The Radziwills, one of the wealthiest noble families in 17th-century Europe and the most powerful in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, owned one of the most important portrait collections in Sarmatia. As imperial princes, they collected effigies of members of European royal and noble families and owned numerous portraits of various family members and relatives. Extant inventories, such as that of Boguslaus Radziwill (1620-1669) from 1657 (AGAD 1/354/0/26/84), confirm the breadth of their art collections and their European character.

Today, however, apart from a few canvases from the Nesvizh collection, almost nothing has survived. Many original portraits that survived the Deluge (1655-1660) and the Great Northern War were reproduced in a series of engravings produced between 1747 and 1758 by the Jewish-born engraver Hirsz Leybowicz (Lejbowicz). With his father, Lejba Zyskielowicz of Sokal, at the Radziwill court in Nesvizh, they created the copper plates for Marcin Franciszek Wobe's Icones familiæ ducalis Radivilianæ ..., published in Nesvizh in 1758 (National Library of Poland, A.781). 

Earlier, probably shortly before the Deluge, several of these or similar portraits were also reproduced as drawings, most likely intended as preparatory studies for engravings, now in the State Hermitage Museum (known as the "Album of Drawn Portraits of Polish Figures", ink and bistre on paper, 33 x 28 cm). They were transferred from the Library of the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg in 1941 and likely originally formed part of the Nesvizh collection.

The images of Anna Radziwill née Kettler (1567-1617) from the Hermitage collection (inv. OP-45857) and the Leybowicz print, based on similar originals as the painted portraits in the National Museum in Warsaw (inv. MP 2472 MNW) and the Vilnius Picture Gallery, as well as the effigy of Janusz Radziwill the Younger (1612-1655) from the Leybowicz print, similar to that from the full-length portrait in the National Art Museum of Belarus in Minsk (considered as the work of Daniel Schultz), prove that all these images were based on painted originals.

Many of the finest portraits in both series are effigies dating from the first quarter of the 17th century. The portraits of women, in particular, display a rich variety of clothing, fabrics, lace, and sumptuous jewelry, primarily inspired by Spanish fashion with local influences (jeweled headdresses). Among the most remarkable are the portraits of Anna Sapieha (1603-1627), daughter of the Chancellor of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania Leo Sapieha and Elizabeth Radziwill, who married Albert Ladislaus Radziwill in 1618 (Hermitage Museum, inv. ОР-45867), and that of Tekla Anna Valovich (also Valavičiūtė or Wołłowicz, 1608-1637), daughter of the Lithuanian Vice-Chancellor Jerome Valovich and Elżbieta Gosławska, who married Alexander Louis Radziwill in 1623 (Hermitage Museum, inv. ОР-45870). Equally interesting is the image of the Ruthenian princess Lavinia Leonilla Koretska (ca. 1587-1641), daughter of Prince Joachim Koretsky and Anna Chodkiewicz, who married Prince John Albert Radziwill (1591-1626) in 1609, as well as that of her husband in national costume, undoubtedly pendant portraits (Hermitage Museum, inv. ОР-45871, ОР-45872).

Similar portraits of Anna Sophia Zenovich (ca. 1615-1664), daughter of the castellan of Polotsk Nicolaus Boguslaus Zenovich and Anna Chodkiewicz, who in 1628 became the second wife of Albert Ladislaus Radziwill, and that of Regina von Eisenreich (ca. 1589-1637), a Bavarian aristocrat and lady-in-waiting to Queen Constance of Austria, first wife of the Grand Chancellor of Lithuania, Albert Stanislaus Radziwill, whom she married in 1619, probably come from the same series of portraits. The same is true for the portrait of a lady wearing a large ruff and a hat, which, in Leybowicz's engraving, was reproduced as an effigy of Anna Elizabeth Radziwill (1518-1558).

Several of these women came from Calvinist (originally Orthodox) families, who converted to Catholicism at the beginning of the 17th century. Based on the costumes and the age of the sitters, all of these portraits can be dated to the 1620s. The likely author of the portraits could be Jacob van Doort (d. 1629), a Flemish or Dutch painter who, according to my findings, painted portraits of members of the Calvinist branch of the Radziwill family at that time. The style of the work suggests that van Doort is the most likely author of the portrait of Teodor Denhoff (ca. 1570-1622), Voivode of Pärnu, now in Wilanów Palace. This portrait would have been painted around 1620-1622, when Denhoff was Voivode of Cēsis (Venden) in Latvia (inscription at top right: TEODORVS / DENHOF PALAT: / VINDENSIS). The same is likely true for the portraits of Countess Maria von Rautter (1576-1626) and her husband, Count Friedrich zu Dohna-Schlobitten (1570-1627), which come from the Drogosze Palace and were lost during World War II.

The second group of effigies is the one which, according to the costumes of the models and their dates of life, can be dated to the 1630s. This group, among the drawings kept in the Hermitage Museum, includes the effigy of Janusz Radziwill the Younger in Sarmatian costume, coat and hat lined with fur (inv. OP-45876), the portrait of his first wife Catherine Potocka (d. 1642), daughter of Stefan Potocki and Maria Mohylanka and granddaughter of the Prince of Moldavia Ieremia Movilă (inv. OP-45877), and that of Albert Stanislaus Radziwill (1593-1656) in a dark doublet, with a seal matrix on the table (inv. ОР-45874). These portraits are characterized by the richness of fabrics, lace, and jewelry, which, combined with a characteristic pose, hand resting on the table, and a three-quarter length representation, brings them close to the portrait of Prince Zaslavski by Bartholomeus Strobel and, more specifically in this context, to the portrait of Janusz Radziwill the Younger in a red and silver doublet, also by Strobel, housed in the National Art Museum of Belarus (oil on canvas, 114 x 90 cm, inv. ЗЖ-109). This latter portrait was painted in 1634, approximately two years after his return from the Netherlands. 

Janusz came from a Calvinist branch of a Lithuanian magnate family. In September 1628, he embarked on a four-year journey, primarily through Germany and the Netherlands, returning to Warsaw in the autumn of 1632. He began his studies in 1629 at the University of Leipzig, and from 1631, studied in Altdorf. He completed his higher education at the University of Leiden. Shortly before his return to Sarmatia, a magnificent full-length portrait of the prince, dressed in a silver and gold doublet and breeches, was painted in Leiden by David Bailly (1584-1657). This painting comes from the collection of King Frederick I of Prussia (1657-1713) and is now in the National Museum in Wrocław (oil on canvas, 202 x 114.7 cm, inv. MNWr VIII-578). It is interesting to note that in 1633, when the prince was back in his native country, the Dutch engraver Willem Hondius produced in The Hague an engraving reproducing a similar effigy of Janusz, but in bust form and wearing armor (Czartoryski Museum in Kraków). The inscription at the bottom confirms the identity of the portrayed person and that the engraving was published in 1633 in The Hague, as well as the fact that the original painting was painted by Bailly (Cujus effigiem à Celeberrimo Bailio depictam ...). The prince's age indicated on the print (ÆT SVÆ XIX) suggests that the original portrait dates from around 1631. Bailly likely continued to work for Radziwill after his return to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, as well as for other Polish-Lithuanian-Ruthenian clients, as evidenced by his self-portrait from the 1640s, now in Wilanów Palace (inv. Wil.1752). He could potentially be the author of the portrait of Janusz's first wife, Catherine Potocka, reproduced in the Leybowicz print, resembling the posthumous portrait of her with the prince's second wife, Maria Lupu, painted by Johann Schretter in 1646 (National Art Museum of Belarus, inv. 3Ж-125). It is certain that Leybowicz did not base his portrait of Catherine on the one by Schretter, as he mistakenly confused a similar image of Maria Lupu with that of Katarzyna Tomicka (ca. 1517-1551). Therefore, there undoubtedly existed separate portraits of Janusz the Younger's two wives. Since Catherine's features differ from the drawing in the Hermitage, where she wears a similar costume but has a more elongated nose, it is highly probable that the prototype was created by different painter. Janusz married the Catholic Potocka in September 1638, against the wishes of his father.

The portraits of Albert Stanislaus made by Strobel were probably all destroyed during the Deluge and the Great Northern War, as Leybowicz reproduced in his engraving another likeness of the Grand Chancellor of Lithuania, similar to the full-length portrait held in Minsk (inv. ЗЖ-141). Another interesting fact is that the likeness of Albert Stanislaus's second wife, Anna Krystyna Lubomirska (1618-1667), in Leybowicz's series depicts her at an advanced age (CHRISTINA ANNA COMITISSA in Wisnic ...); it should therefore be dated to the 1660s, so several years after her husband's death. Anna Krystyna was the daughter of the Voivode of Ruthenia and Kraków Stanisław Lubomirski (1583-1649) and Zofia Ostrogska (1595-1622) and she married Albert Stanislaus on March 30, 1638 (therefore shortly before Janusz's marriage to Potocka). A portrait depicting her at the time of her marriage to Radziwill undoubtedly existed. In this regard, the portrait of Zofia Zborowska (SOPHIA De Zborow / ZBOROWSKA ...), who died after 1618 and was the wife of George Radziwill (1578-1613), castellan of Trakai, is particularly interesting. This is due to the fact that the lady is dressed in a fashion typical of the 1630s or early 1640s and is reminiscent of the aforementioned portraits of Catherine Potocka and Maria Lupu, as well as Lucretia Strozzi from Leybowicz's series. It is possible that, as with the image of Katarzyna Tomicka, Leybowicz confused the portrait of Anna Krystyna Lubomirska from around 1638 with a lost portrait of Zofia Zborowska.

​Portrait of Teodor Denhoff (ca. 1570-1622) by Jacob van Doort, ca. 1620-1622, Wilanów Palace in Warsaw. Virtual reconstruction, © Marcin Latka

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Anna Sapieha (1603-1627) by Jacob van Doort, 1620s, lost. © Marcin Latka

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Tekla Anna Valovich (1608-1637) by Jacob van Doort, 1620s, lost. © Marcin Latka

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Lavinia Leonilla Koretska (ca. 1587-1641) by Jacob van Doort, 1620s, lost. © Marcin Latka

Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of John Albert Radziwill (1591-1626) by Jacob van Doort, 1620s, lost. © Marcin Latka

Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of a lady, said to be Anna Elizabeth Radziwill (1518-1558) by Jacob van Doort, 1620s, lost. © Marcin Latka

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Regina von Eisenreich (ca. 1589-1637) by Jacob van Doort, 1620s, lost. © Marcin Latka

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Anna Sophia Zenovich (ca. 1615-1664) by Jacob van Doort, 1620s, lost. © Marcin Latka

Portrait of Janusz Radziwill the Younger (1612-1655) by David Bailly, ca. 1631-1632, National Museum in Wrocław.

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Janusz Radziwill the Younger (1612-1655) by David Bailly, ca. 1631, lost. © Marcin Latka

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Janusz Radziwill the Younger (1612-1655) by David Bailly, ca. 1631, lost. © Marcin Latka

Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Janusz Radziwill the Younger (1612-1655) by David Bailly, ca. 1638, lost. © Marcin Latka

Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Catherine Potocka (d. 1642) by David Bailly, ca. 1638, lost. © Marcin Latka

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Catherine Potocka (d. 1642) by David Bailly, ca. 1638, lost. © Marcin Latka

Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Catherine Potocka (d. 1642) by David Bailly, ca. 1638, lost. © Marcin Latka

Portrait of Janusz Radziwill the Younger (1612-1655) by Bartholomeus Strobel, ca. 1634, National Art Museum of Belarus in Minsk.

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Janusz Radziwill the Younger (1612-1655) by Bartholomeus Strobel, ca. 1638, lost. © Marcin Latka

Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Catherine Potocka (d. 1642) by Bartholomeus Strobel, ca. 1638, lost. © Marcin Latka

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Albert Stanislaus Radziwill (1593-1656) by Bartholomeus Strobel, ca. 1638-1646, lost. © Marcin Latka

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Anna Krystyna Lubomirska (1618-1667) by Bartholomeus Strobel, ca. 1638-1646, lost. © Marcin Latka

​Although sources confirm the presence of Titian's works in Sarmatia - for example, the inventory of paintings belonging to Chancellor Jerzy Ossoliński (1595-1650) that were spared from looting by the Swedish army mentions Titian's The Sacrifice of Isaac (Central Archives of Historical Records in Warsaw, number 1/357/0/1/7/12, p. 4) - none of the paintings imported before the Deluge (1655-1660) appear to have survived.

Of particular interest in the context of pre-Deluge imports from Venice are the paintings and artifacts preserved in the Poor Clares convent in Kraków. This monastery is one of the oldest in Poland. It was founded in 1245 by Blessed Salomea, daughter of Leszek the White and the first Polish Poor Clare. During the Deluge, the convent, like many other religious buildings in the city, was subject to destruction and looting, a common occurrence in Kraków under Swedish occupation. Sources confirm that the nuns were forced to hand over the silverware of the Jesuits, hidden in the monastery, to the soldiers of Paul Würtz (1612-1676), who also stole a gold chain with a diamond cross (after "Straty kulturalne i artystyczne Krakowa ..." by Michał Rożek, p. 147).

Among the paintings kept at the convent, the most interesting is Christ carrying the cross (oil on panel, 45.3 x 40 cm). According to the 1718 inventory, the painting was donated by Beata Myszkowska (post 1591-1666), abbess of the monastery from 1642 to 1647. Beata took her vows in 1618. She was the daughter of Zygmunt Gonzaga Myszkowski (ca. 1562-1615), advisor to King Sigismund III, who was adopted by the Gonzaga family in 1597 during his stay in Mantua. The inventory describes the painting as follows: "Roman face of the Lord Jesus with a cross painted as a very pretty portrait" (after "Pax et bonum. Skarby klarysek krakowskich. Katalog wystawy", p. 54, 60-61, 175, items III/4, III/12, III/13, IV/46).

Although this painting is considered one of the monastery's most important masterpieces, it is humbly attributed to the North Italian school of the mid-16th century. In my opinion, also considering its poor state of preservation, it is clearly a work by Titian from the early 16th century. The way the dress and the sitter's face have been painted reveals the hand of the Venetian master (visible in the old photograph of the painting held at the National Museum in Kraków, inv. MNK XX-f-1777).

It is also interesting to note that a similar and more complex composition, depicting Christ carrying the cross and meeting women, also attributed to a painter from Northern Italy, is located in the same monastery (oil on canvas, 102 x 69 cm). This painting is also attributed to Niccolò Frangipane, probably born in Padua in the Republic of Venice, and active in Venice between 1563 and 1597. According to Gian Giuseppe Liruti (1689-1780), Frangipane was a pupil of Titian. The painting is thought to have been a gift from Father Adam Opatowiusz (1574-1647), who, according to the 1718 inventory, presented the monastery with a magnificent painting of Saint Mary Magdalene, brought from Rome.

The painting donated by Myszkowska is compared to a similar composition painted by Frangipane, held at the National Museum in Warsaw (oil on canvas, 41.4 x 40 cm, inv. M.Ob.633 MNW, formerly 231149). The Warsaw painting was previously thought to be the work of a 16th-century Spanish painter and was acquired in 1962 from the collection of Helena Dowgiałło née Wagner (1879-1972). Before World War II, it was kept in an 18th-century wooden manor house in Romanishki, Belarus, along with several other Old Master paintings and a copy of Titian's Venus (after "Dzieje rezydencji na dawnych kresach Rzeczypospolitej: Województwo wileńskie" by Roman Aftanazy , p. 336). The manor was destroyed during the war. 

It seems that this effigy was of particular importance to the Sarmatians of the 16th and 17th centuries, since three copies have been preserved.

A version of the composition by Frangipane, painted in 1574 and closer to the Kraków painting, is in the Carmen Thyssen Museum in Malaga (inv. CTB.2000.43). This same composition was also copied by Bartolomeo Montagna (d. 1523), a painter who worked mainly in Vicenza, but also in Venice and Padua (Cambi Casa d'Aste in Genoa, Live Auction 727, June 15, 2022, lot 12). 

The Poor Clare convent in Kraków also houses another Venetian treasure, imported to Sarmatia, like the paintings. These are precious velvet panels interwoven with gold thread, probably dating from the period 1640-1660. They were acquired by Abbess Eufrozyna Stanisławska with her own funds, between 1639 and 1642, or between 1658 and 1661 (the dates acted as abbess of the convent). In 1718, there were 23 pieces of this fabric in the monastery. Also noteworthy is a large painting depicting Saint Anthony of Padua, painted by Kazimierz Lesiowski in 1648 (signed on the right: 1648 / prima Sept / Fr Casimi Lesiowski ...). The painting shows the Basilica of Saint Anthony of Padua in the background and, according to the 1718 inventory, Anna Szypowska, abbess from 1622 to 1630, ordered it to be brought from Padua. 

​Christ carrying the cross by Titian, early 16th century, Poor Clares convent in Kraków. Virtual reconstruction, © Marcin Latka

​Christ carrying the cross by Niccolò Frangipane, 1570s, National Museum in Warsaw.

​Christ carrying the cross and meeting women by Niccolò Frangipane, late 16th century, Poor Clares convent in Kraków. Virtual reconstruction, © Marcin Latka

​Venetian velvet panels interwoven with gold thread, ca. 1640-1660, Poor Clares convent in Kraków.

The iconography of a monarch in the 16th century often relied on an initial portrait created by an artist close to the court, usually a drawn study, which was then reproduced on various media: paintings, miniatures, medals, and sculptures. This practice is perfectly illustrated by the portraits of one of the most influential women of the Renaissance: Joanna of Austria (1535-1573), Infanta of Spain and Princess of Portugal. Joanna was the daughter and sister of two important patrons of Titian: Emperor Charles V and King Philip II of Spain.

Around 1554, the Italian Renaissance sculptor and jeweller Jacopo da Trezzo (ca. 1515-1589), trained in Milan, who, like Jacopo Caraglio in Poland-Lithuania-Ruthenia, became court jeweller working for the Spanish court, created a medal with Joanna's likeness (Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv. 25.142.36), reminiscent of her portraits painted by the Portuguese painter Cristóvão de Morais, made around 1552 (Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, inv. 1296) and by a follower of Antonis Mor, also painted around 1552 (Windsor Castle, inv. RCIN 407223), both depicting her at the age of 17 (ETATIS / XVII). The same applies to an engraving made by Pieter van der Heyden in Antwerp, very probably at the same time (Herzog August Bibliothek, inv. A 16831) and the one published in Venice in 1569 in Imagines Quorudam Principum, et Illustrium Virorum by Bolognino Zaltieri. The likeness on the 1564 medal by Giampaolo Poggini (National Gallery of Art, inv. 1998.108.16.a) and on the tondo engraving from the Teatro de las grandezas de la Villa de Madrid ... by Gil González Dávila (DOÑA IVANA DE AVSTRIA, p. 37), published in 1623, so many years after Joanna's death, resembles the portrait painted by Antonis Mor, made around 1560 (Prado Museum, inv. P002112), as well as that by Sofonisba Anguissola from the 1560s, holding a medal of her father Charles V (Dorotheum in Vienna, 12 October 2011, lot 431) and that by Alonso Sánchez Coello with a miniature of her brother Philip II (Museum of Fine Arts Bilbao, inv. 90/15). The onyx cameo with bust of the Infanta and incorrect inscription on the back identifying her as her sister Maria of Spain, carved around 1566 by Jacopo da Trezzo (Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Antikensammlung, inv. XII 70), resembles her full-length portrait with a dog, painted in 1557 by Alonso Sánchez Coello (Kunsthistorisches Museum, inv. GG 3127), as well as her bust portrait by Sofonisba, now in Sweden and identified as a portrait of the Swedish Queen Catherine Stenbock (Bukowskis in Stockholm, sale 621, December 11, 2019, lot 414), probably looted in Poland, and the portrait by Roland de Mois or his workshop (Royal Castle Warsaw, inv. ZKW/103/ab). The silver medal bearing Joanna's image, similar to the aforementioned cameo, attributed to Pompeo Leoni (1533-1608), is probably based on her portrait by Sánchez Coello (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Münzkabinett, inv. MK 7004bß). Her funerary sculpture in Carrara marble, in the church of the Descalzas Reales monastery in Madrid, created by Pompeo after 1574, is also likely based on Sánchez Coello's portrait. Joanna probably chose the portrait she wished to have reproduced on her cenotaph herself (after "Los retratos de Juana de Austria posteriores a 1554 ..." by Annemarie Jordan Gschwend, p. 57-58). The portrait made by Mor around 1560 depicts the Infanta with dark hair, which could indicate that she dyed her hair or that it was based on study drawings and not on observation of the actual model.

