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Portraits of Bianca Cappello, Grand Duchess of Tuscany by Lavinia Fontana and Alessandro Maganza

During the third free election in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth after the death of Stephen Bathory (1533-1586), husband of Anna Jagiellon (1523-1596), two main camps, that of Jagiellons (Sigismund Vasa) and that of the Habsburgs (Archduke Maximilian), emerged as the strongest (others were supporters of Muscovy, those supporting a Piast, or native citizen of the Commonwealth, and supporters of Italian candidate). The Swedish candidacy in the person of Prince Sigismund (1566-1632), son of Catherine Jagiellon, was pushed by Queen Anna Jagiellon, who renounced her rights to the crown and who was supported by Jan Zamoyski. The Zborowski brothers, the voivode of Poznań Stanisław Górka, the bishop of Vilnius George Radziwill and Stanisław Sędziwój Czarnkowski supported the candidate of the Habsburg dynasty, Archduke Maximilian of Austria (1558-1618), grandson of Anna Jagellonica (1503-1547), and received significant funds from his brother Emperor Rudolf II to advance their candidate.

After two defeats in the royal elections, the House of Habsburg concluded that their candidate might this time have a chance of success if they could raise a sufficient sum of money. Therefore, on April 29, 1587, Archduke Maximilian directly approached Francesco I (1541-1587), Grand Duke of Tuscany, requesting a loan of 100,000 scudi to finance his efforts to obtain the Polish crown. On the same day, the Archduke sent a similar petition to Grand Duchess Bianca Cappello (1548-1587), asking her to persuade her husband to grant him the much-needed sum. On May 18, 1587, Francesco I responded courageously to this request. In the introduction, he mentioned his great hope that his exceptional virtues and personal advantages would undoubtedly enable the Archduke to win the next election. At the same time, he pointed out that the Austro-Spanish House of Habsburg had long owed him more than a million florins. He now claimed to have incurred significant expenses in purchasing the Capestrano estate in the Kingdom of Naples for his and Bianca's son, Don Antonio de' Medici (1576-1621), and that considerable sums had also been spent on strengthening the country's defenses.

It is also worth mentioning that the Grand Duke of Tuscany's own candidacy for the crown was considered in Poland, as confirmed by a letter from an architect and engineer in the service of the late King Bathory - Simone Genga (1530-1596), who assured the Duke that his candidacy would certainly be supported by the Pope. In a letter addressed to the voivode of Sieradz, Olbracht Łaski, dated March 22, 1587, Francesco did not give a definitive answer regarding his candidacy. But was there another reason for refusing to grant Maximilian the loan?

The Habsburgs must have been aware of the influence his Venetian wife had over the Grand Duke, since the Archduke, who had not yet corresponded with her, as his letter confirms, decided to write to Bianca to make this request (Serenissima Signora, Il non haver in tanto tempo fatto il debito mio in salutar et visitar la Altezza V(ost)ra con lettere mie [...] ho preso ardire di pregarla a favorirme apresso a deta Alteza in deto negocio acioche io possa ottener il mio intento). Bianca's friendly relations with Anna Jagiellon, who supported her nephew for the crown, provide a further explanation.

On August 19, 1587, the majority of the nobility gathered in the electoral field voted in favor of Sigismund Vasa, nevertheless, on August 22, Archduke Maximilian was proclaimed king by his supporters. Emperor Rudolf II took feverish steps in this regard, addressing requests for loans to the electors of Brandenburg and Saxony, and then sending emissaries to the Pope, Spain, the Duke of Ferrara, and Urbino. At the same time, Archduke Maximilian again approached Grand Duke Francesco and sent Duke Alfonso Montecuccoli on August 28, 1587 to request a loan of 100,000 scudi. Since Maximilian's chances had increased significantly, Francesco decided to allocate a sum of 50,000 scudi, of which he immediately informed Archduke Maximilian in a letter dated September 10, 1587. The tone of the letter and the characteristic manner in which the transaction was settled are, however, significant. The Augsburg bankers, Hans and Markus Fugger, were to guarantee the return of the paid cash and through whom the Grand Duke of Tuscany was to receive the return of the paid sum at the beginning of the following year (after "Dwór medycejski i Habsburgowie a trzecia elekcja w Polsce" by Danuta Quirini-Popławska, p. 123, 128, 130-131). Francesco and Bianca died in mysterious circumstances over a month later, on October 20, 1587. Cardinal Ferdinando de' Medici (1549-1609) refused a state funeral for Bianca, and her burial is therefore unknown. Francesco was buried in the Medici Chapels, alongside his first wife, Joanna of Austria (1547-1578), Maximilian's aunt.

Francesco was also a candidate in the first free election of 1573, and the portrait of the Grand Duke, now preserved in the Wilanów Palace (oil on panel, 47.5 x 37 cm, inv. Wil.1494), could be a souvenir of his candidacy. The described relationships indicate that several portraits of the Grand Duke and his wife belonged to Anna Jagiellon and her nephew Sigismund III. Although the portraits sent to Polish monarchs may have been made by painters active in Florence, such as Alessandro Allori (1535-1607), some of Bianca's portraits are attributed to Scipione Pulzone (1544-1598), a Neapolitan painter active mainly in Rome (painting in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, inv. GG 1138), another is attributed to the Venetian painter Francesco Montemezzano (Auktionshaus Stahl, May 2013, lot 20) and the painting attributed to another Venetian painter Alessandro Maganza (Ritratto di donna con collana di perle, oil on canvas, 53 x 40 cm, Capitolium Art in Brescia, May 30, 2017, lot 288), is clearly another portrait of the Grand Duchess of Tuscany. The portrait of Bianca, from "an important Swedish private collection", is also closer to Venetian painting, although attributed to Pulzone (oil on canvas, 46.5 x 38 cm, Uppsala Auktionskammare, April 17, 2024, lot 606). Stylistically, it recalls the work of Maganza; who knows, perhaps it originally adorned the walls of a residence in Sarmatia.

The traditional approach, according to which the painter and the model must have met during the creation of the painting, sometimes leads to strange conclusions. The best example is the Portrait of a Lady (Ritratto di dama), now preserved in the Municipal Art Collections of Bologna, in the Palazzo d'Accursio (oil on canvas, 97 x 79.5 cm, inv. P 9). This painting was long considered to be a work by the Bolognese painter Lavinia Fontana (1552-1614), as confirmed by the old plaque under the painting. However, when it turned out that the painting depicts Bianca Cappello, further confirmed by the inscription in the upper right corner: BIANCA CAPEL ... / DVCCESA DI T ..., it is now considered to be a work by a Florentine painter. It is unlikely that Lavinia met Bianca, but the way the Duchess's sumptuous dress and the little dog on her lap have been painted are very characteristic of Fontana, who could receive a portrait by Allori or Pulzone to copy. In the same collection there is another portrait of a lady from the same period, also previously linked to Lavinia and now generally to the Bolognese school (oil on panel, 68 x 54.5 cm, inv. P 26). Interestingly, this woman also bears a strong resemblance to the features of the Grand Duchess of Tuscany, as evidenced by her portrait in the Uffizi Gallery (inv. 1890, 1514) or in a private collection (Pandolfini, Auction 1163, October 12, 2022, lot 125). The case of the "self-portrait" of Lavinia in the Pitti Palace in Florence (inv. 1890, 1841) is somewhat similar: it is clearly a copy of the effigy of Margaret of Parma (1522-1586), illegitimate daughter of the Emperor Charles V.

In reference to my discoveries concerning the portraiture of Anna Jagiellon and her husband, we can conclude that the Venetian Grand Duchess of Tuscany and elected Queen of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, used the services of the same painters. The fact that, despite the considerable resources and diplomatic efforts deployed by the Habsburgs in the third royal election, it was Anna's candidate who won, gives an idea of ​​the queen's abilities and influence, her personal wealth, as well as patronage, which undoubtedly surpassed that of Bianca.

​Portrait of Francesco I de' Medici (1541-1587), Grand Duke of Tuscany by workshop of Alessandro Allori, ca. 1573, Wilanów Palace in Warsaw. 

​Portrait of Bianca Cappello (1548-1587), Grand Duchess of Tuscany by circle of Lavinia Fontana, ca. 1578-1580, Municipal Art Collections of Bologna.

​Portrait of Bianca Cappello (1548-1587), Grand Duchess of Tuscany by Lavinia Fontana, ca. 1580-1587, Municipal Art Collections of Bologna.

​Portrait of Bianca Cappello (1548-1587), Grand Duchess of Tuscany by Alessandro Maganza, ca. 1580-1587, Private collection (Sweden).

​Portrait of Bianca Cappello (1548-1587), Grand Duchess of Tuscany by Alessandro Maganza, ca. 1584, Private collection (Brescia).

​Portraits of Dukes of Savoy by Sofonisba Anguissola ​

The diplomatic contacts of Poland-Lithuania with the Duchy of Savoy in the 16th century date back with certainty to the year 1535, when Queen Bona planned to marry her eldest daughter Isabella Jagiellon with Louis (Ludovico) of Savoy (1523-1536), Prince of Piedmont, son of Charles III and Beatrice of Portugal. She wrote about this to the ambassador of King Ferdinand I, Sigismund von Herberstein, from Vilnius on December 14, 1535 and the matter was discussed earlier by her envoy Ludovico Alifio (after "Królowa Bona ..." by Władysław Pociecha, p. 206). As was customary, the portrait of the Jagiellonian princess was certainly sent to Savoy, while she received the portrait of Louis. Sadly the prince died in Madrid on November 25, 1536. Some informal contacts were much earlier, for example in February 1416 in Chambéry Janusz of Tuliszków, a knight of the Dryja coat of arms from Greater Poland and a diplomat, received the Order of the Collar (later Order of the Most Holy Annunciation) from Amadeus VIII (considered the last historical antipope). They undoubtedly increased around 1587 when the candidature of the Duke of Savoy in the third free election was discussed in Madrid (after "Dwór medycejski i Habsburgowie ..." by Danuta Quirini-Popławska, p. 123). 

In the 16th and 17th centuries portraiture was part of diplomacy and monarchs of different countries in Europe frequently exchanged their effigies. Portraits were also sent to friends and family members.

In 1558, Georgius Sabinus (1508-1560), a German poet and diplomat, was sent to Poland-Lithuania to win the support of Polish-Lithuanian lords, including Stanisław Ostroróg, Jan Janusz Kościelecki, Łukasz Górka, Jan Tarnowski and Jan Zborowski, to the candidacy of Sigismund of Brandenburg (1538-1566), son of Joachim II Hector, elector of Brandenburg from his second marriage with Hedwig Jagiellon (1513-1572), for the throne after his uncle Sigismund Augustus. In the name of young Prince Sigismund, he gave each of them a gold chain, from which hung the portrait of the prince. As he was only known to a few of them, he wanted to present his effigy to them "as a symbol of friendship" (als ein Symbol der Freundschaft). The Polish-Lithuanian lords reciprocated so that "hardly any other envoy sent to Poland has ever returned home with as much wealth and gifts as he does" (mit so vielem Reichtum und Gaben wie er, sei wohl kaum je ein zweiter nach Polen beordneter Gesandter heimgekehrt, after "Forschungen zur brandenburgischen und preussischen Geschichte ...", Volume 11, p. 156). The miniatures probably came from Cranach's workshop, like the portraits of Sigismund's father, although it cannot be ruled out that they were commissioned in Italy by the prince's mother Hedwig.

Diplomatic missions were frequently accompanied by the exchange of valuable gifts and they generally represented the country's most valuable exports, so the Italians offered paintings, rich fabrics and luxury cosmetics and the Poles offered clocks, sables, horses and amber.

Cardinal Enrico Gaetani, papal legate in Poland from April 1596 to June 1597, offered King Sigismund III Vasa some paintings by famous masters, the queen richly embroidered veils and a conch with musk set in a rich setting, all worth at least 800 scudi. The king gave the cardinal a beautiful temple-shaped clock with moving figurines showing the procession and blessing of the Holy Father worth over 3,000 scudi, and 40 sables worth 500 scudi. The Bishop of Kuyavia in Wolbórz gave the legate two horses with rich Turkish-style shabracks, and the cardinal distributed gold medals with his image to the courtiers.

Boniface Vanozzi, sent from the same Cardinal Gaetani to Chancellor Jan Zamoyski, distributed beads, rosaries, medals, agnus dei, pictures on metal sheet in ebony frames and he received a horse with velvet Turkish-style shabrack, a large gold medal depicting King Stephen Bathory, an elk hoof, lots of game, vinegar, oil and sweets. To the king and queen Vanozzi presented paintings, tapestries woven in Spain (or more likely in the Spanish Netherlands), colorful gloves with scent, and musk. The king gave him very expensive sables and a clock worth 1,000 thalers and the queen, various utensils made of white amber for the chapel, a crucifix, a tray for altar cruets, a pax and a monstrance, all beautifully carved in Gdańsk.

In 1597, the ambassador of the Spanish king, Don Francisco de Mendoza (1547-1623), Admiral of Aragon and Marquis of Guadalest, received from Sigismund III sables worth 2,000 scudi and his courtiers were offered golden cups (after "Domy i dwory ..." by Łukasz Gołębiowski, pp. 258-259). At that time, the elected monarch of the Commonwealth also sent his brother-in-law, the King of Spain, portraits of his children by Martin Kober, both dated '1596' (Monastery of las Descalzas Reales in Madrid) and in 1621, the Polish ambassador in London, Jerzy Ossoliński, was given portraits "att length" of the King and Prince Charles. 

The royal collections of the Commonwealth before 1655 were therefore comparable to those of the Spanish monarchs (Prado Museum in Madrid and El Escorial), Holy Roman Emperors (Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna and Hofburg), Dukes of Tuscany (Uffizi Gallery in Florence and Pitti Palace) or Dukes of Savoy (Galleria Sabauda in Turin and Palazzo Madama). Unfortunately very little preserved today in the former territories of the Commonwealth, including inventories and other documents.

