Duchess of Legnica as the Virgin flanked by two female saints by workshop or follower of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1515, Klassik Stiftung Weimar.

Portraits of George I of Brzeg and Anna of Pomerania by Hans Suess von Kulmbach

On June 9, 1516 in Szczecin, Duke George I of Brzeg (1481-1521) married Anna of Pomerania (1492-1550), the eldest daughter of Duke Bogislaw X of Pomerania (1454-1523) and his second wife Anna Jagiellon (1476-1503), daughter of King Casimir IV of Poland.

According to Brzeg city book (fol. 24 v.) their engagement took place as early as 1515. In June 1515, George imposed a two-year tax on the inhabitants of his Duchy in order to collect dowry sums of 10,000 guilder (after "Piastowie: leksykon biograficzny", p. 507), the sum the princess also received from her father. In the years 1512-1514 there were negotiations regarding Anna's marriage with the Danish king Christian II. This marriage was prevented by the Hohenzollerns, leading to his marriage to Isabella of Austria, sister of Emperor Charles V.

George, the youngest son of Duke Frederick I, Duke of Chojnów-Oława-Legnica-Brzeg-Lubin, by his wife Ludmila, daughter of George of Poděbrady, King of Bohemia, was the true prince of the Renaissance, a great patron of culture and art. Often staying at the court in Vienna and Prague, he got used to splendor, so that in 1511, during the stay of the Bohemian-Hungarian royal family in Wrocław, all courtiers were eclipsed by the splendor of his retinue. In February 1512 he was in Kraków at the wedding of King Sigismund I with Barbara Zapolya, arriving with 70 horses, then in 1515 at the wedding of his brother with the Polish-Lithuanian princess Elizabeth Jagiellon (1482-1517) in Legnica, and in 1518 again in Kraków at the wedding of Sigismund with Bona Sforza. He imitated the customs of the Jagiellonian courts in Kraków and Buda, had numerous courtiers, held feasts and games at his castle in Brzeg (after "Brzeg" by Mieczysław Zlat, p. 21). He died in 1521 at the age of 39.

George and Anna had no children and according to her husband's last will, she received the Duchy of Lubin as a dower with the lifelong rights to independent rule. Anna's rule in Lubin lasted twenty-nine years, and after her death it fell to the Duchy of Legnica. 

The major painter at that time at the royal court in Kraków was Hans Suess von Kulmbach. His work is documented between 1509-1511 and 1514-1515, working for the king Sigismund I (his portrait in Gołuchów, Pławno triptych, a wing from a retable with effigy of a king, identified as portrait of Jogaila/Ladislaus Jagiello, in Sandomierz, among others), his banker Jan Boner (altar of Saint Catherine) and his nephew Casimir, Margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach from 1515 (his portrait dated '1511' in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich). Hans, born in Kulmbach, was a student of the Venetian painter Jacopo de' Barbari (van Venedig geporn, according to Dürer) and then went to Nuremberg, where he became close friends with Albrecht Dürer as his assistant. 

The portrait of a man by Kulmbach in private collection (auctioned at Sotheby's, London in 1959) bear inscription · I · A · 33 (abbreviation for Ihres Alters 33 in German, his age 33, in upper left corner), monogram of the painter HK (joined) and above the year 1514 (in upper right corner). The man was the same age as Duke George I of Brzeg, born according to sources between 1481 and 1483 (after "Piastowie: leksykon biograficzny", p. 506), when Kulmbach moved to Kraków. This portrait has its counterpart in another painting of the same format and dimensions (41 x 31 cm / 40 x 30 cm), portrait of a young woman in Dublin (National Gallery of Ireland, inventory number NGI.371, purchased at Christie's, London, 2 July 1892, lot 15). Both portraits were painted on limewood panels, they have a similar, matching composition and similar inscription. According to the inscription on the portrait of a woman, she was 24 in 1515 (· I · A · 24 / 1515 / HK), exaclty as Anna of Pomerania, born at the end of 1491 or in the first half of 1492 (after "Rodowód książąt pomorskich" by Edward Rymar, p. 428), when she was engaged to George I of Brzeg. The woman bear a strong resemblance to effigies of Anna of Pomerania by Lucas Cranach the Elder and workshop, identified by me. Her costume is very similar to that visible in the painting depicting Self-burial of St. John the Evangelist (St. Mary's Basilica in Kraków), created by Kulmbach in 1516, possibly showing the interior of the Wawel Cathedral with original gothic, silver sarcophagus of Saint Stanislaus. The female figures in the latter painting could be Queen Barbara Zapolya (d. 1515) and her ladies or wife of Jan Boner, Szczęsna Morsztynówna and her ladies. 

Portrait of George I of Brzeg (1481-1521), aged 33 by Hans Suess von Kulmbach, 1514, Private collection.

Portrait of Anna of Pomerania (1492-1550), aged 24 by Hans Suess von Kulmbach, 1515, National Gallery of Ireland.

Self-burial of St. John the Evangelist by Hans Suess von Kulmbach, 1516, St. Mary's Basilica in Kraków. 

Portraits of Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke of Urbino by Venetian painters 

"As to Florence, 1513 also saw another Medici, Lorenzo de' Medici (the grandson of Lorenzo the Magnificent), return to power as a 'leading citizen,' a development felicitous to some, odious to others. He too pursued the Medici drive toward expansion, desiring, and with the help of his uncle the pope, achieving the title of duke of Urbino in 1516. It was to him, in fact, that Machiavelli wound up dedicating The Prince, in the hope, vain in retrospect, that Lorenzo might become the sought-after redeemer of Italy for whom The Prince's final lines cry out so urgently. As duke of Urbino he married a daughter of the count of Auvergne, with whom he had a daughter, Catherine de' Medici, who would later become queen of France" (after Christopher Celenza's "Machiavelli: A Portrait", p. 161). 

Lorenzo, born in Florence on 12 September 1492, received the name of his eminent paternal grandfather Lorenzo the Magnificent. Just as for his grandfather, Lorenzo's emblem was the laurel tree, because of the play on the words laurus (laurel) and Laurentius (Lorenzo, Lawrence).

A bronze medal cast by Antonio Francesco Selvi (1679-1753) in the 1740s, believed to be inspired by the medal created by Francesco da Sangallo (1494-1576), depict the duke in profile with inscription in Latin LAVRENTIVS. MEDICES. VRBINI.DVX.CP. on obverse and a laurel tree with a lion, generally regarded as symbol of strength, on either side with the motto that says: .ITA. ET VIRTVS. (Thus also is virtue), to signify that virtue like laurel is always green. Another medal by Sangallo in the British Museum (inventory number G3,TuscM.9) also shows laurel wreath around field on reverse. 

The so-called "Portrait of a poet" by Palma Vecchio in the National Gallery in London, purchased in 1860 from Edmond Beaucousin in Paris, is generally dated to about 1516 basing on costume. The laurel tree behind the man have the same symbolic meaning as laurel on the duke of Urbino's medals and his face resemble greatly effigies of Lorenzo de' Medici by Raphael and his workshop. 

The same man was also depicted in a series of paintings by Venetian painters showing Christ as the Redeemer of the World (Salvator Mundi). One attributed to Palma Vecchio is on display in the Musée des Beaux-Arts of Strasbourg, the other in the National Museum in Wrocław, possibly from the Polish royal collection, was painted more in the style of Giovanni Cariani or Bernardino Licinio, and another in the Agnes Etherington Art Centre in Kingston is attributed to Girolamo da Santacroce from Bergamo, a pupil of Gentile Bellini, active mainly in Venice. 

As in The Prince by Machiavelli, the message is clear, "more than just a prince, Lorenzo can become a 'redeemer' who drives out of Italy the 'barbarian domination [that] stinks to everyone'" (after Ben Jones' "Apocalypse without God: Apocalyptic Thought, Ideal Politics, and the Limits of Utopian Hope", p.64).

Portrait of Lorenzo de' Medici (1492-1519), Duke of Urbino by Palma Vecchio, ca. 1516, National Gallery in London.

Portrait of Lorenzo de' Medici (1492-1519), Duke of Urbino as the Redeemer of the World (Salvator Mundi) by Palma Vecchio, ca. 1516, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg.

Portrait of Lorenzo de' Medici (1492-1519), Duke of Urbino as the Redeemer of the World (Salvator Mundi) by Giovanni Cariani or Bernardino Licinio, ca. 1516, National Museum in Wrocław.

Portrait of Lorenzo de' Medici (1492-1519), Duke of Urbino as the Redeemer of the World (Salvator Mundi) by Girolamo da Santacroce, ca. 1516, Agnes Etherington Art Centre.

Portrait of Barbara Zapolya by Lucas Cranach the Elder

In 1535 a lavish wedding ceremony was held at the Wawel Castle in Kraków. Hedwig, the only daughter of Sigismund I the Old and his first wife Barbara Zapolya was married to Joachim II Hector, Elector of Brandenburg. 

The bride received a big dowry, including a casket, now in The State Hermitage Museum, commissioned by Sigismund I in 1533 and adorned with jewels from the Jagiellon collection, made of 6.6 kg of silver and 700 grams of gold, adorned with 800 pearls, 370 rubies, 300 diamonds and other gems, including one jewel in the shape of letter S. The same monogram is visible on the sleeves of Hedwig's dress in her portrait by Hans Krell from about 1537. A ring with letter S is on the Sigismund I's tomb monument in the Wawel Cathedral and he also minted coins with it. Hedwig undoubtedly took also with her to Berlin a portrait of her mother. 

The portrait of a woman with necklace and belt with B&S monogram, dated by the experts to about 1512, which was in the Imperial collection in Berlin before World War II, now in private collection, is sometimes identified as Barbara Jagiellon, Duchess of Saxony and Barbara Zapolya's sister-in-law.

The necklace and belt in form of chains with initials is clearly an allusion to great affection, thus the letters must be initals of the woman and her husband. If the painting would be an effigy of Barbara Jagiellon, the initials would be B and G or G and B for Barbara and her husband George (Georgius, Georg), Duke of Saxony. The monogram must be then of Barbara Zápolya and Sigismund I, Hedwig's parents, therefore the portrait is the effigy of her mother.

Portrait of Barbara Zapolya (1495-1515), Queen of Poland with necklace and belt with B&S (Barbara et Sigismundus) monogram by Lucas Cranach the Elder or workshop, ca. 1512-1515, Private collection.

Portraits of King Sigismund I and Queen Barbara Zapolya by workshop of Michel Sittow

From July 15-26, 1515 The First Congress of Vienna was held, attended by the Holy Roman Emperor, Maximilian I, and the Jagiellonian brothers, Vladislaus II, King of Hungary and King of Bohemia, and Sigismund I, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. It became a turning point in the history of Central Europe. In addition to the political arrangements, Maximilian and Vladislaus agreed on a contract of inheritance and arranged a double marriage between their two ruling houses. After the death of Vladislaus, and later his son and heir, the Habsburg-Jagiellon mutual succession treaty ultimately increased the power of the Habsburgs and diminished that of the Jagiellons.

In the 1510s Michel Sittow, who worked as a court portrait painter for the Habsburgs and other prominent royal houses in Spain and the Netherlands, painted a portrait of a man with the embroidered cross of the Spanish Order of Calatrava on his chest, today in the National Gallery of Art in Washington. This man is identified as Don Diego de Guevara (died 1520), Treasurer to Margaret of Austria (Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands from 1507 to 1515, daughter of Emperor Maximilian I), Knight of the Order of Calatrava, who possessed one of the finest collections of Netherlandish art, including Jan van Eyck's famous Arnolfini Portrait. He also served other successive Dukes of Burgundy and as ambassador. This portrait originally formed a diptych together with Sittow's Virgin and Child and the bird, today in the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin. Virgin Mary has the features of a woman identified as Mary Rose Tudor (1496-1533), sister of Henry VIII of England, who was betrothed to Charles V, future Holy Roman Emperor, in 1507. This portrait by Sittow and a copy are in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (GG 5612, GG 7046). The wedding was planned for 1514, but did not take place, due to Charles' illness. The Habsburgs then commissioned the bride's portrait to appease the furious Henry VIII, nevertheless, the engagement was called off.

For his efforts to bring about the double wedding in 1515, King Sigismund received a written assurance from Maximilian that he would work in the empire to have the Polish claims against the Teutonic Order recognized and ensured the end of the support of Muscovites directed against Poland (after "Schicksalsorte Österreichs" by Johannes Sachslehner, p. 71-77). The congress of the monarchs was commemorated in a series of woodcuts by the greatest artists working for the Habsburgs - a woodcut by Hans Burgkmair, Leonard Beck, Hans Schaufelein or Hans Springinklee from the Series "The White King" (Der Weisskunig) showing the first meeting between Bratislava and Hainburg an der Donau on July 15, 1515 (Austrian National Library in Vienna) and The Congress of Princes from the Triumphal Arch of Emperor Maximilian I by Albrecht Dürer (Metropolitan Museum of Art). 

Sigismund, as son of Elizabeth of Austria (1436-1505), was related to the Emperor, who in turn was a grandson of Cymburgis of Masovia (d. 1429). Undoubtedly, he received many family portraits of the Habsburgs by such artists like Giovanni Ambrogio de Predis, Albrecht Dürer, Bernhard Strigel, Hans Burgkmair, Hans Maler zu Schwaz, Joos van Cleve, Bernard van Orley, Jacopo de' Barbari and Michel Sittow, but now he had the opportunity to meet some of them. 

Beyond doubt he was amazed at the splendor of the imperial court. Contrary to strong national or imperial leaders: Henry VII in England, Ferdinand and Isabella in Spain, Louis XI in France and Maximilian I in the Holy Roman Empire, whose rule was increasingly conceived and expressed in 'absolutist' terms (after "A Cultural History of Theatre in the Early Modern Age" by Robert Henke, p. 16), as an elective monarch (election 20 October and 8 December 1506) whose budget was strictly controlled by Polish, Lithuanian and Ruthenian nobles and parliament, he could not afford to spend large sums to keep such artists at his court. Already at the coronation Sejm in 1507, Sigismund I undertook to provide the Senate with the accounts of the Crown Treasurer from public expenses (after "Sejm Rzeczypospolitej... " by Stefania Ochmann-Staniszewska, Zdzisław Staniszewski, p. 204). However, he might have commissioned some paintings from them.

Between 1514 and 1516 Sittow carried out different assignments for the Habsburgs. In 1514 he visited Copenhagen, to paint the portrait of Christian II of Denmark for Margaret of Austria. The portrait was part of the diplomacy for the betrothal of Danish king to Margaret's niece Isabella of Austria. In 1515 he was again in the Netherlands and he went to Spain.

Portrait of a man with a big fur collar by follower of Michel Sittow (oil on oak panel, 33.8 x 23.5 cm, sold at Sotheby's London, 06 December 2012, lot 101) is largely based on Sittow's portrait of Diego de Guevara, created according to different sources between 1514 and 1518. The pose and costume are very similar, as well as composition and even the carpet on the parapet. However, the face is completely different. It appears that Sittow's pupil used the same set of study drawings for the composition and a different for the face. The model resemble greatly the effigy of Sigismund I from The Congress of Princes by Albrecht Dürer, and his portrait by Hans von Kulmbach (Gołuchów Castle). The face with protruding lower lip of the Habsburgs and Dukes of Masovia is similar as in the portraits of the Polish king by Christoph Amberger (Wilanów Palace, lost) and by Titian (Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna), both identified by me. Like the portrait of de Guevara, also this painting is a part of a diptych. Madonna and Child and the bird by follower of Sittow (oil on oak panel, 34 x 24 cm, sold at Koller Auktionen Zürich, 18 March 1998, lot 20) match perfectly in terms of composition, style and dimensions. Similar to the portrait sold in London, it is a copy of the painting of the Virgin from Berlin (Mary Rose Tudor), however, the face is different and resembles effigies of Queen Barbara Zapolya, first wife of Sigismund, who died on 2 October 1515, few months after his return from Vienna. This effigy also resemble the queen's marble bust in the Olesko Castle, most probably created by Netherlandish sculptor. Taking into account that royal effigies, such as the portraits of Emperor Maximilian by Strigel, were created in many copies and versions, the described effigies could be workshop copies of lost originals by Sittow.

Portrait of King Sigismund I as donor by workshop of Michel Sittow, ca. 1515, Private collection.

Portrait of Queen Barbara Zapolya as Madonna and Child and the bird by workshop of Michel Sittow, ca. 1515, Private collection.

Portraits of Jan Dantyszek as Saint John the Baptist by Joos van Cleve

From around 1454 the Hanseatic city of Gdańsk become the main port of Poland-Lithuania and thanks to royal privileges, like the Great Privilege of 1457, one of the most important European transshipment points for grain. The economical and cultural ties of the city with the Netherlands were natural and strong. Grain was exported from Gdańsk and works of art like stone and metal tombstones and wooden altars, produced there in large quantities, were imported from Flanders (after "Złoty wiek malarstwa gdańskiego ..." by Teresa Grzybkowska, p. 44).

In the 16th century, the Netherlandish art market developed an efficient system of distributing works of art. Late Gothic retables were usually created without commissions and were sold on the free market. Artists also dealt with the sale of works outside the studio and traveled around the country or abroad for this purpose. In the case of works commissioned to another city or country, the artist was obliged deliver them to the ship. 

Artists also organized lotteries of objects of art, such as the one organized in 1559 by a painter from Mechelen - Claude Dorizi. In 1577, a merchant from Lüneburg, Michael Willing, organized a lottery of engravings and paintings in Gdańsk. Another method of selling the studio's products by the artist was participation in the fair in Antwerp or Bergen-op-Zoom, which were held twice a year and were visited by merchants from all over Europe (after "Mecheleńskie reliefy ..." by Aleksandra Lipińska, pp. 189-190). 

Probably the first major work from the Netherlands "imported" to Gdańsk was Memling's Last Judgment. However, the triptych was not intended there, but ordered around 1467 by an Italian banker Angelo di Jacopo Tani (1415-1482) for the St. Michael's Chapel in Badia Fiesolana near Florence. Tani was manager of the Medici Bank in Bruges from 1455 to 1465. The ship that was supposed to take the picture to Florence in 1473 was captured shortly after leaving port of Bruges by privateers commanded by Paul Beneke and the triptych was donated to St. Mary's Church in Gdańsk. 

Besides the portrait of the founder Angelo Tani as a donor on the reverse of the left wing, it contains the portrait of his wife Caterina di Francesco Tanagli (1446-1492) in a similar pose as a counterpart on the right wing. Caterina, who could not accompany her husband during his business trip to the Netherlands in 1467-1469, was portrayed in Italy by a Florentine artist (researchers suggest the circle of Filippo Lippi or Piero del Pollaiuolo), and then her image was delivered to Memling's studio. 

The painting also contains many disguised portraits such as the portrait of Charles the Bold (1433-1477), Duke of Burgundy as Saint Andrew, the patron saint of the Duchy of Burgundy, Tommaso di Folco Portinari (ca. 1424-1501) and his wife Maria Maddalena Portinari née Baroncelli (born 1456) as sinners and probably many more awaiting discovery. The triptych opened the gates to the intensive importation of Netherlandish art for two centuries. Netherlandish retables found buyers in Pomeranian churches in Pruszcz (1500-1510), Gdańsk-Święty Wojciech (ca. 1510) or Żuków (ca. 1520) and in 1520 the Mechelen workshop of Jan van Wavere created an altar for the chapel of St. Anthony, also in St. Mary's Church in Gdańsk, commissioned by the guild of porters (today in the Church of the Teutonic Order in Vienna). In 1526, the Malbork Brotherhood brought from Amsterdam a painting of the Madonna for the Artus Court in Gdańsk. 

Before 1516 the then young artist Joos van Cleve (born 1485/1490), who had been a member of the Guild of Saint Luke of Antwerp for only four or five years, adorned the wings of the Saint Reinhold Altar created by workshop of Jan de Molder in Antwerp, today in the National Museum in Warsaw (M.Ob.2190). The polyptych was commissioned by Brotherhood of Saint Reinhold in Gdańsk for the chapel of this saint in the St. Mary's Church and it was probably ready before September 1516. The artist portrayed himself in the guise of Saint Reinhold. It was one of the first of his "allegorical portraits" within religious compositions (after "Nieznane autoportrety Joosa van Cleve ... " by Jan Białostocki, p. 468). Joos' self-portraits are in the scene of the Last Supper (Altarpiece of the Lamentation, ca. 1525, Louvre Museum) and in the Adoration of the Magi of Jan Leszczyński (ca. 1527, National Museum in Poznań). Such disguised portraits were popular in the Netherlands since at least the 15th century. Early examples include effigies of Charles the Bold (1433-1477), Duke of Burgundy as one of the Biblical Magi in the Saint Columba Altarpiece by Rogier van der Weyden (ca. 1455, Alte Pinakothek in Munich), as Saint Andrew in mentioned Last Judgment and in the portrait like effigy of this saint holding a rosary (ca. 1490, Groeninge Museum in Bruges) by Hans Memling, as well as portraits of Mary of Burgundy (1457-1482) as Saint Catherine and Margaret of York (1446-1503), Duchess of Burgundy as Saint Barbara in the Saint John Altarpiece (ca. 1479, Memlingmuseum in Bruges) and the Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine (ca. 1480, Metropolitan Museum of Art), also by Memling. Apart from disguised portraits, they also contained other references to patrons, such as coats of arms, like in the Medici Madonna with portraits of Piero di Cosimo de' Medici (1416-1469) and his brother Giovanni (1421-1463) as Saints Cosmas and Damian by Rogier van der Weyden (1453-1460, Städel Museum in Frankfurt) or the Last Judgment by Memling in Gdańsk with heraldic emblems of Tani and his wife. 

The only coat of arms in the Saint Reinhold Altar is in the predella, which is sometimes attributed to different artist, possibly from Gdańsk. The predella represent Christ as Man of Sorrows with Virgin Mary and Saints: Barbara, Catherine of Alexandria, James the Elder, Sebastian, Adrian of Nicomedia, Anthony the Abbot and Roch and the coat of arms between the Christ and Saint Sebastian is a cross of the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem - a gold Jerusalem Cross on a red shield, the colour of blood, to signify the five wounds of Christ. The most important knight of the Holy Sepulchre from Gdańsk (Latin Gedanum or Dantiscum) at that time was John of Gdańsk or Johannes von Höfen-Flachsbinder, better known as Johannes Dantiscus or Jan Dantyszek, royal secretary and diplomat in the service of the King Sigismund, who traveled frequently across Europe, notably to Venice, Flanders and Spain. The cross of the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre and the attributes of Saint Catherine of Alexandria, commemorating Dantyszek's pilgrimage to the Holy Land and Saint Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai in 1506, are visible in his ex libris (bookplate) by Hieronymus Vietor, created in 1530-32, and in reverse of wooden model for his medal by Christoph Weiditz, created in 1529. 

From 1515 Dantyszek was an envoy at the imperial court in Vienna. From there he traveled three times to Venice. Then he stayed with the imperial court first in Tyrol, from February 9, 1516, then in Augsburg, from October to the end of 1516. At the beginning of 1517, he went with Wilhelm von Roggendorf to the Netherlands and tried to persuade the emperor's granddaughter, Eleanor of Austria (1498-1558), to marry the Polish monarch (after "Jan Dantyszek ..." by Zbigniew Nowak, p. 109). He returned from the Netherlands by sea to Gdańsk.

Dantyszek, who frequently commissioned works of art from various artists whom he met at the imperial court and during his travels and acted as an intermediary in such orders for his friends and patrons, was undeniably an important visitor for many artists in the Netherlands. There is no direct link connecting the Gdańsk retable with Dantyszek, hence any reference to the royal diplomat was probably a courtesy, like the mentioned effigy of the Duke of Burgundy as Saint Andrew in the Last Judgment, commissioned by an Italian client. It is possible that some members of the Brotherhood of Saint Reinhold were depicted in some of the scenes of the altar, but there should be a stronger reference to the new home of the polyptych, which was commissioned specifically for the St. Mary's Church in Gdańsk. The effigy of Saint John the Baptist on the reverse of the left wing and a companion to Saint Reinhold on the right wing should be considered as such. If Saint Reinhold is a self-portrait of the author, Saint John the Baptist is also a disguised portrait of a real person - John of Gdańsk, i.e. Jan Dantyszek. His face resemble other effigies of the royal secretary, especially his portrait by Dosso Dossi (Nationalmuseum in Stockholm), identified by me. 

Another very similar John the Baptist, attributed to Joos van Cleve is also in Poland, in the collection of the Royal Castle in Warsaw (ZKW/3629/ab). Some researchers see the painting as an Italian work, most likely Venetian - the composition, modelling, colors speak for this, but the technological construction proves its Netherlandish provenance (after "The Royal Castle in Warsaw: A Complete Catalogue of Paintings ..." by Dorota Juszczak and Hanna Małachowicz, pp. 542-544). This is most likely because the painter copied a Venetian painting, probably by Titian, and was inspired by his style of bold, blurry brushstrokes and composition. Such mutual impacts are visible in the portraits of Jan Dantyszek by workshop of Marco Basaiti (Jagiellonian University Museum) and by Jacob van Utrecht (Private collection) and portraits of Francis I of France - the fur in his portrait by workshop of Joos van Cleve (Royal Castle in Warsaw, ZKW/2124/ab) is painted in similar style as the Saint John the Baptist and the pose of the king in a painting by Venetian painter (Private collection), indicate that he copied a work by a Netherlandish master.

Stylistically the painting was dated to about 1520, however, dendrochronological examination of the board indicates the beginning of the 1540s as the probable time of creation, which does not exclude the authorship of Joos because he died in 1540 or 1541, or his son Cornelis, who painted in similar style and died between 1567 and 1614. The painting was a property of Sosnicki in 1952, probably in Saint Petersburg, and in 1994 it was offered by Edward Kossoy to the reconstructed castle in Warsaw. 

​Portrait of Jan Dantyszek as Saint John the Baptist and self-portrait as Saint Reinhold by Joos van Cleve, before 1516, National Museum in Warsaw.

​Portrait of Jan Dantyszek as Saint John the Baptist by Joos van Cleve or follower, 1520-1541, Royal Castle in Warsaw.

Portraits of Barbara Jagiellon against the idealized views of Meissen and Königstein by Lucas Cranach the Elder

"And since the Lechitic state happened to be founded in an area containing vast forests and groves that the ancient people believed to be inhabited by Diana and that Diana claimed power over them, Cerera, on the other hand, was considered the mother and goddess of the harvests the country needed, [therefore] these two goddesses: Diana in their language called Dziewanna and Cerera called Marzanna enjoyed a special cult and devotion", wrote Jan Długosz (1415-1480), chronicler and diplomat, in his "Annals or Chronicles of the famous Kingdom of Poland" (Annales seu Cronicae incliti Regni Poloniae), written between 1455 and 1480. In 1467 he was entrusted with tutoring the sons of King Casimir IV Jagiellon.

Devana (Polish Dziewanna), the goddess of wild nature, forests, hunting and the moon worshiped by the Western Slavs, is also mentioned by Maciej Stryjkowski in his "Chronicle of Poland, Lithuania, Samogitia, and all of Ruthenia of Kiev, Moscow ..." (Kronika Polska Litewska, Zmodzka, y wszystkiey Rusi Kijowskiey, Moskiewskiey ...), published in Königsberg (today Kaliningrad) in 1582: "Diana, the goddess of hunting, was called by the Sarmatians Zievonya or Devana in their language". Nevertheless, according to some researchers, like Aleksander Brückner (1856-1939), Długosz, inspired by Roman mythology, invented or modified beliefs to match with the Roman deity. In a multicultural country where many people spoke Latin, it was easy to have such inspiration. Another later invention inspired by the strong Latin culture in Poland-Lithuania and 16th century art, could be Milda, the Lithuanian goddess of love, compared to Roman Venus. 

In Roman mythology, the helpers of Diana are nymphs, whose closest Slavic counterparts are goddesses (boginki), or rusalkas (rusałki), frequently associated with water and represented as naked beautiful girls, like in the painting by Russian painter Ivan Gorokhov from 1912. The legendary water nymphs, supposedly living in the waters of Lake Svityaz in Belarus (Świteź in Polish), were called świtezianki. The legend says that świtezianki tempt boys who fall in love with them and then drown them in the waves of the lake (after "Duchy Kresów Wschodnich" by Alicja Łukawska, p. 151). Roman nymph of the sacred source, Egeria, is mentioned by Długosz in his Historiae Polonicae Liber XIII Et Ultimus, as counselor of Numa Pompilius, the second king of Rome (Et exempla non defunt. Nam complures legiferi ita fecerunt: apud Græcos Pisistratus, apud Romanos Numa cum sua Nympha Egeria &c). According to legend, as the divine consort of Numa, she advised him on important decisions and thus showed him the way to wise rule. The 1885 painting by Spanish painter Ulpiano Checa in the Prado Museum in Madrid shows the nymph Egeria dictating the laws of Rome to Numa Pompilius. Egeria was worshipped by pregnant women because she, like Diana, could grant them an easy delivery.

Before 1500, the interior of the residential part of the Albrechtsburg castle in Meissen was rebuilt for Barbara Jagiellon (1478-1534) and her husband George the Bearded (1471-1539), Duke of Saxony. This medieval castle was erected on the site of the former West Slavic settlement of Misni inhabited by Glomatians. Another reconstruction, on larger scale, occurred between 1521-1524, when Jacob Haylmann completed the Coat of Arms Hall on the 2nd floor and the 3rd floor of the palace and a separate sepulchral annex was created at the Cathedral, the so-called Capella Ducis Georgii for George and his wife. The couple mainly resided in the ancestral seat of the Albertine line of the House of Wettin, Dresden, originally also a Slavic settlement, called Drežďany in Sorbian. Barbara gave birth to 10 children, six of whom died in infancy, she died in Leipzig at the age of 55. She was buried in Meissen Cathedral in a burial chapel built by her husband. Barbara and George are the last Wettin couple to be buried in Meissen Cathedral. The altarpiece in the burial chapel was created by Lucas Cranach the Elder shortly after Barbara's death and depicts the couple as donors surrounded by apostles and saints.

The painting of a nymph at a fountain by Lucas Cranach the Elder, today in the Museum der bildenden Künste in Leipzig (oil on panel, 59 x 91.5 cm, inventory number 757), comes from the collection of the art historian Johann Gottlob von Quandt (1787-1859) in Dresden, acquired by the museum in 1901. This painting is signed with artist's insignia and dated '1518' on the fountain whose pillar is adorned with statue of a naked faun. Fauns and nymphs were among the first inhabitants of early Rome, according to Aeneid by Virgil (Haec nemora indigenae Fauni nymphaeque tenebant). The landscape behind her is her magic and legendary kingdom, however, the topography and the general form of the buildings correspond perfectly to Meissen, like in the view of the city published in about 1820 in "The 70 picturesque sights and views of the environs of Dresden ..." (70 mahlerische An- und Aussichten der Umgegend von Dresden ...) by Carl August Richter and Ludwig Richter. It also seems to be a sort of riddle for the viewer. On the right we can see Albrechtsburg in guise of her abode, below there is the city of Meissen with the church and the Elbe river. The face of a woman greatly resemble Barbara Jagiellon, Duchess of Saxony, from her effigies as Lucretia and the composition is similar to portrait of Barbara's sister Princess Elizabeth Jagiellon (1482-1517) as Egeria (Grunewald hunting lodge in Berlin).

Trough this image in guise of nymph Egeria, counselor to the king of Rome, the Duchess of Saxony wanted to express the power of feminine wisdom. Referring to rusalka, the duchess plays with the perilous aspect of female nature - "I am the Nymph of the Sacred Spring: Do not disturb my sleep. I am resting" (FONTIS NIMPHA SACRI SOMNVM NE RVMPE QVIESCO), reads the Latin inscription on the fountain below the statue of the defeated faun holding a broken lance.

The same woman was depicted in another naked painting, showing her as Lucretia, a noblewoman in ancient Rome, the epitome of female virtue and beauty. Her face is very similar to Lucretia, which was in the late 19th century in the collection of Wilhelm Lowenfeld in Munich, the likeness of Barbara Jagiellon. The landscape behind her depict Königstein (lapide regis, "King's Rock") near Dresden, in Saxon Switzerland. The place takes its name from the castle belonging to the Bohemian kings, who controlled the Elbe valley. The fortress was probably a Slav stronghold as early as the 12th century, but it is not mentioned in chronicles before the year 1241 (after "The Story of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1768-1943" by Paul Robert Kruse, p. 896). In 1459 it formally passed to the margraves of Meissen. In 1516, Duke George the Bearded, a fierce opponent of the Reformation, founded a Celestine abbey on the Königstein, dedicated to Virgin Mary, nevertheless, more and more monks fled until only one monk and one woman in childbed remained, hence the monastery was closed in 1524. The rocky plateau, visible in Cranach's painting, resemble greatly the view of Königstein by Matthäus Merian, published in the Topographia Superioris Saxoniae (1650, part of Topographia Germaniae), as well as the view of Königstein Fortress in about 1900 (photochrom print). 

This painting is today in the Veste Coburg (oil on panel, 85.5 x 57.5 cm, inventory number M.162), where there are also portraits of Barabra's sister Elizabeth Jagiellon (1482-1517), Duchess of Legnica as Lucretia (M.039) and her niece Crown Princess Hedwig Jagiellon (1513-1573) against the idealized view of Kraków (M.163), both by Cranach or his workshop. It comes from old ducal possessions in Coburg and was recorded in 1851 in Coburg Castle. The work is attributed to Lucas Cranach the Elder or his son Hans Cranach and dated to about 1518-1519 or about 1530.

With the fall of the Realm of Venus in Central Europe in the 17th century also many effigies of this important ruler of the Jagiellonian dynasty have been forgotten and she is known today from less favorable portraits in black costume with her hair covered with a bonnet, subdued to the power of God and her husband, exactly as men wanted to see her.  

Portrait of Barbara Jagiellon (1478-1534), Duchess of Saxony as reclining water nymph Egeria against the idealized view of Meissen by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1518, Museum der bildenden Künste in Leipzig.

Portrait of Barbara Jagiellon (1478-1534), Duchess of Saxony as Lucretia against the idealized view of Königstein by Lucas Cranach the Elder or Hans Cranach, ca. 1518-1519 or ca. 1530, Veste Coburg.

Portrait of Bona Sforza by Venetian painter

"As for beauty, it is in no way different from the portrait that Mr. Chryzostom brought, her hair is lovely light blonde, when (oddly enough) her eyelashes and eyebrows are completely black, eyes rather angelic than human, forehead radiant and serene, nose straight without any hump or curvature", described Bona Sforza d'Aragona on 21 December 1517 in his letter to King Sigismund I, Stanisław Ostroróg, castellan of Kalisz.

Already in 1517 the royal banker and main supplier of Sigismund, Jan Boner, was ordered to bring from Venice satin in three colors: crimson, white and black, red velvet and brocade and to purchase a ring with a large diamond in Kraków or Venice for 200 or 300 red zlotys for the king's wedding. 

The effigies of the Queen from 1520s and 1530s confirms her particular liking for different types of hairnets, most probably to expose her beautiful hair, while chasubles she founded, possibly made from her dresses (in Kraków and Łódź), confirms that similar fabrics and embroideries to these visible in the portrait were in her possession. 

The arch, dress, hairnet and hair style in the effigy of Queen Bona published in Kraków in 1521, are astonishingly alike. The printmaker was undoubtedly basing on Queen's painted portrait, possiby another version of the painting in London. The rabbit hunt on her bodice is an allusion to Queen's fertility and ability to produce male heirs to over 50 years old Sigismund.

Portrait of Bona Sforza d'Aragona (1494-1557), Queen of Poland against the backdrop of an arch by Venetian painter, possibly Francesco Bissolo, ca. 1520, National Gallery in London.

Portraits of Dukes of Masovia Stanislaus and Janusz III by Giovanni Cariani and Bernardino Licinio

"They both surpassed many kings by their household, world elegance and war gear, and were also worthy of their famous ancestors", wrote in his work Topographia siue Masoviæ descriptio, published in Warsaw in 1634 Andrzej Święcicki, a notary of the Nur region, about Stanislaus and Janusz III, Dukes of Masovia. 

On 28 October 1503 died Konrad III the Red, Duke of Masovia. He was succeeded by his two minor sons jointly under the regency of their mother Anna (1476-1522), an ambitious member of the Lithuanian Radziwill family. Apart from Stanislaus (1500-1524) and Janusz III (1502-1526), she was the mother of two daughters Sophia (1497/1498-1543) and Anna (ca. 1498-1557). 

Anna's firm hand displeased the nobles. She was the regent of Masovia until 1518, when, as a result of a rebellion of the nobility, ignited by her former lover Mrokowski, she was forced to cede power to her grown-up sons. Despite the formal transfer of power, Anna retained real power until her death in 1522. In 1516 the Duchess asked the Emperor to support her daughter's candidacy as a wife for the Polish king Sigismund I, he however decided to marry Bona Sforza. In 1518 she and her children attended the wedding ceremony of Sigismund I with Bona in Kraków. 

The old Duchess was known for her lavish lifestyle and her inclination towards men. She had an affair with Jan Mrokowski, whom she promoted to the position of the Archdeacon of Warsaw in 1508 and later with Andrzej Zaliwski, who was made castellan of Wizna (the third most important office in the principality). She also cared for the sexual education of her sons having made available to them at one point in their adolescence 8 of her court ladies, among which was the daughter of the Płock voivode, Katarzyna Radziejowska, who was later accused of poisoning the dukes. 

Their love of drink and women and their dissolute lifestyle most likely contributed to the premature death of both dukes. Stanislaus died on August 8, 1524 in Warsaw and Janusz III during the night of 9 to 10 March 1526. They were buried in the Saint John's Cathedral in Warsaw. Their sister Anna founded a tomb monument, the earliest example of a Renaissance sculpture in Masovia, created by Italian sculptor around 1526, most probably Bernardino Zanobi de Gianotis, called Romanus, from Florence or Rome, who was active in Poland since 1517. The slab, made of "royal" red Hungarian marble, preserved the destruction of the temple during the World War II and depict the dukes together, embraced. Both dukes were shown together in all known, before this article, effigies - created in the 17th century after original from about 1510s (in the State Hermitage Museum and the Royal Castle in Warsaw).

​Upon death of young princes their Duchy was annexed by Sigismund I while Bona Sforza was frequently accused of poisoning Stanislaus and his brother. 

According to anatomical and anthropological studies of skeletons of both dukes, published in 1955, Janusz III (skeleton 1) was subnordic and approximately 176.4 cm high and Stanislaus (skeleton 2) nordic type with "reddish hair" and approximately 183 cm high. The specialist examinations did not reveal any traces of poison. Both princes were buried in costumes made of Venetian silk - fragment of fabric with medallions from Janusz III's coffin and fragment of damask fabric with a crown motif from Stanislaus' coffin. The coffins were probably covered with a silk fabric with eagles, a tree of life and a stylized flower-shaped crown (now in Museum of Warsaw), created in Lucca in the end of the 15th century. 

Apart from trade, significant contacts between Masovia and Venice date back to the Middle Ages. In 1226 Konrad I, Duke of Masovia and Kuyavia, having difficulty with constant raids over his territory and willing to become the High Duke of Poland, invited the religious military order of the Teutonic Knights to pacify his most dangerous neighbours and safeguard his territory. This decision had later much worse consequences for the entire Polish state. In 1309 the knights moved their headquarters from Venice to Malbork (Marienburg).

Double portrait known as Bellini brothers is reported in French royal collection since at least 1683 (Louvre, inventory number 107: manner of Giovanni Bellini). It is now atributed to Giovanni Cariani and the costumes are typical to about 1520, threfore this cannot be the Bellinis, who died in 1507 (Gentile) and in 1516 (Giovanni). Edgar Degas, beliving that this is the effigy of the famous Venetians, created a copy of this portrait. 

This portrait is known from several versions, some of which are attributed to Vittore di Matteo, called Vittore Belliniano, son of Matteo, a pupil of Gentile Bellini. The version in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston is very similar to the Louvre painting. In the version in the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, which was in the Solly collection in London until 1821, the men changed places. Another, with the same composition as the Louvre painting, was cut in half (one was in the Hermitage before 1937). Both paintings are now in private collections. These portraits perfectly match known iconography of both dukes of Masovia, as well as examination of their remains. 

The man with "reddish hair" was also depicted in another painting, also from the Solly collection, in the National Gallery in London (bequeathed by Miss Sarah Solly, 1879). It is painted in the style of Andrea Previtali, an Italian painter also active in Venice. The "subnordic" man was depicted in several portraits by Bernardino Licinio, like the effigy holding a book in the Royal Palace of Turin (from the old collection of the dukes of Savoy), a portrait holding his fur coat, which was in the Manfrin Gallery in Venice before 1851, now in private collection, another portrait holding gloves in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (from the collection of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in Brussels), and another against a landscape and holding a cane, in private collection. 

In almost all described portraits the sitters are depicted in rich furs, including lynx, which were very expensive and of which Poland and Masovia were leading exporters at that time. 

Distinctive protruding lower lip (prognathism), so-called Habsburg lip, or Habsburg or Austrian jaw, inherited trait which was present and clearly evident in the Habsburg family, was allegedly introduced into the family by Cymburgis of Masovia (1394/1397-1429), Duchess of Austria from 1412 until 1424. In his "Anatomy of Melancholy" (1621) Robert Burton, an English writer, uses it as an example of hereditary transmission (after Manfred Draudt's "Between Topographical Fact and Cliché: Vienna and Austria in Shakespeare and other English Renaissance Writing"). Protruding lower jaw is visible in all portraits by Cariani and Licinio. Also virtual reconstruction of faces of both dukes, shows the "Habsburg lip".

Portrait of Stanislaus (1500-1524) and Janusz III (1502-1526), Dukes of Masovia by Giovanni Cariani, ca. 1520, Louvre Museum.

Portrait of Stanislaus (1500-1524) and Janusz III (1502-1526), Dukes of Masovia by Edgar Degas after original by Giovanni Cariani, 1858-1860, Saltwood Castle.

Portrait of Stanislaus (1500-1524) and Janusz III (1502-1526), Dukes of Masovia by workshop of Giovanni Cariani, ca. 1520, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Portrait of Stanislaus (1500-1524) and Janusz III (1502-1526), Dukes of Masovia by Giovanni Cariani, ca. 1520, Museum of Fine Arts in Houston.

Portrait of Stanislaus (1500-1524), Duke of Masovia by Giovanni Cariani, ca. 1520, Private collection.

Portrait of Stanislaus (1500-1524), Duke of Masovia by Giovanni Cariani, ca. 1520, Private collection.

Portrait of Stanislaus (1500-1524), Duke of Masovia by Italian painter, most probably Andrea Previtali, ca. 1518, National Gallery in London.

Portrait of Janusz III (1502-1526), Duke of Masovia by Giovanni Cariani, ca. 1520, Private collection.

Portrait of Janusz III (1502-1526), Duke of Masovia holding a book by Bernardino Licinio, ca. 1518-1524, Royal Palace of Turin.

Portrait of Janusz III (1502-1526), Duke of Masovia by Bernardino Licinio, ca. 1518-1524, Private collection.

Portrait of Janusz III (1502-1526), Duke of Masovia holding gloves by Bernardino Licinio, ca. 1524-1526, Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

Portrait of Janusz III (1502-1526), Duke of Masovia holding a cane by Bernardino Licinio, ca. 1524-1526, Private collection.

Portrait of Duke Stanislaus of Masovia by Hans Krell

A German Renaissance painter, Hans Krell (1490-1565), who may have trained in the workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder in Wittenberg, started his career as a court painter for George (1484-1543), Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach, a son of Sophia Jagiellon, at his court in Ansbach. He then followed the Margrave to the Hungarian court and entered the service of Louis II Jagiellon, king of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia, where he served as court painter in Prague, Bratislava and Buda from 1522 to 1526. Krell accompanied the king and queen on their journeys and produced several portraits of the king, his relatives and his courtiers. 

In 1522 he produced a number of similar portraits including of Queen Mary of Austria (1505-1558), wife of Louis, on the occasion of her coronation as Queen of Bohemia (June 1, 1522). The portrait of Mary in Alte Pinakothek in Munich, was probably intended to serve as a gift, and the original date '1522' was most likely rewritten as '152(2)4'. That year he also painted Margrave George (Hungarian National Museum), his younger brother Albert of Prussia (1490-1568), Grand Master of the Teutonic Order and then first Duke of Prussia (known from a 19th century copy by Sixtus Heinrich Jarwart) and Jan Bezdružický of Kolowrat (1498-1526), chamberlain of Louis Jagiellon (Rychnov nad Kněžnou Castle, probably a copy by Jan Baltasar Rauch, created before 1716). 

According to Dieter Koepplin, a Swiss art historian, Krell also painted the Battle of Orsha, created around 1524-1530, which was previously attributed to the circle of Lucas Cranach the Elder. The painting, on display in the National Museum in Warsaw, depicts the 1514 battle between Poland-Lithuania and the Grand Duchy of Moscow. This work was most likely commissioned by Constantine (ca. 1460-1530), Prince of Ostroh, who commanded the main forces of Poland-Lithuania. The detailed knowledge of the battle has been interpreted as meaning that the artist himself participated in the battle. The painting contains a possible self-portrait, depicting the artist as an observer of the battle.

After Louis's death, Krell moved to Leipzig, where he is documented in 1533. Around 1537 he created a portrait of Hedwig Jagiellon (1513-1573), Electress of Brandenburg (Grunewald hunting lodge in Berlin), portrayed in her wedding dress with monogram S of her father Sigismund I on sleeves.

In 1522 he also created a portrait of a man in a fur coat, which was in Marczell von Nemes' collection in Munich before 1936. According to inscription in Latin, tha man was 22 in 1522 (ETATIS · SVE · ANNORVM · XXII · 1522 ·), exactly as Stanislaus (1500-1524), Duke of Masovia, son of Anna Radziwill. The age of the Duke of Masovia was confirmed on a marble plaque from his tomb in Warsaw's Cathedral, destroyed during World War II. According to the inscription in Latin he died in 1524 at the age of 24 (OBIERVNT. STANISAVS ANNO SALVTIS M.DXXIV AETATIS SVAE XXIV). The man bear a great resemblance to effigies of the blond Duke by Giovanni Cariani and Andrea Previtali and his costume is very similar to that of King Louis from his portrait by Krell created in 1522 or 1526 (Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna). 

In 1518, Stanislaus and his brother Janusz began to rule independently in Masovia, however, their mother Anna Radziwill held real power until her death in March 1522. She was buried in the church of Saint Anne in Warsaw which she founded, constructed between 1515-1521 by Bartłomiej Grzywin of Czersk to design by Michael Enkinger from Gdańsk. Stanislaus commissioned a tomb monument for her, not preserved, one of the first Renaissance sculptures in Masovia. Between 1519-1520 Stanislaus and his brother participated on the side of Poland in the war against Albert of Prussia (1490-1568), Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, who waged war against his uncle Sigismund I. At the same time, Stanislaus secretly entered into talks with the Teutonic Knights for a ceasefire, which finally took place in December 1520.

Portrait of Stanislaus (1500-1524), Duke of Masovia, aged 22 by Hans Krell, 1522, Private collection. 

Portrait of Beatrice Zurla, chamberlain of Bona Sforza by Bernardo Licinio

Bona Sforza arrived to Poland in 1518 with a retinue of thirteen noble Italian ladies, among which the most important was Beatrice Zurla. She came from a Neapolitan noble family and become a chamberlain of queen's court. Beatrice and other Ifigenia of unknown family name were paid 100 florins annually and their presence in Poland is confirmed until 1521, but they probably stayed for much longer. The poet and secretary of queen Bona, Andrzej Krzycki, allegedly called Beatrice "the scare of black and white angels". 

Very less is known about her later life and close family. She was probably married or widowed as some sources called her a matron (matrona) (after "Działalność Włochów w Polsce w I połowie XVI wieku: na dworze królewskim, w dyplomacji i hierarchii kościelnej", p. 29), i.e. married woman in Roman society. Her great attachment to Bona was most probably a reason why she decided to leave her family. In 1520 a certain nobleman Leonardo Zurla, possibly Beatrice's brother or husband, built himself a magnificent palace in Crema, a city in Lombardy near Cremona, which from 1449 was part of the Venetian Republic and earlier belonged to the Duchy of Milan. In 1523 he wa sent to Venice with two other speakers, to greet the new Doge Andrea Gritti. 

The portrait attributed to Bernardo Licinio in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich from about 1520, shows a Mediterranean-looking woman. The bodice of her rich gown is embroidered with a motif of vining plant, a symbol of attachment, and she holds her hand on her right breast. It is a reference to Amazons a Scythian race of female warriors, a close - knit sisterhood that valued friendship, courage, and loyalty and who supposedly, according to Hellanicus of Lesbos, removed their right breast to improve their bow strength (FGrHist 4 F 107). It is therefore a symbol of attachment to another, very important woman. The book in her left hand, as not identifiable, could be a reference to the sitter's first name and the most famous literary Beatrice, Dante's muse, Beatrice Portinari. 

It is also possible that crimson color of her robe of Venetian fabric has symbolic meaning. By the mid-16th century Poland was the main exporter of Polish cochineal used to produce a crimson dye, it soon become a national symbol as majority of Polish nobility was dressed in crimson. Another symbol of her new homeland was White Eagle, just as in her bonnet. She is therefore dressed like today's Polish flag.

The painting was transferred in 1804 to Munich from the Neuburg Castle in Neuburg an der Donau.

On 8 June 1642 a great-granddaughter of Bona, princess Anna Catherine Constance Vasa, starost of Brodnica, married in Warsaw Philip William, heir of the Count Palatine of Neuburg. She brought a considerable dowry in jewels, estimated in 1645 at the astronomical amount of 443,289 minted thalers, and cash, calculated at a total of 2 million thalers.

By the late 16th and early 17th century, such cabinet paintings, as the portrait in Munich, of not necessarily related people, become highly praised objects in princely and royal collections in Europe and their Kunstkammer (art cabinets). 

An avid collector of such items was Anna Catherine Constance's cousin Archduke Leopold Wilhelm, who had her portrait by Frans Luycx, and who accompanied her during her visit to her Austrian relatives and spa town of Baden-Baden from August and October 1639. 

It is highly probable that the portrait of the chamberlain of Queen Bona was on one of 70 wagons, that transported Anna Catherine Constance's enormous dowry to Neuburg. 

Portrait of Beatrice Zurla, chamberlain of Bona Sforza, Queen of Poland by Bernardo Licinio, ca. 1520, Alte Pinakothek in Munich.

Portrait of royal astrologer Luca Gaurico by Giovanni Cariani

Apart from noble ladies also some scientists arrived to Poland with Bona Sforza or for her wedding in April 1518. Among them were Celio Calcagnini (1479-1541) from Ferrara, who after his sojourn at the Polish court formulated a theory on the motions of the earth similar to that proposed by Nicolaus Copernicus, and Luca Gaurico (1475-1558), known as Lucas Gauricus, an astrologer and astronomer, born in the Kingdom of Naples. It is unknown when he left Kraków, but according to some theories he was to decide about th date and artistic program of the Sigismund Chapel at the Wawel Cathedral - "Year 1519. His Highness, king Sigismund of Poland, on May 17, on Tuesday after St. Sophia [...] at 11 o'clock, began the construction of the royal chapel in the cathedral church by Italian bricklayers", according to entry in the "Świętokrzyski Yearbook".

Considered as one of the most renowned and dependable fortune-tellers, Gaurico later served as an astrologer to Pope Paul III and Catherine de' Medici, Queen of France. In the 1520s he revised some books published in Venice, like De rebus coelestibus aureum opusculum (1526) or the first Latin translation from the Greek of Ptolemy's Almagest (1528), which constituted the basis of astronomical knowledge in Europe and in the Islamic world. 

The portrait by Giovanni Cariani in Gemäldegalerie in Berlin (Inv. 2201), created in about 1520, shows a man holding an armillary sphere with signs of the zodiac, against the landscape with hills (possibly Euganean Hills, from Greek Eugenes - well-born), and the bird flying through a gap in the stone wall toward the light of knowledge. He is holding a Greek/Byzantine manuscript (after Georgios Boudali's "The Codex and Crafts in Late Antiquity"). 

The inscription on the parapet in Greek and Latin is unclear and was probably understandable only to a person who commissioned or received the painting. Greek Σ ΣΕΠΙΓΙΝΟΜΕΝΟΙΣ (S  Descendants) and a date in Latin AN XI VIII (Year 11 8). The year 1518, when Gaurico arrived to Poland, was the 11th year of reign of Sigismund I the Old, crowned 24 January 1507, and in August 1518 Ottoman forces besieged Belgrade, which was then under the rule of the Kingdom of Hungary. Louis II, king of Hungary was Sigismund's nephew. Turkish forces finally captured the city on 28 August 1521 and continued to march towards the heart of Hungary. Greek Σ is therefore monogram of Σιγισμούνδος - Sigismund for whom the painting was created. It is highly probale that Gaurico predicted in 1518 the Turkish invasion and the fall of the Jagiellonian Empire in Central Europe.  

Provenance of the painting is unknown, it is possible that it was transferred to Berlin with dowry of Hedwig Jagiellon, Electress of Brandenburg or it was taken from Poland during the Deluge (1655-1660), as such "ancient" cabinet paintings become very popular in the 17th century cabinets of art (Kunstkammer). 

Portrait of royal astrologer Luca Gaurico (1475-1558) by Giovanni Cariani, ca. 1520, Gemäldegalerie in Berlin. 

Portraits of Magdalena Bonerówna and Nicolaus II Radziwill by Giovanni Cariani

On 11 August 1527 lady-in-waiting of Queen Bona Magdalena Bonerówna (1505-1530) married in Kraków Stanislaus Radziwill (ca. 1500-1531), a son of Nicolaus II Radziwill (1470-1521), nicknamed Amor Poloniae, a magnate and statesman of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Their wedding took place in the chambers of the royal Wawel Castle, many eminent people participated in it, and the king himself mediated in a property settlement. 

Magdalena, the youngest daughter of Kraków merchant Jakob Andreas Boner (1454-1517) and his wife Barbara Lechner, brought Stanislaus a huge dowry of 12,000 ducats, which is almost three times more than the magnate daughters used to receive at that time.

Jakob Andreas was brother of Johann (Hans) Boner (1462-1523), a merchant from Landau in der Pfalz, who in 1483 emigrated to Kraków. He made a great fortune in paper mills and as tradesman dealing with spices, metals, timbers, livestock, etc. He become king's banker and main purveyor to the royal court. Jakob Andreas ran family business in Nuremberg and in Wrocław and in 1512 he settled in Kraków, where he bought from his brother a house in the Main Square. His daughter Magdalena become a court lady of the Queen around 1524 or possibly earlier.

A painting by Giovanni Cariani from the Wawel Royal Castle in Kraków, depict a blond lady in a dress from the 1520s. The painting was transferred to Wawel collection in 1931 from Stanisław Niedzielski's collection in Śledziejowice near Wieliczka. Earlier, it was in the collection of Wenzel Anton, Prince of Kaunitz-Rietberg, Austrian State Chancellor who contributed to the partitions of Poland. His collection was sold at an auction in Vienna in 1820 by his heirs. The same woman in similar costume was depicted as Saint Mary Magdalene in another painting by Cariani showing Sacra Conversazione with Madonna and Child, Mary Magdalene and Saint Jerome from the same period. 

Mary Magdalene is a patron of women's preaching, moral rebirth and of sinful women and Saint Jerome, who encouraged the Roman women who followed him to study and identified how a woman devoted to Jesus should live her life, was a saint of particular importance to women during Renaissance.

In the National Art Museum of Belarus in Minsk, there is another portrait from the same period, painted in Cariani's style, from the Radziwill collection. Basing on 17th and 18th century paintings and engravings it is identified as effigy of Nicolaus I Radziwill (ca. 1440-1509) or Petras Mantigirdaitis (d. 1459). However a drawing from the State Hermitage Museum, created in mid-17th century or earlier (ОР-45835) bears the inscription Nicolaus II Radziwill. It is therefore a portrait of Nicolaus I's son and Magdalena Bonerówna's father-in-law who was a voivode of Vilnius from 1507 and the Grand Chancellor of Lithuania from 1510. On 25 February 1518 he received, as the first member of the family, the princely title (Reichsfürst) from the emperor Maximilian I. 

Portrait of Magdalena Bonerówna (1505-1530) in white by Giovanni Cariani, 1520-1527, Wawel Royal Castle in Kraków.

Sacra Conversazione with a portrait of Magdalena Bonerówna as Mary Magdalene by Giovanni Cariani, 1520-1527, Private collection.

Portrait of Prince Nicolaus II Radziwill (1470-1521) by Giovanni Cariani, ca. 1520, National Art Museum of Belarus in Minsk.

Portrait of Stanisław Łaski by Hans Suess von Kulmbach 

The portrait of a young blond man by Hans Suess von Kulmbach (interlaced monogram HK) in the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin, was acquired before 1918 from Richard von Kaufmann collection in Berlin. According to inscription the man was 29 in 1520 (ETAS 29 / ANNO 1520), exactly as Stanisław Łaski (1491-1550), also known as Stanislaus a Lasco or Stanislaus von Strickenhoff, a Polish publicist, orator, military theorist, traveler and diplomat.

Stanisław was a nephew of Archbishop of Gniezno Jan Łaski (1456-1531) and brother of famous figure of the Polish Reformation and royal secretary, Jan Łaski (1499-1560). From 1516 to 1518 he studied at the Sorbonne University in Paris with his brothers. He most probably returned to Poland in 1518, the same year Queen Bona arrived to Poland and Hans Suess von Kulmbach returned to Nuremberg after four years spent in Kraków, where he painted a large series of important panels for the church of St. Mary, other religious paintings and portraits of the royal family, of which only the effigy of king Sigismund I the Old preserved in Poland (Gołuchów Castle).

Around 1520 Łaski made a pilgrimage to Palestine, where he received the title of Knight of Jerusalem. On the way he visited the Balkans, North Africa and Sicily. In 1524 he visited Erasmus of Rotterdam. In the same year he entered the service of Francis I, King of France and in 1525 he took part in the battle of Pavia. It was most probably during his pilgrimage in 1520 that he could arrive to Nuremberg and commission his portrait by Suess.

Portrait of Stanisław Łaski (1491-1550) aged 29 by Hans Suess von Kulmbach, 1520, Gemäldegalerie in Berlin.

Sacra Conversazione with Bona Sforza and her son as Madonna and Child by Francesco Bissolo

On 1 August 1520 the queen Bona Maria Sforza (she was baptized with the names of her grandmother, Bona Maria of Savoy) gave birth to the long-awaited heir of Sigismund I, Sigismund Augustus. On this occasion the king ordered to struck a special medal dedicated to "the Blessed Virgin, the Mother of God for the felicitous birth of his son Sigismund" (according to abbreviated inscription: B[EATAE] V[IRGINI] D[EI] P[ARENTI] P[ROPTER] F[ELICEM] N[ATIVITATEM] S[IGISMVNDI] INFANS SVI) and showing the scene of Annunciation to the Virgin, to emphasize queen's role as the Mother of Kings (after Mieczysław Morka's "The Beginnings of Medallic Art in Poland during the Times of Zygmunt I and Bona Sforza", 2008, p. 65).

The effigy of the blond Virgin Mary in the painting by Francesco Bissolo in the National Museum in Warsaw, bears a great resemblance to other effigies of Bona. This painting was transferred to the Museum from the Potocki collection in their Italian style palace in Krzeszowice near Kraków, nationalized after the World War II. It's earlier history is unknown, it is highly probable though, that it was acquired by the Potockis in Poland. 

The scene shows the Virgin and Infant Jesus, the King of kings, the mystical spouse of Jesus, Saint Catherine, whose patronage extends to children and their nurses, Saint Peter holding in his hand the silver key of royal power and Saint John the Baptist, who was sent out by God to announce that the King is coming.
​
As the Polish throne was elective and not hereditary, the concept was undoubtedly to strengthen the rights to the crown for the new born child.

Sacra Conversazione with Bona Sforza and her son as Madonna and Child by Francesco Bissolo, 1520-1525, National Museum in Warsaw.

Sacra Conversazione with portraits of Sigismund I and Bona Sforza by Bonifacio Veronese

Sigismund I, the fifth son of King Casimir IV Jagiellon and Elizabeth of Austria (1436-1505), received the name of his maternal great grandfather, Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund of Luxembourg, King of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia. Saint Sigismund, his patron saint, was King of the Burgundians and patron of monarchs. When father of Sigismund of Luxembourg, Charles IV, transferred Saint Sigismund's relics to Prague in 1366, he become a patron saint of the Kingdom of Bohemia. In 1166, bishop Werner Roch brought to Płock from Aachen a particle of the skull of Saint Sigismund and king Casimir III the Great commissioned a reliquary in 1370 from Kraków goldsmiths (Diocesan Museum in Płock), later adorned with the 13th century "Piast diadem". 

The king was represented as a kneeling donor in several miniatures in his Prayer Book, created by Stanisław Samostrzelnik in 1524 (British Library) and as one of the Magi in the Adoration of the Magi by Joos van Cleve, created between 1520-1534 (Gemäldegalerie in Berlin). In such form, however this time more like Saint Sigismund, he is depicted in the painting by Bonifacio Veronese (born Bonifacio de' Pitati). His effigy is very similar to the painting by Titian in Vienna and by Joos van Cleve in Berlin, but he is much younger. A rich crown is placed beside him and he is accompanied by his favourite little dog. The landscape behind him is very Netherlandish in style, it is therefore possible that it was commissioned together with the painting by Joos van Cleve, as a part of international propaganda of the Jagiellonian state. The king is receiving or giving the globe to the Infant Jesus. He was elected, but was anointed and crowned before the Lord in the Wawel Cathedral, therefore his power comes from the God. The Infant might also represent his newly born son Sigismund Augustus. 

Queen Bona is shown as Saint Elizabeth, a cousin of Mary and mother of Saint John the Baptist. As a patron Saint of pregnant women, of her mother Isabella of Aragon, Duchess of Milan, and of her distant relative, powerful Queen Isabella I of Castile (Isabel, from medieval Spanish form of Elisabeth), she was of particular importance for the young queen of Poland. Saint Elizabeth conceived and gave birth to John in her advanced age, therefore the painter depicted her older, the effigy, however, is still very similar to the portrait of "Duchess Sforza" by Titian and her portrait as Virigin Mary by Francesco Bissolo in Warsaw. The scene of Visitation of Elizabeth by Mary is one of the most important in her Prayer Book created by Stanisław Samostrzelnik between 1527-1528, adorned with her coat of arms and showing her as the Virgin (Bodleian Library). The Church has added Saint Elizabeth's words to the Virgin "Blessed is the fruit of thy womb" to the Angelical Salutation.

The painting is in the Medici collection in Florence since the early 18th century (Palatine Gallery) and it was previously attributed to Palma il Vecchio. In private collection in Rome there is a copy of this painting, painted in the style of Bernardino Licinio.

Sacra Conversazione with portraits of Sigismund I and Bona Sforza by Bonifacio Veronese, ca. 1520, Pitti Palace in Florence. 

Sacra Conversazione with portraits of Sigismund I and Bona Sforza by workshop of Bernardino Licinio, ca. 1520, Private collection. 

Adoration of the Magi with a portrait of king Sigismund I the Old by Joos van Cleve, ca. 1520-1534, Gemäldegalerie in Berlin.

Portrait of Bona Sforza and her son as Venus and Cupid by Lucas Cranach the Elder

Between 1655-1660 the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, created in 1569 with support of the last male Jagiellon and Bona's son, Sigismund Augustus, was invaded by neighbouring countries from north, south, east and west - the Deluge. Royal and magnate residencies in Warsaw, Kraków, Grodno and Vilnius and other locations were ransacted and burned which resulted in the loss of works by Cranach, his son and his workshop and a loss of memory of the royal effigies and their patronage.

The effigies of unknown monarchs were destroyed, but erotic paintings were undeniably interesting to simple soldiers. 

The portrait in Stockholm bears a great resemblance to other effigies of Bona. It is dated by experts to 1520-1525 and Sweden was one of the invaders between 1655-1660, however we can only assume that it was taken from Poland. It's also very similar in form and face features to the Wilanów painting, showing Bona holding a bouquet of forget-me-nots.

The eroticism was very important for the queen. In her portrait by Venetian painter from about 1520 she is shown with a rabbit hunt on her bodice, a clear allusion to her fertility. The subject of Nude Venus was frequent in Italian painting of the renaissance (Botticelli, Giorgione) and the Stockholm painting counts among the oldest by Cranach, so was Bona the first to introduce the subject to Cranach, thus creating a new fashion?

It is an erotic, private painting, hence we cannot search any reference to her status as the queen, it's the resemblance that counts. "As the genetrix of the Roman people through her son Aeneas, Venus signified motherhood" (after "Roman Commemorative Portraits: Women with the Attributes of Venus" by Linda Maria Gigante). This depiction was most likely inspired by Roman custom which probably preserved in local tradions in Italy throughout the ages, although sculptures from the Flavian period in the guise of Venus and other mythological figures are being rediscovered - such as statue of a Flavian woman in the guise of Venus from Porta San Sebastiano in Rome, created in 75 AD (Capitoline Museums, inventory number 09 001782) or statue of a Roman matron in the guise of Venus, believed to depict Marcia Furnilla, a Roman noblewoman who was the second and last wife of the future Roman Emperor Titus as well as the aunt of the future emperor Trajan, created in 79-81 AD (Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen, inventory number 711). Beatrice d'Aragona of Naples, Queen of Hungary and Bohemia and granddaughter of her brother Bona Maria Sforza d'Aragona, both raised in southern Italy (further south from Rome), undoubtedly knew perfectly well this tradition. Bona's fascination with ancient Rome and its culture is best exemplified by the name she gave to her first son - Augustus, after the first Roman Emperor Gaius Octavius Augustus. Flavian statuary largely inspired many funerary monuments in Poland-Lithuania during the Renaissance.

During the Early Empire the emperor and empress assumed a variety of divine guises, including nudity. Statues of Roman empresses disguised as Venus from later periods include the statue of empress Sabina as Venus Genetrix (Museo Archeologico Ostiense), statue of empress Faustina the Younger as Venus Felix (Vatican Museums) and from the group of Mars and Venus (Capitoline Museums), as well as the statue of her daughter, empress Lucilla, as Venus (Skulpturensammlung in Dresden) and from the group of Mars and Venus (Louvre Museum). 

After the birth of his son in 1520, Sigismund I was frequently absent, occupied with war with Muscovy (1512-1522) on north-eastern border, leaving his wife in Kraków in southern Poland. A small painting, this one is 90 x 49.5 cm (35.4 x 19.4 in), would be a good reminder of his wife's affection. ​

Portrait of Bona Sforza and her son as Venus and Cupid by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1521, Nationalmuseum in Stockholm.

Portrait of Bona Sforza and her son as Madonna and Child by Lucas Cranach the Elder

In 1623 hetman Marcin Kazanowski (1563-1636) founded a church for the Carmelites in Bołszowce (today Bilshivtsi in Ukraine). He most probably ordered a painter in Warsaw or Kraków to copy some painting from his own or royal collection to the main altar of the new church. The painting, now in Gdańsk, is astonishingly similar to the Madonna and Child under an apple tree by Lucas Cranach the Elder in The State Hermitage Museum.

The latter painting was acquired by Nicholas I, Emperor of Russia and King of Poland in 1843, hence possibly from a collecion in Poland. The effigy of Mary (Maria) bears a great resemblance to the effigies of Bona Sforza. Bona Maria Sforza was baptized with the names of her grandmother, Bona Maria of Savoy. In Poland the name Maria was at that time reserved solely to the Virigin Mary, hence she could not use it. She could however allow herself to be depicted as the Virigin, according the Italian custom, in her Prayer Book and private paintings. 

In antiquity goddesses of victory commonly were depicted standing upon royal apples. Christians adapted the symbol by setting a cross above the ball to signify the world dominated by Christianity. Thereafter the "imperial apple" became an important emblem of the royal power invested in the monarch - orb (after Encyclopaedia Britannica).

Finally the topography and the castle in the background are very similar to these visible in a print published in 1544 in Cosmographie Universalis and showing Wawel Royal Castle in Kraków.

Several copies of this painting exists, some of which were probably created by some Italian or Netherlandish copists of Cranach as their style is different. One, recorded in French collections before 1833, was later sold in England in 1919, the other owned by the Barons of Stackelberg in Tallinn (Reval, which became a dominion of Sweden in 1561) and was auctioned in Düsseldorf in 1933.

Portrait of Bona Sforza and her son as Madonna and Child under an apple tree by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1521-1525, The State Hermitage Museum. ​

Portrait of Bona Sforza and her son as Madonna and Child from the Stackelberg collection in Tallinn by follower of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1521-1525, Private collection, lost.

Portrait of Bona Sforza and her son as Madonna and Child under an apple tree by follower of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1521-1525, Private collection.

Portrait of Sigismund Augustus as a child

The fact that the portait exist in at least four different versions and in different locations: one was acquired in Rome in 1839, one is in Gorhambury House in England since at least 18th century, the other two in the US were acquired from different European collections, indicate that depicted child was an important person, a heir to the throne of a major European country. "No detail of good Renaissance painting was without an intended symbolic meaning", also the gesture. The child is pictured holding an apple (an age old symbol of the fruit of knowledge and emblem of royal power - an orb) in his right hand (field of action), whilst holding his left hand over his heart (charitable and useful) (after "Dedication to the Light" by Peter Dawkins).

The costume is similar to the garments visible in the portraits of sons of Francis I of France ​from the early 1520s, however the hand gesture and facial features are astonishingly similar to these visible in a print published in Kraków in 1521 and showing one year old Sigismund Augustus. The boy's appearance (blond hair, dark eyes, a bit retracted jaw) are also similar to these known from the effigies of Sigismund Augustus' mother - Bona Sforza. 

Sigismund Augustus has dark hair in his portraits. Hair color in children tends to darken with advancing age so was the famous light blond of Bona and her daughters another trick of poisonous Sforzas? The Experimenti compiled by Bona's aunt Caterina Sforza, Countess of Forli is a compilation of recipes for "curing headache, fever, syphilis, and epilepsy; lightening the hair or improving the skin; treating infertility, making poisons and panaceas; and producing alchemical gems and gold" (after "Becoming a Blond in Renaissance Italy" by Janet Stephens).

According to experts the portraits were created by different Venetian and Flemish workshops, this is another indicator that they were commissioned by multicultural Jagiellonian court. ​

Portrait of Sigismund Augustus (1520-1572) as a child holding an apple by Flemish or Venetian painter, ca. 1521, The Clark Art Institute.​​

Portrait of Sigismund Augustus (1520-1572) as a child holding an apple by Venetian painter, ca. 1521, The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore.

Portrait of Sigismund Augustus (1520-1572) as a child holding an apple by Venetian painter, ca. 1521, Gorhambury House.

Portrait of Sigismund Augustus (1520-1572) as a child holding an apple by Venetian painter, ca. 1521, The Royal Collection.

Portrait of Queen Bona Sforza as Madonna by Jan Gossaert

"Polish lords, under what lucky star You brought Queen Bona here! For all the charm of the Italian land Came with Bona to the country of the frosty Ursa. O happy people and happy kingdom, So greater than others thanks to their rulers! Happy chambers and wedding bed, What shelter you give to the two lights of the world!" (after Polish translation by Edwin Je̜drkiewicz, Reginam proceres Bonam Poloni, Quam fausto dominam tulistis astro! Nam quidquid Latii fuit decoris Translatum est gelidam Bona sub Arcton. Felices populi, beata regna, Quam gentes dominis praeitis omnes ! Felices thalami, tori beati, Qui mundi geminum iubar fovetis), wrote in his Latin epigram entitled "On Queen Bona" (De Regina Bona), secretary of the queen Andrzej Krzycki (1482-1537), later Archbishop of Gniezno.

Witold Wojtowicz calls this poetry "a game with the sacred dimension of the world, reminiscent of the opening verses of the Gospel of John [...], associating it with the sexual act" and "sacralization of eroticism" (after "Szkice o poezji obscenicznej i satyrycznej Andrzeja Krzyckiego", p. 47). Gerolamo Borgia (1475-1550), Bishop of Massa Lubrense, called Bona in his "To Bona Sforza" (Ad Bonam Sfortiadem), written after 1518 and published in Venice in 1666, "the divine offspring of Jupiter's Muses, banished by the savage manners of men, freeing all the lands to give way to Heaven" (divo Musae Iovis alma proles Ob feras mores hominum fugata, Omnibus terris liberat parumper Cedere Coelo). 

In about 1520 Jan Gossaert (or Gossart), who was at that time a court painter to Philip of Burgundy (1464-1524), bishop of Utrecht, created a small painting depicting Madonna and Child playing with the veil (oil on panel, 25.4 x 19.3 cm). The Virgin wears a blue tunic and mantle, as signifying heavenly love and heavenly truth. 

To achive the divine celestial blue color Gossaert used ultramarine and azurite, precious pigments made from ground semi-precious stones, and considerably cheaper organic indigo from India. Ultramarine (ultramarinus), literally "beyond the sea", imported from Asia by sea, was made by grinding lapis lazuli into a powder, while azurite, used for the underpainting, hailed from the inaccessible mountains. All were threfore tremendously costly. "In 1515, the Florentine artist Andrea del Sarto paid five florins for an ounce of high-quality ultramarine to use on a painting of the Madonna, equivalent to a month's salary for a minor civil servant, or five years' rent for a labourer living just outside the city" (after "The World According to Colour: A Cultural History" by James Fox).
 
By the 14th century, the principal center for supply of the ultramarine in Europe was Venice. Azurite was mined in Europe, mainly in Hungary and Germany, but also in Poland since the Middle Ages and exported to the Netherlands. In 1485, a Pole Mikołaj Polak (Claeys Polains), was sued by the Bruges Guild of Saint Luke at the Council for using inferior Polish lazurite. The mineral was mined near Chęciny and was mentioned in the manuscript Chorographia Regni Poloniae by Polish historian Jan Długosz, written around 1455-1480: "Chęciny, a mountain […] abounding both in its slopes and in the vicinity of azure stone and copper" and in Sarmatiae Europeae descriptio (Description of Sarmatian Europe) by Venetian-born Polish writer Alessandro Guagnini dei Rizzoni (Aleksander Gwagnin), printed in Kraków in 1578: "Chęciny […] famous for azure mines, where silver is also found" (after "Handel pigmentami miedziowymi ze złóż świętokrzyskich w świetle źródeł archiwalnych" by Michał Witkowski and Sylwia Svorová Pawełkowicz). The subsequent development of the Chęciny mines in the 16th century is due to Queen Bona, who brought in the first Italian masters and expanded the mines in the vicinity of Zelejowa (after "Prace" by Instytut Geologiczny, Volume 21, p. 94).