Unlike in Sarmatia, fashion in Spain, especially in the second half of the 16th century, was quite uniform, and in all the likenesses described, Joanna was portrayed in a costume typical of the Spanish fashion of the time. The diversity of costumes, combined with the significant destruction of the country's heritage, explains why no painted portraits reproducing the numerous effigies of the Jagiellonian dynasty appearing on medals, cameos, sculptures, and engravings have been preserved or are known to us. A notable exception is that of the effigies of Queen Bona created during her widowhood, when she was dressed almost exclusively in her characteristic costume. Another interesting fact is that the marble statue of the queen, from her funerary monument in the Basilica of Saint Nicholas in Bari, bears little resemblance to her other surviving effigies. This suggests that another portrait of the queen was made in Italy around 1556 or 1557, shortly before her death. This statue was commissioned by her daughter, elected Queen Anna Jagiellon (1523-1596), and sculpted by Italian sculptors between 1589 and 1593, more than thirty years after Bona's death. According to a letter dated May 26, 1590, the effigy was probably based on a portrait sent by Queen Anna from Warsaw. She wrote to Tomasz Treter, canon of the Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere in Rome, who was also a painter, engraver, and her advisor, regarding the preliminary texts for Bona's funerary inscription. The queen sent him three drafts to review and added: "We are also sending you a picture of our lady mother, which you should also send without delay [most likely to Naples, where the monument was created]" (after "Jagiellonki polskie w XVI. wieku ..." by Aleksander Przezdziecki, Volume 4, p. 325). It is unknown whether the effigy sent from Warsaw was used and, if so, which image it was precisely.

Regarding the lost painted portraits of the Jagiellons, very intersting is the mention in the posthumous inventory of the collection of Mary of Hungary (1505-1558), widow of King Louis II Jagiellon. It was drawn up in 1558 in Spain, where she moved in 1556. At the top of the list, among the portraits of the most important members of the family, is: "portrait of the King of Poland, in armor but without a helmet, painted on canvas" (number 4: En otra caja metido el retrato del rey de Polonia, armado é sin morrion, en lienzo). It was probably the likeness of Sigismund I or Sigismund Augustus. 

The painting was listed after the marble bust of Eleanor of Austria (1498-1558), sister of Charles V, by Master Jacob (Prado Museum, inv. E000259, attributed to Jacques Dubroeucq), a large canvas depicting the equestrian portrait of Charles V at Mühlberg, painted by Titian (Prado Museum, inv. P000410), and the portrait of Philip II, Mary's nephew, in half-armor, also by Titian (sent by Philip to his aunt in 1551, probably a lost copy of the painting now in the Prado Museum, inv. P000411) and before a portrait of Mary in "ordinary attire" by Titian (probably a copy or prototype of the painting in the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris, inv. PE 243). Like other portraits, the one of the King of Poland was recorded as packed in a box; it had therefore been transported to Spain from the Netherlands and probably came from Mary's sumptuous palace in Binche (destroyed in 1554). Unlike many other paintings mentioned in the inventory, the painter is not indicated, but this does not rule out the possibility that the work was painted by Titian or in Venice. Several other paintings mentioned in this inventory were most likely commissioned by Mary or the Habsburgs directly from Titian, while the portrait of the King of Poland was probably sent to them, hence the authorship was not so obvious.

The mentions of portraits of Christina of Denmark (1521-1590), Duchess of Milan and Lorraine, the widowed Duchess of Bavaria, probably Cunigunde of Austria (1465-1520) or Marie Jakobaea of ​​Baden-Sponheim (1507-1580), Duke Maurice of Saxony (1521-1553) in armor, Dorothea of ​​Denmark and Norway (1520-1580), Electress of the Palatinate, and of that of Anna of Austria (1528-1590), daughter of Anna Jagiellonica (1503-1547) and Duchess of Bavaria, all by Titian (items 7, 8, 11, 12, 14, after "Tableaux et sculptures de Marie d'Autriche, reine douarière de Hongrie (1558)" by Alexandre Pinchar, p. 139-140) and probably based on other effigies, are also very interesting.

The most important preserved works of art, depicting Isabella of Portugal (1503-1539), wife of Emperor Charles V and mother of King Philip II, were created several years after her death: medal by Leone Leoni, created between 1543 and 1549 (Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, Münzkabinett, inv. 742bβ), portrait by Titian, painted in 1548 (Prado Museum, inv. P000415), cameo created in Milan in 1550 by Leoni (Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv. 38.150.9), full-length portrait by the circle or a follower of Jakob Seisenegger from the third quarter of the 16th century (Ambras Castle in Innsbruck, inv. GG 3999) and double portrait with her husband by Rubens, probably painted between 1628 and 1629 (Liria Palace in Madrid, inv. P.489). All these images were therefore based on other portraits made during the empress's lifetime.

In 1532 or 1533, Titian painted the portrait of Cardinal Ippolito de' Medici (1511-1535) in Hungarian costume, but it is unknown whether it was created in Bologna or Venice (Pitti Palace in Florence, oil on canvas, 139 x 107 cm, inv. Palatina 201 / 1912). Ippolito, created cardinal and archbishop of Avignon by his cousin, Pope Clement VII, on January 10, 1529, at the age of 18, was sent to Hungary in the spring of 1532 as a papal legate. There he displayed considerable military skill, leading 8,000 Hungarian soldiers against the Ottoman Turks, hence his attire, which is also similar to the Sarmatian costume of the time. On July 3, 1532, Cardinal Ippolito was appointed Vice-Chancellor of the Holy Roman Church. Because of its great resemblance to a portrait by Titian, the double portrait of Marco Bracci with Cardinal Ippolito, attributed to Girolamo da Carpi, is considered not to have been painted from life, but as a copy of a portrait by Titian, concerning the features of the cardinal's face (National Gallery in London, inv. NG20). As its style indicates, the painting by Titian was executed rather quickly, and it is likely not the only copy of this portrait, as other versions were undoubtedly made for the Pope and the Emperor. A reduced copy, from the collection of the Kings of France and perhaps executed by Titian's workshop, is in the Louvre (INV 769; MR 523; MV 7390). It is mentioned at the Palace of Fontainebleau at the beginning of the 17th century.

If the portrait of the King of Poland did indeed represent Sigismund I, it could reproduce the king's features similar to those of a medal created in 1532 and signed by Giovanni Padovano (Giovanni Maria Mosca), a sculptor and medalist originally from Padua, in the Republic of Venice, active between 1515 and 1573, first in Veneto, then in Poland after 1529. Two copies of this medal, presumably given to the Este family, related to Queen Bona, are kept in the Galleria Estense in Modena (inv. R.C.G.E. 9315 and R.C.G.E. 9316). The Latin inscription on the obverse indicates that the king was depicted at the age of 64, in the 26th year of his reign, which generally corresponds to the year 1532, and designates him as the "king of Sarmatia" (Sarmatie Sigismundi Regis [...] XXVI [...] LXIII). The reverse features a Polish eagle with the royal monogram S and an inscription indicating the author and date (IOHANNES MARIA PATAVINVS · F · ANNO [...] M · D · XXXII). Also in the same collection are three other medals of Sigismund's wife, Bona, and their children, Sigismund Augustus and Isabella, also made by Padovano in 1532. The medal of Sigismund Augustus depicts him at the age of 13 and in the third year of his reign, which is inaccurate, and bears the letter D added before his name, derived from divus ("divine"); the reverse depicts a lion (inv. R.C.G.E. 9317). Isabella's medal depicts her wearing a wreath and at the age of 14, which is inaccurate, and with a rounded neckline typical of Sarmatian fashion of the time; the reverse features an allegory of Modesty represented as a semi-nude woman with an ermine (inv. R.C.G.E. 9313). The medal with Bona's bust shows the queen in Sarmatian costume with a wide, rounded neckline, similar to that of the funerary sculpture of Maryna Sobkowa (d. 1530) in Opatów. The inscription states that she was 32 years old, which is incorrect, as she was 38 at that time, and this may be a deliberate action. The artichoke on the reverse is a symbol of fertility. A similar costume, with white puffed sleeves, appears in the profile portrait of a blonde noblewoman from a Florentine private collection (oil on canvas, 99.5 x 69 cm, Pandolfini Casa d'Aste, Live auction 1114, March 1, 2022, lot 66). This outfit is very similar to the one in the portrait of Queen Catherine of Austria (1533-1572), the third wife of Sigismund II Augustus, in an engraving made before 1562 by Frans Huys in Antwerp (Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, inv. RP-P-1892-A-17332). The inscription in the upper left reads: LA[V] FAG., DE , CAR. The comma suggests that it is most likely an abbreviation of the Latin phrase Labora Fac Gradatim De Cetero, which could be translated as "Work and act step by step from now on". This phrase encourages consistent and regular progress in one's efforts, while the woman's gesture, her right hand on her heart, indicates that this is her life motto. The woman's headdress adorned with pearls and her profile, as well as her body turned towards the viewer, are reminiscent of those in Queen Bona's medal kept at the Galleria Estense (inv. R.C.G.E. 9502). The facial features and hairstyle are also similar. This portrait of the Queen of Poland is particularly close to that of her mother, Isabella of Aragon (1470-1524), Duchess of Milan, with blonde hair, from the Rothschild collection (Christie's London, Online Auction 19640, July 30, 2020, lot 6, indistinct inscription: ISABELLA / SFORZAAL / LAS.DVCHESSA / DICASTRO). The style of the painting is similar to that of the Milanese painter Gaudenzio Ferrari (ca. 1471-1546), for example, his Virgin and Child in the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan (inv. 1157), which also depicts a similar woman. This latter painting is dated to around 1517-1518; who knows, perhaps the painter was inspired by the features of the Milanese-Aragonese princess.

According to Mateusz Grzęda, Padovano is probably the creator of the final medals and sculptures appearing on the reverse, while the bust of the king, his wife and children should be attributed to Christoph Weiditz (1498-1559), active in Satrasburg and Augsburg. Between 1528 and 1529, Weiditz traveled to Spain. From 1529 to 1531, he produced medals bearing the likeness of Jan Dantyszek (1485-1548), Bishop of Chełmno and envoy to the imperial court. In 1531, Dantyszek was in Brussels. In a letter to the envoy dated March 6, 1531, Christoph Mülich, an Augsburg merchant in the service of the Fugger family, refers to Weiditz as Dantyszek's "servant". Around that time, in 1531, Weiditz produced a medal with the effigy of Francisco de los Cobos (circa 1477-1547), Secretary of State to Charles V and important patron of the arts, whose portrait was painted by Jan Gossaert (Getty Center). Cobos arranged portraits of Emperor Charles V and owned works by Titian, such as the portrait of his mistress Cornelia Malaspina, commissioned by Federico Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua. 

Padovano probably received models made by Weiditz based on painted effigies of the Sarmatian royal family, and the whole commission was likely orchestrated by Dantyszek (after "Kilka uwag o medalach portretowych Zygmunta I Starego", p. 9-18, 21). The Bishop of Chełmno, known as Juan Dantisco in Spanish sources, is the author of a voluminous correspondence containing references to portraits, such as the one he sent in 1529 to Isabel Delgada, a woman from Valladolid with whom he had a daughter in 1527, Juana Dantisco, or the portrait of Juana painted in Valladolid in 1539 on the instructions of Johan Weze (1490-1548), Archbishop of Lund, by a German painter and royal guard (un pintor alemán y Guardia de Corps de S.M.), identified as Jacob Seisenegger (after "The Spanish Portrait: From El Greco to Picasso" by Javier Portús Pérez, p. 78). 

If the prestigious commission for painted portraits of the Sarmatian royal family was entrusted to Titian in Venice, they were probably based on study drawings sent to Venice and resembled the Przybyła portrait created around that time or in the late 1520s (the models are depicted in profile, their bodies turned towards the viewer, as on medals).

Another beautiful medal bearing the image of Sigismund I, decorated with the Order of the Golden Fleece of the Habsburgs and whose lower lip, inherited from his Habsburg mother, is highlighted, is, according to Mr. Grzęda, the work of another medalist connected to the imperial court, Matthes Gebel (ca. 1500-1574). A citizen of Nuremberg, he attended the imperial diets of Speyer in 1529 and Augsburg in 1530, where he probably created the medal bearing the image of Charles V at the age of 30 (Victoria & Albert Museum, inv. A.384-1910). The medal of Sigismund, kept at the Ossolineum in Wrocław, is also attributed to Caraglio and is considered to have been created in Venice shortly before his arrival in Poland, as it bears the date 1538. The similarity of this work to the 1535 medal of Louis X (1495-1545), Duke of Bavaria, by Gebel, is particularly striking. The medal was probably made to commemorate the betrothal of Sigismund Augustus and Elizabeth of Austria, celebrated on June 16 of that year. The medal was distributed to guests at their wedding in 1543, and its gold copies came from Elizabeth's dowry. A work signed by Caraglio, which could be dated to the same period as the 1538 medal of Sigismund, is a cameo with bust of Bona preserved at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (inv. 17.190.869, signed under the shoulder: IACOBV/VERON), as indicated by her costume. The cameo is inlaid with gold, highlighting the details of queen's chain and hairnet, while the details of her costume are meticulously crafted. The most distinctive element of this costume is the silver Medusa's head inset on her breast. The mythological Medusa symbolizes feminine power, seduction, and protection, often perceived as a fierce guardian against evil. It thus evokes "a manifestation of strength, tenacity, and effectiveness - exercised by the weapon", as Katarzyna Kluczwajd notes in her commentary on the cameo. The author adds that "the Bona jewel is a unique representation, taken 'from the point of view' of a male portrait (facing right). This underlines its independent and solitary significance, important from a propaganda standpoint for this power-hungry Italian woman, who [later] sought Philip II to grant her the rule in the Kingdom of Naples" (after "Biżuteria w Polsce ...", p. 30). 

The two effigies, that from the 1538 medal and that from the cameo by Caraglio, were very likely inspired by painted portraits, perhaps by Titian, painter to the Habsburg dynasty (in 1531, the painter moved to a substantial palatial house in Venice and, in 1532, went to Bologna to paint the emperor, who, the following year, appointed him court painter and raised him to the rank of Count Palatine; according to known sources, in the late 1530s he was active mainly in Venice), or by Paris Bordone, the artist who painted Caraglio's portrait (in 1538, according to Vasari, or 1559, according to Federici, he was invited to work at the court of king of France). Given its crucial political significance, Bona's effigy with Medusa's head must have been reproduced in numerous forms, such as the cameo depicting the bust of Joanna of Austria. The involvement of artists such as Giovanni Cariani or Bernardino Licinio, who, according to my findings, painted images of the queen, is also conceivable.

​Portrait of Queen Bona Sforza d'Aragona (1494-1557) in Sarmatian costume by workshop of Gaudenzio Ferrari, 1520s, Private collection. 

​Main objects from the collection of Mary of Hungary (1505-1558) in 1558 (items 1 to 5 of the inventory).

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of King Sigismund I (1467-1548) in armor by Titian, ca. 1532, lost. © Marcin Latka

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Queen Bona Sforza d'Aragona (1494-1557) in Sarmatian costume by Titian, ca. 1532, lost. © Marcin Latka

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of King Sigismund II Augustus (1520-1572) in a hat by Titian, ca. 1532, lost. © Marcin Latka

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Crown Princess Isabella Jagiellon (1519-1559) in Sarmatian costume by Titian, ca. 1532, lost. © Marcin Latka

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Crown Princess Isabella Jagiellon (1519-1559) in Sarmatian costume by Titian, ca. 1532, lost. © Marcin Latka

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Queen Bona Sforza d'Aragona (1494-1557) in Sarmatian costume by Bernardino Licinio, ca. 1532, lost. © Marcin Latka

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Queen Bona Sforza d'Aragona (1494-1557) in Sarmatian costume by Bernardino Licinio, ca. 1532, lost. © Marcin Latka

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of King Sigismund I (1467-1548) with the Order of the Golden Fleece by Paris Bordone, ca. 1538, lost. © Marcin Latka

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Queen Bona Sforza d'Aragona (1494-1557) with silver Medusa's head by Paris Bordone, ca. 1538, lost. © Marcin Latka

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Queen Bona Sforza d'Aragona (1494-1557) with silver Medusa's head by Titian, ca. 1538, lost. © Marcin Latka

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Queen Bona Sforza d'Aragona (1494-1557) with silver Medusa's head by Giovanni Cariani, ca. 1538, lost. © Marcin Latka

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Queen Bona Sforza d'Aragona (1494-1557) with silver Medusa's head by Bernardino Licinio, ca. 1538, lost. © Marcin Latka

Portrait of Cardinal Ippolito de' Medici (1511-1535) in Hungarian costume by Titian, ca. 1532-1533, Pitti Palace in Florence. 

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Renaissance Poland-Lithuania - The Realm of Venus, goddess of love, destroyed by Mars, god of war. Discover its "Forgotten portraits", its sovereigns and its unique culture ...

Forgotten portraits - Introduction - part A​

Forgotten portraits of the Jagiellons - part I (1470-1505)

Forgotten portraits of the Jagiellons - part II (1506-1529)

Forgotten portraits of the Jagiellons - part III (1530-1540)

Forgotten portraits of the Dukes of Pomerania, Dukes of Silesia and European monarchs - part I

Forgotten portraits of the Jagiellons - part IV (1541-1551)

Forgotten portraits of the Jagiellons - part V (1552-1572)

Forgotten portraits of the Jagiellons - part VI (1573-1596)

Forgotten portraits of the Dukes of Pomerania, Dukes of Silesia and European monarchs - part II

Forgotten portraits - Introduction - part B​

Forgotten portraits of the Polish Vasas - part I (1587-1623)

Forgotten portraits of the Polish Vasas - part II (1624-1636)

​Forgotten portraits of the Polish Vasas - part III (1637-1648)
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Forgotten portraits of the Polish Vasas - part IV (1649-1668)

Forgotten portraits of the Dukes of Pomerania, Dukes of Silesia and European monarchs - part III

​Forgotten portraits of the "compatriot kings" (1669-1696)

Forgotten portraits from the Wettin and Leszczyński period (1697-1763)

"Before the Deluge", it is a former title of a painting now identified to depict the Feast of the prodigal son. It was painted by Cornelis van Haarlem, a painter from the Protestant Netherlands, best known for his highly stylized works with Italianate nudes, in 1615, when the elected monarch of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was a descendant of the Jagiellons - Sigismund III Vasa. Despite huge losses in the collections of paintings, the oeuvre of Cornelis van Haarlem is represented significantly in one of the largest museums in Poland - the National Museum in Warsaw, the majority of which comes from old Polish collections (three from the collection of Wojciech Kolasiński: "Adam and Eve", "Mars and Venus as lovers", "Vanitas" and "The Feast of the prodigal son" from the collection of Tomasz Zieliński in Kielce, inv. M.Ob.260; M.Ob.81; M.Ob.269; M.Ob.1472). 
​
Sadly, its earlier history is unknown, so it cannot be unmistakably associated with the Golden Age of Poland-Lithuania, which, almost as in the Bible, ended with the Deluge (1655-1660), a punishment for sins as some might believe or like the opening of Pandora's box unleashing evil upon the world.
​
"The Swedes and the notorious Germans, for whom murder is a play, the violation of faith is a joke, robbery a pleasure, arson, rape of women and all crimes a joy, our city, destroyed by numerous contributions, they destroyed with fire, leaving only the Koźmin suburb unburned", describes the atrocities in the city of Krotoszyn, burned down on July 5, 1656, an eyewitness - an altarist, brother Bartłomiej Gorczyński (after "Lebenserinnerungen" by Bar Loebel Monasch, Rafał Witkowski, p. 16). A contemporary account tells of the devastation of Wieluń by the Swedes. The town was occupied for a relatively short time by the troops of the starost of Babimost, Krzysztof Jan Żegocki (1618–1673). "As soon as the starost of Babimost withdrew from Wieluń, the Swedes immediately entered and slaughtered everything they could get their hands on, and slaughtered so many people that only the dogs were left alive [...], and they also burned all the houses around the Wieluń Castle". The destruction of Łęczyca, which the Swedes re-entered after the partisans had left, is described as follows: "The Swedes entered the town, killing innocent people. Eighty inhabitants died in the town. The town was completely plundered". "They took everyone's weapons, expelled some from their homes, took all their equipment from others and levied unbearable taxes on every house every month [...] Finally, they burned half the city [...] They completely demolished many buildings that had been spared by the fire, razed all the stables and fences. But what can we say of the murders of many citizens, of many honest women raped, of virgins consecrated to God, who were treated in a vile and inhuman way not by people, but by untamed beasts and cruel tyrants. It is better to remain silent than to spread it, so as not to offend honest ears", describes the destruction of the city of Łowicz Andrzej Kazimierz Cebrowski (ca. 1580-1658), pharmacist and physician in his Annales civitates Loviciae ("The Annals of the City of Łowicz"), written in Latin in the years 1648-1658 (after "Życie codzienne małego miasteczka w XVII i XVIII wieku" by Bohdan Baranowski, p. 240). The wealthy city of Łowicz, seat of the Primate of Poland, was also plundered by the Transylvanian forces, the Polish army and peasants, and the destruction was accompanied by an epidemic of plague and famine. "Churches everywhere plundered, priests stripped of everything, some tortured, wounded, killed with cruel deaths on the gallows, nuns raped, houses of nobles plundered, a great number of nobles killed, all the people extremely oppressed. Neither pacts, nor dedycyje [deditio in ancient Rome, i.e. capitulation] nor protections are of any help, although the diplomatibus of the King of Sweden confirmed" describes the atrocities another contemporary source (after "Pisma polityczne z czasów panowania Jana Kazimierza Wazy ..." by Stefania Ochmann-Staniszewska, Volume 1, p. 145). Descriptions of the destroyed Vilnius after the withdrawal of the Russian and Cossack armies, and other cities of the Most Serene Republic, are equally terrifying. Polish troops responded with similar ruthlessness, sometimes also towards their own citizens, who collaborated with the invaders or were accused of collaboration. The invasion was accompanied by epidemics related to the marches of various armies, destruction of the economy, exacerbation of conflicts and social and ethnic divisions. An unimaginable Apocalypse, sent not by God but by human greed. War should be a forgotten relic of the past, but unfortunately it is still not.