In the National Museum in Warsaw there is a portrait of two boys, attributed to circle of Dutch painter Anthonis Mor, who worked for Spanish and Portuguese monarchs (oil on canvas, 56.5 x 46 cm, inventory number M.Ob.941 MNW, earlier 231117). It was purchased in 1962 from Romuald Malangiewicz. Its earlier history is unknown, so we cannot exclude the provenance from the royal or magnate collection in Poland-Lithuania. The painting was cut from a larger group portrait painting, as a fragment of a woman's dress, most likely the mother of the two boys, is visible to the right. Such portraits were particularly popular in Italy at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries - portrait of Maria di Cosimo Tornabuoni, a Florentine noblewoman, and her two little sons, one dressed in dominican habit, by Tiberio di Tito (Tiberio Titi) or a portrait of Bianca degli Utili Maselli surrounded by six of her children, painted by Lavinia Fontana in Rome.

If the painting comes from the royal or magnate collection then the main part depicting the woman was destroyed when Commonwealth residences were ransacked and burned during the Deluge (1655-1660) or later, or it was cut into pieces to sell the picture more profitably when the country became impoverished due to wars and invasions. A portrait painted in a similar style and with a woman resembling the two boys in the Warsaw painting is now in Kensington Palace in England (oil on canvas, 42.3 x 33 cm, RCIN 402954, inscription: 305). It comes from the Royal Collection, possibly recorded in the King's Dressing Room next Paradise at Hampton Court in 1666 (number 60), and was previously thought to represent Elisabeth of Valois (1545-1568), Queen of Spain. Consequently, it was attributed to Spanish court portraitist Anthonis Mor and later to his pupil and successor under Phillip II, Alonso Sánchez Coello. It is now identifed to possibly depict Elisabeth's eldest daughter, Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia. A companion portrait is therefore thought to possibly represent her sister Infanta Catalina Micaela of Spain (oil on canvas, 42.2 x 32.6 cm, RCIN 402957, 306). 

These effigies indeed resemble other effigies of the infantas, however comparing with portraits of Isabella Clara Eugenia by Coello in the Prado Museum in Madrid, painted in 1579 (P01137) and by Juan Pantoja de la Cruz from about 1599 (P000717) and signed portraits of her sister Catalina Micaela from the Castle of Racconigi (0100399544) and attributed to Sofonisba Anguissola (sold at Christie's New York, October 14, 2021, lot 101), indicate that it should be the other way around - 305 is the portrait of Catalina Micaela and 306 of Isabella Clara Eugenia. In 1585, Catalina Micaela became Duchess of Savoy by marrying Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy in Zaragoza. A similar small portrait (oil on canvas, 55.9 x 45.7 cm) bearing the inscription: DVQUESA / DE.SAVOI, was sold at Period Oak Antiques. 

The style of the portrait of Catalina Micaela in the Royal Collection resembles the portrait of her mother in the Prado, attributed to Sofonisba Anguissola (P001031) and Sofonisba's self-portrait at the easel (Łańcut Castle). The composition and style of the portrait of two boys in Warsaw is in turn similar to the portrait of Infanta Juana de Austria (Joan of Austria) with female dwarf Ana de Polonia by Sofonisba (Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, P26w15). 

The two boys should therefore be identified as the eldest sons of Catalina Micaela - Philip Emmanuel (1586-1605) and Victor Amadeus (1587-1637) and their known iconography matches perfectly. Both princes were frequently depicted in their youth and in many of their effigies, mostly created by the Dutch painter Jan Kraeck, known as Giovanni Caracca, they wear a similar smaller ruff (e.g. double portrait from private collection in Naples, sold at Blindarte, November 30, 2019, lot 153). Some of them were created in several versions, such as the triple portrait from 1589 (sold at Aste Bolaffi, September 25, 2013 and in Quirinale Palace in Rome).

From around 1584 to 1615, Sofonisba resided in Genoa. Although in 1585 she met the Infanta Catalina Micaela on her arrival in Genoa and probably accompanied her on the way to Turin, all the portraits mentioned were probably made from sketches, study drawings or paintings by other painters, such as Kraeck. It was she who, around 1590, produced a miniature portrait of Charles Emmanuel I (sold in 2005, Christie's in London, lot 1009, as the effigy of Victor Amadeus I) and the portrait of the duke with his wife Catalina Micaela and their children (Palazzo Madama in Turin, 0611/D), as indicate the style of the two paintings. The portrait of two princes in Warsaw was therefore a gift to Sigismund III Vasa or his aunt Anna Jagiellon and was probably brought by the Spanish ambassador Mendoza or another envoy.

​Portrait of Infanta Catalina Micaela (1567-1597), Duchess of Savoy by Sofonisba Anguissola, ca. 1590, Kensington Palace.

​Portait of Victor Amadeus (1587-1637) and Philip Emmanuel (1586-1605), sons of Infanta Catalina Micaela (1567-1597), Duchess of Savoy by Sofonisba Anguissola or workshop, ca. 1596-1597, National Museum in Warsaw.

​Portrait of Infanta Catalina Micaela (1567-1597), Duchess of Savoy with her sons by Sofonisba Anguissola or workshop, ca. 1596-1597. Possible layout of original painting. © Marcin Latka

Disguised portrait of Christina of Denmark by Engelhard de Pee

In the antechamber of the so-called Rich Chapel (Reiche Kapelle) of the ducal residence in Munich there is an interesting painting depicting the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple (oil on canvas, 206.5 x 188.2 cm, inv. 3511). Anyone familiar with the portraits of the dukes of Bavaria and the rulers of neighbouring Austria at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries will immediately recognise that the scene is filled with numerous disguised portraits. The painting is attributed to Engelhard de (van) Pee (d. 1605), court painter to William V (1548-1626), Duke of Bavaria, and later to his son Maximilian I (1573-1651), for whom the Rich Chapel was magnificently decorated before 1607. The scene is supposed to commemorate the birth of Maximilian, depicted as the infant Jesus, presented in the temple by his parents and dated around 1580. The protagonists are therefore identified as members of the Bavarian ruling family at that time, including William and his wife Renata of Lorraine (1544-1602) in the roles of Joseph and the Virgin and William's brother Ernest of Bavaria (1554-1612), dressed as the high priest (compare "Prentwerk: 1500-1700" by Jan de Jong, p. 56). 

On closer inspection, it seems that it is not the Wittelsbachs who dominate this scene, but the Habsburgs. It can be compared to the Communion of the Virgin in the Monastery of Las Descalzas Reales in Madrid, a painting attributed to Ottavio Zanuoli and painted around 1600. The Madrid painting shows the family of Archduke Charles of Styria (1540-1590), who was already dead when the painting was created, depicted as Saint John the Apostle, giving communion to his wife Archduchess Maria Anna of Bavaria (1551-1608) in the guise of the Virgin Mary and dressed as a nun. The effigy of a nun in the right corner of the Munich painting closely resembles that of Maria Anna in the Madrid painting. The man standing directly behind the high priest bears a strong resemblance to Archduke Charles in the aforementioned painting by Zanuoli as well as other portraits, such as the portrait by Bartolomé González y Serrano in the Prado (inv. P002433) or the portrait from the Medici collection at the Villa di Poggio a Caiano (OdA Poggio a Caiano 280 / 1911). The man standing behind Charles bears a strong resemblance to his brother Archduke Ferdinand II of Austria (1529-1595), Imperial Count of Tyrol, as in the engraving with his portrait by David Custos from around 1601 (Veste Coburg, inv. XIII,150,181).

The man directly opposite Charles, on the right, depicted as the husband of the Virgin Saint Joseph, cannot be William V because he bears a striking resemblance to Charles, so he must be his son Ferdinand (1578-1637), later Holy Roman Emperor, King of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia, as depicted in a full-length portrait from around 1604 by Joseph Heintz the Elder (Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, GG 9453). The Virgin Mary bears a strong resemblance to Maria Anna of Bavaria (1574-1616), daughter of Wilhelm and wife of Ferdinand, as depicted in her portrait by Heintz the Elder (Kunsthistorisches Museum, GG 3133 and Alte Pinakothek in Munich, inv. 3004). The woman depicted as the old prophetess Anna should therefore be identified with Maria Anna's mother, Renata of Lorraine, wife of William, while the high priest is not William's brother Ernest, but the duke himself, who abdicated in 1597 in favour of his son Maximilian I and and took up residence in a palace called Wilhelminische Veste (Herzog-Max-Burg), connected by a passage to the nearby Jesuit monastery, where he spent the rest of his life in contemplation and prayer. The duke's features are very similar in his portrait made by the circle of Hans von Aachen, now kept at the Palazzo Pitti in Florence (oil on canvas, 53.5 x 43.5 cm, in. 1911 / OdA Castello 273), identified by me.

Like the Madrid painting, the canvas commemorates family relationships, in this case the ties between the Wittelsbachs of Bavaria and the Habsburgs of Austria when, on April 23, 1600, Maria Anna married her cousin Ferdinand and their first child, Archduchess Christina, was soon born (May 25, 1601). Christina died in infancy, just one month after her birth. She was named after her maternal great-grandmother Christina of Denmark (1521-1590), Duchess of Milan and Lorraine. All the people depicted in this painting were therefore direct descendants of Philip the Handsome (1478-1506) and Joanna of Castile (1479-1555). With the exception of Renata of Lorraine, they all descended from Emperor Ferdinand I (1503-1564) and Anna Jagellonica (1503-1547).

The painting should therefore be dated to around 1601, the year when Engelhard de Pee created his masterpiece - Self-portrait as Saint Luke painting the Madonna. The painting, now in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich (oil on canvas, 105 x 92.5 cm, inv. 41), comes from the Electoral Gallery in Munich. De Pee, who appears in the Landshut tax lists from 1570 to 1577 as a Brussels painter, had been a court painter in Munich since 1578. The canvas was dated and signed with a monogram on the cover of the book held by the Child in the centre of the painting: 1601 / E.V.P. The painter depicted himself as the apostle Saint Luke the Evangelist, while the image of the Virgin is based on the Byzantine icon Salus Populi Romani ("Protectress of the Roman People") in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, one of the so-called "Luke images" thought to have been painted from life by Saint Luke himself (including the Black Madonna of Częstochowa). 

The effigy of the Virgin is not an idealized image, but a personalized one and the model, like the painter, looks at the viewer with meaning. It is interesting to note that the woman bears a great resemblance to the mother of Renata  of Lorraine - Christina of Denmark from her portrait by Antonis Mor, painted in 1554 (Hampton Court Palace, RCIN 405799), and especially the portrait by François Clouet from the collection of Antoine de Mailly, Marquis de Châteaurenaud, dated 1558 (Sotheby's Paris, June 21, 2012, lot 33) and a similar miniature portrait from the Medici collection (Uffizi Gallery, inv. 1890 / 4440).

From 1567, Christine lived at Friedberg Castle in Bavaria. In August 1578, she decided to move permanently to Italy and spent her last years in her widow's residence in Tortona between Milan, Genoa and Turin, which she had inherited from her first marriage to Francesco II Sforza. She died in 1590 and was buried next to her second husband in the crypt of the ducal chapel of the Church of the Cordeliers in Nancy. In Tortona, she distinguished herself for her intense activity in the government of the city, reforms, ending the conflict with Ravenna, obtaining the restitution of some previously lost privileges and protecting the rights of the Tortonese against the unpopular Spanish rule.

Queen Bona Sforza d'Aragona (1494-1557) sent her "Dearest and most illustrious Cousin" a letter of congratulations on her first marriage to Francesco II Sforza (from Kraków, July 15, 1534) and after Bona's death, when the castles of Tortona and Vigevano were not available, Christina petitioned Philip II of Spain through her Italian secretary, asking him to give her the Duchy of Bari and offering to repay the debt of 100,000 crowns to Bona's son Sigismund Augustus. In 1547 Christina's marriage with the King of Poland was seriously discussed at Augsburg. 

After the death of Christian II of Denmark in 1559, when her elder sister Dorothea made no claims to the throne, she claimed the Danish throne for herself. Between 1563 and 1569, Christina signed official documents with the addition "Queen of Denmark". In 1566, a medal was minted in which she was designated as Queen of Denmark with the motto: Me sine cuncta ruunt ("Without me all things perish", compare "Christina of Denmark ..." by Julia Cartwright, p. 95, 321, 453, 483), indicating that she saw herself as the salvation and protectress of the people.

Considering the close and cordial relations between Sigismund III and William V, it is quite possible that copies of the paintings described were also in Warsaw and Vilnius.

​Portrait of William V (1548-1626), Duke of Bavaria by circle of Hans von Aachen, 1580s, Pitti Palace in Florence. ​

​Presentation of Jesus in the Temple with disguised portraits of the Wittelsbachs and Habsburgs by Engelhard de Pee, ca. 1601, Alte Pinakothek in Munich. ​

​Self-portrait as Saint Luke painting the portrait of Christina of Denmark (1521-1590), Duchess of Milan and Lorraine, as Madonna by Engelhard de Pee, 1601, Alte Pinakothek in Munich. ​

Portraits of Duke Joachim Frederick by Flemish painters

During the tenure of Andreas Jerin (1585-1596) as the Bishop of Wrocław the counter-reformation began in Silesia. The pressure of militant Catholicism made itself felt also in the Duchy of Brzeg, when, among others, the commander of the Joannites in Oleśnica Mała near Oława removed Lutheran pastors from his estates (1589), while Joachim Frederick's attempt to intervene become futile (after "Brzeg: dzieje, gospodarka, kultura" by Władysław Dziewulski, p. 59).
​
Joachim Frederick of Brzeg modeled himself on his father George II (1523-1586), but he was a better administrator than him. He confirmed former city privileges and supported the crafts. The castle in Oława was rebuilt and enlarged for Joachim Frederick in the years 1587-1600 by the Italian architect Bernard Niuron from Lugano. Thanks to his family connections and his good relations with the imperial court in Prague and the court in Berlin, he obtained a number of honorary positions. Since 1585 he was Lutheran provost of the chapter of Magdeburg, and in 1588 he was appointed general commander of the regular army of Silesia. After the death of his brother John George, who died without issue in 1592, Joachim Frederick inherited Wołów and after death of his mother and his cousin Frederick IV of Legnica (1552-1596), he become the sole Duke of Legnica-Brzeg-Oława-Wołów (Liegnitz-Brieg-Ohlau-Wohlau in German). Joachim Frederick gained great popularity for his gentleness and diligence. He liked science and he tried to improve the administration of justice in 1599. Since he ranked first among the Silesian princes, from 1592 until his death he had to deal with the matter of helping the emperor, who was at war with the Turks. 