The pigment was highly valued by the Polish-Lithuanian royal court. In 1509 Chęciny azurite, purchased from Leonard of Chęciny, was used to paint the rooms of the Wawel Castle. King Sigismund I recommended this azure to his chamberlain Stanisław Szafraniec in a letter of 1512 and it was mentioned in the entry of the "Świętokrzyski Yearbook": "In 1517 the most serene king of Poland, Sigismund, restoring the Kraków castle adorned it in an unprecedented way with columns, paintings, gilded flowers and azure". In 1544, the painter Piotr (most probably Pietro Veneziano) painted a wooden cross with azure for the princesses.

Also painters appreciated its properties - in 1520, the painter Jan Goraj and Jan the illuminator purchased Chęciny azurite, as well as Nuremberg painter Sebald Singer in 1525, the same who drew up several designs for bell-founder from Brussels Servatius Aerts (Serwacy Arcz). Costyly blue pigments were used in abundance in Prayer Books of King Sigismund I the Old (1524, British Library) and his wife Bona Sforza (1527-1528, Bodleian Library), both created by Stanisław Samostrzelnik.

The painting by Gossaert was in 1917 in the collection Carl von Hollitscher (1845-1925), an Austrian entrepreneur and art collector in Berlin. It was purchased in 1939 by the Mauritshuis in The Hague (inventory number 830). The inspiration of Venetian painting, especially Madonnas by Giovanni Bellini, is evident. Signed Madonna and playful Child by Bellini, created in about 1476 (signature IOHANNES BELLINVS, Accademia Carrara) being particularly close to described painting. 

Gossaert travelled to Rome in 1509, however, such direct inspiration by Venetian painting and use of mentioned blue pigments over ten years after his return from Italy, indicate that the person who commissioned the work could have been Italian or Gossaert had received a study drawing by an Italian artist to create a painting for a very rich client. Queen Bona Sforza, whose friend Jan Dantyszek travelled frequently to Venice and the Netherlands and who commissioned 16 tapestries in Antwerp in 1526, match all these terms.

Similar to Anna van Bergen (1492-1541), Marquise de Veere, the Queen ordered her effigy as Madonna and Child and the face of the Virgin bear a strong resemblance to her portraits by Francesco Bissolo (ca. 1520, National Gallery in London), by Cranach (1526, The Hermitage, 1530s, Arp Museum, 1535-1540, National Gallery in Prague) and by Bernardino Licinio (1530s, Government Art Collection, UK), all identified by me. Probably the success of this composition prompted the artist to make copies, in which, however, the resemblance to Bona is not so evident. Madonna and Child playing with the veil by workshop of Jan Gossaert, most probably purchased by Stanisław Kostka Potocki in France in 1808, is in the royal Wilanów Palace in Warsaw (Wil.1008) another in the National Museum in Warsaw (M.Ob.63). A good quality version from the Miączyński-Dzieduszycki gallery in Lviv was in the Wawel Royal Castle, lost during World War II (oil on panel, 67 cm x 87.5 cm, inventory of the State Art Collections - PZS from 1932: 2158).

Also, the star-shaped pattern on the cloth covering the table could have had a symbolic meaning. It can be compared to the Far Eastern yantra, a diagram, mainly from the Tantric traditions of the Indian religions, used for the worship of deities in temples or at home or the star of Bethlehem in Adoration of the Magi from the Prayer Book of Bona Sforza (Bodleian Library). The star led the Magi on their journey, and the child they visited came to be called "the light of the world". Eight-pointed star that has since come to symbolize the star of Bethlehem was also an ancient symbol for the planet Venus. The "lucky star" brought Queen Bona to Poland.

Portrait of Bona Sforza d'Aragona (1494-1557), Queen of Poland as Madonna and Child playing with the veil by Jan Gossaert, 1520-1525, Mauritshuis.

Madonna and Child playing with the veil by workshop of Jan Gossaert, ca. 1533, Wilanów Palace in Warsaw.

Madonna and Child playing with the veil by workshop of Jan Gossaert, after 1531, National Museum in Warsaw.

Portraits of Anna of Masovia by Bernardino Licinio and Lucas Cranach the Elder

"Stanislaus and Janusz, sons of Konrad, Duke of Masovia, from the ancient Polish kings, the last male offspring of Masovian princes, ruling happily for 600 years. The young men both excelled with good honesty and innocence, with the power of a premature and unfortunate destiny in short intervals, with great sorrow of their subjects, died: Stanislaus, in the year of salvation, 1524, at the age of 24, and Janusz in 1526, at the age of 24; after the death of which the inheritance and reign over the entire Masovia passed to the king of Poland, Anna, the princess, adorned with virginity and unparalleled honesty, made her brothers with bitter tears [this monument]", reads the incription in Latin on the tombstone plaque of the last Dukes of Masovia (destroyed during World War II). 

Venetian painting workshops during Renaissance had a great advantage over German or Netherlandish. Painters gradually modified the technique, which allowed them to create paintings much faster and they used canvas, so they could create in a much larger format. The canvas was also far less heavy than wood and one man could transport several paintings to different locations. Many of these paintings remained in artists' ateliers in Venice as a modello or a ricordo. The women in two portraits by Bernardino Licinio resemble greatly the "Masovian brothers". 

Anna of Masovia was born in about 1498 as the second daughter of Duke Konrad III the Red and Anna Radzwill. She had an elder sister Sophia. In 1518 Casimir, Margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach shattered a lance in her honor during the great jousting tournament organized to celebrate the wedding of Sigismund and Bona Sforza. Two years later, on 17 September 1520 in Warsaw, her sister Sophia was married by proxy to Stephen VII Bathory, Palatine of Hungary, and on 17 January 1521 she left for Hungary with her entourage. On the night of March 14-15, 1522, Duchess Anna Radziwill died in Liw. She was buried in St. Anne's Church in Warsaw. Her daughter Anna was from now on, at the age of about 24, the eldest member of the family in Masovia. 

The portrait by Licinio in the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest depict a young woman in a simple white shirt, black coat of Venetian satin lined with fur and a cap of black brocaded damask. She holds an open book on a marble block with a date 1522 (MDXXII) and a solitary oak leaf. Oak was a symbol of power, authority and victory in the Roman times. "In moralizations the oak represented patience, strength of faith, and the virtue of Christian endurance in the face of adversity. As such, it was depicted as the attribute of Job and martyred saints in Renaissance art" (after Simona Cohen, "Animals as Disguised Symbols in Renaissance Art", 2008, p. 86). The provenance of the painting in Hungary is not known, threfore it is highly possible that Anna of Masovia sent to her sister Sophia her portrait in mourning for the death of their mother.

In 1525, Albert of Prussia asked for Anna's hand in marriage. His dynastic endeavors as well as plans to marry Anna to his brother William of Brandenburg, were stopped by the firm policy of Bona Sforza. Soon after, Queen Bona, not wanting to exacerbate internal conflicts, resigned from marring her, despite the insistence of the Masovian nobles, to her son Sigismund Augustus. The facial features of two women in paintings by Lucas Cranach the Elder entitled Portrait of a courtly lady, in private collection, and Venus and Cupid, in Compton Verney, are very much alike. It is also the same woman as in the portraits by Licinio, her facial features, protruding lower lip and expression are identical. The painting in Compton Verney bears a date 1525 (indistinct), a date when it was proposed to marry Anna with a nephew of King of Poland, newly created Duke of Prussia (after secularisation of the Monastic state of the Teutonic Knights), who was painted by Lucas Cranach the Elder several times (e.g. portrait in the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, dated 1528). The woman in the effigy of a courtly lady in wide red hat decorated with plumes from about 1530 was most probably hoding a flower in her left hand, just as Queen Bona in her portrait by Cranach in the Wilanów Palace. The painter possibly forgot to add it or changed the concept, which might indicate that the painting was one of a series dedicated to possible suitors. In 1536 Anna finally married Stanisław Odrowąż, voivode of Podole, who already in 1530 was planning to marry her.

In March 1526, almost two years after Stanislaus, died Janusz III, the last male member of the Masovian Piasts. In his last will from 4 March 1526 he left majority of his belongings in money, jewels, precious stones, pearls, gold, silver and movable goods to his sister Anna, and some garments to his courtiers, like a robe and a bonnet lined with sables to Piotr Kopytowski, castellan of Warsaw or a silk robe to Wawrzyniec Prażmowski, castellan of Czersk.

The organisation of funeral was postponed, to await the arrival of King Sigismund. Sudden death of both young dukes, in a short time, sparked the suspicion that their deaths were not natural. The main suspect was Katarzyna Radziejowska, who after being seduced and abandoned by both princes, was believed to have poisoned the dukes and their mother Anna Radziwill. The woman and her supposed accomplice Kliczewska confessed to the gradual poisoning of the duke and both were sentenced to endure the horrible death. 

The rush to execute the sentence raised even more suspicion that, in fact, the real instigator of the crime was Queen Bona. The logical explanation was related to the queen's ambitious plans for Masovia, which she wanted for her son Sigismund Augustus. The contemporary chronicler, however, Bernard Wapowski, citing a scene he witnessed himself denies these allegations: "When the young duke, warmed by the example of a few similar revellers, ordered to pour wine in his throat, as a result of which in two weeks he bid farewell to the world". Despite this, rumors spread and more and more people began to accuse the Polish queen.

A group of nobles associated with the Masovian court, opposing the incorporation of the Duchy into the Crown, proclaimed Anna as a duchess. Soon after, however, the Ducal Council concluded a compromise with the Polish king as the incorporation was beneficial for them. Anna had to accept the salary from Sigismund I, lands near Goszczyn and Liw and the "Small Manor" (Curia Minor) at the Royal Castle in Warsaw as her residence, until she got married.

The king set up a special commission to deal with the matter of the death of the dukes. On February 9, 1528, he issued an edict in which he stated that the princes "weren't victims of a human hand, but was the will of the Almighty Lord that caused their deaths".

The portrait by Bernardino Licinio in the Castello Sforzesco in Milan, shows the same woman as in the portrait in Budapest holding a portrait of a man, very similar to the portrait by Licinio depicting a man holding a cane (Janusz III). She is dressed in black and the bodice of her rich dress is embroidered with a motif of dogs, a symbol of loyalty and fidelity. The landscape in the background with a castle is very similar to the castle in Płock, the ancient capital of Masovia (till 1262), the de facto capital of Poland between 1079 to 1138 and a seat of one of the oldest dioceses in Poland, established in 1075. Between 1504-1522, the Bishop of Płock was Erazm Ciołek (1474-1522) a diplomat, writer and patron of the artists, who travelled to Rome, studied in Bologna with Filippo Beroaldo and negotiatied the marriage of Sigismund I with Bona Sforza. He was followed in 1522 by Rafał Leszczyński (1480-1527), educated in Padua and the secretary of Prince Sigismund during his reign in the Duchy of Głogów and after his death by Andrzej Krzycki (1482-1537), secretary of Queen Bona, patron of arts and a poet writing in Latin, who was studying in Bologna under prominent humanists. In this painting Anna wanted to express that she would not renounce Masovia. 

Portrait of Anna of Masovia (ca. 1498-1557) holding a book by Bernardino Licinio, 1522, Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest.  

Portrait of Anna of Masovia (ca. 1498-1557) as Venus and Cupid by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1525, Compton Verney.  

Portrait of Anna of Masovia (ca. 1498-1557) holding a portrait of her brother Janusz III by Bernardino Licinio, 1526-1528, Castello Sforzesco in Milan.  

Portrait of Anna of Masovia (ca. 1498-1557) in a hat decorated with plumes by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1530, Private collection.  

Portrait of Constantine, Prince of Ostroh and Tatyana Olshanskaya by Giovanni Cariani

"The hetman was a faithful regalist, and the monarch reciprocated by entrusting him with the highest positions in the state. He did so in violation of the law because the Prince of Ostroh professed Orthodoxy, and positions in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania were reserved exclusively for Catholics. This brought him the envy of many Lithuanian nobles. Albertas Gostautas, who had enormous influence, accused him of being a "homo novus of low condition, deriving his family from the poorest Ruthenian princes". The dispute that broke out between them was based not only on personal animosity, it was also an ideological conflict. Gostautas was a Lithuanian separatist, the Prince of Ostroh, however, seeing Lithuania's military weakness, advocated close cooperation with the Crown. Using the support of the royal court, including Queen Bona, he was the most important protector of Orthodoxy in Lithuania" (after "Konstanty Ostrogski (ok. 1460-1530) – Scypion ruski i litewski" by Wojciech Kalwat).
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It was Constantine, who, along with several Polish magnates, welcomed Bona in Poland on behalf of the king in the village of Morawica on April 13, 1518. Few days later, during parade in Kraków, the private troops of the Prince of Ostroh stood out among the Lithuanian magnate troops parading in front of the royal couple and he occupied one the leading places next to the king during a huge feast organized after the wedding and coronation.

Being so close to the Italianate court of Queen Bona, Constantine undoubtedly followed the fashion introduced or enforced by her, including ordering his effigies in the same style and from the same artists as the queen. Many effigies of Sigismund I by Stanisław Samostrzelnik in king's Prayer Book (1524, British Library) depict him as a donor kneeling before the Virgin or Christ. The same in the Prayer Book of Albertas Gostautas (1528, University Library in Munich) with the king represented as one of the Magi in the scene of the Adoration and the owner kneeling in prayer before his patron Saint Adalbert of Prague. 

Catholic magnate from Lithuania, George Radziwill (1480-1541), nicknamed "Hercules", a companion and participant in all his victories, joined the opposition led by Constantine. In 1523, the two friends bound themselves by the marriage of their children, Prince Ilia, who was then twelve years old and Anna, the elder daughter of George Radziwill, only five years old. Radziwill did not want to enter into marriage arrangements for his daughter, with a young man baptized and raised in the Greek rite, without the permission of the Holy See (quod cum illustris vir Constantinus Dux Ostrouiensis et Magni Ducatus Lithuaniae Campiductor generalis, Ruthenus juxta ritum Graecorum vivens, quendam filium suum Iliam nuncupatum, duodecim annorum existentem et Ruthenum, et ut Graeci faciunt baptisatum). So he asked for a dispensation from Pope Clement VII (Giulio de' Medici), who had only just been chosen as the successor of St. Peter. The Pope's relative, Catherine de' Medici, future Queen of France, was depicted in several portraits by Giovanni Cariani, identified by me. 

For the sake of the great merits of Prince Constantine, Grand Hetman of Lithuania, and therefore also all the Christian people, the "Dispensation from the Supreme Pontiff given to a certain Ilia the Ruthenian, so that she could contract marriage" (Dispensatio Summi Pontificis data cuidam Iliae Rutheno, ut possit contrahere matrimonium) was issued on March 5, 1523. Ilia was Constantine's first son and the only child from his first marriage to Tatyana Semenovna Olshanskaya. She was younger of two daughters of Prince Semyon Yurievich Olshansky and Princess Anastasia Semyonovna Zbarazhskaya and the only heir of the great fortune of his father and mother after death of her sister Anastasia in 1511. Tatyana and Constantine married in 1509 and she died in 1522 at the age of about 42. In the same year Constantine married for the second time young Princess Alexandra Olelkovich-Slutska, who gave birth to his son Constantine Vasily and a daughter Sophia.

The Prince of Ostroh was a founder of many new Orthodox churches, including in the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania - Vilnius. Like Queen Bona he surrounded by a special veneration and devotion the Virgin Mary. To the Mezhyrich Monastery near Kiev that he founded on March 12, 1523, he offered a 15th century icon of Madonna and Child (Hodegetria), which was probably brought from the Mount Athos as a gift from the Patriarch of Constantinople. He was buried, according to his wish, in the Dormition Cathedral of the Kiev Monastery of the Caves (Pechersk Lavra), where in 1579 his son Constantine Vasily erected him a tombstone in Italian style.

In the Palazzo Barberini (Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica) in Rome there is portrait of a bearded man from the 1520s in the pose of a donor, painted by Giovanni Cariani (oil on canvas, 69 x 51.5 cm, inventory number 1641). It was bequeathed by Henriette Hertz in 1915 and before 1896 it was in the Bonomi-Cereda collection in Milan. The man wears a coat in eastern style lined with a thick fur, similar to that visible in many portraits of Constantine, Prince of Ostroh (e.g. in Lviv Historical Museum, Ж-1533, Ж-1707). His facial features, beard and distinctive hat are almost identical as in effigies of Constantine in the Bila Tserkva Regional Museum and in the Belarusian National Arts Museum. This painting was most probably a part of a larger composition, like in some of Cariani's Sacra Conversazione representing Madonna and Child venerated by donors, e.g. paintings in Accademia Carrara in Bergamo (inventory number 205 (52) and 1064 (92)) and in Ca' Rezzonico in Venice, which was left unfinished by the artist or it was damaged and divided into pieces. Portrait of a woman in prayer in the Castello Sforzesco in Milan (oil on canvas, 68 × 46 cm, inventory number 26), having a similar composition and dimensions, is considered as another part of this lost painting. The paining comes from the collection of Carlo Dell'Acqua in Milan and reached the Museum through the donation of Camillo Tanzi in 1881. The woman should be identified as the man's wife, hence in this case Tatyana Semenovna Olshanskaya.

The artist's activity can be divided into three precise periodsː the first period in Venice at a young age, the second period from 1517 to 1523 in Bergamo near Milan, where he began his personal and free artistic form, the third period again in Venice, where he maintained active collaboration with Bergamo and where he perhaps returned in later years. If the painting was left unfinished in artist's atelier it was most likely because of the death of Tatyana and Constantine's subsequent marriage in 1522.

Comparison of Seven Albani Portraits (Sette Ritratti Albani or courtesans and their male admirers, private collection) and Recumbent woman (Venus in a landscape) by Giovanni Cariani (The Royal Collection Trust, mirror view) with the same woman in the same pose depicted dressed and naked, confirms the frequent use of template drawings by the painter. It is possible that the portrait of Constantine in Bila Tserkva from the late 18th century is a copy of unpreserved original by Cariani.

Portrait of Constantine (ca. 1460-1530), Prince of Ostroh by Giovanni Cariani, ca. 1522, Palazzo Barberini in Rome. 

Portrait of Tatyana Olshanskaya (ca. 1480-1522), Princess of Ostroh by Giovanni Cariani, ca. 1522, Castello Sforzesco in Milan.

Constantine (ca. 1460-1530), Prince of Ostroh and his wife Tatyana Olshanskaya (ca. 1480-1522) as donors before Madonna and Child by Giovanni Cariani, ca. 1522. Possible layout of original painting. © Marcin Latka

Portraits of Constantine, Prince of Ostroh and his wife Alexandra Olelkovich-Slutska by Lucas Cranach the Elder and workshop 

When on July 12, 1522 died Princess Tatyana Olshanskaya, first wife of Constantine, Prince of Ostroh (Konstanty Ostrogski), just few days later, on July 26 in Vilnius, the Prince concluded a pre-wedding contract with Anastasia Mstislavska, Princess of Slutsk and her son Yuri regarding the marriage of her daughter - Alexandra. "And if God gives me, with her Majesty Princess Alexandra, children, sons or girls, I should love them also, and look after them as much as for our first son, Prince Ilia, whom we have with my first wife", added the Prince in the contract. They married soon after. The bride, born in about 1503, was 19 years old and the groom, born in about 1460, was 62 at the time of their marriage contract. 

Constantine, considered as an eminent military commander and called the Ruthenian Scipio, was the wealthiest man in Red Ruthenia (western Ukraine), the largest landowner in Volhynia and one of the wealthiest and most powerful men in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. He owned 91 cities and towns and had about 41 thousand subjects. The Princes of Ostroh, a branch of the Rurikid dynasty claiming to be descendants of Daniel of Galicia (1201-1264), King of Ruthenia and Vladimir the Great (c. 958-1015), Prince of Novgorod and Grand Prince of Kiev, were one of the oldest princely families in Poland-Lithuania and initially used Saint George piercing a dragon as their coat of arms. His new wife, Alexandra Olelkovich-Slutska, a descendant of Vladimir Olgerdovich, Grand Prince of Kiev (between 1362-1394), son of Algirdas, Grand Duke of Lithuania, was related to the Jagiellonian dynasty from the maternal and paternal side.

It is possible that between 1494-1496 Constantine served Emperor Maximilian I and took part in his campaign in northern Italy. For his victory near Ochakiv over the troops of Mehmed I Giray, khan of Crimea on August 10, 1497 he received the the title of Grand Hetman of Lithuania as the first person to receive this title and in 1522 he become the voivode of Trakai, considered the second most important official after the voivode and castellan of Vilnius, and received from the king the privilege of affixing seals of red wax (August 27, 1522).

To commemorate his glorious victory over the forces of Vasily III, Grand Prince of Moscow in the Battle of Orsha on September 8, 1514, he most probably commissioned a painting depicting the battle in the workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, attributed to Hans Krell (National Museum in Warsaw), possibly one of a series. He is depicted three times in this work in different stages of the battle. In 1514 the Hetman received permission from King Sigismund I to build two Orthodox churches in Vilnius. Instead of building a new one, he decided to repair and rebuilt in the Gothic style two old, dilapidated churches, Church of the Holy Trinity and the Church of Saint Nicholas.

Just as his friend, the king of Poland Sigismund I and his young wife Bona Sforza, he and his wife also undoubtedly commemorated important events in their life and sought to strengthen their position and alliances locally and abroad through paintings. If the king and his wife were depicted in guise of different biblical figures, why Constantine could not? 

Despite his loyalty to the Catholic kings of Poland and his feud with the Orthodox Grand Duchy of Moscow, Constantine remained Orthodox and he promoted the construction of Orthodox churches and schools. In 1521 in the ancestral home of the Ostroh princes and his main seat, the Ostroh Castle, he began the construction of a new brick church on the site of an older Orthodox church built between 1446 and 1450. This architectural dominant of the castle, combining Gothic and Byzantine elements, was created by an architect presumably from Kraków and dedicated to the Epiphany, honoring the visit of the three Magi to the newborn baby Jesus.

A painting of the Adoration of the Magi in the Historical Museum in Bamberg, donated by the cathedral canon Georg Betz (1768-1832), is dated '1522' and bears Cranach's mark, the crowned snake. It is known from many versions, however only this one is signed and dated. 

There is a noticeable divergence from Cranach's style, the work was therefore created by a pupil in his workshop working on some large scale commission and just signed by the master's mark. Other versions are in the State Art Gallery in Karlsruhe, from the collection of the Margraves and Grand Dukes of Baden, in the Burg Eltz, old family property of the Counts of Eltz-Kempenich and in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow from the Ducal picture gallery in Gotha. One was sold in 1933 by Galerie Helbing in Munich (lot 424) and another in London on 27 October 1993 (lot 155). The mirror version of the whole composition from the collection of Edward Solly (1776-1848) is in the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg. All are considered to be workshop copies.

The original was undoubtedly a larger composition - the altar. Closed wings in the altar design by Lucas Cranach the Elder in the State Art Collections in Weimar (Schloßmuseum) depict identical scene of the Adoration of the Magi. One of the three "wise man from the East" and the Virgin and Child holding a bowl of gold coins are in the center on separate panels to further accentuate their importance. Melchior, the old man of the three Magi, venerated in Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Church, was traditionally called the King of Persia and brought the gift of gold to Jesus, signifying the regal status, a symbol of wealth and kingship on earth.

When opened the altar design in Weimar shows the scene of the Christ nailed to the Cross in central panel and Saint Sebaldus (left wing) and Saint Louis (right wing) according to inscription in Latin. The original crossed out inscription over the head the holy king on the right was most probably "Saint Sigismund". Both effigies do not match the most common iconography of both saints. Saint Sebaldus was usually represented as a pilgrim with the staff and the cap and Saint Louis, King of France with fleur-de-lis, mantle, and the other parts of the French regalia. The inscriptions are therefore later additions and are not correct. The effigy of the king in armour holding a sword, match perfectly the depictions of Constantine the Great, Saint Emperor and Equal to the Apostles, in both Eastern Orthodox (icon in the Nizhny Tagil Museum, 1861-1881) and Roman Church (painting by Cornelis Engebrechtsz in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich, ca. 1517). The effigy of a holy bishop opposite is Saint Nicholas, who was represented vested as a bishop and holding a Gospel Book in both Christian traditions (e.g. icon of Saint Nicholas painted in 1294 for the Lipno Church in Novgorod and a triptych by Giovanni Bellini, created in 1488 for the Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari in Venice). Saint Nicholas was particularly important for Queen Bona, Constantine of Ostroh's friend, as most of the relics of this Saint are in her city of Bari. The altar was thus commissioned to the Church of Epiphany at the Ostroh Castle and destroyed during subsequent wars.

Around that time king Sigismund I commissioned a triptych of the Adoration of the Magi in the workshop of Joos van Cleve in the Netherlands, where he was depicted as one of the Magi (Berlin), and his wife Bona was depicted as the Virgin under an apple tree by Cranach (Saint Petersburg).

The effigy of a bearded old man as Melchior is very similar to other known portraits of Constantine, Prince of Ostroh. The same woman who lend her features to Virgin Mary in described paintings was also depicted in a moralistic painting of the ill-matched lovers by Lucas Cranach the Elder. This painting, today in the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest, is signed with artist's insignia and dated '1522' in upper left corner. The painting was initially in the Imperial collection in Vienna, hence it was most probably commissioned by the Habsburgs, although it cannot be excluded that it was ordered by some of Constantine's opponents in Poland-Lithuania. The hetman, like the king and his wife Bona, supported the elected King of Hungary, John Zapolya against the Habsburgs and in May 1528 he met with his envoy Farkas Frangepán (1499-1546).

The person who commissioned the work could not ridicule a high military official, it would be offensive and diplomatically inappropriate. He or she could however mock his young trophy wife, taking advantage of his embrace to steal the money from his purse. All mentioned paintings have also one other thing in common - coins. The hat of toothless old man in Budapest painting is adorned with a large coin with ambiguous inscription, possibly a humorous anagram or a reference to Ruthenian/Slavonic language used by Constantine. Coins are also visible in majority of preserved portraits of Constantine's and Alexandra's son, Constantine Vasily and the woman bears a strong resemblance to the effigies of Constantine Vasily, including that visible in a gold medal with his portrait (treasury of the Pechersk Lavra and the Hermitage). 

She was also represented as Judith with the head of Holofernes in a painting, today in the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. It is attributed to Hans Cranach, the oldest son of Lucas Cranach the Elder who was active from 1527 and who died in Bologna in 1537. This work, almost like a pendant to a portrait of Queen Bona Sforza as Judith in Vienna, was in the late 18th century in the collection of king Charles IV of Spain. It cannot be excluded that like the portrait of the Queen, it was sent to the Habsburgs in Spain. At least two preparatory drawings to this portrait were before World War II in the State Gallery in Dessau, lost. Both were signed with monogram IVM, an unknown painter from the workshop of Lucas Cranach who was sent to create some drawings or a court painter of Constantine, Prince of Ostroh and his wife. The verso of the larger drawing, also signed with monogram IVM, depict Saint George fighting a dragon, a symbol of the Princes of Ostroh, being thence a study to another painting commissioned by the family and most probably bearing the features of Constantine's eldest son Illia. 

Constantine's young wife bore him two children Constantine Vasily born on February 2, 1526 and Sophia, born before 1528. Her husband died in Turov, in today's Belarus, on August 10, 1530 and was buried in the Kiev Monastery of the Caves (Pechersk Lavra), where in 1579 his son Constantine Vasily erected him a magnificent tombstone in Italian style.

Design for altar of Constantine (ca. 1460-1530), Prince of Ostroh, closed, with Adoration of the Magi and effigies of the founder and his wife as Melchior and the Virgin by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1522, State Art Collections in Weimar. 

Design for altar of Constantine (ca. 1460-1530), Prince of Ostroh, opened, with Christ nailed to the Cross and Saints Nicholas and Constantine the Great by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1522, State Art Collections in Weimar. 

Adoration of the Magi with portraits of Constantine, Prince of Ostroh and his wife Alexandra Olelkovich-Slutska as Saint Melchior and the Virgin by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1522, State Art Gallery in Karlsruhe. 

Adoration of the Magi with portraits of Constantine, Prince of Ostroh and his wife Alexandra Olelkovich-Slutska as Saint Melchior and the Virgin by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1522, Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow. 

Ill-Matched Lovers, caricature of Alexandra Olelkovich-Slutska, Princess of Ostroh by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1522, Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest.

Portrait of Alexandra Olelkovich-Slutska, Princess of Ostroh as Judith with the head of Holofernes by Lucas Cranach the Elder or Hans Cranach, ca. 1530, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

Preparatory drawing for a portrait of Alexandra Olelkovich-Slutska, Princess of Ostroh as Judith with the head of Holofernes by Monogrammist IVM or workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1530, State Gallery in Dessau, lost.

Preparatory drawing for a portrait of Alexandra Olelkovich-Slutska, Princess of Ostroh as Judith with the head of Holofernes (recto) by Monogrammist IVM or workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1530, State Gallery in Dessau, lost.

Preparatory drawing for Saint George fighting a dragon (verso), a crypto-portrait of Illia (1510-1539), Prince of Ostroh by Monogrammist IVM or workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1530, State Gallery in Dessau, lost.

Portraits of Anna and Katarzyna Górka by Lucas Cranach the Elder and Venetian painters

On May 23, 1511 died Andrzej Szamotulski of Nałęcz coat of arms, voivode of Poznań, one of the wealthiest men in the country, appointed commissioner for minting coins in Poland at the coronation sejm of 1502. According to inscription in Latin on his epitaph in the Collegiate in Szamotuły, he was "the best senator of the entire Kingdom, most distinguished among foreign nations with helpfulness, eloquence and prudence". The epitaph in the form of a metal plaque of high artistic value, some art historians speculate that Albrecht Dürer was responsible for the design, was commissioned in Nuremberg in the Vischer workshop and created by Hermann Vischer the Younger in 1505. The Vischer workshop also created epitaphs and other works for the Jagiellons and members of the royal court, like bronze epitaph of Filippo Buonaccorsi, called Callimachus, tutor to the sons of King Casimir IV Jagiellon by workshop of Hermann Vischer the Younger in the Holy Trinity Church in Kraków, created after 1496, bronze epitaph of Piotr Kmita of Wiśnicz, voivode of Kraków in the Wawel Cathedral by Peter Vischer the Elder, created in about 1505, bronze plaque of Cardinal Frederick Jagiellon (1468-1503), also in the Wawel Cathedral, by Peter Vischer, commissioned by King Sigismund I and created in 1510, bronze grille of the Sigismund's Chapel at the Wawel Cathedral by Hans Vischer's workshop, cast between 1530-1532, or bronze tomb sculpture of banker of King Sigismund I, Seweryn Boner and his wife Zofia Bonerowa née Bethman by Hans Vischer in Kraków's Saint Mary's Church, created between 1532-1538.
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In 1941, the Szamotulski epitaph was looted by German army, along with other valuable items. After almost fifty years, it was found in a museum warehouse in what was then Leningrad (Saint Petersburg) in Russia, and in December 1990 it was returned to Szamotuły. 

Szamotulski's heir was his only daughter Katarzyna Górkowa née Szamotulska. She was married to Łukasz II Górka (1482-1542) of Łodzia coat of arms, who from 1503, together with his father-in-law, supervised the Greater Poland mint and who later become Starost General of Greater Poland (1508-1535) and castellan of Poznań (1511-1535). In 1518 Górka was in the retinue welcoming Bona Sforza and in 1526 he accompanied Sigismund I on his way to Prussia and Gdańsk, during which he established close contacts with Albert of Prussia. He was a supporter of Emperor Charles V and in 1530 he participated in a meeting of Polish, Hungarian, Czech and Saxon envoys. 

A painting from 1529 founded by Łukasz to the Górka Chapel at Poznań Cathedral, today in the Kórnik Castle, and attributed to so-called Master of Szamotuły, shows him as a donor before the scene of the Annunciation to the Virgin, possibly bearing features of his wife Katarzyna. 

Łukasz Górka and Katarzyna Szamotulska had a son Andrzej (1500-1551), who in 1525 married Barbara Kurozwęcka (d. 1545), and two daughters Anna and Katarzyna (Catherine). Anna married in 1523 Piotr Kmita Sobieński, nephew of the voivode of Kraków mentioned above, and one of the most trusted followers of Queen Bona Sforza. In 1523 he secured her a dowry of 1,000 ducats on Wiśnicz and Lipnica and in 1531 life tenancy. He was the Court Marshal of the Crown from 1518 and Grand Marshal of the Crown from 1529 and a celebrated patron of the arts, his court in Wiśnicz was one of the finest centers of Polish Renaissance.

Katarzyna married in 1528 Stanisław Odrowąż (1509-1545), Bona's protege, who after her death married in February 1536 Duchess Anna of Masovia. In 1528 Stanisław secured Katarzyna a dowry of 30,000 zlotys on his estates Jarosław and others, and on the royal estate Sambir (Sambor) in Ukraine. According to other sources they were married in 1530. In 1537 king Sigismund I buys the Sambir estate from Odrowąż and obliges him to return 15,000 zlotys of his deceased wife's dowry to her father Łukasz Górka. Stanisław was castellan of Lviv from 1533, starost of Lviv from 1534, with the support of Queen Bona, and voivode of Podolia from 1535.

A painting of Madonna and Child which was in the Saint Erasmus Church in Sulmierzyce, stolen in 1995, was probably offered to the church by Jan Sulimierski (Sulimirski) around 1550. In the 16th century, the nearby Wieluń was incorporated into the private estates of Queen Bona Sforza. Since then, the castle in Wieluń often hosted royal wives or sisters. 

From 1558 the voivode of Łęczyca, more to the north, was Łukasz III Górka (1533-1573), grandson of Łukasz II. He was initially a member of the Unity of Brethren and later joined Lutherans, who opposed the worship of saints, especially the Virgin Mary. So maybe Sulimierski family received the painting from someone from the royal family or Łukasz III, after his conversion. 

Stylistically the painting is dated to about 1525, while the castle on a fantastic hill behind the Virgin is very similar to the main seat of the Górka family, Kórnik Castle near Poznań, built in the late 14th century and rebuilt after 1426. Consequently the effigy should be identified as portrait of Anna Górka, the eldest daughter of Łukasz II, married in 1523 to Piotr Kmita. 

The same woman was also depicted in a portrait painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder from Walters collection (mode of acquisition unknown) in the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, known as the effigy of Mary Magdalene. "Her hair hangs loosely, so she is a not a married woman, whose hair would be discretely controlled", according to museum's description, thence it could be created before the marriage. She was also depicted in Italian dress of shiny satin in a portrait from the collection of David Goldmann (1887-1967) in Vienna. This painting is attributed to Paris Bordone, although it is also very close to the style of Giovanni Cariani, both painters connected to the Jagiellons and Queen Bona (therefore also to Piotr Kmita Sobieński). Andrea Donati dates this elegant portrait to circa 1525-1530.

A similar woman was represented in a painting which before World War II was in a Parish Church in Radoszyn (Rentschen) near Poznań. The church in Radoszyn was founded at the end of the 15th century by the nuns of the Cistercian monastery in Trzebnica, who owned the village till 1810. After the war the work was transferred to the National Museum in Warsaw from the Nazi German Art Repository in Szczytna (Rückers). The painting bears the date '1530' and a mark of the Cranach workshop (below the window). The castle on fantastic rock in the background is very similar to the remains of the Szamotuły Castle, visibe on lithography by Napoleon Orda from 1880. Medieval castle in Szamotuły was built most likely in the first half of the 15th century. In 1496 Andrzej Szamotulski guaranteed a dowry to his only daughter Katarzyna worth 2,000 grzywnas of silver "on the half of the city of Szamotuły". Katarzyna married Łukasz II in 1499, bringing in the part of the city inherited from her father, including the castle, as a dowry. Around 1518, Łukasz rebuilt the seat.

The Warsaw painting is a workshop copy of a work by Cranach, which is known from number of copies. The best is now in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, which by 1929 was probably in H. Michels Gallery in Berlin. Many authors underline clear inspiration of Venetian painting (direct or indirect through works of Albrecht Dürer) in the composition, found in the Madonnas of Giovanni Bellini.

Two replicas, containing a landscape, are known. One was sold by Galerie Fischer in Lucerne on November 21, 1972 (lot 2355), the other, from private collection in Austria, was sold in 1990 in London.

She was also depicted in a portrait painting, similar to that of Anna Górka in the Walters Art Museum, wearing a wide rimmed hat with a plume. This work was sold at an auction in Cologne in 1920. She is holding a plant, possibly quince sacred to Venus and a symbol of fertility. "Plutarch advised Greek brides to eat a quince in preparation for their wedding night" (after James Hall's "Illustrated Dictionary Of Symbols In Eastern And Western Art", p. 156). A copy of this portrait from the collection of Miklós Jankovich (1772-1846), art collector and historian, is in the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest.

She was finally depicted in guise of Saint Catherine of Alexandria in a paining of Sacra Conversazione by Bernardino Licinio, another painter connected to Queen Bona. Katarzyna's husband, Queen's protege, in shining armour, stand beside her. He is most probably representing Saint George, a military saint venerated in Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Church, who was a patron Saint of Lithuania. Stanisław cound not be depicted as his namesake patron Saint Stanislaus of Szczepanów, as he was a bishop. This painting was sold in 2002 in New York. 

​While in paintings by Cranach both sisters have a high forehead, according to Northern fashion women shaved their hair at the front to achieve this effect, in Venetian paintings their hairlines are more natural. 

Portrait of Anna Górka as Madonna and Child before a hanging held by an angel (Sulmierzyce Madonna) by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1523, Saint Erasmus Church in Sulmierzyce, stolen.

Portrait of Anna Górka by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1523, Walters Art Museum in Baltimore.

Portrait of Anna Kmicina née Górka by Paris Bordone or Giovanni Cariani, ca. 1525-1530, Private collection.

Portrait of Katarzyna Górka by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1523-1530, Private collection.

Portrait of Katarzyna Górka by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1523-1536, Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest.

Portrait of Katarzyna Górka as Madonna and Child nibbling grapes by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1528-1530, National Gallery of Art in Washington.

Portrait of Katarzyna Górka as Madonna and Child nibbling grapes by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1528-1530, Private collection (sold in London).

Portrait of Katarzyna Górka as Madonna and Child nibbling grapes by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1528-1530, Private collection (sold in Lucerne).

Portrait of Katarzyna Górka as Madonna and Child nibbling grapes by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1530, National Museum in Warsaw.

Sacra Conversazione with portraits of Stanisław Odrowąż and Katarzyna Górka by Bernardino Licinio, ca. 1530, Private collection. 

Portrait of Jakub Uchański by circle of Hans Asper

The portrait of an unknown man from the 1520s can also be assigned to the circle of renaissance court of the Jagiellons. It is an effigy of man aged 22 transferred to the National Museum in Warsaw from the Krasiński collection in Warsaw. According to the inscription in Latin it was created in 1524 (ANNO • DOMINI • MD • XXIIII / • ANNOS • NATVS • XXII • IAR / • RB • / • IW •), the man was therefore born in 1502, just as Jakub Uchański (1502-1581). 

Uchański was educated at the collegiate school in Krasnystaw. Then he was employed at the court of the Lublin voivode and starosta of Krasnystaw, Andrzej Tęczyński, becoming one of the administrators of the voivode's vast estates. Tęczyński recommened him to the Crown referendary and the future bishop of Poznań, Sebastian Branicki.

He was later a secretary and administrator of Queen Bona's estate and Interrex (regent) during royal elections. Despite the fact that in 1534, he was ordained a priest, he secretly favored the Reformation, loosening the dependence of the Catholic Church in Poland on Rome and even supporting the concept of a national church. As a canon he secretly attended, together with Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski to theological disputes in the dissenting spirit of Queen Bona's confessor Francesco Lismanini (Franciszek Lismanin), a Greek born in Corfu. 

The Warsaw portrait is very similar in style to effigies created by Swiss painter Hans Asper, a pupil of Hans Leu the Younger in Zurich, especially to the portrait of a leader of the Reformation in Switzerland, Huldrych Zwingli (1484-1531) from 1531 in the Kunstmuseum Winterthur. Even the artist's signature is painted in similar style, however the letters does not match. According to convention the portrait in Warsaw is signed with monogram IW or VIV. This Monogrammist IW, could be other pupil of Leu, who left the country for Poland during the episodes of iconoclasm in Zurich between September and November 1523, instigated by the inflammatory preaching of Zwingli, which led, among others, to the destruction of a large part of works by his master. Another possible explanation is that the painting was created by Asper, the monogram is a part of undetermined titulature of Uchański (Iacobus de Vchanie ...) and the artist intentionally used crimson background to designate a foreigner, a Pole (Polish cochineal).

Portrait of Jakub Uchański (1502-1581) aged 22 by circle of Hans Asper, 1524, National Museum in Warsaw.

Portraits of Stanisław Oleśnicki and Bernard Wapowski by Bernardino Licinio

In 1516, together with Bernard Wapowski, Jan Dantyszek, Andrzej Krzycki and Stanisław Tarło, who all studied at the Kraków Academy, Stanisław Oleśnicki (1469-1539) of Dębno coat of arms, become a secretary of king Sigismund I. 

He was the son of Feliks Jan Oleśnicki and Katarzyna Gruszczyńska and the nephew of the Zbigniew Oleśnicki (1430-1493), bishop of Gniezno and primate of Poland. From 1492 he was a canon of Gniezno, a canon of Sandomierz from 1517, a canon of Kraków from 1519, a cantor of Gniezno from 1520 and a deputy of the king to the sejmik of the Kraków voivodeship in Proszowice in 1518 and in 1523. He also acted as secretary to Queen Bona Sforza. 

A signed portrait by Bernardino Licinio (P · LYCINII·) in the York Art Gallery shows a clergyman holding a half open missal with both hands. According to inscription in Latin (M·D·XXIIII·ANNO · AETATIS · LV·) the man was 55 in 1524, exactly as Stanisław Oleśnicki, born in 1469. The same man was also depicted in the painting by Licinio in the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin, most probably acquired in 1815 from the Giustiniani collection in Rome. 

In the private collection there is a portrait of an astronomer from the same period, attributed to Giovanni Cariani, although stylistically also very close to Licinio. He is holding astronomical rings consisting of three brass rings that swiveled inside each other and engraved with hours of the day, compass directions, and other measurments. It was an instrument used by astronomers, navigators, and surveyors (after Ann Heinrichs' "Gerardus Mercator: Father of Modern Mapmaking", 2007, p. 44).
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Bernard Wapowski (ca. 1475-1535), called Vapovius, considered to be the "Father of Polish Cartography", who together with Oleśnicki become royal secretary in 1516, studied with Copernicus in Kraków, before leaving to Italy, where he studied in Bologna beteen 1503-1505 and then left for Rome. He returned to Poland in 1515, when he was about 40. He become cantor and canon of Kraków in 1523. Three years later in 1526 he assisted his life-long friend Copernicus, "with whom he wrote about the motion of eight sphere" (motu octavae sphaerae), in mapping the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The same year he created and published in Kraków his most notable map, the first large-scale (1:1,260,000) map of Poland.

In the Lviv National Art Gallery there is a portrait of an astronomer by Venetian painter Marco Basaiti, created in 1512 (oil on canvas, 101.5 x 80 cm), which traditionally is identified as effigy of Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543). The painting is signed and dated on the table: M. BASAITI FACIEBAT MDXII. In the years 1510-1512, Copernicus drew up a map of Warmia and the western borders of Royal Prussia, intended for the congress of the royal council in Poznań. In 1512 together with the Chapter of Warmia, he swore an oath of allegiance to the king of Poland. In 1909 the painting was in the collection of Prince Andrzej Lubomirski in Przeworsk (after "Katalog wystawy obrazów malarzy dawnych i współczesnych urządzonej staraniem Andrzejowej Księżny Lubomirskiej" by Mieczysław Treter, item 33, p. 11). Most probably 19th century copy of this paining is in the Royal Wilanów Palace in Warsaw (oil on canvas, 103 x 81.5 cm, inventory number Wil.1850).

Portrait of Stanisław Oleśnicki (1469-1539), cantor of Gniezno by Bernardino Licinio, 1524, York Art Gallery. 

Portrait of Stanisław Oleśnicki (1469-1539), cantor of Gniezno by Bernardino Licinio, ca. 1524, Gemäldegalerie in Berlin. 

Portrait of an astronomer, most probably Bernard Wapowski (ca. 1475-1535), called Vapovius by Bernardino Licinio, ca. 1520, Private collection.

Portrait of Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) by Marco Basaiti, 1512, Lviv National Art Gallery.

Portrait of Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) by follower of Marco Basaiti, after 1512 (19th century?), Wilanów Palace in Warsaw.

Portrait of Jan Dantyszek by Dosso Dossi

Queen Bona maintained very close and cordial relations with the Ducal court in Ferrara, and especially with her cousin, Cardinal Ippolito d'Este (1479-1520), and his brother, Alfonso d'Este (1476-1534), Duke of Ferrara, sons of Eleanor of Naples (1450-1493). So when in the spring of 1524 Sigismund I sends his envoy Jan Dantyszek (1485-1548) on a new mission to Italy regarding the inheritance of Queen Bona, he also visits Ferrara. The legation with Ludovico Alifio, Bona's court chancellor, and a retinue of 27 horsemen left Kraków on March 15, 1524 and headed for Vienna. They went to Venice to congratulate the new Doge and then to Ferrara, where they spent 6 days enjoying the hospitality of Duke Alfonso. The return to Venice took place on May 3 and from there they boarded a ship for Bari.

Dantyszek's embassy received a rich and costly setting. The legation's viaticum, i.e. money for the equipment, journeys, stays and gifts, amounted to 500 Hungarian florins (after "Jan Dantyszek: portret renesansowego humanisty" by Zbigniew Nowak, p. 126).

There was a constant exchange of products of both countries between Ferrara and Kraków. "We inform Your Majesty, that we have received all the things she sent us and that she does not need to explain herself to us because the gift was the most beautiful" - the queen reports to Duke Alfonso on January 24, 1522. On June 12, 1524 Bona's envoy Giovanni Valentino (de Valentinis) wrote to Duke Alfonso: "Those things which Your Majesty sends in a carriage coming from Bari, Her Royal Majesty awaits with great devotion, as women are accustomed to do". It seems that from Poland the most valuable furs, horses, sables, falcons and hunting dogs were delivered to the court in Ferrara. When Valentino left at the end of January 1527 to Ferrara, Bona reported to the Duke that she was sending "animals of our countries" through him (after "Królowa Bona, 1494-1557: czasy i ludzie odrodzenia" by Władysław Pociecha, Volume 2, p. 292-293). In his last will and testament, dated August 28, 1533 Duke Alfonso included his closest family and Queen Bona of Poland, to whom he left one of his best carpets (after "The King of Court Poets A Study of the Work Life and Times of Lodovico Ariosto" by Edmund Garratt Gardner, p. 355).

Dantyszek commissioned works of art from many eminent artists he met during his travels. When in May 1530 he was nominated for the bishopric of Chełmno, he ordered a medal from Christoph Weiditz, active in Augsburg, who made it the following year. Between 1528 and 1529 Weiditz was in Spain, presumably working at the imperial court of Charles V. Dantyszek sent copies of this medal to his friends in Poland and abroad, including Queen Bona, who received this work very critically. Fabian Wojanowski reported this to Dantyszek in a letter from Kraków, November 22, 1531: "We also discussed a lot about the image of Your Reverence. Her Majesty showed it to everyone several times and everyone, both Her Majesty and the Bishop of Kraków [Tomicki], as well as Mr. Nipszyc, Gołcz and I claimed that if it had not been for the inscription around the bust, they would not have recognized who it represented". Dantyszek's response to this negative opinion of his friends was to order another medal in 1532, this time from the Dutch poet and medalist, Jan Nicolaesz Everearts, known as Johannes Secundus (after "Caraglio w Polsce" by Jerzy Wojciechowski, p. 31). Weiditz created several medals bearing his likeness (the first dated 1516, another of 1522, two of 1529, and one of 1531). Wooden model for 1529 medal is today in the Coin Gallery of the Bode-Museum in Berlin (inventory number 18200344). 

The main artist active at the Ferrara court during Dantyszek's visit was Dosso Dossi, who around 1524 painted Jupiter, Mercury and Virtue from the Lanckoroński collection (Wawel Royal Castle in Kraków). Dosso, who also travelled to Florence, Rome and above all Venice, eventually became the leader of the Ferrara school and one of the most important artists of his time.

In the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, there is a portrait of a man wearing a black beret by Dosso Dossi, offered by Hjalmar Linder in 1919 (inventory number NM 2163). The painting or a copy was most probaly documented in the inventory of the collection of Queen Christina of Sweden in Rome in 1662 as a portrait of Cesare Borgia, Duke of Valentinois (Valentino, Valentin) by Correggio. Later this painting or another version was in Paris in the collection of the dukes of Orléans in Palais-Royal and was captured in a print by François Jacques Dequevauviller (1783-1848), created in 1808 (National Library of Portugal, inventory number E. 477 V.). Some differences between the print and Stockholm version are visible in the background - a window in the painting and a small wall in the print. There is no painted frame in the engraving. The tower is different and in the print the tower is a part of another structure, most probably a church. In the Revolution of 1848, a Paris mob attacked and looted the royal residence Palais-Royal, particularly the art collection of King Louis-Philippe. It is possible that Paris version was destroyed. According to the authors of "Dosso Dossi: Court Painter in Renaissance Ferrara" (p. 231) the Stockholm painting was from 1798 in the collection of Thomas Hope (1769-1831) in England. It should be noted that Dequevauviller's engraving after portrait of Nikolaus Kratzer by Hans Holbein the Younger is very accurate. 

The man's attire is clearly northern European and very similar to that visible in a portrait of Hans Dürr, dated 1521 and in a portrait of Wolff Fürleger, dated 1527, both by Hans Brosamer, a German painter active in Nuremberg between 1519-1529, where Sigismund I commissioned many valuable works of art. The tower in the background with steep roof is also more northern European and similar to towers visible in a print published in 1694 and depicting the siege of Grudziądz by the Swedes in 1655 (Obsidio civitatis et arcis Graudensis, National Library of Poland). Jan Dantyszek finished his elementary studies at a parish school in Grudziądz (Graudenz in German), a city in Polish Prussia. The tower (turris) is also some sort of refrain or leitmotif of the drama about Jan Dantyszek staged in 1731 at the Jesuit College in Vilnius. The main character is an envoy in 1525 from Sigismund I to the emperor and the king of Spain Charles V, endowed by the emperor with the title of Spanish grandee. He has a dream in which he sees a high tower falling on his shoulders and resting on him: Incumbet humeris hic brevi Turris tuis. It means both prison and the highest honor falling on the shoulders - in the scenes of the poet's crowning (after "Dantiscana. Osiemnastowieczny dramat o Janie Dantyszku" by Jerzy Starnawski).

Like in the case of portraits of Anna van Bergen (1492-1541), Marquise de Veere by Jan Gossaert and his workshop, Emperor Charles V by Netherlandish and Italian painters and portraits of Queen Bona by Bernardino Licinio, there are some differences, such as eye color, in the paintings of different artists, however, the man from Dossi's painting bear a strong resemblance to effigies of Jan Dantyszek, especially his portraits by workshops of Jan Gossaert and Marco Basaiti (attributed by me), or an anonymous print from Ioannis de Curiis Dantisci episcopi olim Varmiensis poemata et hymni e Bibliotheca Zalusciana, published in Wrocław in 1764, after a lost portrait painting most probably by Crispin Herrant. As in the portrait by the Gossaert workshop, the sitter is framed in a black painted frame, but unlike northern tradition and the aforementioned portraits by Brosamer, there was no need to put the inscription. Everyone already knew the famous ambassador of His Highness King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. 

Portrait of Jan Dantyszek (1485-1548), ambassador of the King of Poland by Dosso Dossi, ca. 1524, Nationalmuseum in Stockholm.

Portrait of Jan Dantyszek (1485-1548), ambassador of the King of Poland, from the collection of the dukes of Orléans, by François Jacques Dequevauviller after Dosso Dossi, 1808 after original from about 1524, National Library of Portugal.

Portraits of Anne Lascaris and Magdalene of Savoy by Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio and Bernardino Luini

At the beginning of 1524, Hieronim Łaski (1496-1541), Great Crown Carver and his brothers Jan (1499-1560) and Stanisław (1491-1550), went to the court of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, under the official pretext of committing France to make peace with its neighbors in consideration of the Ottoman threat. His mission was to sign a treaty with the French king concerning mainly the Duchy of Milan and a double marriage. Antoine Duprat (1463-1535), Chancellor of France (and a cardinal from 1527) and René (Renato) of Savoy (1473-1525), Grand Master of France and uncle of king Francis I, who dealt with Łaski on behalf of the king, immediately began to draw up a covenant treaty, including marriage contracts between children of kings of Poland and of France. The Polish and the French courts undoubtedly exchanged some diplomatic gifts and effigies on this occasion. After completing his mission at the French court Hieronim Łaski returned to Poland at the beginning of autumn 1524, leaving his brothers in Paris. Jan went to Basel where he met Erasmus of Rotterdam and Stanisław joined the court of Francis I and the French army and participated in the Battle of Pavia in 1525. He was then sent by Louise of Savoy (1476-1531), mother of king Francis I and Regent of France, to Spain. 

Louise's half-brother, René, who when Francis ascended the French throne was made Governor of Provence and Seneschal of Provence, died in the Battle of Pavia. René married on 28 January 1501, Anne Lascaris (1487-1554). As a count of Tende he was succeeded by his son Claude of Savoy (1507-1566) and then by his other son Honorat II of Savoy, who married Jeanne Françoise de Foix and whose great-granddaughter Marie Louise Gonzaga become Queen of Poland in 1645. Marie Louise brought to Poland some paintings in her dowry, a small part of which preserved in Warsaw's Visitandines Monastery. A descendant of Claude of Savoy, Claire Isabelle Eugenie de Mailly-Lespine (1631-1685), a distant relative, lady-in-waiting and confidante of Queen Marie Louise Gonzaga married in 1654 Krzysztof Zygmunt Pac (1621-1684), Grand Standard-Bearer of Lithuania.

René of Savoy and Anne Lascaris also had three daughters. Magdalene of Savoy (1510-1586), who spent part of her youth at the cour of her aunt, Louise of Savoy, and on her decision she married Anne de Montmorency (1493-1567), Marshal of France, shortly after her father's death. The contract was signed on January 10, 1526 and the ceremony was held in royal palace of Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Younger Isabella (d. 1587), married in 1527 René de Batanay, count of Bouchage and Margaret (d. 1591) married in 1535 Anthony II of Luxembourg, Count of Ligny (d. 1557), brother of Françoise de Luxembourg-Ligny (d. 1566), Margravine of Baden-Baden. 

The portrait of a young lady in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, created in the style of Bernardino Luini, is dated to around 1525. She is holding a zibellino (weasel pelt) on her hand, a popular accessory for brides as a talisman for fertility, and standing before a green fabric, a color being symbolic of fertility. This painting was acquired by the Gallery in 1937 and in the 19th century it was possibly owned by Queen Isabel II of Spain. 

This Leonardo type of beauty from the Washington painting might become a muse for Luini (the paintings may also depict her sisters), as her features can be found in other works by this painter, however, ony few effigies are the most similar and more portrait-like, like the Nursing Madonna in a green dress in the National Museum in Warsaw. This painting was in the 19th century in the collection of Konstanty Adam Czartoryski (1774-1860), the son of famous art collector Princess Izabela Czartoryska (1746-1835), in his palace in Weinhaus near Vienna. In 1947 it was acquired by the museum in Warsaw. In the royal Wilanów Palace in Warsaw, there are two paintings of Cupids, possibly acquired by Aleksandra Potocka, and thought to be from Leonardo da Vinci's school in the 1895 inventory. They are today attributed to Aurelio Luini, son of Bernardino. The conservation of both paintings revealed that they were initially a part of a larger composition showing Venus with two Cupids, possibly damaged, cut into pieces and then repainted. The pose of her legs indicate that it was a Venus Pudica type, similar to the statue of Eve from the late 15th century on the apse of the Milan Cathedral, attributed to a Venetian sculptor Antonio Rizzo. One Cupid is holding a myrtle, consecrated to Venus, goddess of love and used in bridal wreaths, the other is presenting his bow to Venus. 

It is highly probable that Polish-Lithuanian monarchs Sigismund and Bona or Janusz III, Duke of Masovia, whose portrait by Bernardino Licinio, from the old collection of the dukes of Savoy, is in the Royal Palace of Turin, received the effigies of the eldest daughter of the Grand Master of France in guise of the Virgin and the goddess of love.

Preserved Venus by Bernardino Luini is also in the National Gallery of Art in Washington. It was offered to the Gallery in 1939 and in the 19th century it was in England. The goddess' face is the same as in the mentioned portrait of a lady holding a zibellino and Nursing Madonna in Warsaw and landscape behind her is astonishingly similar to the view of Tendarum Oppidum, published in the Theatrum Statuum Sabaudiæ in 1682 in Amsterdam by Joan Blaeu. It is showing Tende (Tenda) in the southeastern corner of France, the hillside village, overlooked by the Lascaris castle and a mountain monastery. In 1261 Guglielmo Pietro I di Ventimiglia, lord of Tende, married Eudoxia Laskarina, sister of the Byzantine emperor, John IV Laskaris. In 1509 the county passed, by marriage, to the prince of Savoy, René, whose branch died out in 1754.

The same woman, also in a green dress, was depicted as Saint Mary Magdalene holding a container of ointment. This painting, also in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, was until 1796 in the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana in Milan and later in the collection of Lucien Bonaparte, Prince de Canino. She was also represented as this saint in the composition by Luini in the San Diego Museum of Art showing the Conversion of the Magdalene, most probably also from the collection of Lucien Bonaparte. 

The same effigy as in the Venus in Washington was also used like a template in two paintings from the French royal collection, both in the Louvre. One is showing biblical temptress Salome receiving the head of Saint John the Baptist. It was acquired by king Louis XIV in 1671 from Everhard Jabach. The second, showing the Holy Family, was acquired before 1810. 

In all mentioned paintings the face of a woman bears strong resemblance to effigy of Magdalene of Savoy, Duchess of Montmorency and her eldest daughter in a stained-glass window number 14 in the church of Saint Martin in Montmorency. This window, created in about 1563, is a pendant composition to a window of Magdalene's husband Anne de Montmorency. It shows her kneeling and recommended by her patron saint Mary Magdalene in a green dress and her coat of arms below. In the center of the nave of the church, which served as a burial place for the lords of Montmorency, was the magnificent tomb of Anne de Montmorency and his wife Magdalene. The marble recumbent figure of the Constable and his wife is now in the Louvre Museum in Paris. It was commissioned by Magdalene and created bewteen 1576-1582 by Barthélemy Prieur and Charles Bullant and depict her in her old age and in a costume covering almost all her face, however, also in this effigy some resemblance is visible. 

A very similar woman was depicted in a painting of a lady with a scorpion chain in a green dress in the Columbia Museum of Art, painted in Leonardo's style. Her costume is more from the turn of the 15th and 16th century, it is therefore Magdalene's mother Anne Lascaris. She was born in November 1487, under the astrological sign of Scorpio. When she was just 11 years old she married in February 1498 Louis de Clermont-Lodève, but her husband died just few months after the wedding. On January 28, 1501, at the age of 13, she married René. In astrology the various zodiac signs are identified with different parts of the body. Scorpio, the sign which rules the genitals, is the most sexually charged of all zodiac signs and associated with fertility. The work comes from the collection of Count Potocki in Zator Castle and Jabłonna Palace in Warsaw. When in Zator the portrait was viewed by Emil Schaeffer (1874-1944), an Austrian art historian, journalist and playwright, who described it in an article published in the Beiblatt für Denkmalpflege in 1909. The castle of the Piast dukes in Zator was built in the 15th century and extended in the 16th century after being acquired by king John Albert in 1494. Later the Zator estate was owned by different noble and magnate families including Poniatowski, Tyszkiewicz, Wąsowicz and Potocki, while the neoclassical palace of Bishop Michał Jerzy Poniatowski, brother of king Stanislaus II Augustus Poniatowski, in Jabłonna near Warsaw, was constructed by royal architect Domenico Merlini between 1775-1779. In 1940 during World War II the portrait was taken to Italy and sold to the family of princes Contini Bonacossi in Florence. In 1948 the work was acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation and offered to the Columbia Museum of Art in 1961.

This portrait can be consequently linked, with high probability, with the collection of Queen Marie Louise Gonzaga or Claire Isabelle Eugenie de Mailly-Lespine (better known in Poland-Lithuania as Klara Izabella Pacowa), descendants of Anne Lascaris.

A copy of this portrait, attributed to the Master of the Virgin with Scales, after the work in the Louvre, or to follower of Leonardo da Vinci, which was in a collection in New York by February 1913, shows her in a gold silk dress. 

Portrait of Anne Lascaris (1487-1554), countess of Tende with a scorpion chain by Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio, ca. 1500-1505, The Columbia Museum of Art.

Portrait of Anne Lascaris (1487-1554), countess of Tende in a gold silk dress by Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio or follower, ca. 1500-1505, Private collection.

Portrait of Magdalene of Savoy (1510-1586) holding a zibellino by Bernardino Luini, ca. 1525, National Gallery of Art in Washington.

Portrait of Magdalene of Savoy (1510-1586) as Nursing Madonna by Bernardino Luini, ca. 1525, National Museum in Warsaw.

Portrait of Magdalene of Savoy (1510-1586) as Mary Magdalene by Bernardino Luini, ca. 1525, National Gallery of Art in Washington.

The Conversion of the Magdalene with a portrait of Magdalene of Savoy (1510-1586) by Bernardino Luini, ca. 1520-1525, San Diego Museum of Art.

Portrait of Magdalene of Savoy (1510-1586) as Salome receiving the head of Saint John the Baptist by Bernardino Luini, ca. 1525, Louvre Museum.

The Holy Family with a portrait of Magdalene of Savoy (1510-1586) by Bernardino Luini, ca. 1525, Louvre Museum.

Portrait of Magdalene of Savoy (1510-1586) as Venus against the idealized view of Tende by Bernardino Luini, ca. 1525, National Gallery of Art in Washington.

Cupid with a bow, fragment of a bigger painting "Venus with two Cupids" by workshop of Bernardino Luini, ca. 1525, Wilanów Palace in Warsaw.

Cupid with a myrtle, fragment of a bigger painting "Venus with two Cupids" by workshop of Bernardino Luini, ca. 1525, Wilanów Palace in Warsaw.

Portrait of Queen Bona Sforza as Mary Magdalene and as Saint Helena by Lucas Cranach the Elder

On 11 February 1524 died in Bari Isabella of Aragon, Duchess of Milan, mother of Bona Sforza d'Aragona, who after the collapse of the Sforzas in Milan and her family in Naples, was granted the title of suo jure Duchess of Bari and Princess of Rossano. The duchies that Bona inherited from her mother were involved in the struggle between French and Spanish forces of the Habsburgs for control of Italy. When Emperor Charles V re-conquered Milan from the French in 1521, Francesco II Sforza, member of a rival branch of the family, was appointed its duke. 
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Fearing the growing influence of the Habsburgs, Bona strove to tighten cooperation with France. In July 1524 Hieronim Łaski signed a treaty with France in Paris on behalf of Sigismund I, which reversed the Polish alliance with the Habsburgs agreed at the Vienna Congress of 1515. It was agreed that Henry, the younger son of the French king Francis I or the Scottish king James, will marry one of the daughters of Sigismund I, Hedwig or Isabella, and that Sigismund Augustus will marry a daughter of Francis I. 

Determined to regain Lombardy, Francis I, unsuccessful competitor of Charles V for the imperial dignity, invaded the region in mid-October 1524. He was, however, defeated and taken prisoner at Pavia on 25 February 1525, guaranteeing Spanish control of Italy. This battle changed dramatically the situation for Bona. The marriage plans with the French court had been cancelled and Bona had to accept the engagement of her only son with Elizabeth of Austria, daughter of younger brother of Charles V, Ferdinand and his wife Anna Jagellonica. 

The triumphant Emperor was reluctant to acknowledge Bona's rights to her mother's succession. Diplomatic efforts of the Polish court were finally successful and on 24 June 1525 Ludovico Alifio, Bona's court chancellor, finally took on her behalf the inherited Italian possessions.

The painting by Cranach from 1525 in Cologne, an imperial city, whose Archbishop was one of the electors of the Holy Roman Empire and the chief officiant during the coronation ceremony of the Emperor, shows Bona as a sinful woman, Mary Magdalene, from whom Jesus had cast out demons and who then became an important follower and interlocutor of Jesus (Luke 8:2). She is depicted with a vessel of ointment, in reference to the Anointing of Jesus, and her hair covered with translucent penitential veil. The forest is symbolic for the religious suffering of the penitent, while deer is a symbol of Christ. Saints Eustace and Hubert converted to Christianity by seeing a stag with a cross.

Finally the landscape to right is very similar to the view of Mola (now Mola di Bari), a Venetian city close to Bari, with Castel Novo, an Aragonese castle, which remained loyal to Naples, published by Georg Braun & Frans Hogenberg in 1582. The view to the left can be compared with the topography of Rossano, a town built on a large rock. 

Similar is the context of Bona's portrait in guise of Saint Helena holding the Cross by Lucas Cranach the Elder in the Cincinnati Art Museum. The coronation cross of the Polish monarchs was a reliquary of the True Cross (Vera Crux) of the Byzantine emperor Manuel Komnenos, created in the 12th century, today in the Notre-Dame de Paris. Like the legendary finder of the True Cross, Helena, Empress of the Roman Empire and mother of Emperor Constantine the Great, Bona found the truth and the right way and in the guise of Saint Empress is addressing Emperor Charles V. 

The painting is dated 1525 and was acquired from the collection of the Princes of Liechtenstein in Vienna. Its earlier history is unknown. It is highly possible that it was initially in the Imperial collection and was sent by Bona to the Habsburgs. 

Portrait of Queen Bona Sforza (1494-1557) as Mary Magdalene by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1525, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum.

Miniature portrait of Queen Bona Sforza (1494-1557) by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1525, Private collection.

Portrait of Queen Bona Sforza (1494-1557) as Saint Helena by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1525, Cincinnati Art Museum.

Portraits of Hedwig Jagiellon and her stepmother Bona Sforza against the idealized view of Kraków by Lucas Cranach the Elder ​

1526 was a very important year for the Jagiellons. In January the main port of the Kingdom, Gdańsk, and other cities of Royal Prussia revolted againt the Crown. On March the Duchy of Masovia had fallen to the Crown after the heirless death of the last male member of the Masovian Piasts, Janusz III (Bona was accused of poisoning the duke). 

On May 22, 1526 Bernardino de Muro and Andrea Melogesio, on behalf of the inhabitants of Rossano, swore an oath of allegiance to Bona Sforza and Sigismund the Old in the Wawel Cathedral, so-called "Italian Homage".

And finally in August the Ottoman Empire invaded Hungary and Sigismund I's nephew, Louis II, King of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia was killed in the battle of Mohács.

The portraits of ladies from the Coburg Fortress dated by experts to about 1526 and from The State Hermitage, dated 1526 on the windowsill, are very similar to miniatures of Hedwig and her stepmother Bona from the same period. Face features and costumes are almost identical.
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The topography in the landscapes, although idealized and​ viewed through the lens of artistry of Cranach, match perfectly the capital of the Kingdom - Kraków (Cracow). In the portrait of Hedwig we can see the Wawel Royal Castle and Vistula river towards Tyniec Abbey in the south, as in a print published in 1544 in Cosmographia Universalis, and in the portrait of Bona we can distinguish the Wawel Hill with Sandomierz Tower towards Zwierzyniec Monastery in the north.

Portrait of Crown Princess Hedwig Jagiellon (1513-1573) against the idealized view of Kraków by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1526, Veste Coburg.

Portrait of Queen Bona Sforza (1494-1557) against the idealized view of Kraków by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1526, The State Hermitage Museum.

Portrait of Queen Bona Sforza (1494-1557) by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1526, Schloss Fasanerie in Eichenzell. 

Portrait of Queen Bona Sforza (1494-1557) by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1526, sold at Hôtel Drouot in Paris on 30 October 1942, lost.

Portrait of Crown Princess Hedwig Jagiellon as Madonna by Jan Gossaert

In 2021, the Royal Castle in Warsaw purchased a portrait depicting Jan Dantyszek (Johannes Dantiscus), known as the "Father of Polish Diplomacy" (sold at Lempertz, Auction 1185, Cologne, Lot 1513, oil on wood, 42 x 30 cm). This work, described as a portrait of a scholar by German master around 1530, comes from a private collection in Northern Germany and it is a copy or rather a version of a painting in the Jagiellonian University Museum in Kraków (inventory number 1987). The painting was then attributed to a copyist of "a Netherlandish painter after Jan Gossaert?, c. 1654" (after "A Polish Envoy in England - Ioannes Dantiscus’s Visit to 'a Very Dear Island'" by Katarzyna Jasińska-Zdun, p. 3). Composition of the effigy resemble greatly portrait of a scholar by Jan Gossaert in the Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart, while the sitter's costume and hands were painted in the same style as in the portrait of Anna van Bergen (1492-1541), Marquise de Veere as Madonna and Child by workshop of Jan Gossaert (sold at Lempertz, Auction 1118, Cologne, Lot 1513). Other version of this portrait, attributed to Jacob van Utrecht, a Flemish painter who worked in Antwerp and Lübeck, was sold in New York in 1945 (Parke-Bernet Galleries, collection of John Bass, January 25, 1945, lot 12).

Dantyszek became associated with the royal court of King John I Albert and later Sigismund I the Old as a diplomat and the royal secretary. He was born Johann(es) von Höfen-Flachsbinder in 1485 in Gdańsk (Latin Gedanum or Dantiscum), where Dutch and Flemish influences become predominant in the 16th century. As a diplomat, he often traveled around Europe, including to Venice, Flanders and the Netherlands. 

In 1522, he went to Vienna, and then via Nuremberg, Ulm, Mainz, Cologne and Aachen to Antwerp. There he waited for further instructions from the king, who ordered him to go to Spain. From Calais he went by ship first to England, to Canterbury and London, and then in October 1522 to Spain. From there, he travels by ship from La Coruña to Middelburg, capital of the province of Zeeland in today's Netherlands. Through Bergen in Brabant (May 12) and Antwerp, he goes to Mechelen, where he stayed at the court of Archduchess Margaret of Austria, Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands. Then, via Cologne and Leipzig, he arrives at Wittenberg, where he meets Luther and Melanchthon. In the summer of 1523 he returns to Poland. In the spring of 1524, the king sends him on a new mission to Italy concerning the inheritance of Queen Bona in southern Italy. Via Vienna, he goes to Venice, then to Ferrara, and then by ship from Venice to Bari. From Italy he sets out again - through Switzerland and France - to Spain, to Valladolid. In 1524, he is in Madrid, at the imperial court and in 1526 in Genoa (after "Królowa Bona, 1494-1557: czasy i ludzie odrodzenia", Volume 2, by Władysław Pociecha, p. 228). After a few years, in 1528, Dantyszek wanted to return to Poland and was summoned by Sigismund I, but this time the emperor, who was going to Italy, Netherlands and Germany, kept him at his court and the envoy accompanied him (after "Polska slużba dyplomatyczna XVI-XVIII wieku" by Zbigniew Wójcik, p. 56). 

Around that time, in 1524, South Netherlandish painter Jan Gossaert (ca. 1478-1532), also known as Jan Mabuse, returned from Duurstede to Middelburg, where he was registered as a resident between 1509-1517, shortly after his return from Italy. He become a court painter of Adolf of Burgundy (1489-1540), marquis of Veere and admiral of the Netherlands. According to Karel van Mander's Het Schilder-boeck, first published in 1604 in Haarlem, in about 1525 or earlier when he worked at the court of Adolf's granduncle, Philip of Burgundy, he and his workshop created a series of paintings representing "an image of Mary in which the face was painted after the Marquis' wife and the little child after her child". The disguised portrait of Anna van Bergen and her son or daughter is known from several versions with minor differences, including eye color - blue for some, brown for others (e.g. sold at Christie's, 7 December 2018, lot 113). Gossaert also created several other effigies of the Marquise de Veere. 

Dantyszek also commissioned works of art from many eminent artists he met during his travels. When in May 1530 he was nominated for the bishopric of Chełmno, he ordered a medal from Christoph Weiditz, active in Augsburg, who made it the following year. Between 1528 and 1529 Weiditz was in Spain, presumably working at the imperial court of Charles V. Dantyszek sent copies of this medal to his friends in Poland and abroad, including Queen Bona (after "Caraglio w Polsce" by Jerzy Wojciechowski, p. 31). Weiditz created several medals bearing his likeness (the first dated 1516, another of 1522, two of 1529, and one of 1531). Similar to Marquise de Veere and members of the Danish royal family, also Dantyszek could commission a series of his portraits in the Gossaert's workshop. It is known that in 1494 a Netherlandish painter named Johannes of Zeerug stayed at the court of king John I Albert, whom Sokołowski identified with Jan Gossaert (after "Malarstwo polskie: Gotyk, renesans, wczesny manieryzm" by Michał Walicki, p. 33).

His portrait in the Jagiellonian University Museum was also painted on wood - tempera and oil on oakwood, and has similar dimensions (40.5 x 29.3 cm). This version is strikingly similar, both in style and composition, to signed works by Venetian painter Marco Basaiti (ca. 1470-1530) - notably portrait of Nicolaus Copernicus, created in 1512 (oil on canvas, Lviv National Art Gallery) and portrait of a gentleman in black, created in 1521 (oil on panel, Accademia Carrara in Bergamo, signed M. BAXITI. F. MDXXI). It is highly possible that Dantyszek commissioned a copy of his portrait by Gossaert's workshop in Venice or vice versa, a copy of portrait by Basaiti's workshop in the Netherlands. 

Dantyszek, who in 1529 became a canon of the Warmian chapter, and then - the bishop of Chełmno, also acted as intermediary in commissions for portraits, like the effigy of Mauritius Ferber (1471-1537), Prince-Bishop of Warmia, created in 1535 by Crispin Herrant, a pupil of Dürer and between 1529-1549 a court painter of Duke Albert of Prussia in Königsberg (after "Malarstwo polskie: Gotyk, renesans, wczesny manieryzm" by Michał Walicki, p. 339) or the portrait of Crown Princess Isabella Jagiellon (1519-1559), commissioned in 1537 by Queen Bona. 