​"The war of 1655-1657 was the most ruthless and disastrous in terms of cultural losses. Perhaps even more than the enormous spoils of war that were carried away, it left behind the greatest destruction of cultural goods, the collapse of villages and towns, castles and palaces, churches and monasteries", comments Zygmunt Łakociński (1905-1987) in his Polonica Svecana artistica, published in 1962. "Moreover, the looting of cultural goods was planned and organized in advance. Before the war, the Swedes prepared a trained team of 'experts' who accompanied the army and systematically robbed treasuries, archives and libraries", adds Michał Rożek (1946-2015) in his article on the cultural and artistic losses of Kraków during the Deluge. According to Aleksander Birkenmajer (1890-1967) the robbery and destruction of libraries was one of the factors that brought about the decline of culture after the era of John II Casimir (after "Straty kulturalne i artystyczne Krakowa w okresie pierwszego najazdu szwedzkiego (1655-1657)", p. 142, 153). 

Another painting in the National Museum in Warsaw recalls these events. This small painting (oil on copper, 29.6 x 37.4 cm, inventory number 34174) was very probably made by Christian Melich, court painter of the Polish-Lithuanian Vasas, active in Vilnius between 1604 and 1655 (similar in style to the Surrender of Mikhail Shein in the National Museum in Krakow, MNK I-12) or other Flemish painter. It was initially thought to represent King John II Casimir Vasa after the Battle of Berestechko in 1651, but the distinctive features of a man on horseback, as well as the yellow and blue costume, allowed to identify him with great certainty as Charles X Gustav the "Brigand of Europe", as he was called in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, "who was capable of beginning horrors of war in any part of the old continent" (after "Acta Universitatis Lodziensis: Folia historica", 2007, p. 56), and the subject as his triumph over the country. Female personifications of the Commonwealth, most likely Poland, Lithuania and Ruthenia (or Prussia) like three goddesses from the Judgement of Paris, pay homage to the "Brigand of Europe" supported by Mars and Minerva and trampling Polish enemies in national costumes. One of the women (Venus-Poland) offers the crown and a putto or Cupid offers the symbol of Poland, the White Eagle. Mars, with his sword drawn, looks at the humble woman.

Dramatic events change not only individuals but also entire nations.

Mars and Venus as lovers (Mars being disarmed by Venus) by Cornelis van Haarlem, 1609, National Museum in Warsaw.

Feast of the prodigal son (Before the Deluge) by Cornelis van Haarlem, 1615, National Museum in Warsaw.

​Triumph of Charles X Gustav the "Brigand of Europe" over the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth by Flemish painter, most probably Christian Melich, ca. 1655, National Museum in Warsaw. 

Bibliography and legal notice. The majority of historical facts in the "Forgotten portraits" and information on works of art are easily verifiable on reliable sources available on the Internet, otherwise I invite you to visit the National Libraries of Poland - personally or virtually (Polona). The majority of translations, if not specifically attributed to someone else in the text or cited sources, are my authorship. Original paintings reproduced in "Forgotten portraits" are considered to be in the public domain (faithful photographic reproduction of a two-dimensional, public domain work of art, copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or fewer) in accordance with international copyright law (photos from publicly available photo libraries, websites of relevant institutions, my own photos and scans from various publications with credit to the owner), however, all have been retouched and enhanced without significant interference with the quality of the original artwork, where possible. All interpretations, identifications and attributions, not specifically attributed to other authors in the text or cited sources, must be considered as my authorship - Marcin Latka (Artinpl). 

​Janko of Czarnków's account of the Royal Chapel of Poznań Cathedral and the paintings of Premislaus II (1257-1296) and Richeza of Sweden (died before 1293) located there before 1371 is probably the earliest confirmation of the existence of portraits as individual painted representations of a Polish monarch and his wife. The portraits of the king and Richeza placed next to their tombs were destroyed by lightning (Anno itaque Domini MCCCLXXI in dominica, in qua in Ecclesia Domino cantatur Judica me etc. vertex crucis dextrae turris ecclesiae cathedralis Poznaniensis per tonitrum fuit concussa et extremitas anguli eiusdem turris disrupta, quod foramina per testudinem capellae regalis impetu suo faciens imagines Przemislai et reginae in parietibus elevatas et depictas concussit, after "Monastycyzm. Słowiańszczyzna i państwo polskie ...", ed. Kazimierz Bobowski, p. 76). 

In his work on the history of Poland, published in Basel in 1555, Marcin Kromer recounts an interesting event that occurred at the beginning of the reign of Ladislaus III Jagiellon (1424-1444) and the regency of Queen Sophia of Halshany (ca. 1405-1461), a Ruthenian princess: the controversy surrounding the coronation of a minor king in 1434. Advisors and nobles feared that the coronation of a child would infringe upon their rights and privileges, arguing that a minor could not take the required oath. The conflict was resolved when Zbigniew Oleśnicki (1389-1455), Bishop of Kraków, brought a codex from Wawel Cathedral, in which the image of the young Casimir III the Great (1310-1370), King of Poland from 1333 to 1370, was depicted (Verum hic quoque scrupulus à maioribus natu exemptus est, producto à Sbigneo codice è basilica Cracoviensi, in quo effigies Cazimiri magni regis impubes depicta erat, "De origine et rebus gestis Polonorum libri XXX", p. 455). In medieval Poland, images of monarchs appeared in illuminated manuscripts.

A very unusual seal of Euphemia of Masovia (1344/1357-1418/1424), Duchess of Opole, known in Polish as Ofka Siemowitówna, reflects not only the official iconography of the duchess, but also the splendor and extravagance of the court circles of Opole and Masovia. The duchess was depicted as a standing female figure, holding a dog on a leash. Euphemia was the daughter of Duke Siemowit III of Masovia (d. 1381) and the Bohemian princess Euphemia of Opava. Before 1379, she married Vladislaus II, Duke of Opole, then a part of the Kingdom of Bohemia. Vladislaus increasingly aligned himself politically aligned with King Wenceslaus IV of Bohemia. At that time, Prague, the capital of Bohemia, was an important artistic center in that part of Europe, and the workshop of Master Theodoric and especially that of the Master of the Třeboň Altarpiece, who were active there, exerted a great influence on art in Central Europe, as evidenced by the paintings of Saint Anne from the Carmelite church in Strzegom (National Museum in Wrocław, inv. XI-221) or the epitaph of the brothers Henricus and Nicolaus von Borsnitz, canons of the Wrocław Cathedral (Archdiocesan Museum in Wrocław), in Silesia, or the polyptych from the castle of the Teutonic Knights in Grudziądz in the Chełmno Land, north of Masovia (National Museum in Warsaw, inv. Śr.22/1-5 MNW). Art and fashion in Opole were therefore strongly inspired by those of Prague, where the Bible of King Wenceslaus IV was created, with several erotic miniatures (Austrian National Library, Codex 2759, fol. 2r, 160r, 214r, Codex 2760, fol. 21r), as well as the votive panel of Jan Očko of Vlašim, where the king was depicted kneeling before the Virgin Mary (National Gallery in Prague, inv. O 84). The miniature of King Wenceslaus in the Bible bears a resemblance to the one on his seal. The seal of Duchess Euphemia was affixed to a document issued in Głogówek on May 21, 1394, in which she agreed to pledge the Dobrzyń land to the Teutonic Order (AGAD, no. 868, inscription: S. DOMINE. DVCISSE. DE OPLN). All this elements supports the hypothesis that the painting depicting Euphemia and her dog probably existed.

The magnificent early 15th-century triptych depicting the Virgin and Child enthroned, surrounded by saints and donors, is not only one of the earliest masterpieces of the Kraków school of painting, but also one of the oldest examples of portraiture in southern Poland (National Museum in Kraków, inv. MNK IX-4445). This small triptych testifies to the influence of the Bohemian or Austrian school and proves that painting and portraiture at that time followed the same patterns as in other European countries. It comes from the collection of the historical painter Jan Matejko (1838-1893). The donors depicted on the wings, accompanied by patron saints (the man on the left and the woman on the right, as in the Netherlandish and French triptychs of the period), are probably wealthy burghers, given the absence of coats of arms.

Many noble families in the country possessed their own collections of ancestor portraits, such as the Konarski family of Topolno, near Bydgoszcz. Their collection, described by Kasper Niesiecki (1682-1744) in his work Korona Polska przy Złotey Wolnosci ... (p. 574), included an old portrait of Mieczysław Konarski, courtier of King Ladislaus III Jagiellon (1424-1444), in a cuirass, with a sword at his side; a probably Renaissance portrait of Michał Konarski, judge of the district of Człuchów, depicted in black German costume (malowany w habićie Niemieckim czarno), black hat, with a gold chain and a sword; as well as a portrait of Michał Konarski (circa 1557-1613), Voivode of Pomerania.

The priest Stanisław Grochowski (1542-1612), royal secretary in 1584, emphasizes in his poem "On the Portrait of King Stephen [Stephen Bathory (1533-1586), husband of Anna Jagiellon (1523-1596)]" (Na konterfet króla Stefana) the importance of providing not so much an image of the person, but a likeness to their spirit, and confirms that portraits of monarchs were produced in numerous copies: "Look, how they portray this very face for us, and draw it intricately on various boards; but to paint the inner face and mind, one of a thousand could hardly be faultless" (after "Poezye Ks. Stanisława Grochowskiego" by Kazimierz Józef Turowski, Volume 1, p. 246). The author also praised in his poems painted portraits of Tsarina Marina Mniszech (d. 1614), her husband False Dmitry I (d. 1606) and her father Jerzy Mniszech (d. 1613), as well as very probably a painted portrait of the Muscovy envoy Afanasy Ivanovitch Vlasiev (reproduced in a woodcut), Cardinal Bernard Maciejowski (1548-1608), and members of the royal family, including Princess Anna Vasa (1568-1625), Princess Anna Maria Vasa (1593-1600) and Prince Ladislaus Sigismund Vasa (1595-1648) at the age of seven. He is also the author of a humorous poem about a painted portrait of a certain Samuel Głowa.

A document issued in Warsaw on May 27, 1643, sheds valuable light on the origins of many of the most valuable portraits. Prepared by the Sejm (Parliament) commission, it lists the goods imported into the Crown and subject to the Commonweath tax (Customs Instructions) - Instruktarz od ktorych towarow do Korony prowadzonych, płacić maią podatek Rzpltey należący (after "Volumina legum", Volume 4, p. 42-43). Among the luxury goods imported from abroad, right after jewelry, goldsmithing, lace, and articles embroidered with gold, silver, and pearls, are "portraits" (konterfektow). These were undoubtedly portraits of Sarmatians commissioned from renowned foreign artists (at that time, it was rare to be willing to pay for the portrait of a foreigner, let alone a tax). The position at the top of the list, before mirrors, wigs, tapestries (obicia, szpalerow), precious Italian, French, Dutch, Indian and Turkish fabrics, Venetian, Spanish, French, English, Dutch, Moravian and Silesian cloth, steel, copper and tin containers, furs, liqueurs, Dutch cheeses, books, paintings, maps and copper engravings (kuppersztychy), leathers, livestock, weapons and Turkish and Persian carpets, indicates that the import of portraits was considerable in volume and/or value. The mere fact that the state officials decided to tax this practice indicates that it was common and that the tax revenues from this measure were significant.

The mentioned sources use the old version of a Polish word for "portraits": konterfekt or konterfet, which comes from the Italian contraffatto, a word denoting a counterfeit or imitation (of reality).

The magnificent 16th-century bust medals that have survived testify not only to the truly European character of fashion in Sarmatia, the wealth of its inhabitants, and commissions from the best artists in Europe, but also to the high quality of portraiture. Among the most remarkable is the copper medal of Stanisław Ostroróg (1519-1568) by Matthias Gebel, made in Nuremberg in 1542, depicting the sitter at the age of 22 (Hermitage Museum, inv. ИМ 13504), a gilt lead medal depicting Anselmus Ephorinus (d. 1566), Silesian humanist and physician active in Kraków, aged 59, and his wife, Zofia Fogelweder, aged 32, made in 1557 and attributed to Matthias Schilling or to Austrian or Czech medalists (National Museum in Kraków, inv. MNK-VII-MdP-2011), and a lead medal depicting Stanisław Mrzygłód, advocatus (wójt) of Vilnius, aged 50, and his wife, Katarzyna, aged 25, made in 1561 and attributed to Steven Cornelisz van Herwijck, active in Antwerp (Ossolineum in Wrocław, inv. G 3025). 

Sixteenth-century Sarmatian politicians, just like their Western counterparts, were perfectly aware of the propagandistic potential of effigies. In 1584, the chancellor Jan Sariusz Zamoyski (1542-1605) sent three numizmata (medals) bearing the king's image and three bearing his own to Stanisław Reszka, who resided almost permanently in Italy during the 1580s, for distribution to Italian humanists (Posełam WM trzy numizmata twarzy Krola Jmci: oddaj WM jednę M.Antonio Mureto [Marcus Antonius Muretus], drugą Fulvio Ursino [Fulvio Orsini], trzecią Gambarae poetae [Lorenzo Gambara], Zamoyski's letter to Reszka from Kraków, dated January 22, 1584). The recipient of this valuable shipment must have been fully aware of its propagandistic function, since he wrote to the treasurer Jacek Młodziejowski on February 18, 1584, inquiring about the gold and silver medals bearing Stephen Bathory's image, which he had been unable to take with him when he left Rome: "for by this, His Grace may retain many friends; and furthermore, it is well that people should behold the person behind the fame of which they hear". It may have been for a portrait or a medal that Stanisław Sokołowski, canon of Kraków and theologian, thanked the chancellor in 1590, for as early as 1588, Zamoyski had promised to come in person or to send him his painting: "Zamoiscium, either live, or you will have the pictum [painting], or both". In 1599, Krzysztof Warszewicki, about to leave on a trip abroad, reminded him to send paintings - probably portraits of the chancellor - so that he could take them to Rome and offer them to a cardinal (letter from Warszewicki to Zamoyski from Kraków, dated May 30, 1599, after "Tryumfy i porażki ..." by Maria Bogucka, p. 140-141).

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

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

The presence of Italian merchants in Kraków is confirmed in 1424. While in the 14th century Genoese immigration predominated in the capital of the Kingdom of Poland, at the beginning of the following century Milanese and Venetian, and above all Florentine, predominated. In a letter from Florence dated January 5, 1424, the Florentine Council thanks Jogaila for releasing Leonardo Giovanni Mathei (Leonardum Johannis ser Mathei, mercatorem et dilectissimum civem nostrum) from prison and recommends Leonardo and his brothers, who are trading in Poland, while in a letter from Kraków dated April 16, 1429, the Kraków City Council certifies the verdict of the arbitration court between Antonio of Florence and Johannes Bank of Wrocław in the case of the dispute over Polish cochineal and furs sent to Venice. According to the letter of May 12, 1427, Hincza and Henryk of Rogów ordered expensive jewelry and clothing, including two hats set with pearls and decorated with heron feathers, from Margherita, widow of Guglielmo of Ferrara (Margaretha relicta olim Wilhelmi de Fararea Comitis, after "Rocznik Krakowski", 1911, Volume 13, p. 98-100, 103). Two splendid pieces of jewellery from the early 15th century found near Lublin bear witness to the high quality of local and imported jewellery.

The Italian merchants enjoyed the king's protection. According to a document dated November 15, 1430, the Florentine patrician in the service of Antonio Ricci, Reginaldo Altoviti, when questioned before a court in Venice to know if in dieto regno Polane redditur bonum ius Italicis, replied that justice is always rendered to Italians as to others arriving in this country and that the king would guarantee the money in the event of a debt to an Italian merchant (et eciam per serenissimum regem Pollane constringi posset ad huiusmodi et maiorem quantitatem solvendant cuilibet). 

Between 1485 and 1489, the Genoese Andreolo Guascho da Soldaja managed the estates of Uriel Górka (d. 1498), Bishop of Poznań, and then he went to Genoa to find a good gardener for the bishop. He concluded a contract with a certain Nicolaus de Noali, son of Paul, from the village of Coste Ripparoli for four years to "plant vines and all kinds of agriculture" (plantandi vineas et omne genus agriculture). Before 1486, the same Bishop Górka, when he wanted to order various types of silver goblets, did not turn to local craftsmen, but ordered them in Nuremberg from Albrecht Dürer, the father of the famous painter.

The relations of the Italian merchants were sometimes quite complex. Giacomo Tebaldi, who was a resident of the Duchy of Ferrara in Venice from 1516 to 1549, often dealt with Gaspare Gucci, a renowned merchant in Kraków in the 1540s, and an intermediary in the trade between Italy, Germany and Poland-Lithuania. Tebaldi also corresponded with Giovanni Andrea Valentino (Valentini, de Valentinis), influential physician to Queen Bona (e.g. letter from Kraków of April 18, 1521 addressed a Venetia a ms. Iacopo Thebaldos, after "La trama Nascosta - Storie di mercanti e altro" by Rita Mazzei). 

The list of professors of the Vilnius Academy, such as Emmanuel de Vega (d. 1640) from Portugal, Laurids Nilsen (1538-1622) from Norway, Laurentius Boierus (1561-1619) from Sweden, the Englishmen Richard Singleton (1566-1602) and James Bosgrave (1553-1623), as well as the Spaniards Garcia Alabiano (1549-1624), Miguel Ortiz (1560-1638), Santiago Ortiz (1564-1625) and Antonio Arrias (d. 1591), preacher of King Stephen Bathory, confirms that many foreigners also lived in the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (comapre "Wilno od początków jego do roku 1750" by Józef Ignacy Kraszewski, Volume 4, p. 29-36). Italian merchants from Poznań at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries, such as the Genoese (Paolo de Promontorio and his brother Stefano, Peregrinus de Promontorio, Agostino Mazoni de Promontorio, Nicolaus de Noali, Eustachio de Parentibus, Antonio de Pino, Gian Antonio de Insula and Baptista Dologesa) and the Florentines (Marcioto, Raphael, Jacopo Betoni and Baptista Ubaldini) frequently operated in the area from Genoa and Venice to Vilnius, while Jewish merchants dominated trade with Grodno. In the 1530s, "Paul the seller of Venetian goods" (Paulus rerum venetiarum venditor) went to Vilnius and was recommended by the Poznań council in the trial against Lorenzo the Italian, who died in Vilnius (compare "Prace", Poznańskie Towarzystwo Przyjaciół Nauk, 1928, Volumes 5-6, p. 275). 