In 1599, the Duke and his brother-in-law, Charles II of Ziębice-Oleśnica, refused to participate in the election of Bishop Paul Albert because he was not a Silesian and he acquired from Peter Wok von Rosenberg the towns of Złoty Stok (Reichenstein) and Srebrna Góra (Silberberg), rich in gold and silver mines. Joachim Frederick died on March 25, 1602 in Brzeg.

The man from the portrait in the National Museum in Poznań (oil on panel, 47 x 38 cm, inv. Mo 855) resemble the man from the portrait in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (inv. GG 808). Many splendid paintings that once adorned the walls of the Silesian Wawel - the Piast Castle in Brzeg and survived the bombing in 1741, when the castle was destroyed by the Prussian forces in the First Silesian War, were moved to Berlin. Possibly also this picture. The image in Poznań was acquired in 1930 from private collection Karl von Wesendonk in Berlin. 

Both paintings, in Poznań and in Vienna, are attributed to Adriaen Thomasz. Key, however the man from Poznań version is much older. If he was around 25 when the Vienna painting was created in about 1575, then the Poznań version should be dated around 1600, which rules out Key's authorship, as he died in 1589 or after. 

The most important arts and crafts center in this part of Europe at that time was the imperial court of Emperor Rudolf II in Prague. Many Flemish artists worked for the Emperor and two of them, created very similar portraits of Rudolf. One with light blue eyes, bust-length, wearing a breastplate (sold at Christie's, 27 Jan 2010, lot 344), is attributed to circle of Frans Pourbus the Younger (1569-1622), a Flemish painter from Antwerp, who at the end of the 16th century worked for Archduke Albert and Infanta Isabella in Brussels. The other with dark eyes, attributed to Lucas van Valckenborch (d. 1597) from Leuven, is today in the Liechtenstein collection in Vienna (inv. GE 2484).

The style of the image in Poznań resemble that of Pourbus, especially the portrait of a man in the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest (inv. 5862). The same man was depicted in another painting created in about 1600, in which however his face resemble more the Warsaw portrait from 1574 (inv. M.Ob.819 MNW). His servant gives him a cup of wine. This painting titled sometimes "Two Fools", because of the old man's extravagant outfit, or "Emperor Rudolf II taking the cure", is today in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (oil on canvas, 175.5 x 109 cm, inv. GG 2773, verifiable in the gallery depot in 1868). It was attributed to Pieter Isaacsz (d. 1625), circle of Cornelis Ketel (1548-1616) or to Lucas van Valckenborch. The comparison with the painting in the Silesian Museum in Opava (inv. In 2036 A), which was created by Valckenborch, most probably together with his assistant or only by him - Georg Flegel (1566-1638) is the most accurate. 

In his only known so far painted effigy from a fresco by Balthasar Latomus, the court painter of George II, in the ducal study of the Brzeg Castle, painted in 1583-1584, Joachim Frederick was depicted in colouful red-brown striped doublet, while his father is wearing a black attire. The Duke of Brzeg is also wearing a ruff and heavy gold chains with a medallion, like in the described painting by Valckenborch or Flegel in Vienna. The man from a large gold medal, most likely minted from the Złoty Stok gold, resemble the most George the Pious (1484-1543), Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach. George, son of Sophia Jagiellon, was an early adherent of Protestantism. He maintained correspondence with Martin Luther and introduced the Reformation in his Silesian possessions - Krnov, Bytom, Racibórz and Opole, one of the largest centers of Silesian cloth weaving. His son George Frederick (1539-1603), who from 1577 was also Administrator of the Duchy of Prussia, maintained good relations with Poland-Lithuania. He minted coins with the official motto of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth: "If God be with us, who shall be against us?" (Guldentaler, 1586, Königsberg), his tomb monument in the Heilsbronn monastery, attributed to Endres Dietrich Seidensticker, is adorned with coat of arms of Poland (White Eagle), repeated three times (after "Kloster Heilsbronn ..." by Graf Rudolph Stillfried-Alcántara, p. 163) and his portrait in the National Museum in Wrocław (inv. VIII-1514), was created by Silesian painter Andreas Riehl the Younger from Wrocław. The portrait of George Frederick was created in 1601 and he is wearing a medal of King Stephen Bathory with the inscription in Latin STEFANVS. REX. POLONIA. 1581 (after "Portret na Śląsku ..." by Ewa Houszka, p. 12). An earlier version of this portrait, painted in 1599 as a pendant to the likeness of George Frederick's wife, both from a private collection in Moscow, was sold in London in 2024 (Sotheby's, April 10, 2024, lot 7). Riehl is also the author of the portrait of King Stephen Bathory (National Museum in Wrocław, VIIl-2711). 

In 1571, the Regent of Prussia also commissioned a series of portraits of his father George the Pious in the workshop of Lucas Cranach the Younger (two are in the Grunewald hunting lodge in Berlin, GKI1192 and GKI1048) and for his wife Elizabeth of Brandenburg-Küstrin (1540-1578), who died while she was staying at the Warsaw court, where George Frederick was to be awarded the dukedom by the Polish king, he commissioned the Dutch sculptor Willem van den Blocke to construct the monument in Königsberg Cathedral, which was completed in 1582. His Silesian lands were close to Brzeg and Legnica, so the Margrave, who stayed mostly in Ansbach, entrusted George II od Brzeg with the implementation of the new laws in his Krnov domain.

The bust of a bearded man in mentioned gold medal in the Vienna portrait resemble the portraits of George the Pious by Cranach the Younger and 1534 medal with his bust in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg. Joachim Frederick, a Lutheran and the most important among the Silesian princes, minted coins in Złoty Stok, like the gold ducat from 1602 (National Museum in Warsaw, NPO 350 MNW). It was therefore him who most probably ordered both the medal and the portrait in the workshop of Flemish painter. In 1582 41 representations of Dutch wars painted on canvas were purchased by the Brzeg city council (after "Op Nederlandse manier ..." by Mateusz Kapustka, p. 35), indicating that Netherlandish art was strongly represented in his domains.

Portrait of Joachim Frederick (1550-1602), Duke of Legnica-Brzeg-Oława-Wołów by circle of Frans Pourbus the Younger, 1597-1602, National Museum in Poznań. Virtual reconstruction, © Marcin Latka​

Portrait of Joachim Frederick (1550-1602), Duke of Legnica-Brzeg-Oława-Wołów with gold medal with bust of Margrave George the Pious by Lucas van Valckenborch or Georg Flegel, 1597-1602, Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

Portraits of Elizabeth Sophia of Brandenburg and Janusz Radziwill by Jacob van Doort or workshop

The identity of a lady depicted in a painting in the Belarusian National Art Museum in Minsk (oil on canvas, 199 x 106 cm, inv. ЗЖ-123) has been the subject of debate since 1980, when a catalog of portraits from the Radziwill collection at Nesvizh Castle was published. This collection mainly includes portraits of family members. At a 1933 exhibition in Warsaw dedicated to King Stephen Bathory (1533-1586), it was presented as a possible portrait of Anna Radziwill (1476-1522), Duchess of Mazovia, probably due to a similarity to a print by Hirsz Leybowicz, made between 1747 and 1758 after an image of an unknown lady from the early 17th century. According to family tradition, the Minsk portrait was an effigy of King Stephen's grandmother, Sophia Anna Radziwill (1472-1522), a character invented based on the biography of the Duchess of Mazovia and her daughter Sophia of Mazovia, who married Stephen VII Bathory of Ecsed (d. 1530). On the plate nailed to the picture frame there was an inscription: Zofia Anna Radziwiłłówna, żona Stefana Batorego, babka Króla Stefana, ur. 1472 zm. 1522. It is therefore likely that the woman in the portrait was actually named Sophia.

Based on the similarity to another print by Leybowicz and the sitter's biography, Wanda Karkucińska identified the portrait in her 1984 article as probably depicting Elizabeth Sophia of Brandenburg (1589-1629), second wife of Janusz Radziwill (1579-1620), Princess of Brandenburg and daughter of John George, Elector of Brandenburg, and his third wife, Elizabeth of Anhalt-Zerbst ("Zidentyfikowane portrety Radziwiłłowskie", p. 425). The woman depicted in the Minsk portrait is dressed in the English court fashion of the early 17th century. Due to its resemblance to early portraits of Princess Elizabeth Stuart (1596-1662), the future Queen of Bohemia, especially the painting from around 1606, attributed to Robert Peake the Elder and housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (oil on canvas, 154.3 x 79.4 cm, inv. 51.194.1), Magdalena Piwocka, in her 1988 article ("Elżbieta Stuart - "Nieznana dama" z galerii w Nieświeżu", pp. 155, 158-160, 163, 165), considered the Minsk painting to be her portrait. At that time, in 1607, a union between Elizabeth, daughter of James VI, and Ladislaus Sigismund, son of Sigismund III, was being considered. The Polish king sent a portrait of himself with his son and some amber to Queen Anne of Denmark via the English envoy to Poland, William Bruce. In July 1609, Zygmunt Myszkowski, Grand Marshal of the Crown, traveled to England on an unofficial mission, accompanied by the young Jakub Sobieski, the father of King John. According to Sobieski's account, Princess Elizabeth had a portrait of the Polish prince above her bed. He added that she spoke with Myszkowski in Italian and could also speak French and Latin. "Then her chamberlain, an elderly but rather self-confident woman, began to ask us, standing next to the princess herself: 'How tall is your Polish prince? You see, my lords, what a fine height our lady has, and it is not an imaginary thing!' She lifted the princess's dress to mid-knee, revealing that she was not wearing high shoes; we saw her blue stocking, woven with gold, her blue garters, woven with gold, and a white shoe with a very low heel". Portraits of the princess, probably a version of the one in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the one in the National Portrait Gallery dating from around 1610 (inv. NPG 6113), were undoubtedly also sent to Warsaw.

The next phase of the negotiations for Elizabeth's hand was conducted in London through Janusz Radziwill, cupbearer of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, in November 1611. As early as 1609, he entered the service of James I (letter of August 21, 1609), assuming, in the name of faith, the role of guardian of the Stuart interests in Poland. He sent reports to London on the internal and external situation in the country, as well as his own legates. The Stuarts were informed of his contacts by the English agents in Poland, Bruce and Gordon. The authority of the leader of the Polish Calvinists was so considerable at the English court that bonds of trust were established between him and the King of England, and later a regular correspondence, many traces of which are preserved in the London archives. Radziwill is said to have been responsible, among other things, for the initiative to persuade the king to resort to arbitration in the war between Poland, Moscow, and Sweden from 1611 to 1613. Despite his efforts, the intransigence of Polish Catholics caused the plans for marriage between "different faiths" to fail.

On February 14, 1613, Elizabeth Stuart married Frederick V of the Palatinate at the royal chapel in Whitehall Palace and on 27 March 1613, Janusz, widowed since the previous year, married Elizabeth Sophia of Brandenburg in Berlin. Radziwill, Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, invited James I to his wedding by special letter. In 1616, he visited the electoral couple, Elizabeth and Frederick, in Heidelberg, capital of the Palatinate, from where he also sent a detailed written report to King James. He most likely concluded an alliance with Frederick V, pledging to provide him with armed assistance in the event of a conflict with the Habsburgs. In April 1618, Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger (1561/1562-1635), a Flemish artist working at the English court, received a fee from the royal coffers for four full-length portraits of James I's family for "Duke of Radziwill" (on 27 April 1618, he received 85.1 pounds for "fower severall pictures drawen at the whole lenght viz. The Kinges, Queenes, The Princes highness and the Lady Elisabeth"). The group of four portraits included King James, his wife Anne of Denmark, Princess Elizabeth, and the Prince of Wales, the future Charles I. Given that the English king sent the same set of portraits in 1611 to the Elector of Brandenburg and three years later presented them also to the Spanish king, Philip III, Radziwill's position at the English court seems very important. At the birth of his son Boguslaus (May 3, 1620), Janusz turned to Elizabeth (through the Princes of Dohna) and asked Frederick V to be his godfather.

Given all these facts, English court fashion was undoubtedly also dear to Prince Radzwill. The English court fashion of the time, consisting of a wheel farthingale for women, was derived from French court fashion (the French farthingale was sent on March 17, 1577, by the English ambassador in Paris, Amias Paulet, to Queen Elizabeth I). Large French farthingale remained popular in England and France until the 1620s. Princess Elizabeth herself wore a whalebone farthingale and "bodies" made by John Spence at her wedding in 1613. French fashion was particularly popular in the Protestant countries of Northern Europe, in contrast to Spanish fashion, which was favored by Catholics in Southern Europe and countries under Habsburg rule or allied with the House of Austria. Janusz Radzwill's second wife is depicted in a French-style dress in a print by Leybowicz. An earlier drawing from the mid-17th century, a study for a print, in the Hermitage Museum (inv. ОР-45861), also shows her in such a costume and hairstyle of the French court. The French farthingale was popular at the Berlin court, as evidenced by the portraits of Anna of Prussia (1576-1625), Electress of Brandenburg and Duchess of Prussia, preserved in the Grunewald hunting lodge and the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm (inv. NMGrh 2663). Several relatives of Princess Radzwill were depicted in similar costumes. The attire and hairstyle of Barbara Sophia of Brandenburg (1584-1636), Duchess of Württemberg, painted around 1616-1620 (Landesmuseum Württemberg, inv. 2004-175), are very similar to those in the Minsk portrait. The costumes of Elizabeth Sophia's elder sister, Magdalene of Brandenburg (1582-1616), Landgravine of Hesse-Darmstadt, as depicted in a miniature in the National Museum in Warsaw (inv. Min.349 MNW) and in a copper engraving from Vita post vitam, published in Darmstadt in 1662, as well as those of Elizabeth Sophia's niece, Elizabeth Magdalene (1600-1624), daughter of Magdalene of Brandenburg, as depicted in a miniature in Wolfsgarten Palace (inv. B 8128), are also comparable. The same applies to the effigies of another relative of Princess Radziwill - Anna Catherine of Brandenburg (1575-1612), Queen of Denmark and Norway, such as the portrait in the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm (inv. NMGrh 1124). 