At the Colonna Gallery in Rome, in the Tapestry Room, there is a portrait of a lady as Madonna and Child by Jan Gossaert (inventory number 2029, oil on wood, 42.8 x 32 cm). Her face resemble greatly other effigies of Crown Princess Hedwig Jagiellon (1513-1573) by Cranach (as Venus in Berlin and as Madonna in Madrid) and her likeness in a black dress by Titian (Vienna), all identified by me. Similar to portrait of Hedwig's cousin Anna Jagellonica (1503-1547), Queen of Germany, Bohemia, and Hungary as Venus by Cranach (Borghese Gallery in Rome, dated 1531), the pope or the cardinals should receive the image of this important catholic princess. 

In Poland there are several paintings by Gossaert and his workshop. Madonna and Child in architectural setting is in the royal Wilanów Palace in Warsaw (Wil.1591), as well as a version of Madonna and Child playing with the veil (Wil.1008), both considered to be from the collection of Stanisław Kostka Potocki (1755-1821). Another Madonna and Child playing with the veil from Izabela Piwarska's collection is in the National Museum in Warsaw (M.Ob.63), while Peleus and Thetis with the young Achilles is in the Wawel Royal Castle (ZKWawel 4213). Portrait of Isabella of Austria, Queen of Denmark by Jan Gossaert from the Tarnowski Castle in Dzików, created in about 1514, was lost during World War II. The latter painting was acquired before 1795 by king Stanislaus Augustus. It cannot be excluded that it was sent to Poland-Lithuania as a gift already in 1514.

Portrait of Isabella of Austria, Queen of Denmark by Jan Gossaert, ca. 1514, Tarnowski Castle in Dzików, lost. 

Portrait of Jan Dantyszek (1485-1548) by workshop of Marco Basaiti, 1520s, Jagiellonian University Museum.

Portrait of Jan Dantyszek (1485-1548) by workshop of Jan Gossaert, 1520s, Royal Castle in Warsaw.

Portrait of Jan Dantyszek (1485-1548) by Jacob van Utrecht, 1520s, Private collection.

Portrait of Crown Princess Hedwig Jagiellon (1513-1573) as Madonna and Child by Jan Gossaert, ca. 1526-1532, Colonna Gallery in Rome.

Portrait of Jan Janusz Kościelecki by Giovanni Cariani

If a workshop abroad was providing high quality service at reasonable price and was easily accessible, why to create the structures locally, which would be far more expensive and time consuming? This would explain why Jagiellonian monarchs did not employed any eminent master at their court directly and permanently, like Raphael at the papal court in Italy, Jean Clouet and his son François in France, Alonso Sánchez Coello in Spain, Cristóvão de Morais in Portugal, Hans Holbein in England, Lucas Cranach in Saxony, or Jakob Seisenegger in Austria. Today, we call similar practices outsourcing, however, for some art historians in the late 19th and early 20th century the lack of any prominent and permanent painting workshop in Poland-Lithuania in the 16th century, was a proof of inferiority of the Jagiellonian elective monarchies. 

The court painter of Sigismund and Bona Sforza would not only need to satisfy the local demand for paintings in Poland-Lithuania, but also in Italian possessions of Bona and their extensive Italian, German and international relations. The choice of Venice, lying on the way to Bari and Cranach workshop, which was supplying all of Sigismund's relatives in Germany, was obvious. 

Before 1523 Jan Janusz Kościelecki, a cousin of Beata Kościelecka, daughter of Andrzej Kościelecki and Katarzyna Telniczanka, was appointed the castellan of the castle in the royal city of Inowrocław. In 1526 he also recived the title of castellan of Łęczyca. The Royal Castle there, where Sejms were held and where Ladislaus Jagiello received a Hussite envoy who offered him the Czech crown, was one of the most important in the Crown. As the castellan of Łęczyca he was present in Gdańsk as a witness of a document issued on May 3, 1526 by Sigismund I, when Pomeranian dukes paid homage from Lębork and Bytów. 

Jan Janusz Kościelecki from Kościelec (Joannes a Cosczielecz) of Ogończyk coat of arms was born in 1490 as the only son of Stanisław, voivode of Poznań from 1525 and his wife nee Oporowska. In 1529 he was a deputy of the Warsaw general assembly to the king in Lithuania.
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A portrait attributed to Giovanni Cariani or Bernardino Licinio in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice (inventory cat. 300) shows a blond man wearing a large black coat, with large sleeves lined with very expensive ermine fur. Under the coat he wears a long black robe and on his hands he wears a pair of leather gloves, typical of men of high social status. According to inscription in Latin on the plinth beside him, the man was 36 in 1526 (MDXXVI/ANN. TRIGINTASEX), exactly as Jan Janusz Kościelecki when he became the castellan of Łęczyca. 

The painting comes from the Contarini collection in Venice (transferred in 1838) and was considered to be a portrait of the Venetian nobleman Gabriele Vendramin (1484-1552), however, the dates of his life does not match the inscription. It is also considered to be a pendant to a portrait of lady in black dress in the same museum (inventory cat. 304), due to similar dimensions and composition, but the proportions are not similar and the lady's costume is more from the 1530s and not 1520s. Members of the Contarini family were frequent envoys of the Venetian Serenissima to Poland-Lithuania, like Ambrogio Contarini, who traveled to Poland twice between 1474-1477, or Giovanni Contarini, who during an audience in Lublin in 1649 informed the Polish monarch about the victory of the Venetian fleet over the Ottoman fleet. It is also possible that the painting was left as a modello in the painter's studio and was later acquired by the Contarinis. 

Jan Janusz died in 1545 and his eldest son Andrzej (1522-1565), a royal courtier and voivode of Kalisz from 1558, built in 1559 a mausoleum at the Romanesque church in Kościelec to design by Giovanni Battista di Quadro, for himself and his father. Their tomb monument, one of the best of its kind, was created by workshop of Giovanni Maria Padovano in Kraków and transported to Kościelec. 

Portrait of Jan Janusz Kościelecki (1490-1545), castellan of Łęczyca aged 36 by Giovanni Cariani, 1526, Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice.

Sigismund I and Katarzyna Telniczanka as David and Bathsheba by Lucas Cranach the Elder

According to the Bible, king David, whilst walking on the palace roof, accidentally espies the beautiful Bathsheba, the wife of a loyal soldier in his army, bathing. He desired her and made her pregnant.

Most probably in about 1498, when Crown Prince Sigismund (1467-1548) was made Duke of Głogów by his brother Vladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary, he met a Moravian or Silesian lady Katarzyna Telniczanka (ca. 1480-1528). She become his mistress and bore him three children: Jan (1499-1538), Regina (ca. 1500-1526) and Katarzyna (ca. 1503-1548).

In 1509, when already King of Poland, Sigismund decided to marry. That same year Katarzyna was married to Sigismund's friend, Andrzej Kościelecki, who was made Grand Crown Treasurer in reward. The only child born of this union, Beata (1515-1576), later a court lady of queen Bona, was reputed to be the child of the king as well.

Kościelecki died on 6 September 1515 in Kraków, Sigismund's first wife Barbara Zapolya passed that same year on 2 October 1515 and almost three years later, on 15 April 1518, he married Bona. During this period Katarzyna was undoubtedly close to Sigismund and her daughters were raised with his only legitimate daughter at that time, Hedwig Jagiellon (1513-1573), who in 1535 moved to Berlin as the new Electress of Brandenburg, taking a large dowry and many family souvenirs with her.

The small painting by Cranach from 1526, acquired in 1890 by Gemäldegalerie from Frau Medizinalrat Klaatsch in Berlin, shows a courtly scene with Bathsheba bathing her feet in the river. The main character however is not Bathsheba, nor the King David standing on a high terrace to the left. It's a lady standing in the right foreground, who most probably commissioned the painting. Her effigy and costume is astonishingly similar to the portrait of queen Bona holding a bouquet of forget-me-nots created the same year. She is holding Bathsheba's shoes, a clrear sign of approval for the royal mistress Telniczanka, a life-long companion of her husband, who was depicted as Bathsheba.

We could also distinguish two of Telniczanka's daughters to the left, most probably Katarzyna, who according to some sources was married the same year to George III, count of Montfort, and Regina, who died in Kraków on 20 May 1526. There's also king Sigismund as biblical king David - the king was depicted as king Solomon, David's son, in the marble tondo in his funerary chapel at the Wawel Cathedral and possibly also as king David (or king's banker Jan Boner). Beside him there's his son Jan, who was his secretary from 1518 and in 1526 it was planned to make him a Duke of Masovia and marry him to the Princess Anna of Masovia.
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This miniature could be considered as a proof ordered by Bona to be sent to the king, busy with state affairs in the north of Poland, that two of his women live in peace and harmony in Kraków in southern Poland. 

The same woman, Bathsheba - Telniczanka, was also depicted in the small painting which was before World War II in the Branicki Palace in Warsaw, converted into the British Embassy in 1919. It is considered to be lost, however according to Friedländer, Rosenberg 1979, No. 247 it is in a private collection in New York. The work shows Venus with Cupid stealing honey, which has been interpreted as an allegory of the pleasure and pains of love. Fragment of Latin inscription reads: And so do we seek transitory and dangerous pleasures / That are mixed with sadness and bring us pain (SIC ETIAM NOBIS BREVIS ET PERITVRA VOLVPTAS / QUAM PETIMVS TRISTI MIXTA DOLORE NOCET).

The effigy of unknown lady from the National Gallery in London created around the year 1525, matches perfectly the portrait of the eldest daughter of Telniczanka, Regina Szafraniec, in the Berlin painting. On October 20, 1518 in the Wawel Cathedral, she married the starost of Chęciny and a royal secretary, Hieronim Szafraniec. The letter M on her bodice is a reference to her patron saint, Maria Regina Caeli, Latin 'Mary, Queen of Heaven', as the name Mary (Maria) was at that time in Poland reserved solely to the Virgin. 

​The painting of Venus in the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum in Brunswick by Lucas Cranach the Elder is stylistically close to portrait of Anna of Masovia as Venus in Compton Verney, therefore it should be dated to about 1525. Originally, Venus in Brunswick was accompanied by a Cupid on the left side, however it was overpainted in 1873 due to its damaged state. The face and pose of Venus are almost identical to Regina Szafraniec's portrait by Cranach in London. It was recorded in the inventory of the Palace of the Dukes of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel in Salzdahlum from 1789-1803, it is hence possible that that it comes from the collection of Regina's step-sister Sophia Jagiellon, Duchess of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel.

Portrait of a young woman with an apple, a symbol of the bride in ancient Greek thought, from about 1525, also lost during World War II (other version in Toulouse), is very similar to the effigy of one of the daughters of Telniczanka in the Berlin painting. It is undoubtedly Katarzyna, countess of Montfort.​

Sigismund I and Katarzyna Telniczanka as David and Bathsheba by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1526, Gemäldegalerie in Berlin.

Katarzyna Telniczanka as Venus with Cupid stealing honey by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1526-1528, Branicki Palace in Warsaw, lost during World War II.

Portrait of Regina Szafraniec (ca. 1500-1526), natural daughter of king Sigismund I by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1525-1526, National Gallery in London.

Portrait of Regina Szafraniec (ca. 1500-1526) as Venus by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1525, Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum in Brunswick.

Portrait of Katarzyna, countess of Montfort (ca. 1503-1548), natural daughter of king Sigismund I by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1525-1526, Puttkamer Palace in Trzebielino, lost during World War II.

Bust-length portrait of Katarzyna, countess of Montfort (ca. 1503-1548), natural daughter of king Sigismund I by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1525-1526, Fondation Bemberg in Toulouse.

Portrait of Bona Sforza holding myosotis by Lucas Cranach the Elder

In February 1526 the king Sigismund I went from Kraków in southern Poland to Pomerania in the north to take an active stand against the revolted Gdańsk and other cities of Royal Prussia. He then proceeded to Masovia, which had fallen to the Crown after the heirless death of the last princes of the house of Piast. He returned to the capital on 23 September 1526. He was absent for almost a year leaving his pregnant second wife Bona Sforza in Kraków (on 1 November 1526 she gave birth to her daughter Catherine Jagiellon).

The portrait of a woman by Lucas Cranach the Elder dated 1526 and coming from the old collection of the royal Wilanów Palace (most probably acquired before 1743), bears a great resemblance to the effigies of Bona Sforza. It is of small dimensions (34.9 x 23.8 cm or 13.7 x 9.3 in), a good item to be taken on a journey or to be sent to someone with a love letter.

The woman is holding a bouquet of myosotis, colloquially denominated forget-me-nots, a symbol of true love and fidelity and holding her left hand on her belly.  ​

Portrait of Bona Sforza holding myosotis (forget-me-nots) by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1526, Wilanów Palace in Warsaw.

Portrait of Hedwig Jagiellon hodling an apple by Lucas Cranach the Elder and workshop

In 1527 just 14 years old Crown Princess Hedwig Jagiellon (1513-1573), the only daughter of king Sigismund I the Old and his first wife Barbara Zapolya, was one of the most ardently desired brides in Europe.

​Among numberless suitors for her hand were sons of the Brandenburg elector and Stanislaus, Duke of Mazovia in 1523, Frederick Gonzaga, proposed by Pope Clement VII and James V, King of Scotland proposed by Francis I, King of France in 1524, Janusz III, Duke of Masovia, Frederic Gonzaga (again) and Francis II Sforza, Duke of Milan in 1525, Gustav I Vasa, King of Sweden and Francis I, King of France proposed by her uncle Jan Zápolya, King of Hungary in 1526, Louis X, Duke of Bavaria in 1527 and in 1528 and Luis of Portugal, Duke of Beja in 1529 etc. 

The portrait of a lady hodling an apple from the Prague Castle Picture Gallery by Lucas Cranach the Elder and workshop from 1527 bears a strong resemblance to the portrait of Hedwig portrayed in her wedding dress with monogram S of her father by Hans Krell in about 1537, and a portrait of her mother by Cranach.

It also very similar in composition and format to the portrait of her stepmother Bona Sforza holding forget-me-nots dated 1526 (Wilanów Palace), therefore both portraits might be commissioned in the Cranach's workshop at the same time. She is holding an apple, a longstanding symbol of kingship and royalty - the royal orb, ​and a strong symbol of the bride in ancient Greek thought (Sappho, Plutarch).

Portrait of Crown Princess Hedwig Jagiellon (1513-1573) hodling an apple by Lucas Cranach the Elder and workshop, 1527, Prague Castle Picture Gallery.

Portraits of Sigismund Augustus and Isabella Jagiellon by Lucas Cranach the Elder

"In 1525, when the envoys of Charles V came to Kraków, bringing the Order of the Golden Fleece to King Sigismund, the Queen gave them as a gift portraits of herself, her husband and ... Isabella, and not of her son - the heir to the throne - which would seem more appropriate. She probably wanted to remind at the Habsburg court that she had a daughter - a pretty daughter - who would soon be of marriageable age. It seems that Bona would accept - notwithstanding her hostile attitude towards Austria - to marry one of the Habsburgs. After all, the Archduke of Austria was the best party in Europe" (after Małgorzata Duczmal's "Izabela Jagiellonka, królowa Węgier", p. 73). 

That year Bona also had to accept the engagement of her only son Sigismund Augustus with Elizabeth of Austria (1526-1545), the eldest daughter of Ferdinand I of Austria and Anna Jagellonica. Elizabeth's parents undeniably also received portraits of children of Sigismund and Bona, as well as other important royal and princely courts nearby. 

Portraits of a young boy and an older girl by Lucas Cranach the Elder, comes from Julius Böhler's collection in Munich, owned jointly with August Salomon, Dresden, through Paul Cassirer, Berlin. They were acquired by the National Gallery of Art in Washington in 1947. The boy wears a jewelled wreath on his head which suggest his betrothal. The girl, however, has no garland on her head, she must be therefore his sister, exacly as Sigismund Augustus (1520-1572), betrothed to Elizabeth of Austria in 1526 or 1527, and his elder sister Isabella Jagiellon (1519-1559). The boy's effigy is similar to portrait of Sigismund Augustus as a child in a red tunic from Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, created by Lucas Cranach the Elder in 1529. He and his sister wears garments of crimson Venetian damask, typical for Polish nobilty, possibly acquired in Venice by Jewish merchant Lazarus of Brandenburg, probably expelled from this country in 1510, sent to Venice as a trade expert by Sigismund I. Lazarus also acquired pearls for the Queen. The doublet of a boy is embroidered with gold and silk and shows the scene of a rabbit hunt, an allusion to fertility, exaclty as in the portrait of Sigismund Augustus' mother Bona Sforza d'Aragona by Venetian painter, possibly Francesco Bissolo, in the National Gallery in London. The boy's hand gesture, as if holding the royal orb, is clear information, who will be elected the next king of Poland after Sigismund I. 

Portrait of Prince Sigismund Augustus (1520-1572) as a child by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1527, National Gallery of Art in Washington.

Portrait of Princess Isabella Jagiellon (1519-1559) as a child by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1527, National Gallery of Art in Washington.

Adoration of the Magi with portraits of Jan Leszczyński, his wife Marie de Marcellanges and Emperor Frederick III by Joos van Cleve and workshop

Around 1526 Rafał Leszczyński (d. 1592), later voivode of Brześć Kujawski, the only son of Jan Leszczyński (d. 1535), was born. His father, son of Kasper, chamberlain of Kalisz, and Zofia of Oporów, was a royal courtier. Before 1512, after his father's death, Jan become chamberlain of Kalisz and starost of Radziejów. In 1518 he was the starost of Koło, on July 4, 1519, he acted as the Collector General of Greater Poland and in 1520 he was named Kalisz customs officer. As early as February 21, 1525 Jan Leszczyński become castellan of Brześć Kujawski and on June 9, 1533, he acted as the king's deputy chamberlain of Kalisz and Konin. After death of his brother Rafał, secretary of Sigismund I and Bishop of Płock, in 1527, Jan remained the sole owner of the Leszczyński estates, the core of which was Gołuchów and Przygodzice. Soon after, he expanded the family abode - Gołuchów Castle near Kalisz (built before 1443 and 1507).

Jan's wife was Marie de Marcellanges (Maryna de Makrelangch), widow of Jarosław of Wrząca Sokołowski (d. 1517/18), bailiff of the king of Bohemia and Hungary Vladislaus II Jagiellon, castellan of Ląd and starost of Koło. They were married before January 1520 (on 25 January 1520 Jan set a dowry of 2,000 zlotys to his wife). Marie, who came from a wealthy family from Bourbonnais in the centre of France (Lords of Arson near Ebreuil, Vaudot, La Grange, Ferrières and other places), was a lady-in-waiting to Anne of Foix-Candale, third wife of King Vladislaus II.

In 1520, together with his wife, Jan concluded an agreement with Primate Jan Łaski and Wojciech Sokołowski, starost of Brześć Kujawski, guardians of her children from her first marriage (two daughters and five sons), for the provision of this care and for the welfare of minors. In 1522, Marie funded an altar in the collegiate church in Radziejów and four years later, in 1526, Wojciech Lubieniecki obtained a consent to buy the vogt's office in the village of Dąbie from her. In 1531 Jan Leszczyński appointed guardians for his son Rafał - count Andrzej Górka, his cousin Rafał, and his nephew Roch Koźmiński. He also had a daughter, Dorota. He died in 1535, shortly before June 30 (after "Teki Dworzaczka - Leszczyńscy h. Wieniawa"). 

Jan's grandfather - Rafał Leszczyński (d. 1501), was a courtier of Emperor Frederick III, son of Cymburgis of Masovia, in 1473 he received from him the title of count (according to Paprocki) and in 1476, as an addition to the coat of arms, a golden crown with a lion. In 1489 Rafał was also an envoy from the king to Frederick III.

The painting of Adoration of the Magi in the National Museum in Poznań (oil on panel, 156 x 89.5, inventory number Mo 133) was painted around the same time as a similar painting depicting King Sigismund I as one of the Magi (Gemäldegalerie in Berlin, 578) and as in the painting with king's effigy the artist placed the scene against the backdrop of magnificent, almost palatial architecture, with Italian Renaissance arches supported by rich columns. The man in a black hat and gray jacket on the right is identified as a self-portrait of the artist. This painter is Joos van Cleve as the painting is evidently in his style and it is similar to other effigies of the Antwerp painter, in particular his self-portrait as Saint Reinhold from the outer wings of the Saint Reinhold Altar, commissioned by Brotherhood of Saint Reinhold in Gdańsk (National Museum in Warsaw, M.Ob.2190). "This method - giving the holy figure one's own face - developed in connection with the iconographic type of St. Luke painting the Madonna: Van der Weyden, Dirk Bouts and Gossart portrayed themselves as a saint painter. But around 1515, when the Gdańsk self-portrait was created, not only the principle of the "allegorical portrait" was popularized - presenting the donor in the form of a saint (classic examples include Bishop Albert of Brandenburg as Saint Erasmus by Grünewald or Lukas Paumgartner as Saint Eustace by Dürer) but also a self-portrait allegorized under the figures of saints gained such an important precedent as Dürer's image of one's own face, unambiguously referring to the images of Christ (1500)" (after "Nieznane autoportrety Joosa van Cleve ... " by Jan Białostocki, p. 468). The quality of the Poznań painting is slightly lower than that of the mentioned paintings in Berlin and Warsaw which indicate greater involvement of the painter's studio, and perhaps it is one of a series of similar compositions commissioned by the same patron.

Almost in the center of the composition is Saint Caspar, identified as having brought the frankincense (an incense as a symbol of deity) to Jesus (after "Explanation of the Epistles and Gospels ..." by Leonard Goffiné, Georg Ott, p. 83), in a rich coat lined with lynx fur and crinale cap. Behind him stands a man in oriental costume, holding a bow, probably a Tatar warrior. Saint Caspar looks either at the viewer or the Virgin Mary, and this arrangement clearly indicates that this is a portrait of the man who commissioned this painting. The old man depicted as Saint Melchior kneeling beside him has the chain of the Order of the Golden Fleece around his neck, indicating that this is another portrait-like effigy of a real person. He bear a striking resemblence to Emperor Frederick III from a print by A. Ehrenreich s.c. in the Austrian National Library (19th century, wrongly signed as Friedrich IV), his portrait at the old age presented during the Lower Austria exhibition in 2019, as well as effigy from the tapestry with the Legend of Our Lady of the Sablon/Zavel series from about 1518, designed by Bernard van Orley (Brussels City Museum) and especially disguised portraits as Melchior in the Adoration of the Magi scenes, all created after his death, in the 16th century, most likely as part of the glorification efforts by his son Maximilian I. The Emperor was notably represented in the scene of the Epiphany by the Master of Frankfurt (Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp and Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna) and together with his son Maximilian as Caspar and Maximilian's wife Mary of Burgundy as Madonna in a triptych by Master of Frankfurt (The Phoebus Foundation). Such propaganda works of art intended to legitimize the reign of a new monarch were probably intended to strengthen the reign of the Habsburgs in the Netherlands, hence the identification of the face of the Virgin with the effigy of the only child of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, seems the natural conclusion. 

It was most likely Maximilian's sucessor Emperor Charles V (1500-1558) or his partisans, who in 1519 ordered the painting of Adoration of the Magi from Marco Cardisco, a painter active mainly in Naples, today in the Civic Museum of Castel Nuovo in Naples. It includes disguised portraits of Ferdinand I of Naples (1424-1494) and his son Alfonso II of Naples (1448-1495), great grandfather and grandfather of Bona Maria Sforza d'Aragona (1494-1557), Queen of Poland and Grand Duchess of Lithuania, and Charles V, the King of Naples from 1516, as the third of the Magi. 

Very similar portrait of the Emperor Frederick III as the kneeling Melchior was included in another painting by Joos van Cleve, today in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden (oil on panel, 110 x 70.5 cm, inventory number Gal.-Nr. 809). It was mentioned for the first time in Dresden in 1812 and it is generlly dated to about  1517-1518 or 1512-1523. Several copies of this painting preserved and in one of them, from the Heiligenkreuz Abbey near Vienna, today in private collection, the Virgin Mary has the features of Archduchess Margaret of Austria (1480-1530), Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands, daughter of Maximilian I and Mary of Burgundy.

The Adoration of the Magi in Poznań comes from the Mielżyński collection, like the painting representing King Sigismund I and his family by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder (National Museum in Poznań). Seweryn Mielżyński donated his collection to the Poznań Society of Friends of Learning in 1870. Due to monogram visible at the bottom left of the painting, read as "L", the painting was considered to be the work of Lucas van Leyden. It was later considered as a forgery, however it could also be the mark of the owner - Leszczyński. In conclusion, the founder of the painting represented in the center of the composition should be identified as Jan Leszczyński, castellan of Brześć Kujawski, whose grandfather received the title from Frederick III. The woman depicted as Mary, whose features are also unique and not similar to Dresden version, is therefore Jan's wife Marie de Marcellanges, who gave birth to his only son at the time the painting was created. Such depictions were popular in Marie's home country of France since the Middle Ages, one of the oldest and best known is the portrait of a favourite and chief mistress of King Charles VII of France, Agnès Sorel (1422-1450) as Madonna Lactans, painted around 1452 by Jean Fouquet (Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp). The effigy of Agnès was commissioned as part of a diptych, the so-called Melun Diptych, by Étienne Chevalier (d. 1474), who was a treasurer of France under the reign of King Charles VII (from 1452) and who ordered his portrait as donor with his patron saint Saint Stephen kneeling before the Madonna-Agnès (Gemäldegalerie in Berlin). According to Vasari, Giulia Farnese (1474-1524), mistress to Pope Alexander VI, and the sister of Pope Paul III, called concubina papae or sponsa Christi, was also depicted as Madonna in a destroyed fresco "Divine Investiture" by Pinturicchio in the Borgia Apartments. This controversial fresco was divided into fragments - the Madonna and the Child will become part of the Chigi collection, during papacy of an anti-nepotist Pope Alexander VII (1599-1667), between 1655 and 1667. "Over the door of an apartment in the said palace he portrayed the Signora Giulia Farnese in the countenance of a Madonna, and, in the same picture, the head of Pope Alexander in a figure that is adoring her" (In detto palazzo ritrasse, sopra la porta d'una camera, la signora Giulia Farnese nel volto d'una Nostra Donna; e nel medesimo quadro, la testa d'esso papa Alessandro che l'adora), describes the work of Pinturicchio Vasari in 1568 (after "Regesto dei documenti di Giulia Farnese" by Danilo Romei, Patrizia Rosini, p. 357). However, in 1612 Aurelio Recordati, linked to the Duke of Mantua, ordered Giovanni Magni to make a copy of the painting by the painter Pietro Fachetti, today in private collection (after "Sulle tracce di Giulia Farnese ..." by Cristian Pandolfino).

​Such representations in the guise of deities, most likely revived during renaissance from the Roman times, were unquestionably popular also in Poland-Lithuania where Latin and Italian culture was so strong. Shortly after his death, Antinous, a Greek youth from Bithynia and a favourite and lover of the Roman emperor Hadrian was deified (in October 130, Hadrian proclaimed Antinous to be a deity). Many marble sculptures and reliefs of this handsome man preserved in different museums around the world, some of which depict him as Silvanus, deity of woods and uncultivated lands (Palazzo Massimo alle Terme in Rome), as the god Mercury (bust from the collection of Catherine II, now at the Hermitage Museum), as Bacchus, god of the grape-harvest and fertility (National Archaeological Museum in Naples), as Osiris, Egyptian god of fertility, agriculture and the afterlife (Vatican Museums), as Agathos Daimon, a prominent serpentine civic god, who served as the special protector of Alexandria (Antikensammlung in Berlin), as a divine hero Ganymede (Lady Lever Art Gallery) and many others. 

At that time painting commissions and imports to Poland-Lithuania from Flanders increased, one of the few surviving examples is mentioned Saint Reinhold Altar in Warsaw and Triptych of King Sigismund I in Berlin, but also Adoration of the Magi with a donor of Odrowąż coat of arms by Master of 1518, a Flemish painter belonging to the stylistic school of Antwerp Mannerism, today in the National Museum in Warsaw (oil on panel, 71.5 x 54.5 cm, 185976 MNW). It comes from the Church in Jasieniec, south of Warsaw. The donor's effigy and the Odrowąż coat of arms were added later in Poland by a less skilled local painter. The painting is dated to about 1525, so this donor could be Jan Chlewicki from Chlewiska of Odrowąż coat of arms, provost of Sandomierz in 1525, educated at the Kraków Academy. In the 1450s the Leszczyński family ordered a votive painting of Enthroned Madonna with their portraits as donors, today in the Parish Church in Drzeczkowo, in the workshop of Wilhelm Kalteysen, a painter educated probably in Aachen, Cologne and the Netherlands and active in Wrocław, which was then part of the Kingdom of Bohemia.

The Habsburgs put a lot of effort and money into spreading the image of Frederick III across renaissance Europe, and just like today many people want to have a photo with a famous politician or a celebrity, the Leszczyńskis also sought to increase their influence by presenting themselves with the emperor who granted them the title. The choice of Saint Caspar as his image by Jan Leszczyński was probably dictated by the desire to pay homage to his father - Kasper (Caspar), chamberlain of Kalisz.

Adoration of the Magi with portraits of Jan Leszczyński (d. 1535), his wife Marie de Marcellanges and Emperor Frederick III by Joos van Cleve and workshop, ca. 1527, National Museum in Poznań.

Adoration of the Magi with portrait of Emperor Frederick III (1415-1493) by Joos van Cleve, 1512-1523, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden.

Adoration of the Magi with portrait of Emperor Frederick III (1415-1493) and his granddaughter Archduchess Margaret of Austria (1480-1530) by follower of Joos van Cleve, 1512-1530, Private collection.

Adoration of the Magi with a donor of Odrowąż coat of arms, most probably Jan Chlewicki, provost of Sandomierz  by Master of 1518, ca. 1525, National Museum in Warsaw.

Portraits of Barbara Kolanka by Lucas Cranach the Elder

When following the catastrophic Deluge (1655-1660) and subsequent foreign invasions, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was stepping into great political chaos, instability and poverty, one of the invaders and former fief, Ducal Prussia raised to great power and prosperity as an absolute monarchy ruled from Berlin. Between 1772 and 1795 the Habsburg monarchy, the Kingdom of Prussia, and the Russian Empire, divided up the Commonwealth lands among themselves resulting in the elimination of sovereign Poland and Lithuania for 123 years. 

In 1796 Prince Antoni Henryk Radziwill married Princess Louise of Prussia, a niece of the late Prussian king Frederick the Great, whom he met when Prussian royal family visited his parents in 1795 at their Nieborów Palace near Łowicz. Antoni Henryk attended Göttingen University and he was a courtier of King Frederick William II of Prussia. As an owner of large estates he frequently travelled between Berlin, Poznań, Warsaw, Nieborów and Saint Petersburg. Shortly after the wedding, he bought the rococo Schulenburg Palace in Berlin at Wilhelm-Strasse 77, which became his main abode, thence denoted the Radziwill Palace. 

The Radziwills were among the richest and most powerful magnates in Poland-Lithuania and one of the nine families that had been imperial princes since 1515 (princeps imperii, Reichsfürst), allowed to hold the title of prince since 1569 in the otherwise untitled noble republic.

Antoni Henryk's parents Helena Przeździecka and Michał Hieronim Radziwill, were renowned art collectors, owning works by Hans Memling (Annunciation in the Metropolitan Museum of Art), Rembrandt (Lucretia in the Minneapolis Institute of Art) or Willem Claesz. Heda (Still-life in the National Museum in Warsaw). Their portraits were painted by eminent artists like Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun and they undeniably also had many other paintings stemming from different Radziwill estates, especially when the main property of the Radziwills, the estates of Nesvizh, Olyka and Mir in Belarus and Ukraine were confiscated by tsar Alexander I in 1813.

Also many Radziwill connected items were transferred to Germany with the dowry of Princess Luise Charlotte Radziwill (1667-1695), who was a wife of Margrave Louis of Brandenburg and later married Charles Philip of Palatinate-Neuburg, like the gold Radziwill cup by Hans Karl in Munich.

The Radziwill family lived in their Berlin palace until it became too small. In 1869, Prussian Prime Minister Otto von Bismarck, notorious for his bitter hostility to the Poles, bought the palace for the Prussian state government. It was later expanded for Adolf Hitler as Reich Chancellery and demolished in 1949. In 1874 German state also acquired the Raczyński Palace in Berlin, which was demolished to built the Reichstag building. The acquitions of both buildings, famous for its art collections and as centers of Polish culture in German capital, was highly symbolic and sometimes considered an attempt to obliterate Polish heritage and culture. 

In about 1512 George Radziwill (1480-1541), nicknamed "Hercules" married Barbara Kolanka or Kołówna (d. 1550) of Junosza coat of arms, famous for her beauty direct descendant to Elizabeth Granowska of Pilcza, the Queen consort to Ladislaus II of Poland (Jogaila of Lithuania). They had three children Nicolaus nicknamed "the Red" (1512-1584), Anna Elizabeth (1518-1558) and Barbara (1520/23-1551). 

From their early age, George Hercules arranged the most advantageous marriages for his daughters to form beneficial alliances. In 1523 Anna Elizabeth was engaged to the son of Konstanty Ostrogski, Grand Hetman of Lithuania, Illia (Eliasz Aleksander). This alliance was formed to oppose Grand Chancellor of Lithuania and Voivode of Vilnius Albertas Gostautas, a successor of his staunch opponent Nicolaus II Radziwill (1470-1521), brother of George Hercules. Soon, however, when the position of castellan of Vilnius was vacant after death of Stanislovas Kesgaila (d. 1527), George Hercules sided with Albertas and betrothed Anna to his son Stanislovas, paying King Sigismund I the Old a pledge of 10,000 Lithuanian money for his future marriage. The castellan of Vilnius was second highest official in Vilnius Voivodeship, subordinate to the Voivode, Albertas Gostautas. In this way, Anna had two grooms at the same time. In 1536 George Hercules demanded that Illia fulfill the marriage contract, but not with Anna Elizabeth, but with her sister Barbara. He refused, because he fell in love with Beata Kościelecka. 

Controversial lifestyle of Barbara Kolanka and her daughters was the source of stigmatization, rumors and libel. Anna Elizabeth, before her marriage, was accused of sexual misconduct and having illegitimate children and her sister Barbara, after her marriage, that she had as many as 36 lovers, according to canon Stanisław Górski, and "that she either equaled or surpassed her mother in disgrace, and was marked by many blemishes of lust and immodesty" (Itaque cum adolevisset et priori marito collocata esset, ita se gessit, ut matrem turpitudine aut aequarit aut superarit et multis libidinis et impudicitiae maculis notata fuerit), according to Stanisław Orzechowski. 

It was younger of two sisters Barbara, who on 17 May 1537 married Stanislovas Gostautas. When he died just five years later on 18 December 1542, as the last male descendant of the Gostautas family, Barbara and later her family inherited a large portion of his enormous fortune, thus becoming the most influential nobles of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Shortly after Barbara Radziwll become a mistress to king Sigismund Augustus.

The portrait of a woman as Saint Barbara by Lucas Cranach the Elder from about 1530 was in the late 19th century in the collection of Geheimrat (the title of the highest advising officials at the Imperial, royal or princely courts of the Holy Roman Empire) Lucas in Berlin. Her rich outfit and jewels indicate her noble origins. She is being pursued by her father,  who kept her locked up in a tower in order to preserve her from the outside world. 

The topography and general shape of the city with a church and a castle on a hill to the right is very similar to the view of Vilnius by Tomasz Makowski from 1600. 

The same woman was also depicted as the princess raped by Saint John Chrysostom (Penance of Saint John Chrysostom), holding her daughter. The long-bearded saint, particularly revered in the Orthodox world and barely visible above the child's head, is expiating his guilt in seducing and slaying the princess by crawling about on all-fours like a beast. John imposed upon himself the penance and his baby miraculously pronounced his sins forgiven. The castle in the background can be also compared with the Vilnius Castle. The painting is therefore a message to Voivode Albertas Gostautas and his supporters, that George Hercules regrets his actions against him, he is worthy to become the castellan of the Vilnius Castle and its surrounding territory and his daughter to be engaged with Voivode's son. The painting was before 1901 in the colletion of Graf Einsiedel in Berlin. The woman, in similar costume and pose, was depicted as Saint Barbara seated before a green velvet drape, in a painting which was before 1932 in the private collection in Brunswick.

She was also depicted as Lucretia, the beautiful and virtuous wife of a commander Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus, whose suicide precipitated a rebellion that overthrew the Roman monarchy. The painting was probably in the collection of Franz Reichardt (1825-1887) in Munich and was cut to oval shape in the 17th or 18th century. In a similar, full length effigy as Lucretia from the late 1520s in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich, her face features are identical with the portrait in Sammlung Würth. 

She is finally depicted in a fashionable scene of Venus and Cupid by Cranach the Elder from the collection of William Schomberg Robert Kerr (1832-1870), 8th Marquess of Lothian, in the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh. Inventory of the Kunstkammer of the Radziwill Castle in Lubcha from 1647 lists a painting of Venus and Amor, an old painting of Adam and Eve and Saint John in the wilderness, signed L. C. and also a tondo with Madonna and Madonna and Child offered by Antoni Tyszkiewicz (after "Galerie obrazów i "Gabinety Sztuki" Radziwiłłów w XVII w." by Teresa Sulerzyska, p. 93).

The effigy of the Virgin in the painting by Cranach in the Pushkin Museum resemble greatly the portrait of Barbara in Sammlung Würth. The landscape behind Mary is entirely fantastic in upper part, however in lower part is very similar to view of Trakai in Lithuania by Tomasz Makowski, created in about 1600. Central keep, dilapidated in Makowski's print, surrounded by walls with towers, the bridge leading to the Island Castle, fishermen on the lake, are almost identical. The painting was since 1825 in the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg and in 1930 it was transferred to the Pushkin Museum in Moscow. Its earlier history is unknown, therefore provenance from Radziwill estates cannot be excluded. It is dated by various sources to around 1520 to 1525. 
​
In 1522, thanks to the support of Queen Bona, George Hercules, husband of Barbara, received the castellany of the Trakai castle, an important defensive structure protecting Trakai and Vilnius, capital of the Grand Duchy, one of the most important offices in Lithuania. This nomination was related to Queen's efforts to gain support for the project of elevation of her son Sigismund Augustus to the grand-ducal throne. In 1528 George Hercules was also made Marshal of the Court of Lithuania and Grand Hetman of Lithuania in 1531. When in 1529 Sigismund I the Old agreed to approve the First Statute of Lithuania, which further expanded the rights of the nobility, his son Sigismund Augustus was proclaimed the Grand Duke of Lithuania. 

As the wife of the Marshal of the Court, who was taking care for the court and the safety of the dames, Barbara was the most important woman at the ducal court in Vilnius after the Queen and Grand Duchess Bona Sforza. She undeniably supported the Queen's policy and her portrait as Judith with the head of Holofernes from about 1530 in the Museo de Arte de Ponce in Puerto Rico is the expression of her support. 

Portrait of Barbara Kolanka (d. 1550) as the Virgin in a grape arbor by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1522, Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow.

Portrait of Barbara Kolanka (d. 1550) as the Princess from the Legend of Saint John Chrysostom by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1527-1530, Wartburg-Stiftung in Eisenach.

Portrait of Barbara Kolanka (d. 1550) as Saint Barbara by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1527, Private collection.

Portrait of Barbara Kolanka (d. 1550) as Venus and Cupid by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1527-1537, National Gallery of Scotland. 

Portrait of Barbara Kolanka (d. 1550) as Lucretia by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1527, Private collection.

Portrait of Barbara Kolanka (d. 1550) as Lucretia by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1527-1530, Alte Pinakothek in Munich.

Portrait of Barbara Kolanka (d. 1550) as Saint Barbara by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1530, Sammlung Würth. 

Portrait of Barbara Kolanka (d. 1550) as Judith with the head of Holofernes by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1530, Museo de Arte de Ponce.

Portraits of royal courtier Stanisław Bojanowski by Bernardino Licinio

A Renaissance painter, Bernardino Licinio, was most probably born in Poscante north of Bergamo and close to Milan in about 1489. His family was well established at Murano and at Venice by the end of the fifteenth century and he was first recorded as a painter there in 1511. 

The portrait by Licinio in the Pushkin Museum, shows a young, twenty-one year old Stanisław Bojanowski (1507-1555), a nobleman and influencial courtier who become a secretary of king Sigismund Augustus in 1543. He is depicted in red żupan (from Arabic dіubbah or giubbone, giuppone, giubba in Italian) of Venetian silk and wearing a fur coat, holding one hand on his belt and the other on a volume of Petrarch's poetry (F PETRARCHA). 

The painting was purchased by the Museum in 1964 from the collection of Anatol Zhukov in Moscow, who acquired it in 1938. It's earlier history is unknown, therefore it cannot be excluded that it was acquired in Poland. 

Bojanowski was an educated man, lover of Italian poetry, he possibly, as many Poles, studied in Padua and/or Bologna, when he could order his portrait in nearby Venice, or like his royal patrons he sent a drawing with his effigy to Licinio. He reportedly was the author of the lost book of "bad novels", as it was expressed in the Acts of the Babin Republic. "Boianowski Stanisław, a courtier. / They could have called him Boianowski [Fearful], / But by his own title, I could call him Śmiałowski [Brave]. / For boldly to everyone, without all flattery, / He spoke the honest truth to the point of resentment" (Boianowski Stanisław, dworzanin. / Moglić go tak s przezwiska, nazwać Boianowskim, / Ale własnym tytułem, mogł go zwać Smiałowskim. / Bowiem smiele każdemu, bez pochlebstwa wszego, / Namowił szczyrey prawdy, aż szło do żywego), wrote about Bojanowski in his Bestiary (Zwierziniec/Zwierzyniec), published in 1562, the Polish poet and prose writer Mikołaj Rej. 

Apart from the age (ANNO AETATIS SVE. XXI) also the date of the portrait is mentioned, 1528 (MD. XXVIII), a date when Baldassare Castiglione's "Book of the Courtier" (Il Cortegiano) was first published in Venice.

Shrewd and witty Bojanowski, a model of a typical Renaissance nobleman, become a leading figure of Łukasz Górnicki's "Polish Courtier" (Dworzanin polski), a paraphrase of the Castiglione's Il Cortegiano, published in Kraków in 1566. It is very probable that Bojanowski purchased a volume of the first edition of Castiglione's oeuvre.

From 1543 after the creation of a separate court of Sigismund Augustus in Vilnius, he was the deputy of Jan Przerębski, the head of the chancellery. He performed diplomatic missions for the king. In 1551 Hetman Jan Tarnowski proposed him or Jan Krzysztoporski (whose portrait by Licinio is in the Kensington Palace), "both secular and well-known supporters of religious innovations" (after "Papiestwo-Polska 1548-1563: dyplomacja" by Henryk Damian Wojtyska, p. 336), as envoys to Rome. 

It is possible that it was him that brought to Florence in 1537 the portrait of Queen Bona Sforza by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder and her daughter Princess Isabella Jagiellon nude (Venus of Urbino) by Titian, both created around that time and installed in Villa del Poggio Imperiale, fulfilling a secret mission for the Queen.

The same man as in the Moscow painting was also depicted in another canvas by Licinio, today in Palazzo Pitti in Florence (inventory number Palatina 69, 1912). According to Latin inscription on a stone pedestal in lower left corner of the painting it was created in 1537 and the man was 30 (AETA. ANNOR / XXX / MDXXXVII), exactly as Bojanowski at that time. He is wearing a coat lined with expensive fur and holding a letter, most likely the envoy's credentials. His effigy with a long beard resemble more closely Bojanowski's bust from his epitaph.

He is buried in the Holy Trinity Church in Kraków, where his epitaph of sandtone and red marble, most probably created by workshop of Venetian trained sculptor, Giovanni Maria Mosca called Padovano (who created tomb monuments of two wives of Sigismund Augustus), bears the following inscription in Latin: STANISLAVS BOIANOWSKI / EX MAIORI POLONIA PA / TRIIS BONIS CONTENTVS / ESSE NOLENS AVLAM ET / EIVS PROISSA SECVTVS AN. / DNI. M.D.L.V. XVII IVNII. CRA / COVIAE MORITVR ANTE / QVAM VIVERE DIDICISSET / AETATIS SVAE XXXXVIII (Stanislaus Bojanowski of Greater Poland, unwilling to be content with his country's court, and following his promises, he died in Kraków in the year of our Lord 1555 on June 17, before he had learned how to live, at the age of 48).

Portrait of royal courtier Stanisław Bojanowski (1507-1555), aged 21 by Bernardino Licinio, 1528, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow.

Portrait of royal courtier Stanisław Bojanowski (1507-1555), aged 30 by Bernardino Licinio, 1537, Palazzo Pitti in Florence.

Portraits of Christine of Saxony and Elizabeth of Hesse by Lucas Cranach the Elder

Christine of Saxony, the eldest daughter of Barbara Jagiellon, Duchess of Saxony, was born on 25 December 1505. When she was almost 18 years old, on 11 December 1523, she married Landgrave Philip I of Hesse (1504-1567) in Kassel to forge an alliance between Hesse and Saxony. Next year, in 1524, after a personal meeting with the theologian Philipp Melanchthon, Landgrave Philip embraced Protestantism and refused to be drawn into the anti-Lutheran league formed in 1525 by Christine's father, Duke George of Saxony, a staunch Catholic. 

Duke George sensed the danger that his daughter would be introduced to the Lutheran religion in Hesse. He was informed by his secretary that some at Philip's court were Lutherans, so he admonished his daughter to remain true to the faith of her fathers and to resist Lutheran teaching. In a letter to her father from Kassel, dated February 20, 1524 Christine assured him that she would not become a "Martinis" (Lutheran): "I would like to thank you for the good instructions you have given me, oh that I will not become a martinis, you have no worries (Ich bedank mich keigen Ewer genaden der guten underrichtunge, di mir Ewer g. gethan haben, och das ich nicht martinis sal werden darf Ewer g. kein sorge vor haben). In March 1525, however, at the age of 21, Landgrave Philip publicly declared himself in favor of new religion and expropriated the monasteries in Hesse. On March 11, 1525, Landgravine Christine, convinced by her husband, wrote to her father as a follower of Luther, a glowing testimony of her new faith. It is on this occassion that she commissioned her portrait as biblical Judith from the Saxon court painter, Lucas Cranach the Elder, inspired by Italian and Venetian painting (Botticelli, Vincenzo Catena). The portrait in the collection of the Syracuse University greatly resemble the effigies of Christine's sister, mother and brother by Cranach as well as effigy of her maternal grandmother Elizabeth of Austria (1436-1505), Queen of Poland by Anton Boys. 

Her double portraits with her husband, in Kassel by Jost vom Hoff and in Gripsholm Castle near Stockholm, were created long after her death in late 16th or 17th century and resemble more the portrait of Landgrave's morganatic wife, Margarethe von der Saale. Christine and her younger sister Magdalena (1507-1534), future Margravine of Brandenburg, were depicted as relatives of Sigismund I in De Jegellonum familia liber II, published in Kraków in 1521.

Christine loved her husband, but despite her sacrifice and her devotion he never desired or loved her (das ich nihe liebe oder brunstlichkeit zu irr gehabt), as he declared later, and as early as 1526 he began to consider the permissibility of bigamy. 

On August 27, 1515, Christine's brother John of Saxony (1498-1537) married in Marburg Elizabeth of Hesse (1502-1557), sister of Landgrave Philip of Hesse. The bride continued to live in Marburg, where she was born and it was not until January 1519 that she moved to Dresden.

In 1529, at the invitation of Landgrave Philip, the Marburg Colloquy took place at Marburg Castle which attempted to solve a disputation between Martin Luther and Ulrich Zwingli over the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Like biblical Salome, Elizabeth was between two camps, "the old religion" of the family of her husband and "the new religion" of her brother. Elizabeth leaned towards the Lutheran teachings and she constantly fought for her independence against old Duke George, John's father, and his officials. Both John and Elizabeth were also depicted as relatives of Sigismund I in De Jegellonum familia liber II. The couple remained childless and when John died in 1537, Elizabeth moved to Rochlitz.

Salome with the head of Saint John the Baptist from the collection Esterhazy in the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest (acquired in 1871) depicts a woman in rich costume against the background of a castle, which shape and topography are very similar to views of the Marburg Castle from the turn of the 16th and 17th century. This portrait is known from many versions, created by Cranach workshop. Among the best are copies in the royal Wilanów Palace in Warsaw (recorded in inventory of 1696) and in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg (before 1811 in the Holzhausen collection in Frankfurt am Main), which was cut in half. Facial features of a lady resemble greatly the effigy of Elizabeth of Hesse from the so-called Sächsischen Stammbuch, created in 1546 by Cranach workshop and facial features of her brother Landgrave Philip in his portrait in the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm.
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The same woman was also depicted as Venus in a painting from Emil Goldschmidt's collection in Frankfurt (acquired before 1909), today in the National Gallery in London. She reaches up to grab a branch from the apple tree behind her, an allude to paintings of Eve by Cranach. An apple is a symbol of sexual temptation and a symbol of royal power, but also a symbol of new beginnings and a new faith. A quote most often attributed to Martin Luther reads: "If I knew that the world were to end tomorrow, I would plant an apple tree today". It is very similar to the effigy of Katarzyna Telniczanka, mistress of Sigismund I, as Venus with Cupid stealing honey (lost during World War II). The painting was inscribed in Latin, not in German, therefore it was most likely sent to some Catholics abroad, possibly as a gift to the Polish royal couple Sigismund and Bona Sforza. 

Portrait of Christine of Saxony (1505-1549), Landgravine of Hesse as Judith with the head of Holofernes by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1525, Syracuse University Art Galleries, New York.

Portrait of Elizabeth of Hesse (1502-1557), Hereditary Princess of Saxony as Venus and Cupid (Cupid complaining to Venus) by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1527-1530, National Gallery in London.

Portrait of Elizabeth of Hesse (1502-1557), Hereditary Princess of Saxony as Salome with the head of Saint John the Baptist by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1530, Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest.

Portrait of Elizabeth of Hesse (1502-1557), Hereditary Princess of Saxony as Salome with the head of Saint John the Baptist by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1530, Wilanów Palace in Warsaw.

Portrait of Elizabeth of Hesse (1502-1557), Hereditary Princess of Saxony by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1530, Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg.

Portraits of Anna of Brandenburg by Lucas Cranach the Elder

A painting showing Venus and Cupid as honey thief by Lucas Cranach the Elder in Güstrow Palace, dated 1527, is very similar to the work in the National Gallery in London, the women, however, are different. The painter used the same effigy in a small painting of the Virgin and Child from 1525, which was owned by the Swabian Stein family in 1549 (date and coat of arms at the back of the painting), today in the Royal Palace of Berchtesgaden.

The painting in Güstrow comes from the old collection of the estate (acquired by the Museum in 1851). Medieval castle in Güstrow, originally a Slavic settlement, was rebuilt in Renaissance style between 1558 and 1565 for Ulrich III, Duke of Mecklenburg-Güstrow (1527-1603) by an Italian architect Franceso de Pario (Franciscus Pahr), who earlier constructed arcaded courtyard of the Brzeg Castle. 

Mother of Ulrich was Anna of Brandenburg (1507-1567), the eldest daughter of Joachim I Nestor (1484-1535), Elector of Brandenburg. On January 17, 1524 in Berlin she married Duke Albert VII of Mecklenburg-Güstrow (1486-1547), and few months later she bore her first child Magnus, who died in childbirth. 

While Albert's elder brother Henry V of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, promoted the Reformation, Albert opposed it, although he also leaned toward the Lutheran doctrin (according to Luther's letter to Georg Spalatin on May 11, 1524). Henry joined the Protestant Torgau League on June 12, 1526, against the Catholic Dessau League of Anna's father, and in 1532 he publicly declared himself a follower of Luther. While the duke Albert ceded the parish church in Güstrow to the Protestants in 1534, Anna turned away from Lutheranism to become a Catholic and after the death of her husband in 1547, she moved to Lübz, which was the only part of the country that had not joined the Lutheran Reformation.
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Facial features of a woman in both described paintings greatly resemble Anna of Brandenburg's brother Joachim II Hector, Elector of Brandenburg and her son Ulrich. Her portrait in the Doberan Minster was created by Cornelius Krommeny in 1587, twenty years after her death. 

​Ancient Roman tradition of depiction in the guise of deities, was undeniably one of the factors that repulsed people from Roman Catholicism during the Reformation. Their sometimes unpopular rulers portrayed themselves as the Virgin and Saints. 

Portrait of Anna of Brandenburg (1507-1567), Duchess of Mecklenburg as Virgin and Child by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1525, Royal Palace of Berchtesgaden.

Portrait of Anna of Brandenburg (1507-1567), Duchess of Mecklenburg as Venus and Cupid by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1527, Güstrow Palace.

Portraits of Dukes of Silesia by Lucas Cranach the Elder and workshop 

In 1526 Louis II Jagiellon, King of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia died in the Battle of Mohács and Ottoman forces entered the capital of Hungary, Buda. The sultan re-conquered Buda in 1529, and finally occupied it in 1541. Illustrious, Italian style royal palace in the Hungarian capital was ransacked and burned and famous Bibliotheca Corviniana was in great part transferred to Istanbul. The fall of the Jagiellonian monarchy in Hungary and Bohemia was undeniably considered by many people as God's punishment for sins, also inside the union. 

Jagiellonian elective monarchies and their allies with their bold, liberated and powerful females (according to the text of Pope Pius II on noble ladies in Lithuania, among others), multiculturalism and religious freedom represented everything that pious and prudish men and their obedient wives, inside and outside the union, were afraid of. They should destroy this debauchery and the memory of it and introduce their own order. They will, however, keep nude and erotic paintings, for themselves. 

On November 14, 1518, just few days before her sister and few months after her uncle Sigismund I, king of Poland, Sophia of Brandenburg-Ansbach (1485-1537), married Duke Frederick II of Legnica (1480-1547). Sophia, was a daughter of Sophia Jagiellon, Margravine of Brandenburg-Ansbach-Kulmbach and a cousin of Louis II Jagiellon, while her husband a member of the Polish Piast dynasty, who was first married to Sophia's aunt Elizabeth Jagiellon (1482-1517), was a vassal of Bohemian crown. Duchy of Legnica, created during fragmentation of the Kingdom of Poland in 1248, was a fiefdom of Bohemia from 1329 onwards. As a son of Ludmila of Poděbrady, daughter of George of Poděbrady (who was elected King of Bohemia in 1458) in his early youth he spent some time at the court of King Vladislaus II Jagiellon in Prague. In 1521 after death of his younger brother George (1481/1483-1521), he inherited the Duchy of Brzeg. 

George I of Brzeg, Frederick's brother, married on 9 June 1516 with Anna of Pomerania (1492-1550). She was born as the eldest daughter of Duke Bogislaw X of Pomerania and his second wife Anna Jagiellon (1476-1503), daughter of King Casimir IV of Poland. They had no children and according to her husband's last will, Anna received the Duchy of Lubin as a dower with the lifelong rights to independent rule. Anna's rule in Lubin lasted twenty-nine years, and after her death it fell to the Duchy of Legnica. Even though Gustav Vasa, King of Sweden from 1523, sent a legation to Brzeg bearing a proposal of marriage to Anna, according to Nicolaus von Klemptzen's revision of Pomeranian chronicle (Chronik von Pommern), Anna remained unmarried. 

When in 1523 the rich Frederick II, who was already Duke of Legnica, Brzeg, Chojnów and Oława, bought the principality of Wołów from the Hungarian nobleman John Thurzo, brother of the bishop of Wrocław, John V Thurzo, he almost encircled with his domains the main economic center of Lower Silesia - the city of Wrocław. In the same year, he converted to Lutheranism and granted the population religious freedom. In 1528 or 1529 his radical preacher Caspar Schwenckfeld, according to which the Vigin Mary "was simply a conduit through which the 'heavenly flesh' had passed" (after John Roth, James Stayer, "A Companion to Anabaptism and Spiritualism, 1521-1700", p. 131), was banished by the duke, both from the court and the country. Just five years later the duke substantially changed his approach towards the freedom of religion. In 1534, he issued an edict against the ceremonies of Catholic worship in the Duchy of Legnica. He strengthened the fortifications of Brzeg, which was caused by the threat of the Turkish invasion of Silesia, ordered to demolish the Church of the Virgin Mary and the Dominican monastery and he established particularly close contacts with the Brandenburg elector. In the fall of 1536, a family reunion was held in Frankfurt an der Oder, and there it was decided to marry the children of the elector and the Duke of Legnica. A year later, on October 18, 1537, the Elector of Brandenburg Joachim II went to Legnica, where a document was signed regarding a double marriage and concluded a treaty of mutual inheritance. Frederick II's wife, Sophia, died earlier that year on 24 May 1537 in Legnica.

The other important union of the royal houses of Poland and Bohemia, Piast and Poděbrady, Anna of Głogów-Żagań (1483-1541) and Charles I (1476-1536), Duke of Ziębice-Oleśnica (Münsterberg-Oels) ruled the other principalities near Wrocław. Anna, the last surviving member of the Głogów-Żagań branch of the Silesian Piasts, and Charles were married on 3 March 1495 (marriage contract was signed on 7 January 1488). Charles, who remanied Catholic during the Reformation, became governor of Silesia in 1524. He was born in Kłodzko, and although he and his brothers had sold the county to their future brother-in-law Ulrich von Hardegg in 1501, he and his descendants continued to use the title of Count of Kłodzko. Between 1491-1506, the Jagiellons, including Sigismund, ruled in Głogów, a part of Anna's inheritance. The king of Poland renounced his claims to the Duchy in 1508, while his wife, Bona Sforza still made attempts to reintegrate it with the Kingdom of Poland in 1522, 1526 and 1547.

A small painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder and his workshop in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York shows a mythological scene of the Judgement of Paris. Mercury, the god of trade and commerce and the supporter of success, in fantastic armour and headpiece, just brought before Paris, the son of King Priam of Troy, the three goddesses of whose beauty he is to be judge. He is holding the Apple of Discord, which, according to the myth, was inscribed - "For the most beautiful one", or "To the fairest one". Each goddesses attempted with her powers to bribe Paris; Juno offered power, Minerva, wisdom and skill in war and Venus offered the love of the world's most beautiful woman, Helen of Troy. Paris accepted Venus' gift and awarded the apple to her.

This painting is dated to about 1528 due to similarity to another, dated Judgement of Paris in Basel. Fashionable, princely armour and the hat of Paris from the 1520s, as well as composition of the scene, reflect perfectly the main princely courts around Wrocław at that time. We can distinguish in this courtly scene Frederick II of Legnica-Brzeg, a candiate to the Bohemian crown after death of king Louis in 1526, as Paris, and his wife Sophia of Brandenburg-Ansbach, who most probably commissioned the painting, as she is in the center of the composition, as Venus. Charles I of Ziębice-Oleśnica, chief governor of Silesia from 1527, is the "divine trickster" Mercury, son of Jupiter, king of the gods. Next to him is his wife Anna of Głogów-Żagań as Juno, the wife of Jupiter, queen of the gods, protector of women and associated with marriage and fertility. Juno is holding her hand on the arm of Minerva, the virgin goddess of wisdom, justice and victory and pointing to Cupid (meaning "desire"), the son of the love goddess Venus and the god of war Mars, who shoots an arrow at Minerva. The last goddess is Anna of Pomerania, Duchess of Lubin.

The castle on a fantastic rock in the background is also in "disguise". It is the main ducal residence of Silesia at that time, Legnica Castle, "dressed" as a palace of King Priam in Troy. The layout and overall shape of the edifice match perfectly the Legnica Castle (east-west) from the view of Legnica by Matthäus Merian, created in about 1680, or an anonymous drawing from 1604 in the Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbüttel.

The painting was until 1889 in the collection of Freiherr von Lüttwitz in their palace Lüttwitzhof in Ścinawka Średnia in the County of Kłodzko. The palace, initially a house built in 1466, was extended and rebuilt during renaissance and baroque. From 1628 it was owned by the Jesuits from Kłodzko and after the dissolution of the order in 1773, it was acquired by von Lüttwitz family, who owned it between 1788-1926. Ścinawka Średnia is not far from Ząbkowice Śląskie (Frankenstein), where in 1522 or 1524 Charles I started the reconstruction of the the original Gothic castle of the Dukes of Ziębice in the Renaissance style.

Other version of this composition dated '1528' is in the Kunstmuseum Basel. From about 1936 it was in the Hermann Göring collection and bears the coat of arms of Marschall von Bieberstein, an old Meissen noble family, who settled in Silesia at the beginning of the 16th century, as well as in Pomerania and Prussia in the 18th and 19th centuries. Protagonists are the same and are arranged in the same order, however the castle in now on the left side of the painting and correspond to the west-east layout of the Legnica Castle.

There is also a drawing in the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum in Brunswick, most probably a study to the Basel version or to another, not preserved painting. 

The same people were also depicted in two very similar compositions by Cranach and his workshop, in the Anhaltische Gemäldegalerie Dessau and Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe. The painting in Dessau was damaged during World War II. It comes from the old collection of the Princes of Anhalt-Dessau. In about 1530 the principality of Anhalt-Dessau was ruled by three sons of Margaret of Ziębice (1473-1530), elder sister of Charles I, who also served as regent in their first years of rule. The "gods" are placed in the same order, however there is more emphasis on Anna of Pomerania-Minerva who is looking at the viewer. She was threfore a candidate to marry Margaret of Ziębice's eldest son John V of Anhalt-Zerbst (1504-1551), he however married on 15 February 1534 Anna's sister-in-law Margaret of Brandenburg (1511-1577), widowed Duchess of Pomerania. The castle on the hilltop is different and it is similar on the Karlsruhe version, where the protagonists were re-arranged and Anna of Pomerania is more like a Venus. This painting was in the late 17th century in castle of Toužim (Theusing) in Bohemia (inventory number 42). The Lord of Toužim in 1530, when this painting was created was Henry IV (1510-1554), Burgrave of Plauen and Meissen, who on 19 September 1530 obtained a confirmation of his fief from Emperor Charles V and in the summer of 1532 he married Margaret, Countess of Salm and Neuburg. It is highly possible that he earlier received a portrait of the Duchess of Lubin. Anna's pose and features as well as the castle in the background are almost identical with a small painting of Venus with Cupid stealing honey also from 1530, which was before World War II in the State Art Collections in Weimar, today in private collection. The castle in these paintings greatly resemble the Lubin Castle and the Catholic Chapel visible in the print published in 1738. 

Another effigy of Anna as Venus created by Cranach's workshop in 1530 is known from two copies from the early 17th century, most probably created by a Flemish painter active in Prague. Both were likely taken by the Swedish army in Prague in 1648 or in Lubin in 1641, when the castle was conquered and destroyed by Swedish troops. One was before 2013 in private collection in Stockholm and the other from Transehe-Roseneck collection in the Jaungulbene Manor (former territory of the Swedish Livonia) is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. In about 1530 Anna was also depicted as Judith with the head of Holofernes. This painting, most probably from the collection of the Catholic bishops of Wrocław in their palace in Nysa, is from 1949 in the Museum in Nysa.

The main protagonist in described paintings of the Judgement of Paris, Sophia of Brandenburg-Ansbach as Venus, is also known from other effigies. In a large Venus from about 1518 is the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa her features are similar to these in the painting in Basel, as well as in the miniature as Venus and Cupid stealing honey dated '1529' in the National Gallery in London. In the latter painting the castle in the background resemble the Legnica Castle as seen from the east. The facial features of the Virgin in the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum dated '1518' are identical to these visible in the painting of Venus in Ottawa and the castle tower on the fantastic rock behind is similar to the smallest, eastern tower of the Legnica Castle. This Madonna was most probably in the collection of the Hungarian noble family Festetics, before being sold in Vienna in 1859. Another version of the Venus in Ottawa, painted on canvas, possibly a 17th century copy of a lost original, is in the Schlossmuseum in Weimar. The prototype for this Venus was most likely the painting from the Imperial collection in Vienna of which only Cupid preserved (Kunsthistorisches Museum). ​

Copies of Madonna from the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum are in the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, owned before 1940 by the Viennese industrialist Philipp von Gomperz (1860-1948), and in the Bonnefantenmuseum in Maastricht, which was in private collection in the Netherlands before the Second World War. 

​Another, simplified version of Madonna from Wallraf-Richartz-Museum against a dark background and dated '1516', is in private collection. In 1961, the panel was in the Schwartz collection in Mönchengladbach. Stylistically, it seems to be a much later copy, hence the date 1516 may be commemorative and may not correspond to the actual date of creation of the work. In 1516, Sophia's husband, Frederick II of Legnica, became the Governor of Lower Silesia. The composition of the figures corresponds to the Madonna in Karlsruhe (portrait of Anna of Głogów-Żagań). 

The effigy of Sophia from Wallraf-Richartz-Museum was like a template used in another Virgin and Child dated '1529' in the Kunstsammlung Basel, which was sold in Augsburg in 1871 and in a fragment of a portrait as Lucretia from about 1530 in the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton. She was also represented in other two paintings of Lucretia, in both her face and pose is very similar to that visible in the painting in Karlsruhe. The castle tower in the background is in both paintings similar to the towers of the Legnica Castle. One of these Lucretia portraits, in private collection, is signed with artist's insignia 'I W' and dated '1525'. Master IW or Monogramist IW, was a Czech or Saxon Renaissance painter, trained in the workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, and active between 1520-1550 mainly in northwestern Bohemia. The other Lucretia, dated '1529', today in the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation in Houston, is similar to the portrait of Sophia's younger sister Anna of Brandenburg-Ansbach (1487-1539), Duchess of Cieszyn as Lucretia, created just a year earlier in 1528 (Nationalmuseum in Stockholm). A version of Lucretia in Houston, more undressed, is in the Grunewald hunting lodge in Berlin. The painting was probably originally in the Potsdam City Palace and in 1811 it was recorded in the Sanssouci Palace. 

The last woman of this "divine trinity", Anna of Głogów-Żagań, was also represented in other works by Cranach and his workshop. Like Sophia, Duchess of Legnica-Brzeg, Anna also commissioned her effigies as Venus and as the Virgin in 1518. The Madonna and Child which was before World War II in the Collegiate Church in Głogów, today most likely in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, was dated '1518'. Her face resemble greatly other effigies of Anna from the paintings of the Judgement of Paris. The Child is holding an apple, a symbol of original sin, but also a symbol of royal power (king Sigismund I, was a ruling Duke of Głogów between 1499-1506) and of new teaching (in 1518 Luther's first sermons on indulgences and grace were published in Wrocław). The castle on the mountian behid the Virgin can be compared with the main fortress of Silesia at that time, the Kłodzko Castle. A workshop copy of this painting is in the National Gallery of Norway in Oslo. Other version of this composition is in Karlsruhe, and like the Judgement of Paris there, it comes from the Toužim Castle in Bohemia. The effigy of the Virgin from Głogów was copied in the large painting of Venus, similar to that in Ottawa, which was in the early 20th century in the collection Kleiweg van Zwaan in Amsterdam, today in the Princeton University Art Museum.

The painting of Lucretia framed by Renaissance arch in the Bonnefantenmuseum in Maastricht is similar to the Lucretia in Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton. It is attributed to workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder or so-called Master of the Mass of St Gregory and before 1940 it was in private collection in Amsterdam. While Lucretia in Fredericton bears the facial features of Sophia of Brandenburg-Ansbach, that in Maastricht has the face of Anna of Głogów-Żagań, similar to the Madonna in Oslo and Venus in Princeton University Art Museum. The Lucretia in Maastricht has a copy in the Museum Haldensleben, which is dated '1519'.

The portrait of Anna of Głogów-Żagań as Venus with Cupid stealing honey, similar to the portraits of Anna of Pomerania, copied by the same Flemish painter, is in the National Gallery in Prague. The original was lost, however, due to similarity to effigies in the Judgement of Paris and to portraits of Anna of Pomerania, it should be dated to about 1530. The castle in the background is a large Gothic manor, similar to that in the portrait of Anna of Głogów-Żagań as Judith in the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo. Exacly as Ziębice Castle, main seat of the Duchess and her husband in about 1530, which was built as a large manor house after 1488 in the eastern part of the city, close to the Gothic Nysa Gate and the Church of St. George. The painting as Judith was also copied by some Flemish painter in the early 17th century, today in the private collection. Both were most likely in the collection of Agnes von Waldeck (1618-1651), Abbess of Schaaken Monastery, great-granddaughter of Barbara of Brandenburg-Ansbach (1495-1552), Landgravine of Leuchtenberg, younger sister of Sophia of Brandenburg-Ansbach, Duchess of Legnica-Brzeg. In 1530 Anna of Głogów-Żagań was 47, however the painter depicted her as a young girl, possibly basing on the same preparatory drawing that was used to create Madonna in Karlsruhe. He could not have done it otherwise, the gods are not getting old. 

In 2022, the National Museum in Wrocław recovered an important painting from the workshop or circle of Lucas Cranach the Elder. It comes from the ducal chapel of Lubiąż Abbey and it shows the Lamentation of Christ. Members of the family of the Saxon merchant Konrad von Günterode (1476-1535) and his wife Anna Alnpeck (1494-1541), as evidenced by the coats of arms in the lower part of the painting, were immortalized in the scene of mourning for Christ next to the biblical characters: Mary - the mother of Jesus and John the Evangelist. According to Piotr Oszczanowski "the uniqueness of this work lies in the fact that in the immediate vicinity of the deceased Christ there appear secular figures, specific people known by the name, whose reaction to the event seems to be quite ambiguous. None of the secular heroes of the painting directs their eyes to the body of the dead Christ, which is almost veristically shown, and some of them - and in a truly provocative way - make eye contact with the viewer" (after "Obraz z pracowni Lucasa Cranacha st. w Muzeum Narodowym we Wrocławiu"). It should also be noted that the effigy of the Virgin Mary is like a mirror reflection of Anna Alnpeck holding the body of Christ.

Portrait of Anna of Głogów-Żagań (1483-1541), Duchess of Ziębice-Oleśnica as Madonna and Child by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1518, Collegiate Church in Głogów, lost. 

Portrait of Anna of Głogów-Żagań (1483-1541), Duchess of Ziębice-Oleśnica as Madonna and Child by follower of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1518, National Gallery of Norway in Oslo. 

Portrait of Anna of Głogów-Żagań (1483-1541), Duchess of Ziębice-Oleśnica as Madonna and Child by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1518, Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe. 

Portrait of Anna of Głogów-Żagań (1483-1541), Duchess of Ziębice-Oleśnica as Venus and Cupid by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1518, Princeton University Art Museum. 

Portrait of Anna of Głogów-Żagań (1483-1541), Duchess of Ziębice-Oleśnica as Lucretia by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1519, Bonnefantenmuseum in Maastricht.

Portrait of Sophia of Brandenburg-Ansbach (1485-1537), Duchess of Legnica-Brzeg nude (Venus) by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1518, National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa.

​Portrait of Sophia of Brandenburg-Ansbach (1485-1537), Duchess of Legnica-Brzeg as Venus and Cupid by workshop or follower Lucas Cranach the Elder, after 1518, Schlossmuseum in Weimar.

​Cupid, fragment of portrait of Sophia of Brandenburg-Ansbach (1485-1537), Duchess of Legnica-Brzeg as Venus and Cupid by Lucas Cranach the Elder, after 1518, Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

Portrait of Sophia of Brandenburg-Ansbach (1485-1537), Duchess of Legnica-Brzeg as Madonna and Child by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1518, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum.

Portrait of Sophia of Brandenburg-Ansbach (1485-1537), Duchess of Legnica-Brzeg as Madonna and Child by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1518, North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh.

Portrait of Sophia of Brandenburg-Ansbach (1485-1537), Duchess of Legnica-Brzeg as Madonna and Child by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1518, Bonnefantenmuseum in Maastricht.

Portrait of Sophia of Brandenburg-Ansbach (1485-1537), Duchess of Legnica-Brzeg as Madonna and Child by workshop of ​Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1529, Private collection.

Portrait of Sophia of Brandenburg-Ansbach (1485-1537), Duchess of Legnica-Brzeg as Madonna and Child by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1529, Kunstsammlung Basel.

Portrait of Sophia of Brandenburg-Ansbach (1485-1537), Duchess of Legnica-Brzeg as Lucretia by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1530, Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton.

Portrait of Sophia of Brandenburg-Ansbach (1485-1537), Duchess of Legnica-Brzeg as Lucretia by Master IW, 1525, Private collection.

Portrait of Sophia of Brandenburg-Ansbach (1485-1537), Duchess of Legnica-Brzeg as Lucretia by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1529, Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation in Houston.

Portrait of Sophia of Brandenburg-Ansbach (1485-1537), Duchess of Legnica-Brzeg as Lucretia by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1529, Grunewald hunting lodge.

Portrait of Dukes of Legnica-Brzeg, Ziębice-Oleśnica and Lubin in the scene of the Judgement of Paris against the idealized view of the Legnica Castle by Lucas Cranach the Elder and workshop, ca. 1528, Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Study drawing for portrait of Dukes of Legnica-Brzeg, Ziębice-Oleśnica and Lubin in the scene of the Judgement of Paris against the idealized view of the Legnica Castle by Lucas Cranach the Elder and workshop, ca. 1528, Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum in Brunswick.

Portrait of Dukes of Legnica-Brzeg, Ziębice-Oleśnica and Lubin in the scene of the Judgement of Paris against the idealized view of the Legnica Castle by Lucas Cranach the Elder and workshop, 1528, Kunstmuseum Basel.

Portrait of Dukes of Legnica-Brzeg, Ziębice-Oleśnica and Lubin in the scene of the Judgement of Paris against the idealized view of the Lubin Castle by Lucas Cranach the Elder and workshop, 1530, Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe.

Portrait of Dukes of Legnica-Brzeg, Ziębice-Oleśnica and Lubin in the scene of the Judgement of Paris against the idealized view of the Lubin Castle by Lucas Cranach the Elder and workshop, ca. 1530-1533, Anhaltische Gemäldegalerie Dessau.

Portrait of Sophia of Brandenburg-Ansbach (1485-1537), Duchess of Legnica-Brzeg as Venus with Cupid stealing honey by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1529, National Gallery in London.

Portrait of Anna of Głogów-Żagań (1483-1541), Duchess of Ziębice-Oleśnica as Venus with Cupid stealing honey by circle of Roelant Savery in Prague after original by Lucas Cranach the Elder and workshop, early 17th century after original from about 1530, National Gallery in Prague.