The so-called Madonna Scroll (Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, inv. 116027), inspired by the Byzantine icon Salus Populi Romani and bearing the mark of the Chinese painter and calligrapher Tang Yin (1470-1524), indicates that Italian painting probably reached China in the early 16th century. The artist adapted the icon to Chinese standards, while the image is also believed to depict the Buddhist goddess of Mercy, Guanyin. It probably reached China via Portuguese or Venetian merchants or missionaries, illustrating the scale of Italian pictorial production during the Renaissance and its distribution.

Although the Netherlandish community was much larger in the northern regions of the country and in the major ports, it was also found in Kraków, where they imported cloth from Flanders and London.

​As in the case of the Boner family from the Palatinate and the Nuremberg painter Hans Suess von Kulmbach, as well as the Montelupi family from Tuscany and the workshop of Domenico Tintoretto in Venice, which is confirmed by the sources, it was merchants established in Poland-Lithuania who frequently recommended or facilitated contacts with artists from their countries of origin. King Sigismund Augustus's "servant" Roderik van der Moyen (Roderigo Dermoyen or Dermoien, d. 1567), a merchant and citizen of Lübeck, was sent from Knyszyn to Gdańsk and further to Brussels by the king with the order to make tapestries (according to a letter to Jan Kostka dated May 12, 1564), most likely black and white tapestries with the king's coat of arms and monogram (compare "Czarno-białe tkaniny Zygmunta Augusta" by Maria Hennel-Bernasikowa, p. 33), and in 1601 Sefer Muratowicz, an Armenian merchant from Warsaw, was sent by Sigismund III with the order to make kilims in Persia with the king's coat of arms. In both cases, merchants had to receive designs for fabrics (at least general) approved by the king.

Around 1620, the Venetian painter active in Kraków - Tommaso Dolabella, a pupil of Antonio Vassilacchi, known as L'Aliense, depicted the first king of the new dynasty kneeling before the crucified Christ, accompanied by his wife and co-monarch, Saint Jadwiga (Hedwig of Anjou, 1373-1399), Saint Florian, the Virgin Mary, Saint John Cantius, Saint John the Evangelist and Saint Stanislaus. This large painting (oil on canvas, 381 x 362 cm), was probably painted for the theological lecture hall of the Kraków Academy (Jagiellonian University) and probably founded by Prince Ladislaus Sigismund Vasa (future Ladislaus IV). The royal couple restored the academy in the 1390s. In 1643, another Italian painter, Silvestro Bianchi, court painter to Ladislaus IV, made two separate portraits of Jogaila and Jadwiga, kneeling as donors, for the library of the university (after "Katalog portretów i obrazów będących własnością Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego ..." by Jerzy Mycielski, p. 9, 31, items 42-43, 186). In both cases, the painters based their work on original effigies of the period, from the late 14th century for the effigy of Jadwiga, dressed in medieval costume, and from the early 16th century for the portrait of Jogaila, dressed in Renaissance armour. This studio practice proves that skilled painters do not need to see the real model to create a good effigy and composition.

Since the Middle Ages, portraiture accompanied important international relations in Europe, particularly the marriages of the ruling houses. According to Jean d'Auton, or Jehan d'Authon (1466-1528), official chronicler of King Louis XII of France, portraits of Anne of Foix-Candale (1484-1506) and her cousin Germaine of Foix (ca. 1488-1536), later Queen of Aragon, sent to Vladislaus II Jagiellon (1456-1516), King of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia, eldest son of Casimir IV, played an important role in the marriage negotiations in 1501-1502. Vladislaus sent his ambassador to France called Georges Versepel from the Kingdom of Bohemia and identified as Jiří z Běšin (d. 1509), who brought him portraits of the two ladies "taken from nature" (pourtraictures d'icelles prises sur le vif, after "Chroniques de Louis XII", Volume 2, p. 215-216). Brides generally do not need to request a reliable portrait because effigies of important monarchs of Europe, including the kings of Poland, were well distributed and since the 15th century even coins provided a faithful effigy of the sovereign.

Perfectly conversant with Latin and the other languages of medieval and renaissance Europe, Poles, Lithuanians, Ruthenians, Germans and other ethnic groups of the multi-ethnic country, traveled to different countries of Western Europe, thus various fashions, even the strangest ones, like the effigies of Christ with Three Faces or effigies of crucified, bearded female Saint Wilgefortis, easily penetrated Poland-Lithuania.

"He then painted for Tuzio Costanzo, condottiere of mercenaries, an image of the Virgin and Child Jesus for the parish church of Castelfranco in which, on the right, he created Saint George in which he represented himself, and on the left Saint Francis, in which he captured the features of one of his brothers", recounts Carlo Ridolfi in his Le Maraviglie dell'arte, published in 1648, about the Venetian painter Giorgione (Dipinse poi a Tutio Costanzo, condottiere d'huomini d'armi la tauola di nostra Donna con nostro Signore Bambinetto; per la Parocchiale di Castel Franco, nel destro lato fece San Giorgio in cui si ritrasse, e nel sinistro S. Francesco, nel quale riportò l'effigie d'un suo fratello, p. 78). This fragment is considered one of the oldest introductions to the notion of the hidden portrait in the history of European painting. The painting, known as Castelfranco Madonna (preserved in the cathedral of Castelfranco Veneto), was completed around 1504. It was commissioned by the condottiere Tuzio Costanzo, son of the Viceroy of Cyprus and Knight of Rhodes, in memory of his son Matteo, who died of a fever in Ravenna in 1499 (or 1504) at the age of 23 while serving the Republic of Venice. Tuzio also commissioned the construction of a family chapel for the funerary monuments of Matteo and himself, originally arranged on the walls on either side of the painting.

Contrary to Ridolfi's description, the armored saint is now identified as Saint Nicasius (previously also Saint Liberale), because of insignia of the Knights Hospitaller, while the young Matteo has been proposed as the most likely model for this effigy (compare "Walks in London" by Augustus John Cuthbert Hare, Volume II, p. 41), which is all the more likely given the family crest in the center of the painting and all other known facts about it. The National Gallery in London holds a painting attributed to an imitator of Giorgione, previously considered a study for the effigy of the knight in the Castelfranco Madonna (inv. NG269). There are several copies of this painting, some of which are dated to the 17th century, since Philippe de Champaigne made a copy, considered to be a portrait of Gaston de Foix (1489-1512), Duke of Nemours (Palace of Versailles, inv. MV 3105). The copy kept at the Czartoryski Museum in Kraków comes from the Gallery of the Dukes of Orléans and is considered to be a 16th-century copy made in Venice (inv. MNK XII-224). It was donated by Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski to the Gothic House in Puławy, also as an image of Gaston.

It is interesting to note that the self-portrait of Giorgione in the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum in Brunswick (inv. GG 454) was originally a disguised portrait, depicting him as the biblical David, with Goliath's head before him. The Brunswick painting was cropped, but an engraving by Wenceslaus Hollar from 1650 shows the entire painting before it was cut out, with the inscription in Italian at the bottom: "True image of Giorgione of Castel Franco ..." (VERO RITRATTO DE GIORGONE DE CASTEL FRANCO ..., Rijksmuseum, inv. RP-P-OB-11.385). 
​
Disguised portraits, especially likenesses in guise of the Virgin Mary were popular in different parts of Europe from at least the mid-15th century (e.g. portraits of Agnès Sorel, Bianca Maria Visconti and Lucrezia Buti). Often unpopular rulers and their wives or mistresses were depicted as members of the Holy Family or saints. This naturally led to frustration and sometimes the only possible response was satire. The diptych by anonymous Flemish painter, most likely Marinus van Reymerswaele, from the 1520s (Wittert Museum in Liège, inventory number 12013), referring to diptychs by Hans Memling, Michel Sittow, Jehan Bellegambe, Jan Provoost, Jan Gossaert and other painters is obviously a satirical criticism of these representations. Instead of the rosy cheeks of a "virgin" holding a red carnation flower, a symbol of love and passion, the curious viewer will see brown cheeks and a thistle, a symbol of earthly pain and sin. In a 1487 diptych of Hieronymus Tscheckenburlin by the German painter, the rosy virgin is replaced by a rotting skeleton - memento mori (Kunstmuseum Basel, inv. 33).

One of the earliest confirmations of disguised portraits made in 15th-century Italy is found in Russian sources. In 1469, Giambattista della Volpe, a merchant from Vicenza in the Venetian Republic, known in Russia as Ivan Fryazin, was sent to the papal court in Rome to initiate official negotiations for the marriage between the exiled Byzantine princess Sophia Palaiologina (d. 1503) and the Grand Prince of Moscow Ivan III (1440-1505). According to Sofia Second Chronicle (Sofiyskaya vtoraya letopis'), della Volpe returned to Moscow with a portrait of the princess that "was written [painted] on the icon" (a tsarevnu na ikone napisanu prinese), which "caused extreme surprise at court," according to later authors. The Byzantine princess was therefore most likely depicted as the Virgin and Child or a Christian saint, like Saint Sophia of Rome, which was typical for many Western European paintings at that time. However, some authors who were probably unaware of the tradition of disguised portraiture, interpreted this fragment that the chronicler called the portrait an "icon" not finding another word, since this portrait is considered the first "secular image" in Russia, or that it was a parsuna, a portrait painted in the iconographic style. The fate of this painting is unknown. It is believed that it perished during one of the many fires in the Kremlin. However, since many valuable objects related to the Russian tsars have survived, it seems more likely that it was destroyed in 1654 or 1655, during the iconoclasm in Moscow (compare "Art Judgements: Art on Trial in Russia after Perestroika" by Sandra Frimmel, p. 212). Furthermore, although the portrait is considered to have probably been painted by one of the painters of the papal court, it is also possible that della Volpe was only given a drawing and that the painting was executed in one of the famous Venetian workshops, such as that of Giovanni Bellini. The stopover of the Russian legation in Venice in 1469 is confirmed in the Sofia Second Chronicle, moreover, they were accompanied by a certain "Pan Yurga" (Mr Jurga), most likely a Pole, who knew the route to Venice and Rome (I poslal pana Yurgu s nim v provozhatykh, potomu chto on znayet tot put': idti na Novgorod, ottuda k Nemtsam i na Venetsiyu gorod, i ottuda k Rimu, tak kak tot put' k Rimu blizhe. I on, pribyv v Venetsiyu ...). A portrait of such an important figure was probably not made in a single copy, so perhaps a copy made for the Pope or Sophia's family in Italy is waiting to be discovered hidden under a religious disguise.

Interestingly, a painting attributed to Giovanni Bellini perfectly meets all the requirements for such a copy. It is now in the Khanenko Museum in Kyiv, Ukraine. It comes from the collection of Bohdan Khanenko (1849-1917) and his wife Varvara Tereshchenko (1852-1922) and was previously attributed to Bartolomeo Montagna from Vicenza, considered a student of Giovanni Bellini. The previous provenance is not known, the couple probably bought the painting during their travels, while Vienna, Berlin, Paris, Madrid, Rome and Florence are mentioned as the places they visited. About 100 valuable paintings were acquired from famous collections put up for sale in Rome and Florence, the Borghese collection is also mentioned. Before settling with his wife in Kyiv, Khanenko lived in Warsaw between 1876 and 1882 and before that in St. Petersburg, where he also bought paintings, and in Moscow. "The Infanta Margarita" from the collection of the Infante Sebastian (1811-1875) in Pau was purchased at auction in Hamburg in 1912 (Galerie Weber, February 20-22, 1912, lot 176). The painting is undated and in the catalogue of the Fototeca Zeri (Numero scheda 28317), the period between 1480 and 1530 approximately is proposed with an attribution to the painter's studio. Giuseppe Fiocco (1884-1971), who attributed the work to Giovanni Bellini, also noted the Castel Sant'Angelo, the tallest building in medieval Rome, in the background (cf. "Treasures of Ukraine" by Dmytro Stepovyk, p. 53). The layout of the city, the castle and the bridge correspond perfectly to the views of medieval and renaissance Rome, such as the 1493 illustration in the Nuremberg Chronicle, the view by Sebastian Munster from around 1560 or the map by Braun & Hogenberg from 1572. The view in the Kyiv painting of is taken from the north-east, where Moscow (and Venice) are located, and for obvious reasons, the "Madonna" covers with her right arm another important building in Rome - St. Peter's Basilica and the Vatican, the seat of the Pope. The facial features of the Virgin - elongated face, prominent lips and the shape of the nose, are reminiscent of the forensic facial reconstruction of Sophia Palaiologina from 1994.​

Among the earliest portraits "in guise" in European painting are the portrait of a lady (Aloisia Sabauda, ​​perhaps from the House of Savoy) as the Sibyl Agrippina (Egyptian Sybil), painted by Jacques Daret in the 1430s (Dumbarton Oaks, inv. HC.P.1923.01.(O), inscription: SIBYLLA AGRIPPA), the portrait of Isabella of Portugal (1397-1471), Duchess of Burgundy as the Persian Sibyl by the workshop of Rogier van der Weyden from around 1450, (Getty Center in Los Angeles, inv. 78.PB.3, inscription: PERSICA SIBYLLA 1A), the portrait of a lady as Saint Catherine of Alexandria by Sandro Botticelli from about 1475 (Lindenau-Museum, inv. 100), the portrait of a man as Saint Sebastian by Jacometto Veneziano from the late 15th century (Brooklyn Museum in New York, inv. 34.836) or portrait of a lady as Saint Justina of Padua by Bartolomeo Montagna from the 1490s (Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv. 14.40.606). The effigy of Pope Joan (Joannes septimus, John VII), the legendary female pontiff, holding her child in Hartmann Schedel's Registrum huius operis libri cronicarum ..., published in Nuremberg in 1493 (Bavarian State Library in Munich, Rar. 287, p. 169v), is clearly inspired by the effigies of the Virgin and Child from the late Middle Ages. Ladislaus the Posthumous (1440-1457), King of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia and his fiancée Magdalena of Valois (1443-1495) were represented as Ahasuerus and Esther in the so-called Mazarin tapestry from around 1500 (National Gallery of Art in Washington, inv. 1942.9.446). 

Numerous portrait-like figures appear in the tondo painted around 1438 by Domenico Veneziano, a painter likely from Venice who was living in Perugia at that time (Adoration of the Magi, Gemäldegalerie in Berlin, inv. 95A). In a letter dated April 1, 1438, written from Perugia to Piero di Cosimo de' Medici (1416-1469), he asked him for employment. Furthermore, the painting generally corresponds to the entry in the inventory of the Medici palace drawn up after the death of Lorenzo the Magnificent (1449-1492), where a similar work is mentioned (listed as being by Pesello). In his 1979 article "Domenico Veneziano and the Medici", art historian Francis Ames-Lewis interprets the recurring seven-pointed motif as a hidden reference to the Medici coat of arms. He also suggests that Cosimo de' Medici (1389-1464) and his sons, Piero and Giovanni, may possibly be included among the retinue. The theme of the Adoration of the Magi held major political significance for the Medici. Since coming to power in 1434, they had been responsible for organizing the Feast of the Magi, a grand procession held annually on January 6. The Journey of the Magi, in the Chapel of the Magi in the Medici Riccardi Palace in Florence, painted around 1459 by Benozzo Gozzoli, is replete with disguised portraits of family members, as well as rulers of other Italian states, including Galeazzo Maria Sforza (1444-1476), Duke of Milan, and Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta (1417-1468), Lord of Rimini. The Adoration of the Magi, painted around 1475 by Sandro Botticelli, is the most famous scene of this type, filled with portraits of the Medici family (Uffizi Gallery in Florence, inv. 1890, no. 882). Neville Rowley sees in the black and white falconer, who looks at the viewer in the tondo by Veneziano, the portrait of Piero di Cosimo de' Medici, while the page holding the old king's crown to his left is his brother Giovanni (description of the painting by the museum, "Gemäldegalerie: 200 Masterpieces of European Painting"). It is worth adding that the man on the left, wearing a red hat and depicted in profile, bears a strong resemblance to Francesco Sforza (1401-1466), the Italian condottiere who later became Duke of Milan. At the time the painting was created, Francesco, an ally of Cosimo de' Medici since 1434, was fighting for the Florentine-Venetian League against Milan. Furthermore, Sforza had been betrothed since 1432 to the Duke of Milan's daughter, Bianca Maria Visconti (1425-1468), and their marriage, initially planned for the spring of 1438, was repeatedly postponed by the Duke himself. In March 1438, Visconti made peace with Florence and Sforza and agreed that the wedding of Bianca Maria and Francesco could take place without delay (after "A History of Milan Under the Sforza" by Cecilia Mary Ady, ‎Edward Armstrong, p. 21). What is striking is that the image of the Virgin in Veneziano's painting, with her blond hair, pointed nose, and characteristically receding lower lip, bears a great resemblance to Bianca Maria's features. These two disguised portraits are particularly reminiscent of the later and best-known portraits of the couple, attributed to Bonifacio Bembo (Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan). Francesco and Bianca Maria were the paternal great-grandparents of Bona Maria Sforza d'Aragona, Queen of Poland. In this regard, it is also worth mentioning Veneziano's Saint John in the Desert, painted around 1445 for the predella of the altarpiece in the church of Santa Lucia dei Magnoli in Florence. Clearly inspired by depictions of ancient Roman gods, such as Apollo, it shows Saint John naked, exchanging his rich garments for a rough camel-hair cloak (National Gallery of Art in Washington, inv. 1943.4.48). 

Around 1502, Giovanni Antonio Bazzi (1477-1549), better known as Il Sodoma ("the sodomite"), considered a pupil of Leonardo da Vinci, painted his splendid self-portrait at the center of a religious scene depicting Saint Benedict repairing a broken colander through prayer, at the Benedictine monastery of Monte Oliveto Maggiore, on the road from Siena to Rome. Although it had long been common for artists to leave their image in their works, it is highly unusual for them to do so in such an ostentatious manner. The artist, dressed in a rich costume, holding a sword, and accompanied by his pets, badgers and ravens, dominates the scene, while Saint Benedict and his nurse, Cyrilla, appear here as secondary characters. The effigy of Judas looking out at the viewer in a fresco of the Last Supper in the church of San Bartolomeo a Monteoliveto in Florence, painted by Sodoma around 1515-1516, is also considered to be his self-portrait (after "Giorgio Vasari: The Man and the Book" by Thomas Sherrer Ross Boase, p. 226-227).

Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo lend their features to Plato and Heraclitus in Raphael's The School of Athens, painted between 1509 and 1511 (Apostolic Palace, Vatican), while Emperor Charles V was depicted as King Sapor of Persia humiliating Emperor Valerian, in a small painting by School of Antwerp from about 1515-1525 (Worcester Art Museum, inv. 1934.64). Around 1644-1652, the Bohemian engraver Wenceslaus Hollar (1607-1677) produced a print after a painting by Raphael from the collection of Thomas Howard (1585-1646), Earl of Arundel (also depicted in Hollar's self-portrait). A copy of this painting, probably by Raphael, was in the collection of Marquis Letizia of Naples before 1889. The work was a version of Raphael's famous La donna velata ("The woman with the veil"), traditionally identified with the fornarina (bakeress) Margherita Luti, Raphael's mistress and model (Pitti Palace in Florence, inv. 1912 no. 245). However, in the paintings from the Arundel and Letizia collections, "the woman was transformed into a Saint Catherine with her attributes" (sebbene la donna sia trasformata in una santa Caterina coi suoi emblemi). According to the art historian Francesco Filippini, a hypothesis presented in his book on "Raphael in Bologna", published in 1925, La donna velata is a portrait of Lucrezia Franciotti della Rovere (1485-1552), niece of Pope Julius II della Rovere (1443-1513), famous patron of Raphael (after "Raffaello a Bologna", p. 22). In 1508, she married Marcantonio I Colonna (1478-1522). Another interesting piece of information on this subject is that the Saint Cecilia in a painting acquired in Rome in 1808 and considered to be the work of a follower of Leonardo da Vinci (Alte Pinakothek in Munich, inv. 453) is actually a disguised portrait of Giovanna d'Aragona (1502-1575), daughter of Fernando de Aragón, Duke of Montalto, and a relative of Queen Bona Sforza (Nel 1835 vedemmo nell'antica Galleria di Monaco, sotto il n. 707, un'altra imtazione di uno scolare del ricordato Leonardo da Vinci, dove Giovanna fu trasformata in una santa Cecilia, after "Raffaello D'Urbino e il padre suo Giovanni Santi" by Johann David Passavant, Gaetano Guasti, Volume 2, p. 307-308, 317-318). This latter portrait features a composition and costume of the sitter very similar to those in the portrait by Raphael in the Louvre (inv. 612), identified as representing Doña Isabel de Requesens y Enríquez de Velasco (d. 1532) and previously considered to depict Giovanna.