Elizabeth Sophia's younger sister, Dorothea Sibylla of Brandenburg (1590-1625), Duchess of Legnica-Brzeg-Wołów, propagated French fashion in Silesia, as evidenced by her portrait from 1612 (inscription top left: D.S.H.Z.L.G.M [Dorothea Sibylla, Herzogin Zu Liegnitz Geb. Markgräfin] / A.C.F.S.B [Aus Chur Fürstl. Stame Brandenburg] / 1612. and coat of arms), known from a lithograph made by Wilhelm Sander (1766-1836) in Wrocław (National Library of Poland, G.22014/II). On December 12, 1610, Dorothea Sibylla married her maternal cousin, John Christian (1591-1639), Duke of Brzeg-Legnica-Wołów. She played a crucial role in her husband's conversion from Lutheranism to Calvinism in 1613. The original painting was in the possession of the Schaffgotsch family in Cieplice Śląskie-Zdrój and it was probably destroyed during the World War II. Until 1945, the Schaffgotsch Gallery housed a portrait collection of over 180 portraits, one of the largest in Silesia. It contained mainly portraits of family members and their relatives, but also representatives of ruling houses, including the Silesian Piasts, the Habsburgs, the Hohenzollerns, and the Wettins. The highlight of the gallery was the Oriental Room with six life-size portraits of the Piasts. Some of these paintings are now housed in the National Museum in Wrocław and the National Museum in Warsaw, but the vast majority are lost.

Such costumes were also popular in the northern territories of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, particularly in Prussia and Pomerania, as evidenced by portraits of members of the Dohna family. Catharina von Dönhoff (Denhoffowa), née zu Dohna (1606-1659), in her portrait from the 1630s in the Museum of Warmia and Masuria in Olsztyn (inv. MNO 105 OMO), and Anna Maria von Kreytzen, née von Oelsnitz, in her portrait from around 1634 in the Dohna Palace in Morąg, both wear the French farthingale. Catharina von Dönhoff's costume, depicted on her dowry chest from around 1630 (Museum of Warmia and Masuria), is in the same style as that in the Minsk portrait.

The facial features of the woman in this painting are more similar to those of Elizabeth Sophia of Brandenburg, as depicted in her known effigies, as well as to portraits of her relatives, including her sister, Landgravine of Hesse-Darmstadt, and her niece Elizabeth Magdalene of Hesse-Darmstadt. The shape of the nose, eyebrows, and the oval of the face differ from the aforementioned portraits of Elizabeth Stuart, indicating that the Minsk painting is not her effigy.

The costume of Hedwig of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (1595-1650), great-granddaughter of Hedwig Jagiellon (1513-1573), Electress of Brandenburg, in her 1609 portrait at Hampton Court Palace (oil on canvas, 187.0 x 95.3 cm, inv. RCIN 407222, inscribed and dated: F. HEDWIG. / ANNO 1609) is also similar. On February 7, 1619, in Wolfenbüttel, Hedwig married Ulrich (1589-1622), Duke of Pomerania and Protestant Bishop of Kamień Pomorski. A copy of this portrait was in the Gymnasium in Szczecinek before the Second World War. Interestingly, not only is Hedwig's costume similar, but so is the composition and style of the painting, as if both paintings had been created by the same painter or his studio. The portrait of the future Duchess of Pomerania is attributed to Jacob van Doort (ca. 1590-1629), a portrait painter and sculptor, probably of Flemish origin, active in Germany and Northern Europe. Jacob had a studio in Hamburg and from there visited his patrons, particularly in Scandinavia. He created portraits in both large and small formats. In 1606 he probably traveled to England, then to Wolfenbüttel (1610-1611), then back to England (1624) and to Gottorp (1627-1628). He probably visited Berlin in 1619 and there executed a portrait of the future Queen of Sweden Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg (1599-1655). He was also a renowned miniaturist, inspired by the English style, and his miniature of Christian IV, dating from around 1606, is one of the oldest of a Danish monarch. Between 1610 and 1626 he stayed in Denmark several times and, after 1626, worked mainly in Stockholm for the Swedish King Gustav II Adolph. He died there in 1629. Given that these trips were mainly inspired by family connections, it is very likely that van Doort also worked for Prince Radziwill and his Brandendurgian wife.

The lady in a miniature attributed to circle of Jacob van Doort closely resembles the woman in the Minsk painting; her left ear is almost identical (gouache on vellum, 5.5 cm, Christie's London, Auction 1529, June, 3 2014, lot 104). The miniature comes from the collection of John Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) in New York and, according to the inscription at the top, the woman was 20 years old in 1609 ([...] 1609 / AEt: 20), exactly like Elizabeth Sophia of Brandenburg. Her attire resembles that from a portrait of a patrician lady, probably from Gdańsk, painted in the early 1600s (Galleria Corsi in Florence, inv. Donazione Corsi 253/1487). Around the same time, in 1609, a splendid effigy of her future husband in French costume was also made. This is an engraving dated lower right, made by Flemish artists based in Strasbourg, the painter Jan van der Heyden (d. 1610) and his son, the graphic artist Jacob (1572/1573-1636); a coloured version is in the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum (inv. P-Slg. illum. 3.80). The portrait of Janusz from the 1610s in the State Historical Museum in Moscow (oil on canvas, 99.3 x 82.5 cm, inv. GIIM 63017/41) is in turn close in style to the full-length portrait of his wife in Minsk and comparable to the portraits of members of the Danish royal family in the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm (inv. NMGrh 2005, NMGrh 2019), attributed to Jacob van Doort, as well as a full-length portrait of Christian IV of Denmark at Rosenborg Castle, dated 1611 (inv. 3.172), also attributed to van Doort, for which the painter was probably paid by the Rentekammer on January 17, 1612.

In passing, the miniatures of Christian IV attributed to van Doort are also very interesting, as they depict the Danish monarch with dark and blond hair. The miniatures from around 1606 (Boughton House) and 1611 (Rosenborg Castle, inv. 3.84) show him as dark hair, while those from 1616 (Rosenborg Castle, inv. 587) and 1623 (Rosenborg Castle, inv. 1.127) show him as blond. As with the portraits of Ladislaus IV Vasa or Sigismund II Augustus, which I have identified, the reasons for this difference could be related to fashion.

The inventory of the Radziwill Palace in Vilnius, prepared in December 1620 after Janusz's death for his widow Elizabeth Sophia, lists a battle painting in the dining room, probably depicting the Battle of Orsha in 1514 (possibly the painting by workshop or circle of Lucas Cranach the Elder in the National Museum in Warsaw), 18 other battle paintings and portraits of Janusz and his wife (konterfet książęcia jego mości i księżny jej mości). Another inventory provide more details of the prince's attire: "a portrait of his majesty the prince, in hussar style; a portrait of her majesty the princess" (konterfet księcia jego mości, po husarsku; konterfet księżny jej mości, after "Obraz Bitwa pod Orszą ..." by Marek A. Janicki, p. 206). The register of paintings of Boguslaus Radziwill, son of Janusz and Elizabeth Sophia, from 1657 (AGAD 1/354/0/26/84), lists numerous portraits of family members, Sarmatian and European aristocracy, including at least three portraits of his father (Xże Nieboszczyk Janusz młody, Xże Nieboszczyk iak do szlubu [the two possibly also: Janusz Radziwill the Younger (1612-1655)], Xże Janusz Podczaszy WXL) and two portraits of his mother (Matka X Jmci, Xzna Wdowa iak do szlubu), as well as the portrait of Elizabeth Stuart (Princep Elizabeta na desce) and her husband Frederick V (Kurfirszta Falzgrafa na desce), both on panel.

​Portrait of Princess Elizabeth Stuart (1596-1662) by Robert Peake the Elder, ca. 1606, Metropolitan Museum of Art.

​Portrait of Princess Hedwig of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (1595-1650), later Duchess of Pomerania by Jacob van Doort, 1609, Hampton Court Palace. 

​Portrait of Princess Hedwig of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (1595-1650), later Duchess of Pomerania by Jacob van Doort or follower, after 1609 (19th century?), Gymnasium in Szczecinek, lost during World War II. Virtual reconstruction, © Marcin Latka

​Miniature portrait of Elizabeth Sophia of Brandenburg (1589-1629) by Jacob van Doort or workshop, 1609, Private collection.

​Engraving with portrait of Prince Janusz Radziwill (1579-1620) by Jacob van der Heyden after Jan van der Heyden, 1609, Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum.

​Portrait of Prince Janusz Radziwill (1579-1620) by Jacob van Doort or workshop, 1610s, State Historical Museum in Moscow.

Portrait of Elizabeth Sophia of Brandenburg (1589-1629), Princess Radziwill by Jacob van Doort or workshop, ca. 1613-1618, National Art Museum of Belarus in Minsk.

​Reconstruction of a portrait of Dorothea Sibylla of Brandenburg (1590-1625), Duchess of Legnica-Brzeg-Wołów, 1612, lost. AI-generated image with my corrections, © Marcin Latka

Portrait of Adam Wenceslaus, Duke of Cieszyn by Bartholomeus Strobel or circle

Another painting created by Prague school of painting of Joseph Heintz the Elder and Hans von Aachen is a small oval portrait of a man in a gorget. The man also wears a white silk doublet, a military tunic embroidered with gold and a wired reticella lace collar. The painting comes from a private collection in Warsaw and was sold in 2005 (oil on canvas mounted on panel, 69 x 59.5 cm, Agra-Art SA, December 11, 2005, lot 7831). The style of the painting is close to Bartholomeus Strobel, a Mannerist-Baroque painter from Silesia, born in Wrocław, who worked in Prague and in Vienna from about 1608. In 1611 he returns to Wrocław to help his father with work in the Augustinian church and in 1619, thanks to the support of King Sigismund III Vasa, he obtained the status of a court painter (servitor) of Emperor Matthias.

This portrait can be compared with signed works by Strobel, portrait of Władysław Dominik Zasławski-Ostrogski from 1635 in the Wilanów Palace in Warsaw (signed and dated: B. Strobell 1635) and the Crucifixion in the Church of St. James in Toruń (signed and dated: B. Strobel 1634). 

According to inscription in Latin (AETATIS SVAE 37 / ANNO 1611), the man was 37 years old in 1611, exaclty as Adam Wenceslaus (1574-1617), Duke of Cieszyn when he was appointed supreme commander of the Silesian troops by the new King of Bohemia Matthias, Emperor from 1612. Counting on imperial favors Adam Wenceslaus, raised in Protestantism, converted to Catholicism and expelled the pastor Tymoteusz Lowczany from Cieszyn on February 23, 1611. He accompanied King Matthias at the ceremonial entry to Wrocław with a retinue of almost three hundred horses.

The portrait is similar to the effigy of Duke Adam Wenceslaus in the Museum of Cieszyn Silesia, attributed to Piotr Brygierski (ca. 1630-1718). The costume (gorget, silk doublet, military tunic and collar) and facial features are very much alike.

Portrait of Adam Wenceslaus (1574-1617), Duke of Cieszyn, aged 37 by Bartholomeus Strobel or circle, 1611, Private collection.

Epitaph of Christoph IV von Dohna from Silesia by Cesare Bovo

​As in the case of Sarmatian students, Padua in the Republic of Venice was also a popular educational destination for young men from Silesia, which in the 16th and 17th centuries was part of the Bohemian Crown Lands under the Holy Roman Empire and the Habsburg monarchs. One of the most important reminders of this fact is the beautiful epitaph of the young Christoph IV von Dohna (1595-1614) on the pillar of the Basilica of Saint Anthony of Padua, the work of Cesare Bovo.

The Dohna family originated in Saxony. Originally, this noble and free family held the Burgraviate of Dohna, including Dohna Castle (located southeast of Dresden, near Pirna), as an imperial fiefdom since 1156. The family moved through Bohemia to Silesia, where one line remained until 1711. One branch reached Lusatia (until around 1600), and another branch reached East Prussia around 1500, where it remained until 1945.

Christoph was a student at the University of Padua and a member of the Germanic jurist nation. He died of a fever in Padua at the age of nineteen, while preparing to return to Silesia. He was the son of Otto (d. 1610), burgrave and count of Dohna, lord of Chróścina (Kraschen) and Masłów (Massel), who acquired the free lordship of Sułów (Zulauf), and Anna von Dyhrn - their coat of arms are visible in the upper part of the monument. The epitaph was founded by Christoph's mother, mentioned in the inscription in the lower part of the monument, and executed between 1614 and 1616 by the Paduan sculptor Cesare Bovo, as indicated by the inscription at its base: CESARE BOVO P[ADOVANO]. F[CIT].

The bronze bust of the young aristocrat was likely inspired by a portrait of him created during his studies in Padua, a copy of which probably also belonged to his mother. It depicts him in armor, wearing a Spanish hairstyle, and a ruff, typical of Germany and Silesia at the end of the 16th century.

The great-great-grandmother of the young Silesian lawyer was a certain Katharina von Nostitz, while in the Church of the Hermits (Chiesa degli Eremitani) there is the epitaph of the Prussian Kaspar von Nostitz, from an old noble family established in Upper Silesia and Lusatia, founded in 1564. Kaspar was the younger son of another Kaspar von Nostitz (1500-1587), long-time chamberlain to Duke Albert of Prussia, who studied in Kraków, Vienna, and Wittenberg. In the same Church of the Hermits there is a modern plaque commemorating the Polish poet Jan Kochanowski (1530-1584), a student at the University of Padua, who, on July 18, 1554, summoned the assembly of Sarmatian students in the temple.