Portrait of Anna of Głogów-Żagań (1483-1541), Duchess of Ziębice-Oleśnica as Judith with the head of Holofernes by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1530, National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo. 

Portrait of Anna of Pomerania (1492-1550), Duchess of Lubin as Venus with Cupid stealing honey by Lucas Cranach the Elder and workshop, 1530, Private collection.

Portrait of Anna of Pomerania (1492-1550), Duchess of Lubin as Venus with Cupid stealing honey by circle of Roelant Savery in Prague after original by Lucas Cranach the Elder and workshop, early 17th century after original from 1530, Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Portrait of Anna of Pomerania (1492-1550), Duchess of Lubin as Venus with Cupid stealing honey by circle of Roelant Savery in Prague after original by Lucas Cranach the Elder and workshop, early 17th century after original from 1530, Private collection.

Portrait of Anna of Pomerania (1492-1550), Duchess of Lubin as Judith with the head of Holofernes by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1530, Museum in Nysa.

Lamentation of Christ with members of the family of merchant Konrad von Günterode (1476-1535) and his wife Anna Alnpeck (1494-1541) by workshop or circle of Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1530s, National Museum in Wrocław.

Portraits of Duchess Anna of Cieszyn by Lucas Cranach the Elder 

On 1 December 1518 Princess Anna of Brandenburg-Ansbach (1487-1539), third daughter of Sophia Jagiellon, Margravine of Brandenburg-Ansbach and a cousin of Louis II, King of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia, married Prince Wenceslaus of Cieszyn, of the Piast dynasty. Earlier that year her uncle, Sigismund I, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania married Bona Sforza.
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Wenceslaus was made co-ruler of his father in 1518 as Wenceslaus II and a Duke of Cieszyn (Teschen), one of Silesian duchies, created in 1290 during the feudal division of Poland. The Duchy was a fiefdom of the Bohemian kings since 1327 and was incorporated into the Lands of the Bohemian Crown in 1348. Anna bore him a son, who died shortly after birth, and two daughters, Ludmila and Sophie. The second son of Wenceslaus - Wenceslaus III Adam was born after his father's death on November 17, 1524. The old Duke Casimir II, who outlived his two sons, died on 13 December 1528. Since the time of his birth, as his only heir, Wenceslaus III Adam was placed under the guardianship of his grandfather, who had him engaged to Mary of Pernštejn (1524-1566) when he was just one-year-old.

In his will, the Duke left his Duchy to his grandson under the regency of his mother Anna of Brandenburg-Ansbach and the Bohemian magnate John IV of Pernštejn (1487-1548), called "The Rich". The young duke was sent to be educated at the imperial court in Vienna.

After death of Louis II during the Battle of Mohács in 1526, the Habsburgs took the western part of divided Hungary and Bohemia. Both Hungary and Bohemia were elective monarchies and the main goal of the new ruler, Ferdinand I, was to establish a hereditary Habsburg succession and strengthen his power in territories previously ruled by the Jagiellons, also in Silesian duchies. 

A painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder or workshop in Kassel shows a woman in allegorical guise of biblical heroine Judith, who cleverly defeated an enemy who has been feigning friendship. Her hat, instead of a brooch, is adorned with a gold coin, so-called Joachim thaler  minted in Kingdom of Bohemia from 1519 until 1528. The crowned Bohemian lion with title of king Louis, LVDOVICUS PRIM[us]: [D] GRACIA: R[ex]: BO[hemiae]: is clearly visible. The new coins minted by Ferdinand I in 1528 shows his personal coat of arms on reverse and his effigy on horseback, amidst a group of subjects paying homage to him on obverse. 

In the backgound of the painting there is a distant town of Bethulia, however the castle on the top of a fantastic hill is very similar to the shape of the Cieszyn Castle, visible in a drawing from 1645. Another later version of this painting from the workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, painted in the 1530s, is in the Lviv National Art Gallery.

The same woman is also depicted as Lucretia, the Roman heroine and a victim of the tyrant's abuse, whose suicide ignited the political revolution, in the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm (most probably taken from Prague by the Swedish army). It is dated 1528 and the castle atop the fantastic rock is similar to Fryštát Castle used by the Dukes of Cieszyn as their second seat. The castle was built in 1288 and reconstructed in the first half of the 15th century by Duchess Euphemia of Masovia. Facial features of a woman in a painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder, which was in private collection in Munich by 1929, are almost identical with the painting in Stockholm. She is holding a bunch of grapes, a Christian symbol of redemptive sacrifice, and two apples, a symbol of original sin and the fruit of salvation. Like in Stockholm painting, the landscape in the background is fantastic, however, the overall layout of the castle is identical with the Fryštát Castle. This painting is also dated 1528.

​In 1528 John IV of Pernštejn, who was made governor of Moravia by Ferdinand I in 1526, relocated the ducal court to Fryštát Castle.

The widowed Duchess Anna, beyond doubt, opposed all these actions against her power and commissioned some paintings, to express her dissatisfaction. Famous Lucas Cranach, the court painter of her aunt Barbara Jagiellon, Duchess of nearby Saxony, which also opposed the Habsburgs, was the obvious choice. 

Portrait of Anna of Brandenburg-Ansbach (1487-1539), Duchess of Cieszyn as Judith with the head of Holofernes by Lucas Cranach the Elder or workshop, 1526-1531, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Kassel.

Portrait of Anna of Brandenburg-Ansbach (1487-1539), Duchess of Cieszyn as Judith with the head of Holofernes by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1530s, Lviv National Art Gallery.

Portrait of Anna of Brandenburg-Ansbach (1487-1539), Duchess of Cieszyn as Lucretia by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1528, Nationalmuseum in Stockholm.

Portrait of Anna of Brandenburg-Ansbach (1487-1539), Duchess of Cieszyn holding a bunch of grapes by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1528, Private collection.

Portraits of the Jagiellons by Bernhard Strigel

"Thus, the king of Poland led over one and a half thousand horsemen, dressed in Hungarian clothes - these are called hussars, and also dressed in German, but there were also Poles, Ruthenians, Muscovites, Turkish captives and Tatars with their cavalry and a host of trumpeters with great trumpets with a loud sound", described the entry into Vienna in 1515 of Sigismund I, elected monarch of Poland-Lithuania, Johannes Cuspinian or Cuspinianus (1473-1529), a German-Austrian humanist and diplomat (after "O muzykach, muzyce i jej funkcji ..." by Renata Król-Mazur p. 40). 

In 1502 Cuspinian married 17-year-old Anna Putsch, daughter of the Imperial valet. On the occasion of the wedding, he had Lucas Cranach the Elder paint a portrait of himself and his wife. They had eight children. A year after his wife's death, in 1514, he remarried to Agnes Stainer. He undertook numerous diplomatic missions to Hungary, Bohemia and Poland. Cuspinian was ambassador of Emperor Maximilian I to Hungary in 1510-1515 and 1519. He was instrumental in preparing the Congress of Princes and the Habsburg-Jagellonian double wedding in Vienna in 1515, between the grandchildren of the Emperor and the children of King Vladislaus II Jagiellon. Details of the negotiations are known because Cuspinian kept meticulous records of them and published in his Congressus Ac Celeberrimi Conventus Caesaris Max. et trium regum Hungariae, Bohemiae Et Poloniae In Vienna Panoniae, mense Iulio, Anno M.D.XV. facti, brevis ac verissima descriptio. The emperor rewarded his services by appointing him his councillor and prefect of the city of Vienna. In January 1518 he accompanied the Milanese Princess Bona Sforza to Kraków for her wedding to King Sigismund, in November 1518 he presented King Louis II Jagiellon with the insignia of the Order of the Golden Fleece, and in April and May 1519 he successfully completed the difficult task to secure the vote of Louis as King of Bohemia for Charles V in the forthcoming election of the Emperor. 

In 1520 he ordered a portrait of himself with his second wife Agnes, and his sons from his first marriage Sebastian Felix and Nicolaus Christostomus. Cuspinian wears a fur hat, similar to that depicted in a portrait created between 1432-1434 in Venice by Michele Giambono, today in Palazzo Rossa in Genoa, and said to represent one of the Bohemian or Hungarian princes who came to Italy in 1433 for the coronation of the Emperor Sigismund. The effigy of Cuspinian and his family was painted in October 1520 in Vienna by Bernhard Strigel (d. 1528), court painter of the emperor (oil on panel, 71 x 62 cm, sold at Sotheby's London, 04 July 2018, lot 13, today in the Strigel-Museum in Memmingen). The identity of the sitters is mainly known thanks to the inscription in Latin on the reverse, which also gives a great deal of information about the painter. According to inscription on the painting it depict biblical figures, members of the Holy Kinship, the family of Our Lord - Cuspinian inscribed as Zebedee (ZEBEDEVS), the father of James and John, two disciples of Jesus, above his head, his wife Agnes as Mary Salome (SALOME VXOR .I. PACIFICA / QVIA FILIOS PAC S GENVIT), one of the Three Marys who were daughters of Saint Anne, his eldest son is Saint James the Great (JACOBVS MAIOR / CHRISTO.COEVVS) and the younger is Saint John the Apostle (IOANNES [...] E / CHRIS [...]). Similar depictions were popular at that time, one of the best being the Altarpiece of the Holy Kinship by Lucas Cranach the Elder (Städel Museum in Frankfurt am Main), painted in 1509, in which Emperor Maximilian I, Imperial Councillor Sixtus Oelhafens, Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony and his brother John the Steadfast and their families were depicted as members of the family of Jesus. Another with putative self-portrait by Cranach, painted in about 1510-1512, is in the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna.

The inscription behind Cuspinian's portrait also mentions "the first panel" (PRIMA TABVLA) with "likenesses of Maximilian Caesar Augustus, of Mary the duchess of Burgundy, daughter of Duke Charles, of their son Philip of the kingdom of Castille, Charles V Emperor Augustus, Ferdinand the Infante of Spain, of archdukes and nephews of the Emperor and Louis king of Hungary and Bohemia", today in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (oil on panel, 72.8 x 60.4 cm, inventory number GG 832). It was probably painted after the double wedding in 1515 and the panel was recorded in the imperial portrait collection in Vienna in the 1590s. Some members of the imperial family represented in the painting were already dead when it was created between 1515 and 1520, like the first wife of the Emperor Mary of Burgundy, who died in 1482, and their son Philip the Handsome, who died in 1506. Like in the portrait of the family of Cuspinian inscriptions painted above the heads of the sitters evoke the names of members of another branch of the Holy Family, the family of Mary of Cleophas - Maximilian was labelled Cleophas, brother of Saint Joseph married to Mary, the mother of Jesus (CLEOPHAS . FRATER . CARNALIS . IO= / SEPHI: MARITI DIVAE VIRG . MARIÆ), his son Philip as Saint James the Less (I / JACOBVS: MINOR EPVS: / HIEROSOLIMITANVS .), his mother Mary of Burgundy as Mary of Cleophas (or Clopas), said to be the sister-in-law of the Virgin Mary (MARIA CLEOPHÆ SOROR / VIRG . MAR PVTATIVA MA= / TER TERA . D . N .), Emperor's grandsons as disciples of Jesus - Charles, future emperor, as Saint Simon the Zealot (II / SIMON ZELOTES CONSO= / BRINVS . DNI . NRI .) and his brother Ferdinand, also future emperor, as Saint Joseph Barsabbas, also known as Justus (III / IOSEPH IVSTVS). The likeness of Louis of Hungary, whom Maximilian had adopted in 1515, was not inscribed in biblical terms, which has led some scholars to suggest that his effigy was not part of the initial composition. 

Until 1919 on the reverse of the family portrait of Emperor Maximilian I there was a depiction of the family of Mary, mother of Jesus, the most important of the Three Marys, subsequently separated from it by splitting the panel (oil on panel, 72.5 x 60 cm, inventory number GG 6411). This composition is not mentioned in the inscription on the back of Cuspinian's portrait, as well as all the biblical references. The family of the Virgin was threfore added later, after 1520 and before the artist's death in 1528 in his hometown of Memmingen, as well as all the inscriptions referring to the bible. These likenesses (IMAGINES) were therefore initially only portraits of the emperor and his councillor. When this additonal image was added the cycle was transformed into a sort of triptych, a three-part house altar with the families of the three daughters of Saint Anne - Mary, mother of Jesus, Mary of Cleophas and Salome, called Mary Salome. The legend of three daughters of Saint Anne, propounded by Haymo of Auxerre in the mid-9th century, but rejected by the Council of Trent, was included in the Golden Legend (Legenda aurea) of Jacobus de Voragine, written in about 1260. A beautiful miniature from Legenda aurea sive Flores sanctorum, illuminated by two miniaturists active in Padua and Venice, the so-called Master of the Barozzi Breviary and Antonio Maria da Villafora (or Giovanni Pietro Birago and Antonio Mario Sforza), owned by Krzysztof Szydłowiecki, Chancellor of the Crown from 1525 (National Library of Poland, Rps BOZ 11), showns Saint Anne and her daughters in the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (NATIVITAS BEATE VIRGINIS MARIE). This manuscript was created in the 1480s for Francesco Vendramini, a member of an influential Venetian family. 

The family of Mary shows the Virgin, Queen of Heaven (MARIA . ILLABIS . REGINA / VIRGINITATIS' IDEA) with her son Jesus Christ, Our Saviour (HIESVS CHRISTVS / SERVATOR NOSTER) and Elizabeth, wife of Zechariah, and maternal aunt of Mary (ELIZABETH / COGNATA / MARIÆ / VIRG) with her son John the Baptist, Sanctified in the womb (IOANNES BAPTISTA SANCTIFICATVS / IN VTERO) who is holding a band with inscription in Latin "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the World" (ECCE AGNUS DEI QUI TOLLIT PECCATA MUNDI) and pointing to the son of Mary. The two main male figures, behind Mary and Elizabeth are Joseph, married to the Virgin Mary (IOSEPH MARI/TVS VIRG) and, most likely, Ephaim, husband of Esmeria and father of Zechariah/Zachariah, Elizabeth's husband, because these two are standing behind him - Esmeria, younger sister of Anne, mother of Mary (ESMERIA . SOROR . AN/NAE MINOR NATV) and her son Zachariah, father of John the Baptist (ZACHARIAS). There is no inscription explaining his role, so he could be also Aaron, the father of Saint Elizabeth.

These two men were depicted in another painting attributed to Strigel or his workshop, today in the National Museum in Warsaw (oil on panel, 34.5 x 36 cm, M.Ob.1771 MNW). It represents Saints Anthony the Great and Paul of Thebes, the Desert Fathers, venerated among the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic churches. The painting was purchased by the museum from Zbigniew Kamiński's collection in Warsaw in 1974. Saint Joseph/Anthony the Great resemble greatly the effigies of King Sigismund I, especially a woodcut from Marcin Bielski's "Chronicle of the Entire World" (Kronika wszytkiego świata), published in Kraków in 1551, and a miniature by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Younger, painted in Wittenberg (Czartoryski Museum). His protruding lower lip of the Habsburgs/Dukes of Masovia is perfectly visible, like in the portrait by Hans von Kulmbach (Gołuchów Castle). The other man, Ephaim-Aaron/Paul of Thebes, with a long beard resemble the effigies of Sigismund's elder brother Vladislaus II (1456-1516), who was elected King of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia, especially his face from the Congress of Princes at Vienna by Albrecht Dürer and from medal known from the 19th century engraving in the Austrian National Library. In 1515 or before Strigel created a portrait of Vladislaus, his son and daughter, in a devotional painting with his coat of arms, showing Saint Ladislaus of Hungary interceding with the Virgin for the king and his children (Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest, inventory number 7502). He and his wife, which should be identified as the third wife of Vladislaus II, Anne of Foix-Candale (1484-1506), were depicted in another painting by Strigel in very similar costumes, today in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, sold in London in 1900. It shows Saint Mary Salome (inscription SANCTA MARIA SALOME on halo of female figure) and her family, it is one of two wings, which were part of an altarpiece that probably depicted the Holy Kinship (oil on panel, 125 x 65.7 cm, 1961.9.89). If the painting was created in about 1526-1528, two sons of Mary Salome, Saint James (SANCTVS IACOBVS MA) and Saint John (SANCTV IOHANES EWAN), visible in the painting, should be identifed as Louis II, the only son of Vladislaus II and Anne of Foix-Candale, who died on 29 August 1526 in the Battle of Mohács and John Zapolya (d. 1540), brother of first wife of Sigismund I Barbara (1495-1515), who claimed the throne of Hungary. The man in a green coat to the right of Mary Salome could be therefore the father of John Zapolya - Stephen (d. 1499), Palatine of the Kingdom of Hungary or Anne's father Gaston de Foix (1448-1500), Count of Candale. The counterpart wing represents Saint Mary of Cleophas (SANCTA MARIA CLEOP[H?]E) and her four holy sons - Jude, Simon, Joseph and James (SANCTVS IVDAS XPI APOSTOLV, SCTVS SIMON, ST[ ]SANCTVS IOSEPHI, SANCTVS IACOBVS MINOR AIPHE) (oil on panel, 125.5 x 65.8 cm, 1961.9.88). Beside her stands her husband Saint Cleophas and the effigies of the couple correspond perfectly with the parents of the Vigin Mary from the painting in Vienna - Saint Anne (ANNA VNICUVM VIDVI/MATIS SPECIMEN) and her husband Joachim (IOACHIM VNICVS / MARITVS ANNÆ), patron saint of fathers and grandfathers. The protruding lower lip of Mary of Cleophas/Saint Anne indicates that she is unmistakably a Habsburg, it is therefore the portrait of Elizabeth of Austria (1436-1505), called the "mother of kings" (or the "mother of the Jagiellons"), similar to that by Antoni Boys in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (GG 4648). All of her sons who become kings were depicted in this painting, including the youngest living in in about 1526-1528, Sigismund I, sitting on her knees, as well as Alexander Jagiellon, John I Albert and Vladislaus II. Elizabeth's husband Casimir IV Jagiellon (1427-1492) was consequenly depicted as Saint Cleophas/Saint Joachim in the paintings in Washington and Vienna and his facial features match the counterpart of Elizabeth's portrait by Antoni Boys in Vienna (GG 4649). The old man standing next to the couple in Washington painting is identified to represent Emperor Frederick III (1415-1493), son of Cymburgis of Masovia, however his effigy also resemble posthumous portraits of Elizabeth's father Albert the Magnanimous (1397-1439), Duke of Austria, through his wife (jure uxoris) King of Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia, elected King of the Romans as Albert II by Boys and from the Bohemian chronicle (Charles University in Prague). 

Another man from the Vienna painting with the family of the Virgin has also clearly Habsburg features - Zachariah, the husband of Saint Elizabeth. His face resemble the effigies of Ferdinand (1503-1564), Archduke of Austria - a portrait by circle of Jan Cornelisz Vermeyen and a miniature, most likely by Hans Bocksberger the Elder, both in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. The woman depicted as Saint Elizabeth is therefore his wife Anna Jagiellonica (1503-1547), the oldest child and only daughter of King Vladislaus II and Anne of Foix-Candale. It was thanks to this marriage that Ferdinand was able to claim the Bohemian and Hungarian crown. Soon, thanks to the success of their dynastic marriage policy the Habsburgs could genuinely claim "Let others wage war: you, happy Austria, marry" (Bella gerant alii, tu felix Austria nube - epigram attributed to Matthias Corvinus, king of Hungary) and "All the world is subject to Austria", as in their motto A.E.I.O.U. (Austriae est imperare orbi universo). Ferdinand immediately applied to the parliaments of Hungary and Bohemia to participate as a candidate in the elections. The union with the Jagiellons as well the child born to Anna - Maximilian, born on 31 July 1527 in Vienna, gave the Archduke certain rights also to the elective throne of Poland-Lithuania, which Maximilian and his sons claimed during elections in 1573, 1575 and 1587. Many people understood what Habsburg rule meant for Central Europe - predominance of German culture and language, religious intolerance and absolutism, therefore they were not successfully elected. 

The Habsburgs were masters of propaganda and employed the best artists, such as Albrecht Dürer, for this purpose. Copies of portait of Emperor Maximilian and his family by Strigel were sent to different royal and ducal court in Europe - an old copy, most probably originally from the Spanish royal collection, is in the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid (collection of Manuel Godoy, First Secretary of State of Spain, inventory number 0856). It was probably Maximilian who ordered a portrait of young Louis Jagiellon. The wreath of carnations that the boy wears in his loose hair alludes directly to the politically desired union with the House of Austria (Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, GG 827). As historian Hugh Trevor Roper put it, to Emperor Maximilian "all the arts were propaganda" (after "Easily Led: A History of Propaganda" by Oliver Thomson, p. 169). "Certainly the art itself was supposed to make the ruler look good; effusive symbolism linking him and his family with divinity as well as with virtues such as wisdom, clemency, piety and valor were blatant propaganda. This was not mass propaganda aimed at the general population, however. Few people ever actually saw the art that such rulers commissioned. Rather, patronage was targeted marketing, configuring the dynasty's status to other elites" ("The Habsburgs: The History of a Dynasty" by Benjamin Curtis, p. 50).

One woman understood this strategy perfectly and responded with similar means - Bona (Maria) Sforza, the Milanese princess whom Cuspinian escorted to Kraków. She and her son Sigismund Augustus are depicted as the Virgin and Child in the Vienna painting. Bona's likeness is similar to her portraits as Judith and Madonna by Cranach from the same period. Ferdinand's son as John the Baptist confirms the divine right of her son to be elected as successor of her husband. 

The Jagiellons (family of Bona Sforza and King Sigismund I) as the family of the Virgin Mary by Bernhard Strigel, 1527-1528, Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

Family of Elizabeth of Austria (1436-1505) and Casimir IV Jagiellon (1427-1492) as the family of Mary of Cleophas by Bernhard Strigel, 1526-1528, National Gallery of Art in Washington. 

Family of Anne of Foix-Candale (1484-1506) and Vladislaus II Jagiellon (1456-1516) as the family of Mary Salome by Bernhard Strigel, 1526-1528, National Gallery of Art in Washington. 

Portrait of Sigismund I (1467-1548) and Vladislaus II Jagiellon (1456-1516) as Saints Anthony and Paul by Bernhard Strigel or follower, 1515-1528, National Museum in Warsaw. 

Portrait of Bona Sforza as Judith with the Head of Holofernes by Lucas Cranach the Elder

In 1530 Bona Maria Sforza has won an important battle. In 1527, as a result of a fall from a horse, the queen prematurely gave birth to her second son, Albert, who died at birth. After this event, the she could not have any more children. That same year she was depicted as the Virigin Mary, according the Italian custom, in her Prayer Book, created by Stanisław Samostrzelnik, exposing her beautiful hair before ladies dressed in German style and loosely based on German graphics.

Polish throne was elective and German Hohenzollerns (who took over Prussia) and Habsburgs (who took from Jagiellons Bohemian and Hungarian crown) were relatives of her son with rights to the crown. To secure the throne to him she came up with an idea of unprecedented election vivente rege (the election of a successor during the lifetime of the king). Despite huge opposition from Polish-Lithuanian lords the ten-year-old Sigismund Augustus was first made Grand Duke of Lithuania and then crowned King of Poland on 20 February 1530.

At that time it become fashionable at the court of her sister-in-law Barbara Jagiellon in nearby Saxony to be depicted in the guise of Judith. The biblical heroine, clever and cunning, who having seduced and then beheaded Assyrian general who besieged her city with his own sword, was a perfect prefiguration of a typical Sforza. The subject, well known to Italian art, was not so explored in the Northern art before Cranach, so was Bona the first to introduce it to the German painter? The painting is in Imperial collection since at least 1610, so does she personally sent it to the Habsburgs as a sign of her victory?

Cranach and his studio painted several copies of this Judith. One, very accurate copy, is in the Forchtenstein Castle in Austria (inventory number B481), which was owned the House of Habsburg in the 16th century and in 1622 Nikolaus Esterházy, founder of the western Hungarian Esterházy line, received the castle from Emperor Ferdinand II. In the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart there is a different version of the painting (inventory number 643), acquired in 1847 from the collection of Friedrich Freiherr von Salmuth in Heidelberg. It is possible that it comes from the collection of Louis V (1478-1544), Count Palatine of the Rhine (Heidelberg Castle), who in 1519 voted for Charles V in the imperial election, after receiving large bribes from the Habsburgs. Two other copies of the painting in Vienna are in private collection, one was sold in Berlin (Rudolph Lepke, May 5, 1925, lot 130), the other in Munich (Neumeister, December 3, 2008, lot 576). 
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Another artist, most probably Joseph Heinz the Elder (1564-1609), court painter to Emperor Rudolf II, to whom the painting is attributed, painted around 1600-1605 a reinterpretation of Judith as Salome with the head of Saint John the Baptist, most probably a copy of a lost version by Cranach (Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, inventory number 862). Around that time Heinz created portraits of Bona's grandson King Sigismund III Vasa (ca. 1604, Alte Pinakothek in Munich) and of his future wife Constance of Austria, granddaughter of Anna Jagellonica (1503-1547), whom he married in 1605 in Kraków (1604, Clark Art Institute and Kunsthistorisches Museum). It is possible that aroung 1604 Heinz or one of his pupils went to Warsaw or Kraków to create the portrait of the King of Poland, taking with him the portrait of a bride (most probably the painting in the Clark Art Institute), and he created a copy of the likeness of the famous grandmother of the King, Queen Bona. Salome by Heinz is identifiable in the inventories of the imperial collection in Vienna between 1610-1619.

Portrait of Bona Sforza d'Aragona (1494-1557), Queen of Poland as Judith with the Head of Holofernes by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1530, Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

Portrait of Bona Sforza (1494-1557) as Judith with the Head of Holofernes by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1530, Forchtenstein Castle.

Portrait of Bona Sforza (1494-1557) as Judith with the Head of Holofernes by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1530, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart.

Portrait of Bona Sforza (1494-1557) as Salome with the head of Saint John the Baptist by Joseph Heinz the Elder after Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1604, Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

Portrait of Bona Sforza as Madonna and Child caressing the divine face of the Virgin by Lucas Cranach the Elder

"King Sigismund's newly married Wife Bona with a heavenly face, Shining like a deity With rare gifts of the soul. Venus's gift is a beauty of her face, Minerva's reason" (partially after Polish translation by Antonina Jelicz, "Antologia poezji polsko-łacińskiej: 1470-1543", p. 166, Alma Sismundi nova nupta regis Bona caelesti decorata vultu Dotibus raris animi refulgens Numinis instar. Cui dedit pulchrum Venus alma vultum Et caput Pallas), praises the divine beauty of Queen Bona Sforza in about 1518 in his Latin epigram entitled "In praise of Queen Bona" (In laudem reginae Bonae), secretary of the queen Andrzej Krzycki (1482-1537), later Archbishop of Gniezno.

The same effigy as in the Judith by Cranach in Vienna, almost like a template, was used in a painting of Madonna and Child in front of a curtain held up by angels, today in the Städel Museum in Frankfurt (inventory number 847). The painting is signed by Lucas Cranach the Elder with artist's insignia on the left (winged serpent) and dated to about 1527-1530. It was acquired in 1833 from the art dealer Metzler in Mainz. In the 16th century the Elector-Archbishop of Mainz had the right to elect the emperor. From 1514 to 1545, this position was held by Cardinal Albert of Brandenburg (1490-1545), the same whom the king Sigismund I asked in a letter of July 9, 1536 to intervene at the Berlin court with his daughter's marital problems.

Cardinal Albert was a renowned patron of the arts and he was frequenly painted by Cranach and depicted in guise of different saints. In 1525 Cranach painted a portrait of the cardinal as Saint Jerome in his study (Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt, GK 71) and a year later (1526), he created a similar effigy (John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, SN 308) in which, however, an hourglass on the wall near window was replaced with a picture of Madonna. The cardinal undeniably owned many paintings of the Virgin by Cranach.

In the Frankfurt painting the Child caresses the divine face of the Virgin. The bacground was painted with a costly azurite which in the 16th century was also mined in Chęciny in Poland. The effigy and composition can be compared with other portraits of Queen Bona as Madonna by Cranach and his workshop in Prague and in Gdańsk, created between 1535-1540. 

On July 19, 1525, the archbishop of Mainz took part in the founding of the anti-Lutheran Dessau League. While Jan Benedykt Solfa (1483-1564), the royal physician of Sigismund I and Bona, wrote to Erasmus of Rotterdam about the need to defend the Catholic faith and by means of meticulous analysis, he tried to show the falsity of the arguments used by the supporters of the Reformation, Piotr Tomicki (1464-1535), Archbishop of Kraków and Vice-Chancellor of the Crown, wrote in a letter to the dean of Gniezno, Marcin Rambiewski (May 1527), that "in a free kingdom, both opinions and voices should always be free" (in libero regno et sententias et voces liberos esse semper decet). In a letter to the queen's secretary, Ludovico Alifio, he presented a similar attitude to faith, speaking of the free choice of religion (after "Podkanclerzy Piotr Tomicki (1515-1535): polityk i humanista" by Anna Odrzywolska-Kidawa, p. 236). 

Portrait of Bona Sforza (1494-1557) as Madonna and Child caressing the divine face of the Virgin by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1527-1530, Städel Museum.

Portrait of Sigismund Augustus as a child by Lucas Cranach the Elder

The portrait of a boy from the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, dated in lower left corner 1529, can be consequently identified as Bona's son. Sigismund Augustus, was elevated to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania on 18 October 1529 and on 18 December 1529 the Diet in Piotrków proclaimed him the king of Poland. 

He was crowned the next year in the similar garments to these visible in the portrait. The inventory of the State Treasury from 1555 mentions: "tibalia (stockings), dalmatics, gloves and a small sword" and the inventory of 1599 mentions: "a velvet dress with gold stripes, in which the late King Augustus was crowned". Only his shoes on a platform covered with red velvet preserved, today at the Wawel Castle.

The boy wears a jewelled wreath with a feather, which traditionally marks an engagement. In 1527 Sigismund I agreed to marry his son with his cousin who was only eight months old, Elizabeth of Austria (1526-1545), and proposed an engagement after the archduchess turned seven. ​

Portrait of Sigismund Augustus (1520-1572) as a child in a red tunic by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1529, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum. ​

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Portraits of Hedwig Jagiellon and Anna Jagellonica by Lucas Cranach the Elder

Despite numerous suitors for her hand, the Crown Princess Hedwig Jagiellon remained unmarried at the age of 17. In 1529, Krzysztof Szydłowiecki and Jan Tarnowski proposed to Damião de Góis, envoy of John III, king of Portugal, to marry Hedwig to king's brother Infante Louis of Portugal, Duke of Beja. At the same time negotiations were carried to marry her to Louis X, Duke of Bavaria and Habsburgs, on April 18, 1531 proposed Frederick, brother of Louis V, Count Palatine of the Rhine. 

To attract suitable marriage proposal, Hedwig's father continued to amass a considerable dowry for her. He commissioned the most luxurious items in Poland and abroad, like the casket, created by Jacob Baur and Peter Flötner in Nuremberg in 1533, adorned with jewels from Jagiellon collection (Hermitage Museum). He also charged his banker Seweryn Boner with the acquisition in Venice of some lengths of silk, several hundred ells of satin, five cloth of gold bales, thirty bales of fine Swabian and Flemish linen as well as pearls for 1,000 florins. In her letter of 19 April 1535 the Princess asked her father for a larger amount of cloth of gold. 

The marriage was a political contract, and Princess' role was to seal the alliance between countries by producing offspring. Thanks to this she could also have some power in her new country and Hedwig's stepmother, Bona Sforza, knew perfectly about it. It was she who probably took care of providing some erotic items in Hedwig's dowry. 

In 1534 it was finally decided, in secret from Bona, who was unfavorable to the Hohenzollerns, that Hedwig will marry Joachim II Hector, Elector of Brandenburg and the marriage contract was signed on 21 March 1535. Sigismund commissioned some portraits of Hedwig from court painter Antonius (most probably Antoni of Wrocław), which were sent to Joachim.

The groom arrived to Kraków with a retinue of 1000 courtiers and 856 horses and Sigismund's nephew Albert, Duke of Prussia with his wife Dorothea of Denmark and 400 people. Apart from 32,000 red zlotys in cash Hedwig also received from her father robes, silverware, "other indispensable utensils", money for personal use, as well as a rich bed with canopy (canopia alias namiothy), which she took with her to Berlin. 
​
A large painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder from about 1530 in the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin, which was transferred from the Royal Prussian Castles in 1829/1830, shows Hedwig as Venus and Cupid. This erotic painting was undeniably part of her dowry.

A portrait from the same collection, which depicts Hedwig as Judith with the Head of Holofernes and dated 1531, was acquired from Suermondt collection in Aachen. As the portraits of her stepmother, it most probably also has a political meaning, or the Princess just wanted to be depicted as her beautiful stepmother. 

Aachen was an Imperial City, where coronations of emperors were held till 1562 and in 1815, control of the town was passed to the Kingdom of Prussia. Already in 1523 Joachim I Nestor, Elector of Brandenburg wanted Hedwig's hand for one of his sons. It is possible that her portrait as Judith was sent to the Hohenzollerns or to the Habsburgs already in 1531 to underline that the Jagiellons would not permit them to take their crown. 

A similar painting to that of Hedwig's, depicting Venus with Cupid stealing honey by Lucas Cranach the Elder and dated 1531, is in the Borghese Gallery in Rome. It was aquired in 1611 and bears the same inscription as effigy of Katarzyna Telniczanka as Venus. The woman has features of Hedwig's cousin Anna Jagellonica (1503-1547), Queen of Germany, Bohemia, and Hungary. Anna was a daughter of Vladislaus II, King of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia, elder brother of Sigismund I, and his third wife, Anne of Foix-Candale. On 26 May 1521 she married Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, grandson of Emperor Maximilan I, who was elevated to the title King of the Romans by his brother Emperor Charles V in 1531. 

On her golden hairnet embroidered with pearls there is a monogram W.A.F.I. or W.A.F. which can be interpreted as Wladislaus et Anna (parents), Ferdinandus I (husband), Wladislaus et Anna Filia (daughter of Vladislaus and Anne) or Wladislaus et Anna de Fuxio (Vladislaus and Anne of Foix). Similar monogram of her parents WA is visible on a golden pendant at her hat in her portrait at the age of 16 by Hans Maler, created in 1520 (private collection). 

In his "Thoughts on painting" (Considerazioni sulla pittura), written between 1617 and 1621 in Rome, Italian physician and art collector Giulio Mancini (1559-1630), claimed that "lascivious paintings in similar places where a man stays with his wife are appropriate, because such a view is very beneficial for excitement and for making beautiful, healthy and vigorous sons" (pitture lascive in simil luoghi dove si trattenga con sua consorte sono a proposito, perché simil veduta giova assai all’eccitamento et al far figli belli, sani e gagliardi) (partially after "Ksiądz Stanisław Orzechowski i swawolne dziewczęta" by Marcin Fabiański, p. 60). 

Portrait of Crown Princess Hedwig Jagiellon (1513-1573) as Venus and Cupid by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1530, Gemäldegalerie in Berlin.

Portrait of Crown Princess Hedwig Jagiellon (1513-1573) as Judith with the Head of Holofernes by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1531, Gemäldegalerie in Berlin.

Portrait of Queen Anna Jagellonica (1503-1547) as Venus with Cupid stealing honey by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1531, Borghese Gallery in Rome.

Portraits of Zofia Szydłowiecka by Lucas Cranach the Elder and workshop

On April 4, 1528, John Zapolya, elected King of Hungary, came to Tarnów in the company of Grand Crown Hetman and voivode of Ruthenia, Jan Amor Tarnowski (1488-1561). As a result of the double election and the lost battle with Archduke Ferdinand I near Tokaj, Zapolya sought a safe haven - first in Transylvania and then in Poland. 

For the duration of his stay, Hetman Tarnowski made the entire castle and the city of Tarnów at his disposal, for which, he was severely reprimanded by Ferdinand I. To this, in a letter dated in Sandomierz on 25 July 1528, he was to reply that the holy laws of friendship did not allow him to refuse hospitality. From April to September 1528, the city became, under the patronage of Queen Bona, the seat of the Hungarian king and the center of activities aimed at restoring his throne. The Queen did it secretly so as not to reveal her role to the Habsburg agents.  

Zapolya sent ambassadors to Bavaria, King Francis I of France, the Pope and a number of other states. Finally he approached the Ottoman Porte and returned to Hungary on October 2, 1528. He expressed his gratitude for the hospitality of the people of Tarnów by granting a trade privilege and founding a beautiful altar for the collegiate church, not preserved. To the Hetman he offered a mace and a golden shield, estimated at 40,000 Hungarian red zlotys (after Andrzej Niedojadło's "Goście zamku tarnowskiego" and Przemysław Mazur's "Król Jan Zápolya w Tarnowie - Tarnów 'stolicą' Węgier").

On May 8, 1530 in the royal Wawel Cathedral, in the presence of the king and queen, the bishop of Kraków, Piotr Tomicki, celebrated the wedding of sixteen-year-old Zofia Szydłowiecka and forty-two-year-old (which was then considered an advanced age) Hetman Jan Amor Tarnowski. Zofia, born in about 1514, was the eldest daughter of Krzysztof Szydłowiecki (1467-1532), Great Chancellor of the Crown and Zofia Targowicka (ca. 1490-1556) of Tarnawa coat of arms. They had 9 children, but only three daughters reached adulthood. 

Szydłowiecki was a political opponent of Queen Bona and supporter of the Habsburgs - in 1527 he reported to his friend Albert of Prussia, that the Queen extended her influence to almost all spheres of political life. In addition to a luxurious lifestyle, for which he earned the name of the Polish Lucullus among his contemporaries, he was a patron of art and science and collected illuminated codices. Erasmus of Rotterdam dedicated his work "Lingua" to him, published in Basel in 1525. In 1530 the Crown Chancellor thanked to Jan Dantyszek for the portrait of Hernán Cortés that he sent to him, adding that the man's deeds are known to him ex libro notationum received as a gift from Ferdinand of Austria. After his death in 1532, Jan Amor Tarnowski, become the guardian of his younger daughters.

In 1519, when his second daughter Krystyna Katarzyna, future duchess of Ziębice-Oleśnica was born, Krzysztof Szydłowiecki commissioned a votive painting, most likely, for the Collegiate Church of St. Martin in Opatów, where he also offered a portrait of Beatrice of Naples as Madonna and Child by Timoteo Viti or Lucas Cranach the Elder. This painting, attributed to Master Georgius, a painter apparently of Bohemian origin, was later in the collection of count Zdzisław Tarnowski in Kraków. It shows the Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and the founder kneeling and looking at the Virgin. His effigy, armour and attire are very similar to these visible in the miniature from the Liber geneseos illustris familiae Schidloviciae (The genealogical book of the Szydłowieckis) in the Kórnik Library, created by Stanisław Samostrzelnik in 1532. The effigy of Saint Anne, mother of the Virgin Mary, the protector of pregnant women and patron saint of families and children, on the right is very similar to the portrait of Zofia Szydłowiecka née Goździkowska of Łabędź (Swan) coat of arms, mother of Krzysztof in the same Liber geneseos illustris familiae Schidloviciae. Also face features of Saint Anne are very similar to effigies of sons of Zofia Goździkowska - from the bronze tomb monument of Krzysztof Szydłowiecki in the Collegiate Church in Opatów, attributed to Bernardino Zanobi de Gianotis and marble tombstone of Mikołaj Stanisław Szydłowiecki (1480-1532) in Szydłowiec, created by Bartolommeo Berrecci or workshop, both from about 1532. Consequently the woman depicted as the Virgin must be Zofia Targowicka, wife of Krzysztof Szydłowiecki. 

A similar woman to the effigy of the Virgin from Szydłowiecki's votive painting was depicted as Madonna and as Venus in two small paintings, both by Lucas Cranach, his son or workshop. The image of Venus, today in private collection, had been in the collection of Munich art dealer A.S. Drey, before being acquired by the Mogmar Art Foundation in New York in 1936. It is similar to effigies of Beata Kościelecka and Margaret of Brandenburg (1511-1577), Duchess of Pomerania as Venus, therefore should be dated to around 1530, when Zofia Szydłowiecka, the eldest daughter of Krzysztof was about to get married. The Madonna with similar face was purchased from Monsignor J. Shine on April 1954 by the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin. 

​A miniature tondo from the collection of Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon de Fabregoules (1746-1836), offered to the Musée Granet in Aix-en-Provence by his sons in 1860, shows her in a dress and pose similar to that of Queen Bona in a miniature sold at Hôtel Drouot in Paris on 30 October 1942. 

The same woman was also depicted as Judith with the head of Holofernes in a painting by workshop Lucas Cranach the Elder, similar to the portrait of Queen Bona in Vienna and in Stuttgart. This painting was acquired by William Delafield in 1857 and was sold in London in 1870. Her face is very similar to the portrait of Krzysztof Szydłowiecki in the Liber geneseos illustris familiae Schidloviciae. If the portrait as Judith was a political statement of support of the Queen's policies and not a whim of a young girl willing to emulate the Queen, this will add a further explanation to a series of caricature portraits of this girl in the arms of an ugly, old man.

One of the best of these caricature portraits is in the Museum Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf. Before 1860 it was in the collection of Count August von Spee (1813-1882) from an old Rhenish noble family from the Archdiocese of Cologne, while the Archbishop of Cologne was one of the Electors of the Holy Roman Empire. On 5 January 1531 Ferdinand of Austria had been elected the King of the Romans and so the legitimate successor of the reigning Emperor, Charles V, who was crowned as Holy Roman Emperor in 1530. A workshop copy of this painting from the collection of Baron Samuel von Brukenthal (1721-1803), a personal advisor of Empress Maria Theresa, is in the Brukenthal National Museum in Sibiu, Transylvania. Brukenthal came from Transylvanian Saxon lesser nobility, while the Saxons were partisans of Ferdinand of Austria and supported the House of Habsburg against John Zapolya. Several other copies of this composition exist. The girl was also depicted in another version of the scene, kissing the old man, in the National Gallery in Prague. It was bequeathed by Dr. Jan Kanka in 1866 and its earlier history is unknown. This work of fairly high standard, may have been produced by the master himself. On 24 October 1526 the Bohemian Diet elected Ferdinand King of Bohemia under conditions of confirming traditional privileges of the estates and also moving the Habsburg court to Prague. 

We can assume with high probability that the paintings were commissioned by partisans of Ferdinand I or even by himself, dissatisfied that the eldest daughter of Szydłowiecki joined the camp of his opponent, "a great enemy of the king of Rome" Queen Bona (as later reported an anonymous Habsburg agent at the Polish court in an encrypted message).

Virgin and Child with Saint Anne with portraits of Krzysztof Szydłowiecki, his wife Zofia Targowicka and mother Zofia Goździkowska by Master Georgius, 1519, National Museum in Kraków.

Portrait of Zofia Szydłowiecka (1514-1551) as Venus and Cupid by Lucas Cranach the Elder, Lucas Cranach the Younger or workshop, ca. 1530, Private collection.

Portrait of Zofia Szydłowiecka (1514-1551) as Madonna and Child with Infant John the Baptist and angels by Lucas Cranach the Elder, Lucas Cranach the Younger or workshop, ca. 1530 or after, National Gallery of Ireland.

Miniature portrait of Zofia Szydłowiecka (1514-1551) by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1530, Musée Granet in Aix-en-Provence.

Portrait of Zofia Szydłowiecka (1514-1551) as Judith with the head of Holofernes by workshop Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1530, Private collection.

Ill-Matched Couple, caricature of Zofia Szydłowiecka (1514-1551) and her husband by Lucas Cranach the Elder and workshop, ca. 1530, Museum Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf.

Ill-Matched Couple, caricature of Zofia Szydłowiecka (1514-1551) and her husband by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1530, Brukenthal National Museum in Sibiu.

Ill-Matched Couple, caricature of Zofia Szydłowiecka (1514-1551) and her husband by Lucas Cranach the Elder and workshop, ca. 1530, National Gallery in Prague.

Portrait of Krzysztof Szydłowiecki, Great Chancellor of the Crown by Titian

"I am a great admirer of beautiful and artistic paintings" (Ego multum delector in pulcra et artificiosa pictura), wrote Krzysztof Szydłowiecki (1467-1532), Vice-Chancellor of the Crown, in a letter of May 17, 1512 from Toruń to Fabian Luzjański, Bishop of Warmia. He asked for help in obtaining from Flanders via Gdańsk the painting of the Madonna Monstra te esse Matrem ("Show thyself a mother"). 

From 1496 Szydłowiecki was a courtier of Prince Sigismund and from 1505 he was a marshal of the prince's court. From the moment of the coronation of Sigismund I, Krzysztof occupied various important positions and he become the Great Chancellor of the Crown in 1515. He managed Polish foreign policy during the reign of Sigismund I. In 1515, together with Bishop Piotr Tomicki, he developed an agreement with the Habsburgs, which was signed during the Congress of Vienna and Emperor Maximilian I, as a sign of respect and gratitude, granted Krzysztof the title of baron of the Holy Roman Empire (he rejected the princely title offered to him by the emperor). 

Thanks to numerous grants, as well as bribes (from Emperor Maximilian alone, he accepted 80,000 ducats for supporting Austria at the congress of monarchs in Vienna, and also took money from the monarch of Hungary, John Zapolya, and Francis I of France; the city of Gdańsk also paid for the protection), he made a huge fortune. The chancellor died on December 30 , 1532 in Kraków, and was buried in the collegiate church in Opatów. His tombstone, decorated with a bronze bas-relief, was made in the workshop of Bartolommeo Berrecci and Giovanni Cini in Kraków. He ordered the tombstone for himself during his lifetime and after his death, in about 1536, on the initiative of his son-in-law Jan Amor Tarnowski (1488-1561), it was enlarged by adding a bas-relief depicting relatives and friends moved by the news of the chancellor's death, on the pedestal of the monument (so-called Opatów Lamentation).

Szydłowiecki imitated the luxurious lifestyle of Prince Sigismund, who in 1501 ordered several illuminated prayer books (or one book adorned by several illuminators), and the following year bought paintings with views of different buildings from Italian merchant (Ilalo qui picturas edificiorum dno principi dedit 1/2 fl.). Despite being a political opponent of Queen Bona, he followed the example of the queen, who at her court employed Italian painters and imported paintings from Italy for her vast collection (after "Bona Sforza" by Maria Bogucka, p. 105). His splendid castle on the island in Ćmielów, rebuilt in renaissance style between 1519-1531, was destroyed in 1657 by Swedish and Transylvanian forces, which also massacred many noble families who had taken refuge there (after "Encyklopedia powszechna", Volume 5, p. 755). This veritable Apocalypse, known as the Deluge (1655-1660), as well as other invasions and wars, left very little trace of the chancellor's patronage.

Before 1509, Krzysztof's brother Jakub Szydłowiecki, Grand Treasurer of the Crown, brought from Flanders a "masterly made" painting of the Madonna (after "Złoty widnokrąg" by Michał Walicki, p. 108). In 1515 the chancellor offered to the Collegiate Church in Opatów a painting of Madonna and Child (disguised portrait of Beatrice of Naples, Queen of Hungary and Bohemia) by Timoteo Viti or Lucas Cranach the Elder, and in 1519 Master Georgius created a portrait of Krzysztof as a donor (National Museum in Kraków, MNK I-986). More than a decade later, in 1530, the chancellor received from Jan Dantyszek the portrait of Hernán Cortés, most likely by Titian, and a portrait of the chancellor was mentioned in the vault of the Nesvizh Castle in the 17th century. Most likely in Venice, in 1515 or after, Krzysztof acquired Legenda aurea sive Flores sanctorum by Jacobus de Voragine for his library (a printed bookplate with his coat of arms is on the back of the front cover), today in the National Library of Poland (Rps BOZ 11). It was created in the 1480s for Francesco Vendramini from Venice and illuminated by miniaturists active in Padua and Venice. 

In 1511, one of Poland's finest Renaissance painters and miniaturists, Stanisław Samostrzelnik, who also worked for the royal court, became his court painter (pictori nostro) and chaplain, and in this capacity he accompanied Szydłowiecki on his travels. Stanisław probably stayed with his patron in 1514 in Buda, where he became familiar with the Italian Renaissance. He decorated documents issued by the chancellor, such as the privilege of Opatów of August 26, 1519, with the portrait of the chancellor as a kneeling donor, wearing a fine gold-engraved armor and a crimson tunic. Shortly before the chancellor's death, he began working on a series of miniature portraits of members of the Szydłowiecki family, known as Liber geneseos illustris familiae Schidloviciae (1531-1532, Kórnik Library), including the effigy of the chancellor in another beautiful armour decorated with gold and crimson tunic.

Earlier, in 1524, Samostrzelnik illuminated the Prayer Book of Szydłowiecki, adorned with chancellor's coat of arms in many miniatures. It is dated (Anno Do. MDXXIIII) and has a painted bookplate. The manuscript was disassembled at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. Probably a Milanese antiquarian cut out miniatures from it, some of which, in the number of ten, were acquired by Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan (F 277 inf. no 1-10), while the manuscript, divided into two parts and acquired by the City of Milan from the library of the princes of Trivulzio, is kept in the Archivio Storico Civico (Cod. no 459, Cod. no 460).

One miniature, the Flight into Egypt, is largely inspired by a painting by Hans Suess von Kulmbach, created in 1511 for the Skałka Monastery in Kraków. The others could derive from paintings in the Szydłowiecki collection or the royal collection - the Massacre of the Innocents, reminiscent of Flemish paintings and the Madonna and Child, in a manner that brings to mind the Italian paintings. The prayer book is one of the two important polonica of the Jagiellonian period in Milan. The other is also in Ambrosiana, in a part dedicated to art collection - Pinacoteca. It is a sapphire intaglio with bust of Queen Bona Sforza, attributed to Giovanni Jacopo Caraglio (inventory number 284). If not for the Latin inscription on her dress (BONA SPHOR • REG • POLO •), it would be considered to represent an Italian princess, which is generally correct. The exact provenance of these two works of art is unknown, so we cannot rule out the possibility that they were diplomatic gifts to Francesco II Sforza (1495-1535), the last member of the Sforza family to rule Milan, and Bona's relative. The ruling houses of Europe exchanged such gifts and effigies at that time, including the portraits of important notables.

In the same Ambrosiana in Milan there is also a portrait of an old man in armour by Titian (oil on canvas, 65 x 58 cm, inventory number 284). It is dated around 1530, the time when Chancellor Szydłowiecki received a portrait of the Spanish conquistador, most likely by Titian. The work arrives in Ambrosiana together with the nucleus donated in 1618 by Cardinal Federico Borromeo who in the Musaeum reports that "Titian would have liked to paint his father like this, in armour, to jokingly celebrate the nobility he said he had achieved with such an offspring" (Tiziano avrebbe voluto dipingere suo padre così corazzato, per celebrare scherzosamente la nobiltà che egli diceva di aver conseguito con una tale prole). "Jokingly", because the old man's truly lordly attire and pose do not suit the simple clerk that was Titian's father, Gregorio Vecellio. He held various minor posts in Cadore from 1495 to 1527, including that of an officer in the local militia and, from 1525, superintendent of mines. We should doubt that anyone really wanted to joke around with their father like that, especially a respected painter such as Titian, thus this suggestion has not convinced art historians of the identity of the model.

The man in the portrait wears costly armour etched with gold and a crimson velvet tunic, known as a brigandine, a garment usually made of thick fabric, lined inside with small oblong steel plates riveted to the fabric. Very similar velvet brigandine in the Royal Armoury (Livrustkammaren) in Stockholm (LRK 22285/LRK 22286), is considered as a war booty from Warsaw (1655), just like another, larger (23167 LRK). Szydłowiecki's son-in-law, Jan Amor Tarnowski, was depicted in armour with crimson brigandine and holding a baton in a painting by circle of Jacopo Tintoretto (Private collection). The sitter in Ambrosiana painting is also holding a miltary baton, that is traditionally the sign of a field marshal or a similar high-ranking military officer. Chancellor Szydłowiecki is generally not considered an important military commander, like Tarnowski, but he held several military positions, such as the castellan of Kraków (1527-1532), who commanded the nobility of his county during a military campaign (after "Ksie̜ga rzeczy polskich" by Zygmunt Gloger, p. 153-154), and in all mentioned effigies by Samostrzelnik, as well as in his tombstone, he was portrayed like an important military officer. The age of the sitter also matches the age of the chancellor, who was 64 in 1530.

Finally, the man in the portrait bears a strong resemblance to Szydłowiecki as represented in a medal by Hans Schwarz from 1526 (The State Hermitage Museum, ИМ-13497). The Chancellor's characteristic facial features, a pointed nose and protruding lower lip, are similar to those of his tombstone effigy, his portraits by Master Georgius and Samostrzelnik (Liber geneseos ...), as well as in the marble tombstone of his brother Mikołaj Stanisław (1480-1532) by Bartolommeo Berrecci or workshop, founded by Krzysztof (Saint Sigismund's church in Szydłowiec). It is not without reason that Szydłowiecki was known as the Polish Lucullus, in memory of a Roman general and statesman famous for his lavish lifestyle.

Portrait of Krzysztof Szydłowiecki (1467-1532), Great Chancellor of the Crown in armour with crimson brigandine and holding a baton by Titian, ca. 1530, Pinacoteca Ambrosiana in Milan.

Portrait of Hernán Cortés by Titian or circle

Around 1529 King Ferdinand of Austria, personally handed (manu porrexit et dedit) to Chancellor Krzysztof Szydłowiecki an interesting book written in Latin with the words: "that what is written in it should be believed as in the Gospels". It was the work of the conqueror of Mexico, Hernán Cortés (Ferdinandus Corthesius), containing a description of his deeds, Liber narrationum. In 1529, Cortés, who arrived in Europe in 1528, stayed at the imperial court to personally justify himself for accusations of various kinds of abuse. On this occasion he presented his monarch with the gifts of a new world, and next to them, the greatest peculiarity for Europe, the Indians. In a letter of July 23, 1529 from Kraków (Acta Tomiciana, XI / 287) chancellor Szydłowiecki even asked the Polish envoy Jan Dantyszek, who was staying at the court of Charles V to bring him an Indian. "The glorious deeds" of Cortés, a man singularis et magnanimi, as Szydłowiecki writes to Dantyszek, apparently interested him keenly since he sought the "image" (effigies) of the famous Spaniard, according to letter of 27 April 1530 (Acta Tomiciana, XII / 110), and he also received it from Dantyszek (after "Kanclerz Krzysztof Szydłowiecki ..." by Jerzy Kieszkowski, Volume 3, pp. 336, 618-619). 

During his stay in Spain in 1529, Cortés obtained from Charles V the title of Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca and the government over future discoveries in the South Sea and returned to Mexico in 1530. At that time, Dantyszek accompanied the Emperor on his journey from Barcelona (July 1529) through Genoa and Piacenza to Bologna - the place of the coronation, where the court stopped for a longer time and where Dantyszek stayed from the autumn of 1529 to the spring of 1530. The next longer stop was in Mantua, from where, after May 30, he set out with the imperial court through Trento and Innsbruck to Augsburg, where the emperor met his brother Ferdinand I and where Dantyszek stayed until the beginning of December 1530, taking part in the Imperial Diet (after "Itinerarium Jana Dantyszka" by Katarzyna Jasińska-Zdun, p. 198).

It is said that in 1530, Titian was invited to Bologna by Cardinal Ippolito de' Medici, through the agency of Pietro Aretino. There he made a most beautiful portrait of the Emperor showing him in armour holding a commander's baton, according to Vasari's "Lives of the Artists" (confirmed by a letter dated 18 March 1530 from Giacomo Leonardi, ambassador of the Duke of Urbino to the Republic of Venice), considered lost. According to other authors, they did not meet in person in 1530 (after "The Earlier Work of Titian" by Sir Claude Phillips, p. 12), while a number of art historians are insisting that the painter must have seen the sitter to paint a portrait and attributing errors to Vasari. However, it is also likely that Titian created his portrait based on a preparatory drawing by another artist who was in Bologna. 

In 1529 Christoph Weiditz, a German painter and medalist, active mainly in Strasbourg and Augsburg (he went to the royal court in Spain in 1528-1529), created a bronze medal of Cortés at the age of 42 (DON·FERDINANDO·CORTES·M·D·XXIX·ANNO·aETATIS·XXXXII). It should be noted that the similarity of the model with the most famous images of Cortés is quite general. That same year and around Weiditz also created a medal of Jan Dantyszek and of Elisabeth of Austria (d. 1581), illegitimate daughter of Emperor Maximilian I (after "Artyści obcy w służbie polskiej" by Jerzy Kieszkowski, p. 15).

There is no mention of any precious material, such as gold or silver, regarding the "image" of the Spanish conquistador for Szydłowiecki, so it was most likely a painting commissioned in Italy from an artist close to the Imperial court. Dantyszek was renowned for his artistic taste and commissioned and received exquisite works of art. Conrad Goclenius, the closest confidant of humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam, thanks to Dantyszek's support received a rich beneficium and various gifts from him: furs, bas-reliefs, his portrait, for which he gave Dantyszek a portrait of Erasmus painted by Holbein (In praesentia in ejus rei symbolum mitto tibi dono effigiem D. Erasmi Roterodami, ab Ioanne Holbeyno, artificumin - wrote Goclenius in a letter of April 21, 1531 from Leuven), a bust of Charles V and others, which were part of a later rich collection at the ducal residence of Dantyszek in Lidzbark (after "Jan Dantyszek - człowiek i pisarz" by Mikołaj Kamiński, p. 71). In a letter to Piotr Tomicki of March 20, 1530, Dantyszek sadly informed that for eighty ducats he sold to Anton Welser an emerald received from Prince Alfonso d'Este during his stay in Ferrara in 1524, which he intended to give to the addressee, to the wife of Helius Eobanus Hessus he offered a chain and pearls set in gold, a Spanish horse to Piotr Tomicki, gold (or ducats) from Spain to his friend Jan Zambocki, earrings or rings (rotulae), unspecified handicrafts of Spanish women and scissors or pliers (forpices) to Queen Bona, and expensive silk fabrics and gold coins with images of rulers to Johannes Campensis (after "Itinerarium Jana Dantyszka", pp. 224, 226).

In April 1530, when he sent his letter to Szydłowiecki, Dantyszek was in Mantua and the most important effigies of Federico II Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua created at that time were painted by Titian - in 1529 and 1530, one is in Prado in Madrid (inventory number P000408, after "El retrato del Renacimiento", pp. 215-216). Therefore, the diplomat must have commissioned or purchased a painting from the Venetian master. 

On October 29, 2019 a portrait of gentleman (Retrato de caballero) by Italian school was sold in Seville, Spain (oil on canvas, 58 x 48 cm, Isbilya Subastas, lot 62). This portrait is almost an exact, reduced version of a painting attributed to Peter Paul Rubens (oil on canvas, 121.5 x 101 cm, The Courtauld Gallery in London), painted between 1608-1612, a copy of a painting by Titian which the painter probably saw in Mantua. An engraving by George Vertue dated 1724 bears an inscription identifying the sitter as Hernán Cortés and the artist as Titian (HERNAN CORTES. Ex pictura TITIANI or Titian pinx - Scottish National Portrait Gallery, FP I 38.1 or British Museum, R,7.123). The same effigy was also reproduced as Cortés by Titian in Historia de la conquista de México, published in Madrid in 1783 - engraving by Fernando Selma (HERNAN CORTES. Titian Vecel pinx. / Ferdin Selma. sc.). The style of the painting sold in Seville is indeed close to Titian and his entourage, in particular Bonifazio Veronese, hence it is a one of a series of similar effigies ordered in Venice, the lost painting from the Gonzaga collection in Mantua copied by Rubens being probably a prototype. The man in the described portrait resembles the effigy of the Spanish explorer and conqueror of Mexico, published in Academie des sciences et des arts … by Isaac Bullart in 1682 (Volume 2, p. 277, National Library of Poland, SD XVII.4.4179 II), his portrait in the Museum of Cultures of Oaxaca (Museo de las Culturas de Oaxaca) in Santo Domingo, Mexico and a likeness from the Portrait Gallery of the Viceroys (series in the Salon de Cabildos, Palacio del Ayuntamiento), both most probably from the 17th century. Cortés died on December 2, 1547 in Castilleja de la Cuesta near Seville. Consequently, the painting made around 1530 for Chancellor Szydłowiecki was most likely a copy of the described painting, possibly by Titian himself, as it was a gift for one of the most important people in Poland-Lithuania.

Portrait of Hernán Cortés (1485-1547) by Titian or circle, ca. 1530, Private collection.

Portrait of Hernán Cortés (1485-1547) by Peter Paul Rubens after Titian, 1608-1612, Courtauld Gallery in London.

Portraits of Princes of Ostroh by Lucas Cranach the Elder and workshop

Soon after death of Constantine, Prince of Ostroh king Sigismund had to deal with the quarrel between his son and his stepmother over the fabulous inheritance. Prince Ilia took the body of his father to Kiev, where he was buried in the Chapel of Saint Stephen of the Pechersk Lavra with great splendor. Already in 1522 his father assured him the succession to the starost of Bratslav and Vinnytsia, confirmed by the privilege of the king Sigismund issued at Grodno Sejm, "on Friday before Laetare Sunday 1522".

Then Prince Ilia sent from Kiev one hundred horsemen to the Turov Castle, on which a dower of his stepmother was secured. They took the castle by force, they sealed all things in the treasury, as well as privileges and even the testament of the deceased prince, handing them over to Turov governor. Alexandra's brother, Prince Yuri Olelkovich-Slutsky (ca. 1492-1542), intervened with the king, who sent his courtier to Prince Ilia, ordering him to return the castle and to pay a dowry of his sister Sophia: "As for Princess Alexandra's daughter, she [mother] is not to give her the third part of the dowry or the trousseau; but her brothers, Prince Ilia and the son of Princess Alexandra, Prince Vasily, her daughter, and their sister to equip and pay her dowry" (royal decree issued on August 5, 1531 in Kraków).

In 1523, when he was twelve years of age, Ilia's father enaged him to a five-year-old daughter of his friend George Hercules Radziwill, Anna Elizabeth (1518-1558). George Hercules obtained a dispensation from Pope Clement VII as the groom was baptized and brought up in the "Greek rite".

After death of his father the young prince lived in Kraków at the royal court, where he studied Latin and Polish. In 1530, 1531 and 1533 he fought with the Tatars and between 1534-1536 he took part in the Muscovite-Lithuanian war where he commanded his own armed forces.
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In 1536 Radziwill demanded that Ilia fulfill the contract, he however refused to marry Anna Elizabeth or her sister Barbara, citing the lack of his own consent and because he fell in love with Beata Kościelecka, a daughter of king's mistress. In a document issued on December 20, 1537 in Kraków king Sigismund released him from this obligation. 

"Prince Ilia falls from one mud to another", wrote to Albert of Prussia, royal courtier Mikołaj Nipszyc (Nikolaus Nibschitz), who also very negatively characterized liberated daughters of George Hercules Radziwill, about the planned marriage of Ilia with Kościelecka.

The engagement with Beata was sealed with the royal blessing on January 1, 1539, and the wedding, on February 3 of the same year, was held at the Wawel Castle, one day after the wedding of Isabella Jagiellon and John Zapolya, King of Hungary. After the wedding ceremony, a jousting tournament was organized, in which Ilia took part. The prince wore silver armor lined with black velvet, a Tatar belt and leather shoes with spurs and silver sheets. During a duel with young king Sigismund Augustus, Ilia fell from his horse and suffered severe injuries. On August 16, 1539 in Ostroh, he signed his last will in which he left his possessions to the unborn child of Beata, a daughter born three months later.

By virtue of the judgment of August 1531 Princess Alexandra was granted the towns of Turov and Tarasovo in today's Belarus and Slovensko, near Vilnius. As a wealthy widow in her late 20s, she most probably lived with her stepson in Kraków and in Turov. 

A painting by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder dated '1531' below inscription in Latin, most probably the first approach to this subject by Cranach, shows a courtly scene of Hercules and Omphale. A young man in guise of mythical hero is flanked by two noblewomen as Omphale's ladies. Partridges, a symbol of sexual desire hangs over the heads of the women. In the myths Omphale and Hercules became lovers and they had a son. The painting is known from several versions, all by Cranach's workshop as original, likely to be by the master's hand, is considered lost. 

One copy was reported before 1891 in the Wiederau Castle, built between 1697 and 1705 in a village south of Leipzig by David von Fletscher, a merchant of Scotish origin, royal Polish and electoral-Saxon privy and commercial councilor. The other was owned by the Minnesota Museum of Art until 1976, and another was sold in Cologne in 1966. There is also a version which was sold in June 1917 in Berlin together with a large collection of Wojciech Kolasiński (1852-1916), a minor Polish painter better known as an art restorer, collector, and antiquarian of Warsaw (Sammlung des verstorbenen herrn A. von Kolasinski - Warschau). 

The audacious woman on the left has just put a woman's cap on the head of a god of strength dressed in a lion's skin. Her bold pose is very similar to that visible in a portrait of Beata Kościelecka, created by Bernardino Licinio just a year later. Also her face features resemble greatly other effigies of Beata. The woman on the right bears the features of Princess Alexandra Olelkovich-Slutska, the young man is therefore Prince Ilia, who just returned from a glorious expedition against Tatars.

Princess Alexandra, a beautiful young woman, like Queen Bona and Beata Kościelecka, also deserved to be represented in "guise" of the goddess of love - Venus. A small painting of a nude woman by Lucas Cranach the Elder, acquired by Liechtenstein collection in 2013, and sometimes considered a fake, is dated '1531' and the woman resemble greatly Princess Alexandra. This work predates by one year a very similar Venus in the Städel Museum in Frankfurt.

Portrait of Beata Kościelecka, Ilia, Prince of Ostroh and Alexandra Olelkovich-Slutska as Hercules and Omphale's maids from the Kolasiński collection by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1531, Private collection.

Portrait of Beata Kościelecka, Ilia, Prince of Ostroh and Alexandra Olelkovich-Slutska as Hercules and Omphale's maids from Cologne by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1531, Private collection.

Portrait of Beata Kościelecka, Ilia, Prince of Ostroh and Alexandra Olelkovich-Slutska as Hercules and Omphale's maids from Minnesota Museum of Art by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1531, Private collection.

Portrait of Alexandra Olelkovich-Slutska, Princess of Ostroh nude (Venus) by Lucas Cranach the Elder or workshop, 1531, Liechtenstein Museum in Vienna.

Portrait of Alexandra Olelkovich-Slutska, Princess of Ostroh nude (Venus) by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1532, Städel Museum in Frankfurt.

Portrait of Alexandra Olelkovich-Slutska by Bernardino Licinio

The number of portraits by Licinio that can be associated with Poland and Lithuania allows us to conclude that he became the favorite painter of the Polish-Lithuanian royal court in Venice in the 1530s, especially of Queen Bona, Duchess of Bari and Rossano by her own right. It seems also that portraits were commissioned in Licinio's and Cranach's workshops at the same time as some of them bear the same date (like the effigies of Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski). Fashion in the 16th century was an instrument of politics, so in portraits for German "allies" the model was depicted dressed more in German style and for Italian "allies" in Italian style, with exceptions like the portrait of Queen Bona by Cranach in Florence (Villa di Poggio Imperiale) or her portrait by Giovanni Cariani in Vienna (Kunsthistorisches Museum).
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After death of his father in 1530 Prince of Ostroh, Constantine Vasily (1526-1608), the younger son of Grand Hetman of Lithuania, was brought up in Turov by his mother Princess Alexandra Olelkovich-Slutska, who administered the lands on behalf of her minor son. On January 15, 1532, the king ordered Fyodor Sangushko (d. 1547), starost of Volodymyr and Ivan Mykhailovych Khorevitch, starost of Queen Bona in Pinsk, to be commissioners for the implementation of the agreements reached between Ilia, Constantine Vasily's elder brother, and Alexandra. In 1537 a royal privilege to trade in Tarasov was issued in her name. Unlike other children of wealthy magnates Constantine Vasily did not travel to Europe and did not study in European universities. It is believed that his education was entirely at home. In particular, Constantine Vasily was taught by a tutor well versed in Latin and his home education was quite thorough, as evidenced by his subsequent great cultural and educational activity and knowledge of other languages (apart from Ruthenian, he knew Polish and Latin). At that time, it was much more important for the sons of magnates to acquire military knowledge and skills than to master languages and arts of discourse, especially this concerned the families of border officials, whose possessions constantly suffered from Tatar attacks. As important landowners Alexandra and her son were undoubtedly frequent guests at the multicultural, itinerant royal court in Lviv, Kraków, Grodno or Vilnius, where they could also meet many Italians, like the royal architect and sculptor Bernardo Zanobi de Gianottis, called Romanus. In a letter written in Belarusian on August 25, 1539, to a trusted servant in Vilnius, Szymek Mackiewicz (Mackevičius), Queen Bona commented on the alterations in the palace's loggia to be made by master Bernardo (after "Spółka architektoniczno-rzeźbiarska Bernardina de Gianotis i Jana Cini" by Helena Kozakiewiczowa, p. 161). This would explain later contacts of Constantine Vasily with Venice. Also the ancestral nest of the family - Ostroh was a multicultural city, where, apart from orthodox Ruthenians, many Jews, Catholics and Muslim Tatars also lived (after "Konstanty Wasyl Ostrogski wobec katolicyzmu i wyznań protestanckich" by Tomasz Kempa, p. 18). 

In 1539, the struggle for the inheritance gained a new intensity after the death of Ilia and his wife Beata Kościelecka's entry into management of all estates. The protegee of Sigismund and Bona once accused Alexandra and her son of intending to seize all estates by force and she obtained from Sigismund a relevant decree to prevent it. In 1548 Princess Alexandra was mentioned in a letter regarding the appointment of the Kobryn archimandrite. Seven year later, in 1555, "Duchess Constantinova Ivanovitch Ostrozka, Voivodess of Trakai, Hetmaness Supreme of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Princess Alexandra Semenovna" had a case with Prince Semyon Yurievich Olshanski about mutual wrongs in the neighboring estates of Turov and Ryczowice and in 1556 she was granted the privilege to found a town on her estate of Sliedy. From February to June 1562, she conducted her own property and court affairs. She was still living in 1563 as on August 30, Duke Albert of Prussia addressed a letter to her, but on June 3, 1564, she was mentioned in the royal letter as deceased. Some researchers tend to think that it was Alexandra that was buried in Pechersk Lavra in Kiev next to her husband (after "Prince Vasyl-Kostyantyn Ostrozki ..." by Vasiliy Ulianovsky).

The proud and fabulously rich Ruthenian princess, a descendant of Grand Princes of Kiev and Grand Dukes of Lithuania, could afford the splendor worthy of the Italian queen Bona and to be painted by the same painter as the queen. 

The young woman from a portrait by Bernardino Licinio in the Philadelphia Museum of Art (oil on panel, 69.5 x 55.9 cm, invenotry number Cat. 203) bear a striking resemblance to effigies of Alexandra by Lucas Cranach the Elder and workshop, indentified by me, especially her portrait as Venus (Liechtenstein Museum in Vienna) and in the scene of Hercules and Omphale from the Kolasiński collection, both dated '1531'. This portrait is dated to about 1530 and comes from the collection of an American corporate lawyer and art collector John Graver Johnson (1841-1917). The lady in a brown dress and an expensive necklace with a cross in Italian style around her neck, holds gloves in her right hand, accessories of a rich noblewoman.

Portrait of Alexandra Olelkovich-Slutska, Princess of Ostroh holding gloves by Bernardino Licinio, ca. 1531, Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Portraits of Dukes of Pomerania and Dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg by Lucas Cranach the Elder

On January 23, 1530 in Berlin, Duke George I of Pomerania (1493-1531), son of Anna Jagiellon (1476-1503), sister of Sigismund I, married Margaret of Brandenburg (1511-1577), daughter of Joachim I Nestor (1484-1535), Elector of Brandenburg. 

Margaret brought a dowry of 20,000 guilders into the marriage. She was quite unpopular in Pomerania due to Brandenburg's claims to Pomerania. In 1524 George crafted an alliance with his uncle King Sigismund I, which was directed against Brandenburg and Duke Albert of Prussia and in 1526 he went to Gdańsk, to meet his uncle and paid homage of Lębork and Bytów, thus becoming a vassal of the Polish crown together with his brother Barnim IX (or XI) the Pious. 

George died a year after the marriage on the night of May 9 to 10, 1531 in Szczecin. He was succeeded by his only son Philip I (1515-1560), who became a co-ruler of the Duchy alongside his uncle, Barnim IX. Few months later on November 28, 1531 Margaret bore a posthumous child, a daughter named after her father Georgia.

As a result of the division of the principality, which took place on October 21, 1532, Philip I  became the Duke of Pomerania-Wolgast, ruling over the lands west of the Oder and on Rügen and his uncle Barnim IX, the Duke of Pomerania-Szczecin. As the lands of Margaret's jointure/dower, a provision after the death of her husband, were in Pomerania-Wolgast her stepson had to sort out the relationship with his unloved step-mother and to levy a special tax to pay her dowry and redeem her jointure. On February 15, 1534 in Dessau she married her second husband Prince John IV of Anhalt (1504-1551) and on December 13, 1534, Philip and Barnim IX introduced Lutheranism in Pomerania as the state religion.

Barnim IX was a renowned patron of arts and brought many artists to his court. He also collected works of art and he, his brother and nephew frequently commissioned their effigies in Cranach's workshop. The so-called "Book of effigies" (Visierungsbuch), which was lost during World War II, was a collection of many drawings depicting members of the House of Griffin, including preparatory or study drawings by Cranach's workshop.

In February 1525 Barnim concluded an alliance with the House of Guelph by marrying Anna of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1502-1568), daughter of Henry the Middle (1468-1532), Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Margaret of Saxony (1469-1528). Henry, who sided with the French king Francis I during the Imperial election, and so earned the enmity of the elected Emperor Charles V, abdicated in 1520 in favor of his two sons Otto (1495-1549) and Ernest (1497-1546), and went into exile to France. He returned in 1527 and tried to regain control of the land. When this failed, he went back to France and returned only after the imperial ban was lifted in 1530. Henry spent his last years in Wienhausen Castle, near Celle, where he lived "in seclusion" and died in 1532. He was buried in the Wienhausen Monastery. 

A few days after the death of his wife Margaret of Saxony on December 7, 1528, he entered into a second, morganatic marriage in Lüneburg with Anna von Campe, who had been his mistress since 1520 and who had previously borne him two sons. In autumn 1525, Henry's eldest son Otto secretly and against his father's wishes married a maid-in-waiting of his sister Anna, Mathilde von Campe (1504-1580), also known as Meta or Metta, most probably a sister of Anna von Campe. When Otto renounced participation in the government of the principality in 1527, Ernest became sole ruler. 