In Peter Vischer the Younger's Allegory of the Victory of the Reformation, created in 1524, the naked Martin Luther (LVTHERVS) in the form of Hercules leads the Conscience from the ruins of the Roman Church towards Christ (Klassik Stiftung Weimar). The highly idealized portrait of a lady as Judith in the art collections of the University of Liège (inv. 38) is traditionally known to be a disguised portrait of the unspecified Margaret of Rochefort (Margarete von Rochefort als Judith). Dated "1526" and inscribed IVDIT, this painting, although considered a work by Cranach or his circle, is closer to works attributed to Hans Kemmer.

Lucas Cranach the Elder included his self-portrait in several religious scenes. In most of them, he is not an insignificant figure barely visible in the background, but an active participant in the biblical scene, either at the center of the composition or in the foreground. A perfect example of such a self-portrait is the Old Testament scene depicting Elijah and the priests of Baal (Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden, inv. Gal.-Nr. 1941). In this scene, the painter depicted in the lower left corner, dressed in black, is looking at the viewer. He holds two large jugs, and two others stand before him; he is therefore the principal agent or an intermediary of the miracle of the prophet Elijah, when the altar, soaked with water, burst into flames. The painting is dated "1545" on the altar of the idolatrous priests of Baal, on the right. This date is significant because it marks the beginning of the Council of Trent, which opened on December 13, 1545, and constituted the definitive response of the Roman Catholic Church to the Protestant Reformation. Paradoxically, this clearly anti-Catholic painting was later located in the Catholic Court Church (Hofkirche) in Dresden, built between 1738 and 1751 by the Roman architect Gaetano Chiaveri for Augustus III of Poland (1696-1763), according to information dating from 1806.​

The portrait of Francis I (1494-1547), King of France as a transgender composite deity combining the attributes of Minerva, Mars, Diana, Cupid and Mercury from around 1545 (National Library of France, Na 255 Rés.) is certainly one of the most intriguing paintings of this type. The same can be said of the portrait of the "sodomite" Gaucher de Dinteville, lord of Vanlay, and his brothers depicted in the painting "Moses and Aaron before Pharaoh" (identified by the inscriptions on the hems of their robes), probably painted by Bartholomeus Pons in 1537 (Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv. 50.70). In this scene, Gaucher's brother, Jean de Dinteville (1504-1555), lord of Polisy, known for Hans Holbein the Younger's famous Ambassadors, is depicted as a seductive, half-naked Moses. In turn, the marble bust of the young Beatrice d'Este (1475-1497), Duchess of Bari and Milan, preserved in the Louvre Museum, bears an inscription in Latin "To the divine Beatrice, daughter of Duke Ercole" (DIVAE / BEATRICI / D[ucis] HERC[ulis] F[ilae]) indicating that the boundary between divine and human beings was not as clearly defined in the Renaissance as it is today.

Between 1559 and 1561, Luca Cambiaso (1527-1585), a Genoese painter, painted three large religious scenes for the Monastery of San Bartolomeo degli Armeni in Genoa, at the request of his confessor, Fra Luca da Multedo. In all the scenes, including the Resurrection and the Transfiguration of Christ, still preserved at the monastery, he included the portrait of Fra Luca. In the painting depicting Saints Luke, Basil, and Augustine, now in the Palazzo Bianco in Genoa (inv. PB 305), he added the effigy of one of the most important figures of the Republic of Genoa at the time, Admiral Antonio Doria (ca. 1495-1577), Marquis of Santo Stefano d'Aveto, grandson of Andrea Doria and Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece, standing on the left with his hands in prayer. Facing the admiral, on the right, stands Fra Luca, with a halo around his head, depicted as Antonio's patron saint - Saint Anthony the Abbot. In addition to its religious significance, the painting undoubtedly also had a political meaning, judging by the effigy of Antonio Doria.​

Around 1565, Titian depicted his friend Francesco Zuccato, known as dal Mosaico, as Saint Simon of Cyrene in his signed masterpiece, Christ carrying the Cross, now in the Prado Museum in Madrid (inv. P000438, signed lower left: TITIANVS · ÆQ: CÆS · F ·). Francesco came from a renowned Venetian family of mosaicists, and Titian had studied under Sebastian Zuccato, Francesco's father, in his youth. Carlo Ridolfi (1594-1658), who saw a copy of this painting in the Barbarigo collection in Venice, now in the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg (inv. ГЭ-115), described it as: "Our Lord walking towards Calvary with Simon of Cyrene in which he portrayed Francesco nicknamed dal Mosaico, who supports the Cross" (Nostro Sign. che s'incamina al Caluario con Simon Cirenco in cui ritrasse Francesco dal Mosaico di sopra nominato, che gli sostien la Croce, after "Le Maraviglie dell'arte ...", Volume 1, p. 181). "The Cyrenian's individualised features and the bejewelled ring, prominent on his right thumb, support the idea that this is a portrait of a specific individual, rather than a generic figure (the Cyrenian is more usually portrayed as a peasant). By having himself painted as Simon, Zuccato would have been able to visualise his commitment to Christ and his desire to suffer like Him and with Him", states Miguel Falomir (after "Portrait of Spain. Masterpieces from the Prado", p. 118). The highly portrait-like depiction of Saint Simon in both paintings corresponds to Titian's portrait with his friend Francesco (Bonhams London, December 4, 2013, lot 8). Interestingly, the face of Christ in both paintings bears a striking resemblance to that of Titian in the (self-)portrait with Francesco Zuccato.

Before 1570, Luca Longhi (1507-1580), a painter active in Ravenna in the Papal States, created a large painting for the church of Saint Barbara depicting the Virgin and Child Enthroned with Saints (Ravenna Art Museum) in which he lends the features of his daughter Barbara Longhi (1552-1638) to her saintly patron. Luca also depicted his daughter as Saint Catherine of Alexandria, holding attributes of that saint, a wheel and a palm of martyrdom, which was later copied by Barbara, also a talented painter (both paintings are in the Ravenna Art Museum). Barbara painted several copies of this effigy as well as other portraits in guise of Saint Catherine (e.g. paintings in the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna and the Museo Canonicale di Verona). "This type of self-imagery assisted the devotee, in this instance Barbara Longhi, the painter, to visually impersonate a favorite female saint and emulate the martyrdom experience of said saint", furthermore, in 16th century Italy, "the artist's virtuosity became regarded as artista divino (the divine artist), demonstrating that the artist's genius was inspired by God, as exemplified by Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo" (after "Barbara Longhi of Ravenna: A Devotional Self-Portrait" by Liana De Girolami Cheney, p. 23, 26, 29, 31).

In the scene of the Adoration of the Magi by Paolo Caliari (1528-1588), known as Paolo Veronese, the servants of three men ostentatiously demonstrate their coats of arms on their liveries (Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon, deposit of the Louvre Museum, inv. A 79). They not only commissioned this painting, but were also depicted as the Magi, as their faces and costumes indicate. Thanks to the coats of arms, Florence Ingersoll-Smouse recognized three members of the Contarini, Cornaro (or Corner), and Molini (Molin or Molino) families (from left to right), probably Venetian Camerlenghi. The African page, wearing the Contarini coat of arms on his costume, hands his lord a silver bowl bearing the same coat of arms. The painting was probably painted for the palace of the Magistrato di Camerlenghi in Venice, at the request of the three members of these families (after "L'inventaire Le Brun de 1683 ..." by Arnauld Brejon de Lavergnée, p. 419). ​Another religious scene once attributed to Paolo Veronese: The Wedding at Cana takes place in Venice (or more generally in the Venetian entourage) and the ladies seated at table table with Christ proudly display their splendid costumes (Ansorena in Madrid, April 8, 2021, lot 88). This painting is now attributed to Jacopo Negretti (1549-1628), better known as Palma the Younger (il Giovane), who painted works in Venice commissioned by King Sigismund III Vasa.

In Poland, the most famous cryptoportrait in the religious scene from the Jagiellonian period is that of Jogaila, depicted as Saint Caspar in the scene of the Adoration of the Magi, a section of the triptych of Our Lady of Sorrows, painted around 1484 (Chapel of the Holy Cross, Wawel Cathedral). Royal accounts show that Polish rulers, including Sigismund I, were aware of the mystical connection with the biblical Three Wise Men. On their feast day (January 6), they always made an offering of gold coins on the altar, thus repeating one of the sacrifices of the Magi (after "Królewskie modlitewniki ..." by Urszula Borkowska, p. 111). In Silesia, one of the oldest effigies of this type is the presumed portrait of Louis II (1380/1385-1436), Duke of Brzeg and Legnica, depicted as one of the Magi in the scene of the Adoration of the Magi in the presbytery of the parish church in Krzyżowice. This fashion in Silesia is considered to be inspired by effigies of the emperors and kings of Bohemia Charles IV (1316-1378) and Sigismund of Luxembourg (1368-1437) as biblical Magi (after "Malarstwo gotyckie w Polsce" ed. Adam Labuda, Krystyna Secomska, Volume II, part 3, p. 80). The Krzyżowice fresco was painted around 1418-1428 by an artist considered to be representative of the Franco-Flemish school, therefore probably an itinerant painter. The best-known portrait of a member of the ruling family as a Christian saint during the Vasa period is that of Princess-Infanta Anna Catherine Constance Vasa (1619-1651) as Saint Catherine of Alexandria, depicted in the painting of the Assumption of the Virgin in the Court Church (Hofkirche) in Neuburg an der Donau. This painting was painted by Paul Bock (1606-1657) in 1653, two years after the princess's death. Philip William of Neuburg (1615-1690), husband of Anna Catherine Constance, was depicted as Saint Philip the Apostle, while his father Wolfgang William of Neuburg (1578-1653) was depicted as Saint Wolfgang, Bishop of Regensburg, holding the model of the Court Church (after "Anna Katharina Konstanze von Polen ..." by Wolfgang Kaps, p. 23). 

​Preserved illuminated manuscripts from the Middle Ages and the early Renaissance also contain numerous portraitlike depictions of saints. One of the most beautiful depictions of women in the Evangeliary of Bishop Piotr Tomicki (1464-1535), produced between 1533 and 1534 and richly illustrated with miniatures by Stanisław Samostrzelnik (Archives and Library of the Chapter of Kraków Cathedral), is that of Saint Mary Magdalene in the initial I. The miniature, "is a true study of nature, a refined lady in 16th-century costume, with a hint of coquetry in her gaze", as stated by Jerzy Kieszkowski (1872-1923), Polish lawyer and art historian (after "Kanclerz Krzysztof Szydłowiecki ...", Volume 1, p. 130). It is interesting to note that the bishop's sister, who died in 1534, was also named Magdalene - Magdalena Wrzesińska née Tomicka. She married Jan Wrzesiński, heir of Września, before 1520 (after "Biskup Piotr Tomicki ..." by Anna Odrzywolska-Kidawa, p. 51). 

Among the oldest indirect (implicit) confirmations of the existence of disguised portraits in Poland-Lithuania-Ruthenia is the letter of Giovanni Andrea Valentino, court physician of Sigismund I and Bona Sforza, to Alfonso d'Este (1476-1534), Duke of Ferrara (June 1529 from Vilnius), in which he informs the Duke that the court barber had to kneel before the portrait of Federico II Gonzaga (1500-1540), Marquis of Mantua, with his hands folded in prayer. This portrait was sent from Mantua to Queen Bona and was most likely painted by Titian. Another interesting document is the letter of Queen Anna Jagiellon to the priest Stanisław Zając dated June 19, 1586 from Warsaw. According to this letter, the queen sent her portrait to the Sigismund Chapel in Kraków, the Jagiellonian burial chapel. The elected queen warned: "And lest it be worshipped, let it always be well covered, and never uncovered, unless someone is very eager to see it" (A iżby się mu nie kłaniano, niechaj zawzdy dobrze zakryty będzie, a nigdy go nie odkrywać, chyba iżby kto bardzo się go napierał widzieć, compare "Rex et Regnum Poloniae..." by Juliusz A. Chrościcki, p. 152). A direct confirmation of this practice can be found in the 1661 inventory of the paintings from the Lubomirski collection that survived the Deluge, which mentions the portraits of Helena Tekla Ossolińska (1622-1687) "in the form" of Saint Helena and another "in the form" of Diana, Roman goddess of the hunt, as well as the portrait of Renée du Bec-Crespin (1613/14-1659), comtesse de Guébriant "in the form of the Blessed Virgin Mary" (Central Archives of Historical Records in Warsaw, 1/357/0/-/7/12).​

As in other countries in Europe, during the Renaissance and early Baroque, Greek and Roman mythology was extremely popular and, despite enormous destruction, traces of a kind of inclination towards the Roman goddess Venus, not to say a cult, can still be found, notably in poetry. Venus and Cupid and other Roman deities were frequently part of theatrical performances, masked processions, and other festivities, while chandeliers in ballrooms or dining rooms in castles and palaces were often shaped like a biblical or mythological figure, composed on the theme of Judith with the head of Holofernes or Cupid with a bow, as for example in the Krasicki castle in Dubiecko or in the Korniakt manor in Zolotkovychi (compare "Życie polskie w dawnych wiekach" by Władysław Łoziński, p. 13, 181). Aleksander Stankiewicz describing a Renaissance tile from the 1570s found in the Old Castle of Żywiec and decorated with the coat of arms of the owner and his wife (Żywiec Municipal Museum, inv. 1663), concludes that the naked Venus in this tile could represent the Virgin Mary, which the Komorowski family revered, as evidenced by the family's numerous foundations (compare "Trzy zespoły kafl i z zamku w Żywcu", p. 42). In the poem "Psyche", Jan Andrzej Morsztyn (1621-1693) describes Venus finding Cupid in the queen's gardens at the Villa Regia palace in Warsaw (Tam ją zastała wtenczas Erycyna, Z swemi nimfami siedzącą, i syna). 

Sometimes also historical scenes were represented in a mythological or biblical disguise or in a fantastic entourage. This is the case of a painting depicting the Siege of Malbork Castle in 1454 seen from the west - one of four paintings by Martin Schoninck, commissioned around 1536 by the Malbork Brotherhood to hang above the Brotherhood bench in the Artus Court in Gdańsk. To emphasize the victory of Gdańsk and the Jagiellonian monarchy over the Teutonic Order, the painting is accompanied by the Story of Judith, a mere woman, who overcomes a superior enemy, and effigies of Christ Salvator Mundi and Madonna and Child (lost during World War II).

The Death of Adonis in a splendid painting created in Rome around 1512 for the banker Agostino Chigi (1466-1520), takes place near Venice, as in the background, one can see the iconic view of the city with the Doge's Palace (Uffizi Gallery in Florence, inv. 1890, 916). Interestingly, the painter Sebastiano del Piombo not only depicted his native city, but probably also Venetian or Roman beauties in the guise of Venus and her ladies, since the 1520 inventory of the Villa Chigi in Rome describes the painting as "a large painted panel representing several beautiful nude women" (una tavola picta grande con figure de più donne nude et belle). The scene of the Judgment of Paris, painted in 1534 by Hans Schöpfer the Elder, who had been active in Munich since about 1531, takes place near the capital of Bavaria, because in the background on the left, one can see the silhouette of the city as it is depicted in several old views - for example, views dated 1556 or about 1576 (Nationalmuseum Stockholm, inv. NM 297). The Resurrection of Christ, painted around 1570 by the Netherlandish painter Tobias Fendt (d. 1576), is set in the vicinity of Kraków, as evidenced not only by the clearly visible towers of St. Mary's Basilica on the left in the background, but also by the Sarmatian costumes of several figures (Wawel Royal Castle, inv. ZKnW-PZS 533). The painting was probably created as an epitaph for St. Barbara's Church in Kraków, but since the painter's stay in Kraków is not confirmed by the sources, its attribution is sometimes questioned.

The description of a painting depicting the Massacre of the Innocents, from the Pusłowski collection in Kraków and now probably in the National Museum in Warsaw (inv. M.Ob.587 MNW), is particularly interesting. The painting kept in Warsaw is now attributed to a follower of Lucas Cranach the Elder, known as the Master of the Mass of Saint Gregory or of the painter's workshop, and is thought to date from around 1515. Cranach's original, or another copy, is in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden (inv. Gal.-Nr. 1906 C), and the preparatory drawing from the painter's workshop is in the National Gallery of Canada (inv. 9497). The version from the Pusłowski collection was considered a work by Cranach, painted in 1530 and described as follows: "Herod observing the Massacre of the Innocents; on the left, the Flight into Egypt. The knights represent figures from the court of the Landgrave of Hesse; in the loggia at the top, the Landgrave himself" (after "Wystawa miniatur na tle wnętrz Pałacu hr. Pusłowskich", ed. Kazimierz Buczkowski, Zofia Przeorska-Exnerowa, p. 6, item 45). It was therefore thought to be inspired by the court of the Landgrave of Hesse, who was then the young Philip I (1504-1567). His portrait, like those of the Jagiellonians, was painted by Hans Krell. Although the young prince does not appear to be depicted in the loggia, the scene could be an allegory of the reign of his father, William II (1469-1509), and more specifically of the War of the Katzenelnbogen Succession (1500-1557). The eagle emblem on Herod's loggia in the Dresden version (modified in the Warsaw version) is also very intriguing; it strongly resembles the Polish coat of arms in the Annunciation scene from the Prayer Book of Bona Sforza (Royal Castle in Warsaw, inv. ZKW/1512). This prayer book is considered to be a work of the Florentine workshop of Attavante degli Attavanti, which produced works for the kings of Hungary (Missal of Matthias Corvin) and Portugal (Bíblia dos Jerónimos). Cranach's work could therefore be considered as potentially one of the oldest examples of political allegory in biblical disguise.

​During the Renaissance, the two traditions – Christian and Greco-Roman, the Bible and ancient mythology also mixed. The best example is Judith and the Infant Hercules, attributed to the Master of the Mansi Magdalen (National Gallery in London, NG4891). In this painting, naked Judith, resembling Cranach's Venuses and holding the head of Holofernes, is accompanied by the infant Hercules, who strangles two snakes sent by the jealous goddess Juno to kill him. This symbolism (overcoming male dominance and female jealousy) indicates that the woman depicted as Judith most likely commissioned this painting to address these issues in her life.

​The widespread popularity of the "Metamorphoses" and other works of the Roman poet Ovid (43 BC – 17/18 AD) also contributed to the popularity of disguised portraits in Poland-Lithuania. The poet lived among the Sarmatians, legendary ancestors of the Polish-Lithuanian nobility, and was therefore considered the first national poet (compare "Ovidius inter Sarmatas" by Barbara Hryszko, p. 453, 455). In the "Metamorphoses" he deals with transformation into different beings, disguise, illusion and deception, as well as the deification of Julius Caesar and Augustus since both leaders trace their lineage through Aeneas to Venus, who "struck her breast with both hands, and tried to hide Caesar in a cloud" in an attempt to rescue him from the conspirators' swords. 

​The portrait of Philip II (1527-1598), King of Spain, preserved in the famous Renaissance Hardwick Hall (inv. NT 1129159), is very interesting from the point of view of metamorphoses in portraits painted in the 16th century, as well as effigies based on works by other painters. The author of this work, an unidentified English painter, was undoubtedly familiar with the portraits of the husband of Queen Mary Tudor (1516-1558) by Hans Eworth and other Flemish and Dutch painters. However, intentionally or not, the facial features of the Spanish monarch closely resemble the earlier effigies of Mary's father, King Henry VIII (1491-1547), such as his portrait by Joos van Cleve (Royal Collection, inv. RCIN 403368). Only the Habsburg jaw and costume reveal that this is in fact the portrait of Philip II. Dark hair and blond beard of the sitter are other typical features of portraits from this period.

​Adam Jasienski, describing the portrait of a woman, perhaps of the person who commissioned the painting, as Saint Barbara, painted in Spain in the first half of the 17th century (Lázaro Galdiano Museum in Madrid, inv. 08107), provides some characteristics of such representations in religious scenes: "The woman who kneels in the foreground is represented according to the conventions of period portraiture: her facial features are particularized, and, whereas Christ's face is painterly, with eyes downcast, hers is highly finished and confronts the viewer with a direct gaze. Tellingly, the angel also looks out from the picture: he, too, is a portrait, likely of the sitter's young son" (after "Praying to Portraits", p. 1-2). 