Somewhat similar ties between students from neighboring regions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth are also visible on the ceiling of Palazzo Bo, the historic seat of the University of Padua. In one row are the coats of arms of Bartłomiej Picek, representing the Polish nation (Polona), Daniel Wiznek, representing Bohemia (Bohema), the Silesian Hans Ulrich von Schaffgotsch (1595-1635) (Gesulpius Schafgotsch Greiffenstein), representing the Germanic nation (Germana), and, below, those of Jakub Wierzbięta Doruchowski, representing Burgundy, and Tobias Eisel from Austria, representing Hungary.

It is possible that the large Crucifixion, attributed to the Venetian painter Francesco Bassano, now in the Museum in Nysa (oil on canvas, 258 x 130 cm), was brought to Silesia by such a Paduan student.

​Epitaph of Christoph IV von Dohna (1595-1614) from Silesia by Cesare Bovo, 1614-1616, Basilica of Saint Anthony of Padua.

​Crucifixion by Francesco Bassano, second half of the 16th century, Museum in Nysa.

Lamentation of Christ with disguised portrait Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia by workshop of Hendrick de Clerck

"The Most Serene Princess, our beloved cousin and relative. Called by the most illustrious castellan of Kraków, to Poland, a year before, Henricus Von Peene [Flemish military engineer Hendrik van Peene], who was engaged in the art of architecture, and an inhabitant of the dominions of Your Serenity, was bound by a great desire to see his wife and beloved child. [...] Wherefore, with his desire, and the most illustrious castellan of Kraków, the duke in Zbarazh [Prince Jerzy Zbaraski (1574-1631)], willingly supporting the request, we earnestly ask Your Serenity that his wife be permitted, by order of Your Serenity, together with her children and some of her servants from the domains of Your Serenity to emigrate to Poland via Amsterdam, because the journey by sea is shorter and more economical than by land" (Serenissima princeps domina cognata et affinis nostra charissima. Vocatus ab illustrissimo castellano Cracoviensi, in Poloniam, ante elapsum annum, in arte architectonica versatus Henricus Von Peene, dominiorum Serenitatis Vestræ incola, magno tenetur desiderio, videndi suam uxorem atque caram sobolem. [...] Quamobrem cum ipsius desiderio, tum illustrissimi castellani Cracoviensis, ducis in Zbaraz, postulationi libenter suffragantes, petimus diligenter a Serenitate Vestra liceat eius uxori ex mandato Serenitatis Vestræ unacum liberis et aliquot e famulatu ipsius personis ex ditionibus Serenitatis Vestræ in Poloniam per Amsterodamum commigrare, cum mari quam terra tulius sit atque compendiosius iter), wrote Crown Prince Ladislaus Sigismund Vasa (1595-1648) in a letter dated April 29, 1626 from Warsaw (Data Varsaviæ, die xxix mensis aprilis anno Domini Mo DCO XXVI) to Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia (1566-1633), sovereign of the Spanish Netherlands (after "Messager des sciences historiques, des arts et de la bibliographie de Belgique", Volume 24, p. 209-210).

This letter, as well as several others, such as the letter from Sigismund III to the husband of the Infanta, Archduke Albert of Austria (1559-1621), dated January 20, 1619 (Datum Varsoviæ, xx mensis januarii anno Domini M. DCXIX), concerning "the excellent Wilhelm [or Guillaume] Marten, citizen of Elbląg, stonemason, to bring us marble stones cut in the domains of Your Serenity for the construction of our castle" (egregio Vilhelmo Marten, civi Elbingen, lapiride, ut in ditionibus Serenitatis Vestræ lapides marmoreos pro structura arcis nostræ incisos ad nos adveheret), proves intensified contacts between the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Spanish Netherlands in the artistic field.

The inventories of the Infanta's splendid residence in Brussels - Coudenberg Palace, list several portraits of Sigismund III and members of his family. In addition to architects and stonemasons, many Flemish painters, such as Peter Paul Rubens or Jan Brueghel the Elder, worked for Polish-Lithuanian monarchs and aristocrats. The court painters of the Infanta, such as Gaspar de Crayer, were also employed by her relatives and friendly courts in Europe (Crayer created several portraits of monarchs and nobles of Spain and some of his paintings were also sent there during his lifetime).

Polish-Lithuanian nobles, such as Christopher Michael Sapieha/Sapega (1607-1631), who studied in Leuven in 1627, brought to their country many effigies of the rulers of the Spanish Netherlands. The Infanta undoubtedly also sent her effigies to Poland-Lithuania, and Sigismund and his son commissioned portraits of their relatives and other European monarchs from the Spanish Netherlands. In 1625, the Frenchman Mathieu Rouault was commissioned to transport such portraits, including that of the Infanta and her husband, from Antwerp to Gdańsk (after "Świat polskich Wazów: eseje", p. 291).

In the Lithuanian National Museum of Art in Vilnius there is a painting of The Lamentation of the Dead Christ, attributed to a Flemish painter from the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries (oil on copper, 147 x 89 cm, inv. LNDM B 485). It was probably donated to the museum of the Society of Friends of Science in Vilnius in 1931 by Marja Kiersnowska, because the report for the year 1931 (25 years of existence) mentions "'The Lamentation of Christ', an oil copy of a painting by Vans Dyck in Antwerp from the end of the 17th or beginning of the 18th century", offered by her (after "Zarys Stanu i Działalności Towarzystwa Przyjaciół Nauk w Wilnie ...", 1932, p. 73).

The three central figures of Christ, the Virgin Mary and an angel are directly taken from The Lamentation by Paolo Veronese, painted between 1576 and 1582 (Hermitage Museum, ГЭ-49), acquired from the collection of Louis Antoine Crozat, Baron of Thiers, in Paris in 1772. The style, however, closely resembles works attributed to Hendrick de Clerck (ca. 1560-1630), a Flemish painter active in Brussels, and his studio, such as the Pietà in the National Museum in Warsaw (inv. M.Ob.2168 MNW). In 1594 de Clerck entered the service of Archduke Ernest of Austria as court artist, and after his death in 1595 he worked for the Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia and Archduke Albert. Before 1605, the painter produced his presumed self-portrait as Saint John the Apostle (Saint Paul's Church in Opwijk).
​
Interestingly, the effigy of Saint Mary Magdalene on the right of the Vilnius painting also looks very much like a portrait. The characteristic features of a woman with loose blond hair indicate that this is most likely a disguised portrait of the founder of the painting. She bears a striking resemblance to the Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia from her portrait in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (inv. GG 6345), formerly attributed to Rubens and now to Jacob Jordaens. The Vienna painting is dated around 1618 and, unlike her early portraits, such as Juan Pantoja de la Cruz's painting from around 1598-1599 (Prado Museum in Madrid, P000717), shows her with blond-red hair, indicating that she dyed her hair. The resemblance to the portraits of Isabella Clara Eugenia by Rubens and Jan Brueghel the Elder (Prado, P001684) and by Gaspar de Crayer (National Gallery in London, NG3819) from the same period is also great.

​Portrait Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia (1566-1633), sovereign of the Spanish Netherlands by Gaspar de Crayer, ca. 1615, National Gallery in London.

​Lamentation of Christ with disguised portrait Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia (1566-1633), sovereign of the Spanish Netherlands, as Saint Mary Magdalene by workshop of Hendrick de Clerck, ca. 1615-1618, Lithuanian National Museum of Art in Vilnius. ​

Portraits of Magdalene of Bavaria by Peter Candid and workshop of Justus Sustermans

​In the Uffizi Gallery in Florence there is a portrait of a princess standing with a child (oil on canvas, 193 x 126 cm, inv. 1890 n. 2408), long thought to be that of Joanna of Austria (1547-1578), Grand Duchess of Tuscany, and her son Philip de' Medici (1577-1582). The Grand Duchess died in 1582, however, based on the sitters' costumes, the painting should be dated to the early 17th century (Spanish-style costumes and large ruffs). Based on the presence in the same collection of portraits of King Sigismund III Vasa (inv. 1890 n. 2270) and his first wife Anna of Austria (inv. 1890 n. 2392), as well as on similarities with other portraits, the Polish art historian Jerzy Mycielski (1856-1928) identified the "princess with a child" as the second wife of Sigismund Constance of Austria. Furthermore, the author interpreted the shape of the jewel on the boy's hat as the interlaced monogram J. C., i.e. Joannes Casimirus, thus the eldest son of Constance, the future King John II Casimir Vasa (after "Portrety polskie ...", Volume 1, Issue 3, p. 18). 

The Alte Pinakothek in Munich houses a very similar portrait of the same woman, in oval form (cut from the original rectangular format), which comes from the collection of Neuburg Castle (inv. 6715). According to the inscription at the top left, it represents Duchess Magdalene of Bavaria (1587-1628) at the age of 31 (after "Quellen und Studien zur Kunstpolitik der Wittelsbacher ..." by Hubert Glaser, p. 189). The Alte Pinakothek also houses a portrait of the same boy as the one in the Florence painting, in the same pose and costume, also from Neuburg Castle (inv. 6979). According to the inscription, this is Magdalene's son, Philip William of Neuburg (1615-1690), at the age of 3. In the same collection there is also a very similar set of portraits of Magdalene and her son (inv. 4231, inv. 3898 and inv. 7018).

Because of its similarity to the full-length portrait in the Uffizi, the bust portrait from the Medici villa del Poggio Imperiale (oil on canvas, 61 x 51.8 cm, inv. 1870 n. 3239) is also identified as an effigy of Constance. This portrait, however, is a version of the mentioned portraits of Magdalene of Bavaria in the Alte Pinakothek, notably the one from the Mannheim gallery (inv. 3898). What is particularly interesting about these portraits of the Countess Palatine of Neuburg and the Duchess of Jülich-Berg is the noticeable difference in facial features, especially the nose, which is longer and thinner in some portraits. This "distortion" probably results from the copying of other effigies and the different interpretation of proportions by different painters. Interestingly, the style of this painting is strongly reminiscent of works attributed to the workshop of the Flemish painter active in Florence, Justus Sustermans (1597-1681), such as the portrait of Empress Eleonora Gonzaga (1598-1655) from around 1621, now in a private collection (Lempertz in Cologne, Auction 1083, March 15, 2017, lot 76). From 1620 to early 1621, Sustermans was active in Mantua and traveled frequently to other cities in Italy as well as to Vienna, although in the case of the portrait of Magdalene, the painter or his assistant may have based his work on another effigy of the Duchess. 

Before World War II, in the collection of Jan Perłowski in Warsaw, there was another reduced version of the full-length portrait in the Uffizi (oil on canvas 51.5 x 71.5 cm, photo from 1920, collection of the National Museum in Warsaw, inv. DI 12759 MNW). This painting was probably destroyed during the war, but Mieczysław Kotarbiński (1890-1943) created several detailed watercolors from it (National Museum in Warsaw, inv. DI 12769 MNW, DI 12770 MNW, DI 12771 MNW). The painting bore the inscription, probably on the back: Anna Palatina Bavariae / issa aetatis suae annos XXXI, hence its interpretation as the effigy of a daughter of Constance of Austria and Sigismund III, Anna Catherine Constance Vasa (1619-1651), who married Magdalene's son, Philip William of Neuburg, in Warsaw in 1642. It is highly likely that this portrait came from the collection of Constance or Sigismund III.

The full-length portrait in the Uffizi is considered to be the work of a Flemish painter (by Mycielski and Italian experts). The best-known portrait of Duchess Magdalene is the splendid painting from Schleissheim Palace, also housed in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich (inv. 2471). It is the work of the Flemish painter Pieter de Witte, better known as Peter Candid (ca. 1548-1628), who, after working in Florence for the Medici family, moved to Munich in 1586, recommended by another Flemish artist working in Italy, the sculptor Giambologna. The stylistic similarities between Candid's best-known portrait of Magdalene and the one in the Uffizi are particularly remarkable in the rendering of the fabrics in both paintings. Therefore, the well-painted version from the Perłowski collection must also be attributed to Candid.

Apart from the painting which was previously in Warsaw, the only painting by Candid or his workshop preserved in the former territories of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth is now in the National Art Gallery in Lviv. It depicts the Resurrection of Jairus's daughter and comes from the Dąbski collection (oil on panel, 65 x 42.2 cm, inv. Ж-2471). The model for Candid's original painting is a canvas of the same name by the Brescian painter Girolamo Muziano (1532-1592), from the royal monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial. It was painted in 1561, as a gift to Philip II from Cardinal Giovanni Ricci da Montepulciano. Muziano's painting is known from a copperplate engraving by Nicolas Beatrizet. Several copies of the composition by Candid and his workshop exist, including the large canvas in the Bavarian State Painting Collections (inv. 10521), the painting in the National Gallery in Prague (inv. O 10652), and a copy dated 1620, held in the collections of Count Fugger in Babenhausen.

Before marrying his first wife's younger sister in 1605, Sigismund III also considered Magdalene of Bavaria as a future wife. Faced with opposition to the plan to marry the thirteen-year-old Constance (Mikołaj Zebrzydowski even demanded a declaration from Sigismund at the Diet of 1601 that he would not take his first wife's sister as his wife), the king consulted Pope Clement VIII to indicate the royal house where he could seek a bride. The pope's response to this question is unknown, but early the following year, Sigismund was seeking the hand of Magdalene of Bavaria. These attempts failed, however, due to the intrigues of Constance's mother, Archduchess Maria Anna of Bavaria (1551-1608), who influenced the mentally ill Emperor Rudolf II to also reveal his desire for the hand of the Bavarian princess. Faced with such a powerful rival, Sigismund deemed it appropriate to withdraw (after "Sejm z r. 1605" by Adam Strzelecki, p. 9). 

​Portrait of Magdalene of Bavaria (1587-1628), aged 31 by Peter Candid, ca. 1618, Perłowski collection in Warsaw, lost. Virtual reconstruction, © Marcin Latka 

Portrait of Magdalene of Bavaria (1587-1628) and her son Philip William of Neuburg (1615-1690) by Peter Candid, ca. 1618, Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

​Resurrection of Jairus's daughter by workshop of Peter Candid, ca. 1620, Lviv National Art Gallery. 