In 1527 with the advent of the Lutheran doctrine to Brunswick-Lüneburg, the life of Otto's and Ernest's sister Apollonia (1499-1571) change fundamentally. She was born on March 8, 1499 as the fifth child of Duke Henry the Middle and Margaret of Saxony. When she was five years old, her family sent her to the Wienhausen Monastery. At the age of 13 Apollonia was consecrated, and at the age of 22 she takes her religious vows. Ernest summoned Apollonia to Celle, on the occasion of her mother's planned trip to relatives in Meissen. Her brothers and her mother urged her to change her religion, but Apollonia refused. Back in Celle, where she was the educator of the ducal offspring, she met Urbanus Rhegius, the reformer and her brother's theological adviser. He become her spiritual partner and brought her closer to the new doctrine. Nonetheless, she remained Catholic.

At the Diet of Augsburg in 1530 Ernest signed the Augsburg Confession, the fundamental confession of the Lutherans, and George and Barnim received the imperial enfeoffment. Despite the opposition of the entire community, the Wienhausen Monastery was transformed from a Roman Catholic into a Lutheran establishment for unmarried noble women (Damenstift) in 1531. 

Duke Ernest, like Barnim, also commissioned portraits from the workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder. His portrait by Cranach's workshop is in Lutherhaus Wittenberg, and a study drawing to a series of portraits is in the Museum of Fine Arts in Reims.

Ernest married Sophia of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1508-1541) on June 2, 1528. She was a daughter of Duke Henry V (son of Sophia of Pomerania) and Ursula, daughter of Elector John Cicero of Brandenburg.

A portrait of young woman in guise of Judith comes from the old collection of the Grunewald hunting lodge (Jagdschloss Grunewald), near Berlin. This Renaissance villa was built between 1542 and 1543 for Joachim II Hector, Elector of Brandenburg, elder brother of Margaret of Brandenburg. The painting is dated 1530, below the window, a date when Margaret become the Duchess of Pomerania and the castle visible in distance is similar to the Klempenow Castle, which was part of Margaret's jointure. The same woman was also depicted as Venus with Cupid stealing honey in a painting by Cranach the Elder from the private collection in London. She is wearing bridal wreath with a single feather on her head, thereby announcing that she is ready for marriage. The painting is very similar to portrait of Beata Kościelecka as Venus from 1530 in the National Gallery of Denmark and it is dated "1532" on the trunk of the tree, a date when Margaret was already widowed and her stepson wanted to get rid of her. In the same year, she was also represented in a popular courtly scene of Hercules with Omphale. Two partridges, a symbol of desire, hang directly over her head and her face features are very similar to the effigies of Margaret's father and siblings. Above the woman opposite there is a duck, associated with Penelope, queen of Ithaca, marital fidelity and intelligence. This symbolism as well as woman's effigy match perfectly Anna of Brunswick-Lüneburg, who became a driving force behind the division of Pomerania in 1532 and who considered that George's intent to marry Margaret of Brandenburg threatened her own position. The man depicted as Hercules is therefore Anna's husband, Barnim IX. The painting is dated 1532 below the inscription in Latin. It was acquired by the Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Berlin before 1830 and lost in the World War II. The capital of Germany was the city where many items from the collection of dukes of Pomerania were transferred, including the famous Pomeranian Art Cabinet.

Another painting depicting Hercules and Omphale created by Lucas Cranach the Elder in 1532 was also in Berlin before 1931 (Matthiesen Gallery), today in private collection. It is very similar to the painting showing Barnim IX, his wife and his sister-in-law and it have similar dimensions (79 x 116 cm / 82.5 x 122.5 cm), composition and style. In this painting two partridges hang only over the couple on the left. The man is holding his right hand on the breast and heart of a woman, she is his love. The young woman to the right is placing a white cloth over his head like a bonnet in a way of engaging with him like a sister. The older woman in a white bonnet of a married or a widowed lady behind her is handing Hercules the distaff. It is therefore their mother or stepmother. Consequently the scene depict Ernest I of Brunswick-Lüneburg, his wife Sophia of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, his sister Apollonia and their stepmother Anna von Campe.

The two young women from the latter painting were also depicted together in a scene of Judith with the head of Holofernes and a servant from the late 1530s. This painting, today in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, comes from the Imperial Gallery in Prague (transferred before 1737), therefore it was sent to or acquired by the Habsburgs. The same woman as Judith is also represented in a painting in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, acquired in 1911 from the collection of Robert Hoe in New York. Her face features are very similar to effigies of Sophia of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, her father and sons. 

Portrait of Margaret of Brandenburg (1511-1577), Duchess of Pomerania as Judith with the head of Holofernes by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1530, Grunewald hunting lodge.

Portrait of Margaret of Brandenburg (1511-1577), Duchess of Pomerania as Venus with Cupid stealing honey by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1532, Private collection.

Portrait of Barnim IX (1501-1573), Duke of Pomerania, his wife Anna of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1502-1568), and his sister-in-law Margaret of Brandenburg (1511-1577) as Hercules and Omphale's maids by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1532, Gemäldegalerie in Berlin, lost.

Portrait of Sophia of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1508-1541), Duchess of Brunswick-Lüneburg as Judith with the head of Holofernes by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1530, Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Portrait of Ernest of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1497-1546), his wife Sophia of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1508-1541), his sister Apollonia (1499-1571) and stepmother Anna von Campe as Hercules and Omphale's maids by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1532, Private collection.

Portrait of Sophia of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1508-1541) and her stepsister Apollonia of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1499-1571) as Judith with the head of Holofernes and a servant by Lucas Cranach the Elder, after 1537, Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

Portraits of Beata Kościelecka by Lucas Cranach the Elder and Bernardino Licinio

"0 Beata, adorned so rich in rare charms, You have a virtuous and honest speech, The worthy and unworthy of you still adore you, The gray-haired, though prudent, they go crazy for you" (O Beata decorata rara forma, moribus / O honesta ac modesta vultu, verbis, gestibus! / Digni simul et indigni te semper suspiciunt / Et grandaevi ac prudentes propter te desipiunt), wrote in his panegyric modeled on the hymn in honor of the Virgin Mary, entitled Prosa de Beata Kościelecka virgine in gynaeceo Bonae reginae Poloniae (On Beata Kościelecka a maiden in the household of Bona, Queen of Poland, II, XLVII), Andrzej Krzycki (1482-1537), Bishop of Płock and secretary of Queen Bona. 

In 1509 when king Sigismund I was obliged to marry by the Piotrków Diet, his mistress Katarzyna Telniczanka was married to his associate Andrzej Kościelecki. The king secured her in the form of an annual salary and made Kościelecki Grand Treasurer of the Crown and starost of Oświęcim. Kościelecki, who was Polish-Lithuanian envoy in Buda between 1501-1503, was a talented and dedicated manager of royal treasury. When in 1510 a huge fire broke out in royal salt mines in Wieliczka, he and Seweryn Bethman descent into the shaft to put out the fire. 

Marriage with king's mistress caused a great indignation of Kościelecki's relatives, who were leaving the Senate when the treasurer appeared there.

Kościelecki died in Kraków on 6 September 1515 and on 2 October 1515, after a long illness, died Queen Barbara Zapolya, first wife of Sigismund. When just few weeks after Kościelecki's death Telniczanka gave birth to her daughter Beata, meaning "blessed" (between 6 September and 20 October), everybody at the court gossiped that her real father was Sigismund.

Beata was raised in the royal court together with other children of the king. In 1528 when Beata was 13, Anna, Zuzanna and Katarzyna three daughters of Regina Szafraniec, eldest daughter of Telniczanka, brought a claim against Beata before the royal court concerning a house in Kraków bought by Telniczanka after 1509, a carriage, four horses and a toque embroidered with large pearls valued at 600 zlotys. Two years later Kościelecki's testament was brought before the royal court by Andrzej Tęczyński, voivode of Kraków in a dispute with Kościelecka. 

The painting of Venus with Cupid stealing honey by Lucas Cranach the Elder from the National Gallery of Denmark (transferred in 1759 to the Danish royal collection from the Gottorp Castle) is very similar in composition to the portrait of Katarzyna Telniczanka as Venus from the Branicki Palace in Warsaw, lost during World War II. Also the woman depicted is very much alike. It bears the date 1530 on a stone in lower right corner of the painting. As Telniczanka died in 1528, it cannot be her. The same woman is also in the two other paintings by Cranach. One similar to other portraits of Telniczanka's daughters from the 1520s is in the Finnish National Gallery in Helsinki (acquired in 1851 from the collection of future Tsar Alexander II). According to sources it is dated 1525, however the date is today almost invisible and could be also 1527 when Beata reached her legal age of 12 and could be married. The other, in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium (donated in 1928 by Leon Cassel), also of Venus and Cupid, is dated 1531 on the tree trunk. It is very similar to portrait of Princess Hedwig Jagiellon (1513-1573) and Queen Anna Jagellonica (1503-1547) as Venus from the same period. The woman is also depiced in the portrait by Bernardino Licinio from 1532 in private collection, signed and dated by the artist on a postument (M·DXXXII B·LVCINII· OPVS). She is holding gloves and keeping her hand on a postument. This portrait is very similar to the effigy of royal mistress Diana di Cordona by Licinio in Dresden. It is almost like a pendant, their poses and costumes are identical. The woman's headdress or a toque, called balzo, embroidered with gold is adorned with flowers very similar to clematis Beata. 

From the 1530s noble ladies throughout Poland, Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine wanted to be depicted in the pose of a Roman lady or a courtesan from the Flavian period in their tomb monuments (e.g. monument to Barbara Tarnowska née Tęczyńska by Giovanni Maria Padovano from about 1536 in the Tarnów Cathedral), a pose similar to that known from the Venus of Urbino (portrait of Princess Isabella Jagiellon). In their portrait paintings, all wanted to be a goddess of love. 

Portrait of Beata Kościelecka by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1527, Finnish National Gallery in Helsinki. 

Portrait of Beata Kościelecka as Venus with Cupid stealing honey by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1530, National Gallery of Denmark. 

Portrait of Beata Kościelecka as Venus with Cupid stealing honey by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1531, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium. 

Portrait of Beata Kościelecka by Bernardino Licinio, 1532, Private collection. 

Portraits of Bona Sforza by Bernardino Licinio

"From you Poles learned elegant clothes, noble courtesy and respect for politeness, and above all, your example of sobriety freed them from drunkenness", wrote in a letter of 1539 to Queen Bona Sforza an Italian poet Pietro Aretino (1492-1556), who in 1527 settled permanently in Venice, "the seat of all vices", as he noted. His correspondence with Bona dates back at least to April 9, 1537, when the poet sent his book to the queen, commending himself to the monarch's gracious favor (after "Caraglio w Polsce" by Jerzy Wojciechowski, p. 26). The portrait of Aretino, considered to be the original by Giorgione, was purchased in December 1793 by King Stanislaus Augustus Poniatowski from Stanisław Kostka Potocki for his collection in the Palace on the Isle (inventory number 402, lost). It cannot be excluded that it was sent to Poland already in the 16th century. 

​Bona's tutor Crisostomo Colonna (1460-1528), a member of the Pontano Academy, a poet from the Petrarch school, taught her Latin, history, theology, law, geography, botany, philosophy and mathematics. She in turn, who was considered a lover of Virgil and Petrarch, was the first teacher of her son Sigismund Augustus, born in 1520, hence the book. 

Two leopards on her bodice, denoted as symbols of strength, intelligence, bravery, justice, and valor, holding stylized S, is clearly an allusion to her family name: Sforza (from sforzare, to force), a nickname given to Muzio Attendolo in the 1380s for his strength and determination and his abilities to suddenly reverse the fortunes of battles.

The whole pattern can be compared with that visible on a fountain in the Dukes' Courtyard of the Castello Sforzesco in Milan from the late 15th century. 

Portrait of a seated old woman, which was before 1917 in the collection of Wojciech Kolasiński in Warsaw, was attributed to Lorenzo Lotto (sold in June 1917 in Berlin, Sammlung des verstorbenen herrn A. von Kolasinski - Warschau, item 185). The style of this painting is nevertheless very similar to the effigy of Stanisław Oleśnicki (York Art Gallery), identified by me, and portrait of a woman in a black dress (Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice), both by Bernardino Licinio. Prior history of this painting is unfortunately unknown. If Kolasiński acquired the painting in Poland, which is very likely, the old woman holding a book was most probably a member of the court of Queen Bona.

Portrait of Bona Sforza d'Aragona (1494-1557), Queen of Poland holding a book by Bernardino Licinio, 1530s, Private collection.

Portrait of Bona Sforza d'Aragona (1494-1557), Queen of Poland holding a book by Bernardino Licinio, 1530s, Government Art Collection, UK.

Portrait of a seated old woman from the Kolasiński collection by Bernardino Licinio, second quarter of the 16th century, Private collection.

Portraits of Bona Sforza by Giovanni Cariani

"The Queen had a special affinity for music, jewelry and textiles. To satisfy her tastes, she brought artists from Italy. The possibilities of Bona's patronage are well illustrated by the example of her boys' choir, which was regularly renewed with boys from Italy not affected by the mutation" (after "Caraglio w Polsce" by Jerzy Wojciechowski, p. 26).

​From 1524, after death of her mother, Bona was also Duchess of Bari and Rossano by her own right. Throughout her life she dressed in Italian style and purchased in Italy pearl embroidered velvets, thin Florentine cloths, intricate Venetian chains and ornaments. She also received garments from Italian Princes, like in 1523, when Isabella d'Este (1474-1539), Marchioness of Mantua and a leader of fashion at that time, sent to Bona silk and golden caps in return for sable skins. Two years later, the Marchioness also sent six caps and four pairs of fashionable stockings. In a letter from Kraków of July 20, 1527 Bona expressed her gratitude to Isabella's daughter Eleonora Gonzaga, Duchess of Urbino for beautiful caps she has sent her. Jewish merchant from Kraków, Aleksander Levi sold sable skins to Federico II Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, in return for which he collected gold cloth, fabrics woven with silver and silk from Venice. The queen received some of these expensive materials as a gift from the duke. Valuable beaver skins, horses, falcons and hunting dogs, sought after abroad, were delivered to Italy from Poland, and once even two camels from the royal zoo were sent as a gift to Cardinal Ippolito I d'Este (after "Królowa Bona ..." by Władysław Pociecha, p. 294).

In May 1543 during entry to Kraków for coronation of Elizabeth of Austria (1526-1545), the lords and knights of the Kingdom were dressed in all sorts of costumes: Polish, German, Italian, French, Hungarian, Turkish, Tatar, Spanish, Muscovy, Cossack and Venetian. The young king Sigismund Augustus was dressed in German style, probably as a courtesy for Elizabeth. Bona started to wear her distinctive outfit of a widowed elder lady most probably around 1548, after death of Sigismund I, a medal from 1546 shows her with a large décolletage.

Before 1862 in the Sibyl's Temple at Pulawy, which memorialized Polish history and culture, there was a "fan of Queen Bona" and inventory of Bona's belongings in Bari includes a wonderful chronometer hidden inside a fan made of bird feathers and set with jewels.

Portrait of Bona Sforza d'Aragona (1494-1557), Queen of Poland holding a fan by Giovanni Cariani, 1530s, Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

Portrait of Bona Sforza d'Aragona (1494-1557), Queen of Poland in a striped dress by Giovanni Cariani, 1530s, Musée Jacquemart-André.

Portraits of Catherine de' Medici by Giovanni Cariani and workshop of Palma Vecchio

"The Queen became all-powerful, and took all seriousness from her husband and other dignitaries, so that she plays a role similar to the Queen regent in France", wrote from Kraków on March 10, 1532 Ercole Daissoli, the secretary of Hieronim Łaski, about Bona Sforza, Queen of Poland. 

Around that time another eminent woman of the Renaissance, Catherine de' Medici, future Queen of France was engaged to Henry, duke of Orleans. Orphaned at birth, she was brought from Florence to Rome by her father's uncle Pope Leo X. The next Pope and Catherine's uncle Clement VII, allowed her to return to Florence and to reside in the Palazzo Medici Riccardi. The Pope entered into an alliance with France, Venice, Florence and England to limit the influence of Emperor Charles V in Italy, but the French defeat in the battle of Pavia exposed the Papal States to imperial revenge, which culminated in the sack of Rome in 1527. The defeat suffered by Clement VII in Rome also led to riots in Florence. In return for his help in retaking the city the Pope promised Charles V that he would be crowned emperor. On the occasion of Emperor's coronation in Bologna in 1530 a medal was struck to model by Giovanni Bernardi. 

Catherine returned to the papal court in Rome, where Clement VII attempted to arrange an advantageous marriage for her. He managed to combine two important marriages: that of Catherine with the son of the king of France and that of Alessandro, nicknamed il Moro (appointed Duke of Florence) with Margaret of Austria, the illegitimate daughter of Charles V. Thirteen-year-old Catherine began to learn French. Venetian ambassador, Antonio Soriano, described her physical appearance at that time: "she is small of stature, and thin, and without delicate features, but having the protruding eyes peculiar to the Medici family". On 23 October 1533 Catherine arrived in Marseille, where she married the younger son of the French king. The unexpected death of Clement VII on 25 September 1534, almost a year after the wedding, affected the alliance between the papacy and France. Pope Paul III, whose election was backed by Emperor Charles V, broke the alliance and refused to pay the enormous dowry promised to Catherine. King Francis I of France, Catherine's father-in-law, was later attributed the bitter affirmation: "I received the girl stark naked" (J'ai reçu la fille toute nue).

The portrait of a lady called "Violante", identified as Allegory of Virginity and attributed to Palma Vecchio and Giovanni Cariani is known from several versions. One was in the collection of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria and was recorded in Theatrum Pictorium (number 185). This painting was most probably cut and might be tantamount to the painting in the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest. Other are in Galleria Estense in Modena, centred around the collection of the d'Este family, rulers of Modena, Ferrara and Reggio and in private collection in Barcelona, possibly from the Spanish royal collection. The woman was also depicted in similar pose wearing a black mourning dress in another paining in Budapest (inventory number 109). 

Facial features and hand gesture of the woman are almost identical with another effigy in the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest, the portrait of young Catherine de' Medici (inventory number 58.4), bearing later inscription in French: CATERINE DE MEDICIS REINE DE FRANCE. The omnipresent V in these portraits is therefore reference to the powerful Emperor Charles V, whose actions had great impact on the life of Catherine.

​A painting by Italian painter, possibly Pier Francesco Foschi, painted on panel from private collection in Switzerland is very similar to the portrait with inscription in Budapest. She wears a golden pendant with monogram of her husband H, future Henry II of France.

In 1909 in the collection of Prince Kazimierz Lubomirski in Kraków there was a Portrait of Catherine de' Medici (oil on canvas, 89 x 71 cm), attributed to "The School of Paul Veronese (1528-1588)" (after "Katalog wystawy obrazów malarzy dawnych i współczesnych urządzonej staraniem Andrzejowej Księżny Lubomirskiej" by Mieczysław Treter, item 69, p. 17).

Portrait of Catherine de' Medici (1519-1589) by Giovanni Cariani, 1532-1534, Galleria Estense in Modena.

Portrait of Catherine de' Medici (1519-1589) by Giovanni Cariani or workshop of Palma Vecchio, 1532-1534, Private collection.

Portrait of Catherine de' Medici (1519-1589) by Giovanni Cariani, 1532-1534, Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest.

Portrait of Catherine de' Medici (1519-1589) from the Theatrum Pictorium (185) by Jan van Troyen after workshop of Palma Vecchio, 1673, Slovak National Gallery in Bratislava.

Portrait of Catherine de' Medici (1519-1589) in mourning by Giovanni Cariani, ca. 1534, Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest.

Portrait of Catherine de' Medici (1519-1589) by Italian painter, possibly Pier Francesco Foschi, 1533-1540, Private collection.

Portraits of Catherine Telegdi, Voivodess of Transylvania by wokshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder and Venetian painters

On March 17, 1534 died Stephen VIII Bathory (born 1477), Voivode of Transylvania leaving his 42 years-old wife Catherine Telegdi (1492-1547) with the youngest of her children, including Stephen, future king of Poland, born in 1533, Christopher, born in 1530, and most probably the youngest daughter Elizabeth, later wife of Lajos Pekry de Petrovina, in the turbulent period following the Ottoman invasion of Hungary.

Catherine was a daughter of royal treasurer Stephen Telegdi (or Thelegdy de Telegd) and his wife Margit Bebek de Pelsőcz. She married Stephen of the Somlyó branch of the Bathory family before October 13, 1516. They had four sons and four daughters and their last child, Stephen was born on September 27, 1533 just few months before his father's death. His parents ordered to built a small church in honor of the Virgin Mary at the time of his birth. Catherine resided in the Bathorys' castle at Somlyó, also known as Szilágysomlyó (now Șimleu Silvaniei in Romania) managing her deceased husband's estates on behalf of minor children. In 1536 she signed an agreement with János Statileo, Latinized as Statilius (d. 1542), Bishop of Transylvania (in 1521 King Louis II sent him to Venice), according to which the named widow's estates in Daróczi, Gyresi (Gyrüsi) and Gyengi (Gyérgyi) in Szathmár county, will be returned to her.

Later Tamás Nádasdy (1498-1562), Ban of Croatia-Slavonia and his older brother Andrew VII Bathory (d. 1563) took charge of Christopher's education, while Pál Várday (1483-1549), Archbishop of Esztergom was entrusted with custody of Stephen, who in the 1540s was also educated at the court of Ferdinand I in Vienna.

On November 1, 1534 George Martinuzzi (Frater Georgius), a Croatian nobleman and Pauline monk, born in Kamičak in the Republic of Venice, was made Bishop of nearby great fortress Varadinum (now Oradea), one of the most important in the Kingdom of Hungary. The cathedral in Varadinum was the burial place of kings, including Saint Ladislaus I of Hungary, Queen Mary of Anjou and Emperor Sigismund of Luxembourg. He was also appointed treasurer, one of the country's most important officials, by King John Zapolya, when previous treasurer and governor of Hungary Alvise Gritti, natural son of Andrea Gritti, Doge of Venice, was murdered in September 1534. Before entering the service of King of Hungary in 1527, Martinuzzi was most probably Abbot of the Jasna Góra Monastery in Częstochowa. He was the "author of marriage" (author matrimonii) of Princess Isabella Jagiellon (according to letter of Queen Bona from 1542, in which she asks him to take care of her daughter), organized together with Jan Amor Tarnowski, voivode of Kraków. 

On September 16, 1539 Catherine Telegdi's daughter Anna Bathory, mother of the "Blood Countess" Elizabeth Bathory, married Kasper Dragfi of Béltek. 

Single woman with small children amidst ongoing war undoubtedly wanted to get married or at least find a protector and the most powerful man who could help her was Bishop of Varadinum. If Queen Bona and Tarnowski family in nearby Poland-Lithuania and king Ferdinand I could commission their effigies in Cranach's workshop and in Venice, the same could the voivodess of Transylvania and Martinuzzi. 

Madonna and Child with grapes by Lucas Cranach the Elder, which was before 1932 in the collection of Julius Drey in Munich, is inscribed in upper right corner with artist's insignia and dated '1534'. The same woman was also depicted as Venus with Cupid stealing honey, which was sold at Sotheby's, New York on 12 January 1995 (Lot 151) and as Charity, according to inscription in upper left corner (CHARITAS), in a painting in the National Gallery in London, which was once in the collection of Sir George Webbe Dasent (1817-1896), a British translator who was appointed secretary to Thomas Cartwright on a diplomatic post in Stockholm, Sweden. Charity or love (Latin Caritas), "the mother of all virtues", according to Hilary of Arles (Hilarius), refers to "love of God", although the image refers more to maternity and effigies of Roman goddess of motherhood Latona.

The woman was also depicted in a portrait which was attributed to Palma Vecchio, Giovanni Cariani and currently to Bernardino Licinio in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice. She wears a black dress of a widow and a black headdress or a toque, called balzo, embroidered with gold. This painting, like the effigy of Jan Janusz Kościelecki by Giovanni Cariani, was transferred from the Contarini collection in Venice (bequeathed by Girolamo Contarini) in 1838. It might be a modello to a series of portraits or a gift to the Venetian Serenissima. 

In a painting attributed to Palma Vecchio, although also close to the style of Giovanni Cariani, from the collection of Queen Christina of Sweden in Rome, today in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, she is represented as Venus in a landscape with Cupid handing her an arrow aimed at her heart. The city behind her with a fortress atop a hill match perfectly the layout of Varadinum. A more simplified copy of this effigy, in the style of Bernardino Licinio, comes from the collection of Princess Labadini in Milan. 

She was also depicted as Saint Catherine in a painting of Sacra Conversazione with Madonna and Child and a bishop saint. The composition and effigies are in the manner of Palma Vecchio, however the style of painting is more like Giovanni Cariani. This painting was probably acquired by Archibald Campbell Douglas Dick (d.1927), Pitkerro House, Dundee, in the early 20th century. Consequently the bishop saint holding the palm branch, a symbol of martyrdom, could be a portrait of George Martinuzzi. 

Very similar effigy, this time more close to the style of Palma Vecchio, shows her younger and wearing a green dress, a symbol of her fertility. This painting, today in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, was in the collection of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria and was recorded in the Theatrum Pictorium (number 196).

In all mentioned portraits woman's face bears a great resemblance to effigies of Catherine Telegdi's son Stephen Bathory, elected monarach of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

Portrait of Catherine Telegdi (1492-1547), Voivodess of Transylvania in a green dress by Palma Vecchio, ca. 1516-1528, Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

Portrait of Catherine Telegdi (1492-1547), Voivodess of Transylvania from the Theatrum Pictorium (196) by Lucas Vorsterman the Elder after Palma Vecchio, 1660, Princely Court Library Waldeck.

Portrait of Catherine Telegdi (1492-1547), Voivodess of Transylvania as Madonna and Child with grapes by wokshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1534, Private collection.

Portrait of Catherine Telegdi (1492-1547), Voivodess of Transylvania as Venus with Cupid stealing honey by wokshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1534, Private collection.

Portrait of Catherine Telegdi (1492-1547), Voivodess of Transylvania as Caritas by wokshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1534, National Gallery in London.

Portrait of Catherine Telegdi (1492-1547), Voivodess of Transylvania in a black balzo by Bernardino Licinio, ca. 1534, Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice.

Portrait of Catherine Telegdi (1492-1547), Voivodess of Transylvania as Venus and Cupid against the idealized view of Varadinum by Giovanni Cariani, ca. 1534, Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.

Portrait of Catherine Telegdi (1492-1547), Voivodess of Transylvania nude (Venus) by Bernardino Licinio, ca. 1534, Private collection.

Sacra Conversazione with a portrait of Catherine Telegdi (1492-1547), Voivodess of Transylvania as Saint Catherine by Giovanni Cariani, ca. 1534, Private collection.

Portraits of Stanisław Lubomirski and Laura Effrem by Bernardino Licinio and Giovanni Cariani 

"For Peace and Freedom. Old masters: a collection of Polish-owned works of art, arranged by the European Art Galleries, Inc., to help to maintain the exhibit of Poland at the World's Fair, New York, 1940." This is the title of official catalogue of 77 paintings, mostly from the Łańcut Castle, displayed in the Polish Pavilion during the New York World's Fair opened on 30 April 1939. On 1 September and 17 September 1939, the Second Polish Republic was again invaded and partitioned by its neighbours. World War II begun and paintings never returned to Łańcut.

Among them were a portrait of a green-eyed nobleman attributed to Lorenzo Lotto and a portrait of a lady attributed to Paris Bordone, both holding gloves. The portraits, now in private collections, have similar dimensions (99.4 x 74.9 cm / 88 x 74.5 cm) and compostion, they are almost like pendants. The woman is now holding a little dog and the effigy of a man bears inscription DOMINICHO / RADISE, which was not visible before. It was most probably added after 1940 to make him close to the Radise family living in New York since about 1920, as no Dominicho or Domenico Radise is reported in sources. Both paintings are stilistically close to Giovanni Cariani, also known as Giovanni Busi or Il Cariani. 

The woman was also depicted in two other paintings from the same period, one attributed to Palma Vecchio in Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden and the other, most probably a modello or a ricordo to previous, attributed to circle of Bernardino Licinio in private collection. The painting in Dresden, entitled Resting Venus, was most probably acquired for the collection of Augustus II, King of Poland. 

According to a bill of the picture, it was bought through the dealers Lorenzo Rossi and Andreas Philipp Kindermann in 1728 in Venice for 2000 Taleri, however since the painting is also described in inventory from 1722 it could be that it was confused with another painting of Venus attributed to Sassoferrato. The frame is adorned with king's monogram AR (Augustus Rex) and the Eagle of Poland. It cannot be excluded that it was offered to the king during his visit to the Łańcut castle in 1704 or later by members of the Lubomirski family. The version attributed to Licinio comes from the Heinemann Gallery in Munich. 

Renaissance-baroque Łańcut Castle was built between 1629-1641 as palazzo in fortezza (fortress palace) for Stanisław Lubomirski (1583-1649), voivode of Kraków by Italian architect Matteo Trapola on the site of previous, most probably wooden castle of the Pilecki family. Stanisław's grandfather was another Stanisław (d. 1585), son of Feliks Lubomirski, owner of the Sławkowice and Zabłocie estates.

In May 1537 he married a Queen's lady-in-waiting Laura Effrem (Laura de Effremis), coming from an old family noble from Bari, related to the Carducci, Dottula, Alifio, Piscicelli and Arcamone families, belonging to the immediate circle of Isabella of Aragon, Duchess of Milan and her daughter Bona. Laura received from the queen a dowry of 1,200 zlotys and jewels worth 350 zlotys, as well as twenty cubits of damask.

According to letter of Queen's secretary Stanisław Górski to a poet Klemens Janicki dated 10 June 1538 in Kraków "Italian Laura, who had married Stanisław Lubomirski a year ago, having come here at the Queen's request after Easter, in the house where the maids and matrons are staying, gave birth to a son." The son died in infancy, Laura most probably died four years later in 1542 and Stanisław married Barbara Hruszowska with whom he had three children. 

Portrait of Laura Effrem with pearls in her hair by Bernardino Licinio, 1530s, Private collection.

Portrait of Laura Effrem as Resting Venus by Bernardino Licinio, 1530s, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden.

Portrait of Laura Effrem from the Łańcut Castle by Paris Bordone or Giovanni Cariani, 1530s, Private collection.

Portrait of Stanisław Lubomirski (d. 1585) from the Łańcut Castle by Giovanni Cariani, 1530s, Private collection.

Portraits of Sigismund Augustus as a boy by circle of Titian 

Hereditary and absolute monarchs of Europe had no interest whatever in preserving the memory of elective rulers of Poland-Lithuania, especially after decline of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth as a leading European power following the destructive Deluge (1655-1660) and its dissolution following the partitions in the late 18th century. That is why the identity of the Jagiellons, Vasas and even of king Wiśniowiecki or members of the Sobieski family in their portraits sent to European courts was lost in oblivion. 
​
In 1529, through the intercession of queen Bona, a courtier with a stormy and dissolute life, Giovanni Silvio de Mathio (Joannes Silvius Amatus) from Palermo, called Siculus was appointed the tutor of nine years old Sigismund Augustus. He also obtained the Vitebsk parish and the Vilnius canon with Bona's support. Siculus was a doctor of both laws and lecturer of Greek at the Kraków Academy. He died at 90 years of age in about 1537. 

Siculus left Padua, under the rule of the Republic of Venice, for Vienna in 1497 and Kraków in about 1500. When in Poland, he frequently ordered copies of Greek texts from Aldo Manuzio (Aldus Manutius) in Venice. The first edition of the controversial work by Philostratus "Life of Apollonius of Tyana", printed in Venice between 1501 and 1504 by Manuzio, was in a private library of king Sigismund Augustus, now in Saint Petersburg (after Alodia Kawecka-Gryczowa, Biblioteka ostatniego Jagiellona, 1988, pp. 291-292). It tells the story of the first century philosopher and magician and concerns pagan magic and secret sciences.

As an ardent follower of Neoplatonic ideas at the Sigismund's court and opponent of Erasmus of Rotterdam, Siculus spread rumors in Kraków that Erasmus had been put under a church curse. 

Platonism affirms the existence of abstract objects that the physical world is not as real or true as timeless, absolute, unchangeable ideas, as in a quote from Plato's Timaeus, which reads "this world is indeed a living being endowed with soul and intelligence." For Plato, the term ''Anima Mundi'' meant ''the animating principle of matter.''

The painting from the collection of Cardinal Mazarin, possibly originally from the French royal collection, recorded in the inventory of 1661 as a work of Titian (no. 912), shows a little boy and his tutor holding hands on a globe with figures which looks like floating souls and similar to the print Integra naturae speculum artisque imago, published in Robert Fludd's Utriusque cosmi maioris scilicet ... from 1617-1618.

The portrait of a boy in costume and, more northern, hairstyle, typical for 1530s is mentioned for the first time in 1646 by Balthasar de Monconys as placed in the Tribuna of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, where the most important antiquities and paintings from the Medici collection were displayed, and with attribution to Titian. the boy's features are very similar to those on a series of portraits from about 1521 showing Sigismund Augustus as a child, while the costume to the medal by Giovanni Padovano from 1532.

​Both paintings were undoubtedly commissioned by queen Bona to be sent to major European courts. 

Portrait of Sigismund Augustus as a boy with his tutor Giovanni Silvio de Mathio by circle of Titian, ca. 1529, Louvre Museum. 

Portrait of Sigismund Augustus as a boy by circle of Titian, ca. 1532, Uffizi Gallery.

Portraits of Sigismund I the Old and Bona Sforza by Titian

In 1808 Lucien Bonaparte (1775-1840), younger brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, acquired the "Portrait of the Duchess Sforza" along with 26 other paintings from the Riccardi collection in Florence. This painting was sold in London on May 1816. Also the inventory of the collection in Palazzo Medici-Riccardi in Florence from the end of the 17th century lists the painting as Titian in the quarta stanza (fourth room) and as Ritratto d'una Duchessa Sforza (Portrait of a Duchess Sforza, Carte Riccardi, Archivio di Stato, Florence, fil. 267, c. 256 r.). The 15th century Palazzo Medici-Riccardi remained the principal residence of the Medici family until 1540 when Cosimo I moved his principal residence to the Palazzo Vecchio.

The woman is dressed in a fashionable, damask, fur-lined gown and green cap, called a balzo embroidered with gold, typical for the 1530s fashion in Italy. She wears the heavy gold paternoster girdle and a long string of pearls, which were very costly. 

This cannot be Christina of Denmark, who in 1534 at the age of 12 became Duchess of Milan as a wife Francesco II Sforza, as her face features do not match the painting by Titian, the sitter is older and Christina was not a Sforza. The sitter's face is very similar to other known effigies of Bona Sforza, Queen of Poland, Grand Duchess of Lithuania and also Duchess of Bari and Rossano by her own right, Duchess Sforza.

A portrait of an old man in a dark tunic by Titian in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna has identical dimensions as portrait of Duchess Sforza - 88 x 75 cm (34.6 x 29.5 in) / 88.9 x 75.5 cm (35 x 29.7 in) and similar composition, just as later portraits of Sigismund II Augustus and his third wife Catherine of Austria. Both are painted on canvas.

The man holds his left hand on a band of the coat, showing two rings that certify the high social status. The portrait was in the collection of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria in Brussels and was included in the Theatrum pictorium (Theatre of Painting), a catalog of 243 Italian paintings in the Archduke's collection, under number 57, one number after portrait of Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski by Bernardino Licinio (56). Both portraits entered therefore the Archduke's collection at the same time. 

David Teniers the Younger copied the portrait in the 1650s. This miniature, painted on panel, is in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. The sitter's face is very similar to other known effigies of King Sigismund I the Old from the 1530s. 

Portrait of King Sigismund I the Old by Titian, 1532-1538, Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

Portrait of Queen Bona Sforza by Titian, 1532-1538, Private collection.

Portrait of King Sigismund I the Old by David Teniers the Younger after Titian, 1650s, Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

Portrait of King Sigismund I the Old from the Theatrum Pictorium (57) by Jan van Troyen after Titian, 1660, Princely Court Library Waldeck.

Portraits of Hedwig Jagiellon by Titian and Giovanni Cariani

"In Poland there are mountains in which the salt goes down very deep, particularly at Wieliczka and Bochnia. Here on the fifth of January, 1528, I climbed down fifty ladders in order to see for myself and there in the depths observed workers, naked because of the heat, using iron tools to dig out a most valuable hoard of salt from these inexhaustible mines, as if it had been gold and silver. I also saw, and talked with, the very beautiful, wise maiden, Hedwig, daughter of the good King Sigismund the First. She was finer than all the riches I have just mentioned, and worthy of a glorious realm", wrote in his work Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus (A Description of the Northern Peoples), printed in Rome 1555, the Swedish scholar and prelate, Olaus Magnus (1490-1557), last Catholic archbishop of Uppsala, who lived the latter half of his life in exile.

On the Wawel Hill, Princess Hedwig and her court, which was almost unchanged until her departure in 1535, lived in a house, which does not exist today, built opposite the southern entrance to the cathedral, in front of the gate leading to the castle courtyard. The chamberlian of her court was Mikołaj Piotrowski, brother of Jan, the Abbot of Tyniec, the superintendent of the kitchen (praefectus culinae) was Jan Guth, called Grot, of Radwan coat of arms from Pliszczyn, the stewards were Orlik, Żegota Morski, Hincza Borowski, Andrzejek and Szczęsny and the Princess' ladies-in-waiting were: Ożarowska and Ossolińska, Anna Zopska, Morawianka, who came to Poland with Hedwig's mother, Elżbieta Długojowska, Stadnicka and Lasocka, female dwarf Dorota and Dorota the laundress and the priest, Father Aleksy. According to Jan Boner's accounts, the Princess' court cost from about 3 to 5 thousand florins annually.

Hedwig, "much loved by the king of Hungary" (molto amata dal re d'Ungharia), as wrote Ercole Daissoli in 1535, frequently received gifts from her uncle John Zapolya, like in February 1527, when his envoy Joannes Statilius, brought her a cross set with diamonds, emeralds, rubies and pearls and wonderful cups for the king and the queen. 

When on November 1526, Zapolya was proclaimed king of Hungary, she took part in the thanksgiving Te Deum laudamus service in the Wawel cathedral. When she passed the news of the victory of her uncle over the Archduke Ferdinand of Austria to the Kraków nuns, "overcome with the frenzy of joy, they laughed and danced", reported the envoy of the Viennese court, Georg Logschau, clearly embittered.

In April 1533, when Sigismund and Bona, with the young king Sigismund Augustus and their daughter Isabella Jagiellon left for Lithuania, Hedwig remained in Kraków with younger sisters Sophia, Anna and Catherine under the custody of a bishop Piotr Tomicki.

During this time the new marriage projects related to the eldest daughter of the king, in which Queen Bona, the Habsburgs, her uncle king of Hungary and Duke Albert of Prussia participated vividly, grew more intense. Among the candidates were Frederick of the Palatinate (1482-1556) and Louis of Bavaria (1495-1545), supported by the Habsburgs. Both Johannes Dantiscus and Piotr Tomicki, who were engaged in marriage negotiations, thought about the latter with reluctance, believing that it is not right to wed a beautiful and healthy girl to a sick man and Frederick was ready to marry the Polish princess only for her dowry. The princess did not learn German, which may indicate that her stepmother was planning for her more distant, most probably Italian marriage. 

On June 13, 1533 Hedwig's mother, Queen Barbara Zapolya, the first wife of Sigismund was reburied in the recently completed Sigismund Chapel built by Italian architects and sculptors. The king, who earlier commissioned a silver altarpiece for the chapel from the best artists in Nuremberg, also commissioned a jewelled casket for his daughter (Hermitage Museum).

A portrait attributed to Giovanni Cariani or Bernardino Licinio in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice shows a young woman in a black, most probably mourning dress from the 1530s (dated to 1533 by Federico Zeri). The woman's face is astonishingly similar to effigies of Hedwig Jagiellon, especially her portrais by Lucas Cranach the Elder as Madonna (Detroit Institute of Arts) and as Venus (Gemäldegalerie in Berlin). It was therefore a modello for a series of paintings that remained in Venice, a gift for a potential suitor in Italy or a painting that returned to the place of its origin with one of the notable Polish-Lithuanian royal guests in Venice - Queen Bona Sforza in 1556, Queen Marie Casimire in 1699 or her daughter Teresa Kunegunda Sobieska, Electress of Bavaria, who spent ten years in exile in Venice between 1705 and 1715.

The same woman, in the same, although more disarranged attire, is depicted in the painting which was attributed to Palma Vecchio, then to Giovanni Cariani and now to Titian, in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. It is verifiable in the Imperial gallery Vienna as far as 1720, thus it was a gift for the Habsburgs, so engaged in Princess' marriage projects.

Portrait of Crown Princess Hedwig Jagiellon (1513-1573) in a black dress by Giovanni Cariani, ca. 1533, Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice.

Portrait of Crown Princess Hedwig Jagiellon (1513-1573) in a black dress by Titian, ca. 1533, Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

Portraits of Diana di Cordona by Bernardino Licinio and Lucas Cranach the Elder

The portrait of an Italian lady in crimson robe by Bernardino Licinio was first recorded in the inventory of Dresden collection in 1722. It is highly probable, that just as other paintings from the royal collection it was taken from Warsaw in 1720 by Augustus II the Strong. It shows a woman in her thirties wearing an elaborate costume of a noble. Her bonnet is embroidered with gold thread and adorned with flowers of gold and enamel or precious stones. The pattern on the bonnet is very much like a gentian, called Diana (Gentiana Diana), which owes its name to Roman goddess of the hunt, the wilderness, childbirth and the Moon. Diana was also one of the goddesses of night, therefore dark blue was her color. The pattern with some violet flowers and three main plants is also very similar to flowering cardoon (cardo in Italian and Spanish), exactly as in the coat of arms of the Sicilian noble family of Spanish-Catalan origin, Cardona. The motif is threfore a reference to sitter's name Diana de Cardona, better known under Italianized version of her name Diana di Cordona.

The portrait is signed and dated (M.DXXXIII / B. LYCINII. P) on the niche behind the figure and in an underlying layer of paint (P [or B]. LICINI. F [or P] / MDXXX [?]), both partly obliterated. 

In 1533 Sigismund I ordered his banker, Seweryn Boner, to order in Bruges for himself and his wife Bona 60 tapestries with the coats of arms of Poland, Milan and Lithuania, 26 pieces without coats of arms and 6 very expensive "figural" tapestries. It is highly possible that around that time some paintings and portraits were also commissioned. 

Also in the same year Queen Bona wanted to change her hereditary Rossano principality into the estate of Pietro Antonio Sanseverino, Prince of Bisignano. As a daughter of Gian Galeazzo Sforza, Duke of Milan her Italian inheritance was very important to Bona. After an accident in 1527 she could not have more children, so she put all her faith in her only son, Sigismund Augustus, who rechaed legal age of 14 years old in 1534, for continuation of the dynasty. To facilitate his entry into adulthood, she agreed or possibly even arranged his affair with her lady-in-waiting Diana di Cordona, who was just five years younger than Bona (born in 1494). 

Raised by Countess Ribaldi in Rome, Diana had an abundant life and allegedly infected Sigismund Augustus with syphilis. When the young king married in 1543, she most probably left for her native Sicily. 

The same woman as in the Dresden portrait by Licinio was also depicted in the painting from the same pariod by Lucas Cranach the Elder in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid. It was acquired in Berlin in 1918 from the collection of the painter Wilhelm Trübner. It's earlier history is unknown. It is possible that it was taken from Poland during the Deluge - "the elector [of Brandenburg] himself took to Prussia as a spoil, the most valuable paintings and silverware of the royal table", wrote Wawrzyniec Jan Rudawski about the looting of royal residencies in Warsaw in 1656.

The painting shows Diana the Huntress as the nymph of the Sacred Spring, whose posture recalls Giorgione's and Titian's Venuses, a clear inspiration by Venetian painting. The inscription in Latin, which reads: FONTIS NYMPHA SACRI SOM: / NVM NE RVMPE QVIESCO (I am the Nymph of the Sacred Spring: Do not disturb my sleep. I am resting.), indicate that the client who ordered the painting was not speaking German, therefore could be either Queen Bona or Diana herself.

Egeria, the nymph of a sacred spring, celebrated at sacred groves close to Rome, was a form of Diana. In the grove at Nemi, near Rome there was a spring, sacred to Diana. She was believed to bless men and women with offspring and to assist mothers in childbirth. Two partridges in the painting are a symbol of sexual desire as according to Aelian (Claudius Aelianus) partridges have no control over it (after Steven D. Smith's "Man and Animal in Severan Rome: The Literary Imagination of Claudius Aelianus", p. 183).

Portrait of Diana di Cordona, mistress of king Sigismund Augustus by Bernardino Licinio, 1530s, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden.

Diana di Cordona, mistress of king Sigismund Augustus as Diana the Huntress-Egeria by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1530s, Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum in Madrid.

Portraits of Sigismund Augustus and Sigismund the Old by Christoph Amberger

On 10-11 November 1530 a marriage treaty on behalf of ten-year-old king Sigismund II Augustus and his four-year-old cousin Elizabeth of Austria (1526-1545), eldest daughter of Anna Jagellonica, Queen of Bohemia and Hungary, was signed in Poznań. On this occasion Elizabeth's father Ferdinand I, commissioned a series of portraits of his daughter and her three-year-old brother Maximilian from his court painter Jacob Seisenegger (Mauritshuis, Bayerisches Nationalmuseum). Everybody in Europe should know who will be the future Queen of Poland and Grand Duchess of Lithuania and who will be the future King of Bohemia and Hungary, despite the fact that the crowns of these countries were elective. Around 1533, when Sigismund Augustus was approaching the legal age of marriage (14), and his mother Bona wanted to break off the engagement or postpone the marriage, he most probably ordered an armour for the young king of Poland, created by Jörg Seusenhofer (Wawel Royal Castle). Its breastplate and sleeves proudly display the monogram formed by interweaving capital letters "E" and "S" (Elisabetha et Sigismundus). In 1537 Seisenegger created another portrait of eleven-year-old Archduchess Elizabeth and of her brother Maximilian. 

The king of Poland undeniably received a portrait of his fiancée, and she received his portrait. The portrait attributed to Christoph Amberger in the Liechtenstein Museum in Vienna was acquired in the 18th century by Joseph Wenzel I, Prince of Liechtenstein. It shows a young man in a costume and hairstyle from the 1530s, similar to that visible in portraits of Archduke Maximilian by Seisenegger, bronze medal with a bust of Sigismund Augustus by Giovanni Maria Mosca, created in 1532, and anonymous print from 1569 after original effigy from about 1540. The collar of his shirt is embroidered with gold thread with depiction of the dextrarum iunctio (hand in hand), highly popular in Roman art. In the Roman world marriage was considered a dextrarum iunctio, a joining of hands and "the right hand was sacred to Fides, the deity of fidelity. The clasping of the right hand was a solemn gesture of mutual fidelity and loyalty" (after Stephen D. Ricks "Dexiosis and Dextrarum Iunctio: The Sacred Handclasp in the Classical and Early Christian World", 2006, p. 432). It was a popular motif in engagement rings. Some gold rings with this symbol preserved in Poland (Wawel - third quarter of the 16th century, Konin - 1604).

Face features of the young man bears strong resemblance to other portraits of Sigismund Augustus, especially his portrait by Jan van Calcar in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. 

"He is of medium height, gaunt, with black hair and a stringy beard, dark - complexioned and and does not seem to be very strong, but rather feeble, and therefore he could not stand great hardships and exertion and often suffers from podagra. [...] In his youth he liked to dress richly, he wore Hungarian and Italian robes of various colors, today he always wears a long robe and does not use any other color except black", described the aging king few years before his death the Papal Nuncio Giulio Ruggieri in 1568. Being involved in many affairs and holding a large number of mistresses, historians agree that the king contracted the "Italian disease", as the French called syphilis.

Two years earlier, in 1565, another Ruggieri, Flavio from Bologna, reported about Polish women that "adding charms by artificial means or dyeing their hair is a great disgrace to them". Sigismund's mother Bona Sforza was described as a lovely bright blonde with black eyelashes and eyebrows. Her court as Duchess of Bari and Rossano by her own right was on the other hand full of peoples of dark complexion and of Mediterranean descent. The word for a woman in Old Polish is białogłowa, literally meaning "white head", which most probably refers to fair hair of young women (after Łukasz Gołębiowski's "Lud polski, jego zwyczaje, zabobony", published in 1830, p. 112) or a white cap. 

It is possible that later in his life Sigismund was darkening his hair to look more masculine and less "feeble", while his mother and sisters were lightening the hair to look more like a "white head", his hair darkened with age, he inherited a hair anomaly from his mother, painters used cheaper dark pigments to create copies, portraits and sitters' appearance was intentionally adapted to recipients - more northern look and costume for northern Princes, more southern look and costume for southern Princes, as a part of diplomacy, or painters received just a general drawing with sitter's appearance and adjusted the details (eye and hair color) to how they imagined the sitter.  

Christoph Amberger, primarily a portrait painter, was active in Augsburg, a Free Imperial City. A portrait of Emperor Charles V, brother of Ferdinand I, from 1532 in the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin is attributed to Amberger. In Poland there is a portrait of an old man from Leon Piniński's collection, also attributed to Amberger, which was bequeathed in 1931 to the Wawel Royal Castle in Kraków. Before World War II in the royal Wilanów Palace in Warsaw, there was another portrait attributed to Amberger. It was identified as effigy of Charles the Bold (1433-1477), Duke of Burgundy due to some resemblance to his portraits and the collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece, that was established in 1430 by his father Philip the Good. The man's costume however does not match the fashion of the second half of the 15th century, it is more similar to that visible in portrait by Amberger in the Liechtenstein Museum in Vienna, described above. Both men are also similar.

On March 7, 1519 in Barcelona, at the Chapter of the Order of the Golden Fleece, Emperor Charles V, granted Sigismund I the order along with the king of Denmark Christian II. The face features of a man from Wilanów portrait resemble greatly other effigies of king Sigismund I identified by me, Marcin Latka, e.g. portrait by Titian in Vienna and effigy by Joos van Cleve in Berlin. 

Portrait of king Sigismund II Augustus by Christoph Amberger, ca. 1534, Liechtenstein Museum in Vienna.

Portrait of king Sigismund I the Old by Christoph Amberger, 1530s, Wilanów Palace in Warsaw, lost during World War II. 

Portrait of King Ferdinand II of Aragon by workshop of Giovanni Cariani

In April 1518 Sigismund I married Bona Sforza d'Aragona, daughter of Isabella of Aragon, Duchess of Milan. On maternal side she was related to Ferdinand II of Aragon (1452-1516), king of Aragon and king of Castile, as the husband of Queen Isabella I, considered the de facto first king of unified Spain. 

In the National Museum in Warsaw there is a "Portrait of a man with a golden chain", also identified as portrait of Louis XI, King of France from 1461 to 1483, attributed to unknown imitator of the 15th century Franco-Flemish manner (oil on canvas, 61 x 45.5 cm, inventory number M.Ob.1624 MNW). Based on the technique - oil on canvas, possible sitter and style, it is considered to be a work of a 17th century Flemish painter. The resemblance to Louis XI is however very general.

This painting comes from the collection of Jakub Ksawery Aleksander Potocki (1863-1934) in Paris, bequeathed to the Museum in 1934 (after "Early Netherlandish, Dutch, Flemish and Belgian Paintings 1494–1983" by Hanna Benesz and Maria Kluk, Vol. 2, item 819). The portrait of Henry VIII, King of England, most probably by Lucas Horenbout, earlier in the collection of Leon Sapieha, was also offered by Potocki (inventory number 128165). The two portraits were therefore most likely part of historical, possibly royal collections transferred to Paris after partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The man bears great resemblence to Ferdinand II of Aragon from his portraits by Spanish painters from the 16th or 17th century (Convento de Nuestra Señora de Gracia de Madrigal de las Altas Torres and Prado Museum in Madrid, P006081) and to his portrait attributed to Michel Sittow or follower from the late 15th or early 16th century (Kunsthistorisches Museum, GG 830). His late gothic costume was "modernized" with a little ruff in nothern style, which indicate that it was created in the 1530s, like in the portrait of Joachim I, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau by Lucas Cranach the Elder (1532, Georgium in Dessau), portrait of a bearded man by Hans Cranach the Younger (1534, Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum) and portrait of a man, probably of the Strauss family by Bartholomaeus Bruyn the Elder (about 1534, National Gallery in London). The style of this painting, especially the face, is close to the works by Giovanni Cariani and workshop, like the portrait of Stanislaus (1500-1524) and Janusz III (1502-1526), Dukes of Masovia (Museum of Fine Arts in Boston) and A Concert (National Gallery of Art in Washington). Consequently it is highly possible that this portrait of an important Aragonese/Spanish relative was commissioned in Venice by Queen Bona, basing on a lost original by Michel Sittow from the Polish-Lithuanian royal collection. 

Portrait of King Ferdinand II of Aragon (1452-1516) by workshop of Giovanni Cariani, ca. 1534, National Museum in Warsaw.

Portraits of Sigismund I the Old by Jan van Calcar

"And under that king there were so many excellent craftsmen and artists that it seemed that those ancient Phidias, Polykleitos and Apelles were revived in Poland, masters who in the art of painting, sculpture in clay and marble were equal in glory to the ancient artists" (Itaque tanta copia optimorum opificum, atque artificum hoc rege fuit, ut Phidiæ illi ueteres, atque Policleti, et Apelles reuixiffe in Polonia uideretur qui pingendi, fingendi, ac dolandi arte, illorum ueterum artificum gloriam adæquarent), praise the king Sigismund I in his "Ornate and copious oration at the funeral of Sigismund Jagellon, King of Poland" (Stanilai Orichouii Rhuteni Ornata et copiosa oratio habita in funere Sigismundi Iagellonis Poloniae Regis), published in Venice in 1548, the Catholic priest Stanisław Orzechowski (1513-1566) from Ruthenia (partially after "Ksiądz Stanisław Orzechowski i swawolne dziewczęta" by Marcin Fabiański, p. 44).

The portrait of an old man in a fur coat by Jan van Calcar from private collection is very similar to the effigies of king Sigismund I the Old published in Marcin Kromer's "De origine et rebus gestis Polonorum" from 1555 and Marcin Bielski's "Chronicle of Poland" from 1597. It bears a mysterious and ambiguous inscription in Latin: ANNO SALVTIS 1534 27 / ANNA AETATIS VERO MEAE / 40 (year of salvation 1534 27 / in the actual year of my age / 40) which, however, fit perfectly the events in Sigismund's life around the year of 1534. That year Sigismund was celebrating 27th anniversary of his coronation (24 January 1507) and his wife Bona Sforza her 40th birthday (2 February 1494), so the portrait could be a gift from her to please 67 years old Sigismund.

The portrait of a 70 years old man (inscription ANNO ATAT. SVAE * LXX * on the base of the column) with a dog attributed to Venetian school, stylistically is very similar to the previous one. Also the depicted man is undeniably the same, just much older, or more realistic. The difference in details, like eye color might be beacuse the portraits were not taken from nature or the one with darker eyes is a copy of some other effigy. Hedwig Jagiellon, Sigismund's eldest daughter, has bright eyes in her portrait by Hans Krell from about 1537 and dark in other. The compostion is close to known portraits by Calcar, who entered Titian's Venetian studio in 1536. 

The king's particular liking for little doggies is confirmed by sources. When he was over thirty years old and staying at the Hungarian court of his brother in Buda from 3 October 1498 until the end of 1501, together with his courtiers, armed post, servants and his then life companion, Katarzyna Telniczanka, his favorite animal was a lap dog called Whitey (Bielik). The dog was the subject of his special care and he liked him so much that Whitey accompanied the prince during his stays in the bathhouse, and was even washed with soaps bought especially for him.

Portrait of king Sigismund I the Old in a fur coat by Jan van Calcar, 1534, Private collection.

Portrait of king Sigismund I the Old aged 70 with his dog by Jan van Calcar, 1537, Private collection.

Portraits of Hedwig Jagiellon as Madonna by Lucas Cranach the Elder and Lucas Cranach the Younger

"When this Lady was devoted to such a house and to a country whose language and customs are foreign to her, and therefore must experience great longing when no person is with her, who would share with her the commonness of speech; His Majesty pleads with Your Grace to instruct his nephew so that his spouse could keep people of both sexes from her countrymen who speak her language, until she learns the German language herself, and that her husband will treat her with due honor and marital love", wrote in a letter of July 9, 1536 the king Sigismund I to Cardinal Albert of Brandenburg (1490-1545), Archbishop of Mainz and Magdeburg asking him to intervene at the Berlin court with his daughter's marital problems. 
​
Relations of Hedwig Jagiellon with her husband were not going well. The marriage with a Catholic did not satisfy Hedwig's mother-in-law, Elizabeth of Denmark, a devout Protestant, who converted in 1527 against the will of her husband. In July 1536, almost a year after the wedding in Kraków, Sigismund was forced to send his envoy Achacy Czema (Achaz Cema von Zehmen), castellan of Gdańsk to the cardinal. 

Albert of Brandenburg, prince of the Roman Church and renowned patron of the arts, was famous for his lavish lifestyle, which displeased many Protestants. In his portraits by the best German painters he and his concubines Elisabeth "Leys" Schütz from Mainz and Agnes Pless, née Strauss from Frankfurt were frequently depicted in guise of different Christian Saints. Several paintings by Lucas Cranach shows Albert as Saint Jerome. He was depicted as Saint Erasmus in a painting by Matthias Grünewald and as Saint Martin in a painting by Simon Franck. His mistress Leys Schütz was depicted as Saint Ursula and both Albert and Leys were shown in the scene of the Christ and the Adulteress by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder in the Staatsgalerie Aschaffenburg. 

The cardinal collected more than 8,100 relics and 42 holy skeletons and wanted to repress the growing influence of the Reformation by holding far grander masses and services. For this purpose he decided to demolish two old churches and built a new representative church in a central location of his residential city of Halle, dedicated solely to the Blessed Virgin Mary (Marienkirche).

The face features of Saint Erasmus from the so-called Pfirtscher Altar, which was until 1541 in the collegiate church in Halle, today in the Staatsgalerie Aschaffenburg, are identical with the portrait of cardinal Albert of Brandenburg as Saint Jerome in his study, created by Cranach in 1525, today in the Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt. 

Like earlier her mother Barbara Zapolya (Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid) and her stepmother Bona Sforza (The State Hermitage Museum), Hedwig was also depicted as the Virgin in old Medieval custom. In the painting as the Nursing Madonna (Madonna lactans) in the collection of the Museum der bildenden Künste in Leipzig her features are very similar to these visible in her portrait as Judith dated 1531 in the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin. In the painting from the Friedenstein Palace in Gotha (recorded since 1721), the main seat of the Dukes of Saxe-Gotha, one of the Saxon duchies held by the Ernestine branch of the Wettin dynasty, her features are very similar to the portrait in Veste Coburg. It is dated 1534, when the Princess was still unmarried, threfore it was most probably sent to a potential suitor in Saxony. In the painting from the Georg Schäfer collection in Obbach near Schweinfurt, from the Eltz Castle and the Zwettl Abbey, between Vienna and Prague, Madonna's features and pose are very similar to the Gotha painting. 

In the painting in the Detroit Institute of Arts, acquired from the collection of Arthur Sulley (1921-1923) in London, Hedwig pose and features are very similar to the painting in Gotha. It was created in 1536, threfore after her marriage to Joachim II Hector, Elector of Brandenburg. Similar to this painting is the effigy in the Prado Museum in Madrid, acquired in 1988 from the collection of Duquesa de Valencia, also created in 1536. Derived from the latter are the Virgins from the Bode Museum in Berlin, acquired in 1890 from Carl Lampe in Leipzig, possibly from the collection of cardinal Albert of Brandenburg and lost during World War II and in the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest, which was at the beginning of the 19th century in the Court collection (Hofsammlungen) in Vienna.

​The Madonna and Child by Lucas Cranach the Younger from the Swedish royal collection, today in the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm is very similar to the painting in Detroit, while the Child is almost identical as in the portrait of Hedwig's stepmother as the Virgin in the Hermitage. Its provenance in Sweden is unknown, therefore it cannot be excluded that it was taken from Poland during the Deluge (1655-1660) or it was part of dowry of Hedwig's sister Catherine Jagiellon (1526-1583), future Queen of Sweden. 

Sigismund was aware of the Lutheran sympathies of his son-in-law, and already in 1535 when the Brandenburg envoys came to Vilnius to sign the pacta matrimonialia (March 21, 1535) the Polish-Lithuanian side was guaranteed that the wedding would take place in the Catholic rite. Joachim II converted to Lutheranism in 1539. Concerned that his daughter will be forced to abandon Catholicism, which he expressed in his letter to Joahim of 26 September 1539 (Illud autem ante omnia Illm vestram rogamus: ne filiam nostram dulcissimam adigat ad eeclesiae unitatem deserendam), the king decided to send another priest from Poland and to pay him a salary from his own treasury so as not to burden his son-in-law reluctant to Catholicism. Łukasz Górka, bishop of Kuyavia, envoy in Berlin helped the king to choose the priest Jerzy, who was paid an annual salary of 100 florins.

Good relations between the spouses are evidenced by letters written by Hedwig to her husband in 1542, when Joachim II was in Hungary as the leader of an anti-Ottoman expedition. Despite religious differences Hedwig was an exemplary mother for three of her step-children (two sons and a daughter of her cousin Magdalena of Saxony). 

Portrait of cardinal Albert of Brandenburg (1490-1545) as Saint Erasmus from the so-called Pfirtscher Altar by Lucas Cranach the Elder and workshop, ca. 1526, Staatsgalerie Aschaffenburg. 

Portrait of Crown Princess Hedwig Jagiellon (1513-1573) as Madonna lactans by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1531, Museum der bildenden Künste in Leipzig.

Portrait of Crown Princess Hedwig Jagiellon (1513-1573) as Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John by Lucas Cranach the Younger, 1534, Friedenstein Palace in Gotha.

Portrait of Crown Princess Hedwig Jagiellon (1513-1573) as Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John by Lucas Cranach the Younger and workshop, 1534 or after, Private collection.

Portrait of Crown Princess Hedwig Jagiellon (1513-1573) as Madonna with Child nibbling grapes by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1534 or after, Eltz Castle.

Portrait of Crown Princess Hedwig Jagiellon (1513-1573) as Madonna and Child with grapes by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1534 or after, Zwettl Abbey.

Portrait of Crown Princess Hedwig Jagiellon (1513-1573) as Madonna and Child by Lucas Cranach the Younger, 1534-1536, Nationalmuseum in Stockholm.

Portrait of Electress Hedwig Jagiellon (1513-1573) as Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1536, Detroit Institute of Arts.

Portrait of Electress Hedwig Jagiellon (1513-1573) as Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1536, Prado Museum in Madrid.

Portrait of Electress Hedwig Jagiellon (1513-1573) as Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1536 or after, Bode Museum in Berlin, lost.

Portrait of Electress Hedwig Jagiellon (1513-1573) as Madonna and Child with grapes by workshop Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1536 or after, Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest.

Portraits of royal banker Seweryn Boner by Giovanni Cariani and workshop 

In 1536 Jan (1516-1562) and Stanisław (1517-1560), sons of Seweryn Boner (1486-1549), royal banker of Bona Sforza and Sigismund I, burgrave of Kraków and starost of Biecz, went on a scientific trip around Italy. They traveled to Naples and to Rome, where their tutor Anselmus Ephorinus (d. 1566) was ennobled by Emperor Charles V. They returned to Kraków in autumn 1537. Few years earlier, in September 1531, at the instigation of the Łaskis, Ephorinus and his disciples Jan Boner and Stanisław Aichler found themselves in Basel benefiting from teachings of a Netherlandish philosopher and theologian Erasmus of Rotterdam for almost 6 months. The philosopher dedicated his P. Terentii Comoediae sex to Jan and Stanisław (Ioanni et Stanislao Boneris fratribus, Polonis) and he refers to their father (Seuerinum Bonerum) in this work. During a seven-year peregrination they also visited France and Germany, where in Erfurt and Nuremberg they made acquaintance with a number of eminent humanists.

Erasmus, who corresponded with Seweryn and other Poles, died in Basel on July 12, 1536. In his will he bequeathed to Bonifacius Amerbach, his friend in Basel, two gold medals of King Sigismund and Seweryn Boner, both from 1533 and both works by Matthias Schilling from Toruń or an Italian medallist, such as Padovano, Caraglio, Pomadello, perhaps created in Venice or Verona. The reverse side of the medal with a portrait of King Sigismund had the inscription: "To Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus Seweryn Boner as a souvenir" (after "Wiek złoty i czasy romantyzmu w Polsce" by Stanisław Łempicki, ‎Jerzy Starnawski, p. 354). The Poles also acquired Erasmus' library - in 1536, Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski stayed in Nuremberg in the house of his friend Daniel Schilling, a merchant from Kraków, and in November this year, at the request of Jan Łaski, he goes to Basel in order to bring the library to Poland. The books were sent first to Nuremberg, where the library was deposited in the apartment of Schilling, staying there with his brother on commercial business, either his own, or perhaps for the Boners or Justus Ludwik Decjusz. 

Seweryn Boner (or Bonar) was the son of Jakob Andreas (1454-1517), a banker in Nuremberg and in Wrocław, and the nephew of Johann (Hans) Boner (1462-1523), royal banker, born in Landau in Palatinate, from whom he inherited all the property along with the offices held by his uncle. On October 23, 1515, he married Zofia Bethmanówna - the heiress of Balice, which became the suburban residence of the Boners. From 1532 he was a city councilor in Kraków and from Emperor Ferdinand he received the title of baron in Ogrodzieniec and Kamieniec.

Boner acted as an intermediary in international monetary transactions. Through Fuggers' bank, he transfers money to Venice using promissory notes, the basis of trade between cities.

Even before his coronation, Sigismund owed him 7,000 florins. In 1512, the debt amounted to 65,058 florins, which is 4,000 more than all the annual revenues of the treasury. When he was elected king, in 1506 Boner become his exclusive supplier of all goods from glass panes imported from Venice for the windows in the Wawel Castle, to cloth and pepper (after "Przemysł polski w dawnych wiekach" by Aleksander Bocheński, ‎Stefan Bratkowski, p. 131).

Banking and commercial relations with Nuremberg of Johann and Seweryn Boner, closely associated with the artistic patronage of Sigismund the Old, also influenced the importation of outstanding works of artistic craftsmanship from there to Kraków. Silver and gold products were purchased by Boner in Nuremberg, and above all in Italy. His wagons loaded with pomades, soaps, perfumes, silk, Venetian glass, costly goblets and rings of pure gold were coming from Italy and Venice. Through Lviv merchants, he purchased Turkish goods, and very sought after pepper and spices (after "Kraków i ziemia krakowska" by Roman Grodecki, p. 125). Seweryn also organized his own post office from Kraków to Germany, which was often used by the court. In December 1527 a shipment of costly fabrics for the queen, together with a letter to Bona from the Margrave of Mantua, was to be sent by her Venetian agent Gian Giacomo de Dugnano to Seweryn Boner, however, the transport was detained by the Viennese customs chamber (allegedly due to the violation of customs regulations).

In 1536, foreign orders increased due to planned marriage of the eldest daughter of Bona and Sigismund - Isabella, as well as the fire of the newly built Wawel Castle (October 17) and costly repair works. The king and queen were in Lithuania at the time. Upon learning of the fire, the monarch ordered the governor, Seweryn Boner, to secure the roofs and make preparations for immediate reconstruction. A fire broke out in the apartments of Sigismund Augustus, in the new part of Wawel. The fire consumed the paintings purchased in Flanders and the golden throne covered with scarlet. A contract was signed with Bartolommeo Berrecci as the main works manager. When he was murdered a few months later, his duties were entrusted to another Italian, Niccolo Castiglione.

Queen Bona frequently used Venetian banking services and deposited large sums there before returning to Italy in 1556. Sigismund I and Bona financed the activities of their envoy Jan Dantyszek by sending money and buying his bills of exchange at the banks of the Fuggers and Welsers. In 1536 a seller of Venetian goods (rerum venetiarum venditor) Paul was recommended by the council of Poznań to Vilnius city council and envoys sent from Kraków to Venice that year all took 20 florins from the royal treasury - Marcin in June, Andreas (Andrzeich) and an unknown Italian in August. In 1536 Melchior Baier and Peter Flötner in Nuremberg created silver candlesticks for the Sigismund Chapel, soon they accomplished the silver altar for the chapel (1538) and a sword of Sigismund Augustus with Hercules vanquishing the Lernaean Hydra (1540). Many exquisite works of art were commissioned through Seweryn Boner, like tapestries in Flanders in 1526 and in 1533 or pendants for daughters of the royal couple in Nuremberg in 1546. Bronze tombstone for himself and his wife Seweryn also ordered in Nuremberg - created by Hans Vischer between 1532-1538.

In the Picture Gallery of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, there is a "Portrait of a Nuremberg patrician", a work signed by Giovanni Busi, called Cariani (oil on canvas, 98.5 x 89 cm, inventory number 6434, inscribed left above the parapet: Joannes Cariani -p-). The painting is verifiable in the gallery in 1772, could therefore come from old collections of the Habsburgs, having been sent to them as a gift. The old man from the portrait holds a letter in his hands which in the upper part mentions in Latin: "Including Nuremberg 1470 was issued on Tuesday on the 17th, while he brought this form to Venice in 1536 in the same year" (Inclyta nurimberga protulit 1470 Mensis Martis die 17 / Usq. dum attulit formam hanc Venetiis 1536 eodem lustro), most likely referring to the transfer of money from Nuremberg to Venice, a promissory note. Below there is another inscription: "What nature produced more slowly, the painter quickly represented" (Natura produxit tardius / Pictor figuravit extemplo), which together with a second piece of paper, at the right, which says: "Death destroys nature, time art" (Mors Naturam / destruit / Tempus Artem) and the objects of the vanitas, a skull and an hourglass, set on the parapet, reminds that nature transforms man and that the painter did not age the model, contrary to nature. The features of the old man correspond to known effigies of royal banker and supplier Seweryn Boner from silver medal with his bust, created in 1533 (National Museum in Kraków, MNK VII-MdP-263), and his bronze tombstone, cast in Nuremberg (St. Mary's Basilica in Kraków).

A copy of this portrait by Cariani's workshop from anonymous sale (oil on canvas, 91 x 71 cm, Sotheby's London, April 18, 2000, lot 367) was sold in Paris (Artcurial, November 9, 2022, lot 165). Cariani and his workshop also painted the effigies of Seweryn's sister Magdalena Bonerówna (1505-1530), lady-in-waiting of Queen Bona, and his daughter Zofia Firlejowa née Bonerówna (d. 1563).

The Governor's salon at the Wawel Castle, a representative interior in which guests were received, is one of 3 rooms of the so-called Governor's apartment. German furniture and paintings are presented there to emphasize the fact that the most eminent governors from the times of King Sigismund I - Hans and Seweryn Boner - came from Germany. The furniture and paintings were acquired from different collections after the reconstruction of the castle in the 1930s, because nothing has been preserved of the original furnishings and paintings of the royal residence.

Portrait of royal banker Seweryn Boner (1486-1549) by Giovanni Cariani, after 1536, Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

Portrait of royal banker Seweryn Boner (1486-1549) by workshop of Giovanni Cariani, after 1536, Private collection.

King Sigismund I, his wife and his four daughters as Hercules and Omphale's maids by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder

Sigismund I the Old was frequently compared to the mythological hero Hercules, it was a standard during renaissance. In 1537 the king was celebrating 20th anniversary of his coronation (24 January 1507) and 70th anniversary of his birth (1 January 1467). 
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The composition of a painting from the Mielżyński collection, now in the National Museum in Poznań, astonishingly match the composition of the Jagiellon family around 1537. It is a workshop copy, most probably a copy of a copy, hence resemblance might be not so evident. Cranach workshop was famous for its "mass production" of quality paintings. The study for a portrait, a drawing with all details of the sitter's costume meticulously described, was prepared by some court painter or a Cranach's pupil sent to the patron. Just as in case of preparatory drawings to portraits of Margaret of Pomerania (1518-1569) and Anna of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1502-1568), Duchess of Pomerania, relatives of Sigismund through his sister Anna Jagiellon, Duchess of Pomerania (1476-1503), such drawings were sent from Poland to facilitate the work on commission.

In this courtly scene showing Hercules, who was sold to the court of Queen Omphale where he had to remain as a slave for three years, we could distinguish the 70 years old king Sigismund (1467-1548), his 43 years old second wife Bona Sforza (1494-1557), and his four daughters: 18 years old Isabella (1519-1559), 15 years old Sophia (1522-1575), 14 years old Anna (1523-1596) and 11 years old Catherine (1526-1583).

King Sigismund I, his wife and his four daughters as Hercules and Omphale's maids by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1537, National Museum in Poznań. ​

Portraits of Bona Sforza by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder

In a letter of 29 June 1538 in response to accusations that his second wife Bona appropriated the robes of his first wife Barbara Zapolya, the king Sigismund I testified that the Queen arrived to Poland with so many garments, clothes and ornaments that it would be enough for a few queens.

The Queen's passion for fabrics revived crafts and trade. Under her patronage, attempts were made to establish Italian-style silk weaving mills, as evidenced by entries in the accounts of the royal court (after Ksawery Piwocki's "Tkanina polska", 1959, p. 14). In December 1527 Federico II Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua sent a large shipment of costly materials, including gold cloth, silk and satin fabrics commissioned by Bona, to her Venetian agent Gian Giacomo de Dugnano. Trade took Venetian merchants all over the Mediterranean and as far as China, a fact that affected not only the city's economic prosperity but its cultural identity, making 15th century Venice one of the most culturally diverse cities in Europe (after Carol M. Richardson's "Locating Renaissance Art", 2007, p. 211). So was "Guanyin look" of Bona and her step-daughter in some paintings by Cranach inspired by Chinese art?
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Bona's taste for German garments and embroideries is confirmed by employment at her court of German embroiderers. Jan Holfelder from Nuremberg became her court embroiderer in about 1525 and Sebald Linck from Nuremberg or Silesia was mentioned in the accounts in the years 1537-1579.

Portrait of Bona Sforza d'Aragona (1494-1557), Queen of Poland by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1530s, Villa del Poggio Imperiale.