The Jagiellonian era was also a time of lavish balls, feasts, and festivities. The splendor of the festivities organized by Sigismund Augustus at the grand-ducal court in Vilnius is evidenced by the expenditure on dyeing horses and making shields for tournaments, as well as the use of artillery and fireworks. In 1546, on the occasion of the stay of the king's cousin, Duke Albert of Prussia, a tournament was held, in which Gabriel Tarło fought ad hastiludium ("lance game") against Kaspar von Lehendorff, a servant of the duke. Another time, races were held, the participants of which were disguised as Ethiopians and wild forest peoples (personis ad instar Ethiopum et hominis silvatici ad hastiludium). On March 25, 1546, the expense of 67.28 florins was entered as court expenses for the costumes paid for this event, paid to Michaeli, stipatori, who also received 10.10 florins "for a certain image of a naked woman" (Pro quadam imagine feminae nudae per eundem dati). Equally grand was the spectacle that took place on February 22, 1547, during the Lithuanian Diet. It included three items on the program: a tournament, hussar competitions (torneamentum hussaronicum), and the capture of a defensive castle. The king himself took an active part, fighting with his cupbearer, Mr. Ligęza, and the courtier Frikacz. A certain Zofia Długa (Sophia Long), a woman of easy virtue (meretricam), also participated in the tournament, for an appropriate fee. Dressed in specially commissioned armor, she fought in a jousting tournament against the courtiers Herburt and Łaszcz, thus adding spice to the competition (after "Turniej rycerski w Królestwie Polskim ..." by Bogdan Wojciech Brzustowicz, p. 287-288). She was paid 2.15 florins according to the court's expenses (Die 22 Dlugiey Zophiey, meretrici, quod se passa est indui armis ad hastiludium cum domino Herburth et Lascz, sexagenam Lithuanicam, facit, after "Rachunki dworu królewskiego 1544-1567" by Adam Chmiel, p. 217, 233).

​One of the most memorable events was also the wedding of King Stephen Bathory's niece, Griselda (1569-1590), to Jan Zamoyski in June 1583. Kraków's market square was filled with the Olympus of the Gods, recalling the triumphs of the Roman emperors. The most illustrious lords of the kingdom, dressed in various masks, participated in this celebration. The procession was inaugurated by Mikołaj Wolski (1553-1630), the Crown Sword Bearer, in the guise of an African. The famous military commander Stanisław Żółkiewski (1547-1620) led the fourth procession, dressed as Diana, goddess of the hunt, "surrounded by nymphs, he shone like the dawn", according to Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz. Joachim Ocieski (ca. 1562-1613), starost of Olsztyn, was dressed as Cupid. The procession was closed by Venus, who dragged Paris tied with a chain, undoubtedly symbolizing the triumph over male domination and most likely referring to Queen Anna Jagiellon. The goddess of love approached the newlyweds and, smiling, offered them the golden apple.

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

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

Another interesting example of censorship after the Council of Trent is the tomb of Pope Paul III Farnese (1468-1549), the pope who convened the Council in 1545 and commissioned Michelangelo to direct the construction of the basilica in 1547. This splendid bronze and marble monument in St. Peter's Basilica was sculpted by Guglielmo della Porta (d. 1577) between 1549 and 1575. With a payment order to the bank of Tiberio Ceuli dated April 2, 1593, Cardinal Odoardo Farnese (1573-1626) advanced 50 scudi to Guglielmo's son Teodoro Della Porta, who had inherited his workshop, for the "metal robe to be made on the naked marble statue of Justice, placed on the tomb of our Pope Paul, Holy memory" (veste di metallo che deve fare sopra la statua nuda di marmo che rappresenta la Giustizia, posta mella sepoltura di papa Paulo nostro, Santa memoria, after "La leggenda del papa Paolo III: arte e censura nella Roma pontificia" by Roberto Zapperi, p. 14). The statue was dressed at the request of Pope Clement VIII Aldobrandini (1536-1605), shortly after his election as pontiff (January 30, 1592). Interestingly, this nude statue, which is still covered with this "metal robe", is considered to be an effigy of Paul III's sister, Giulia Farnese (1474-1524), mistress of Pope Alexander VI Borgia (1431-1503), and the half-naked statue of Prudentia on the same monument is supposed to represent the features of their mother Giovannella Caetani (after "Tesori d'arte cristiana" by Stefano Bottari, Volume 5, p. 51).

Rediscovered in 2014 portrait of Isabella de' Medici (1542-1576), who died tragically, now housed at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh (inv. 78.10.2), illustrates not only 19th-century falsification and idealization (the sitter's face has been reshaped), but also the censorship of controversial elements of the painting. Paolo Giordano I Orsini's wife, dressed in a splendid costume, was depicted holding an attribute of Saint Mary Magdalene: an alabaster vase containing an ointment in her right hand, and with a halo around her head, both repainted later.​

Gabriele Paleotti (1522-1597), doctor of civil and canon law, archbishop of Bologna and great contributor to the reform of the Church during the Council of Trent, commented in his "Discourse on Sacred and Profane Images" (De imaginibus sacris et profanis, 1594) on the merits of painting for a Christian, among which is to create not only an art that imitates the natural world but also an art that imitates the glory of God. He added that likenesses of holy figures "should be of a good and intelligent person revealing the nature of devotion" and warned painters against composing a portrait of a saint using the image of a commoner or frivolous person, well known to others, as this would be considered a shameful action (compare "Barbara Longhi of Ravenna: A Devotional Self-Portrait" by Liana De Girolami Cheney, p. 28-29).

The provisions of Trent reached Poland through administrative ordinances and they were accepted at the provincial synod in Piotrków in 1577. Diocesan synod of Kraków, convened by Bishop Marcin Szyszkowski in 1621, dealt with issues of sacred art. The resolutions of the synod were an unprecedented event in the artistic culture of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Published in Chapter LI (51) entitled "On sacred images" (De sacris imaginibus) of Reformationes generales ad clerum et populum ..., they created guidelines for the iconographic canon of sacred art. Holy images could not have portrait features, pictures of the naked Adam and Eve, Saint Mary Magdalene half-naked or embracing a cross in an obscene and multi-colored outfit, Saint Anne with three husbands, Virgin Mary painted or carved in too profane, foreign and indecent clothing should be removed from temples, because they contain false dogma, give the simple people an opportunity to fall into dangerous errors or are contrary to Scripture. However, the bans were not overly respected, because representations of the Holy Family, numbering more than twenty people, including Christ's siblings, have been preserved in the vast diocese of Kraków (after "O świętych obrazach" by Michał Rożek). Between 1615 and 1618, the stonemason Andrzej Jastrząbek (Jarząbek), who decorated the Chapel of St. Hyacinth of Poland in the Dominican Church in Kraków with Mannerist reliefs, incorporated into the decoration the image of a naked Cleopatra, in the Venus pudica type, with two putti (western wall, internal pilaster on the right side of the entrance arcade). The current form of the chapel was given by Zofia Stadnicka, née Sienieńska (wife of Andrzej Piotr Stadnicki of Żmigród), who allocated 6,500 florins for its construction and decoration (Capellae S. Hyacinthi sumptibus Magnificae Dominae Zophiae de Sienno Stadnicka). The chapel project was presented to the monks for approval on April 4, 1615 (after "Sztuka w kręgu klasztoru Dominikanów w Krakowie", p. 50-51, picture 13).

The victorious Counter-Reformation and the victorious Reformation opposed shameless lust and shameless charm and a kind of paganism (after "Barok: epoka przeciwieństw" by Janusz Pelc, p. 186), but church officials could not ban "divine nakedness" from lay homes, and nude effigies of saints were still popular after the Council of Trent. Many of such paintings were acquired by clients from the Commonwealth abroad, in the Netherlands, in Venice and Rome, like, most likely, the Busty Madonna by Carlo Saraceni from the Krosnowski collection (National Museum in Warsaw, M.Ob.1605 MNW). It was the time of high infant and maternal mortality, less developed medicine, lack of public health care, when wars and epidemics ravaged large parts of Europe. Therefore, virility and fertility were considered by many to be a sign of God's blessing (after "Male Reproductive Dysfunction", ed. Fouad R. Kandeel, p. 6). 

​Several paintings by Hans Holbein the Younger perfectly illustrate the notion of disguised portraits and eroticism in religious paintings, as well as Renaissance morality. The painter depicted his mistress Magdalena Offenburg née Zscheckenbürlin (1490-1526), ​​a woman well known in Basel for her beauty and loose morals, as Lais of Corinth, an ancient Greek courtesan, who charged dearly for her favours (inscription: : LAÏS : CORINTHIACA : 1526 :), and as Venus with Cupid, also attributed to the painter's workshop and also believed to represent Magdalena's daughter, Dorothea (both paintings are in the Kunstmuseum Basel, inv. 322 and 323). Magdalena's pose in these paintings echoes that of Jesus in Leonardo da Vinci's "The Last Supper". The Meyer Madonna (Darmstadt Madonna), painted around the same time, between 1526 and 1528 (Würth Collection, inv. 14910), is also widely considered to bear the features of Magdalena Offenburg (compare "Hans Holbein: Portrait of an Unknown Man" by Derek Wilson, p. 112). A few years earlier, between 1515 and 1520, Holbein created with Hans Herbst (1470-1552) a painting of the Flagellation of Christ, most probably for the Church of Saint Peter (Peterskirche) in Basel (Kunstmuseum Basel, inv. 307). In this painting, which by today's standards can be considered obscene, three men proudly displaying their big codpieces torment the naked Christ. Comparable in this respect are some paintings by the Dutch painter Maarten van Heemskerck (1498-1574) depicting the Lamentation of Christ and Christ as the Man of Sorrows. In the Lamentation, dating from around 1527-1530, the section depicting the genitals was partially overpainted and censored, probably in the 19th century. These changes were largely reversed during the last restoration, before 2002 (Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Cologne, inv. WRM 0586). Heemskerck's Man of Sorrows of 1532, preserved in the Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent (inv. S-53), is considered to depict the erection (ostentatio genitalium), a symbol of the resurrection and continuing power of Christ (after "The Sexuality of Christ in Renaissance Art and in Modern Oblivion" by Leo Steinberg, p. 89, 324). This is particularly evident in another version of the composition, held before 1996 at the Bob Jones University Museum and Gallery in Greenville (inv. P.70.488), now in a private collection. The painter and his workshop created two other similar paintings - the signed and dated 1525 version from the collection of Hans Wendland in Paris (Sotheby's London, December 6, 2017, lot 33) and the painting now held at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam (inv. SK-A-1306).

Several facts from an earlier period, the 15th century, also illustrate how peculiar medieval Polish morality was. As early as 1468, Sandivogius of Czechel (ca. 1410-1476), a humanist, astronomer, and cartographer, and later an Augustinian monk, was involved in a conflict with the Dominicans of Kraków, represented by provincial Jakub of Bydgoszcz (after "Sędziwój z Czechła ..." by Jacek Wiesiołowski, p. 101-102). Sandivogius, educated in Paris between 1441 and 1444, from where he brought back not only a painting of the Passion of the Lord, but also new concepts of art, considered one of the old sculptures of the Dominican church to be contrary to the aesthetic and dogmatic requirements of the time, in particular with the ruling of the Council of Basel on the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The case concerned an altarpiece decorated with a sculpture of the Nativity of the Lord, which depicted the Blessed Virgin lying on a bed after the birth of Jesus. The realism with which this scene was presented seemed to offend his subtle Christian feelings, and with the help of letters, Sandivogius led a widespread campaign to have the sculpture removed from the church. The outcome of the conflict is unknown, however, the statue probably remained in its original location in the main altar until 1668, when it was burned in a fire (after "Studja nad kulturą i sztuką w kościele OO. Dominikanów w Krakowie" by Leonard Lepszy, p. 99-100). Stanisław Cieński, parish priest of Iwanowice, appointed notary public of the diocese of Poznań on October 8, 1438, included among the sample letters a letter from Stanisław Ciołek's Liber Cancellariae, written in the official language, allegedly from Queen Sophia of Halshany (ca. 1405-1461), Jogaila's fourth wife, who proposed an exchange of husbands to Barbara of Celje (1392-1451), wife of Sigismund of Luxembourg (1368-1437). In another similar letter, Cieński himself draws comparisons between the Sorores Valisovienses, the Sisters of Chwaliszewo, ladies of loose morals from Poznań, and their Mazovian counterparts (after "Najkrótsza historia Wielkopolski" by Stefan Bratkowski, p. 179).

It is very meaningful that several members of the powerful Tarnowski family of the 15th and 16th centuries bore the name Joannes Amor, notably Jan Amor the Elder (d. 1444), Jan Amor the Younger (d. 1500), Jan Amor (d. 1514), Voivode of Sandomierz, and Jan Amor (d. 1537), Canon of Gniezno, as well as the most famous, Jan Amor (1488-1561), Grand Hetman of the Crown. Kasper Niesiecki (1682-1744) asserts that the name John (Jan, Joannes) was given because of a particular affection for Saint John, and more specifically for Saint John the Baptist (compare "Gobeliny katedry wawelskiej" by Maria Hennel-Bernasikowa, p. 35), a major biblical figure and prophet whose beheading was requested by Salome at the urging of her mother, Herodias; both are often depicted holding the head of John the Baptist on a platter. The second name undoubtedly refers to the name of the Roman god of love, Cupid, son of Venus, identified with the Greek Eros, semantically a personification of love (compare ​"Księga imion i świętych" by Henryk Fros, ‎Franciszek Sowa, Volume 1, p. 145). 

Sebastian Petrycy (1554-1626), professor at the Kraków Academy, in his commentaries to Aristotle's Oeconomicum libri duo, published in Kraków in 1601, railed against the "pagan gods and goddesses, provocatively painted to excite human desires", placed in homes, "painted nude figures", particularly those of Vulcan, Mars, Venus, Cupid, Jupiter, etc., as well as images of Turkish and Tatar emperors and those of Luther, Calvin, and Melanchthon (after "Pisarze polityczni XVI wieku" by Stanisław Tarnowski, Volume 2, p. 337), many of which were undoubtedly painted in Venice and by Cranach and his workshop.

Moreover, some miraculously preserved works of art confirm that, in matters of morality, there were not many differences with other European countries. The approximately 180 cm long gilded statue of King Sigismund II Augustus, which adorns the top of Gdańsk's town hall, is a symbol of the power of the Jagiellonian dynasty, but also a confirmation of the popularity of codpieces in Sarmatia, especially in the circle of the royal court. The statue was first installed on the 80-meter tower in 1561. It was designed by the Dutchman Dirk Daniels and made by the Gdańsk armorers Agacy (Agacjusz) Grabow and Johann Clus (the original was destroyed during World War II and reconstructed in 1950). The magnificent Mannerist crown of one of the most prominent monarchs in Polish history - Stephen Bathory (1533-1586), elected in 1575, was adorned with several nude female figures and naked putti, so Sarmatia was not the land of excessive prudishness, as some authors would have us believe. 

Regarding the reception of "Venetian nudes" in Poland, a lithograph by Józef Swoboda (d. 1890), published in 1839 in an article by Ludwik Zieliński (1808-1873), is of particular importance. It depicts a room in the splendid Renaissance castle of Baranów Sandomierski, one of the few residences spared from destruction during the Deluge. The main decoration of the interior was an arch supported by four statues of muscular giants (two nude and two semi-nude), hence the name of the room: Hall of the Giants. On the arch was a fresco or stucco depicting the apotheosis of the nude Venus, surrounded by angels. The depiction of the goddess was clearly inspired by Giorgione's Sleeping Venus and Titian's Venus of Urbino; ​​however, if the lithograph reproduced it faithfully, it was not an exact copy of either of these famous paintings. The layout of the room and the archway suggests that it was probably originally a Baroque bedroom (alcove), similar to those depicted in engravings by Jean Le Pautre (1618-1682) and plans by the royal architect Giovanni Battista Gisleni (1600-1672) dating from the 1660s (Sforza Castle in Milan). According to Zieliński, the room was decorated during the time of Józef Karol Lubomirski (ca. 1660-1702), son of Helena Tekla Ossolińska (1622-1687). He became the owner of Baranów in 1683 after his marriage to the wealthy heiress Teofila Ludwika Zasławska (1654-1709). The author adds that the castle gallery housed paintings by Titian, Guido Reni, and Mignard, as well as works from the Flemish school (after "Lwowianin Przeznaczony Krajowym i Użytecznym Wiadomościom", no. 3, p. 58-59). Unfortunately, these paintings, along with the decoration of the Hall of the Giants, were destroyed in the castle fire of 1849. Today, a copy of Titian's Danaë with Cupid, commissioned by Cardinal Alessandro Farnese (1520-1589), is on display at the castle. The original, housed in the Museo di Capodimonte in Naples (inv. Q 134), is believed to be a portrait of the cardinal's mistress, the Roman courtesan Angela, whose portrait was sent to Titian in Venice from Rome by Giulio Clovio (1498-1578). This commission is described in a letter from the papal legate in Venice, Giovanni della Casa (1503-1556), addressed to Cardinal Alessandro and written from Venice in September 1544. The painter also used this sketch for Angela's portrait (after "Women in Italian Renaissance Art" by Paola Tinagli, p. 135-136). ​

The biblical story of Potiphar's wife, who began to lust after the handsome young slave Joseph, particularly fascinated many Europeans in the 16th and 17th centuries, as it was depicted in numerous paintings and applied arts - for example a stove tile from Klaipeda Castle from the first quarter of the 16th century or paintings by Palma il Giovane and the circle of Guercino (Wawel Royal Castle) and Pietro Liberi (National Museum in Warsaw) from the first half of the 17th century. To make it even more accessible to the general public, the German painter and engraver Sebald Beham in 1526 and 1544 and Rembrandt in 1634 created highly erotic engravings representing this scene from the Old Testament. In Poland-Lithuania, where there were many wealthy and influential women and where in some circles the tradition of "assistants of marriage" (matrimonii adiutores) probably survived, such scenes undoubtedly fired the imagination or served as a warning to husbands who neglected their wives.

Very interesting in this respect is also a magnificent painting from the collection of the Wawel Royal Castle in Kraków, painted by Benvenuto Tisi (1481-1559), also known as Garofalo (inv. ZKnW-PZS 10509). Tisi, attached to the Ferrarese court of the Dukes d'Este, relatives of Queen Bona Sforza, depicted the Virgin with the naked infant Christ kissing and embracing his cousin John the Baptist. This theme was supposedly conceived by Leonardo da Vinci, who was obviously homosexual, and who painted some preparatory drawings for it in the 1490s.​

Cases of organized iconoclasm or desecration in Poland-Lithuania are, however, confirmed during the Deluge (1655-1660). In the Church of St. Anthony of Padua in Warsaw, founded by King Sigismund III Vasa in 1611, the Swedes "destroyed the paintings in the church, tore off the large painting in the altar, cut off the faces of other [figures], cut off the hands, and hacked up the crucifix in the refectory", Father Sylwester Nadolski reported to Provincial Cyprian Żebrowski. In 1656, a Swedish soldier first placed Tomaszów Lubelski's miraculous painting of the Virgin Mary under his saddle, then tore it up and threw it in the trash. During the siege of Kraków (October 1655), the Swedes desecrated the Carmelite monastery "at Piasek" - an Arian pierced the painting of the Virgin Mary with a sword, "mocking holiness and miracles", and reportedly added: "What will your Mary do to me?". Paul Würtz (1612-1676) allegedly ordered, among other things, the destruction of the "miraculous painting of the Holy Mother" in the Dominican monastery (after "Obraz Króla Jegomości szablami posiekli ..." by Jacek Żukowski, p. 70).

​"The Swedes, while waiting for him [George II Rakoczi], sacked this miserable city [Kraków]. Until now, they had at least some respect for the altar of Saint Stanislaus; but now they stripped this one too and broke the reliquary of this saint to take it. It is said that the body was taken to hide it from them, for fear that they would take it away to sell it. They plundered all the graves of the kings and even broke the coffin of the late King Ladislaus [Ladislaus IV Vasa], to take silver nails with which it was nailed down", reported in a letter of March 12, 1657 from Częstochowa Pierre des Noyers, secretary of Queen Marie Louise Gonzaga (after "Lettres de Pierre Des Noyers secrétaire de la reine de Pologne ...", published in 1859, p. 305).
​
The Wawel Cathedral was so rich that it was pillaged eight times, and during the fifth pillage on March 2, 1657: "general [Paul Würtz (1612-1676)] himself took the silver statue of Saint Stanislaus from the altar and he hit it on the ground until the stone broke, which is next to the grave. He also hit Piotrowin's head with a hammer in the same place, then they broke the [silver] coffin itself and tore off the lid, not quickly because it was firmly nailed, they took out a small coffin made of pure gold with relics, [...] the large one, they broke into pieces and brought it to the general, and the golden one was then opened and the general himself gave pieces of relics, taking them with bare hands, and others took them themselves. [...] Followers of Luther, when they took pieces, they said these words: he cannot save himself now, but he has to save Poles, people are deceived by these priests. [...] Then they went to the treasury, where all the drawers were opened, the cabinets were opened, the altars and walls were broken, the floors were overturned, the chests were taken, everything that anyone could find and put in pockets, accessories, stones were taken, chairs, upholstery, drawers, boxes were looted and everything that was found and who liked it", reports the anonymous author. The coffins of the bishops were also desecrated and "the rings and chains with their emblems, in gold or silver, were removed from the corpses". All this was melted down and taken away on 80 carts on March 3, 1657 (after "Straty kulturalne i artystyczne Krakowa w okresie pierwszego najazdu szwedzkiego (1655-1657)", p. 143-144, 146-148, 150, 152). 