​Portrait of Magdalene of Bavaria (1587-1628) by workshop of Justus Sustermans, ca. 1621-1628, Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

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In 1530, the nine-year-old Sigismund Augustus, son of Sigismund I the Old and his second wife Bona Sforza was crowned as co-ruler of Poland-Lithuania alongside his father. That same year he was also engaged with his four-year-old cousin Elizabeth of Austria, daughter of Anna Jagellonica, Queen of Germany, Bohemia, and Hungary. On 5 May 1543 then 16-year-old Elizabeth married 22-year-old Sigismund Augustus. The king, who already had several mistresses, did not find Elizabeth attractive and continued to have extramarital affairs.

In the course of the year 1545, on June 15th, the young queen Elizabeth died of an epileptic seizure in Vilnius. Her body filled with lime was awaiting the king's arrival from Kraków on July 24, over one month after her death. On August 25, 1545 the body of Elizabeth was buried in Saint Casimir Chapel of the Vilnius Cathedral. After half a year, on January 9, 1546, in Kraków, Seweryn Boner, the commissioner of Sigismund Augustus, signed a contract with the sculptor Giovanni Maria Mosca called Padovano, to create a tombstone for Elizabeth. Padovano, born in Padua and summoned to Sigismund I's court in 1529, became the main sculptor in Kraków after the tragic death of Bartolommeo Berrecci, murdered in 1537 by another jealous Italian artist. He created several tombstones for Vilnius Cathedral, including most probably tombstone for Vytautas the Great, commissioned by Bona Sforza. As early as 1546 Padovano undertook, together with Giovanni Cini, to create the tombstone for Elizabeth.

Sometime in 1547, in spite of his mother's disapproval, Sigismund Augustus secretly wed his mistress Barbara Radziwill, she died however on 8 May 1551 in Kraków, five months after long battled coronation, of syphilis, cancer or poisoned by Bona. Barbara asked to be buried in Vilnius and her body was transported to Vilnius Cathedral, where she was buried on 23 June next to Sigismund Augustus' first wife. One of her state portraits (a copy in the Royal Castle in Warsaw, inventory R-ZKW-161), which was probaly used as model for the tomb monument, reflects her great love for precious stones and pearls. She was depicted in a traditional wimple of a married woman covered with pearls and gold-diamond brooches, gold-diamond pendant on a gold chain with a large pearl, comparable with famous La Peregrina or the Tudor pearl, and another gold chain with a precious stone cameo with a bust of her husband, most probably created by Jacopo Caraglio, court goldsmith and medallist of Sigismund Augustus.

In January 1552, Jan Lutomierski, royal court treasurer, ordered 8 blocks of red "marble" (Adnet limestone) in Salzburg from Rupert Beyr (pro sepulchro Ser. olim Dominae D. Reginae Barbarae marmores octo iuxta ...), together with one block for the monument of Bishop Samuel Maciejowski in the Wawel Cathedral. The marble was transported to Kraków, from where, after preliminary processing, the blocks were floated down the Vistula to Gdańsk and Königsberg, then up the Nemunas and Neris rivers to the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania covering a total of over 1,500 km. On June 24, 1552 the tomb monument of Queen Elizabeth, created in Kraków, was brought to Vilnius and put in storage in the Franciscan monastery, and on April 18, 1553, Lutomierski signed a contract with Padovano with an advance payment of 280 florins for execution of the monument to Queen Barbara (convenit cum Joanne Maria, Italo lapicida, de labore sepulchri Ser. olim D.D. Barbarae ...). The main sculptural work Padovano performed together with Giovanni Cini on site, in Vilnius. The final bill of 971 florins and 13 groszy for the monuments to both queens was issued in 1562 (In sepulchrum et marmores Serenissimarum Elizabethae et Barbarae Reginarum).

Similar to Maciejowski's monument, created by Padovano in 1552, the royal tombs in the form of arcosolium (an arched recess), undoubtedly portrayed the deceased queens' in the fashionable "Sansovino pose", referring to the statues of Roman courtesans of the Flavian era, sleeping above the sarcophagus and turned towards the viewer. It was a revival of the Etruscan models, as opposed to the traditional medieval model which saw the deceased lying in a more rigid way and celebrating a dead person, in favor of a new conception exalting the living person. The works inspired later realisations, like monument to Barbara Tarnowska in Tarnów from the 1550s, monument to Elżbieta Zebrzydowska in Kielce, created by Padovano after 1553, monument to Urszula Leżeńska by Jan Michałowicz of Urzędów in Brzeziny, created between 1563-1568 or monument to Barbara Górka by Girolamo Canavesi in Poznań, executed after 1574.

In the last years of his reign Sigismund Augustus decided to built in the Vilnius Lower Castle, on the site of the former medieval chapel of St. Anne, destroyed by a fire in 1530, the new church of St. Anne and St. Barbara as a mausoleum for his wives. The coffins of the two queens were to be stored in Vilnius Cathedral, only until the construction of the church would be accomplished, which the monarch expressed in his last will:

The testament of His Majesty Sigismund Augustus, who died in Knyszyn on July VIIth of the year from the Nativity of Our Lord MDLXXII (Library of the Kórnik Castle, copy of the Puławy manuscript by Kielisiński)

[...] The bodies of deceased Ladies our Spouses, dead in Our Lord, we want them to be from the Chapel of St. Casimir, where they are put in depository, in this church of St. Anne to be transferred and buried there. The body Her Majesty Halska [Elizabeth] on the right side of the Church by the altar on the side of choir in the corner of the Church. And the Queen Her Majesty Barbara also from this side of the choir in the corner of the Church on the left side.

[...] For all this benevolence to Her Majesties our Sisters, often mentioned, the Church of St. Anne, aforementioned and begun by us [...] and as it is acceptable according to custom, if we will be buried there, to built a grave on the aforementioned site worthy our state. Also to Queen Her Majesty Halska [Elizabeth] to erect a grave, which is ready at Jop's. Also to Queen Her Majesty Barbara, after moving their bodies, to erect a grave on the above-described places.

Sigismund II Augustus died childless on 7 July 1572 in Knyszyn. The Union of Lublin signed on 1 July 1569 created a single state, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, a republic of nobles with elective monarchy. On 15 December 1575 Sigismund Augustus' sister Anna Jagiellon was elected as co-ruler of the Commonwealth, together with her husband Stephen Báthory.

The king's sisters were reluctant to fullfill his last will concerning the burial of his wives. It is probably due to Bona Sforza's animosity with both wives of her son, that Anna, who was very active in religious foundations (in 1578 she established at Warsaw's Bernardine Church of Saint Anne the St. Anne's Brotherhood), and supervised the construction of tomb monuments for herself, her brother, husband and mother, also not accomplished the delivery of this deed. Anna Jagiellon promote her niece Anna Vasa or her nephew Sigismund Vasa, children of her beloved sister Catherine, Queen of Sweden as candidates the the Commonwealth's throne after her death. Sigismund was elected the monarch of the Commonwealth in 1587 and in 1592 he succeeded his father as the King of Sweden, hence creating one of the largest federal states of the 16th century Europe, but was deposed in Sweden by his uncle Charles IX in 1599.

In July 1655, the grandson of Charles IX, "the Brigand od Europe", as he was called by Stefan Czarniecki, Charles X Gustav of Sweden willing to enlarge the Swedish Empire and taking advantage of the Russian invasion, advanced on the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, thus triggering one of the most devastaing wars in the history of the Central Europe, the so-called Deluge (1655-1660). The Commonwealth was attacked from north, south, east and west. 

On 8 August 1655 Russian and Cossack forces captured Vilnius. The city was pillaged, burned and the population was massacred. According to the Russian historian Flavian Nikolayevich Dobryansky (1848-1919) "everything that was holy and beautiful inside and outside the city was burned; the rest was destroyed, not only the roofs, but also the tombs" (Old and New Vilna. Third edition of 1904). Just as marble tombstone of Paul Olshanski, Bishop of Vilnius in the Vilnius Cathedral, created by Padovano in 1555, and monument to Lew Sapieha, Great Lithuanian Hetman and his two wives in the Church of St. Michael in Vilnius from the 1620s, wich were damaged during that time, the royal effigies were most probaly also devastated.

The unfinished and dilapidated church of St. Anne and St. Barbara was left empty until 1666, when, at the request of the prelate Mikołaj Słupski, the king John II Casimir Vasa, great grandson of Bona Sforza, allowed the architect Jan Salwador to dismantle the building and use the materials and funds obtained from it to repair another badly damaged building, the Vilnius Cathedral. The precious marbles from the royal monuments were probably also reused. 
​
Marble tondo of 46.5 cm in diameter from the collection of the Vilnius Univeristy, depicting a woman with long hair in antique costume, which was before the World War I in the Rumyantsev Museum in Moscow, was supposed to come from Elizabeth of Austria's tombstone.

​Fragment of marble tomb monument of Elizabeth of Austria (1526-1545), Queen of Poland and Grand Duchess of Lithuania, first wife of Sigismund II Augustus by Giovanni Maria Mosca called Padovano and Giovanni Cini in Kraków, 1546-1552. Hypothetical reconstruction by Marcin Latka ©. All rights reserved.

​Fragment of marble tomb monument of Barbara Radziwill (1520/23-1551), Queen of Poland and Grand Duchess of Lithuania, second wife of Sigismund II Augustus by Giovanni Maria Mosca called Padovano and Giovanni Cini in Vilnius, 1553-1562. Hypothetical reconstruction by Marcin Latka ©. All rights reserved.

At the beginning of January 1606 arrived to Kraków Jan Buczynski, secretary of tsar False Dmitry I of Russia, with the mission to acquire jewels for his patron. Several merchants from Kraków and Lviv, as well as jewellers Mikołaj Siedmiradzki and Giovanni Ambrogio Cellari from Milan, encouraged by the prospect of a large gain, embarked on a journey to Moscow. 

Princess Anna Vasa (1568-1625) who owned a collection of jewels valued by some at 200,000 thalers, decided also to secretly sell to the tsar a part of it. Stanisław Niemojewski (ca. 1560-1620) of Rola coat of arms, Crown Deputy Master of the Pantry, was appointed to deliver jewels worth of 70,000 zlotys "wrapped in colourful silk" in an iron casked "painted in green". False Dmitry was killed on May 17th, 1606 and it was not as early as 1609 when the collection was returned by the new tsar Vasiliy Ivanovich Shuisky. Among jewels returned was "eagle with two diamond heads with rubies", most probably from princess' collection or pawned with Niemojewski from the State Treasury before 1599. 

Such hereldic jewels, either Imperial-Austrian or Polish, were undobtedly in possesion of different queens and princesses of Poland since at least 1543, when Elizabeth of Austria (1526-1545) was presented with a "diamond eagle with rubies" by emperor Charles V on the occasion of her marriage with king Sigismund II Augustus of Poland. Inventory of the jewels of Polish princess Anna Catherine Constance Vasa, daughter of Sigismund III and Constance of Austria, include four pendans and two pair of earrings with eagles, unfailingly three Imperial-Austrian and two Polish: "a pendant with a white, enamelled Eagle, at which seven diamonds, three round pearls and one big hanging ", valued at 120 thalers and "a diamond eagle with a sharply cut diamond in the center, more diamonds around and three hanging pearls". 

Anna Vasa, in half a princess of Poland, as a daughter of Catherine Jagiellon and sister of king Sigismund III, was as such entitled to use this emblem. After Sigismund's defeat at the Battle of Stångebro in 1598, she left Sweden to live with him in Poland where she spent the rest of her life.

The miniature portrait of a lady with eagle pendant from Harrach collection in Vienna (Harrach Palace at Freyung Street) previously identified as effigy of Anna of Austria (1573-1598), first wife of king Sigismund III, basing on strong resemblance to portrait of Catherine Jagiellon, if at all connected with Poland, should be rather identified as a portrait of king’s sister Anna Vasa, and not as his wife. The lack of protruding lip, notorious "Habsburg jaw" known from Anna of Austria’s preserved portraits and costume of the sitter, according to Northern fashion and not Spanish of the Imperial court, confirms this hypothesis.

​Eagle was a symbol of supreme imperial power, epitomized  magnanimity, the Ascension to heaven and regeneration by baptism and was used in jewellery all across Europe at that time. If the pendant is a heraldic symbol than the portrait should be dated to about 1592, when Sigismund was prepared to abandon the Polish throne for Ernest of Austria, who was about to marry princess Anna Vasa (this would also explain how the miniature found its way to Austria) or to 1598, when the princess needed to legitimize herself in her new homeland.

Diamond double-headed eagle of the House of Austria by Anonymous from Milan or Vienna, mid-16th century, Treasury of the Munich Residence. Most probably from dowry of princess Anna Catherine Constance Vasa.

Detail of a portrait of queen Anna of Austria (1573-1598) by Martin Kober, 1595, Bavarian State Painting Collections.

Miniature of princess Catherine Jagiellon (1526-1583) by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Younger, ca. 1553, Czartoryski Museum.

Miniature of a lady with eagle pendant, most probably princess Anna Vasa (1568-1625) by Anonymous, 1590s, Harrach collection in Rohrau Castle (?). ​Identification by Marcin Latka.

See the work in ​Polish-Lithuanian Treasures.