Portrait of Bona Sforza d'Aragona (1494-1557), Queen of Poland holding a flower by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1530s, Arp Museum Rolandseck. ​

Portraits of daughters of Bona Sforza by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder

Around the year of 1537 three of four daughters of Sigismund I and Bona Sforza reached puberty age (twelve for brides) and their marriage become a principal concern for the queen.

All three, Isabella, Sophia, Anna, apart from the youngest 11 years old Catherine, were depicted with their hair covered with a snood in the painting from the Mielżyński collection showing the daughters and the wife of Sigismund I in 1537. 

The portraits of three unkown ladies from the late 1530s, created by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, surprisingly fit the Mielżyński painting and effigies of daughters of Bona by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Younger from the 1550s. They were probably part of a series of copies commissioned to be sent to relatives and potential suitors. 

The garments are more German in style, however Italian influences with low-cut bodices are visible. In 1537 the royal tailor was Francesco Nardocci (Nardozzi) from Naples. Also the fabrics are Italian, Venetian sumptuous silk satins and velvets. During the Prussian Homage in 1525 the royal family was dressed in clothes made of rich Venetian fabrics acquired by Jan Boner in Venice (Acta Tomiciana, vol. IV).

Before the advent of cheaper Mexican cochineal in the 1540s, Polish cochineal (Porphyrophora polonica) from which the natural dye carmine is derived, colloquially known as "Saint John's blood", and widely traded in Europe during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, was utilized in Venice to dye fabrics. Polish merchants were present in Venice since at least 1348 and the first permanent dipomatic agent of Poland-Lithuania in Venice between 1535-1543 was Lodovico Alifio, head of the chancellery of queen Bona.
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The royal embroiderer Sebald Linck from Nuremberg, active at the court from 1537, also worked for the Princesses, like in 1545 when he redo the collars offered by Primate Piotr Gamrat to Sophia, Anna and Catherine and embroidered their dresses with pearls.

The painting featuring Herodias in the Speed Art Museum in Louisville is similar to portrait of princess Sophia Jagiellon. Also her face features match perfectly her portraits in Spanish costume. The inscription identifying the sitter as mother of Salome was most probably added in the 17th or 18th century. The portrait, originally displaying also the decapitated head of John the Baptist, was cut later and lower part was sold separately.

A radiograph of the portrait in the Winnipeg Art Gallery, depicting Anna, reveals that her right arm originally featured a decapitated head on an oval platter. The composition was altered during its production. All of Bona's daughters were therefore to be depicted in the popular guise of the legendary biblical and mythological femmes fatales such as Salome, Judith, Delilah or Lucretia. The painting by Lucas Cranach the Younger in the Güstrow Palace (Staatliches Museum Schwerin), very similar to the Winnipeg portrait, shows Anna Jagiellon as Judith with the Head of Holofernes. 

In 1538 also the youngest daughter of Bona, Catherine Jagiellon, reached the legal age of marriage. Her mother, as for the rest of her daughters preferred Italian match to strengthen her position and the rights to the principalities she owned (Bari and Rossano) as well to these that she claimed (Milan). 
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A small portrait of a girl as Saint Catherine by Lucas Cranach the Elder in Museo Civico Amedeo Lia in La Spezia, between Florence and Genoa, in a costume from the late 1530s is very similar to effigy of the youngest daughter of Bona from the portrait of Sigsimund I's family from the Mielżyński collection and to other portraits of Catherine Jagiellon.

Portrait of Crown Princess of Poland-Lithuania Isabella Jagiellon (1519-1559) by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1537, Private collection.

Portrait of Crown Princess of Poland-Lithuania Sophia Jagiellon (1522-1575) by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1537, Private collection.

Portrait of Crown Princess of Poland-Lithuania Sophia Jagiellon (1522-1575) as Herodias by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, after 1537, Speed Art Museum in Louisville.

Portrait of Crown Princess of Poland-Lithuania Anna Jagiellon (1523-1596) by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1537, Winnipeg Art Gallery.

Portrait of Anna Jagiellon (1523-1596) as Judith with the Head of Holofernes by Lucas Cranach the Younger, after 1537, Güstrow Palace.

Portrait of Princess Catherine Jagiellon (1526-1583) as Saint Catherine by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1538, Museo Civico Amedeo Lia in La Spezia.

Portraits of Isabella Jagiellon and Sophia Jagiellon by Lucas Cranach the Elder

What better way to depict a potential bride then in a guise of virtuous biblical or historical heroine, the goddess of love or the Virgin? 

On 11 January 1537 died in Dresden John, Hereditary Prince of Saxony, the eldest son of Barbara Jagiellon. It was now his younger brother Frederick, born in 1504, second of only two sons of Barbara to survive to adulthood, who would inherit the title of the Duke of Saxony from his father George, nicknamed the Bearded. Despite being mentally handicapped he was declared a heir by his father. Frederick was 33 and was unmarried. 

Maintaining the alliance with Saxony was important to Poland-Lithuania and it was beneficial for Papacy and the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V if the Catholic and pro-Habsburg Albertine line (headed by George, a staunch opponent of Martin Luther), would stay in power. 

The dowry of Jagiellonian women from the late 15th century was customarily 32,000 Hungarian florins payable in five or two installments. The eldest daughter of Sigismund and Bona, Isabella Jagiellon received 32,000 ducats in cash in 1539, and her bridal trousseau was worth 38,000 ducats, therefore her dowry amounted to 70,000 ducats. The wedding contract of the second in line Sophia, concluded in 1555, stipulated her dowry to 32,000 ducats (or 48,000 thalers) in cash and 100,000 thalers in jewels and other valuables, among which were huge amounts of table and church silver, about 60 precious garments, 5 tents, 34 tapestries, 32 carpets and lots of wonderful jewelry (12 berets set with precious stones, 9 gold necklaces set with precious stones, 34 pendants, 17 gold chains, two gold belts, 4 bracelets). She was accompanied by 8 carriages, including one gilded carriage and one chariot, valuable harnesses and 28 horses. Both princesses were unmarried in 1537, therefore their cousin Frederick of Saxony undeniably received their portraits. 

Two pendant paintings of Lucretia and Judith by Lucas Cranach the Elder, which were recorded in the inventory of the Ducal Kunstkammer (art cabinet) in Dresden as far as 1595, most likely destroyed in 1945, match perfectly effigies of two mentioned daughters of Sigismund I and Bona. Both paintings had identical dimensions (172 x 64 cm / 67.7 x 25.1 in), similar composition and were dated to around 1537. 

Bona Sforza favored her oldest daughter Isabella, who received a thorough education and she could speak and write four languages. Isabella was depicted as Lucretia, the epitomy of female virtue, chastity, fidelity and honour. 

The younger Sophia, considered the wisest and the most intelligent of all Bona's daughters and described as "an example and a mirror of virtue, piety, and dignity" (exemplum et speculum virtutis, pietatis et gravitatis) by Stanisław Sędziwój Czarnkowski in 1573, was shown as Judith, intelligent, strong, virtuous and devout woman who saved her people from destruction.

Opting for closer ties with Emperor Charles V, Frederick was eventually married on January 27, 1539 in Dresden to Elisabeth (ca. 1516-1541), from the Counts of Mansfeld, one of the oldest noble families in Germany and sister of Peter Ernst I von Mansfeld, who participated in Charles V's expedition against Tunis in 1535. The groom died childless just four weeks later on February 26, 1539 followed by his father, who died on April 17, 1539. Duke George was succeeded by his Lutheran brother Henry IV (1473-1541), married to Catherine of Mecklenburg (1487-1561). In April 1538 Isabella Jagiellon was engaged to the King of Hungary.

In 1539 John George of Brandenburg (1525-1598), the eldest son of Magdalena of Saxony, daughter of Barbara Jagiellon, reached the legal age of marriage (14). His father Joachim II Hector, Elector of Brandenburg and his stepmother Hedwig Jagiellon were concerned to find a good match for him. Exactly as in the case of Hedwig's portrait as Venus by Cranach from the early 1530s, there is a painting showing Venus from the late 1530s in Berlin. It was accquired by the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin from the Royal Castles' collection in 1830. The woman depicted as Venus resemble greatly other effigies of Sophia Jagiellon. When on November 1, 1539 Joachim II openly introduced the Reformation into Brandenburg by receiving Communion according to the Lutheran rite, the marriage with a Catholic princess could not be considered and on 15 February 1545 his son married Protestant Princess Sophie of Legnica (1525-1546), great-granddaughter of King Casimir IV of Poland.

Exactly the same effigy of princess Sophia's face as in the Berlin Venus portrait, like a template, was used in the effigy of Madonna and Child with grapes by Lucas Cranach the Elder in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. She offeres the Child a bunch of grapes a Christian symbol of the redemptive sacrifice, but also a popular Renaissance symbol for fertility borrowed from the Roman god of the grape-harvest and fertility, Bacchus, similarly to the effigy of her father's first wife Barbara Zapolya (Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid). 

The same template was also used in the effigy of Madonna lactans in Vienna by workshop of Cranach, showing the Virgin breastfeeding the infant Jesus, a common motif in European art since the Middle Ages and a symbol of purity and humility. This motif was borrowed from the image of Isis lactans, a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world, nursing her son, Horus, the god of divine kingship. The painting, now in the Cathedral Museum (Dom Museum) in Vienna, was deposited by the Weinhaus Parish in Vienna, a votive temple, built to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Vienna in which John III Sobieski, king of Poland led the army to a decisive victory over the Ottomans on 12 September 1683.
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In the spring of 1570, two years after death of her husband Henry V, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Sophia Jagiellon converted to Lutheranism.

Portraits of Isabella Jagiellon (1519-1559) as Lucretia and Sophia Jagiellon (1522-1575) as Judith by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1537, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden, lost.

Portrait of Crown Princess Sophia Jagiellon (1522-1575) as Venus with Cupid as the honey thief by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1539, Gemäldegalerie in Berlin.

Portrait of Crown Princess Sophia Jagiellon (1522-1575) as Madonna and Child with grapes by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1539, Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

Portrait of Crown Princess Sophia Jagiellon (1522-1575) as Madonna lactans by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1538-1550, Dom Museum in Vienna.

Portraits of Isabella Jagiellon by Lucas Cranach the Elder and workshop

The plan to wed Isabella Jagiellon, the eldest daughter of Sigismund I the Old and his second wife Bona Sforza, to John Zapolya, Voivode of Transylvania and King of Hungary emerged around 1531.

A portrait of a young woman by Lucas Cranach the Elder from the National Gallery of Denmark, bears a great resemblance to other effigies of Isabella. It can be therefore dated to about 1532, as the medal with Princess' bust by Giovanni Maria Mosca.

A woman in an image of Venus in the Hallwyl Museum is Stockholm also bears a strong resemblance to effigies of Isabella Jagiellon. The woman has even the same necklace as that visible in Isabella's portrait in a green dress by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder (Private collection). The painting was therefore part of her dowry which she took with her to Hungary and brought back to Poland, when she returned in September 1551. 

The painting was originally part of the larger composition depicting Venus and Cupid, similar to the portrait of Isabella's stepsister Hedwig Jagiellon, daughter of Barbara Zapolya, in Gemäldegalerie in Berlin. It was most probably cut by more prudish subsequent owners. 

Before acquisition in 1915, the painting was in the Edsberg Castle north of Stockholm, which was once owned by Gabriel Oxenstierna (1619-1673), highly valued by the Brigand of Europe, as he was called by Stefan Czarniecki, king Charles X Gustav of Sweden.

Isabella died just three years after her return to Transylvania on 15 September 1559, at the age of 40, allegedly as a result of a poorly performed abortion, a child of her lover Stanisław Nieżowski. 

Portrait of Crown Princess of Poland-Lithuania Isabella Jagiellon (1519-1559) by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1532, Statens Museum for Kunst.

Portrait of Crown Princess of Poland-Lithuania Isabella Jagiellon (1519-1559) as Venus by Lucas Cranach the Elder and workshop, ca. 1537, Hallwyl Museum is Stockholm.

Allegorical portraits of Bona Sforza by Lucas Cranach the Elder and workshop

"Bona loved power and did not like to share it with anyone, not even her own son - as evidenced by her reluctance to handing over Lithuania to him. For this reason, even earlier, in 1538, she prevented the functioning of the institution of four resident senators alongside Sigismund Augustus, created during the Diet of that year" (after Maria Bogucka's "Bona Sforza", 1989, p. 224).

The 1537 anti-royalist and anti-absolutist rebellion (rokosz) of the Polish nobility, ridiculed by the nickname of the Chicken War, criticized the role of queen Bona, whom they accused for the "bad upbringing" of young Sigismund Augustus, centralizing policies and seeking to increase her power in the state. As a result the 1538 Diet declared elections vivente rege, that Bona forced, illegal in the Polish kingdom and insisted that all estates had the right to be present at such events in the future.

That same year it was also agreed that the only son of Bona will marry archduchess Elizabeth of Austria (1526-1545), which Bona "a great enemy of the king of Rome" Ferdinand I, her father, strongly oposed. 

So does she commissioned a painting to express her dissatisfaction?

The painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder, dated 1538, from the old collection of the Royal Wilanów Palace in Warsaw (recorded in 1743) can be considered as such. It shows Lucretia, a noblewoman in ancient Rome, whose suicide led to the political rebellion against the established power.

Very similar Lucretia as a naked three-quarter length figure, covered only by a veil, is in the private collection in France. Her facial features were modelled on other effigies of the Queen by Cranach and resemble greatly the effigy in Villa del Poggio Imperiale.​

​The same effigy, almost like a template, was used in the painting depicting the Virgin and Child with grapes in front of a curtain held by an angel in the National Gallery in Prague (inventory number O 9321). This painting is attributed to workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder and dated to about 1535-1540. It was previously in the collection of the Sternberg family (recorded since 1806), most probably in Prague. Mary is depicted here as a noble vine, whose fruit is Jesus. At the same time, the vine is the Redeemer himself and his branches are believers: "If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing" (John 15:5). Like the Virgin, Bona was the mother of the king, so she is equally important. This painting could be a gift for Bona's main opponent, Ferdinand of Austria (1503-1564), who resided in Prague. 

Similar Madonna is in Gdańsk, which was the main port of Poland in the 16th century (National Museum in Gdańsk, oil on panel, 55 x 36.5 cm, inventory number MNG/SD/268/M). However, the pose of the Virgin and the Child resemble more closely the portrait of Queen Bona Maria Sforza in guise of Mary in the Städel Museum in Frankfurt. The Child is offering an apple to his mother, a symbol of original sin (peccatum originale), as well as temptation, salvation and the royal power (royal orb or royal apple).

According to a Milanese manuscript, probably from the 17th century, Bona was criticized by her opponents, like probably all strong female leaders in history, for three things in Poland: monetae falsae, facies picta et vulva non stricta - allegedly fake coins mixed in with her dowry, excessive use of cosmetics and licentiousness (after Mónika F. Molnár, "Isabella and Her Italian Connections", p.  165).

"If I seem a lecherous image to the viewer, what kind of shame do you have a greater ideal? You will marvel at my power and accomplishment in that form, so I will become religious to you" (Si videor lasciva tibi spectator imago, / Die maius specimen quale pudoris habes? / Virtutem factumque meum mireris in ista / Forma, sic fiam religiosa tibi), wrote in his Latin epigram entitled "On Lucretia depicted more lasciviously" (In Lucretiam lascivius depictam), secretary of Queen Bona Andrzej Krzycki (1482-1537), Archbishop of Gniezno.

Allegorical portrait of Bona Sforza as Lucretia by workshop Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1538, Wilanów Palace in Warsaw.

Portrait of Bona Sforza as Lucretia by Lucas Cranach the Elder or workshop, ca. 1535-1540, Private collection.

Portrait of Bona Sforza as Madonna and Child with grapes by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1535-1540, National Gallery in Prague.

Portrait of Bona Sforza as Madonna and Child with an apple by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1535-1540, National Museum in Gdańsk. 

Portrait of king Sigismund I by circle of Lucas Cranach the Elder ​

In 1538 Sigismund I and his second wife Bona Sforza were celebrating 20 years of their fruitful marriage which produced a heir to the throne and four daughters, one of which was about to become the Queen of Hungary and large festivities were held at the Wawel Castle. 
​
The portrait of a man in the Metropolitan Museum of Art from 1538, date top center: MDXXXVII(I), is very similar to the effigy of King Sigismund I from Aleksander Gwagnin's "Sarmatiae Europae descriptio", published in Kraków in 1578 and other portraits of the king. 

Christian II of Denmark (in the Museum der bildenden Künste) and Elector Frederick III of Saxony (in the Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia) are depiced in very similar black caps with earflaps, costumes and beards in their portraits by Cranach and his workshop from the 1520s. Therefore the painting could be a copy of a portrait from the 1520s.

The initals on a signet ring displaying a coat of arms are illisible and unidentifiable as of today, however they are very similar to these visible on signet seal of Sigismund I with monogram SDS (Sigillum Domini Sigimundi) in the State Archives in Gdańsk and in Poznań.

Finally the age of the sitter (?) on the painting is also illisible and identified as xlv, so it could be XX, as 20th anniversary or LXXI, as age of Sigismund in 1538 and commissioned by the king or his wife on this occasion as one from a series commemorating it? "If the present work had a female pendant, which is quite possible, the orange as a symbol of fertility would have been especially appropriate" (after The Met Catalogue Entry).

Portrait of king Sigismund I by circle of Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1538, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. ​

Portraits of Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski by Lucas Cranach the Elder and Bernardino Licinio

Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski was born on 20 September 1503 in Wolbórz in central Poland. He studied in Kraków between 1517 and 1519. He was ordained a vicar in about 1522 and worked in the office of Jan Łaski the Elder, Primate of Poland.

At the turn of 1531/32 he went to Germany, probably on the mission entrusted to him by Łaski, and he enrolled in the University of Wittenberg. The letter of recommendation from Łaski enabled him to live in Philip Melanchthon's house. Acquaintance with the prince of German humanists turned into friendship over time and he also met Martin Luther and other Protestant reformers. The leading painter in the city, who also held the office of mayor, was Lucas Cranach the Elder.

Frycz was a diplomatic agent and he often traveled between Wittenberg and Nuremberg and to Poland. He probably left Wittenberg in mid-1535, when a great plague broke out in the city. In November 1536 Modrzewski was sent by Jan Łaski to Basel to take over Erasmus of Rotterdam's great library, purchased by Łaski during the lifetime of the great humanist. Then he went briefly to Paris, Nuremberg, Strasbourg and Kraków and at the beginning of February 1537 he was in Schmalkalden as an observer on a congress of Protestant princes.

On May 1, 1537 he took part in the talks in Leipzig on dogmatic issues with Jan Łaski the Younger and Melanchthon and after the conference he stayed longer in Nuremberg to learn German. At the beginning of 1538, he was at the fairs in Frankfurt am Main. Most probably through Wittenberg, he returned to Poland. Later, in 1547 he became a secretary of king Sigismund II Augustus. 

During his studies and travels in Germany he undeniably dressed as other students and Protestant reformers, however as a nobleman of Jastrzębiec coat of arms and hereditary mayor of Wolbórz, he could allow himself a more extravagant attire, like Cardinal Albert of Brandenburg. 

A portrait of a man who was 35 in 1538 (ANNODO: M.D.XXXVIII / AETATI SVAEXXXV / 1538) from private collection, can be therefore considered as effigy of Frycz Modrzewski. From the 18th century to before 1918 it was in the Benedictine Abbey in Lambach, near Linz in Austria. Its prior history is unknown. 

In October 1567 Queen Catherine of Austria, third wife of Sigismund Augustus, settled in the castle in nearby Linz with her servants and all the goods she has accumulated during her 14-year stay in Poland. Although Catholic, the Queen was known for generally favorable views on Protestantism. Andrzej Dudycz (András Dudith de Horahovicza), bishop of Knin in Croatia and Imperial envoy who agitated for her stay in Poland, soon after his arrival to Poland in 1565 joined the Protestant church of Polish Brethren and married a Polish woman. 

The Queen studied the Bible and other theological works and supported nearby monasteries. She died childless in Linz on 28 February 1572 and donated most of her property to charity. 

The same man was depicted in a portrait of a man with beret in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, painted in style of Bernardino Licinio. It is dated similarly as the painting by Cranach: 1538 + NATVS +ANNOS + 35 +. The portrait was in the collection of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria in Brussels and was included in the Theatrum pictorium (Theatre of Painting), a catalog of 243 Italian paintings in the Archduke's collection, under number 56.

​The portrait of Jan Łaski the Younger (Johannes a Lasco, 1499-1560), a Polish Calvinist reformer, in the Johannes a Lasco Library in Emden in northwest of Germany, is painted on a wood panel and dated dendrochronologically to about 1555. Łaski worked in Emden between 1540 and 1555. This portrait is attributed to an unknown Netherlandish painter or less known painter Johannes Mencke Maeler (or Johann Mencken Maler) active in Emden around 1612. Stylistically this effigy is very close to the portrait of Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna and to the style of Bernardino Licinio, who died in Venice before 1565. His workshop frequently used wood instead of canvas, like in paintings attributed to Licinio and his workshop in the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest.

Portrait of Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski (1503-1572), called "the Father of Polish democratic thought", aged 35 by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1538, Private collection.

Portrait of Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski (1503-1572), called "the Father of Polish democratic thought", aged 35 by Bernardino Licinio, 1538, Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

Portrait of Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski (1503-1572), called "the Father of Polish democratic thought" from the Theatrum Pictorium (56) by Lucas Vorsterman II after Bernardino Licinio, 1660, Princely Court Library Waldeck.

Portrait of Jan Łaski the Younger (Johannes a Lasco, 1499-1560), a Polish Calvinist reformer by workshop of Bernardino Licinio, 1540-1555, Johannes a Lasco Library in Emden.

Portrait of Illia, Prince of Ostroh by Giovanni Cariani or Bernardino Licinio

"Mr. Nicolaus Nypschitz, my singularly generous friend and supporter, has recently sent me two letters, one from his Sacred Imperial Majesty, which is of the greatest importance and comfort to me, the other from your Reverend Paternity, my most respected master and friend, which was most agreeable to me" (Dominus Nicolaus Nypschitz amicus et fautor meus singulariter generosus, in hiis paulo transactis temporibus binas ad me transmisit literas, unas a Sacra Maiestate Imperiali, que michi maximi momenti et consolationis adsunt; alias vero ab Vestra R. Paternitate a domino et amico meo observantissimo, que michi etiam plurimum in modum extiterant gratissime), is a fragment of a letter of Illia (1510-1539), Prince of Ostroh (Helias Constantinovicz Dux Ostrogensis) to Bishop Jan Dantyszek (1485-1548), envoy of Poland-Lithuania at the Imperial court in Vienna (before 1878 in the Czartoryski Library in Paris, Mss. Nr. 1595, published in "Jagiellonki polskie w XVI. wieku ..." by Aleksander Przeździecki, ‎Józef Szujski). In this letter, dated from the castle of Ostroh on the Wednesday before the feast of the Transfer of Saint Stanislaus (September 22), in the year 1532, he also thanked the prelate for his recommendations to the Emperor (me comendare in gratiam Cesaree Catholice Maiestatis) and other letters. 

In the imperial archive in Vienna there was also a letter of Prince Illia (or to him) dated February 2, 1538, in which the Prince asked King Ferdinand for a passport to travel to Jerusalem. Sigismund I's sentence from December 20, 1537 released Illia from the obligation to marry Anna Radziwill. Shortly after this, in 1538, the Prince decided to visit the Holy Land and arrived at the king's court to obtain the necessary documents and authorizations. However, the ruler dissuaded him from traveling because of a threat from the Tatars and Saracens and Queen Bona took steps to reunite the young prince with her favorite Beata Kościelecka, which ended in an engagement.

Around that time, Illia, who loved a luxurious life and visit the royal court quite often, is said to have sent gardeners from Italy and set up an orangery in Ostroh. According to the 1620 description, his castle in Ostroh had Venetian glass in the windows, and there was also a stock of glass from Gdańsk. The dining room with a stove and a large a cabinet with silverware was quite large (five windows, a high vault) and the rooms had stoves with green tiles of local and Italian production. The Orthodox Church of the Epiphany in Ostroh with its Gothic elements, founded by his father Constantine (ca. 1460-1530), was probably built by Italians who worked at that time in Kraków, and the church utensils were allegedly ordered almost exclusively abroad, in Germany and Italy.

His famous father, often compared to ancient heroes and leaders, introduced Illia into military service. The papal legate Jacopo Pisoni wrote in 1514, that "Prince Constantine can be called the best military leader of our time... in battle he is not inferior to Romulus in bravery", he also described his devotion to the Greek Church and added that he is "more pious than Numa". Queen Bona's physician, the Italian Giovanni Valentino, in a letter of September 2, 1530 to Duke Federico Gonzaga of Mantua, written immediately after Constantine's death, stated that he was "so much pious in his Greek faith that the Ruthenians considered him a saint" (after "Prince Vasyl-Kostyantyn Ostrozki ..." by Vasiliy Ulianovsky, pp. 42, 158, 160, 323-324, 524-525, 1171-1172). 

From the second half of the 17th century, portrait gallery of the Princes of Ostroh was kept in the Dubno Castle, built by Constantine in 1492. Their collections as well as their clothing represented both Eastern and Western traditions. At the coronation sejm in February 1574, Constantine Vasily (1526-1608), Illia's stepbrother, arrived with his sons, one of them was dressed in Italian, and the other in Cossack style, as well as four hundred hussars, dressed in Persian style. He offered king Henry of Valois a very expensive and original gift - five camels. 

Inventory of the treasury of the Princes of Ostroh in Dubno of March 10, 1616, made six years after the death of Constantine Vasily (Archives in Dubno, published in 1900 by Jan Tadeusz Lubomirski), lists many items from the princely collections. Apart from Turkish fabrics, Persian rugs, gold and silver tableware, clocks, music boxes, a bezoar, precious Eastern, Cossack, German and Italian saddles, armours and armament, gold and gilded maces, the treasury also contained the gifts, like these from the Wallachian Hospodar, and souvenirs and trophies from the Battle of Orsha in 1514: "Moscow cannon with a Centaur, with the Moscow coat of arms", "a long florid cannon", and the golden mace of the Great Tsar of Moscow. Zofia Tarnowska, hetman's daughter, and wife of Constantine Vasily, contributed: three armours of the Tarnowski family, a great cannon, "a second cannon from Tarnów", and also items received from her mother, Zofia Szydłowiecka: "painting on copper of Szydłowiecki" and "The Great Chain of Lord Szydłowiecki", possibly a gift from the Emperor, received in 1515 by the chancellor Krzysztof Szydłowiecki. Among 41 cannons cast in Dubno, Ostroh, Lviv, imported from Gdańsk or donated by Hornostaj, Radziwill and Lubomirski families, Bishops of Kraków and the Vasas, one was a gift from Queen Bona. In the treasury there were also: "Venetian armour, misiurka helmet of Damascus steel, made in Venice, studded with gold", "Wax picture of the Duke of Brandeburg behind glass in a round little box", gold face of His Majesty Prince Constantine Vasily, "German chest from Vienna" with silverware, "German vanity table woven with silk", "Marble table from Poland", "Turkish green tent, Turkish tent from Mr Jazłowiecki", "The third chest, inside it: Leopards 108, Tigers 13, Dyed bears 2, Dyed lioness 1". The inventory also lists many paintings, some of which were purchased in Lublin, Kraków and abroad, like "14 paintings bought in Lublin, 6 paintings bought in Kraków, 4 large, 2 small", "Alabaster image with the Descent from the Cross of Jesus in golden frame", "Picture of the Lord's Passion framed in silver", "Picture made of stone [pietra dura] from the voivode of Podolia", "A picture of peacock feathers", as well as "Moscow paintings" and many other objects typical of early 17th century art cabinets. The paintings, as much less valued than weapons and fabrics, were described very generally, with particular emphasis on the valuable material on which they were painted or framed.

In private collection in the United States there is a "Portrait of a warrior", attributed to Giovanni Cariani (after "Giovanni Cariani" by Rodolfo Pallucchini, Francesco Rossi, p. 350). It was also attributed to Bernardino Licinio (by William Suida), Bartolomeo Veneto and Paolo Moranda Cavazzola. Licinio's authorship is also very likely, the style of these two painters is sometimes very similar, which indicates that they could cooperate, in particular on large orders from Poland-Lithuania. In the 19th century the painting was in the Palais Coburg in Vienna, built between 1840-1845 by the Ernestine line of the Wettin Dynasty, Dukes of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. Its previous history is not known, so it is possible that it was sent to Vienna already in the 16th century. The costume of a young man indicates that the portrait was created in the 1530s - similar to that seen in a portrait of the three-year-old Archduke Maximilian of Austria (1527-1576), son of King Ferdinand, by Jakob Seisenegger, dated '1530' (Mauritshuis in The Hague), similar to costume of a soldier in the Christ crowned with Thorns by Lucas Cranach the Elder, dated '1537' (Grunewald hunting lodge in Berlin) and to attire of Matthäus Schwarz from his portrait by Christoph Amberger, dated '1542' (Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum). His crinale cap is also more Northern European, and close to that visible in many effigies of king Sigismund I. The young man is holding a stick or a cane and viaticum, a small provision for a journey, as in the known portraits of pilgrims. The marble relief on the right is an explanation of the reason for his penance. It shows a woman holding a baby and a man leaving her. Between them there is another child or a blindfolded figure, like in the scenes of the marriage of Jason and Medea, created after 1584 by the Carracci family (Palazzo Fava in Bologna), and Jason rejecting Medea by Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini from about 1711 (Northampton Museum and Art Gallery). 

Princess and sorceress Medea, who figures in the myth of Jason and the Argonauts, was a daughter of King Aeetes of Colchis on the east coast of the Black Sea, further south from the domains of the princes of Ostroh. Out of love, she helps Jason and the Argonauts to get the golden fleece guarded by Aeetes and flees with them. Then Jason abandons her to marry the daughter of King Creon of Corinth. In revenge, guided by emotions contrary to reason, Medea murders Creon, his daughter and her own children. So the young man from the portrait wants to make amends for abandoning a woman - breaking the engagement with Anna Radziwill, fixed by his father. From 1518 the Radziwills were Imperial Princes (title granted by Emperor Maximilian I, grandfather of King Ferdinand) and the story of the Argonauts was undoubtedly particularly appealing to the Habsburgs who were members and grand masters of the Order of the Golden Fleece.

The symbol on his crinale cap is the Seed of Life or more broadly Seed of Life within the Flower of Life, one of the ancient sacred geometry symbols. It is often used to symbolize the sun, the cycle of life and the seasonal cycles of nature. It is also "a symbol of fertility, the Divine Feminine, and growth since it contains the Vesica Piscis symbol, which initially represented the female vulva or womb. [...] Many cultures use the rosette [Seed of Life] to avoid bad luck and the central six petals symbolize blessings. In Eastern Europe, the Seed of Life and the Flower of Life were called 'thunder marks' and were carved on building to protect them from lightning" (after "Seed Of Life Secrets You Want To Know" by Amanda Brethauer). Leonardo da Vinci studied this symbol in his Codex Atlanticus (fol. 459r), dating from 1478 to 1519 (Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan). The central six petals also bring to mind the six-pointed star from the portrait of Alexander (d. 1603), Prince of Ostroh (Ostroh Castle) and coat of arms of his brother Janusz (d. 1620) on the main gate of the Dubno Castle. 

The young man with high cheekbones, often associated with people of Slavic origin, resemble greatly Prince Illia from his effigies by workshop of Cranach, identified by me (Hercules and Omphale's maids from Kolasiński collection, preparatory drawing for Saint George fighting a dragon), and effigies of his father Prince Constantine.

Portrait of Illia (1510-1539), Prince of Ostroh by Giovanni Cariani or Bernardino Licinio, ca. 1538, Private collection. 

Portrait of manager of the royal mints Justus Ludwik Decjusz by Dosso Dossi

"Whoever wrote that justice [Iustitia or Justitia in Latin] is not worth selling for all the gold in this world predicted the future well. He predicted that near the city of Krakus there would be a village bearing the famous name of justice, your village, Ludwik, which is not worth selling for all the gold hidden in the earth in its dark bosom. I am so delighted with the recently erected mansion, and the garden, and the shade cast by the beautiful vineyards, and the forest that seems to wander in the nearby hills; I am so charmed by ponds with waters as transparent as glass; I like it so much to be free to drink at my will, sweet daughter of Auson's land [Italy]" (partially after "Dzieła wszystkie: Carmina" by Andrzej Trzecieski, p. 167), praises the beauty of the suburban villa of Justus Ludwik Decjusz, Polish poet Klemens Janicki (Clemens Ianicius, 1516-1543) in his Latin epigram "To Justus Ludwik Decjusz, the father" (Ad Iustum Ludovicum Decium patrem). 

Janicki, who during his stay in Venice in the years 1538-1540 found himself in the circle of humanists grouped around Cardinal Pietro Bembo, described the residence of the informal minister of finance (financial adviser) and secretary to the king Sigismund I the Old, built in the style of Italian Renaissance between 1530-1538 in Wola Justowska near Kraków. The design of the building is attributed to Giovanni Cini from Siena, Bernardo Zanobi de Gianottis (Romanus) from Rome or Filippo da Fiesole (Florentinus) from Florence.

The owner of the magnificent villa, the royal secretary Justus Ludwik Decjusz (Justus/Jodocus Ludovicus Decius in Latin or Justo Lodovico Decio in Italian) was born Jost Ludwig Dietz in about 1485 in Wissembourg, a town north of Strasbourg in today's France. He settled in Kraków at the turn of 1507/1508. At first he was a secretary and associate of Jan Boner, his countryman, the royal banker and administrator of the salt mines in Wieliczka and Bochnia, thanks to which he was able to make many trips to Italy, Netherlands and Germany and establish contacts for Boner. From 1520 Decjusz was a secretary and diplomat of King Sigismund I. It was he who was sent to Venice in 1517 to buy an engagement ring and richly decorated fabrics for the king in preparation for the king's wedding to Bona Sforza.

In June 1523 he was sent as a royal envoy to Venice, Naples and to Queen Bona's mother, Duchess Isabella of Aragon in Bari, taking with him as a gift a statue of Saint Nicholas made of gilded silver. In 1524, together with Jan Dantyszek, he was in Ferrara and in Venice, and a year later in 1525 he was entrusted with the task to purchase pearls in Venice for Bona, which was accomplished with the help of a Jewish merchant Lazarus from Kazimierz, who was sent by the king to Venice as a commercial expert (after "Biuletyn Żydowskiego Instytutu Historycznego", Issues 153-160, p. 6).

Decjusz soon became influential and made personal acquaintances with Erasmus of Rotterdam and Martin Luther. From Emperor Maximilian I he received a noble title, which was confirmed in Poland in 1531 and the Tęczyński family adopted him to the Topór coat of arms. Decjusz's career peaked with his appointment as the king's personal adviser and overseer of the royal mint. He was appointed by the king the manager of the mints in Kraków and Toruń, and later also in Königsberg (Królewiec in Polish) and entrusted with the task of reforming the monetary system in the Crown, Lithuania and the Duchy of Prussia. The reform program was included in the work "Treatise on minting coins" (De monetae cussione ratio) from 1525, where he argued that a ruler could profit from minting money. He was also the author of a three-volume Latin work entitled "On the Ancient Origins of the Poles" (De vetustatibus Polonorum), an early version of the Sarmatian myth about the origin of the Polish kings.

A man born into a patrician family in a German-speaking community far from the historical lands of the Jagiellonian elective monarchies, he became one of the most important politicians of multicultural Poland-Lithuania, one of the largest countries of Renaissance Europe. Justus was also one of the richest people in Poland-Lithuania, owner a tenement houses in Kraków and in Toruń, and estates near Kraków renamed in his honour Wola Justowska, mines of lead and silver in Olkusz, estates in Silesia and the Duchy of Świdnica, including a copper mine in Miedzianka (Kupferberg), the Bolczów Castle, the villages of Janowice and Waltersdorf. 

The year 1538 was inportant for Decjusz, who on 7 March had to prove the reliability of his monetary policy in Toruń at the Sejm and who received a confirmation of mining privileges from Emperor Ferdinand I, as well as for Polish commercial contacts with Venice. In 1538 Michael Wechter of Rymanów, a bookseller from Kraków, who received a very expensive printing commission from Bishop Jan Latalski, published in Venice the Kraków Breviary (Breviariu[m] s[ecundu]m ritum Insignis Ecclesie Cracovien[sis], preserved copy in the Ossolineum, XVI.O.528). Earlier edition was printed in France in 1516 by Jan Haller and Justus Ludwik Decjusz, who, possibly, was also indirectly involved in the 1538 edition. At that time, contacts with the ducal court in Ferrara also intensified. In April 1537 Giovanni Andrea Valentino (de Valentinis), court physician of Sigismund the Old and Bona, was sent to Ferrara and Mantua, Mikołaj Cikowski, whose brother Jan was a courtier of the Dukes of Ferrara, became a courtier, and soon the royal secretary, on July 2, 1537 Ercole II, Duke of Ferrara adressed a letter to Queen Bona, and in October 1538 the queen sent her envoys to Ferrara (after "Działalność Włochów w Polsce w I połowie XVI wieku" by Danuta Quirini-Popławska, p. 80).

Wealthy Venetian merchants who imported from Poland cochineal, animal skins and furs, as well as woolen cloth and exported huge amounts of mirrors and glass for the windows, silk products, expensive fabrics and stones of eastern origin, gold and silver wire, metal threads and various women's ornaments, as well as wine, spices and books (after "Z kręgu badań nad związkami polsko-weneckimi w czasach jagiellońskich" by Ewelina Lilia Polańska), they were undeniably interested in Polish-Lithuanian monetary policy and their finance minister. 

In the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest there is a "Portrait of a Moneychanger" (inventory number 53.449, oil on canvas, 107.5 × 89 cm), attributed to Dosso Dossi, a court painter of Duke Ercole II d'Este in Ferrara, who also travelled to Venice and painting in a style mainly influenced by Venetian painting, in particular Giorgione and early Titian. Before 1865 this picture was in the collection of the Duchess of Berry in Venice and later acquired by Count Jeno Zichy, who bequeathed it to the museum. 

The man wears a black fur-lined coat similar to late Medieval houppelande or knee-length Italian cioppa and black crinale headband. Such headdress was popular with the older generation of men well into the 1530s. Ennoblement of the progenitor of the Odrowąż family by Stanisław Samostrzelnik, created in 1532 (Kórnik Library), Bishop Piotr Tomicki and King Sigismund I and his courtiers kneeling before Saint Stanislaus, also by Samostrzelnik, created between 1530-1535 (National Library of Poland), marble tombstone of Mikołaj Stanisław Szydłowiecki (1480-1532) by Bartolommeo Berrecci or workshop, created in about 1532 (Parish Church in Szydłowiec) and a wooden sculpture of a man in a crinale cap by Sebastian Tauerbach from a coffered ceiling in the Chamber of Deputies at the Wawel Castle, created between 1535-1540, are examples of crinale in the court fashion in Poland-Lithuania. King Sigismund I the Old was depicted in very similar crinale in a print by Monogrammist HR and Hieronymus Vietor, created in 1532 (State Graphic Arts Collection in Munich).

On an inkstand there is a slip of paper inscribed in Italian: Adi 27 de febraro 1538 M Bartolommeo, voria festi contento de dare in felipo quelli ... denari perché io ne o bisognio ne Vostro io Dosso. The last word of the letter to Messer Bartolommeo dated February 27, 1538 with the signature was formerly rather difficult to decipher. Elena Berti Toesca in 1935 linked the painting and the person who signed the paper and needs the money with Io[annes] Dosso, that is to say Dosso Dossi (after "Italian Renaissance Portraits" by Klára Garas, p. 32). This Messer Bartolommeo could be the secretary of the Duke of Ferrara Bartolomeo Prospero who corresponded with Bona's court physician Giovanni Andrea Valentino and his cousin Antonio, the same who in 1546 (March 20) recommended Bartolomeo to send a portrait of Ercole's daughter Anna d'Este (1531-1607) not by royal mail, but by a private route in the hands of Carlo Foresta, one of the agents of Gaspare Gucci from Florence, a merchant in Kraków (after "Studia historyczne", Volume 12, Issues 2-3, p. 182).

The man is holding a scale and weighing coins, in a composition similar to typical northern school portraits of merchants (like in paintings by Adriaen Isenbrant, Quentin Matsys or Marinus van Reymerswaele). His costume is also more northern, this was the reason why, apart from the physical appearance, this image was previously identified as a portrait of a famous German banker Jakob Fugger. However, he died in 1525, so he could not have been involved in the 1538 letter. The man is therefore Justus Ludwik Decjusz, manager of the royal mints, who was accused of the depreciation of the Polish silver coin and abuse and who cleared himself at the Sejm in 1538. Decjusz died in Kraków in 1545 at the age of about 60, consequently he was about 53 in 1538, that match the appearance of the man in the Budapest portrait. Scales of Justice is a symbol of Themis, goddess of justice (Justitia), divine law and order, like in the Latin version of Decjusz's first name Justus (the Just) and in a print with Allegory of Justice (IVSTICIA) by Sebald Beham (1500-1550) in the National Museum in Warsaw (inventory number Gr.Ob.N.167 MNW).

Portrait of Justus Ludwik Decjusz (ca. 1485-1545), manager of the royal mints holding a scale by Dosso Dossi, 1538, Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest.

Portrait of Princess Isabella Jagiellon nude (Venus of Urbino) by Titian

Who would not like to marry a goddess? A beautiful, educated and wealthy daughter of a king? But she had an important flaw, she was from a distant country with elective monarchy, where parliament decided everything. Her husband will have no right to the crown, his children would need to stand in election, he woud have no title, he could even not be sure that her family will stay in power. She was finally not a niece of an Emperor, hence she cannot bring valuable connections and prestige. This was a hudge disadvantage to all hereditary princes of Europe. This was the case of Isabella Jagiellon, the eldest daughter of  Sigismund I and Bona Sforza. She was born in Kraków on 18 January 1519 and named after her grandmother, Isabella of Aragon, Duchess of Milan and Duchess of Bari.

Together with her brother, Isabella received a good education, including from humanist Johannes Honter, and she could speak four languages: Polish, Latin, German, and Italian. Her mother willing to reclaim the inheritance of Isabella of Aragon pursued a French and an Italian marriage for her daughter. She hoped that King of France would install his son Henry and Isabella in the Duchy of Milan. Isabella, being the eldest granddaughter of the rightful Duke of Milan after her mother, would strengthen the French claims to the Duchy. These plans were abandoned after Battle of Pavia on February 25, 1525. Then Isabella's grandmother wanted to marry her granddaughter for one of her late husband's cousins Francesco II Sforza, Duke of Milan, however Sigismund I opposed as Francesco's hold of the title was tenuous. In 1530 Bona proposed Federico Gonzaga, a son of her friend Isabella d'Este, and sent her envoy Giovanni Valentino (de Valentinis) to Mantua. Bona's daughter was 11 and the potential groom 30 years old. Federico, however, who was made Duke of Mantua by Emperor, pushed for marriage with Maria Paleologa and after her death with her sister Margaret Paleologa, as she brought March of Montferrat as her inheritance and claimes to the title of Emperor of Constantinople. Then Valentino corresponded (25 November 1534) about Isabella's marriage with Ercole II d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, the eldest son of Alfonso I d'Este and Lucrezia Borgia, another friend of Bona. He wrote to Ercole that since the king and queen of Poland have a fifteen-year-old daughter, full of virtues and refined beauty (verluti et bellezza elegantissima), it would be a pity to marry her among German barbarians, from which nationality many powerful men are seeking her hand (after "Izabela Jagiellonka, królowa Węgier" by Małgorzata Duczmal, p. 75). In 1535 Habsburgs proposed Ludovico, eldest son of Charles III, Duke of Savoy. The marriage was negotiated by Bona's secretary, Ludovico Monti and the envoy of King Ferdinand of Austria, Baron Herberstein, but Ludovico died in 1536.

Between 1527-1529 and 1533-1536 Isabella lived in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In his texts entitled De Europa written in the 1440s Enea Silvio Bartolomeo Piccolomini, future Pope Pius II, reported about women in Lithuania, that: "Married noble ladies have lovers in public, with the permission of husbands, whom they call assistants of marriage" (Matronae nobiles publicae concubinos habent, permittentibus viris, quos matrimonii adiutores vocant). These assistants, whose number depended on the position and financial situation of the husband, who were fed at his expense, replaced him by old custom in his marital duties if he had neglected them due to illness, prolonged absence or any other cause. The husbands were not allowed to have lovers and marriages were easy to dissolve by mutual consent (Solvuntur tamen facile matrimonia, mutuo consensu). Such habits terrified all male readers throughout Europe. 

On November 12, 1537 Mikołaj Nipszyc wrote to Albert, Duke of Prussia about "the secret women's practice, which you could get over with, if the princess Isabella was rendered a good favor in this way". He was probably referring to marriage of Isabella with elected King of Hungary, John Zapolya, secretly planned by Bona. But he could also refer to a painting. In October 1536, on the order of the queen, an unknown capellano Laurencio was paid for his mission to Venice.

Everything in Titian's painting known as Venus of Urbino emphasize the qualities of a bride depicted. She is beatiful, young, healthy and fertile. She is loyal and faithful and a sleeping dog symbolize devotion, faithfulness and fidelity. She is loving and passionate and red roses in her hand symbolize this. She is also wealthy, her servants are searching the coffers of her dowry for a suitable dress. Sumptuous wall hangings are undeniably allso part of her dowry and a pot of myrtle, used in marriage ceremonies, suggest that she is available for marriage. Her face resemble greatly other effigies of Isabella Jagiellon. 

The painting is identifiable with certainty at the Villa del Poggio Imperiale in 1654-1655. In Villa del Poggio Imperiale, there is a portrait of Isabella's mother by Lucas Cranach from the same period and in Poland preserved one of the oldest copies of Venus of Urbino (Museum of Art in Łódź). The latter painting possibly comes from the Radziwll collection and could be tantamount to description in the catalogue of paintings exhibited in Królikarnia near Warsaw in 1835: "TITIAN. (copy). 439. Venus lying on a white bed, a dog at her legs, two servants occupied with clothes. Painted on canvas. Height: elbow: 1, inch 20, width: elbow: 2, inch 20" (TITIAN. (kopia). 439. Wenus leżąca na białem posłaniu, przy jej nogach piesek z tyłu dwie służące zajęte ubraniem. Mal: na płótnie. Wys: łok: 1, cali 20, szer: łok: 2, cali 20). Two old replicas with minor changes to the composition are in the Royal Collection in England (RCIN 406162 and 402661) - one was recorded at Whitehall Palace in London in 1666 (no. 469) and the other in the King's Little Bedchamber at Windsor Castle in 1688 (no. 754). One of them of good quality could come from Titian's workshop (RCIN 406162). Certainly the English monarchs were more interested in the portrait of the Polish-Lithuanian princess and queen of Hungary than the unknown mistress of the Duke of Urbino. Another reduced version of the painting, probably from Titian's workshop, was sold on July 8, 2003 (Sotheby's London, lot 320).

Similar pose is visible in monument to Barbara Tarnowska née Tęczyńska (d. 1521) by Giovanni Maria Padovano in the Tarnów Cathedral from about 1536 and monument to Urszula Leżeńska by Jan Michałowicz of Urzędów in the Church in Brzeziny, created between 1563-1568.

Portrait of Princess Isabella Jagiellon (1519-1559) nude (Venus of Urbino) by Titian, 1534-1538, Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

Portrait of Princess Isabella Jagiellon (1519-1559) nude (Venus of Urbino) by follower of Titian, after 1534, Museum of Art in Łódź.

Portrait of Princess Isabella Jagiellon (1519-1559) nude (Venus of Urbino) by follower of Titian, after 1534, The Royal Collection.

Portrait of Princess Isabella Jagiellon (1519-1559) nude (Venus of Urbino) by workshop of Titian, after 1534, Private collection.  

Portraits of Isabella Jagiellon by follower of Titian

In a letter of 31 August 1538, Bona Sforza, Isabella's mother says about two portraits of her daughter Isabella, one in half and second full lenth by a court painter of Jan Dantyszek, prince-bishop of Warmia, possibly a painter from a German school of painting. However it cannot be excluded that Dantyszek, a diplomat in service of Sigismund I, who frequently travelled to Venice and Italy, had at his court a painter from Titian's workshop. In the letter Bona also complain that the features of her daughter in the portrait are not very accurate, it it highly probable that she commissioned a better effigy in Titian's workshop herself.

On 15 January 1539, five hundred Hungarian knights arrived to Kraków. The marriage contract with the dowry of 32,000 ducats in cash plus property worth another 6,000 ducats was probably signed between 28 January and 2 February. After the ceremony, Isabella departed towards Hungary. 

​The features in the portrait by circle of Titian are identical with known effigies of Isabella. ​The portrait of a lady holding a zibellino from the Contini Bonacossi collection, as portraits of Sigismund II Augustus and his third wife by Tintoretto, and attributed to school of Agnolo Bronzino is very similar to the later portrait of Isabella by circle of Titian. However, at first sight, the resemblance is not so apparent, so was it the painting mentioned by Bona in her letter or a copy of it sent to the Medicis?

The portrait ​ which was before 1853 in the Hungarian National Museum, known from a lithograph and identified as an effigy of Mary of Anjou (1371-1395), Queen of Hungary, pictured a woman in almost identical costume, sitting in the 16th century Savonarola chair and holding a fan. It was most probably an original portrait of Isabella by Titian, commissioned by her mother. ​

Portrait of Isabella Jagiellon (1519-1559), Queen of Hungary with her dog by follower of Titian, 1538-1540, Private collection. ​

Portrait of Isabella Jagiellon (1519-1559), Queen of Hungary holding a zibellino by Jacopino del Conte​, 1538-1540, Samek Art Museum. ​

Portrait of Isabella Jagiellon (1519-1559) holding a fan, 1853 lithograph after lost original by Titian or Jacopino del Conte from about 1539, Private collection.

Portrait of Isabella Jagiellon (1519-1559) holding a fan, 18th century after lost original by Titian or Jacopino del Conte from about 1539, Private collection. 

Portrait of court physician Giovanni Andrea Valentino by Gaspare Pagani

"John Andrew de Valentinis from Modena, provost of Kraków, Sandomierz and Trakai, etc. very proficient doctor of medicine, who served the venerable Cardinal Ippolito d'Este, the Most Serene King Sigismund I and the Most Serene Queen Bona Sforza for many years, so summoned by the almighty God on February 20, 1547, he moved to eternity" (Ioannes Andreas de Valentinis natus Mutinensis praepositus cracoviensis, sandecensis, trocensis et cetera, artium medicinaeque doctor peritissimus qui reuerendissimi Cardinali Hippoliti Estensi atque Serenissimi Poloniae Regi Sigismundo I et Serenissimae Reginae Sfortiae faeliciter pluribus servivit annis, tandem a Deo Optimo Maximo vocatus. XX • Februarii M • D • XLVII ad aeternam migravit vitam), reads the Latin inscription on the tombstone plaque of Giovanni Andrea Valentino (ca. 1495-1547), court physician of Queen Bona Sforza in the St. Mary's Chapel (Bathory Chapel) at the Wawel Cathedral.

The tombstone, funded by Bona as the executor of Valentino's will, was carved by Giovanni Soli from Florence or Giovanni Cini from Siena. The sculpted effigy of a canon holding a chalice and adorned with coat of arms of two paws in circles on each side depict most probably Valentino, although it is traditionally identified as the image of Bernard Wapowski (Vapovius, 1475-1535), canon of Kraków.

Valentino, a nobleman from Modena, son of Lodovico and his wife née Barocci, had a vulture's paw in his coat of arms. He studied with a famous physician Niccolò Leoniceno (1428-1524) in Ferrara and he became the court physician of Queen Bona Sforza in 1520 (after "Studia renesansowe", Volume 3, p. 227). He played a very important role at the royal court in Poland acting as an agent of the Dukes of Mantua and Ferrara and over time he rose to the rank of a secretary. He also acted as an intermediary in sending valuable gifts between courts in Poland and Italy, like in June 1529 when he sent, through Ippolito of Mantua who arrived to Vilnius, a skin of a white bear to Alfonso (1476-1534), duke of Ferrara, a very rare and sought after item even in Lithuania (according to Valentino, only the king had one piece, which was used to cover the carriage). Perhaps this emissary brought the queen a portrait of Duke of Mantua, Federico II Gonzaga (1500-1540), most likely a copy of a painting by Titian (Prado Museum in Madrid). Bona was showing the portrait to the court barber Giacomo da Montagnana from Mantua "with the same ceremony with which the mantle of Saint Mark is shown in Venice", so that the barber had to kneel before it with folded hands, reported Valentino in a letter to Alfonso (after "Królowa Bona, 1494-1557: czasy i ludzie odrodzenia", Volume 3, p. 187).

Giovanni Andrea became rich thanks to Bona's support and numerous endowments. He owned a house in Vilnius and estates near Brest. As a trusted household member of the royal family, he was sent as an envoy to Italy several times, like in 1537 when he also visited his family in Modena. Valentino contributed to the education of his relatives, like two nephews of Bonifazio Valentino, canon of Modena and Pietro Paolo Valentino, son of Giovanni. Other members of his family received on November 25, 1538 from Ercole II d'Este, Duke Ferrara, at his request, exemption from payment of import duty in Modena.

When in Poland, Valentino also conducted scientific research and his observations on Polish cochineal found an echo in Antonio Musa Brassavola's work on syrups (after "Odrodzenie w Polsce: Historia nauki" by Bogusław Leśnodorski, p. 132) and commissioned works of art. In about 1540 he founded the altar of St. Dorothy for the Wawel Cathedral (today in the Bodzów Chapel in Kraków), created by circle of Bartolomeo Berecci and adorned with coat of arms of Poland, Lithuania and the Sforzas as well as Latin inscription: IOANNES ANDREAS DE VALENTINIS EX MUTIN BON PHYSICVS SANDOMIRIENSIS PRAEPVS DEDICAVIT. 

He died after a fourteen-day illness on the night of February 19/20, 1547 at the age of about 52 and left all his property in Poland to a family residing in Italy.

In the Philadelphia Museum of Art there is a "Portrait of an Elderly Physician" (oil on canvas, 67.3 × 55.3 cm, inventory number Cat. 253), created in about 1540 and attributed to Gaspare Pagani (d. 1569), Italian painter active Modena, first documented in 1521. This painting was acquired in 1917 from the collection of John G. Johnson and was previously attributed to Dosso Dossi, court artist to the dukes of Ferrara. According to the description of the work in the museum  "this man is identified as a physician by the caduceus, or staff, in his hand. The caduceus became a symbol of the medical profession because of its association with Asclepius, a legendary Greek physician and god of healing". However, caduceus was also the symbol of Mercury, Roman god of commerce, travellers and orators, the emissary and messenger of the gods. Both rods were each given to Asclepius and to Mercury by Apollo, god of the sun and knowledge. So this man was a doctor and an emissary, just like Giovanni Andrea Valentino.

Portrait of court physician Giovanni Andrea Valentino (ca. 1495-1547) by Gaspare Pagani, ca. 1540, Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Portrait of Beata Kościelecka holding a book by Bernardino Licinio

"In the hands of Her Majesty the Queen for images to the Kraków Cathedral florins 159/7, which the factor of Her Majesty paid in Venice" (In manus S. Reginalis Mtis pro imaginibus ad eccl. Cathedralem Crac. fl. 159/7, quos factor S. M. Reginalis Veneciis exposuit), a note in the royal accounts (In communes necessitates et ex mandato S. M. Regie) on August 9, 1546 (after "Renesansowy ołtarz główny z katedry krakowskiej w Bodzentynie" by Paweł Pencakowski, p. 112), is the only known confirmation so far that the paintings were ordered by Queen Bona in large quantities in Venice. Many nobles living at the court, attending Sejm (parliament) sessions, or just visiting the capital and interested in affairs of state around the court, imitated the style there and other customs.

Between January 14 and March 19, 1540 Sejm was held at the Wawel Castle in Kraków. During this Sejm, on February 15, in the cathedral, Hieronim Bozarius (possibly Girolamo Bozzari from Piacenza near Milan) presented Sigismund Augustus with a hat and a sword consecrated by Pope Paul III. The exact agenda of the session it not known, however one of the important topics discussed was undoubtedly the case of inheritance of Ilia, Prince of Ostroh, who died just few months earlier on August 19 or 20, 1539. Two very influential women were involved in the matter - the widow Beata Kościelecka, illegitimate daughter of Sigismund I and protegee of Queen Bona and Princess Alexandra Olelkovich-Slutska, second wife of Ilia's father and mother of his brother Constantine Vasily, a descendant of Grand Princes of Kiev and Grand Dukes of Lithuania. On August 16, 1539, Ilia, who according to Nipszyc succumbed too much to his energetic wife Beata, signed a will in which he left his possessions to his unborn child and his wife and named king Sigismund Augustus and his mother Bona as guardians. Until Ilia's half-brother came of age, Beata was to manage her husband's vast estates and his brother's estate (after "Dzieje rodu Ostrogskich" by Tomasz Kempa, p. 61). The will was confirmed by the king. Nevertheless, the inheritance disputes soon began. 

Constantine Vasily applied for his part of the Ostroh property and recognition of his rights to custody of the minor Elizabeth (Halszka), daughter of Ilia and Beata. In 1540 Sigismund took under sequestration the estate and confirmed his coming of age in 1541 at the age of 15. At that time Beata's management of the estates caused dissatisfaction of many nobles and the king. She changed a significant part of the officials appointed in Ilia's estates, used all the profits for her own needs and did not pay the debts of her late husband and father-in-law, the administrators appointed by her did not take care of the defense of the lands against Tatar attacks, but several times a year they collected serebshchyna (quitrent in silver coins, established in 1513 by Sigismund). Complaints poured in about the princess from the servants, neighbors and government officials. Under such conditions, on March 3, 1540 Sigismund instructed Fyodor Andreevich Sangushko (d. 1547), marshal of Volhynia and one of the guardians - to exercise control over the profits from the Ostroh estates and Beata's decisions.

The trial regarding the Ostroh inheritance began in Vilnius on August 27, 1540. Princess Alexandra and her son were represented by Florian Zebrzydowski with a statement about the illegality of the transfer of the inheritance to Beata that she "to the great hurt and harm of Prince Vasily kept for herself and she did a lot of damage there and destroyed those estates". The final decree of the Compromise Court was issued on December 20, 1541. The property left by Prince Ilia (with the exception of Beata's dowry) was divided into two parts. The division was carried out by Princess Beata and Prince Constantine Vasily was to decide of one of the two parts of the estate (after "Dzieje rodu Ostrogskich" by Tomasz Kempa, p. 64).

Portrait of a lady in a red dress holding a petrarchino by Bernardino Licinio in the Musei Civici di Pavia (oil on canvas, 100 x 78 cm, inventory number P 24) is very similar to the portrait of Beata from 1532 by the same author in terms of facial features, costume and pose. Her clothes and jewellery indicate high position, noble origin and wealth. The little book that the she shows closed in one hand is complement of the sumptuous robe, as a fashionable item to show off the refined silk binding. As in the portrait of Queen Bona Sforza by Licinio being seen holding a petrarchino, a book by Petrarch, was a courtly intellectual fashion. Inscription in Latin on the marble parapet "1540 DAY/ 25 FEB" (1540 DIE/ 25 FEB) refers to an important event in her life. She is not wearing a black mourning gown, so she's not commemorating someone's death, therefore it could be some important document like a royal decree that didn't survive. At the end of 1539 or at the beginning of 1540, Princess Beata came to Kraków asking the king to confirm her husband's will. Her signed portraits (BEATA KOSCIELECKA / Elice Ducis in Ostrog Conjunx) from the beginning of the 1540s indicate that she closely followed the fashion prevailing at the royal court. Beata's costume, jewellery and even the pose in these effigies are identical as in the portraits of the young Queen Elizabeth of Austria (1526-1545), who preferred the German style.

The painting was transferred to the Museum from the School of Painting in Pavia, where in inventory of 1882 it was recored as coming from the collection of the Marquis Francesco Belcredi in Milan, offered in 1851 and attributed to Paris Bordone. The painting is identifiable in the collection of Karl Joseph von Firmian (Carlo Firmian, 1716-1782), who served as Plenipotentiary of Lombardy to the Austrio-Hungarian Empire. In 1753 Firmian was recruited as ambassador to Naples, where many belongings of Queen Bona were transferred after her death. 

Portrait of Beata Kościelecka holding a book by Bernardino Licinio, 1540, Musei Civici di Pavia.

Portrait of Anna of Masovia in crimson dress by Bernardino Licinio

Italian fashion and novelties quickly reached Poland-Lithuania. One of the few surviving examples is the epitaph painting of Marco Revesla (Revesili, Revexli or Revesli, d. October 19, 1553) from Novara near Milan, who was a pharmacist at the court of Queen Bona. It is considered as one of the earliest reflections of The Last Judgment by Michelangelo, created between 1536-1541 (after "Wczesne refleksy twórczości Michała Anioła w malarstwie polskim" by Kazimierz Kuczman). The painting is in the Franciscan Monastery in Kraków and it was founded by his wife Catharina Alentse (also Alantsee, Alants or Alans). Her family came from Venice and was well known in Kraków and in Płock in Masovia in the first half of the 16th century. Giovanni or Jan Alantsee from Venice, who died before 1553, an aromaticist and pharmacist of Queen Bona, was a mayor of Płock who in August 1535 initiated the construction of waterworks in the city. He was also suspected of poisoning of the last Masovian dukes on the queen's order.

Despite tremendous losses during many wars and ivasions, some traces of Venetian portraiture from the 16th century preserved in Masovia. During exhibition of miniatures in Warsaw in 1912 two tondo miniatures by Venetian school were presented - portrait of a Venetian lady from the second half of the 16th century (oil on canvas, 10.6 cm, item 190), owned by the Zamoyski Estate and a miniature of a lady in a costume from the mid-16th century (oil on wood, 7.5 cm, item 192), owned by Count Ksawery Branicki (after "Pamiętnik wystawy miniatur, oraz tkanin i haftów" by Władysław Górzyński and Zenon Przesmycki, p. 31-32), both were probably lost during World War II. 

After the incorporation of Masovia Polish troops immediately occupied Warsaw, Princess Anna, sister of the last dukes and beloved daughter of Sigismund I (Quam si nostra filia esset), as the king called her in a letter, was to live in a smaller castle in Warsaw until she got married. According to the agreements of 1526, Anna was to give the king her extensive Masovian estates in exchange for a dowry of 10,000 Hungarian ducats and renounce hereditary rights to the duchy. However, the ambitious duchess delayed the decision to marry. In 1536, when she was approaching 38, King Sigismund entrusted Andrzej Krzycki, secretary of Queen Bona, Piotr Gamrat, bishop of Przemyśl and Piotr Goryński, voivode of Masovia, to arrange marriage pacts with Stanisław Odrowąż (1509-1545), voivode of Podolia. On March 1, 1536, Krzycki, his retinue and many senators arrived in Warsaw for the wedding. 

After a year of delaying the decision the Duchess refused to return her possessions to the king which caused a conflict between the couple and Sigismund and Bona and led to the deprivation of Odrowąż of his offices, and even to skirmishes between the armed forces of the Crown and the private troops of the Duchess of Masovia. The dispute was ended by the Sejm of 1537, which forced Anna and her husband to take an oath before the king, to renounce hereditary rights to Masovia and her estates for the benefit of the Crown. Her husband was deprived of the starosty of Lviv and Sambir, and was forced to leave Bar in Podolia.
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After leaving Masovia, Anna settled in the Odrowąż estates, where her husband was promoting religious innovations (according to Piotr Gamrat). For the rest of her life, she stayed mainly at the castle in Jarosław between Kraków and Lviv, where around 1540 she gave birth to her only daughter, Zofia. The couple reconciled with Sigismund and Bona. In 1540 Stanisław offered the queen the village of Prusy in Sambir land and between 1542-1543 he become voivode of Ruthenia. The final monetary settlement with the queen took place in March 1545 and Bona paid him 19,187 in gold.

Portrait by Bernardino Licinio from the Schaeffer Galleries in New York (oil on panel, 38.5 x 33.5 cm), depict a lady whose facial features are very reminiscent of the effigy of Anna of Masovia in mourning with a portrait of her brother (Castello Sforzesco in Milan). She is older and her costume and hair style resemble greatly that of Bona's protegee Beata Kościelecka, created in about 1540 (Musei Civici di Pavia), identified by me. Her dress of Venetian silk is dyed entirely with Polish cochineal and she holds her hand close to her heart as if taking an oath of allegiance. 

Portrait of Anna of Masovia (ca. 1498-1557) in crimson dress by Bernardino Licinio, ca. 1540, Private collection.

Portraits of Queen Bona Sforza as Diana the Huntress-Egeria by Lucas Cranach the Elder and Lucas Cranach the Younger

"Such a good queen and such a hunter, That I don't know: are you Juno or are you Diana?" (Tam bona regina es, bene tam venabula tractas Ut dubitem Iuno an sisne Diana magis), plays with words and the name of Queen Bona ("Good" in Latin) comparing her to Juno, queen of the gods, goddess of marriage and childbirth and to Diana, goddess of the hunt and wild animals in his epigram entitled "Cricius, bishop of Przemyśl, to Bona, queen of Poland" (Cricius episcopus Premisliensis ad Bonam reginam Poloniae), her secretary Andrzej Krzycki (1482-1537). 

On August 2, 1540 Giovanni Cini, an architect and sculptor from Siena, concludes a contract with Helena Malarka (quod honesta Helena malarka sibi nomine), a female painter in Kraków, for work on finishing her house "in the street of the Jews" (in platea Judaeorum), but at the same time he delegates the work to his assistants, due to his imminent return to Lithuania (after "Nadworny rzeźbiarz króla Zygmunta Starego Giovanni Cini z Sieny i jego dzieła w Polsce" by Stanisław Cercha, Felix Kopera, p. 22). Helena adopts the city law in 1539 and she was mentioned in a register Liber juris civilis inceptus as a widow of another painter Andrzej of Gelnica in Slovakia (Helena Andree pictoris de Gelnicz relicta vidua). This Malarka (Polish for female painter) was apparently a very rich woman that she could afford to have a house in the city center, Jewish Street, today Saint Anne's Street (Świętej Anny), is close to the Main Market Square and the main seat of the Jagiellonian University (Collegium Maius), as well as the royal architect to renovate it. Judging by the available information she was most probably a Jewish female painter from Italy or Poland-Lithuania, close to the royal court of Queen Bona Sforza. So was she involved in any secret or "sensitive" missions for the royal court, like preparation of initial drawings for the royal nudes?

In the National Gallery of Art in Washington there is a painting of the Nymph of the Spring by Lucas Cranach the Elder, created after 1537 (oil on panel, 48.4 x 72.8 cm, inventory number 1957.12.1). It probably comes from the collection of Baron von Schenck in Flechtingen Castle, near Magdeburg. The city was the seat of Cardinal Albert of Brandenburg (1490-1545), Archbishop of Magdeburg and Mainz, patron of the arts and collector, whose concubines Elisabeth "Leys" Schütz and Agnes Pless were frequently painted in guise of different Christian Saints by Cranach. The cardinal, who maintained good relations with the Jagiellons, undoubtedly had effigies of King Sigismund and Queen Bona. 

The painting shows Diana the Huntress as the Nymph of the Sacred Spring, whose posture recalls Giorgione's and Titian's Venuses. Egeria, the nymph of a sacred spring, celebrated at sacred groves close to Rome, was a form of Diana. She was believed to bless men and women with offspring and to assist mothers in childbirth. Beguilingly through lowered eyelids she observes two partridges, a symbol of sexual desire, like in a very similar painting depicting the lady-in-waiting of Queen Bona - Diana di Cordona (Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum in Madrid). The inscription in Latin on this painting "I am the Nymph of the Sacred Spring. Do not disturb my sleep. I am resting" (FONTIS NYMPHA SACRI SOM: / NVM NE RVMPE QVIESCO) can be taken as an indication that the person who commissioned the painting did not speak German. The landscape behind her is a view of Grodno although seen through the lenses of a German painter and mythological, magical aura. The topography match perfectly the main city of the Black Ruthenia (Ruthenia Nigra) in present-day Belarus, as depicted in an engraving Vera designatio Urbis in Littavia Grodnae with coat of arms of king Sigismund Augustus, created by Matthias Zündt after a drawing by Hans Adelhauser (made in 1568), reproduced in Georg Braun's Civitates orbis terrarium (published in 1575), and the panorama by Tomasz Makowski (created in about 1600). 

Bona was known for her passion for hunting, but one hunt in Niepołomice near Kraków for bison and bears in 1527 ended tragically for her. She fell from her horse, miscarried her son and was unable to have children later. Possibly in connection to this, in 1540, thanks to his renowned medical and gynecological practice, as well as an edition of his volume on childbirth dedicated to Bona and her daughter Isabella, Giorgio Biandrata (1515-1588) from Saluzzo near Torino was called to the court of Poland-Lithuania and appointed as personal physician to the queen.

The main feature of the city was a large wooden bridge (depicted as stone one in the painting) with a gate tower. The first permanent bridge across the Neman River in Grodno is mentioned in 1503. On the left we can see the brick Gothic Old Castle, built by Vytautas the Great between 1391-1398 on the site of previous Ruthenian settlement. On the right there is a Gothic St. Mary's Church, also known as Fara Vytautas, founded before 1389. In 1494, Alexander Jagiellon, Grand Duke of Lithuania, demolished the old wooden structure and erected a new church on its place and in 1551, by order of Queen Bona, the church was repaired. Grodno economy belonged to the queen. During her management, many reforms of the city's organization were carried out and new trade privileges were granted. In 1540, she confirmed the former privileges and allowed the mayor and jurors to have seals. In 1541, Sigismund, at her request, reduced the kopszczyzna (tax on wine sales) from 60 to 50 kop groszy. The queen's residence was built on Horodnica by her secretary Sebastian Dybowski and the oldest hospital in Grodno was founded by Bona in 1550. In Kobryn near Brest, there was a letter from Queen Bona written on December 20, 1552 from Grodno to the starost of Kobryn, Stanisław Chwalczewski, ordering him to designate a plot for building a house with a garden for the goldsmith Peter of Naples (Piotr Neapolitańczyk, Pietro Napolitano), distinguished at the court, where he could freely pursue his craft (after "Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego ...", Vol. 4, p. 205).

Another very similar painting of Diana the Huntress-Egeria, attributed to Lucas Cranach the Elder or his son, today in the San Diego Museum of Art (oil on panel, 58 x 79 cm, inventory number 2018.1), comes from Polish collections. In 1925 it was in the collection of Rudolf Oppenheim in Berlin. According to Wanda Drecka this painting is probably identical to the "Reclining Nymph" by Cranach the Elder, exhibited in Warsaw in the Bruhl Palace in 1880 as the property of Jan Sulatycki. In both described paintings in Washington and in San Diego the face of the sitter resembles greatly the effigies of Queen Bona as Lucretia.

Paintings of Diana and her nymphs were present in many collections in Poland-Lithuania among the works of Venetian and German School of painting. The "Inventory of belongings spared from Swedes and escapes made on December 1, 1661 in Wiśnicz" in the Central Archives of Historical Records in Warsaw (number 1/357/0/-/7/12), lists some of the preserved paintings from the collection of Helena Tekla Ossolińska, daughter of Great Crown Chancellor Jerzy Ossoliński, and her husband Aleksander Michał Lubomirski, owner of the Wiśnicz Castle. The description is very general, however some of these paintings were from the 16th and 17th century Venetian and German School: "Great painting of Diana with greyhounds", "Herodias holding the head of St. John in Ebony Frames", possibly by Cranach, "Abram killing Isaac. Titian", "The Blessed Virgin with little Jesus on wood. Alberti Duri", that is Albrecht Dürer, "Tres virtutes cardinales. Paulo Venorase", that is Cardinal virtues by Paolo Veronese, "Copy of Susanna's painting", i.e. Susanna and the Elders, "Two Landscape paintings from Venice on one St. John taking water from a spring on the second a Shepherd with cattle", "Portrait of Her Majesty in the shape of Diana with greyhounds", i.e. portrait of Helena Tekla as Diana the Huntress and many portraits, like that of Venetian Duke Molini (most probably Francesco Molin, Doge of Venice, reigning from his election in 1646 until his death), Dukes of Florence, Modena, Mantua and Parma. In the collection of Stanisław Dziewulski before around 1938 there was Cranach's Diana (semi-sitting, with a landscape with deer in the background), sold to a private collection in Warsaw (after "Polskie Cranachiana" by Wanda Drecka, p. 29).

"The pagan and mysterious image of the nymph Egeria, a hidden being who directs but does not act, seems to be a symbol of a Christian woman" (after "Dzieje Moralne kobiet" by Ernest Legouvé, Jadwiga Trzcińska, p. 73) and perfect allusion to Queen Bona Sforza. 

Portrait of Queen Bona Sforza as Diana the Huntress-Egeria against the idealized view of Grodno by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1540, National Gallery of Art in Washington.

Portrait of Queen Bona Sforza as Diana the Huntress-Egeria by Lucas Cranach the Elder or Lucas Cranach the Younger, ca. 1540, San Diego Museum of Art.

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Portraits of Isabella Jagiellon and John Sigismund Zapolya by Jacopino del Conte and Tintoretto

Just few months after her arrival to Hungary, on July 7, 1540 in Buda Isabella Jagiellon gave birth to her only son John Sigismund Zapolya. 15 days after his birth, his father died suddenly on July 22, 1540 and the infant John Sigismund was elected king by a Hungarian noble assembly in Buda and Isabella as his regent. The bishop of Oradea, George Martinuzzi (Frater Georgius), took over the guardianship. John Sigismund claim to the throne was challenged by Ferdinand I of Austria. Under the pretext of wanting to protect John's interests, Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent had his troops invade central Hungary in 1541 and occupy Buda. 

After the Hungarian royal court had to leave Buda, Queen Isabella settled in Lipova and then from the spring of 1542 to the summer of 1551 in the former episcopal palace in Alba Iulia in Transylvania. Isabella was young, noted for her beauty, and scolded for her expensive tastes. She began reconstruction of the former bishop's palace in Alba Iulia in the Renaissance style. This decade was a period of unceasing hostilities and fierce disputes with Martinuzzi. Isabella kept a regular correspondence with her Italian relatives including her third cousin, Ercole II d'Este, Duke of Ferrara and her close advisor was Giovanni Battista Castaldo, an Italian mercenary leader (condottiere), First Marquis of Cassano, Imperial general and commander in the service of Emperor Charles V and his younger brother, Archduke Ferdinand I. Castaldo was a patron of arts and his preserved effigies were created by the best artists connected with the Spanish court - Titian (portrait in private collection), Antonis Mor (portrait in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum) and Leone Leoni (bust in the Church of San Bartolomeo in Nocera Inferiore and a medal in the Wallace Collection).