In order to protect the homeland against invaders, many valuable items, especially silver, were donated for war purposes. The Chapter of Wawel offered on several occasions the silverware spared from the looting - on February 20, 1656, objects weighing 2,922 ducats were given "not out of obligation or debt, but out of love for the country" (non ex aliqua obligatione aut debito, sed ex amore erga Patriam). 

Some people do not realize that not only Polish-Lithuanian heritage was destroyed, but also European heritage, especially Italian, as many Italians lived and worked in Poland-Lithuania and many valuable items were acquired or ordered in Italy. Among the many churches destroyed in Kraków during the invasion, sources mention that of Saint Agnes "recently restored by Father Dzianoti [Gianotti] in the Italian taste". In March 1656, Swedish soldiers destroyed the palaces of Montelupi and Morykoni [Moriconi], as well as the royal palace in Łobzów, where marble columns were broken into pieces. In June, "the Swedes overturned and pillaged coffins in the churches of St. Casimir, St. Nicholas and on Piasek", in addition, they stole two bells from St. Nicholas, indicated to them by the Jews. Paintings, goldwork, silverware and private libraries were confiscated from wealthy bourgeois houses. Many works of art were created in Flanders and the Netherlands and in Kraków, a large number of valuable objects were commissioned from Nuremberg and Augsburg or created by artists from these German cities.

"When the king [Charles X Gustav] returned to Kazimierz, he gave the keys to the church treasury to his elders so that they could take everything that was there. There they took all the city deposits and chests, they broke the church silver [...] The Swedish preacher also took the books of doctors from the library, which were of the greatest value [...]. They took paintings of Italian workmanship, that they liked", wrote the monastic chronicler Stefan Ranotowicz about looting of the monastery of canons regular in Kazimierz. 

The situation was similar in cities occupied by Russian forces. In Vilnius, all the funerary monuments were smashed. Very few paintings made before 1655 preserved there. It is worth noting here that in 1654 Patriarch Nikon (1605-1681) ordered that icons painted "on the Polish model" be collected, their eyes gouged out, and the faces of saints scratched out (possibly disguised portraits). During the Orthodox holiday of 1655, after the liturgy in the Dormition Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin in the presence of the patriarchs of the East, the tsar and boyars, Nikon smashed icons, explaining his actions by Western influences in icon painting and the need to return to the sources (after "Starowiercy w Polsce i ich księgi" by Zoja Jaroszewicz-Pieresławcew, p. 7). However, the beautiful portrait of Patriarch Nikon with the brethren of the Resurrection Monastery at the New Jerusalem Museum in Istra (inv. Жд 98), dating from the early 1660s, is obviously in the Dutch style and was probably painted by Daniel Wuchters or his relative Abraham Wuchters in Copenhagen.

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

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

[...]

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

[...]

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

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

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

The Venetian priest Luigi Lippomano (1496/1500-1559), bishop of Verona, who was apostolic nuncio in Poland-Lithuania between 1555 and 1558, adds about the main port and Sigismund Augustus that "the first commercial city in Poland is Gdańsk on the Baltic Sea, to which grain is brought in countless quantities by the Vistula and other rivers, and from there it is distributed to Portugal, Biscay, Scotland, Sweden, Norway, etc., luxury goods come from Gdańsk. [...] His father was a Monarch famous in peace and war, his son is not a warrior, which is a great loss to this country, because the nobility, naturally inclined to arms and camps, lies in the field and gives themselves over to debauchery. The King, instead of watching over the entirety of the laws of the State, reads forbidden heretical books, so much so that he who should fight for the Sacred Catholic Faith, fights against it and against his own soul; he likes to talk with heretics, you will often find three or four religions around him, and if he finds a learned and honest man, he respects him, cum tamen sit unus Deus, una fides, et unum baptisma [since there is one God, one faith, and one baptism]" (after "Zbiór pamiętników historycznych o dawnej Polszcze ..." by Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, Volume 4, p. 66-67).

By the late 1550s, many Italians were considering Poland-Lithuania a land of "wild heretics" (ferax haereticorum), and in June 1559, Ludovico Monti, who was living in Rome as an agent of Sigismund Augustus, wrote to Cardinal Farnese expressing his irritation at the widely accredited representation of Polish reality: "Here we are made to pass for schismatics and Lutherans. There is someone so insolent that he wants to make the king a heretic" (Qui ci spacciano tutti per scismatici et luterani. Vi è alcuno così insolente che vole fare heretico il re a viva forza). Cardinal Hozjusz, a month earlier, had added in a letter from Rome to Marcin Kromer in Kraków that: "Here there is no doubt that our King is a heretic" (Hic nihil dubitatur Regem nostrum haereticum esses). Already at the beginning of 1526, Niccolò Fabri, sent to Poland by Pope Clement VII, wrote from Piotrków about Sigismund Augustus' father that "the King deals with great zeal with the Lutheran sect, which was beginning to infect Prussia [...] if it were not for the great goodness of this king, Poland would already be entirely Lutheran" (con grandissimo fervore la Maestà del re tracta circa la setta lutherana, quale incominciava a infettare la Prussia [...] se non fusse la tanta bontà de questo re, la Pollonia saria gia tutta lutherana, after "La trama Nascosta - Storie di mercanti e altro" by Rita Mazzei). Fabri was sent to ask for the hand of Hedwig Jagiellon for the Marquis of Mantua. He was most likely depicted in a portrait by Vincenzo Catena bearing the inscription: NICOLAVS FABRIS MCCCCLX (Columbia Museum of Art, inv. CMA 1962.13). ​

​The provincial synod of Piotrków in 1542 stated that the writings of Luther, Melanchthon and related authors were taught in parish schools. The spread of new ideas was aided by the many printing houses opened in Sarmatia at that time, as well as by a large importation of books and acquisitions during travels, thanks to which many people had their own libraries. Seweryn Boner (1486-1549), director of the Wieliczka salt works, was described as a "book devourer" (librorum helluon) by a contemporary humanist, Johannes Arbiter de Zittavia and Bishop Filip Padniewski (1510-1572) made his library accessible to all scholars. Mikołaj Rej (1505-1569) sued his relative Jan Koścień for the return of Cronica mundi before a land court, and the latter sued Jan Włodzisławski (after "Cnoty i wady narodu szlacheckiego ..." by Antoni Górski, p. 100-102).

The letter of Ludovico Monti, agent of Sigismund Augustus, who wrote on July 29, 1569 from his house in Modena to Duke Alfonso II d'Este, shows how well informed the Italians were about the affairs of distant Poland-Lithuania. In it, he described, as if he had been present in person, the thanksgiving ceremony that took place in Lublin, in the chapel of the castle, the day after the Union Diet that celebrated the merger between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland (signed on July 1, 1569, after "La trama Nascosta - Storie di mercanti e altro" by Rita Mazzei).​

Jean Choisnin de Chastelleraut, secretary to the French ambassador Jean de Monluc (1508-1579), Bishop of Valence, left a very favourable image of Poland-Lithuania at the end of the reign of the last male Jagellon in his "Speech in truth of all that happened for the entire negotiation of the election of the King of Poland", published in Paris in 1574. Choisnin, who called himself "Secretary to the King of Poland" (Secretaire du Roy de Polongne) Henry of Valois, dedicated his book to the king's mother Catherine de' Medici (1519-1589), called mother of Kings (Katherine de Medicis, par la grace de Dieu Royne de France, mere des Roys). He praises "the extent of the country, which is such that it contains at least twice as much as France" and "the great fertility and abundance of all things necessary for the life and pleasure of man".

"Wines from Hungary, Moravia, the Rhine and Gascony, and the Malvasias in great quantity, which are brought to them by the Armenians from the coast of Euxine [Black Sea]: so much so that the Nobleman who does not give his friend four or five kinds of wine, and all the other delicacies that there are, either in Italy, or in the countries of Levant, he does not think he has received him well. 

[...]

It is certain that there is no nation in the world that so quickly accommodates itself to all good morals and virtues of other nations, as the Polish nation does: They do it by nature as I have said above, more curious than any others to see foreign countries [...] After only four months in Italy, they speak perfect Italian. They dress, they live, they have the same demeanor as if they were born in Italy. They do the same in Spain and France. As for Germany, they quickly learn to speak German. But as for clothes and other ways of living, they always remember the difference in customs that exists between the two nations.

[...]
​
There is a great diversity of religion, introduced, as they say, by the connivence of the late King. But recognizing among themselves that division would bring their entire ruin, they have never wanted to attack each other. [...] Their state is governed in the form of a Republic [...] In short, those who speak of it thus acknowledge, if they please, that the late King Sigismund, father of the deceased, lived on this income that is made so small [i.e. restricted by Parliament], with as much splendor and majesty as any King that there was in his time in Christendom. Queen Bona [La Royne Bonne - literally The Queen Good], his wife, when she left Poland, took six hundred thousand écus [gold coins] in cash. This last King at the time of his death had five thousand horses in his stables. He left a Cabinet [treasury?] that is not found in all of Christendom as rich as this. I will say moreover that he left more rich clothing, arms, and artillery than all the Kings who are alive today could show" ("Discours au vray de tout ce qui s'est passé pour l'entière négociation de l'élection du roy de Pologne", p. 120-123, Lyon Public Library). 

​The spirit of tolerance and equality of the Jagiellonian period is best expressed in the speech of hetman Jan Amor Tarnowski (1488-1561) to the Gdańsk city council in 1552. King Sigismund Augustus was then examining the possibility of making Gdańsk a naval base for planned expansion into the Baltic Sea and personally arrived in the city, while its inhabitants sought, among other things, religious privilege for the Lutherans. The patricians, who had not yet sworn allegiance to the king, were at first a little frightened, but hetman Tarnowski, in the name of the king, reassured the city superiors by saying: "This is not the time of the Teutonic Knights, the Poles, as they once recognized, still consider the Prussians their beloved brothers. Remember that within Germany you were subjects and that you live with us in sweet equality of rights and freedoms, love and citizenship", as quoted Felicja Boberska (1825-1889) in her writings published in Lviv in 1893 (after "Pisma Felicyi z Wasilewskich Boberskiej", p. 366). More than twenty years later, the Warsaw Confederation, one of the first European acts granting religious freedoms, was signed on January 28, 1573 by the National Assembly (Convocation Sejm) in Warsaw.

The strong republican regime in Poland-Lithuania-Ruthenia, as well as the presence of a large German-speaking community, meant that Emperor Charles V and Sigismund I's nephew Albert of Prussia, as well as their officials, sometimes forgot themselves and the king had to call them to order. "Most Serene Prince Brother and our relative. While everything is being done in Vilnius on our side to increase the friendship that exists between us and Y. I. H. [Your Imperial Highness], we cannot help but be surprised that things that are very unpleasant to us come out of the Court Chamber and Chancellery of Y. I. H. For when we do not claim any rights over the subjects of Y. I. H., they, having forgotten our agreements with Y. I. H. towards the inhabitants of Gdańsk, who do not recognize any other lord than us, dare to send rescripts and orders. We send such documents to Y. I. H., asking them not to dare to claim any right over those who have no other lord and should have no other than us. This will be in accordance with the justice of Y. I. H. and will strengthen the friendship that so constantly exists between us. Given at Brest-Litovsk on July 27, 1544", wrote the irritated King Sigismund I to Charles V. "We admonish once more H. P. M. [His Princely Majesty] the Duke of Prussia: never to let it slip from his mind that he is both subject and son of the King of Poland, and that he must not behave otherwise than as befits a subject towards his lord, a son towards his father," the king replied in a similar tone to the duke's envoy, Franciscus Tege, around 1546 (after "Zbiór pamiętników historycznych o dawnej Polszcze ..." by Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, Volume 4, p. 38, 41-42). ​

VBI CHARITAS ET AMOR / IBI DEVS EST ("Where there is charity and love, there is God"), this Latin phrase placed on the Mannerist portal of the court chamber of the Kraków Town Hall, demolished in 1820, provides information on important aspect of the coexistence in a multicultural and multireligious country during the lifetime of the elected queen Anna Jagiellon (1523-1596). Although this sentence is associated with the Western Church, as it is the beginning of an 8th-century hymn based on the First Epistle of John and was long used as one of the antiphons for the washing of the feet on Maundy Thursday, it could be of interest to anyone visiting the capital of the Kingdom of Poland who knows Latin. The magnificent portal, now preserved in the Jagiellonian University Museum, is generally attributed to Jan Frankstijn (Hans Ulrich Frankenstein), royal sculptor and aedificiorum castrensium praefectus, and is based on Netherlandish models. The original door, made in 1593 by the carpenter Piotr Kalina, is also magnificently decorated with intarsia on which one can see in the middle an allegory of justice, and above it, the city's coat of arms. An engraving after a drawing by Józef Brodowski the Elder, published in 1845 with description ("O magistratach miast polskich ..." by Karol Mecherzyński), shows the original interior of the court chamber with well painted al fresco effigies of Polish kings, a wooden ceiling with gilded rosettes, the south window in Gothic form, three large windows on the east side and a green-painted iron cage with gilded eagles, the place where decrees and official documents were kept.

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

In many Western European countries, Sarmatia was considered the antemurale Christianitatis (bulwark of Christendom, the protective wall of Christianity) that protected the West from invasions from the East, as expressed by Johannes Agricola (1494-1566) in his "True Depictions of Several Most Honorable Princes and Lords ..." (Warhaffte Bildnis etlicher Hochlöblicher Fürsten vnd Herren ...) published in Wittenberg in 1562. On the page dedicated to King Sigismund Augustus accompanied by a splendid woodcut by Lucas Cranach the Younger or workshop with the portrait of the king, Agricola describes him as a just ruler who increased the wealth of his kingdom, but also adds that "He protected Germany from the great tyranny of the Turks. For this he is to be thanked greatly" (Deudschland hat er beschützet frey / Vor der Türcken gros Tyranney. Des im sehr gros zu dancken sey). 

Praising the peaceful attitude of the Poles among warlike nations, Pedro Ruiz de Moros concludes in his poem: "In the midst of them live the Poles, with the gentlest hearts; one could say that they are like roses among thorns" (Laus Polonorum; In medio resident, mitissima corda, Poloni; Ceu spinas inter dixeris esse rosas, after "Petri Rozyii Maurei Alcagnicensis Carmina ...", ed. Bronisław Kruczkiewicz, part II, p. 267).

The popular novel "The Story of the Most Serene Queen of Poland, Who Was Twice Unjustly Sent ..." (La historia della serenissima regina di Polonia, la quale due uolte iniquamente fu mandata ...) from the first half of the 16th century, as well as a story about an Italian merchant, who found himself on the Polish-Muscovite border in Baldassare Castiglione's "The Courtier" (Il Cortegiano), published in 1528, reflect the connections between Poland-Lithuania and Italy during the Renaissance. Stanisław Reszka (1544-1600), noted in his diary that Torquato Tasso had read him his work Le sette giornate del mondo creato, while the British Library has preserved a copy of Gerusalemme conquistata with a verse dedication by Tasso to Reszka (Al Sig. Stanislao Rescio Nunzio illustrissimo).

Paolo Giovio (Paulus Jovius, 1483-1552), bishop of Nocera de' Pagani, art collector and historian, who probably never visited Poland-Lithuania-Ruthenia, praised in his writings published in the 1550s "this kingdom of wealth, fertility of the land and ingenuity of men" (Questo regno di ricchezza, di fertilità di paese, et d'ingegni de gli huomini), as well as the city of Kraków, where "the studies of the mathematical sciences flourish greatly" (fioriscon molto gli studi delle scienze matematiche). This owner of the museum (Museo Gioviano in Como near Milan), who owned portraits of famous people by Titian, Bronzino, Dosso Dossi and Bernardino Campi among others, also praised the virtue of King Sigismund I, the Italian charm of his daughter Isabella, diplomatic skills of Hieronim Łaski (1496-1541) and the military expertise of Hetman Jan Amor Tarnowski (comapre "L'immagine della Polonia in Italia ..." by Andrea Ceccherelli, p. 329, 331). The bishop probably relied on the accounts of Italian visitors, although the form of his statements makes his visit likely.

In the 16th century, it was not only popular to travel and study in Italy, to employ Italians willing to settle in Poland-Lithuania-Ruthenia, but also to conduct correspondence consultations with renowned doctors in Italy. In 1549, Giovanni Battista da Monte of Verona (Johannes Baptista Montanus, d. 1551), professor of practical medicine at the University of Padua, provided his recommendations to Queen Bona Sforza, which were published in Venice in 1556 in Consultationum medicinalium centuria prima, collected by Walenty Sierpiński of Lublin (Valentinus Lublinus, died before 1600) and dedicated to Nicolaus "the Black" Radziwill (1515-1565). The queen, aged fifty-five, suffered from headaches and failing eyesight and probably a series of ailments that appear during menopause. Sierpiński, who published several of Montanus' works, was also the intermediary in contacts with patients from his native country. Many of them consulted him for the treatment of syphilis, which was apparently common at the royal court at that time, facial burns, nasal ulcers, urinary retention, toe pain, numbness of the foot, impotence and other medical problems (De morbo Gallico [...] pro generoso Polono, De intemperie frigida splenis [...] pro nobili Polono quadragenario). 

In a letter to the Bishop of Kraków Piotr Tomicki (1464-1535), the Ferrarese physician Giovanni Manardo (Iohannes Manardu, 1462-1536) attributed the poor health of the Polish priest to syphilis. Francesco Frigimelica (1490-1558), professor of practical medicine in Padua, best known for his pioneering research in the field of thermal treatments, also provided such consultations to Sarmatian patients. Likewise, Girolamo Mercuriale (1530-1606), professor at the University of Padua, who also treated many Sarmatians, including Paweł Uchański (died 1590), nephew of Archbishop Jakub Uchański (1502-1581). Uchański's correspondence tells us that the letters were forwarded by Uchański's servant, and that the doctor received gifts in exchange for his advice, which the patient distributed generously. The Paduan doctor's fame was so great that Chancellor Jan Zamoyski entrusted him with the task of selecting professors for the chair of medicine at the Collegium Regium he was establishing in Kraków, which was not ultimately created. In a letter dated September 8, 1577, Mercuriale politely suggested that it would be difficult to find people willing to live in the distant country (after "Praktyka leczenia korespondencyjnego ..." by Anna Odrzywolska, p. 18-19, 21-24, 26-27). 

In addition to educational trips, another reason why the Sarmatians went to the peninsula was to "recover their health in the baths" (ricuperar [la] sanità alli bagni). This was the intention of John Radziwill, who planned to go to the baths of Padua in 1542, and with a view to a stopover in Ferrara he took care to have himself recommended by Bona Sforza to Duke Ercole II. At the end of October 1561, the nuncio Berardo Bongiovanni complained about the arrival in Padua of a French goldsmith named Pietro (Pierre), who is a great heretic and who has infected a third of Lithuania (compare "La trama Nascosta - Storie di mercanti e altro" by Rita Mazzei). 

Pedro Ruiz de Moros concludes in his Latin poem "Polish Rome" (Roma de Polonis): "I [the Roman Empire] could not conquer Sarmatia by force of arms. [...] The Sarmatian is now more learned than I in my own language [Latin]" (Armis Sarmatiam vincere non potui. [...] et Sarmata lingua Me, quod turpe mihi est, doctior ipse mea est, after "Petri Rozyii Maurei Alcagnicensis Carmina ...", ed. Bronisław Kruczkiewicz, part II, p. 279).