Fashion on eastern carpets and rugs has spread with Armenian settlement on Polish soil. The partition of Armenia between the Byzantine Empire and the Seljuk Turks in 1080 resulted in the mass migration of the Armenians from their homeland, including to Ruthenia, where Lviv became their main center. In 1356, King Casimir the Great approved the religious, self-government and judicial separation of the Lviv Armenians, and in 1519 the so-called Armenian Statute, a collection of customary Armenian rights was approved by King Sigismund I (compare "Statut ormiański w zatwierdzeniu Zygmunta I. z r. 1519" by Oswald Balzer, p. 131).​
 
In 1533 Sigismund I sent Wawrzyniec Spytek Jordan to Turkey with the order to buy 28 carpets "for guests treating", for setting tables and "for side eating" of the King himself, besides 100 pieces of eastern fabrics "for wall covering, with flowers and border in the same color, so that they would not differ" (after "Dzieje wnętrz wawelskich" by Tadeusz Mańkowski, p. 30). Twenty years later, King Sigismund Augustus ordered the same Wawrzyniec Spytek to buy for himself 132 Persian carpets, some of which were intended to decorate the royal dining room. They were to have yellow flowers and "beautiful borders", the others, with an undefined pattern, were intended for the Wawel Cathedral (after "Zarys historii włókiennictwa na ziemiach polskich ..." by Janina Kamińska, Irena Turnau, p. 208). On April 20, 1553, he received a list of "measure of carpets ... for the need of His Highness." In 1583, in Kraków, Chancellor Jan Zamoyski bought 24 small red Turkish carpets. Persian (adziamskie) carpets were supplied by the Armenian from Caffa on the Black Sea coast who settled in Zamość, Murat Jakubowicz, who on May 24, 1585 received the royal privilege on the Chancellor's initiative to sell "Turkish" rugs in Poland for the period of 20 years. The Zamoyski Inventory from 1601 mentions the "Persian red carpets from Murat" and the "silk carpet from the Turkish tchaoush Pirali" received as a diplomatic gift (after "Kultura i ideologia Jana Zamoyskiego" by Jerzy Kowalczyk, p. 88, 90).
 
In the spring of 1601, Sigismund III Vasa, sent Sefer Muratowicz, an Armenian merchant from Warsaw who served as a royal court supplier, to Persia. "There, I ordered the carpets woven with silk and gold to be made for His Highness, and also a tent, swords from Damascus steel et caetera," wrote Muratowicz in his relation (after "Perskie tkaniny z herbem Wazów ..." by Katarzyna Połujan, p. 47). Not only an excellent warrior, but also a talented organizer, Shah Abbas I of Persia raised the weaving industry to the highest degree. Luxury carpets become a frequent diplomatic gift, and the Shah sent legations to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1605, 1612, 1622 and 1627.

In 1603 the Lviv Archbishop, Jan Zamoyski, brought twenty large carpets with Jelita coat of arms from Istanbul for the decoration of the Latin Cathedral in Lviv. In 1612, the young master Pupart donated "a Persian rug, instead of gunblades and gunpowder" to the guild of goldsmiths in Kraków and Bartosz Makuchowicz offered "white Turkish carpet". In the course of three years, between 1612 to 1614, 16 further rugs were given to the guild (after "Cech złotniczy w Krakowie ..." by Leonard Lepszy, p. 37). The register of movables of Maria Amalia Mohylanka, daughter of Ieremia Movila, Prince of Moldavia and wife of the governor of Bratslav, Stefan Potocki, from 1612 mentions 160 silk Persian carpets "of the most diverse and of the richest eastern work". In the inventory of the Dubno Castle of Prince Janusz Ostrogski from 1616, there are about 150 Persian carpets woven with silk and gold, and the inventory of Madaliński family from Nyzhniv from 1625 mentions "Item carpets: one big and two smaller, three small, two ordinary Turkish, wall hanging varicoloured kilim, red kilim ... " (after "Orient w polskiej kulturze artystycznej" by Tadeusz Mańkowski, p. 7, 152-153).
 
White and red carpets from Persia were particularly popular. Two Persian red carpets were estimated at 20 zlotys in 1641. Before 1682, the priest from Kodeń, Mikołaj Siestrzewitowski, paid 60 zlotys for two cherry carpets (after "Majątek osobisty duchowieństwa katolickiego ..." by Dariusz Główka, p. 118).
 
According to the order received from the court of King Ladislaus IV in Warsaw, merchant Milkon Hadziejewicz in a letter written in Lviv on October 1, 1641 to Aslangul Haragazovitch, "Armenian and merchant from the city of Anguriey" (Ankara in Turkey) commissioned him to acquire for "Her Highness the Queen", Cecilia Renata, "one rug of eighteen or twenty ells, silk woven with gold or only silk, it should be a Khorasan rug, so good and so large" (after "Sztuka Islamu w Polsce ..." by Tadeusz Mańkowski, p. 29).
 
According to account by Frenchman Jean Le Laboureur accompanying Queen Marie Louise Gonzaga in her journey to Poland in 1646 on the furnishings of the Warsaw Castle, "furniture is very expensive there, and royal tapestries are the most beautiful not only in Europe, but also in Asia." While Queen Marie Louise Gonzaga herself, writing from Gdańsk to Cardinal Mazarin on February 15, 1646, stated: "You will be surprised sir, that I have never seen in the French crown as beautiful tapestries as here." In the church in Oliwa, according to her account, there were 160 different rugs and tapestries (after "Dynastia Wazów w Polsce" by Stefania Ochmann-Staniszewska, p. 193).
 
The act of compromise from 1650 between Warterysowicz and Seferowicz, the Armenian merchants in Lviv, lists in their warehouse 12 large "gold with silk" and 12 small Persian carpets, valued at 15,000 zlotys. Ożga, starost of Terebovlia and Stryi, owned 288 rugs of different pattern and origin: Persian, floor rugs, kilims, silk with letters, eagles, etc. (after "Ormianie w dawnej Polsce" by Mirosława Zakrzewska-Dubasowa, p. 177). The will of Stanisław Koniecpolski, castellan of Kraków, in 1682 (not to be confused with the hetman, died in 1646) lists two carpets, woven with gold and silver. In the end of the 17th century in Kraków, the varicoloured kilims were valued at 8 zlotys, white and red 10 zlotys, and floral and ornamental at 15 zlotys. In Warsaw in 1696 Turkish kilim was valued at 12 zlotys, the old one at 4 zlotys. Stall keeper Majowicz purchased a Turkish kilim for 15 zlotys. In Poznań, red kilims costed 6 zlotys each, and ordinary were for 3 zlotys in 1696 (after "Odzież i wnętrza domów mieszczańskich w Polsce ..." by Magdalena Bartkiewicz, p. 66). 
 
Armenians settled in Poland, not only traded in textiles, but also participated in the production of carpets. In Zamość, Murat Jakubowicz organized the first manufacture of eastern carpets in Poland. The imitation of Persian patterns was continued in the workshop of Manuel from Corfu, called Korfiński in Brody under the patronage of hetman Stanisław Konicepolski. The register of belongings of Aleksandra Wiesiołowska from 1659, lists 24 eastern carpets and "locally produced large carpets modelled on floor rugs 24" (after "Polskie tkaniny i hafty ..." by Tadeusz Mańkowski, p. 71, 73).
 
Although traditionally the majority of Persian and Turkish rugs in Poland, or those associated with Poland, are identified as a token of the glorious victory of the Commonwealth, which saved Europe from the Ottoman Empire invasion at the gates of Vienna in 1683, it is more likely that they were acquired in customary trading relations.
 
When in 1878 at the Paris exhibition, Prince Władysław Czartoryski organized the "Polish Hall", presenting, among others, seven eastern carpets from his collection bearing heraldic emblems, they gained the name "Polish."

Detail of so-called Kraków-Paris carpet, Tebriz, second quarter of the 16th century, Wawel Royal Castle. According to tradition won at Vienna in 1683 by Wawrzyniec Wodzicki.

Detail of rug "with animals" by Herat or Tebriz manufacture, mid-16th century, Czartoryski Museum.

Detail of carpet with hunting scenes, Kashan, before 1602, Residence Museum in Munich. Most probably a gift to Sigismund III Vasa from Abbas I of Persia. From dowry of Anna Catherine Constance Vasa.

Detail of Safavid kilim with the coat of arms of Sigismund III Vasa (Polish Eagle with Vasa sheaf), Kashan, ca. 1602, Residence Museum in Munich. Commissioned by the King through his agent in Persia, Sefer Muratowicz.

Mechti Kuli Beg, Ambassador of Persia, detail of Entry of the wedding procession of Sigismund III Vasa into Cracow by Balthasar Gebhardt, ca. 1605, Royal Castle in Warsaw.

Portrait of Krzysztof Zbaraski, Master of the Stables of the Crown in delia coat made from Turkish fabric, 1620s, Lviv National Art Gallery. Zbaraski served as Commonwealth's ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1622 to 1624.

Portrait of Shah Abbas flirting with a wine boy and a couplet "May life bring you all you desire of three lips: the lip of your lover, the lip of the stream, and the lip of the cup", miniature by Muhammad Qasim, February 10, 1627, Louvre Museum.

Portrait of Stanisław Tęczyński by Tommaso Dolabella, 1633-1634, National Museum in Warsaw, deposit at the Wawel Royal Castle.

Detail of Ushak carpet with coat of arms of Krzysztof Wiesiołowski, Poland or Turkey, ca. 1635, Museum of Islamic Art in Berlin.

Portrait of a lady (possibly member of the Węsierski family) by Peter Danckerts de Rij, ca. 1640, National Museum in Gdańsk.

Portrait of a man (possibly member of the Węsierski family) by Peter Danckerts de Rij, ca. 1640, National Museum in Gdańsk.

Portrait of a young man with the view of Gdańsk (possibly member of the Węsierski family) by Peter Danckerts de Rij, ca. 1640, National Museum in Gdańsk.

Meletios I Pantogalos, metropolitan of Ephesus, during his visit to Gdańsk by Stephan de Praet and Willem Hondius, 1645, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam.

Detail of so-called Czartoryski carpet with emblem of the Myszkowski family of the Jastrzębiec coat of arms, Iran, mid-17th century, Metropolitan Museum of Art. Possibly commissioned by Franciszek Myszkowski, castellan of Belz and marshal of Crown Tribunal in 1668 (identification of the emblem by Marcin Latka).

Lamentation of various people over the dead credit with Armenian merchant in the center, ca. 1655, Library of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

Portrait of Maksymilian Franciszek Ossoliński and his sons, 1670s, Royal Castle in Warsaw.

Portrait of Zbigniew Ossoliński, 1675, Royal Castle in Warsaw.

Portrait of Johannes Hevelius by Daniel Schultz, 1677, Gdańsk Library of Polish Academy of Sciences.

Portrait of Kyprian Zochovskyj, Metropolitan of Kiev, ca. 1680, National Arts Museum of the Republic of Belarus.

Detail of vase carpet from the church in Jeziorak, Persia (Kirman), 17th century, Private collection.

Portrait of John III Sobieski with his son Jakub Ludwik by Jan Tricius after Jerzy Siemiginowski-Eleuter, ca. 1690, Palace of Versailles.

Detail of medallion Ushak carpet, Turkey, mid-17th century, Jagiellonian University Museum. Offered by King John III Sobieski to the Kraków Academy.

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Main religious centers of Poland were also main centers for religious craftemanship in the country. Kraków with its status of coronation city and largest city of southern Poland had an adantage over other locations with the largest number of goldsmiths. A diploma issued in 1478 by Jan Rzeszowski, Bishop of Kraków, Jakub Dembiński, castellan and starost of Kraków, Zejfreth, mayor of Kraków, Karniowski and Jan Theschnar, Kraków's concillors to Jan Gloger, son of Mikołaj Gloger, aurifaber (goldsmith) of Kraków, recognizes Jan as a man of good fame and worthy of admission to the guild of goldsmiths. The document confirms that church had a profound influence on development of this craftsmanship in the country.

Reliquary cross of Andrzej Nosek of Rawicz coat of arms, Abbot of the Tyniec Abbey by Anonymous from Kraków, ca. 1480, Cathedral Treasury in Tarnów.

​Fragment of gold reliquary for the head of Saint Stanislaus with selling of a village by Marcin Marciniec, 1504, Cathedral Museum at Wawel Hill in Kraków.

​Silver crosier of Bishop Andrzej Krzycki by Anonymous from Kraków, 1527-1535, Płock Cathedral.

Portrait of Primate Bernard Maciejowski (1548-1608) by Anonymous from Kraków, ca. 1606, Franciscan Monastery in Kraków. The Primate was depicted holding silver legate's cross against silver altar set commissioned by him before 1601 in Italy and with a 15th century jewelled mitre of cardinal Frederick Jagiellon.

Reliquary of Saint Stanislaus founded by Bishop Marcin Szyszkowski by Anonymous from Poland, ca. 1616-1621, Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi.

​Silver altar cross offered by Primate Wacław Leszczyński to the Gniezno Cathedral by Anonymous from Poland, first quarter of the 17th century, Archdiocesan Museum in Gniezno.

Gold chalice founded by Anna Alojza Chodkiewicz by Anonymous from Poland, ca. 1633, Treasury of the Lublin Archcathedral.

Fragment of a monstrance adorned with jewels from private donations by Anonymous from Lublin, ca. 1650, Dominican Monastery in Lublin.

Fragment of monstrance adorned with enamel by Anonymous from Poland, 1670s, ​Treasury of the Jasna Góra Monastery.

Monstrance with St. Benedict and St. Scholastica from the Tyniec Abbey by Anonymous from Lesser Poland, 1679, Cathedral Treasury in Tarnów.

​Ciborium adorned with mother of pearl founded by guardian Stefan Opatkowski by Anonymous from Kraków, 1700, Franciscan Monastery in Kraków.

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The invasion of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth by neighbouring countries in the year of 1655 ended almost a century period of prosperity since the establishment of the noble republic in 1569. This war, one of the worst in country's history, and known as the Deluge (1655-1660), resulted in the loss of approximately 25% of the population in four core provinces, destruction of 188 cities and towns, 81 castles, and 136 churches. It had a profound impact on all aspects of life and future generations as well as on country's culture. Invasion and occupation by Lutherans from north and west (Sweden and Brandenburg), Calvinists from the south (Transylvania) and Orthodox from east and south (Russia, Wallachia and Moldavia) also significantly strengthened Catholics in previously multi-religious nation. The invaders were renowned for looting even marble flooring and church vestments. In 1658 Swedish troops of commander Pleitner murdered in the church in Skrwilno the local vicar, Father Walerian Cząpski for refusing to declare where he hidden "the treasure of the church".