In July 1551, facing superior forces, Isabella surrendered and she agreed to give up Transylvania in exchange for Silesian duchies (Opole, Racibórz, Ziębice, Ząbkowice Śląskie) and other territories offered by Ferdinand. The Silesian duchies turned out to be ruined after the earlier rule of the Hohenzollerns, to whom Ferdinand handed them over for 20 years in exchange for a loan. There was not even a residence that could accommodate Isabella's court. She departed towards Poland where she lived with her family for the next five years. To provide her with income, her brother granted her Krzepice and Sanok, while her mother gave her Wieluń. She returned to Transylvania in 1556 with her son. 

Isabella surrounded herself with foreigners - primarily Italians and Poles. Her secretary was Paolo Savorgnano of Cividale del Friuli and personal physician Giorgio Biandrata, who specialized in gynecology. In 1539 Biandrata published a medical treatise on gynecology entitled Gynaeceorum ex Aristotele et Bonaciolo a Georgio Blandrata medico Subalpino noviter excerpta de fecundatione, gravitate, partu et puerperio, a compilation taken from the writings of Aristotle and from Enneas muliebris by Ludovico Bonaccioli, dedicated to Queen Bona Sforza and her daughter, Isabella Jagiellon. In 1563 John Sigismund Zapolya made him his personal physician and councilor. Biandrata was a Unitarian and one of the co-founders of the Unitarian Churches in Poland and Transylvania.

According to "The Art of Love: an Imitation of Ovid, De Arte Amandi" by William King, published in London in 1709 (page XXI), "Isabella Queen of Hungary, about the year 1540, shewed to Petrus Angelus Barcæus [Pier Angelio Bargeo], when he was at Belgrade, a silver pen with this inscription, Ovidii Nasonis Calamus; denoting that it had belonged to Ovid. This had not long before been found amongst some old ruins, and the esteemed it as a venerable piece of antiquity" (also in: "The Original Works of William King", published in 1776, p. 114). This fragment give some impression of the quality of patronage and collection of Isabella. 

Portrait of Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia in the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest was painted in the style of Andrea Mantegna, an Italian painter and a student of Roman archeology born in Isola di Carturo in the Venetian Republic, who probably never visited Hungary. A portrait of Matthias' son, John Corvinus, in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich is attributed to Baldassare Estense, a painter who worked at the court of the Dukes of Este in Ferrara from 1471 to 1504 and who probably also never visited Hungary. Similar is the case of medal with bust of Queen Beatrice d'Aragona of Naples, Matthias's third wife in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, created in the style of Giovanni Cristoforo Romano, a sculptor born in Rome who later worked as medallist for the courts of Ferrara and Mantua.

After Isabella's death on September 15, 1559 John Sigismund took control of the country. He spoke and wrote in eight languages: Hungarian, Polish, Italian, Latin, Greek, Romanian, German and Turkish. He was a passionate lover of books, as well as music and dance and could play a number of musical instruments. Despite his slim build he adored hunting and made use of the spear on such occasions. He converted from Catholicism to Lutheranism in 1562 and from Lutheranism to Calvinism in 1564. Around five years later, he became the only Unitarian monarch in history and in 1568 he proclaimed freedom of religion in Turda.

In the Treaty of Speyer of 1570 between John Sigismund and the Emperor, Transylvania was recognized as an independent Principality under vassalage to the Ottomans and John Sigismund renounced his royal title. After John Sigismund's death on March 14, 1571, his uncle Sigismund II Augustus, King of Poland, and his aunts inherited a portion of his treasures. 

Papal nuncio Vincenzo dal Portico reported from Warsaw to Rome on August 15, 1571 about the enormous value of the inheritance valued by some at 500,000 thalers, which the king denied, claiming that it was worth only 80,000 thalers. Polish legation returning from Alba Iulia at the beginning of August 1571 brought only some of the valuables to Warsaw, including a great number of gold and silver objects and jewellery, including "1 crown with which the queen was crowned; 1 golden scepter; 1 golden apple" (1 corona, qua regina coronata est; 1 sceptrum aureum; 1 pomum aureum), "4 large, ancient and old-fashioned vases" (4 magnae, antiquae et vetustae amphorae), but also some paintings like "the golden altar, in which is the image of the Blessed Mary, valued at one hundred and forty-eight Hungarian florins" (altare aureum, in quo effigies Beatae Mariae, aestimatum centum quadraginta octo item Ungaricorum) or "portrait of Gastaldi - 4 fl. in the currency" (item Gastaldi effigies - 4 fl. in moneta), perhaps the effigy of Giacomo Gastaldi (ca. 1500-1566), an Italian astronomer and cartographer, who created maps of Poland and Hungary or Giovanni Battista Castaldo. "The image of Castaldi in gilt silver frame" (Imago Castaldi ex argento inaurato fuso), possibly even the same effigy by Titian sold by the Dickinson Gallery, was included in the list of items inherited by the king and his sisters. Among the inheritance, there was also an effigy of Queen Bona, mentioned in the letter of Queen of Sweden Catherine Jagiellon to her sister Sophia, dated August 22, 1572 in Stegeborg. 

"The remains of the legacy of the infanta, which will soon be here, is worth 70 to 80 thousand thalers" (vi resta il legato, della infanta, che sara presto qua che e di valore di 70 in 80 millia tallari) added dal Portico in his message about the inheritance of Intanta Anna Jagiellon (after Katarzyna Gołąbek, "Spadek po Janie Zygmuncie Zápolyi w skarbcu Zygmunta Augusta").

The painting of Madonna and Child with Saint John and angels in the National Museum in Warsaw, attributed to Jacopino del Conte, was purchased in 1939 from F. Godebski. The effigy of the Virgin is identical with portrait of Isabella Jagiellon in the Samek Art Museum. The painting was therefore commissioned shortly after the birth of Isabella's son in 1540. Both paintings were painted on wood panel and are stylistically very close to Florentine Mannerist painters Pontormo, Bronzino or Francesco Salviati. In 1909 in the Przeworsk collection of Prince Andrzej Lubomirski, who also owned Marco Basaiti's Portrait of Nicolaus Copernicus, there was a painting (oil on wood, 53.5 x 39 cm) attributed to 16th century Florentine school, "maybe Jacopo Carrucci called Jacopo da Pontormo (1494-1557)", depicting Madonna and Child (after "Katalog wystawy obrazów malarzy dawnych i współczesnych urządzonej staraniem Andrzejowej Księżny Lubomirskiej" by Mieczysław Treter, item 34, p. 11).

In the National Gallery in London there is a portrait of approximately ten years old boy, also attributed to Jacopino del Conte, in a rich princely costume similar to that visible in a portrait of 19 years old Archduke Ferdinand (1529-1595), governor of Bohemia, son of Anna Jagellonica and Ferdinand I, in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, painted by Jakob Seisenegger in 1548. It was also painted on wooden panel. According to Gallery's description, "although full-length portraits were common in Venice and its states, where pictures were normally painted on canvas, they were rare in Florence where painting on wooden panels persisted longer", it is therefore possible that it was created by a Florentine painter active or trained in Venice, like Salviati who created a portrait of Isabella's brother king Sigismund II Augustus (Mint Museum of Art in Charlotte). The portrait of a boy in London was initially attributed to Pontormo, Bronzino or Salviati and was purchased in Paris in 1860 from Edmond Beaucousin. It was formerly in the collection of the Duke of Brunswick, while in 1556 when Isabella returned with her son to Transylvania, her mother Bona departed through Venice to Bari in southern Italy, Isabella's younger sister Sophia Jagiellon, married Duke Henry V and departed to Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, taking a large dowry and undoubtedly portraits of the members of the royal family. 

The same boy, albeit a little older, was also depicted in a painting which was before 1917 in Wojciech Kolasiński's collection in Warsaw, included in the catalogue of his collection sold in Berlin (item 102). It was painted against a green background and attributed to Jacopo Pontormo. The boy has an order on his chest, similar to the cross of the Knights Hospitaller (Knights of Malta), enemies of the Ottomans, like the cross visible on the coat of the 12-year-old Ranuccio Farnese (1530-1565), who was created prior titular of the Venice Priory of the Order in 1540, in his portrait by Titian, or to the cross of the Order of the Golden Spur, which was frequently awarded by Hungarian monarchs, like in 1522, when István Bárdi was made a knight of the golden spur by king Louis II in presence of several high ranked noble gentlemen. 
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He was finally depicted as a grown-up man in a painting by Jacopo Tintoretto, which was later in the collection of the Spanish Ambassador in Rome and later Viceroy of Naples, Don Gaspar Méndez de Haro, 7th Marquis of Carpio, as his initials D.G.H. are inscribed on the reverse of the canvas with a ducal crown. The painting was later in the collection of Prince Brancaccio in Rome and was sold at an auction in London in 2011. According to Catalogue Note (Sotheby's, 06 July 2011, Lot 58): "The unusual hat with its ornate brooch was not commonly seen on Venetian sitters of this period and has led some to suggest that the sitter was a visitor to Venice rather than a native of the city". If John Sigismund's uncle Sigismund Augustus, commissioned his effigies in Tintoretto's workshop in Venice, the same could John Sigismund. Another contender for the Hungarian crown, Ferdinand of Austria, also commissioned his effigies abroad, like a portrait by Lucas Cranach the Elder in Güstrow Palace, dated '1548' or a portrait by Titian from Spanish royal collection, created in mid-16th century, both most probably basing on some preparatory, study drawings and not seeing the model.   

In all three portraits the boy/man bears great resemblance to effigies of John Sigismund's paternal aunt, Barbara Zapolya, Queen of Poland, and his mother by Cranach and his workshop.

Portrait of Isabella Jagiellon (1519-1559), Queen of Hungary as Madonna and Child with Saint John and angels by Jacopino del Conte, ca. 1540, National Museum in Warsaw.

Portrait of John Sigismund Zapolya (1540-1571), King of Hungary as a child by Jacopino del Conte, ca. 1550, National Gallery in London.

Portrait of John Sigismund Zapolya (1540-1571), King of Hungary as a boy from Kolasiński collection by Jacopino del Conte, ca. 1556, Private collection.

Portrait of John Sigismund Zapolya (1540-1571), King of Hungary by Tintoretto, 1560s, Private collection.

Portraits of Hurrem Sultan and her daughter Mihrimah by Titian and workshop

"May Allah grant Your Royal Majesty long life and make one day a thousand days. The humbled one conveys: When I received your letter filled with love, I was so happy and glad that it is difficult to express it in words. [...] Along with this letter of sympathy, so as not to be empty words, we send two pairs of shirts and trousers with belts, six handkerchiefs and hand and face towels. We ask you to accept and enjoy them, even though the clothes sent are not worthy of you. God willing, next time I'll make them more ornate. In conclusion: may your God grant you long life, and may your state endure forever. Haseki Sultan", is a letter of 1549 (956) from Hurrem Sultan (ca. 1504-1558), the chief consort and legal wife of the Ottoman sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, to elected monarch of Poland-Lithuania Sigismund II Augustus (Central Archives of Historical Records in Warsaw, regest KDT, nr 103). A gift in the form of underwear is an expression of special intimacy between the sultana and the king, who wore shirts made by his sisters (according to documents from 1545 and September 1547).

Hurrem, "the joyful one" in Persian, is known to Europeans as Roxelana - from Roxolania, Ptolemy's name for Ruthenia (especially Ukraine), then part of Poland-Lithuania. According to Samuel Twardowski's "Important legation" (Przeważna legacya iaśnie oświeconego książęcia Krzysztopha Zbaraskiego ...), published in 1633 in Kraków, she was a daughter of Ukrainian Orthodox priest from Rohatyn and she was taken prisoner by the Tatars (z Rochatyna popa była córa, / Oddana niewolnicą do szaraju). She conquered the heart of the sultan, who in 1526 conquered Buda, the capital of Hungary, ending the rule of the Jagiellons in this part of Europe. Twardowski claim that the captive reportedly resorted to witchcraft: "And thus he will make her free / And allow her to his private rooms and his bed; But it was not enough for cunning Ruthenian girl / Using an old Karaite woman for this, / Through stealth toss and hot spells / She put the venom in Soliman's bones, / That the old man's love revived". Breaking the Ottoman tradition, he married Roxelana around 1533, making her his legal wife, and she was the first imperial consort to receive the title Haseki Sultan. In response to the criticism of Suleiman's subjects that he took "a sordid slave" (niewolnice podłej) as his wife, according to Twardowski, her husband claimed that she was "from the Polish country, from the royal blood comes and genus" and that she was a sister of king Sigismund (Że ją siostrą Soliman królewską nazywa [...] Ztąd Zygmunta naszego szwagrem swym mianował). It is tempting to believe that Queen Bona, who was managing Rohatyn from 1534/1535 as part of the royal domain, was behind all this and that these two women prevented further invasion of Central Europe by the Ottoman Empire.

"War not to the detriment of the kingdom, but rather for defense" (Woyna nie ku skazie królestwa, ale raczey ku obronie) was the official state doctrine of "The Realm of Venus, goddess of love" - Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth under the rule of elected Queen Anna Jagiellon, daughter of Bona Sforza, though within the Kingdom itself there were men desirous of breaking it. It was published in 1594 in Kraków in Stanisław Sarnicki's "Statutes and records of Crown privileges" (Statuta y metrika przywileiow Koronnych) under an effigy of Jan Zamoyski, Great Hetman of the Crown.

Hurrem Sultan had four sons named Mehmed (1521), Selim (1524), Bayezid (1525) and Cihangir (1531) and a daughter Mihrimah Sultan (1522). There was also a son Abdullah, but he died at the age of 3. As a sultana (Italian word for wife or female relative of a sultan), Roxelana exerted a very strong influence on the state policy and she supported peaceful relations with Poland-Lithuania. Apart from Sigismund Augustus (letters of 1548 and 1549), she also corresponded with his sister Isabella, Queen of Hungary (1543) and his mother Queen Bona. Jan Kierdej alias Said Beg, who was captured by the Turks during the siege of his family castle in Pomoriany in Red Ruthenia in 1498, when he was eight, traveled to Poland three times as an Ottoman envoy (1531, 1538 and 1543). When in January 1543, Kierdej came with the embassy from the sultan to Sigismund the Old, he also brought the sultana's words to Queen Bona. Both women wanted to postpone or prevent the marriage of Sigismund Augustus with archduchess Elizabeth of Austria.

The Queen of Poland, known for her outstanding artistic taste, acquired works of art and jewels in many places, including Turkey (after "Klejnoty w Polsce ..." by Ewa Letkiewicz, p. 57). The direct contacts of Roxelana with the rulers of the Venetian republic are not documented, but it is in Venice that most of her fictitious or faithful liknesses were created. It can be assumed that a large part of this "production" of portraits was intended for the Polish-Lithuanian market. Many Venetians lived in Poland-Lithuania and in Turkey and many Poles were undoubtedly interested in the life of the "Ruthenian Sultana". Roxelana's son Sultan Selim II (1524-1574), known as Selim "the blond" due to his fair complexion and blond hair, took as concubine Nurbanu Sultan (Cecilia Venier Baffo), a member of a well-known Venetian patrician family, and legally married her in about 1571. Ten letters written by Nurbanu between 1578 and 1583 to several ambassadors and to the Doge preserved in Venice. 

According to Vasari the Venetian painter Titian, although he never visited Istanbul, was commissioned by Suleiman the Magnificent to paint his wife Roxelana (Sultana Rossa) and their daughter Mihrimah (Cameria) (after "Images on the Page ..." by Sanda Miller, p. 84). Titian's portrait of Cameria and her mother was also recorded by Ridolfi. He and his famous workshop also painted the sultan and copies of these effigies are in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna and in private collection. To create the paintings, Titian had to use drawings or miniatures sent from Turkey. 

After World War II, only one known painted image of Queen Bona Sforza, created during her lifetime or close to it, has survived in the former territories of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. It is a miniature from a cycle depicting the Jagiellon family (today in the Czartoryski Museum), made by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Younger (1515-1586) in Wittenberg, Germany in about 1553 basing on a drawing or another miniature sent from Poland-Lithuania. Interestingly, also two effigies of Ottoman Sultanas survived, one is a portrait traditionally identified as Roxelana in the Lviv Historical Museum in Ukraine and the other is a likeness of her daughter Mihrimah in the Masovian Museum in Płock in Poland. Both were creted in the 16th century and come from historical collections of the former Commonwealth. The portrait in Lviv is small painting on wood (38 x 26 cm) and comes from the collection of the Ossolineum, which received it in 1837 from Stanisław Wronowski. The effigy of Mihrimah in Płock was also painted on wood (93 x 69.7 cm) and comes from the collection of the Ślizień family deposited by them with the Radziwills in Zegrze near Warsaw during World War I. Before World War II in the Red Salon of the Zamoyski Palace in Warsaw there was a portrait of the "Turkish Sultana", burnt in 1939 along with all the furnishings of the palace (after "Ars Auro Prior" by Juliusz Chrościcki, p. 285). Such portraits are also documented in Poland-Lithuania much earlier. Inventory of paintings from the collection of princess Louise Charlotte Radziwill (1667-1695), drawn up in 1671, lists the following depictions of Turkish women, some of which may be by Titian: Turkini in a turban plays the viola (295), A young Turkish woman with a feather (315), A young woman from Turkey (316), Turkini in a turban and in sables, a woman by her side (418) (after "Inwentarz galerii obrazów Radziwiłłów z XVII w." by Teresa Sulerzyska).

Some effigies previously considered to represent Catherine Cornaro are now identified as portraits of Roxelana, like the painting in Florence with attributes of Saint Catherine of Alexandria - breaking wheel and halo (Uffizi Gallery, Inv. 1890, 909). It entered the Gallery in 1773 with the attribution to Veronese, but later the Latin inscription Titiani opus - 1542 was found on the back. A very similar portrait inscribed in French ROSSA FEMME DE SOLIMAN EMPEREUR DES TURCS (Rosa, Consort of Suleiman, Emperor of the Turks) is in the Royal Collection at Kensington Palace (RCIN 406152). Her costume is also distinctly Ottoman. Another version of this painting was before 1866 in the Manfrin collection in Venice and Samuelle Levi Pollaco created an etching of the painting with inscription: CATTERINA CORNARO REGINA DI CIPRO. Her outfit is slightly different, and we can see three pyramids in the background, most probably the three main pyramids at Giza in Egypt, at that time a province of the Ottoman Empire (Egypt was conquered by the Ottoman Turks in 1517). Eastern Orthodox Monastery of Saint Catherine of Alexandria, built by order of Byzantine emperor Justinian I at the site where Moses is supposed to have seen the burning bush, sacred to Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, is also in Egypt (Sinai Peninsula). Roxelana was a daughter of an Orthodox priest, hence this monastery was undoubtedly of particular importance to her throughout the Ottoman Empire. A reduced copy of this effigy attributed to studio of Titian was sold as "Portrait of Caterina Cornaro" (Christie's London, July 9, 2021, lot 214). Other bust-length version of this portrait by follower of Titian is in Knole House, Kent (NT 129882). 

The painter used the same face in his famous Venus with a mirror, today in the National Gallery of Art in Washington (inventory number 1937.1.34). This painting remained in the possession of the artist until his death, where it might have inspired visitors to commission similar paintings for themselves, or it might have served as a model for members of the workshop to reproduce. It is also possible that he wanted to have an effigy of this beautiful woman, one of his best clients. 

The painting is usually dated to about 1555, however, it it possible that it was painted much earlier, because "Titian's style and pictorial technique were never uniform and could vary from one work to another, as well as from one decade to another", as noted by Peter Humfrey in the Gallery's Entry for the painting (March 21, 2019). The 1971 X-ray reveals that Titian reused a canvas that once depicted two three-quarter figures standing side by side, possibly work not accepted by a client, and he rotated the canvas 90 degrees. Fern Rusk Shapley compared the double portrait with the so-called Allegory of Alfonso d'Avalos from around 1532 (Louvre in Paris). The portrait of Alfonso d'Avalos with a page, once owned by King John III Sobieski and King Stanislaus Augustus Poniatowski (J. Paul Getty Museum, inventory number 2003.486), is dated to about 1533. Giorgio Tagliaferro suggested that the double portrait was started by the young Paris Bordone while he was an assistant in Titian's studio (probably around 1516 for two years). 

In the mirror held by a cupid, she doesn't seem to see herself, but someone who is looking at her, most likely a man, her husband. Another cupid crowns her head with a wreath. This work is considered the finest surviving version of a composition executed in many variants by Titian and his workshop, some of the best of which are in the State Hermitage Museum, acquired in 1814 from the collection of Empress Josephine in Malmaison near Paris (inventory number ГЭ-1524), and in the Gemäldegalerie in Dresden (inventory number Gal.-Nr. 178). A version which was owned by the king of Spain (lost) was copied by Peter Paul Rubens (Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum Madrid, 350 (1957.5)).

The same woman, in similar pose and costume to the work in Florence was depicted in a painting attributed to workshop of Titian, today in the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Florida (inventory number SN58). It comes from the Riccardi collection in Florence, sold to Lucien Bonaparte (1775-1840), younger brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, exactly like the "Portrait of the Duchess Sforza" (Portrait of Queen Bona Sforza) by Titian. Therfore both portraits - of the Queen of Poland and the Sultana of the Ottoman Empire were most probably created at the same time in Venice and sent to Florence. She is holding a little pet, most probably a mink or a weasel, a talisman for fertility. The flower in her décolletage might indicate, that she is a bride or newly wed woman. Slighly different version of this painting is in private collection. She was also depicted in another portrait by Titian (National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1939.1.292), wearing a similar green dress, a color being symbolic of fertility. She cradles an apple in her hands, which in art often connotes female sexuality. This painting was probably owned by Michel Particelli d'Hémery (1596-1650) in Paris, France. The Franco-Ottoman Alliance, one of the longest-lasting and most important foreign alliances of France, was formed in 1536 between the King of France Francis I and the Sultan Suleiman I. Beyond doubt, the French king had likenesses of the sultan and his influential wife.

Numerous variants and copies of this portrait exist. In a similar portrait from private collection in Veneto (sold at Dorotheum in Vienna, 17.10.2017, lot 233) her Ottoman dress is pink, a symbol of marriage, and she is preparing her bridal wreath (similar to that visible on her head in the Washington version). The style of this painting is particularly close to Giovanni Cariani. It would be rather unusual if a Christian noblewoman from Venice would be dressed in Ottoman attire for her wedding. Therefore, through these portraits, the "Ruthenian girl" wanted to announce to the world that she is not a concubine, but the legal wife of the Sultan. After 1543 a follower of Titian, most probably Alessandro Varotari (1588-1649), known as Il Padovanino, copied other version of this painting with model holding an empty vase (Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden, Gal.-Nr. 173). 

The portrait identified as Roxelana from the collection of Sir Richard Worsley in Appuldurcumbe House, Isle of Wight (1804, as by 'Gentile Bellino') by follower of Titian depicts her holding an empty vase. Together with Latin inscription on the column "all is vanity" (OMNIA VANITAS) it might symbolize a great loss. On 7 November 1543 the eldest son of Hurrem Sultan, Prince Mehmed, died in Manisa, probably of smallpox. The sultana most probably knew Latin, as the Roman Catholic community was present in Rohatyn since the Middle Ages. Her large turban and face resemble the Lviv portrait. The style of this painting is also close to Giovanni Cariani. 

Similar to the Lviv likeness, also the effigy of Mihrimah (Cameria) in Płock has a counterpart made by workshop of Titian, today in the Courtauld Gallery in London, a copy of a lost original by Titian. It comes from the collection of Count Antoine Seilern (1901-1978), an Anglo-Austrian art collector and art historian. Like her mother, she was depicted with a spiked wheel, used to identify Saint Catherine of Alexandria. A study for this portrait by Titian or his workshop is in the Albertina in Vienna (inventory number 1492). The portrait of Cameria in the Musée Fabre in Montpellier (inventory number 65.2.1) was created by Sofonisba Anguissola (signature: PINXIT SOPHONISBE ANGUSSOLA VIRGO CRE. XIII SUCC). 

Like Queen Bona, who successfully ruled in the world dominated by men, the "Ruthenian girl" was well aware of the power of the image and conveyed the splendor of her reign through paintings created by the Venetian workshop of Titian. 

Portrait of Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana, ca. 1504-1558) as a bride by workshop of Titian, ca. 1533, John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota. 

Portrait of Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana, ca. 1504-1558) as a bride by workshop of Titian, ca. 1533, Private collection. 

Portrait of Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana, ca. 1504-1558) as a bride holding an apple by Titian, ca. 1533, National Gallery of Art in Washington. 

Portrait of Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana, ca. 1504-1558) as a bride holding her bridal wreath by workshop of Titian or Giovanni Cariani, ca. 1533, Private collection.

Portrait of Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana, ca. 1504-1558) holding an empty vase by follower of Titian, most probably Alessandro Varotari, after 1543, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden.

Portrait of Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana, ca. 1504-1558) as Venus with a mirror by Titian, ca. 1533 or after, National Gallery of Art in Washington. 

Portrait of Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana, ca. 1504-1558) as Venus with a mirror by workshop of Titian, ca. 1533 or after, The State Hermitage Museum. 

Portrait of Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana, ca. 1504-1558) as Venus with a mirror by workshop of Titian, ca. 1533 or after, Gemäldegalerie in Dresden. 

Portrait of Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana, ca. 1504-1558) with pyramids by Titian, ca. 1542, Private collection. 

Portrait of Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana, ca. 1504-1558) as Saint Catherine of Alexandria by workshop of Titian, 1542, Uffizi Gallery. 

Portrait of Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana, ca. 1504-1558) by workshop of Titian, ca. 1542, Private collection.

Portrait of Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana, ca. 1504-1558) by follower of Titian, ca. 1542, Knole House.

Portrait of Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana, ca. 1504-1558) holding an empty vase by follower of Titian or Giovanni Cariani, ca. 1543, Private collection. 

Preparatory drawing for a portrait of Mihrimah Sultan (Cameria, 1522-1578) by Titian or workshop, after 1541, Albertina in Vienna.

Portrait of Mihrimah Sultan (Cameria, 1522-1578) as Saint Catherine of Alexandria by workshop of Titian, after 1541, Courtauld Gallery in London.

Portrait of Mihrimah Sultan (Cameria, 1522-1578) by unknown painter after Titian, after 1541, Masovian Museum in Płock.

Portrait of royal courtier Jan Krzysztoporski by Bernardino Licinio

The interpretation of classical architecture by Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508-1580), known as Palladianism, revived by early 18th century British architects, become the dominant architectural style until the end of the century. The work of the architect and his effigies become highly demanded goods. 

That is why an owner of a portrait of an unkown nobleman by Bernardino Licinio, possibly a painter, decided to turn it into a portrait of the famous architect. He added an inscription in Latin (ANDREAS. PALADIO. A.) and a set-square and a compass in sitter's right hand to make his "forgery" even more probable. The portrait, today in Kensington Palace, was acquired in 1762 by king George III from Joseph Smith, British Consul in Venice.

Wooden attributes of a simple architect contrast sharply with opulent costume of the sitter, crimson doublet of Venetian silk, gold rings with precious stones and a coat lined with expensive Eastern fur. Also the man depicted is more Eastern type than an Italian. Such expensive, usually metal instrument, as compass is clearly exposed in the portraits of architects by Lorenzo Lotto, while in Licinio's portrait is barely visible. The little finger is a proof that the attributes were added later, as its appearance is anatomically impossible to hold a set-square and a compass. 

According to original inscription (ANNOR. XXIII. M.DXLI) the sitter was 23 in 1541, exactly as Jan Krzysztoporski (1518-1585), a nobleman of Nowina coat of arms from central Poland.

Between 1537-1539 he studied in Lutheran Wittenberg, under the direction of Philip Melanchthon, recommended to him by "the father of Polish democracy" Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski. Then he went for further studies to Padua (entred as loannes Christophorinus), where on May 4, 1540, he was elected a counselor of the Polish nation. In January 1541, he welcomed in Treviso, close to Venice, the Chancellor Jan Ocieski (1501-1563) on his way to Rome. After returning to Poland, he was admitted to the royal court on 2 July 1545 and in 1551 he was made the royal secretary. He was an envoy of king Sigismund Augustus to Pope Julius III in 1551, to Joachim II Hector, Elector of Brandenburg in 1552 and to Isabella Jagiellon, Queen of Hungary in 1553.

As a follower of Calvinism, he founded a congregation of this religion in his estate in Bogdanów, near Piotrków Trybunalski. He also had a large library in his brick fortified manor in Wola Krzysztoporska, which he built, destroyed during subsequent wars.

Portrait of royal courtier Jan Krzysztoporski (1518-1585) by Bernardino Licinio, 1541, Kensington Palace.

Portraits of Jan Krzysztoporski, Jan Turobińczyk and Wandula von Schaumberg by Hans Mielich

Around 1536, a German painter Hans Mielich (also Milich, Muelich or Müelich), born in Munich, went to Regensburg, where he worked under the influence of Albrecht Altdorfer and the Danube School. He stayed there till 1540, when he returned to Munich. At that time, from 1539 to 1541, Regensburg was a place of meetings between representatives of the various Christian communities and debates between Catholics and Protestants, climaxing in the Regensburg Colloquy, also known as Diet of Regensburg (1541). Among the people vividly interested in the debates were Jan Łaski (Johannes a Lasco, 1499-1560), a Polish Calvinist reformer, later involved in translation project of the Radziwill Bible, who studied in Mainz in the winter of 1539/40, and Wandula von Schaumberg (1482-1545), the Princess-abbess of the Imperial Obermünster Abbey in Regensburg from 1536, who had a seat and vote in the Imperial Diet. In 1536 Mielich created a painting of Crucifixion of Christ with his monogram, date and coat of arms of the von Schaumberg family, today in the Landesmuseum in Hannover, most probably commissioned by Wandula.

A portrait of a wealthy old woman in a black dress, white cap and a wimple by Hans Mielich in the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya in Barcelona, deposit of the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection, comes from the collection of a mysterious Count J. S. Tryszkiewicz in his French castle of Birre. No such person and castle are confirmed in sources, however Count Jan Tyszkiewicz, who died in Paris on June 9, 1901, was owner of the Birzai Castle in Lithuania and a son of renowned art collector, Michał Tyszkiewicz. Both the family as well as the castle were known differently in different languages of the multicultural nation, hence the mistake is justified. Before the Tyszkiewicz family, Birzai Castle was the main seat of the Calvinist branch of the Radziwill family. According to inscription in German, the woman in the painting was 57 in 1539 (MEINES ALTERS IM . 57 . IAR . / 1539 / HM), exactly as Wandula von Schaumberg, who like the Radziwills was the Imperial Princess.
 
In 1541 the artist went to Rome, probably at the instigation of Duke William IV of Bavaria. He remained in Italy till at least 1543 and after his return, on 11 July 1543 he was admitted to the Munich painters' guild. Hans was a court painter of the next Duke, Albert V of Bavaria and his wife Anna of Austria (1528-1590), daughter of Anna Jagellonica (1503-1547) and younger sister of Elizabeth of Austria (1526-1545), first wife of Sigismund II Augustus. Albert and Anna were married on 4 July 1546 in Regensburg. 

On his way to Rome, Mielich most probably stopped in Padua, where in 1541 Andreas Hertwig (1513-1575), a member of patrician family from Wrocław, obtained the degree of doctor of both laws at the age of 28. Hertwig commissioned his portrait, today in the National Museum in Warsaw.

On December 10, 1540 Jan Ocieski of the Jastrzębiec coat of arms (1501-1563), secretary of king Sigismund I set off on a diplomatic mission from Kraków. It is possible that he was accompanied by Jan Turobińczyk (Joannes Turobinus, 1511-1575), an expert on Cicero and Ovid, who after studies in Kraków in 1538 became the secretary of the bishop of Płock and other secretary of the king, Jakub Buczacki, and for two years he moved to the bishop's court in Pułtusk. When Buczacki died on 6 May 1541, he lost his protector and moved to Kraków, where he decided to continue his studies. Jan was later ordained a priest in about 1545, he lectured on Roman law and he was elected rector of the Kraków Academy in 1561.

A portrait of a man holding gloves in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg is very similar to the portrait of Andreas Hertwig in Warsaw. According to inscription on the back, the man depicted is also Andreas Hertwig, hence the portrait is attributed to so-called Master of the Andreas Hertwig Portrait. Facial features, however, do not match and according to original inscription in Latin the man was 30 on 8 May 1541 (M D XXXXI / D VIII MAI / AETATIS XXX), exactly as Jan Turobińczyk when the news of the death of his protector could reach him in Italy and when he could decide to change his life and return to studies.

Another similar portrait to the effigy of Andreas Hertwig in Warsaw is in private collection. The young man in a rich costume was depicted against a green background. According to inscription in Latin he was 25 on 22 November 1543 (M. D. XLIII. DE. XX. NOVEMBE / .AETATIS. XXV), exactly as Jan Krzysztoporski, who around that time was still in Italy. His facial features are similar to the portrait by Bernardino Licinio created just two years earlier, in 1541 (Kensington Palace). The difference in eye color is probably due to technique and style of painting. Rings on his finger are almost identical on both paintings and coat of arms on the signet ring visible on the portrait from 1543 is very similar to Nowina coat of arms as shown in the 15th century Armorial de l'Europe et de la Toison d'or (Bibliothèque nationale de France). The letters on the signet can be read as IK (Ioannes Krzysztoporski).

At the beginning of the 17th century, the court painter of the Polish-Lithuanian Vasas was Christian Melich, who, according to some sources, came from Antwerp. This, however, does not exclude the possibility that he was a relative of Hans Mielich. He created one of the oldest views of Warsaw, now in Munich, most probably from the dowry of Anna Catherine Constance Vasa. 

Portrait of Princess-abbess Wandula von Schaumberg (1482-1545) aged 57, from the Radziwill Castle in Birzai by Hans Mielich, 1539, Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya.

Portrait of Jan Turobińczyk (1511-1575) aged 30 by Hans Mielich, 1541, Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg.

Portrait of Jan Krzysztoporski (1518-1585) aged 25 by Hans Mielich, 1543, Private collection.

Portraits of Françoise de Luxembourg-Ligny by Hans Besser and workshop of Lucas Cranach the Younger

Streets, houses, temples, public baths and other edifices of Antient Greece and Rome were full of statues, frescoes and mosacis showing naked gods and rulers. Surely in such temperatures in the south of Europe, where Bona Sforza was raised, it was easier to undress than to get dressed. More to the north the situation was quite opposite, to protect from cold, people dressed up and rarely could see any nudity, thus become more prudish in this regard. Renaissance redisovered the nude statues and paintings of the ancient and today some televison programs reinvented the concept that is good to see a potential partner naked before any engagement, at least for some people. 
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In 1549 Emperor Charles V (1500-1558) commissioned a bronze statue of himself as a naked ancient god and the detachable armour, so the statue could be dressed. The sculpture, created in Milan by Italian sculptors Leone and Pompeo Leoni, was presented to the Emperor in Brussels in 1556 and later transported to Madrid, today in the Prado Museum (inventory number E000273).

In 1535 Françoise de Luxembourg-Ligny, a daughter of Count Charles I of Ligny and Charlotte d'Estouteville, married Bernhard III, Margrave of Baden-Baden. Françoise was a Countess of Brienne and Ligny and heiress of the County of Roussy. She was about 15 years old and the groom 61 at the time of their marriage. Almost a year after the wedding she bore her husband a son Philibert, born on 22 January 1536. Bernhard died on 29 June 1536 and their second son Christopher was born on 26 February 1537, posthumously.

Next years were filled with disputes over the custody of the children, which was claimed by their uncle Ernest, Margrave of Baden-Durlach who favored Lutheranism and Duke William IV of Bavaria, husband of Bernhard's niece Marie Jakobaea of Baden-Sponheim, a staunch Catholic. In agreement with Françoise, her eldest son Philibert spent part of his youth at the court of Duke William IV in Munich.

Françoise remarried on 19 April 1543 to Count Adolf IV of Nassau-Idstein (1518-1556), who was more of her age, and she bore him three children. 

In 1549 Hans Besser, court painter of Frederick II, Elector Palatine created a series of portraits of Françoise's eldest sons Philibert and Christopher (in Munich, from the collections of the Dukes of Bavaria and in Vienna, from the Habsburg collection). In 1531 Frederick of Palatine was a candidate to the hand of Princess Hedwig Jagiellon, he must have received her portrait, most probably in the popular "guise" of Venus and Cupid. 

A painting showing Venus and Cupid in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich from about 1540 is painted in the form typical for Cranach's Venuses. Its style, however, is not typical for Cranach and his workshop, hence this painting is also attributed to a Cranach's copist from the early 17th century Heinrich Bollandt. The painting was acquired in 1812 from Bayreuth Palace. In 1541, a grandson of Sophia Jagiellon, sister of king Sigismund I of Poland, Albert Alcibiades, Margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach received Bayreuth. He assisted Emperor Charles V in his war with France in 1543 but soon deserted Charles, and joined the league which proposed to overthrow the Emperor by an alliance with French king Henry II. He spent the last years of his life in Pforzheim with the family of his sister Kunigunde, who was married to Charles II of Baden, nephew of Bernhard III. Albert Alcibiades was unmarried, so the match with a widowed Margravine of Baden, and a French noble, would be perfect for him. 

Slightly different and somewhat smaller repetition of the motif in Munich was sold in Brussels on November 7, 2000.

Similar painting, from the Rastatt Palace, was cut into pieces before 1772 and preserved fragments are now in the Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe (Venus with a tiara and Cupid with an arrow). The Rastatt Palace was built between 1700 and 1707 by an Italian architect for Margrave Louis William of Baden-Baden, a direct descendant of Françoise de Luxembourg-Ligny.

The same woman as in the above mentioned paintings was also depicted in a series of portraits by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Younger. Most probaly all depicted her as Salome and some of them were cut later, so that the upper part could be sold as a portrait and the lower part as Saint John the Baptist. Basing on the woman's outfit they should be dated to late 1530s or early 1540s, however one of these portraits from the old collection of the Friedenstein Palace in Gotha, where there is an effigy of Hedwig Jagiellon as the Virgin, is dated 1549. A copy of the latter painting from the collection of the Dukes of Brunswick is in the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum. The portrait now in the State Gallery in Johannisburg Palace in Aschaffenburg, comes from the art collection of Hermann Goering and other, sold in 2012, was in the collection of Prince Serge Koudacheff in St. Petersburg, before 1902. Another, signed with monogram HVK, was before 1930 in the inventory of Veste Coburg. There is also a version as Judith with the head of Holofernes in the Sanssouci Palace in Potsdam and several paintings where the woman was depicted in the satirical scene of the ill-matched couple, some of which are attributed to another 17th century copist of Cranach, Christian Richter. Facial features in all these effigies greatly resemble portraits of sons of Françoise de Luxembourg-Ligny by Hans Besser and stylistically some of these works are very close to portraits by this court painter.

Portrait of Françoise de Luxembourg-Ligny (d. 1566), Margravine of Baden-Baden as Venus and Cupid by Hans Besser or workshop of Lucas Cranach the Younger, ca. 1540, Alte Pinakothek in Munich.

Portrait of Françoise de Luxembourg-Ligny (d. 1566), Margravine of Baden-Baden as Venus with a tiara by Hans Besser or workshop of Lucas Cranach the Younger, ca. 1540, Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe. 

Portrait of Françoise de Luxembourg-Ligny (d. 1566), Margravine of Baden-Baden by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Younger, 1535-1549, Johannisburg Palace in Aschaffenburg. 

Portrait of Françoise de Luxembourg-Ligny (d. 1566), Margravine of Baden-Baden by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Younger, 1535-1549, Private collection. 

Portrait of Françoise de Luxembourg-Ligny (d. 1566), Margravine of Baden-Baden by monogramist HVK, 1535-1549, Private collection. 

Portrait of Françoise de Luxembourg-Ligny (d. 1566), Margravine of Baden-Baden as Salome by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Younger, 1549, Friedenstein Palace in Gotha. 

Ill-Matched Couple, caricature of Françoise de Luxembourg-Ligny (d. 1566), Margravine of Baden-Baden and her husband by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Younger or Christian Richter, 1535-1566 or early 17th century, Private collection. 

Portraits of Barnim IX of Pomerania-Szczecin, his wife and his three daughters by Lucas Cranach the Elder, his son and workshop

In 1543 three daughters of Barnim IX, Duke of Pomerania-Szczecin and his wife Anna of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Maria (1527-1554), Dorothea (1528-1558) and Anna (1531-1592), reached the legal age of marriage (12). That same year on May 6, 1543, Barnim's young cousin, king Sigismund Augustus of Poland married Elizabeth of Austria (1526-1545). 

Three of Sigismund Augustus' sisters Sophia, Anna and Catherine were also unmarried and Barnim's uncle Sigismund I hoped to find a suitable husband for each of them. Due to the kinship of the ruling families of Poland-Lithuania and Pomerania, they undoubtedly exchanged some effigies. 

Almost a year later on July 16, 1544 Maria, the eldest daughter of Barnim, married Count Otto IV of Holstein-Schaumburg-Pineberg (1517-1576). Dorothea had to wait ten years more to marry Count John I of Mansfeld-Hinterort (d. 1567) on July 8, 1554 and Anna married three times, first to Prince Charles I of Anhalt-Zerbst (1534-1561) in 1557, then to Burgrave Henry VI of Plauen (1536-1572) in 1566 and then to Count Jobst II of Barby-Mühlingen (1544-1609) in 1576.

A small painting of Hercules and Omphale by Lucas Cranach the Elder and workshop in the National Museum in Warsaw is very similar to the painting from the Mielżyński collection in Poznań, showing the family of Sigismund I in 1537. Dimensions (48.7 x 74.8 cm / 48 x 73 cm), the composition, even the poses and costumes are very similar. This painting was most probably transferred during the World War II to the Nazi German Art Repository in Kamenz (Kamieniec Ząbkowicki), possibly from the Silesian Museum of Fine Arts in Wrocław. Around 1543 the ruler of nearby Legnica was Frederick II, like Barnim a strong supporter of the Reformation and his distant relative. Both dukes had close ties with nearby Poland-Lithuania. Frederick's younger son George, future George II of Legnica-Brzeg, was unmarried at that time. It cannot be excluded that the ruling family of Legnica received this fashionable portrait of Barnim's family in guise of mythological heroes. The work match perfectly the ruling house of Pomerania-Szczecin in about 1543 and face features of Hercules and Omphale are very similar to other portraits of Barnim IX and his wife. 

The above described painting is a reduced version of a larger composition which was in the Stemmler collection in Cologne, now in private collection. It is very similar to the portrait of Barnim's family as Hercules and Omphale from 1532 in Berlin (lost). The effigy of Maria of Pomerania-Szczecin with a duck above her, a symbol of marital fidelity and intelligence, is almost identical with the effigy of her mother Anna of Brunswick-Lüneburg from the earlier painting. 

The whole composition is based on a preparatory drawing that preserved in the Museum of Prints and Drawings in Berlin (Kupferstichkabinett, inventory number 13712), signed with a monogram L.G., most probably created by Cranach's pupil who was sent to Szczecin or Barnim's court painter. 

All of Barnim's daughters, including the youngest Sibylla, born in 1541, were depicted in a large painting created by Cornelius Krommeny in 1598 and showing the Family tree of the House of Pomerania, today in the National Museum in Szczecin. 

A portrait of a young lady as Salome in the bridal crown on her head in the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest, is almost identical with the effigy of Maria of Pomerania-Szczecin in both of mentioned paintings of Hercules and Omphale. This portrait was recorded in 1770 in the Bratislava Castle, the formal seat of the kings of Hungary, and later transferred to the imperial collections in Vienna. The same woman was depicted as Lucretia in the painting by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, which was before 1929 in private collection in Amsterdam, today in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich and as Venus with Cupid as the honey thief from the collection of the Princes of Liechtenstein in Vienna, today in the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo. 

A portrait of a lady as Judith in green dress in the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin, purchased in 1879 from the collection of Mr. Cox in London, match perfectly the effigy of Dorothea of Pomerania-Szczecin in described paintings. Her pose and outfit is very similar to that of Dorothea's mother in both paintings of Hercules and Omphale. Two representations of Lucretia attributed to Lucas Cranach the Younger, one from the Galerie Attems in Gorizia, today in the Eggenberg Palace in Graz and the other purchased in 1934 by the Kunstmuseum Basel, are also very similar to the effigy of Dorothea. 

Salome with the head of Saint John the Baptist in the bridal crown, which was formerly in the collection of the King of Württemberg, now in the Bob Jones University Museum and Gallery in Greenville is identical with the effigy of the youngest daughter of Barnim in the Warsaw's painting. The painter evidently used the same template drawing to create both miniatures. Another very similar Salome, attributed to Cranach the Younger, comes from the collection of the Ambras Castle built by Archduke Ferdinand II of Austria (1529-1595), the second son of Anna Jagellonica and Emperor Ferdinand I. It was offered in 1930 by Gustaf Werner to the Gothenburg Museum of Art. The painter added a fantastic landscape in the background. Finally there is a painting of Venus and Cupid as the honey thief from the same period in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg, also atrributed to Cranach the Younger. Venus' face is identical with the portrait of Anna of Pomerania-Szczecin in the painting from Stemmler collection. The painting comes from the residence of the Catholic Bishops of Freising, where it was known as Saint Juliana. It cannot be excluded that it was originally in the Polish-Lithuanian royal collection and was transferred to nearby Neuburg an der Donau with the collection of Princess Anna Catherine Constance Vasa or brought by some other eminent Polish-Lithuanian lady.

In the National Museum in Warsaw there is also a painting showing a moralistic subject of the ill-matched couple by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder or his son from the third quarter of the 16th century. It was aquired by the Museum in 1865 from the collection of Henryk Bahré. The woman has slipped her hand inside the old man's purse, which leaves no doubt as to the basis of this relationship. Her face and costume is based on the same set of template drawings which were used to create portraits of Anna of Pomerania-Szczecin. The painting is of a high quality, therefore the patron who commissioned it was wealthy. While Georgia of Pomerania (1531-1573), daughter of George I, brother of Barnim, married in 1563 a Polish nobleman and a Lutheran, Stanisław Latalski (1535-1598), starost of Inowrocław and Człuchów, her cousin Anna opted for titular and hereditary German princes in her subsequent marriages. It is therefore possible that this painting was commissioned by the royal court or a magnate from Poland-Lithuania.

Preparatory drawing for a portrait of Barnim IX of Pomerania-Szczecin, his wife and his three daughters as Hercules and Omphale's maids by Monogrammist L.G. or workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1543, Museum of Prints and Drawings in Berlin.

Portrait of Barnim IX of Pomerania-Szczecin, his wife and his three daughters as Hercules and Omphale's maids by Lucas Cranach the Elder and workshop, ca. 1543, Private collection.

Portrait of Barnim IX of Pomerania-Szczecin, his wife and his three daughters as Hercules and Omphale's maids by Lucas Cranach the Elder and workshop, ca. 1543, National Museum in Warsaw.

Portrait of Maria of Pomerania-Szczecin (1527-1554) as Salome with the head of Saint John the Baptist by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1539-1543, Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest.

Portrait of Maria of Pomerania-Szczecin (1527-1554) as Lucretia by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1543, Alte Pinakothek in Munich.

Portrait of Maria of Pomerania-Szczecin (1527-1554) as Venus with Cupid as the honey thief by Lucas Cranach the Elder or his son, ca. 1543, Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo.

Portrait of Dorothea of Pomerania-Szczecin (1528-1558) as Judith with the head of Holofernes by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1543-1550, National Gallery of Ireland.

Portrait of Dorothea of Pomerania-Szczecin (1528-1558) as Lucretia by Lucas Cranach the Younger, ca. 1543-1550, Eggenberg Palace in Graz.

Portrait of Dorothea of Pomerania-Szczecin (1528-1558) as Lucretia by Lucas Cranach the Younger, ca. 1543-1550, Kunstmuseum Basel.

Portrait of Anna of Pomerania-Szczecin (1531-1592) as Salome with the head of Saint John the Baptist by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1543, Bob Jones University Museum and Gallery in Greenville.

Portrait of Anna of Pomerania-Szczecin (1531-1592) as Salome with the head of Saint John the Baptist by Lucas Cranach the Younger, ca. 1543-1550, Gothenburg Museum of Art.

Portrait of Anna of Pomerania-Szczecin (1531-1592) as Venus and Cupid as the honey thief by Lucas Cranach the Younger, ca. 1543-1550, Germanisches Nationalmuseum.

Ill-matched couple, caricature of Anna of Pomerania-Szczecin (1531-1592) by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder or his son, third quarter of the 16th century, National Museum in Warsaw.

Portrait of Sigismund Augustus in armour by Giovanni Cariani 

"Come poor people with joy and drink without charge the water that Bona, Queen of Poland provided" (Pauperes sitientes venite cum laetitia et sine argento. Bibite aquas, quas Bona regina Poloniae preparavit) is the Latin inscription on one of the two cisterns which is still near the Bari Cathedral, the other, of which there are no traces today, was located in the area of the Church of San Domenico and only the inscription is known (Bona regina Poloniae preparavit piscinas. Pauperes sitientes venite cum laetitia et sine argento). The queen was a great benefactress to this archiepiscopal city and, among other timely gifts, increased the number of public fountains. From Poland she directed many interventions in her duchy to improve the life and the prosperity of the inhabitants, building canals, wells, aided churches with donations. 

Bona also tried to expand her possessions in Italy. In 1536 she bought the city of Capurso and in 1542 she also bought the county of Noia and Triggiano. To reach the amount necessary for the purchase of the county (68,000 ducats) she imposed new taxes, and on this occasion the municipality of Bari complained that Modugno near Bari is "praised and loved more than this city (Bari) from Y.M. (Your Majesty)" (laudata e amata più di questa città (Bari) dalla M.V. (maestà vostra)). The queen cared very much about her hereditary principalities of Bari and Rossano and wanted her son to inherit them.

Among the many Italians at the Polish-Lithuanian royal court, many came from Bari. In the 1530s and 1540s, there were two physicians from Bari at the court - Giacomo Zofo (Jacobus Zophus Bariensis), who was called Sacrae Mtis phisicus in 1537, and Giacomo Ferdinando da Bari (Jacobus Ferdinandus Bariensis), who published two treatises in Kraków (De foelici connubio serenissimi Ungariae regis Joannis et S. Isabellae Poloniae regis filiae, 1539 and De regimine a peste praeservativo tractatus, 1543). In 1537 there were also Scipio Scholaris Barensis Italus, royal secretary and provost of Sandomierz, Cleofa, sub-cantor of the Cathedral of St. Nicholas in Bari (Cleophas Succantor Ecclac S. Nicolai, Barensis) who was the brother of Sigismondo, the royal chef, Teodoro de Capittelis and Sabino de Saracenis. On Bona's recommendation, in 1545, the lawyer Vincenzo Massilla (or Massilio, 1499-1580) developed the Bari code of customary law (Commentarii super consuetudinibus praeclarae civitatis Bari) written in Kraków during the years of residence at the Polish court and completed in Padua, first published in 1550 by Giacomo Fabriano and then by Bernardino Basa in Venice in 1596. Massilla was a well-known jurist and become advisor of the queen. In 1538 he held the position of governor of Rossano and moved to Kraków as auditor general for the feudal states held by Bona Sforza in southern Italy. She also sought permission to appoint the bishops of Bari and Rossano, but the pope refused. In 1543 Queen Bona returned to her plan of the sale of the Duchy of Rossano and for this purpose the representative of the city of Rossano - Felice Brillo (Britio) came to Poland. Few years later, on August 30, 1549, Luigi Zifando from Bari (Siphandus Loisius hortulanus Italus Barensis) was admitted as the royal gardener. Several people from Modugno near Bari were in service of the queen and later of her son Sigismund Augustus, like Girolamo Cornale, who died in Warsaw, and priests Vito Pascale and mentioned Scipione Scolaro or Scolare (Scholaris). When in Poland, in 1550, Pascale built himself a palace in Modugno (Palazzo Pascale-Scarli), the architecture of which is attributed to the influence of the Florentine architect Bartolomeo Berecci working in Poland.

The court of Bona's son Sigismund Augustus in Vilnius was also dominated by Italians, like two singers of the queen, Erasmo and Silvester, incisor gemmarum Jacopo Caraglio, pharmacist Floro Carbosto, locksmith - Domenico, builders - Gasparus and Martinus, sculptor Bartholomeo, musician Sebaldus, harper Franciscus, caretaker of the Italian royal stallions Marino, goldsmiths: Antonio, Vincentino, Christoforus and Bartholomeo, tailor Pietro and the bricklayer Benedictus. The king favored the Italian style in his attire, and he usually wear a short Italian caftan of black silk or a German one of black cloth from Vicenza over the shirt. The most expensive part of his outfit was a sable cap, a germak coat made of black damask, lined with dormouse fur, and an Italian, gilded, sword, "a gift from Bari". Among the expensive furnishings of his three-room apartment in the new Vilnius Castle were Venetian mirrors - one of them in precious frames decorated with pearls and silver. Venetian glass was delivered to the court by Vilnius merchants, Morsztyn and Łojek (after "Zygmunt August: Wielki Książę Litwy do roku 1548" by Ludwik Kolankowski, p. 329, 332).

In the Parmeggiani Gallery in Reggio Emilia (Musei Civici) there is a "Portrait of a warrior", attributed to Giovanni Cariani, who died in Venice in 1547 (oil on canvas, 95 x 77 cm, inventory number 76). It comes from the collection of Luigi Francesco Giovanni Parmeggiani (1860-1945), an Italian anarchist, forger, art dealer and collector, who before inaugurating his gallery in 1928 in his hometown, lived mainly in Brussels, London and Paris. The young man is holding his hand on a helmet. His expensive suit of armour indicates that he is a member of the aristocracy, a knight, and the landscape behind him undoubtedly represents his castle. Only one tower is visible and a church to the right. This layout and shape of the towers correspond with the Bari Castle (Castello Normanno-Svevo, Ciastello) and Bari Cathedral (Arciuescouato) as seen from the "Royal Gate" (Porta Reale) and depicted in an early 18th century print by Michele Luigi Muzio (structures C, A and H). The man's face is very reminiscent of the images of the young Sigismund Augustus, who at that time was considered as a successor of his mother in the Duchy of Bari. 

The paintings of the Venetian school are among the most valuable linked to Bari or the region - Saint Peter the Martyr from the Santa Maria la Nova Church in Monopoli by Giovanni Bellini, Throning Madonna and Child with Saint Henry of Uppsala and Saint Anthony of Padua by Paris Bordone or the Virgin and Child with Saint Catherine of Alexandria and Saint Ursula with a donor from Ardizzone family from the Bari Cathedral by Paolo Veronese (Pinacoteca metropolitana di Bari).

Portrait of Sigismund II Augustus in armour against the view of the castle in Bari by Giovanni Cariani, ca. 1543, Parmeggiani Gallery in Reggio Emilia.

Portrait of Barbara Radziwill, Elizabeth of Austria and Sigismund Augustus as Flora, Juno and Jupiter by Paris Bordone

Ovid in Fasti V relates the story of Juno, queen of the gods, who annoyed with her husband Jupiter for producing Minerva from his own head by the stroke of Vulcan's axe, complained to Flora, goddess of fertility and blossoming plants. Flora, gave her secretly a flower, by only touching which women immediately became mothers. It was by this means that Juno gave birth to the god Mars. The Renaissance represented Flora under two aspects, Flora Primavera, embodiment of genuine marital love, and Flora Meretrix, prostitute and courtesan whom Hercules won for a night in a wager.

Because Hercules' mother was mortal, Jupiter put him to the breast of his wife, knowing that Hercules would acquire immortality through her milk and according to the myth the droplets of milk crystallized to form the Milky Way. As Juno Lucina (Juno the light-bringer) she watched over pregnancy, childbirth, and mothers and as Juno Regina (Juno the Queen) she was the patron goddess of Rome and the Roman Empire.

In the painting by Paris Bordone in the Hermitage Museum, Flora receives flowers and herbs from Cupid, the god of desire and erotic love and son of Mars and Venus. Cupid is also crowning the head of Juno with a wreath. The queen of the gods is taking the herbs from the hand of Flora, hoping she was unnoticed by her husband Jupiter Dolichenus, the "oriental" king of the gods holding an axe, who stands behind her.

The message of the painting is clear, thanks to the mistress the queen is fertile. The protagonists are therfore "oriental" king Sigismund Augustus as Jupiter, his first wife queen Elizabeth of Austria, daughter of King of the Romans as Juno, and Sigismund Augustus' mistress Barbara Radziwill as Flora.

Portrait of Barbara Radziwill, Elizabeth of Austria and Sigismund Augustus as Flora, Juno and Jupiter by Paris Bordone, 1543-1551, The State Hermitage Museum.

Portrait of Stanisław Karnkowski by Jacopo Tintoretto

Stanisław Karnkowski of Junosza coat of arms was born on May 10, 1520 in Karnkowo near Włocławek, as a son of Tadeusz vel Dadźbog, heir of Karnków and Elżbieta Olszewska from Kanigów. As a young man, he left his family home and went to his uncle, the bishop of Włocławek, Jan Karnkowski (1472-1537). It was him who owes Karnkowski his early education. 

In 1539 he began studies at the Kraków Academy. After graduating, in 1545, he went to Italy for further education - first to Perugia, and then to Padua, where he completed his studies with a doctorate utriusque iuris. He also studied in Wittenberg, where he became acquainted with the teachings of Luther. After returning from studies in 1550, he became the secretary of the bishop of Chełmno and then of Jan Drohojowski, bishop of Włocławek. In 1555 he became the secretary of King Sigismund Augustus, from 1558 he was the Grand Referendary of the Crown and in 1563 he became the Grand Secretary, and later Bishop of Kuyavia from 1567, Archbishop of Gniezno and Primate of Poland from 1581. He served as regent of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (Interrex) in 1586-1587, after death of king Stephen Bathory.

Karnkowski amassed one of the wealthiest Polish libraries in the late 16th and early 17th century, comprising according to some estimates 322 books, some of which he acquired during his studies abroad, like Consilia Ludouici Romani by Lodovico Pontano, published in 1545 (Archdiocese Archives in Gniezno). 

The portrait of young man in a black costume buttoned to a high collar and holding his right forearm on a column-base, was first recorded in the Great Cabinet at Kensington Palace in 1720 as Titian. It is now thought to be Tintoretto's earliest dated work. According to inscription in Latin on a column-base the man was 25 years old in 1545 (AN XXV / 1545), exactly as Stanisław Karnkowski, when he began his studies in Italy. He resemble greatly Karnkowski from his portrait when bishop of Włocławek, created between 1567-1570 by unknown painter (Higher Seminary in Włocławek), and as Primate of Poland in green cassock (Archbishop's Palace in Gniezno), painted in 1600 by Monogrammist I.S.

​In private collection in Switzerland, there is reduced copy of this effigy also attributed to Jacopo Tintoretto.

Portrait of Stanisław Karnkowski (1520-1603), aged 25 by Jacopo Tintoretto, 1545, Kensington Palace.

Portrait of Stanisław Karnkowski (1520-1603), aged 25 by Jacopo Tintoretto, ca. 1545, Private collection.

Portrait of Barbara Radziwill in a blue dress, known as La Bella by Titian

In May 1543 22-year-old king Sigismund Augustus married his 16-year-old cousin Elizabeth of Austria. During the entry into Kraków for her coronation, the lords and knights of the Kingdom were dressed in all sorts of costumes including Italian, French and Venetian. The young Queen died just two years later failing to produce an heir to the throne. Sigismund Augustus commissioned for her a magnificent marble tomb monument from Paduan sculptor trainded in Venice, Giovanni Maria Mosca called Padovano. The king was hoping that his mistress, Barbara Radziwill, whom he intended to marry, would give him a child. 

Portrait of a lady in a blue dress by Titian, known as La Bella is very similar to effigies of Barbara Radziwill, especially her portrait in Washington. The gold buckles on her dress in the form of decorative bows, although painted less diligently, are almost identical. Her garments are epitome of the 16th century luxury - a dress of Venetian velvet dyed with costly indigo blue, embroidered with gold thread and lined with sables, of which Poland-Lithuania was one of the leading exporters at that time. She holds her thick gold chain and pointing at weasel pelt, a zibellino, also known as flea-fur or fur tippet, on her hand, a popular accessory for brides as a talisman for fertility. 

Contemporary bestiaries indicate that the female weasel conceived through the ear and gave birth through the mouth. "This 'miraculous' method of conception was thought to parallel the Annunciation of Christ, who was conceived when God's angel whispered into the ear of the Virgin Mary" (after "Sexy weasels in Renaissance art" by Chelsea Nichols). Inclusion of the zibellino represents the hope that the woman would be blessed with good fertility and bore many healthy children to her husband. This symbolism excludes the possibility that the portrait represents a Venetian courtesan ("woman wearing the blue dress"), secretly painted by Titian for Francesco Maria I della Rovere, Duke of Urbino, who was already married and had three daughters and two sons, in about 1535. 

As early as 1545 Pope Paul III wanted to marry his granddaughter Vittoria Farnese to widowed Sigismund Augustus, whom however wed in secret his mistress sometime between 1545 and 1547 (according to some sources they were married since 25 November 1545). Vittoria finally married on 29 June 1547, Guidobaldo II della Rovere, Duke of Urbino (son of Francesco Maria), who at this time was in the service of the Republic of Venice. It is highly probable that the Duke or Vittoria received a portrait of the royal mistress, which was later transferred to Florence. 

A copy of the portrait by Titan's workshop, most probably by Lambert Sustris, painted with cheaper pigments without highly expensive ultramarine, is a proof that as in case of portraits of Empress Isabella of Portugal the sitter was not in the painter's atelier and the portrait was one of a series. There were also mistakes and inadequacies, her gold buckles were repleaced with simple red ribbons. Comparison with portraits of Empress Isabella confirms that Titian loved proportions and classical beauty. Just by making the eyes slightly bigger and more visible and harmonizing their features, he achieved what his clients expected of him, to be beautiful in their portraits, close to the gods from their Greek and Roman statues, it was renaissance. 

The miniature by unknown miniaturist Krause, probably an amateur, from the late 18th or early 19th century in the Royal Castle in Warsaw, indicate that a version of the painting was also in Poland, possibly in the collection of king Stanislaus Augustus Poniatowski. 

From 1545 the young king Sigismund Augustus spared no money for his mistress. Jewish and Florentine merchants Abraham Czech, Symon Lippi and Kasper Gucci (or Guzzi) were delivering to the royal court enormous quantities of expensive fabrics and furs. Between 1544-1546, the young king emloyed many new jewelers at his court in Kraków and Vilnius, like Antonio Gatti from Venice, Vincenzo Palumbo (Vincentius Palumba), Bartolo Battista, Italian Christophorus, Giovanni Evangelista from Florence, Hannus (Hans) Gunthe, German Erazm Prettner and Hannus Czigan, Franciszek and Stanisław Merlicz, Stanisław Wojt - Gostyński, Marcin Sibenburg from Transilvania, etc. Not to mention Giovanni Jacopo Caraglio, who in about 1550 created a cameo with Barbara's divinely beautiful profile. In just one year, 1545, the king bought as many as 15 gold rings with precious stones from Vilnius and Kraków goldsmiths.

In 1547 Girolamo Mazzola Bedoli, a painter from Lombardy, created a painting of Adoration of the Magi for the Certosa Sancta Maria Schola Dei in Parma, today in the Galleria nazionale di Parma (inventory number GN145). A man depicted as one of the Magi has a costume clearly inspired by the costume of a Polish-Lithuanian nobleman. His oriental sabre and colors - crimson and white, the national colors of Poland, also indicate that it is a man from Poland-Lithuania, most likely inspired by the increased presence of their envoys in artistic circles in Italy at that time. 

According to sources Barbara was a beauty, hence the title in Italian, La Bella, is fully deserved. "The composition of her body and face made her so beautiful that people out of jealousy disparaged her innocence", she was "gloriously wonderful, like a second Helen [Helen of Troy]" as was written in a panegyric, she had white alabaster skin, "sweet eyes, gentleness of speech, slowness of movements".

Portrait of Barbara Radziwill in a blue dress, known as La Bella by Titian, 1545-1547, Pitti Palace in Florence.

Portrait of Barbara Radziwill, known as La Bella by workshop of Titian, most probably by Lambert Sustris, 1545-1547, Private collection.

Portrait of Barbara Radziwill in French costume ​

On 15 June 1545 died Elizabeth of Austria, first wife of Sigismund II Augustus, who continued his affair with his mistress Barbara Radziwill, whom he met in 1543. Already in September 1546 rumors were circulating in Kraków that Sigismund was going to marry "a private woman of the worst opinion". To prevent this and to strengthen the pro-Turkish alliance (the eldest daughter of Bona, Isabella Jagiellon, was established by Sultan Suleiman as a regent of Hungary on behalf of her infant son), it was decided to marry Sigismund to Anna d'Este (1531-1607), daughter of the Duke of Ferrara and related to the French ruling house.

The miniature of a lady in Italian costume, said to be Bona Sforza d'Aragona from the 1540s, which was in the Czartoryski collection, cannot depict Bona as the woman is much younger and features are different, it is very similar though to effigies of Barbara Radziwill. The features of this lady, on the other hand, are very similar to these visible in a portrait of a lady holding a chalice and a book in the National Museum in Warsaw, once in the collection of art dealer Victor Modrzewski in Amsterdam, therefore most probably originating from some magnate collection in Poland. 

The latter painting is attributed to circle of Master of the Female Half-Lengths, a Flemish or French court master painter who frequently depicted ladies in guise of their patron saints and who also worked for other European courts (e.g. portrait of Isabella of Portugal in Lisbon). The woman is dressed according to French fashion, very similar to the outfit in the portrait of Catherine de' Medici, Queen of France from about 1547 in the Uffizi (Inv. 1890: inv. 2448). She is holding a prayer book and a chalice, an attribute of Saint Barbara, who was considered to provide protection against sudden and violent death (the scene on the chalice shows a man killing other man) and patron saint of pregnant women (together with Saint Margaret of Antioch). 
​
Both paintings are most probably workshop copies from a larger commission of state portraits, but the resemblance is still visible.

Portrait of Barbara Radziwill in French costume by circle of Master of the Female Half-Lengths, ca. 1546-1547, National Museum in Warsaw.

Miniature of Barbara Radziwill by circle of Jan van Calcar, ca. 1546-1547, Czartoryski Museum (?), published in Aleksander Przeździecki's "Jagiellonki polskie" (1868). ​

Miniature of Bona Sforza d'Aragona by Jan van Calcar, ca. 1546, Uffizi Gallery in Florence. ​

Portrait of Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk by Giovanni Cariani or Bernardino Licinio 

In February 1546 arrived to London the envoy of Poland-Lithuania Stanisław Lasota (Stanislaus Lassota) of Rawicz coat of arms (ca. 1515-1561), courtier of Queen Bona Sforza (aulicus Bonae Reginae), valet, diplomatic agent and royal secretary. He presented Henry VIII with enticing proposals of cooperation with Poland and assured the English monarch that Poland did not intend to stop supplying grain to England which at that time was at war with France, and needed a constant supply of grain to the country and to the front.

Lasota, trusted by the royals, was used for discreet missions. He also presented a project (without an official authorization) of marrying Sigismund Augustus to Princess Mary Tudor (1516-1558). Henry VIII rewarded Lasota with a golden chain and appointed him a golden knight (eques auratus) in front of the entire court. There is even a document in the files of the Privy Council, which shows that the Council paid on "Aprilis 1546. To Cornelys, the goldsmith, for makeng a coler of esses for the gentilman of Polonia".

Lasota set out from Vilnius in 1545 and before he reached England, he also went to Vienna, Munich and Spain. In March 1546 Stanisław leaves London and arrives in Paris, where, in turn, he proposes the marriage of Sigismund Augustus with Princess Margaret of Valois (1523-1574), daughter of King Francis I. A year later Lasota went to England again with an official embassy (after "Polska w oczach Anglików XIV-XVI w." by Henryk Zins, p. 70-71).

Precious gifts were part of diplomacy at that time and Lasota undoubtedly also brought many valuable gifts. In 1546 Sigismund I offered Ercole II d'Este, Duke of Ferrara a gold chain worth 150 Hungarian gold florins. His wife Queen Bona, like her son later, had a special affinity for jewelery. In 1543 she gave her son 40 silver cups, many gold chains and other valuables. Exquisite jewels were ordered by the queen or for her from the best goldsmiths in Poland-Lithuania and abroad. At the beginning of 1526 a gold chain was ordered in Nuremberg for Bona and in 1546 Seweryn Boner paid 300 florins to Nuremberg goldsmith Nicolaus Nonarth for making necklaces for her daughters. Pearls were bought for huge sums in Venice and in Gdańsk and ready-made gems were purchased in Nuremberg and Turkey (after "Klejnoty w Polsce ..." by Ewa Letkiewicz, p. 57). In 1545 the court embroiderer Sebald Linck received Venetian gold and some other type of gold, which in the bills is described as aurum panniculare, to adorn the ceremonial robe of Sigismund I.

In 1554 envoy of the Queen purchased in Antwerp "goldsmith's work to the amount of 6,000, to give to the Queen of England", as reported Venetian ambassador to the Imperial Court Marc'Antonio Damula and two years later Pietro Vanni (often Anglicised as Peter Vannes), Latin secretary to King Henry VIII, describing Bona's departure from Poland and her stay in Venice, wrote that "she has conveyed out of the country, by divers secret ways, an infinite quantity of treasure and jewels" (to the Council, March 7, 1556, in Venice).

Portrait paintings were also an integral part of diplomacy. The rulers exchanged their likenesses, portraits of potential brides, family members, important personalities and famous people. In June 1529 a portrait of Duke of Mantua, Federico II Gonzaga (1500-1540), was brought to Bona by his emissary and in 1530 a diplomat in service of Sigismund and Bona Jan Dantyszek sent to Krzysztof Szydłowiecki, Great Chancellor of the Crown, the portrait of the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés. In Warsaw preserved one of the best portraits of Henry VIII by circle of Hans Holbein the Younger, most probably painted by Lucas Horenbout (National Museum in Warsaw, oil on oak wood, 106 x 79 cm, inventory number 128165). The portrait is a version of king's effigy created by Holbein the Younger in 1537 as part of a mural in the Whitehall Palace. It was earlier in the collection of Jakub Ksawery Aleksander Potocki (1863-1934) and Leon Sapieha (inscription verso: L. Sapieha) and in 1831 "Henry VIII of England by Holbeyn on wood in a gilded frame" is mentioned in a register of paintings of Ludwik Michał Pac by Antoni Blank (February 1, 1831, Ossolineum, Wrocław). Another catalogue by Blank, of the Radziwill collection in Nieborów near Łódź, published in 1835, lists five paintings by Holbein (items 426, 427, 458, 503, 505). The portrait of Gdańsk merchant Georg Gisze (1497-1562), knighted by the Polish King Sigismund I in 1519, was created by Hans Holbein the Younger in 1532 in London to be sent to his brother Tiedemann Giese, secretary to the King of Poland (today in the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin).

In the private collection in Hamburg, Germany, there is a portrait of a wealthy nobleman. His facial features and costume are strikingly similar to these in the effigies of Thomas Howard (1473-1554), Third Duke of Norfolk, Earl Marshal and Lord High Treasurer, uncle of two of the wives of King Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, and one of the most powerful nobles in the country. Hans Holbein the Younger and his workshop created a series of portraits of the Duke of Norfolk (Windsor Castle, Castle Howard and private collection) aged 66, therefore created at the peak of his power in 1539. Although favored by Henry VIII for most of his life, his position became unstable after the execution of his niece Catherine Howard in 1542 and again in 1546 when he and his son were arrested for treason (December 12). This leading Catholic politician under Henry VIII and Mary Tudor was described by Venetian ambassador Ludovico Falieri in 1531: "[he] has very great experience in political government, discusses the affairs of the world admirably, aspires to greater elevation, and bears ill-will to foreigners, especially to our Venetian nation. He is fifty-eight years old, small and spare in person". 

The mentioned portrait in Hamburg shows an older man in his 60s or 70s in a costume from the 1540s. The shape of his gold sleeve buckles is reminiscent of a Tudor rose and he holds his right hand on the closed helmet of his Italian/French-style armour. In June 1543, Howard declared war on France in the King's name during the Italian War of 1542-1546. He was appointed Lieutenant-General of the army and commanded the English troops during the unsuccessful siege of Montreuil. On 7 June 1546, the Treaty of Ardres was signed with France. Everything indicates that it is a portrait of Howard, except for gold chain around his neck. In all portraits by Holbein and workshop he wears the Order of the Garter, an important order of chivalry related to the English crown. If we would consider the portrait as effigy of the Duke of Norfolk, therefore this different chain was a part of diplomatic efforts of the commander, who complained about the inadequate supply of his army during the French campaign. So it's like a message to someone, 'I like your gift, we could be allies'. Another intriguing thing about this portrait is its author. The painting was created by Italian painter in the style close to Giovanni Cariani and Bernardino Licinio. Federico Zeri attributed the work in 1982 to Cariani, who died in Venice in 1547, or to 16th century school of Ferrara. In 1546 Queen Bona commissioned a series of paintings for the Kraków Cathedral in Venice and contacts with Ferrara were increased due planned marriage of Sigismund Augustus with Anna d'Este (the portrait of the bride was supposedly sent via Venice by Carlo Foresta, one of the agents of the Kraków merchant Gaspare Gucci). Concluding, the portrait in Hamburg was commissioned in Venice for or by the Polish-Lithuanian court, basing on a drawing or miniature sent from England.

Despite their great wealth, the match with a distant, elective monarchy of Poland-Lithuania was not considered to be advantageous to the hereditary kings of England, especially when the war with France was over and they did not need an increased supply of grain and Sigismund Augustus decided to marry his mistress Barbara Radziwill. 

Portrait of Georg Gisze (1497-1562), Gdańsk merchant by Hans Holbein the Younger, 1532, Gemäldegalerie in Berlin.

Portrait of Henry VIII of England by circle of Hans Holbein the Younger, most probably Lucas Horenbout, 1537-1546, National Museum in Warsaw.

Portrait of Thomas Howard (1473-1554), Third Duke of Norfolk by Giovanni Cariani or Bernardino Licinio, 1542-1546, Private collection.