In those circumstances, between 1655 and 1660, Zofia Magdalena Loka of Rogala coat of arms, owner of Okalewo estate and widow of Stanisław Piwo of Prawdzic coat of arms, deputy cup-bearer of Płock, hidden in the remains of the 11th century settlement in Skrwilno, her most valuable belongings. Discovered in 1961 in a shallow, approx. 50-cm excavation, were gold objects of more than 2 kg weigh, and silver objects of about 5 kg weigh. The treasure consist of the most exquist works of art including gold jewellery from the first half of the 17th century, like pendant with the figure of Fortune set with precious stones and coated with blue, white and green enamel, 6 chains including a chain set with precious stones made up of circular open work links and eight rosettes set with rubies and turquoises, 4 bracelets, two of them with clasps laid over with green, blue, or white enamel and the third coated with black enamel bearing the letters I.H.S. engraved amid the acanthus leaf motif, 16 żupan buttons of Stanisław Piwo, 5 gold and set with rubies, 5 with rock crystal, and 6 made of gilded silver. There is also a silver belt with imitation of encrusting, a silver filigree chain, a fragment of filigree gold chain with enamelled elements, 4 rings and 51 pearls. 

Silver tableware constitute the other part of the treasure. It includes silver lavabo set with Rogala coat of arms created by Balthasar Grill in Augsburg and commissioned by Jan Loka, starost of Borzechowo, father of Zofia, a pair of scissors for trimming candle wicks with Prawdzic coat of arms, two silver candlesticks made in Toruń and Brodnica, 12 silver spoons by Hans Nickel, William de Lassensy, Reinhold Sager and Hans Martelius, finest Toruń silversmiths of the time, and a tankard.
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Stanisław Piwo died on January 17, 1649 at the age of 53, hence before the invasion, and was buried in the Benedictine nuns Church in Sierpc, where his wife founded him a tomb monument in marble and alabaster depicting him kneeling before the crucified Christ. The tomb was most probably destroyed in 1655, when a Swedish troop looted the Benedictine Monsatery or in 1794 during the fire of the church. Zofia was 10 years younger then her husband and they were married for 26 years. Both Zofia nad Stanisław wer benefactors of many local churches - in 1644 Stanisław offered to the church in Sierpc a gold cloth chasuble and his wife in 1649 offered a silver plaque. In 1650, a year after death of her husband she offered a veil emboidered with gold thread for the image of Our Lady of Sierpc. She lived for few years in her large wooden manor in Okalewo and during the Deluge, she probably left for Gostynin. Nothing is known about her later years.

​Gold chain set with precious stones of Zofia Magdalena Loka by Anonymous from Germany or Poland, ca. 1600, District Museum in Toruń.

​Pendant with the figure of Fortune of Zofia Magdalena Loka by Anonymous from Transylvania or Poland, turn of the 16th and 17th century, District Museum in Toruń.

​Bracelet with a stylized cartouche of Zofia Magdalena Loka by Anonymous from Poland, first quarter of the 17th century, District Museum in Toruń.

​Silver lavabo set of Jan Loka, starost of Borzechowo by Balthasar Grill, 1615-1617, District Museum in Toruń.

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The inventory was prepared by a special commision appointed by King John III Sobieski and formed in 1681 basing on the Parliament decission from the same year.

(Extract)

Casket IV.

14. Diamond pendant with monogram S.A. [of Sigismund Augustus], under a crown set with rubies, with three additional rubies and a large pear-shaped pearl.

17. Clasp with diamond Saint Michael, set with a large ruby [?], an emerald, 6 smaller rubies, 3 pearls.

18. Diamond cross, 6 rubies, 3 emeralds.

19. Cross with 10 diamonds, 3 pearls.

21. Medallion with Venus and Mars with 2 sharp diamonds, 12 smaller diamonds, 10 rubies.

28. Pendant with letter A [of Queen Anna Jagiellon?] made from 4 rubies, round pearl.

36. Whistle in the form of a owl, 2 rubies, 2 diamonds, 2 diamond roses, 5 pearls.

37. Medallion with Leda and the swan, 8 diamonds, 3 rubies, emerald.

39. Cameo with bust of Charles V on yellow stone.

41. Medallion with the Judgement of Paris, diamonds, rubies.

50. Medallion with the Gigantomachy with a ruby in the center, 6 other rubies, 7 diamonds.

52. Clasp with King David, 2 rubies, smaller diamond, 25 diamonds, rubies, emeralds.

53. Large clasp with diamond Saint George, pearl dragon, 6 pearls, 24 other stones.

55. Gold lion, 6 rubies, 4 diamonds, emerald.

Casket V.

2. Medallion with god Vulcan, 13 diamonds, small ruby, emerald.

4. Medallion with Gaius Mucius Scaevola, 5 diamonds, 4 rubies.

5. Clasp with diamond Saint George or Saint Michael with different tablets and diamond lilies.

7. Gold effigy of Charles V on stone.

9. Clasp with diamond Saint George without a horse.

11. Pendant with diamond Christogram IHS, a ruby at the top and a tablet with diamonds, 2 pearls.

13. Clasp with diamond King David, 6 emeralds, 18 rubies, 4 diamonds.

14. Gold dragon pipe with two large diamonds, smaller diamonds, rubies, emeralds, turquoises, 2 pearls.

15. Large clasp with diamond Saint Michael, 3 Indian pearls.

24. Diamond Saint George with emeralds and diamonds, 3 stones missing.

31. Whistle in the form of a Melusine with diamonds and rubies, 1 stone missing, 2 pearls.

33. Medallion with Mars and Venus, 3 rubies, 3 diamonds.

34. Medallion with Judgement of Solomon, emerald rows, 11 rubies, 8 emeralds.

35. Medallion with Deborah and Sisera, 6 diamonds, 4 rubies.

37. Medallion with Marcus Curtius, 3 diamonds, 2 rubies.

38. Medallion with Orpheus, 5 stones.

Casket VI.

3. Agate medallion with a Roman face, diamond frame, 3 rubies.

4. Clasp with diamond Saint George, 3 rubies, 3 emeralds, pearls.

5. Medallion with Venus with a mirror, 7 diamonds, small ruby and a small pearl.

7. Pendant with a folded diamond rose, two ruby figures, 3 emeralds, large pearl, 43 tablets of diamonds.

Casket VII.

7. Gold fan handle with 5 diamonds, 4 emeralds, 2 turquoises, 11 pearls.

8. Another fan handle, 12 diamonds, 8 rubies, 1 emerald, 16 pearls.

Casket X.

3. Large pendant with elongated diamond of 22 1/4 carates, small pearl 12.

14. Largest diamond with a pearl of 27,5 carates weight, valued at 20.000 aureos, pearl 2.500 aureos.

Summary of the Jewel Commission
presented to the Lord Treasurer of the Crown, Year 1682
Value of all jewels of the Commonwealth in red zlotys ... 101.670

Gold medallion with Sacrifice of Isaac by Anonymous from Poland, turn of the 16th and 17th century, Treasury of the Jasna Góra Monastery.

​Gold pendant with Annunciation to Mary by Anonymous from Poland, first quarter of the 17th century, Treasury of the Norbertines Convent in Kraków.

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The reign of king John Albert was a period of gradual transition from gothic to renaissance art in Poland. Majority of preserved effigies of the king were most probably created posthumously, however the artists who worked for the Wawel Cathedral, beyond any doubt known the king personally.

Among the oldest is a portrait of the king as a donor kneeling before the crucified Christ in a group of sculptures known as the Triptych of John Albert. The triptych was commissioned to the king's funeral chapel and created by Stanisław Stwosz (Stanislaus Stoss) in 1501. This original retable was dismanteled in about 1758 and some elements were reused in a new altar for the Czartoryski Chapel of the Cathedral between 1873 and 1884.

Similar grafic effigy of the king was included in a graduale,  a book collecting all the musical items of the Mass, which he founded in 1499 for the Cathedral. John Albert was depicted once again as donor, kneeling before the Apocalyptic Virgin in a miniature by Master Maciej z Drohiczyna (1484-1528). 

The last of the effigies, and the most important, is the king's tomb effigy carved in red marble by Jörg Huber. Late gothic image of the king lying in state with all attributes of his power was crowned between 1502 and 1505 with a renaissance arch created by Francesco Fiorentino. The tomb was founded after king's death by his mother Elizabeth of Austria and his youngest brother Sigismund.

​Altar from John Albert Chapel now in the Chartoryski Chapel of the Wawel Cathedral with original sculptures from the early 16th century, in the casing from the third quarter of the 19th century by Władysław Brzostowski.

​Crucifixion with king John Albert as donor by Stanisław Stwosz, 1501, Chartoryski Chapel of the Wawel Cathedral.

​Crucifixion with king John Albert as donor by Stanisław Stwosz, 1501, Chartoryski Chapel of the Wawel Cathedral.

Miniature in graduale of king John Albert by Master Maciej z Drohiczyna, 1499-1501, Archives of the Wawel Metropolitan Chapter in Kraków.

​Tombstone of king John Albert by Jörg Huber, ca. 1502, John Albert Chapel of the Wawel Cathedral.

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The second reception stairway, the Senators' Staircase, of the Wawel Castle was constructed between 1599 and 1602 by Giovanni Trevano and Ambrogio Meazzi in the north-west corner of the castle. It is the first such modern construction in Poland facilitating the communication between the floors of the residence and located in the interior space of the edifice. Marble stairs do not run steeply, as it is in the Renaissance Deputies' Staircase, but break up regularly in the middle floors with comfortable podests. Early baroque portals of the saircase with auricular elements designed by Trevano were executed in greenish Carpathian sandstone by Meazzi. The Summary of the Royal spendings by the Kraków's supevisor Franciszek Rylski of Ostoja coat of arms from 1599 and 1600 in the Central Archives of Historical Records in Warsaw (I 299), records a spending of fl. 2991 gr. 15 den. 12 "for demolition of the old stairs and construction of the new one, for Italians and different materials" and salaries of "Jan Treurer (Giovanni Trevano), mason ad r[ation]em fl. 1300 datum fl. 1250" and "Ambrosio Meaczi (Ambrogio Meazzi) to inlay the stairs and doors ad r[ation]em fl. 500 datum fl. 300". 

Senators' Staircase of the Wawel Castle, constructed between 1599 and 1602 by Giovanni Trevano and Ambrogio Meazzi. 

Bronze cartouche with coat of arms of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth without the Vasa emblem (missing) from the Wawel Castle, 1604, Czartoryski Museum. One of the cartouches from the overdoor in the northern wing of the castle leading to the Senators' Staircase.

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Before 1516 the confraternity of Saint Reinhold in Gdańsk commissioned a retable for the Saint Reinhold Chapel of the Saint Mary's Church in the city. The outer wings of the polyptych were painted in the workshop of Joos van Cleve, who depicted himself as Saint Reinhold.
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The polyptych was shipped to Gdańsk in 1516 and today is on display in the Gallery of Medieval Art of the National Museum in Warsaw (oak, central panel 194 × 158 cm (76.4 × 62.2 in), each wing 194 × 75 cm (76.4 × 29.5 in)). It is the first confirmed work commissioned by patrons from territories of today's Poland.

The second could be Triptych with the Adoration of the Magi with a monarch in a chain of the Order of the Golden Fleece in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin (oak, central panel 72 × 52 cm (28.3 × 20.5 in), each wing 69 × 22 cm (27.2 × 8.7 in)). It was acquired from the Reimer Collection in Berlin in 1843. Possibly commissioned by Sigismund I of Poland.
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The outer parts of the wings were painted en grisaille with effigies of Saints Christopher and Sebastian, which may indicate the donor, his patron saints, however among recipients of the Order of the Golden Fleece between 1451 and 1531 there were no Sebastian and only one Christopher - Christopher, Margrave of Baden-Hachberg (1453-1527). Although the latter was portraited in the similar headdress (crinale), he was not a king to depict himself as one of the Magi, and his facial features are completely different. Also other garments are very close to those from the known effigies of the Polish monarch - eg. Communion of Sigismund I, a leaf from the Prayer Book of Sigismund I the Old by Stanisław Samostrzelnik from 1524 in the British Library. The king of Poland was awarded the Order of the Golden Fleece in 1519 at the age of 52.

The sources on artistic contacts of the Polish court at that time with the Netherlands are very scarce. Among commissions confirmed in preserved inventories and accounts there are the following.

In 1526 queen Bona Sforza commissioned in Antwerp through Seweryn Boner, 16 tapestries "de lana cum figuris et imaginibus" of 200 flemish square inches in its entity. They were transported to Kraków via Frankfurt upon Main, Nuremberg and Wrocław.

In 1533 king Sigismund I commissioned through Boner and Mauritius Hernyck in Antwerp 60 tapestries with coat of arms of Poland, Lithuania and Duchy of Milan among which 20 bigger with green and blue background, 26 tapestries without coat of arms and 6 tapestries with figural scenes. The commission cost was 1170 florins and tapestries were transported to Kraków via Nuremberg, Leipzig and Wrocław.

In 1536 the king acquired 7 paintings in Flanders to adorn the apartments of prince Sigismund Augustus at the Wawel castle for 35 florins ("pro septem imaginibus Flandrensibus pictis").

The subtle marble bust of Queen Barbara Zapolya from Olesko Castle in the style of Netherlandish renaissance was probably part of a larger commission made by Sigismund I around 1520.

​oil on panel, ca. 1535, 33.6 × 25.2 cm (13.2 × 9.9 in), inventory number Wil.1591, Museum of King John III's Palace at Wilanów

​The painting represents one of several versions of ''Madonna of the Cherries'' created by Giovanni Pietro Rizzoli, called Giampietrino in about 1508-1510 when he was working alongside Leonardo da Vinci. The Giampietrino's painting is possibly a reproduction of a Madonna painted by Leonardo for Francis I of France. The latter work was probably a painting that influenced Joos van Cleve who was frequently employed by French court. The painting by Giampietrino from doctor Karl Lanz's collection is a direct link to the lost da Vinci's original. The composition enjoyed great success in the early decades of the 16th century and some twenty three versions attributed to Joos van Cleve's workshop have been identified. 
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Similar painting is in the Arnold and Seena Davis Collection. The work was acquired by Stanisław Kostka Potocki for his collection in the Wilanów Palace in Warsaw.