Portrait of Catherine Willoughby, Duchess of Suffolk by workshop of Hans Holbein the Younger

It is said that Catherine Willoughby (1519-1580) was considered a candidate to marry Sigismund Augustus after the Polish ambassador failed to obtain the hand of Princess Mary Tudor in 1546, and between 1557 and 1559 she and her husband were "placed honourably in the earldom of the said king of Poland, in Sanogelia [Samogitia in Lithuania], called Crozen [Kražiai]" (after "Chronicles of the House of Willoughby de Eresby", p. 98). Catherine was a daughter and heiress of William Willoughby, 11th Baron Willoughby de Eresby, by his second wife, María de Salinas, maid-of-honour to Queen Catherine of Aragon. She and her second husband Richard Bertie (1516-1582) were of the Protestant faith and in 1555 they were forced to flee England due to the Catholic rule of Queen Mary I and only returned to England under the Protestant Queen Elizabeth I.

Her first husband was Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, whom she married on 7 September 1533, at th age of 14. They had two sons, both of whom died young in 1551 - Henry (b. 1535) and Charles (b. 1537).

In the Metropolitan Museum of Art there is a portrait of a girl aged 17 (Latin: ANNO ETATIS·SVÆ XVII) by workshop of Hans Holbein the Younger, also identified as effigy of Catherine Howard, Queen of England from 1540 until 1542, hence dated to about 1540 (oil on panel, 28.3 x 23.2 cm, inventory number 49.7.30). The painting was at the beginning of the 19th century in the collection of Prince Józef Antoni Poniatowski (1763-1813), a nephew of king Stanislaus Augustus, who inherited many paintings from his collection and consequently also from historical royal collections. The main feature of her face is a chrchteristic upper lip, also visible in the picture of a painting before conservation when retouching were removed. A similar lip is seen in portraits identified as depicting children of Catherine Willoughby - Henry Brandon, 2nd Duke of Suffolk (1535-1551) by Hans Holbein the Younger (Royal Collection, RCIN 422294) and Susan Bertie (b. 1554) by unknown painter (Beaney House of Art and Knowledge). Her face and pose also resemble those seen in the portrait drawing of the Duchess of Suffolk by Hans Holbein the Younger, created between 1532-1543 (Windsor Castle, RCIN 912194). The resemblance of a woman from the picture to the later image of Catherine's daughter is surprising.

A cameo brooch on her bust with two heads could be Castor and Pollux, the astronomical Gemini, interpreted by Renaissance mythographers in terms of shared immortality and the bond that unites two people even after death (after "Castor and Pollux", Cengage, Encyclopedia.com).

Portrait of Catherine Willoughby (1519-1580), Duchess of Suffolk, aged 17 by workshop of Hans Holbein the Younger, ca. 1536, Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Portrait of Zofia Firlejowa as Venus by workshop of Giovanni Cariani

In 1546 or at the beginning of 1547, Jan Firlej (1521-1574) of Lewart coat of arms, later Grand Marshal of the Crown, voivode of Kraków and the head of the Calvinist camp, married the incredibly wealthy Zofia Bonerówna, daughter of royal banker Seweryn Boner (1486-1549), receiving a huge dowry of 47,000 florins and the Boner property near Ogrodzieniec Castle. Jan was the eldest son of Piotr Firlej (d. 1553), voivode of Ruthenia from 1545 and a trusted adviser of Queen Bona Sforza and King Sigismund Augustus, and Katarzyna Tęczyńska. Concluded on the initiative of his father, who used the money from Jan's wife's dowry to pay off his debts, this marriage turned out to be very beneficial from the point of view of the family's interests.

Piotr was a patron of arts, he extended his Janowiec Castle and built a Renaissance palace in Lubartów. At his expense a beautiful tombstone was created in about 1553 by Giovanni Maria Mosca, called il Padovano in the Dominican church in Lublin. In his great estates in Dąbrowica, a village a mile from Lublin, he had a magnificent palace, whose stairs carved in marble were admired by poet Jan Kochanowski.

Zofia's parents were also renowned patrons of arts. Bronze tomb sculpture of Seweryn and his wife Zofia née Bethman was created between 1532-1538 by Hans Vischer in Nuremberg and transported to Kraków. Between 1530-1547 Seweryn rebuilt and extended Ogrodzieniec Castle, transforming the medieval stronghold into a Renaissance castle - it was called "little Wawel". The Boners furnished it with beautiful furniture, tapestries and other most valuable items imported from abroad. In 1655, the castle was partially burnt down by the Swedish army, which was stationed there for almost two years, ruining a large part of the buildings.

Similar to the royal court, many such items were also commissioned or acquired in Venice. In 1546 a Venetian Aloisio received a fur coat and several dozen thalers for the total amount of 78 zlotys 10 groszy for various instruments which he brought from Venice to Kraków on the king's order. As the Governor of the royal estates Zofia's father Seweryn, who kept the books of accounts for the court, brokered many such purchases. In 1553 two Jews from Kazimierz, Jonasz, the elder of the Kazimierz community, and Izak, the son of the second senior of this community and royal supplier Izrael Niger, took part in a trade mission sent by the king to Vienna and Venice to purchase goods for the royal court, receiving an advance payment of 840 Hungarian florins in gold. A few months later (April 11, 1553) Izak Izraelowicz Niger (Schwarz) was sent back to Venice in order to purchase wedding gifts for the third wife of Sigismund Augustus, Catherine of Austria, receiving 400 Hungarian florins in gold (after "Biuletyn Żydowskiego Instytutu Historycznego", Issues 153-160, p. 7).

Inhabitants of the royal city of Kraków were connoisseurs of art and had important collections of paintings and portraits. In 1540 Katarzyna, widow of Paul Kaufman, a merchant of Kraków, residing in the convent of St. Andrew, left her portraits in her last will to the convent (Omes imagines suas dat, donat se defuncta, Conventui huic s. Andrere, ad Ecclesiam et etiam sororibus monialibus) and in 1542 in the list of paintings of the late Melchior Czyżowski, Vice-Procurator of the Kraków Castle (Viceprocuratori Castri Cracoviensis), there were two of his portraits (Duæ imagines Dni Melchioris C ...), a painting of Herodias (Tabula pieta, Herodiadis), possibly by workshop of Cranach, the woman taken in adultery (Figura de muliere deprehensa in adulterio), possibly by Venetian painter, the twelve labors of Hercules (Duodecem labores Herculis), a view of Venice (Cortena in qua depicta est Venetia), a painting of Judith and Herodias, painted on both sides (Tabula Judith et Herodiadis, ex utraque parte depicta), painting of Thisbe and another of Judith (Figura Thisbe, Fig. Judith), Nativity of Christ (Nativitatis Christi) and Mary Magdalene (Mariæ Magdalenæ), most likely by Venetian school, and other religious paintings. Over half a century later, in about 1607, other representative of the family, Hieronim Czyżowski, recorded in books of the Polish Nation 15 years earlier, in 1592, ordered a painting by the Venetian painter Pietro Malombra with his portrait as donor (Resurrection of Knight Piotrawin by Saint Stanislaus) for the altar of the Polish Nation in the Basilica of Saint Anthony in Padua. In the Scottish National Gallery there is a preparatory study for this painting (inventory number RSA 221), in which however the donor is not present in the composition, indicating that his portrait was added later, possibly based on a drawing sent from Poland.

Bonerówna married Jan Firlej shortly before or after his return from diplomatic mission at the court of Ferdinand I of Austria and most likely to the court of Ferrara. She bore him two daughters Jadwiga and Zofia and four sons Mikołaj, Andrzej, Jan and Piotr. Zofia died in or after 1563 and Jan married secondly Zofia Dzikówna (died after 1566) and later Barbara Mniszech (died 1580).

The couple probably had another daughter, Elżbieta, however, she died at the young age in 1580. Her tombstone behind the main altar of the church in Bejsce near Kraków was founded by her brother Mikołaj Firlej (d. 1600), voivode of Kraków, who has a magnificent burial chapel in the same church, modeled on the Sigismund Chapel. This monument to the Polish virgin, according to Latin inscription (ELIZABETHAE / IOAN(NIS) FIRLEII A DAMBROWICA PALAT(INI) ET CAPIT(ANEI) CRACOVIEN(SIS) / ATQVE MARSALCI REGNI F(ILIAE) / VIRGINI NATALIB(VS) ILLVSTRI. FORMA INSIGNI AETATE FLORE(N)TI / VITA PVDICISSIMAE [...] NICOL(AVS) FIRLEIVS A DAMBROWICA IO(ANNES) F(IRLEIVS) - CASTELL(ANVS) BIECEN(SIS) / SORORI INCOMPARABILI E DOLORIS ET AMORIS FRATERNI / MOERENS POS(VIT) / OBIIT AN(N)O D(OMI)NI : M.D.LXXX), is considered a rarity and attributed to workshop of Girolamo Canavesi. She was depicted sleeping, half-recumbent, in a pose reminiscent of the Birth of Venus, a Roman fresco from the House of Venus in Pompeii, created in the 1st century AD, or Venus from cassone with scenes of the Battle of Greeks and Amazons before the walls of Troy by workshop of Paolo Uccello, painted in about 1460 (Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven). Elżbieta's tombstone is crowned with coat of arms of the Firlejs - Lewart, a rampant leopard.

In 2014 an unframed painting of recumbent Venus and Cupid by workshop of Giovanni Cariani (d. 1547) was sold in London (oil on canvas, 102 x 172.2 cm, Bonhams, 9 July 2014, lot 35). Cupid points his arrow at the heart of the lying woman, symbolizing love. In the right corner of the canvas, on the tree, there is a shield with coat of arms showing a rampant leopard on red background, very similar to the one visible in the monument to Elżbieta Firlejówna in Bejsce, as well as many other depictions of coat of arms of the Firlej family. In the background, there is a gothic cathedral, very similar to view of St. Stephen's Cathedral in the Panorama of Vienna (Vienna, Citta Capitale dell' Austria), created by Italian engraver in about 1618 (Wien Museum, inventory number 34786). 

The painting recall the erotic plaques from cupboard-cabinet by Peter Flötner or Wenzel Jamnitzer from the Zamoyski Estate in Warsaw (lost during World War II). The cabinet was adorned with 26 bronze plaques with nude lying female figures. It was most probably created in Augsburg or in Nuremberg and could come from a royal or a magnate commission. Flötner created several exquisite items for Sigismund I in the 1530s, including silver altar for the Sigismund Chapel and casket of Hedwig Jagiellon (Saint Petersburg). 

If this painting of Jan Firlej's wife as Venus was painted by Cariani's workshop shortly before the artist's death, this would explain why Firlej decided to order his portrait from young Jacopo Tintoretto in 1547 (Kröller-Müller Museum).

A manuscript in the Ossolineum (number 2232) from the 1650s, lists a great number of jewels, furniture, paintings, books, clothes, fabrics with Lewart coat of arms and relics from Firlej estates in Dąbrowica, Ogrodzieniec and Bejsce. It also includes many imported goods and portraits, like "foreign fans", "pictures of deceased ancestors and many various arts, very expensive and elaborate", "great Persian and home-made rugs", "two paintings: one in French costume, the other in Polish, and the third started, in French style", "many old pictures from Ogrodziniec and Dąbrowica, one with a dwarf with a great son; costly, pious pictures on copper, many on canvas", "costly glass, buried in a cellar in Dąbrowica from the enemy, Jarosz Kossowski dug it", most likely Venetian glass saved during the Deluge (1655-1660), "the Bonarowski chalice, three gold stamps, folded into one, by elaborate work", most probably from dowry of Zofia Bonerówna, "various foreign spectacles of copper, foreign jetons" and other items. 

Portrait of Zofia Firlejowa née Bonerówna (d. 1563) as Venus and Cupid with Lewart coat of arms by workshop of Giovanni Cariani, 1546-1547, Private collection.

Portrait of Jan Firlej by Jacopo Tintoretto

Thanks to his father's efforts, Jan Firlej (1521-1574) received an education at the highest level. He studied at the University of Leipzig for two years, then continued his education at the University of Padua for the next two years. From there with his relative count Stanisław Gabriel Tęczyński (1514-1561), chamberlain of Sandomierz, and Stanisław Czerny, starost of Dobczyce, he went to the Holy Land, visited Egypt and Palestine. They set off on a journey from Venice in the second half of 1541 - on June 16 that year he participated in the solemn procession in Venice, as the Lord of Dąbrowica (dominus de Dambrouicza) among the group of pilgrims of Jerusalem (peregrinorum Hierosolimitanorum). He also traveled to Rome. Around 1543, he returned to Poland, and in 1545, he entered the service of King Sigismund I. In the same year, he was sent on a mission to Emperor Charles V at the Diet of the Holy Roman Empire in Worms. According to Stanisław Hozjusz (Hosius, Op. I, 459) in 1547, as an envoy, he participated in diplomatic activities at the court of Ferdinand I of Austria, possibly concernig the king's marriage with Barbara Radziwill or the plans to marry him to Anna d'Este (1531-1607), daughter of the Duke of Ferrara.

In January 1546, Giovanni Andrea Valentino (de Valentinis) the court physician of Sigismund the Old and Queen Bona, was sent from Kraków with a confidential mission to Sigismund Augustus residing in Lithuania, concerning the marriage with Anna d'Este. Around that time, a separate letter was sent by the envoy of Duke of Ferrara, Antonio Valentino, staying in Poland from August 30, 1545 to September 1546, to Bartolomeo Prospero, the secretary of Duke Ercole II, to speed up the delivery of the bride's portrait. "He recommended that the parcel be exported to Venice not by royal mail, but by a private route in the hands of Carlo Foresta, one of the agents of Gaspare Gucci from Florence, a merchant in Kraków" (after Danuta Quirini-Popławska's "Działalność Włochów w Polsce w I połowie XVI wieku", p.  87). It possible that the portrait mentioned in the letter was created in Venice, as Dukes of Ferrara also commissioned ther effigies there, e.g. portrait of Alfonso II d'Este (1533-1597) by Titian or workshop in Arolsen Castle, identified by me (Marcin Latka).

In 1909 in the collection of Prince Andrzej Lubomirski in Przeworsk there was a small painting (oil on tin plate, 26 x 35 cm) attributed to 16th century Venetian school depicting "Madonna and Child surrounded by people who, according to tradition, represent the family of princes d'Este; the golden-haired woman depicts probably the famous Eleonora d'Este" (after "Katalog wystawy obrazów malarzy dawnych i współczesnych urządzonej staraniem Andrzejowej Księżny Lubomirskiej" by Mieczysław Treter, item 36, p. 11).

In 1547 a painter Pietro Veneziano (Petrus Venetus), created a painting to the main altar of the Wawel Cathedral and Titian was summoned to paint Charles V and others in Augsburg.

The painting in the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo attributed to Jacopo Tintoretto, shows a wealty nobleman in a black coat lined with tremendously expensive lynx fur. His proud pose and gloves also indicate his position. This painting was acquired by Helene Kröller-Müller in 1921 and earlier it was in the collection of Count of Balbi in Venice and possibly in the Giustinian-Lolin collection in Venice. According to inscription in lower left corner, the man was 26 years of age in 1547 (ANN·XXVI·MEN·VI·/·MD·XL·VII·), exactly as Jan Firlej, when he was sent on a mission to Austria and possibly to Venice and Ferrara.

Portrait of Jan Firlej (1521-1574) aged 26 by Jacopo Tintoretto, 1547, Kröller-Müller Museum. 

Portrait of Nicolaus "the Red" Radziwill by workshop of Giovanni Cariani

In 1547 Nicolaus III Radziwill (1512-1584), Great Royal Deputy Cup-bearer of Lithuania, the son of Grand Hetman of Lithuania George "Hercules" Radziwill and Barbara Kolanka, received the title of Prince of the Roman Empire in Birzai and Dubingiai from the Emperor Charles V. He received it together with his cousin Nicholas (1515-1565), then the Grand Marshal of Lithuania, who become the Prince in Nesvizh and Olyka. In order not to confuse him with his namesake, the cousins ​​​​were given the nicknames on account of the color of their hair. Nicolaus III is best known as "the Red" and his cousin as "the Black". 

About the same year king Sigismund II Augustus married secretly Nicolaus' younger sister Barbara, thinking she was pregnant. Nicolaus "the Red" was henceforth brother-in-law and confidant of the king. Thanks to the king's protection he became a Lithuanian Master of the Hunt in 1545 and from 1550 he was a voivode of Trakai. Nicolaus was a famous military leader, he participated in the war with Muscovy between 1534-1537, including in the siege of Starodub in 1535.

The portrait of a member of the Radziwill family, said to be John Radziwill (d. 1522), nicknamed "the Bearded", father of Nicolaus "the Black", in the National Art Museum of Belarus in Minsk, comes from the gallery of portraits in the Radziwill castle in Nesvizh. Due to the style of the costume and technique, this work is generally dated to the beginning of the 17th century. It is, however, stylistically very close to another portrait from the same collection, the portrait of of Prince Nicolaus II Radziwill (1470-1521) by Giovanni Cariani, created in about 1520. The sitter's face was created in Cariani's style, most probably by the master himself, the rest, less elaborate, was undoubtedly completed by painter's pupil. Cariani, though he worked often in Bergamo near Milan, died in Venice. The date of the artist's death is not known, his last presence is documented on November 26, 1547 in the will of his daughter Pierina, making his death coincide in the following year.

The man's pose and sash is very similar to the effigy of Nicolaus III Radziwill in the Hermitage Museum (ОР-45840) signed in Polish/Latin: "Nicolaus Prince in Birzai, Voivode of Vilnius, Chancellor and Hetman / Evangelical, called the Red" (Mikołay Xże na Birżach, Wda Wilenski, Kanclerz y Hetman / Evangelik, cognomento Rufus), from the first half of the 17th century. The man is holding a military baton. His black armor is almost identical with the black armor of Nicolaus III Radziwill in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. This armor, created by an Italian workshop in about 1545, was offered to Ferdinand II (1529-1595), Archduke of Further Austria, son of Anna Jagellonica, in 1580 by Nicolaus himself. The sword swinging from his belt is similar to golden rapier of Archduke Maximilian, the eldest son of Anna Jagellonica, created by Antonio Piccinino in Milan and by Spanish workshop in about 1550 (Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna). The man bears finally a resemblance to the effigy of Nicolaus' mother Barbara Kolanka by Cranach (Wartburg-Stiftung in Eisenach) and his sister Barbara-La Bella by Titian (Pitti Palace in Florence). 

Portrait of Nicolaus "the Red" Radziwill (1512-1584) by workshop of Giovanni Cariani, ca. 1547, National Art Museum of Belarus in Minsk.

Portraits of pregnant Barbara Radziwill ​

In a letter of 26 November 1547, Stanisław Andrejewicz Dowojno (d. 1566) reported to king Sigismund Augustus about miscarriage of Barbara Radziwill, whom he wed secretly sometime in 1547. Having a large number of mistresses before, during and after being married, the king remained childless. At some time the parliament was willing to legitimize and acknowledge as his successor any male heir who might be born to him.
​
The portrait of a lady with a servant by Jan van Calcar from the collection of Prince Leon Sapieha, sold in 1904 in Paris, was said to depict pregnant Barbara Radziwill (possibly lost during World War II). It shows a woman in red dress in Italian style with emerald pendant on her chest accompanied by a midwife. The bill of a royal embroiderer, who charged the treasury for "a robe of red velvet" that he embroidered in 1549 for Queen Barbara with pearls and gold thread for 100 florins, confirms that similar dresses were in her possesion.

The portrait by Calcar is very similar in comosition to the portrait known as effigy of Sidonia von Borcke (Sidonia the Sorceress) (1548-1620) and attributed to workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder. This portrait was before World War II in the Von Borcke Palace in Starogard (destroyed), owned by a wealthy Pomeranian family of Slavic origin, along the effigy of Sophia Jagiellon (1522-1575) and her husband. The sitter costume is in German style and similar to costume of Sigismund Augustus' relative Anna of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1502-1568) (as a wife of Barnim XI of Pomerania) from about 1545 or a portrait of Agnes von Hayn from 1543, both by Cranach or his workshop, hence it cannot be Sidonia, who was born in 1548. 

The woman in the painting is holding a chalice, an allusion to her patron, Saint Barbara, as in a triptych by Cranach from 1506 in Dresden (the hand is almost identical). Both paintings, by Calcar and by workshop of Cranach, were undoubtedly then a part of Jagiellonian propaganda to legitimize the royal mistress as the Queen of Poland. ​

Portrait of pregnant Barbara Radziwill with a midwife by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1546-1547, Von Borcke Palace in Starogard, most probably destroyed during World War II. ​

Portrait of pregnant Barbara Radziwill with a midwife by Jan van Calcar or circle, 1546-1547, collection of Prince Leon Sapieha, sold in 1904 in Paris, possibly lost during World War II. ​

Portrait of Barbara Radziwill by Moretto da Brescia or Jan van Calcar ​

The portrait of unkown lady in white by Moretto da Brescia, a painter from the Republic of Venice who may have apprenticed with Titian, can be compared with a portrait by Jan Stephan van Calcar, a pupil of Titian, from the Sapieha collection in Paris. The latter painting, most probably lost during World War II, was said to depict pregnant second wife of Sigismund Augustus, Barbara Radziwill. Both face features as well as costume style and details are very much alike. The sitter's dress in Moretto's painting is also very similar to that visible in a miniature of a lady with a pearl necklace, wich can be identified as effigy of Bona Sforza d'Aragona, Queen of Poland, from the second half of the 1540s. 

The bill of a royal embroiderer of Sigismund Augustus, who charged the treasury for "a robe of white tabinet" that he embroidered in 1549 for Queen Barbara "with a wide row of goldcloth and green velvet" for 15 florins, confirms that similar dresses were in her possesion. The Queen's taylor was an Italian Francesco, who was admitted to her service in Vilnius on 2 May 1548 with annual salary of gr. 30 fl. 30. In May 1543 during entry to Kraków for coronation of Elizabeth of Austria, the lords and knights of the Kingdom were dressed in all sorts of costumes, including Italian, French and Spanish, while the young king Sigismund Augustus was dressed in German style, probably as a courtesy for Elizabeth. The inventory of dowry of Sigismund Augustus' sister Catherine Jagiellon from 1562 includes 13 French and Spanish robes.

Portrait of Barbara Radziwill (1520/23-1551) in white by Moretto da Brescia or Jan van Calcar, ca. 1546-1548, National Gallery of Art, Washington.

Portraits of Sigismund II Augustus by Jan van Calcar or Moretto da Brescia

Sometime in 1547, in spite of his mother's disapproval and nobility's animosity, Sigismund Augustus, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania secretly wed his mistress Barbara Radziwill, a Lithuanian noblewoman whom he met in 1543. 

The portrait attributed to Jan van Calcar shows a young man (Sigismund Augustus was 26 in 1546) against ancient buildings similar to a reconstruction of the Mausoleum of Emperor Augustus in Rome published in 1575 (the king born on 1 August was named after the first Roman Emperor Gaius Octavius Augustus) and the king's castrum doloris in Rome in 1572 or obelisk visible in the portrait of royal jeweller Giovanni Jacopo Caraglio from about 1553. 

The presumed author Jan van Calcar, a pupil of Titian in Venice, moved to Naples in about 1543, where he died before 1550. Sigismund's mother Bona Sforza was a granddaughter of Alfonso II, King of Naples and from 1524 she was a Duchess of nearby Bari and Rossano. 

According to the accounts of Sigismund Augustus by a courtier Stanisław Wlossek from 1545 to 1548, the king had "robes lined with lynx, short Italian", robes of black velvet and stockings of "black ermestno silk", black suede shoes, etc. The register of his clothes from 1572 includes Italian, German and Persian robes valued at 5351 zlotys.

The portrait could be a pendant to a portrait of Barbara Radziwill in similar dimensions attributed to Moretto da Brescia, which could also be attributed to Calcar, just as previously the portrait of the man described here was attributed to Moretto da Brescia, and inversely.

The man is holding in his right hand a red carnation flower, a symbol of passion, love, affection and betrothal.

The same sitter is also depicted in the portrait in Vienna, signed by Calcar (. eapolis f. / Stephanus / Calcarius), and in the painting attributed to Francesco Salviati, who stayed for a brief time in Venice, in the Mint Museum.

Gold medal of Sigismund II Augustus on the occasion of birthday anniversary and coronation with bust and coat of arms of the young king was made by less known medalier Domenico Veneziano (Dominicus Venetus, Dominic of Venice) in 1548 - inscription "Sigismund Augustus, King of Poland, Grand Duke of Lithuania, aged 29" (SIGIS[mundus] AVG[ustus] REX POLO[niae] MG[magnus] DVX LIT[huaniae] AET[atis] S[uae] XXIX), today in the Ossolineum in Wrocław (inventory number G 1611). He signed his work on the reverse around the Polish Eagle: "Domenico Veneziano made [me] in the year of Our Lord 1548" (ANO D[omini] NRI[nostri] M.D.XLVIII. DOMINICVS VENETVS FECIT.). 

Portrait of Sigismund II Augustus (1520-1572) by Jan van Calcar or Moretto da Brescia, ca. 1546-1548, Private collection. ​

Portrait of Sigismund II Augustus (1520-1572) with gloves by Jan van Calcar, 1540s, Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

Portrait of Sigismund II Augustus (1520-1572) with gloves, attributed to Francesco Salviati, 1540s, Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte.

Portraits of Sigismund Augustus and royal jeweller Giovanni Jacopo Caraglio by Paris Bordone and workshop

In 1972 the portrait of royal jeweller Giovanni Jacopo Caraglio was offered to the Wawel Royal Castle in Kraków by Julian Godlewski. After 1795, when Poland lost its independence, the castle, which was consumed by destructive fire in 1702 and ransacked several times by different invaders, was converted into barracks and a military hospital and almost no traces of the former royal splendor have been preserved in it. Before 1664 the painting was in the Muselli collection in Verona.

Caraglio was born in Verona in the Venetian Republic around 1500 or 1505. He was active in his hometown, as well as in Rome and Venice. In Italy he was known mainly as a copper engraver and medalist. He came to Kraków around 1538 as a recognized artist. After arriving at the Jagiellonian court, he probably parted with graphic art and devoted himself exclusively to goldsmithing and jewellery, making mainly gems with images of members of the royal family. In recognition of his merits, Sigismund Augustus ennobled him in 1552. Caraglio was also a citizen of the capital city of Kraków, and together with his wife, Katarzyna, born there, he lived in a house he bought outside the city walls - in Czarna Wieś. He had a son Ludwik and a daughter Katarzyna. 

During his long stay in Poland, the artist certainly made many trips to Italy. This is evidenced, among other things, by Vasari's fairly good knowledge of his life and work. We learn about one of his trips to Italy - probably on business - from the accounts prepared by Justus Decius. The bill from April 1553, apart from listing the expenses for the ores by Caraglio, contains inter alia, the entry referring to him: pro viatico itineris in Italiam (provision for a journey to Italy) (after "Caraglio w Polsce" by Jerzy Wojciechowski, p. 29).

The portrait of Caraglio was in the 17th century attributed to Titian and later to Bordone, who lived in Venice from October 1552 and earlier in Milan between 1548-1552. Caraglio receives or humbly offers a medallion with king's effigy (probably made by himself) to the Polish Royal Eagle with monogram SA of Sigismund Augustus on his chest. The eagle is standing on a gold helmet among other works and utensils necessary to the goldsmith. In 1552 Caraglio went to Vilnius to make a gilded shield for the king encircled with golden roses with a cross in red enamel and three other silver shields decorated with an ornament of eagles' heads (Exposita pro ornandis scutis S.M.R. per Ioannem Iacobum Caralium Italum 1553), together with three other goldsmiths Gaspare da Castiglione, Grzegorz of Stradom and Łukasz Susski. In the background there is an obelisk and Roman amphitheatre, identified as symbol of Verona - Arena di Verona. According to the inscription in Latin on the base of the column, he was 47 years of age (ATATIS / SVAE / ANN[O] / ХХХХ / VII) at the time when the painting was created, however his face seems to be much younger. Based on this inscription, it is generally believed that the painting was painted between 1547-1553, possibly during his confirmed stay in Italy in 1553, however, it cannot be ruled out that it was based on a drawing or miniature sent from Poland. Caraglio probably gave this portrait to his sister Margherita, who lived in Verona.

In the vicinity of Parma, in the town of Sancti Buseti, the artist bought a house with land and vineyards. Caraglio intended to leave the court of Sigismund Augustus in his old age and return to Italy. However, he did not fulfill his intentions, he died in Kraków around August 26, 1565 and was buried in the Carmelite Church of the Visitation, which was largely destroyed during the Deluge (1655-1660). He bequeathed the house in Verona to Elisabetta, his sister's granddaughter. The artist's wife, Katarzyna, remarried to an Italian shoemaker, Scipio de Grandis.

The same man as in the Wawel painting was depicted in the work sold in Vienna in 2012 (Dorotheum, 13.12.2012, Lot 12, oil on canvas, 61.5 x 53 cm). He wears similar costume, there is a similar column behind him and the fabric in the background and the style of whole painting is very close to Paris Bordone and his workshop, comparable to portrait of a man in the Louvre, identified as effigy of Thomas Stahel, which is dated '1540'.

The portrait was sold in Austria, while Caraglio travelled to nearby Slovakia in 1557, where he stayed at the court of Olbracht Łaski (1536-1604), a Polish nobleman, alchemist and courtier, in Kežmarok. At the age of twelve, Łaski was sent to the court of Emperor Charles V, who recommended him to his brother Ferdinand of Austria. He returned to Poland in 1551 and in 1553 he went to Vienna, where he became the secretary of Catherine of Austria, who became the third wife of King Sigismund Augustus. In 1556 he visited Poland again, where he met the rich widow Katarzyna Seredy née Buczyńska. Their wedding took place in 1558 in Kežmarok. It is possible that either Łaski or the Habsburgs received a portrait of the famous jeweller of the Polish king.

Caraglio undoubtedly also acted as an intermediary in commissions for effigies of his patron king Sigismund Augustus. In 2011 a small portrait of a bearded man from the collection of Château de Gourdon near Nice in southern France was sold at auction in Paris (oil on canvas, 39.8 x 31.5 cm, Christie's, 30 March 2011, lot 487). It was initally attributed to follower of Moretto da Brescia, and later to Paris Bordone, and dated to the 1550s. Its previous provenance is not known. Collections of the medieval Gourdon Castle were spared during the French Revolution. Extanded by the Lombards in the 17th century, the castle was bequeathed by Jean Paul II de Lombard to his nephew the Marquis de Villeneuve-Bargemon, whose heirs sold the residence in 1918 to an American, Miss Noris, who opened a museum in 1938. Occupied during the Second World War by the Germans, then restored by Countess Zalewska, it was later acquired by French businessman Laurent Negro (1929-1996). It is therefore possible that the painting was sent from Venice to France already in the 16th century or brought from Poland by Countess Zalewska or her ancestors. 

Bordone painted a second, slightly larger version of this portrait (oil on canvas, 57.2 × 41.9 cm) which was in the collection of Marquess of Ailesbury in England and later with the Hallsborough Gallery in London.
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"The dress of both figures is understated but clearly luxurious, and conveys the sitters' importance without the need for opulence" (after Sphinx Fine Art catalogue entry). The man's facial features, red beard and dark hair correspond perfectly with other other effigies of king Sigismund Augustus by Bordone, Moretto da Brescia or Jan van Calcar, Francesco Salviati and Tintoretto, identified by me.

Like in the case of portrait of Anna of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1502-1568), wife of Barnim XI of Pomerania by Lucas Cranach the Elder and portrait of John III Sobieski with the Order of the Holy Spirit by Prosper Henricus Lankrink, the artist may not have seen the model at all, but with detailed drawings with descriptions of colors and fabrics, he was able to produce a work with a great deal of craftsmanship and resemblance.

Portrait of Sigismund II Augustus (1520-1572), from the Château de Gourdon, by Paris Bordone, 1547-1553, Private collection.

Portrait of Sigismund II Augustus (1520-1572), from the Ailesbury collection, by Paris Bordone, 1547-1553, Private collection.

Portrait of royal jeweller Giovanni Jacopo Caraglio (1500/1505-1565) by workshop of Paris Bordone, 1547-1553, Private collection.

Portraits of Barbara Radziwill and Sigismund Augustus by circle of Titian

In the 18th century, with the growing popularity of the story of Mary, Queen of Scots, the portrait of an unknown lady, so-called Carleton Portrait in Chatsworth House, was identified as her effigy due to great similarity with a print by Hieronymus Cock from about 1556 and history of the Chatsworth House. Numerous prints and copies of this portrait were made. Today, however, researchers reject this identification. 
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The style of the painting is close to the circle of Titian and Venetian portrait painting as well as composition with a chair (Savonarola chair), a window and rich fabrics, Venetian velvet and gold cloth. The costume however, a mixture of French, Italian, Spanish and German patterns from the 1540s is not typical for Venice. Also the sitter is not a typical, a bit plump "Venetian beauty". 

In 1572 the royal embroiderer charged the royal treasury for dresses he embroidered for Queen Barbara in 1549 including one, the most expensive, for which he charged 100 florins: "I embroidered a robe of red velvet, bodice, sleeves and three rows at the bottom with pearls and gold". Similar puffed sleeves at the shoulders are visible in portraits of Barbara by Moretto da Brescia (Washington), Jan van Calcar (Paris, lost) and by circle of Lucas Cranach the Younger (Kraków). 
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In February 1548 a long battle begun to recognize Barbara as Sigismund Augustus' wife and crown her as Queen of Poland. Almost since her wedding in 1547 Barbara's health began to decline. Sigismund Augustus personally tended to his sick wife. He also possibly seek a help from the only possible ally - Edward VI of England, a boy king, who like Sigismund was crowned at the age of 10 and a son of Henry VIII, who broke with the Catholic Church to marry his mistress Anne Boleyn. In 1545 to cure his first wife Elizabeth of Austria from epilepsy, Sigismund wanted to obtain a coronation ring of the English king, that supposedly was to be an effective antidote.  

In 1549 arrived to London Jan Łaski (John à Lasco), a Polish Calvinist reformer, secretary of king Sigismund I and a friend of the Radziwlls (Barbara's brother converted to Calvinism in 1564) to became Superintendent of the Strangers' Church. He undoubtedly mediate with the king of England in personal affairs of Sigismund Augustus and possilby brought to England a portrait of his wife.

The octagonal tower in the portrait is very similar to the main landmark of the 16th century Vilnius, the medieval Cathedral Bell Tower, rebuilt in Renaissance style during the reign of Sigismund Augustus after 1544 (and later due to fires and invasions) and close to Barbara's residence, Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania.

The woman is holding two roses, white and red - "white roses became symbols of purity, red roses of redeeming blood, and both colors, together with the green of their leaves, also represented the three cardinal virtues faith, hope, and love" (after Colum Hourihane's "The Routledge Companion to Medieval Iconography", 2016, p. 459). 

The portrait of a man sitting by a window with "a Northern town beyond" is very similar to other effigies of Sigismund Augustus, while the landscape behind him is almost identical with that visible in the Carleton portrait. It is almost like if the king was sitting in the same chair in the room at the Vilnius Castle beside his beloved wife. ​

​The portrait of a general by Titian in Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Kassel is identified by Iryna Lavrovskaya as the effigy of influential cousin of Barbara Radziwill, Nicholas "The Black" Radziwill (Heritage, N. 2, 1993. pp. 82-84). The establishment of the portrait gallery in Nesvizh is associated with Radziwill "the Black", who commissioned images abroad, including in Strasbourg (after "Monumenta variis Radivillorum ..." by Tadeusz Bernatowicz, p. 20). Similar to king Sigismund II Augustus - armours in the Royal Armoury in Stockholm, Kremlin Museum and the Polish Army Museum in Warsaw, he ordered his set of armour and barding from Kunz Lochner in Nuremberg (Kunsthistorisches Museum, some elements are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art).
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In one of the letters, the longing father instructed his son Nicolaus Christopher "the Orphan", who was studying abroad, to commission a portrait and send it to Lithuania. The portrait, sent from Strasbourg, aroused dissatisfaction and at the same time biting remarks about his son's clothes. The voivode ordered a new life-size portrait of his son to be made so that he could see how tall he was. He also ordered a chain with the image of the king to be painted on his son's chest (after "Tylem się w Strazburku nauczył ... " by Zdzisław Pietrzyk, p. 164).

Portrait of Barbara Radziwill (1520/23-1551) by circle of Titian, ca. 1549, Chatsworth House.

Portrait of Sigismund II Augustus (1520-1572) by circle of Titian, ca. 1547-1549, Private collection.

Portrait of Nicholas "The Black" Radziwill (1515-1565) by Titian, 1550-1552, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Kassel.

Portraits of Barbara Radziwill by Flemish painters ​

The effigy, previously identified as Anne de Pisseleu, Duchesse d'Etampes (modern scholars today reject this identification), is very similar in facial features and costume style to the Carleton Portrait at Chatsworth and to the portrait of Barbara Radziwill by Moretto da Brescia in Washington. It is known only through 19th century copies, as original from about 1550 (or 1549) from the French royal collection, most probably by a Flemish painter, is considered to be lost. 
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Anne de Pisseleu, was a chief mistress of Francis I, king of France and a staunch Calvinist, who counseled Francis on toleration for Huguenots. Even after her deposition, following Francis' death in March 1547, she was one of the most influential and wealthy Protestants in France. It cannot be excluded, that Sigismund Augustus and the Radziwills approached her with their cause - coronation of Barbara as a queen and her recognition internationally, and that the copy of effigy of Barbara offered to her was after the French Revolution mistaken for her portrait. 

Around the year of 1548 or 1549, Sigismund Augustus commissioned in the Spanish Netherlands (Flanders) the first set of new tapestries for his residences (known as Jagiellonian tapestries or Wawel Arrasses). It is highly probable that as earlier his father in 1536, he also ordered some paintings there.

Also the details of sitter's garments find its confirmation in the bill of the royal embroiderer who charged the royal treasury for garments he embroidered for Queen Barbara in 1549: "I embroidered a red velvet beret with pearls; I earned from it fl. 6". 

The portrait of a lady in Spanish-like costume, said to be Anne Boleyn from the Musée Condé and created in about 1550, is astonishingly similar to the series of portraits of Sigismund Augustus' eldest unmarried sister at that time, Sophia Jagiellon. It's almost like a pendant to Sophia's portrait, the costume is very similar and the portraits were undoubtedly created in the same workshop. It's largely idealized, like some portraits of Margaret of Parma after original by Antonio Moro, nevertheless the resemblance to Barbara's appearance is strong. Through his mother, Bona Sforza d'Aragona, Barbara's husband had claims to Kingdom of Naples and Duchy of Milan, both part of the Spanish Empire. 

Likewise the previous portrait, black robes are also included in the same bill of the royal embroiderer for 1549: "a robe of black teletta, I embroidered a bodice and sleeves with pearls; I earned from this robe fl. 40." or "I embroidered a robe of black velvet, two pearl rows at the bottom; I earned from it fl. 60."

The portrait of a mysterious lady from the Picker Art Gallery in Hamilton was undobtedly painted by some Netherlandish master and is very close to a bit caricatural style of Joos van Cleve and his son Cornelis (e.g. portraits of Henry VIII of England). The woman however wears an Italian costume from the 1540s, similar to portrait of a lady with a book of music from the Getty Center. The jewel on her necklace has also adequate symbolic meaning, ruby is a symbol of both royalty and love, sapphire a symbol of purity and the Kingdom of God and a pearl was a symbol of fidelity.

Aprat from resemblance to other portraits of Barbara, whose husband was very fond of Italian fashion, and her taylor was an Italian, this is another indicator that this is also her portrait. ​

Portrait of Barbara Radziwill in a pearl beret, 1849 engraving after lost original by Flemish painter from about 1549, Private collection.

Portrait of Barbara Radziwill in a pearl beret, 19th century after lost original by Flemish painter from about 1549, Victoria and Albert Museum.

Portrait of Barbara Radziwill in Spanish costume by Flemish painter, ca. 1550, Musée Condé.

Portrait of Barbara Radziwill in Italian costume by Flemish painter, possibly Cornelis van Cleve, 1545-1550, Picker Art Gallery in Hamilton.

Portrait of Queen Bona Sforza by Lucas Cranach the Younger

Portrait of an old woman by Lucas Cranach the Younger from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston bears strong similarity with contemporary effigies of Bona Sforza, Queen of Poland. The Queen started to wear her distinctive outfit of a widowed elder lady in about 1548, after death of Sigismund I. 

As for eye color and features the comparison with portraits of Emperor Charles V, her portraits by Bernardino Licinio and her daughter, proofs that different workshops differently interpreted royal effigies and as natural ultramarine (deep blue color) was an expensive pigment in the 16th century, cheaper pigments were used to make a copy (eye color). In a letter of 31 August 1538, Bona Sforza says about two portraits of her daughter Isabella, and complain that her features in the portrait that she has are not very accurate. 

Like the Venetian painters, to meet the high demand for his works, Cranach developed a large workshop and "style of painting that depended on shortcut solutions and an extensive use of easily copied patterns and rote methods of producing decorative detail that could be successfully replicated by assistants". An epithet "the fastest painter" (pictor celerrimus), may still be read on his tomb in the city church in Weimar (after "German Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1350-1600", p. 77).

Despite tremendous losses during many wars and invasions Cranach's name or paintings in his style appear in many books and inventories concerning historical collections of paintings in Poland-Lithuania. 

Before his accession to the throne as a sole ruler Sigismund Augustus, through his cousin Duke Albert of Prussia, tries to obtain portraits of German princes painted by Lucas Cranach the Elder (after "Malarstwo polskie: Gotyk, renesans, wczesny manieryzm" by Michał Walicki, p. 36). Paintings were sent in February 1547 trough Piotr Wojanowski, tenant of Grudziądz and were hung in the royal gallery that was being created in Vilnius (after "Zygmunt August : Wielki Książę Litwy do roku 1548" by Ludwik Kolankowski, p. 329).​ The painting of Madonna and Child with two angels against the landscape by follower of Lucas Cranach the Elder, was probably offered to the Corpus Christi Church in Kraków by king Sigismund II Augustus. The first mention of the painting dates back to 1571 and was later reported by the chronicler of the monastery, Stefan Ranotowicz (1617-1694) in his Casimiriae civitatis, urbi Cracoviensi confrontatae, origo. Ranotowicz states that "we have a German painting in the pallatium from the royal donation representing Beatae Mariae Virginis" (after "Madonna z Dzieciątkiem w krakowskim klasztorze kanoników regularnych ..." by Zbigniew Jakubowski, p. 130). Nicolaus "the Black" Radziwill, cousin of the king's second wife Barbara, had a German tapestry based on Cranach's painting and in 1535, a Pomeranian, Antoni Wida, probably a student of Cranach, resides in Kraków and in 1557 he is recorded as a court painter of Sigismund Augustus in Vilnius (partially after "Dwa nieznane obrazy Łukasza Cranacha Starszego" by Wanda Drecka, p. 625).

Inventories drawn up in 1671 in Königsberg list the huge fortune inherited by the princess Louise Charlotte Radziwill (1667-1695) from her father Boguslaus Radziwill (1620-1669), whose estates were compared by contemporaries to "Mantua, Modena and other smaller states in Italy". Among over 900 paintings in the inventory, there were portraits, mythological and biblical scenes by Lucas Cranach (24 items) along "The Face of Jesus by Albert Duer", i.e. Albrecht Dürer, and a "painting of Pawel Caliaro", that is Paolo Caliari known as Veronese, about 25 Italian paintings, several portraits of unknown Italian, German, and French ladies and gentlemen, paintings with "naked" and "half-naked" women, Ruthenian and Russian icons, a Greek altar and one "Spanish Fantasy". Portraits of members of the Radziwill family, Polish kings from John I Albert (1459-1501), more than 20 effigies of the Vasas and their families, German emperors, kings of Sweden, France, England and Spain and various foreign personalities, collected over several generations, constituted the dominant part of over 300 pieces in the inventory (after "Galerie obrazów i "Gabinety Sztuki" Radziwiłłów w XVII w." by Teresa Sulerzyska, p. 90).

The inventory also lists many paintings that may be by Cranach the Elder and his son or 16th-century Venetian or Netherlandish painters: A lady in a white robe, with jewels, a crown on her head (71), A lady in a lynx coat in black, a dog by her side (72), A lady in a czamara, a diamond crown on her head with pearls, holding gloves (73), A beautiful lady in a pearl dress and a robe embroidered with pearls (80), A woman who stabbed herself with a knife (292), A woman, semi-circular picture at the top (293), A man of this shape, perhaps the husband of this woman (294), Dido who stabbed herself with a knife (417), A large image of Venice (472), Lucretia who stabbed herself, golden frames (690), A naked lady who stabbed herself, golden frames (691), A well-dressed lady with a child, on panel (692), A lady in a red robe who stabbed herself (693), Small picture: a German with a naked woman (embracing, naked boys serve) (737), A person with a long beard, in black, inscription An° 1553 etatis 47 (753), A lady under the tent showed her breast (840), Venus with Cupid bitten by bees (763), two portraits of Barbara Radziwill, Queen of Poland (79 and 115) and a portrait of King Sigismund Augustus of Poland, on panel (595) (after "Inwentarz galerii obrazów Radziwiłłów z XVII w." by Teresa Sulerzyska). The inventory also includes several nude and erotic paintings and this is only a part of splendid collections of the Radziwlls that survived the Deluge (1655-1660).

Perhaps the paintings owned by a citizen of Kraków Melchior Czyżewski (d. 1542): Tabula Judith et Herodiadis ex utraque parte depicta and by Kraków councilor Jan Pavioli in 1655: "bathing Bathsheba", "Judith", "portrait of Christian, king of Denmark", "the duke of Saxony", had something in common with the Wittenberg workshop. In the collection of King John II Casimir Vasa, Bona Sforza's grandson, sold at an auction in Paris in 1672, there was Cranach's Madonna and Child (Une Vierge avec un petit Christ, peint sur bois. Original de Lucas Cronus), possibly bearing features of his famous grandmother. King Stanislaus Augustus (1732-1798), had 6 paintings by Cranach and his workshop, one of St. Jerome, the other five on mythological subjects: Venus et l'Amour sur bois (no. 941), Pyrame et Thisbe (no. 912), Venus Couchee (no. 913), Venus surprise avec Mars (no. 914), Venus et Mars (no. 915).

​Many Venetian, Italian and German paintings were exhibited in Warsaw in the Bruhl Palace in 1880, some of these may have originally been in the royal collection: Lucas Cranach - Old man with a young girl (35, Museum), Jacopo Bassano - Vulcan forging the arrows (43, Museum), Moretto da Brescia - Madonna with Saint Roch and Saint Anne (51, Museum), Gentile Bellini - Christ after being taken down from the cross, surrounded by saints (66, Museum), Tintoretto - Baptism of Christ (71, 81, Museum), School of Paolo Veronese - Temptation of Saint Anthony (84, Museum), Jacopo Bassano - Adoration of the Shepherds, property of Countess Kossakowska (4, room D), School of Titian - Baptism of Christ, property of Countess Maria Łubieńska (6, room D), Giovanni Bellini - Madonna, property of Count Stanisław Plater-Zyberk (75, room D), Bernardo Luini - Christ and Saint John, property of Mrs. Chrapowicka (76, room D), Bassano - Bible scene, property of Mrs. Rusiecka (19, room E), Venetian school - Historical Item: Feast of the Kings, property of Jan Sulatycki (2, room F), Lucas Cranach - Reclining Nymph, property of Jan Sulatycki (35, room F) (after "Katalog obrazów starożytnych …" by Józef Unger).

Other important paintings by Cranach and his workshop related to Poland and most likely the royal court include Stigmatisation of Saint Francis, created in about 1502-1503, today in the Belvedere in Vienna (inventory number 1273), in Poland, probably already in the 16th century and in the 19th century in the collection of the Szembek family in Zawada near Myślenice, comparable to paintings by Italian masters Gentile da Fabriano (Magnani-Rocca Foundation) or Lorenzo di Credi (Musée Fesch), the Massacre of the Innocents in the National Museum in Warsaw (M.Ob.587), which was in about 1850 in the Regulski collection in Warsaw, portrait of Princess Sibylle of Cleves (1512-1554) as a bride from the Skórzewski collection, signed with artist's insignia and dated '1526' (National Museum in Poznań, lost), portrait of George the Bearded, Duke of Saxony, husband of Barbara Jagiellon (Polish Academy of Learning in Kraków, lost), alleged portrait of Henry IV the Pious, Duke of Saxony (Frąckiewicz collection, lost), miniature portrait of Katharina von Bora "the Lutheress" (collection of Leandro Marconi in Warsaw, destroyed in 1944) (paritally after "Polskie Cranachiana" by Wanda Drecka).

Portrait of Queen Bona Sforza by Lucas Cranach the Younger, 1549, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Portrait of Sigismund Augustus with a construction of a bridge in Warsaw by Tintoretto 

"Sigismund Augustus built a wooden bridge over the Vistula River, 1150 feet long, which was almost unmatched in terms of both length and magnificence in the whole of Europe, causing universal admiration", states Georg Braun, in his work Theatri praecipuarum totius mundi urbium (Review of major cities around the world) published in Cologne in 1617. 

In 1549, to facilitate communication with Grand Duchy of Lithuania, where Barbara resided, Sigismund Augustus decided to finance the construction of a permanent bridge in Warsaw. In 1549 he bought from Stanisław Jeżowski, a land writer from Warsaw, the hereditary privilege of transport across the Vistula River, giving him in return "two villages, a mill and a half of a second mill, 40 forest voloks and 200 florins."

The portrait of a man with a "Northern landscape" beyond showing a construction of a wooden bridge in The National Gallery of Art in Washington, created by Jacopo Tintoretto, is very similar to other effigies of Sigismund Augustus. It was purchased in 1839 in Bologna by William Buchanan. 

The city of Bologna was famous for its university, architects and engineers, like Giacomo da Vignola (1507-1573), who began his career as an architect there and where in 1548 he built three locks or Sebastiano Serlio (1475-1554), an outstanding architect and theoretician of architecture, born in Bologna. In 1547 Queen Bona, wanted to involve Serlio, married to her lady-in-waiting Francesca Palladia, at her court. Since Serlio had already a position in France, he offered Bona his students. In a letter to Ercole d'Este, Bona asked for a builder who could build anything and in 1549 the Queen settled in Warsaw.

From 1548 the court physician of the king was Piotr from Poznań, who received his doctorate in Bologna and in 1549, a Spaniard educated in Bologna, Pedro Ruiz de Moros (Piotr Roizjusz), became a courtier of Sigismund Augustus and a court legal advisor (iuris consultus), thanks to recommendation of his colleague from the studies in Bologna, royal secretary Marcin Kromer. 

From 4 June to 24 September 1547, master carpenter Maciej, called Mathias Molendinator, with his helpers, led the construction of a wooden bridge on brick supports covered with a shingle roof, which led through Vilnia River in Vilnius from the royal palace to the royal stables. 
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It is uncertain if the construction was actually started in 1549 or the portrait was only one of a series of materials intended for propaganda purposes, confirming the creativity and innovation of the Jagiellonian state. It is possible that due to the problems to find a suitable engeneer to help with the costruction of the largest bridge of the 16th century Europe, that the project was postponed. Only after 19 years, on 25 June 1568, ten years after the start of the regular Polish post (Kraków - Venice), the tapping of the first pile was initiated. The bridge was opened to public on 5 April 1573, a few months after the death of its founder, accomplished by his sister Anna Jagiellon, who also built the Bridge Tower in 1582 to protect the construction. 

The 500 meters long bridge was the first permanent crossing over the Vistula River in Warsaw, the longest wooden crossing in Europe at that time and a technical novelty. It was made of oak wood and iron and equipped with a suspension system. The bridge was costructed by "Erasmus Cziotko, fabrikator pontis Varszoviensis" (Erazm z Zakroczymia), who according to some researchers was an Italian and his real name was Giotto, a surname carried by a family of Florentine builders.

Portrait of Sigismund Augustus with a construction of a bridge in Warsaw by Tintoretto, ca. 1549, National Gallery of Art, Washington.

Portrait of Sigismund Augustus by Tintoretto or workshop, 1540s, Private collection.

Portraits of Sigismund Augustus in armour and in a black hat by Tintoretto

In the beginnig of 1549 Barbara Radziwill arrived from Vilnius via royal Radom (September 1548) to Nowy Korczyn near Kraków for her coronation and ceremonial entry into the city as the new queen. Eight times a year, large grain fairs were held in the city of Nowy Korczyn. The grain purchased there was floated down the Vistula to Gdańsk in large barges, similar to galleys, as visible in the View of Warsaw from about 1625. The lords of the Kingdom arrived to greet Barbara in Korczyn and on 12 February 1549 she embarked on a journey to the capital. 

The river journey from or to Korczyn would be the easiest, however the sources does not confirm it. The accounts from 1535 inform nevertheless about boats owned by Sigismund I and his son Sigismund Augustus. The statue on the ship, visible in the painting, is clearly Saint Chrisopher a patron saint of travelers, hence it is not likely a battleship. 

The effigy is in Vienna and Austrian Habsburgs were Sigismund Augustus' relatives through Anna Jagellonica, two of his wives were her daughters and portraits were often commissioned to be sent to distant relatives. 

The portrait which could be dated to 1550, although idealized, bears a resemblance to other effigies of the king by Tintoretto and has an inscription ANOR XXX (year 30) on the base of the column. Sigismund Augustus reached his 30th year of age on 1 August 1550 and his beloved wife was crowned on 7 December 1550.

Finally his mother was described as a lovely light blonde, "when (oddly enough) her eyelashes and eyebrows are completely black", so was the anomaly in hair color inherited from her?

The same sitter was also depicted wearing a black hat in a portrait from private collection by Tintoretto ​and a workshop copy of it in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Rouen.

Portrait of Sigismund II Augustus (1520-1572) with a royal galley by Tintoretto, ca. 1550, Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

Portrait of Sigismund II Augustus (1520-1572) in armour by circle of Tintoretto, ca. 1550, Private collection.

Portrait of Sigismund Augustus in a black hat by Tintoretto, 1545-1550, Private collection. ​

Sigismund Augustus and Barbara Radziwill as Jupiter and Io by Paris Bordone

In Ovid's "Metamorphoses" Jupiter, King of the Gods noticed Io, a mortal woman and a priestess of his wife Juno, Queen of the Gods. He lusted after her and seduced her. The painting by Paris Bordone in Gothenburg shows the moment when the god discovers that his jealous wife is approaching and he raises his green cloak to hide his mistress. The myth fits perfectly the story of romance of Sigismund Augustus and his mistress Barbara Radziwill, a Lithuanian noblewoman whom he met in 1543, when he was married to Elizabeth of Austria (1526-1545), and whom he secretly married despite the disapproval of his mother, the powerful Queen Bona. 

According to Vasari, Bordone created two versions of the composition. One for Cardinal Jean de Lorraine (1498-1550) in 1538, when he went to the court of Francis I of France at Fontainebleau, and the other "Jupiter and a nymph" for the King of Poland. Researchers pointed out that stylistically the canvas should be dated to the 1550s, therefore it cannot be the painting created for Cardinal de Lorraine. 

The painting was allegedly brought to Sweden by Louis Masreliez (1748-1810), a French painter, hence it cannot be excluded that it was taken to France by John Casimir Vasa, great-grandson of Bona, after his abdiction in 1668, that Masreliez acquired in Italy a copy of painting prepared for the Polish king, possibly a modello or a ricordo, or that it was captured by the Swedish army during the Deluge (1655-1660) and purchased by Masreliez in Sweden.

The effigy of Io is not so "statuesque" as other effigies of the goddesses by Bordone, could be a courtesan, but could also be the royal mistress and can be compared with effigies of Barbara, while Jupiter with these of Sigismund Augustus. The painting should be then considered as a part of Jagiellonian propaganda to legitimize the royal mistress as the Queen of Poland.

Sigismund Augustus and Barbara Radziwill as Jupiter and Io by Paris Bordone, 1550s, Gothenburg Museum of Art.

Sigismund Augustus in guise of Christ as The Light of the World by Paris Bordone

The particluar taste of queen Bona for paintings in guise of the Virgin Mary and her son as Jesus, biblical figures and saints is confirmed by her effigies by Francesco Bissolo and Lucas Cranach. Such portraits were popular throughout Europe since the Middle Ages. 

Examples include the effigy of Agnès Sorel, mistress of King Charles VII of France, as Madonna Lactans by Jean Fouquet from the 1450s, Giulia Farnese, mistress of Pope Alexander VI as the Virgin Mary ("la signora Giulia Farnese nel volto d'una Nostra Donna" according to Vasari) and his daughter Lucrezia Borgia as Saint Catherine by Pinturicchio from the 1490s, Mary of Burgundy in the guise of Mary Magdalene created in about 1500, Francis I of France as Saint John the Baptist by Jean Clouet from about 1518, Catherine of Austria, Queen of Portugal as Saint Catherine by Domingo Carvalho from about 1530, Albrecht Dürer's self-portraits as the Saviour or Leonardo's Salvator Mundi, possibly a self-portrait or effigies of his lover Salaì as Saint John the Baptist and numerous other.

Marble tondos decorating Sigismund's Chapel at the Wawel Cathedral, created by Bartolommeo Berrecci between 1519-1533 as a funerary chapel for the last members of the Jagiellonian Dynasty, shows king Sigismund I the Old as biblical king Solomon and king David (or his banker Jan Boner). 

The print published in Nicolas Gueudeville's "Le grand theatre historique, ou nouvelle histoire universelle" in Leiden in 1703, after original drawing from 1548, depict king Sigismund I the Old on his deathbed giving a blessing to his sucessor Sigismund Augustus having long hair. 

In February 1556, Bona departed Poland to her native Italy trough Venice with treasures she had accumulated over 38 years loaded on 12 wagons, drawn by six horses. She udoubtedly took with her some religious paintings, portraits of members of the royal family and of her beloved son Augustus. She settled in Bari near Naples, inherited from her mother, where she arrived on 13 May 1556. 

Bona died just one year later on 19 November 1557, at the age of 63. She was poisoned by her courtier Gian Lorenzo Pappacoda, who falsified her last will and stole her treasures.

The paining showing Christ as The Light of the World  (Lux mundi) in the the National Gallery in London (a copy in the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo) bears a strong resemblance to known effigies of Sigismund Augustus. It was given to the National Gallery in 1901 by the heirs of the surgeon, who in turn was offered the painting by a member of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, formed when the Kingdom of Sicily merged with the Kingdom of Naples in 1816, in thanks for his kindness to a Sicilian lady in 1819. 
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According to museum description "paintings of this type were kept in houses, especially in bedrooms", so has Bona had it at her deathbed in Bari?

This convention of historié portrait was undoubtedly well known to the Queen through portraits of Lorenzo de' Medici (1492-1519), Duke of Urbino by Venetian painters, depicted as Christ the Redeemer of the World (Salvator Mundi).

Some sacred images in Poland-Lithuania are also considered as effigies of the monarchs, like Our Lady of the Gate of Dawn in Vilnius, allegedly depicting Barbara Radziwill, mistress and later wife of Sigismund Augustus, or portrait of Queen Marie Casimire Sobieska (1641-1716) as Saint Barbara in the Bydgoszcz Cathedral. It is believed that the painting in Vilnius was commissioned as one of two paintings, one depicting Christ the Saviour (Salvator Mundi), and the other the Virgin Mary.

Other versions and workshop copies of the painting in London are today in the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo (offered in 1908), legacy of Countess Maria Ricotti Caleppio, widow of the Ancona patrician Raimondo Ricotti who died in his villa in Rome, in the Abbey of San Benedetto in Polirone near Mantua, possibly from the Gonzaga collection, and in the Musée Rolin in Autun in France, transferred from the Louvre, most probably from the French royal collection. Another reduced variant (61 x 50.5 cm) from private collection was sold in New York (Sotheby's, November 2, 2000, Lot 68). It is therefore highly probable that effigies of the king of Poland in guise of the Saviour were sent to different royal and princely courts in Europe shortly after creation in Venetian workshop of Paris Bordone, to Rome, Mantua and France, among others.

In one of the side altars of the Church of the Assumption in Kraśnik there is painting of Salvator Mundi by workshop of Paris Bordone from the mid-16th century. It is possible that it was offered to the temple by Stanisław Gabriel Tęczyński (1514-1561) or his son Jan Baptysta Tęczyński (1540-1563), owners of Kraśnik, and that it was originally given to one of them by the king. 

Sigismund Augustus in guise of Christ as The Light of the World by Paris Bordone, 1548-1550, National Gallery, London.

Sigismund Augustus in guise of Christ as The Light of the World by Paris Bordone, 1548-1550, Accademia Carrara in Bergamo.

Sigismund Augustus in guise of Christ as The Light of the World by workshop of Paris Bordone, 1548-1550, Abbey of San Benedetto in Polirone.

Sigismund Augustus in guise of Christ the Saviour (Salvator Mundi) by workshop of Paris Bordone, 1548-1550, Private collection.

Christ as the Redeemer of the World (Salvator Mundi) by workshop of Paris Bordone, mid-16th century, Church of the Assumption in Kraśnik.

Portraits of Franciszek Krasiński and Piotr Dunin-Wolski by Lambert Sustris or workshop

Franciszek Krasiński, a nobleman of Ślepowron coat of arms, was born on April 10, 1525, probably in the village of Krasne in Masovia, north of Warsaw, in the family of Jan Andrzej Krasiński, Pantler of Ciechanów, and Katarzyna Mrokowska. He received his primary education at the Protestant gymnasium in Zgorzelec in Silesia (part of Bohemia), then studied under Philip Melanchthon at the University of Wittenberg, from where, on the advice of Bishop Mikołaj Dzierzgowski, he resigned. In 1541, he entered the University of Kraków, later went to Italy, where he studied at the University of Bologna, and on June 4, 1551, at the University of Rome, he became a doctor of both laws. After returning to Poland, he was most probaly ordained a priest and became a secretary of his distant relative, Primate Mikołaj Dzieżgowski, who helped him obtain several church benefits: the Kalisz archdeaconry and the canon of Łuck, Łowicz and Kraków. In 1560, Franciszek became the secretary of king Sigismund Augustus under the patronage of Primate Jan Przerębski. He performed diplomatic functions, in particular in Vienna, where he was an ambassador at the Imperial court between 1565-1568. He was later crown vice - chancellor between 1569-1574 and bishop of Kraków between 1572-1577. Being sick with tuberculosis, he often stayed in the castle of the Kraków Bishops in Bodzentyn. He died there on March 16, 1577 and according to his will, he was buried in the local church, where his marble tomb monument was created by Girolamo Canavesi's workshop in Kraków. 

Facial features of a man wearing an elaborately embroidered doublet and a fur-trimmed black cape in a portrait attributed to Lambert Sustris are very similar to known effigies of Franciszek Krasiński, especially to his portrait by anonymous painter which was before World War II in the collection of Ludwika Czartoryska née Krasińska in Krasne, lost. Also the pose is very similar. The painting in Krasne was dated in upper right corner Ao 1576, however, it might possibly be a later addition as on this portrait he is much younger then on other known effigies (e.g. portrait in the Franciscan Monastery in Kraków from about 1572). The painting attributed to Sustris was sold in New York in 1989 and was painted on panel. According to inscription in Latin in lower right corner, the man was 25 years old in 1550 (.ET TATIS SVE../.ANNVS./.XXV./.P./MDL), exactly as Franciszek Krasiński, when he studied in Bologna and Rome.

At the Colonna Gallery in Rome there is a portrait of a man holding gloves (oil on canvas, 88 x 65 cm, inventory number Fid. n. 1477), who also resemble greatly Franciszek Krasiński from the portrait in Krasne and described effigy attributed to Sustris. It was earlier attributed to Lorenzo Lotto, Nicolas Neufchatel or Dirck Barendsz (rejected attributions) and now to anonymous painter from the Southern Netherlands. Previous attributions and style of this painting match perfectly paintings by Sustris, a Dutch painter who worked in Titian's studio and incorporated Italian Renaissance elements in his work. The costume of the man and the style is also very similar to the painting dated 1550. 

The date when Krasiński was ordained a priest is unknown. He was a canon of Gniezno from 1556, however, like Copernicus or Jan Dantyszek, he might not have been ordained a priest. The sitter's costume and pose can be compared with effigies of Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle (1517-1586), a leading minister of the Spanish Habsburgs, who become a canon of Besançon and prothonotary Apostolic in 1529, when he was only 12 years old, later, in November 1538, aged only twenty-one, he was appointed bishop of Arras and took holy orders two years later (after "Les Granvelle et les anciens Pays-Bas" by Krista de Jonge, Gustaaf Janssens, p. 20). Granvelle also became the archbishop of Malines (1560) and a cardinal (1561), yet in majority of his portraits, like the one created by Frans Floris in about 1541, with blue eyes, by Titian in 1548, by Antonis Mor in 1549 and in about 1560, by Lambertus Suavius in 1556, all with dark eyes, there is no explicit reference to his priesthood. A number of preserved portraits of Polish-Lithuanian "princes of the Church" are official effigies dedicated to churches, where the patron was depicted in pontifical vestments. In private images, they could allow themselves, like Granvelle, to be depicted in less formal attire, more typical of a nobleman than a priest. According to Latin inscription at upper left, the man was 37 years old in 1562 (A° 1562 / AETATIS. 37), exacly as royal secretary Franciszek Krasiński. He could have ordered this likeness in Venice and then send it to Rome, although it is also possible that in 1562 he was in Italy.

​Another portrait attributed to Lambert Sustris or his workshop shows a bearded man in black costume with a black hat, holiding a book and seated in a chair. This painting was sold in London in 2005. It bears inscription and date Roma Ano 1564 Etatis Mae 33 (Rome Year 1564 of My Age 33) above the man's head, as well as three other inscriptions in Greek (or Armenian), Hebrew and Italian. The inscription in Italian Non ognuno che mi dice signor / Signore entrata nel regno de cieli: / ma colui che fa la volunta del / padre mio che e ne' cieli (Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven) are verses of the seventh chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament, part of the Sermon on the Mount, on True and False Disciples. 

The age of a man match perfectly the age of Piotr Dunin-Wolski (1531-1590), the son of Paweł Dunin-Wolski, Great Crown Chancellor, and Dorota Wiewiecka of Jastrzębiec coat of arms, who after his initial studies at the Lubrański Academy in Poznań went to Bologna and Padua to complete his studies. In Bologna in 1554 he is mentioned as a student of Sebastiano Corrado (Sebastianus Corradus), professor of Greek and Latin, who translated Plato into Latin. He was a canon of Poznań since 1545 and after returning from Italy, he stayed at the court of king Sigismund Augustus, where he proved to be a man especially gifted in foreign languages and in diplomacy. He was threfore sent to Madrid in Spain in 1560 where he stayed for more than 10 years, trying to regain the so-called Neapolitan sums for the king. 

His stay in Rome in 1564 is not mentioned in the sources, however his letters from Barcelona of March 4 to cardinal Stanisław Hozjusz and from Madrid of September 23 to bishop Marcin Kromer might indicate such journey. He returned to Poland in 1573. He was a collector of antiquities and collected a large library, which he donated to the Kraków Academy (approx. 1000 volumes) and the library of the Płock Chapter (130 books). 

Dunin-Wolski died in Płock on August 20, 1590 and was buried in the cathedral church, where his tombstone has been preserved to this day as well as a portrait. This effigy, created after his death in the 17th or 18th century by a local painter, was undeniably copied from another effigy of the Bishop of Płock (since 1577), and it is astonishingly similar to the described painting by Sustris or his workshop.

Portrait of Franciszek Krasiński (1525-1577), aged 25, in embroidered doublet by Lambert Sustris, 1550, Private collection.

Portrait of royal secretary Franciszek Krasiński (1525-1577), aged 37, holding gloves by Lambert Sustris, 1562, Colonna Gallery in Rome.

Portrait of canon Piotr Dunin-Wolski (1531-1590), aged 33 by Lambert Sustris or workshop, 1564, Private collection.

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Portraits of Sophia Jagiellon in Spanish costume

​Daughters of Bona Sforza d'Aragona, Queen of Poland, Grand Duchess of Lithuania and Duchess of Bari and Rossano by her own right were descendants of Alfonso V, King of Aragon, Sicily and Naples.

The portrait of a blond lady in Spanish costume from the 1550s which exists in a number of copies, although idealized, bears a strong resemblance to the portrait of Sophia in French/German costume in Kassel by circle of Titian and her miniature in German/Polish dress by Cranach.

At least two paintings are preserved in Poland (one in Kraków acquired by Izabela Czartoryska in Edinburgh as a portrait of Mary, Queen of Scots, the other in Warsaw from the Radziwill collection) and one of inferior quality, most probably lost during World War II, was traditionally identified as Sophia.

After marriage of Isabella Jagiellon in 1539, Sophia was the eldest daughter of Bona still unmarried. Three of Bona's younger daughters dressed identically, as evidenced by their miniatures by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Younger from about 1553 and inventory of dowry of the youngest Catherine includes many Spanish garments, like a black velvet coat with "53 Spanish buckles of 270 thalers worth", "buckles on (thirteen) French and Spanish robes", or "a robe of black velvet at the throat in Spanish style" with 198 buckles, etc. The fashion was udobtedly used in complex Jagiellonian politics and the portraits could be commissioned in the Spanish Netherlands and Italy.

A portrait from the private collection in Sweden, possibly taken from Poland-Lithuania during the Deluge (1655-1660), and created by the same workshop, showns Sophia in similar Spanish/French costume. ​

Portrait of Sophia Jagiellon (1522-1575) in Spanish costume by Flemish painter, 1550-1556, Czartoryski Museum in Kraków.

Portrait of Sophia Jagiellon (1522-1575) in Spanish costume by Flemish painter, 1550-1556, Private collection.

Portrait of Sophia Jagiellon (1522-1575) in Spanish costume by Flemish or Italian painter, 1550-1556, National Museum in Warsaw.

Portrait of Sophia Jagiellon (1522-1575) in Spanish/French costume by Flemish painter, 1550-1556, Private collection. 

Portraits of Sigismund Augustus and Catherine of Austria as Adam and Eve from the Paradise Bliss tapestry 

"Adam and Eve, the parents of calamity, stood both painted according to true image and the word all over the tapestries woven with gold. And since those portraits of the first parents, in addition to the other things to be seen, were of admirable material and workmanship, I will show them like Cebetis, so that from thence the work itself of an excellent artist, as well as the genius of the best king, may be perceived [...]. In the first tapestry, at the head of the nuptial bed, we saw the bliss in the faces of our parents; in which, when they were happy, they were not ashamed to be naked. Moreover, the nakedness of both of them so moved the spirits, especially that of Eve's husband, that lascivious girls would smile at Adam as they entered. For when the man's womb was opened, the sex of a woman is fulfilled" (calamitatis parentes Adam et Eva ad effigiem veritatis stabant textu picti ambo per omnes Cortinas, auro praetextati. Et quoniam illae primorum parentum effigies praeter caeteras res visendas, admirabili fuerunt materia et opere, eas ad Cebetis instar demonstrabo, ut inde cum opus ipsum praeclari artificis, tum vero ingenium optimi regis pernoscatis [...]. In prima Cortina, ad caput genialis lecti, parentum nostrorum contextu expressa felicitatis cernebatur effigies; in qua felices illi cum essent, non erubescebant nudi. Porro utriusque nuditas ita commovebat animos, ut viri Evae, Adamo vero lascivae introingressae arriderent puellae. Aperta enim pube ille viri, haec foeminae sexum sinu ostendebant pleno), thus praises the veracity of effigies of the figures of Adam and Eve in the tapestry commissioned by king Sigismund II Augustus, Stanisław Orzechowski (1513-1566) in his "Nuptial Panegyric of Sigismund Augustus, King of Poland" (Panagyricus Nuptiarum Sigimundi Augusti Poloniae Regis), published in Kraków in 1553.

Orzechowski (Stanislao Orichovio Roxolano or Stanislaus Orichovius Ruthenus), a Ruthenian Catholic priest, born in or near Przemyśl, educated in Kraków, Vienna, Wittenberg, Padua, Bologna, Rome and Venice and married to a noblewoman Magdalena Chełmska, described the festivities and decorations of the Wawel Royal Castle in Kraków during king's wedding celebrated on July 30, 1553. The bride was a sister of Sigismund Augustus first wife and widow of the Duke of Mantua, Catherine of Austria, daughter of Anna Jagellonica (1503-1547). Wedding chambers were adorned with tapestries from the series of the Story of Adam and Eve, created in Brussels by workshop of Jan de Kempeneer after cartoons by Michiel I Coxcie, most probably on this occasion, including the described Paradise Bliss. The author emphasizes that they were depicted naked, while both Eve and Adam's womb on this tapestry are today covered with vine branches. "A closer look at the technique of the fabric in these places reveals that the vine covering Eve's womb, and the other vine covering Adam's womb, are woven or embroidered separately and applied to the fabric itself", states Mieczysław Gębarowicz and Tadeusz Mańkowski in their publication from 1937 ("Arasy Zygmunta Agusta", p. 23). Vine branches were probably added in 1670 when the tapestry was transported to Jasna Góra Monastery for the wedding of king Michael Korybut Wiśniowiecki. Another intriguing aspect is the veracity of the images so underlined by Orzechowski. It is about the true image of the legendary first parents, a woman and a man or, most likely, the bride and groom?

Adam's facial features are very reminiscent of images of king Sigismund Augustus, especially the portrait by Jan van Calcar against the Mausoleum of Empeor Augustus in Rome (private collection), while the face of Eve is very similar to that of Queen Catherine of Austria, depicted as Venus with the lute player by Titian (Metropolitan Museum of Art). These two effigies can be compared to the naked effigies of French monarchs from their tombs in the Basilica of Saint-Denis - tomb of Louis XII and Anne of Brittany (1515-1531), tomb of Francis I and Claude of France (1548-1570), and especially the tomb of Henry II and Catherine de' Medici (1560-1573), all inspired by Italian art. 

Portrait of King Sigismund Augustus (1520-1572) as Adam from the Paradise Bliss tapestry by workshop of Jan de Kempeneer after design by Michiel I Coxcie, ca. 1553, Wawel Royal Castle.

Portrait of Queen Catherine of Austria (1533-1572) as Eve from the Paradise Bliss tapestry by workshop of Jan de Kempeneer after design by Michiel I Coxcie, ca. 1553, Wawel Royal Castle.

Tapestry with Paradise Bliss by workshop of Jan de Kempeneer after design by Michiel I Coxcie, ca. 1553, Wawel Royal Castle.