"Decyusz [Justus Ludwik Decjusz (ca. 1485-1545)] says about the contemporary nobility that they began to crave learning and that it was rare for anyone who did not know Latin, and that most of them spoke three or four languages ​​well, namely German, Italian, or Hungarian" (after "Z dworu Zygmunta Starego" by Kazimierz Morawski, Przegląd polski, Volume 21, p. 210). The great diversity of languages ​​in the Commonwealth is reflected in the surviving correspondence. Upon learning of the death of Sigismund Augustus, Emperor Maximilian II wrote to the Infanta Anna Jagiellon in Spanish (letter of July 26, 1572), and her sister Catherine Jagiellon, Queen of Sweden, wrote to her in French (October 1572). Hieronim Rozdrażewski (d. 1600) asked to write to him in French and reproached his brother Stanisław (1540-1619) for having forgotten Latin (letter of December 28, 1579 from Warsaw). The young Radziwills from the Nesvizh line were particularly fond of correspondence in Spanish, as confirmed by the letters of Stanislaus "the Pious" Radziwill (1559-1599) to his brother George Radziwill (1556-1600) from 1581 to 1584. In 1581 the nuncio Giovanni Andrea Caligari sometimes asked King Stephen Bathory to indicate someone who could translate a letter from German into Italian and Stanisław Karnkowski (1520-1603) urgently sought to have in his service the Jesuit priest Basilio Cervino, an Italian who knew Polish (according to letters from Vilnius and Warsaw addressed in 1581 to Cardinal di Como). On May 6, 1583, Alberto Bolognetti reported from Kraków to Cardinal di Como that Paweł Zajączkowski had argued in Italian with Chancellor Jan Sariusz Zamoyski.

In the 16th century, Italian was considered an international language in diplomatic relations. Sigismund Augustus sent his emissary, Piotr Dunin-Wolski (1531-1590), two letters to the King of Spain regarding Bona's inheritance, one written in Italian, the other in Latin, with instructions to Wolski to determine His Majesty's preferred language and deliver only this letter to him. In order to eliminate conflict with Sweden after the victories over Ivan the Terrible, Stephen Bathory sent the court chef Domenico Allamani to Sweden as an ambassador in 1582. The Swedish king was offended by the dispatch of an "Italian cook", whom he treated with contempt (after "Cnoty i wady narodu szlacheckiego ..." by Antoni Górski, p. 58, 132). Poland was a very egalitarian country at that time (the king was first among equals), so no one probably took into consideration that the private status of the official Polish ambassador might offend the Swedish monarch.​

The canon of Gniezno, Jan Piotrowski, who had studied in Padua and was fluent in several languages, wrote on July 29, 1581 to the Grand Marshal of the Crown Andrzej Opaliński (1540-1593) that "the answer to the letter of the Lord of Moscow, which Gizius [royal secretary Tiedemann Giese (1543-1582)] wrote in Latin, was read before the Lords. The Chancellor himself will translate it into Polish, because we, the sribes, are not up to the task, and Lithuania [Chancellery of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania] will translate it from Polish into Ruthenian" (compare "Listowne polaków rozmowy ..." by Jerzy Axer, ‎Jerzy Mańkowski, p. 96, 98). In 1501, Erazm Ciołek (1474-1522), provost of Vilnius, who was for several years secretary to the Grand Duke of Lithuania Alexander Jagiellon and was sent by him to Pope Alexander VI Borgia in Rome, gave a speech before the Pope telling him that the Lithuanians "speak their own language. However, since the Ruthenians inhabit almost half of the duchy, their language, while it is graceful and easy, is used more often" (Linguam propriam observant. Verum quia Rutheni medium fere ducatum incolunt, illorum loquela, dum gracilis et facilior sit, utuntur communius; Oratio Erasmi Vitellii praepositi Vilnensis, Illmi principis dñi Alexandri magni ducis Lithuaniae secretarii, et oratoris ad Alexandrum VI, after "Vetera monumenta Poloniae et Lithuaniae ..." by Augustin Theiner, Volume II, p. 277-278). 

The medal of the royal courtier Gabriel Tarło (d. 1565) testifies to the popularity of the German language and culture in the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania during the 16th century. Tarło, originally from central Poland, was administrator of the Vilnius mint from 1556 to May 1565. On his medal, of which probably no example survives, he had his coat of arms placed on the reverse and, on the obverse, his name and title in Latin, surrounding the German motto ALLES ZV SEINER ZEIT ["Everything in its own time"]. ANNO 1564 in the center (after "Gabinet medalów polskich oraz tych które się dziejów Polski tyczą ...", Volume 1, 1845, p. 158-159).

During the Jagiellonian era, the queen often had a separate Ruthenian secretary. This was a kind of court tradition for queens of Ruthenian or Lithuanian origin. Queen Sophia of Halshany (ca. 1405-1461), Jogaila's fourth and last wife, had such a secretary at her disposal, as did Queen Barbara Radziwill (1520/23-1551), at whose court Yan Nikolayevich Hayka (Jan Mikołajewicz Hajko, ca. 1510-1579), a Ruthenian scribe (notarius Ruthenicus), was responsible for matters related to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and wrote documents and letters in Ruthenian. The Ruthenian Miklasz (Nyklasz), who had probably previously served Queen Elizabeth of Austria (1436-1505), was secretary to Queen Helena of Moscow (1476-1513). At the court of Queen Bona, who was suo jure Duchess of Bari, several Italians were secretaries, such as Ludovico Masati de Alifio (Aliphia or Aliphius), a member of an old Neapolitan noble family, Marco de la Torre from a Venetian noble family, Carlo Antonio Marchesini de Monte Cinere from Bologna, Scipio Scolare (Scholaris) from Bari, Francesco Lismanini from Corfu (who considered himself Greek), Ludovico de Montibus from Modena and Vito Pascale from Bari. The Italian Giovanni Marsupino, the envoy of the queen's father, served as secretary to Elizabeth of Austria (1526-1545) and in 1544 her uncle Emperor Charles V sent a special envoy Alfonso of Aragon, probably Alfonso de Aragón y Portugal (1489-1563), Duke of Segorbe, who was also to act as secretary to the queen. In mid-1558, Erhard von Kunheim, originally from Prussia, became secretary to Catherine of Austria (1533-1572), third wife of Sigismund Augustus (compare "Sekretarze na dworach polskich królowych w epoce jagiellońskiej" by Agnieszka Januszek-Sieradzka, p. 121, 124-125, 128-130, 132, 133).

​The letters and biography of Andrzej Zebrzydowski (1496-1560), Bishop of Kraków from 1551, provide important information about the lifestyle, patronage and Italian connections of a wealthy Renaissance nobleman. Zebrzydowski, educated in Basel, Paris and Padua, was secretary to King Sigismund I and chaplain to Queen Bona. In a letter dated October 1546 from Sobków to the royal burgrave of Gdańsk Johann von Werden (1495-1554), he reports that he had looked for an Italian to practice his Italian again, which he had almost forgotten (ut linguae Italicae usum, quem pene amisi, recuperarem). In a letter of March 1548 addressed from his palace in Wolbórz to Piotr Myszkowski (d. 1591), canon of Kraków, he asks to send him a skilled painter "who could spend a few months here with us" (Rogo autem, ut eximium mihi quempiam ejus artis hominem quaerat, qui hic nobiscum possit aliquot menses transigere) and that he be young and unmarried man. In several letters, such as that of April 20, 1551 addressed to Francesco Lismanini (Franciszek Lismanin, 1504-1566), he mentions his gardener Julianus Italus or Giuliano the Italian (olitore nostro Juliano Italo, compare "Andreas de Venciborco Zebrzydowski episcopi ...", ed. Władysław Wisłocki, p. 43, 171, 301, 436). He also maintained a correspondence with his friends in Italy and, according to a letter dated August 2, 1553 from Kraków, he sent as a gift 40 ermine skins (pelles quadraginta zebellinas) to Cardinal Giacomo Puteo (1495-1563), Archbishop of Bari. In 1559, a Venetian printer and humanist, Paolo Manuzio (Paulus Manutius, 1512-1574), sent him a letter of praise, through Andrzej Patrycy Nidecki (1522-1587), who was returning from Padua, to which was attached a portrait of Paolo's father, Aldo Pio Manuzio (Aldus Pius Manutius, died 1515), whom the bishop had known and highly esteemed (after "Andrzej Patrycy Nidecki ..." by Kazimierz Morawski, p. 77, 95). 

The highly prized furs of Poland-Lithuania are often mentioned in the surviving letters. The Ferrarese agent Antonio Maria Negrisoli (Antonio Mario Nigrisoli), writing to the Duke of Ferrara from Warsaw on 27 January 1552, confirms that he had been instructed to inquire about the price of beaver furs (feltro di castoreo) for the Duke. One of the first and last known letters from Negrisoli from Poland also concerns furs. According to the letter to Ercole II of November 22, 1550, he wanted to send a beautiful fur coat from Poland to Ginevra Malatesta and on March 18, 1554 he informed Ercole II of the difficulty of finding the precious black fox furs, so sought after in Ferrara (after "Alle origini dell'immagine di Cracovia come città di esilio" by Rita Mazzei, p. 469, 504). In a letter to Cardinal Farnese in early November 1563, Ludovico Monti informs him of two nephews of the Polish ambassador in Naples Paweł Stempowski "one of whom must be handed over to Your Excellency" and "the other will go to the Cardinal of Augsburg [Otto Truchsess von Waldburg] who will hand him over to the princes of Austria so that he can learn good manners in Spain" and adds about the Polish ambassador that "it was he who sent the skins to Your Excellency last year" (l'uno ch'io lo consegni a Vostra Eccellenza [...] l'altro o va a diritto al cardinale d'Augusta che lo consignarà ai principi d'Austria perché impari creanza in Spagna [...] È quello che l'anno passato mandò le pelli a Vostra Eccellenza, after "La trama Nascosta - Storie di mercanti e altro" by Rita Mazzei).​ ​In 1557, the royal court acquired a large quantity of luxurious furs due to the need to send gifts to the Turkish Sultan (after "Dostawcy dworów królewskich w Polsce i na Litwie ..." by Maurycy Horn, Part II, p. 6).

Already in the time of Sigismund I, secular plays in Latin were given at Wawel Castle under the patronage of the court. Among them was "Ulysses' Foresight in the Face of Adversity" (Ulyssis Prudentia In Adversis), performed at the castle in 1516 in the presence of the King and Queen Barbara Zapolya. In February 1522, in the presence of Queen Bona (the king left for Lithuania), Jacobus Locher's "The Judgment of Paris about the golden apple between the three goddesses, Pallas, Juno, and Venus, about the threefold way of human life: contemplative, active and lustful" (Ivdicivm Paridis de pomo aureo inter tres deas Palladem, Iuuonem, Venerem, de triplici hominu vita, cotemplatiua, actiua ac voluptaria) was performed in the Senator's Hall. As was customary at the time, all the roles were played by men, students of the Kraków Academy, a fully accepted form of public cross-dressing (by today's standards). The plays were directed by Stanisław of Łowicz, the superior of dormitories.

In The Judgement of Paris, the role of Paris was played by Mikołaj Kobyleński, Pallas by Jerzy Latalski, Juno by Szymon of Łowicz, Venus by Paweł Głogowski, and the beautiful Helen of Troy by Stanisław Maik. The mythological plot was punctuated by a fencing scene and vulgar songs of "women and shepherds" (after "Intermedium polskie ..." by Jan Okoń, p. 117). The Wawel performance was intended to be an extraordinary event, and by January of that year, the full Latin text of the play had been published. The title page was adorned with a fitting woodcut depicting the judgement, inspired by the 1508 engraving by Lucas Cranach the Elder, in which all the goddesses were depicted naked. At an unknown time, probably after the Deluge, a vandal-reader of the copy of Locher's work in the National Library in Warsaw (SD XVI.Qu.6459) made a truly barbaric attempt to hide the nudity of the most shameful parts of the bodies of the three goddesses with pencil strokes. It was translated into Polish and frequently performed for the general public, however, the translation was not published until 1542 (Sąd Parysa Królewicza Trojańskiego). The oldest known depiction of the Judgement of Paris scene in Polish art is a stove tile dating from the second half of the 15th century, found in 1994 during excavations near the so-called Lech Hill in Gniezno, now in the Museum of the Origins of the Polish State in Gniezno (inv. 1994:3/21), in which all the goddesses were also depicted naked (after "Inspiracje śródziemnomorskie" by Jerzy Miziołek, p. 10-11, 17-19, 322). Since in the 1522 play all the roles were given to men, it is unlikely that they performed naked or half-naked in front of the queen and the court, but since the details of the performance are not known, who knows.

The poets and writers Andrzej Krzycki (Andreas Cricius, 1482-1537), secretary to Queen Bona Sforza, Klemens Janicki (Clemens Ianicius, 1516-1543), Stanisław Orzechowski (Stanislaus Orichovius, 1513-1566) and Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski (Mathias Casimirus Sarbievius, 1595-1640), were among the most notable Latinists of the Renaissance and early Baroque. The first Polish author to write exclusively in Polish, Mikołaj Rej (1505-1569), rightly stated: "Among other nations let it always be known / That the Poles are not geese, have a tongue of their own" (translated by Michał Jacek Mikoś), because in a multi-ethnic nation, Latin dominated in all spheres of life. It was also during the Renaissance that the first important publications in local languages ​​appeared.

​Among the notable foreign poets and writers brought to Poland-Lithuania-Ruthenia at the beginning of the Renaissance, one should mention the French poet Aignan Bourgoin (Anian Burgonius) from Orléans, invited by Jan Łaski (1499-1560) in 1527. Łaski sent him to continue his studies in Italy, then to Wittenberg with Melanchthon, but this "apostle of Poland", as Melanchthon called him, died suddenly in 1534 (after "Poezja polsko-łacińska w dobie odrodzenia" by Bronisław Nadolski, p. 189). Bishop Erazm Ciołek invited in 1505 the Spanish lawyer and writer Garsias Quadros from Seville, who died in Kraków in 1518, and Bishop Piotr Gamrat invited another Spanish lawyer and writer Pedro Ruiz de Moros, who arrived from Italy around 1540. Chancellor Krzysztof Szydłowiecki patronized an English humanist, Leonard Cox (or Coxe), author of the first book in English on rhetoric, who arrived in Poland around 1518.

​The popularity of epigrams on portraits painted by splendid painters is another proof that Poland-Lithuania-Ruthenia ranked among the most cultured countries of Renaissance Europe in terms of artistic patronage. Several of such epigrams were created by the poet Jan Kochanowski, who was educated in Italy. Pedro Ruiz de Moros, a friend of Kochanowski, also wrote such poems - the epigram on the portrait of Olbracht Łaski (1536-1604), voivode of Sieradz, one on the portrait of King Sigismund Augustus, and another on the portrait of the Spanish King Philip II (after "Royzyusz : jego żywot i pisma" by Bronisław Kruczkiewicz, Rozprawy Wydziału Filologicznego, p. 149). The poet Andrzej Trzecieski (d. 1584) is the author of epigrams - on the portrait of King Stephen Bathory, on the portrait of Justus Ludwik Decjusz, claiming that the painter imagined the face of Decjusz as if he were alive (To oblicze Decjusza wyobraził malarz jak żywe), on the portrait of Jakub Przyłuski (1512-1554), an outstanding poet, philosopher and lawyer and the portrait of Jan Krzysztoporski (1518-1585) at the age of 20 (Cztery pięciolecia pierwszej młodości liczył sobie Jan Krzysztoporski, kiedy tak wyglądał), thus most likely painted by Cranach's workshop during his studies in Wittenberg in 1537-1539, as well as on the portrait of Marcin Białobrzeski (1522-1586), Abbot of Mogiła (compare "Carmina: wiersze łacińskie" by Jerzy Krókowski, p. 145, 167, 379, 451, 546). Trzecieski most probably commissioned the portrait of Ruiz de Moros, which the Spanish poet praised in his poem In effigiem suam. Ruiz de Moros, for his part, wrote a poem about Trzecieski's portrait (In Andreae Tricesii imaginem) in which he compares him to Adonis, Venus' lover - "Forgive me, Venus, Trzecieski does not know your fires, your Adonis was not like that" (Parce Venus, vestros nescit Tricesius ignes, Non tuus ergo, Venus, talis Adonis erat). Venus is also the heroine of epigrams on portraits of Sigismund Augustus (Hanc Venus atque Thetis pictam ut videre tabellam) and Olbracht Łaski. In 1519 Jan Dantyszek wrote an epigram on his own portrait in Spain - In effigiem suam (after "Twórczość poetycka Jana Dantyszka" by Stanisław Skimina, p. 75). Despite the praise given to the talent of the painters, often compared to that of Apelles, no names are mentioned, indicating that the painters were probably not well known to the poets, and that the portraits were therefore probably commissioned from abroad.

The country was formed by two major states - the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, but it was a multiethnic and multicultural country with a large Italian community in many cities. The locals most often called it in Latin simply Res Publicae (Republic, Commonwealth) or Sarmatia (as the Greeks, Romans and Byzantines of Late Antiquity called the great territories of Central Europe), more literary and by nobility. Nationality was not considered in today's terms and was rather fluid, as in the case of Stanisław Orzechowski, who calls himself either Ruthenian (Ruthenus / Rutheni), Roxolanian (Roxolanus / Roxolani) or of Ruthenian origin, Polish nation (gente Ruthenus, natione Polonus / gente Roxolani, natione vero Poloni), published in his In Warszaviensi Synodo provinciae Poloniae Pro dignitate sacerdotali oratio (Kraków, 1561) and Fidei catholicae confessio (Cologne, 1563), most likely to emphasize his origin and his attachment to the Republic. Spanish poet educated in Padua and Bologna Pedro Ruiz de Moros (d. 1571), courtier of King Sigismund Augustus, in his De apparatu nuptiarum ..., published in Kraków in 1543 on the occasion of the king's marriage, calls him "Sigismund King Augustus, another of the Sarmatian race, the Sarmatian and the new glory of the nation" (SISMVNdus tunc Augustus Rex, altera gentis Sarmatice spes, Sarmatice & noua gloria gentis). In 1541, Philip Melanchthon (1497-1560), a German Lutheran reformer, in a letter to the mathematician Burkhard Mithoff (Burchardus Mithobius, 1501-1564), criticizing the "absurd claims" of Nicolaus Copernicus, called him "the Sarmatian astronomer who moves the earth and stops the sun" and added that "wise rulers should curb the insolence of minds [or spirit]!" (Es gibt da Leute, die glauben, es sei ein hervorragender Fortschritt, eine so absurde Behauptung zu verfechten wie dieser sarmatische Astronom, der die Erde bewegt und die Sonne anheftet. Wahrlich, kluge Herrscher sollten die Frechheit der Geister zügeln!, after "Das neue Weltbild: Drei Texte ...", ed. Hans Günter Zekl, p. LXIII).

In his translation of the work of Maciej Miechowita (1457-1523), dedicated to Severino Ciceri, published in Venice in 1561 under the title "History of the two Sarmatias" (Historia delle due Sarmatie), Annibal Maggi explains what the two Sarmatias were: "The ancient placed two Sarmatias, one in Europe, the other in Asia, one close to the other" (I più antichi hanno posto due Sarmatie, una in Europa, l'altra nell' Asia, una vicina all'altra, p. 5). 

​Although some anti-Jewish sentiment can be found in religious art, as in one of the oldest depictions of a Polish Jew whipping the statue of St. Nicholas of Bari after the theft of the riches that he had entrusted to the statue's care (in a wing of the Rzepiennik Biskupi altar from the first half of the 16th century, Czartoryski Museum, inv. MNK XII-242, based on the Golden Legend by Jacobus de Voragine), the Renaissance is one of the most prosperous periods in the history of Polish Jews. Jewish merchants were valued suppliers to the royal-grand-ducal court and the magnates. In 1514, Ezofowicz Rabinkowicz Michael (died before 1533), a Jewish merchant and banker who had not abandoned the Judaism, was admitted to the coat of arms and knighted by King Sigismund I on the Kraków Market Square during the Prussian homage (April 10, 1525) (compare "Encyklopedia PWN").

Among the prominent members of the Jewish community close to the royal court were members of the Fiszel family. Rachela (Raśka, Raszka) Mojżeszowa, wife of the banker Mojżesz Fiszel, provided credit to King Casimir IV and his sons John I Albert and Alexander. By virtue of an act issued on November 1, 1504, King Alexander, at the request of his mother, Queen Elizabeth of Austria, allowed Reszka and her offspring, in gratitude for her services, to purchase a house in Kraków. In 1515, Rachela's son Franczek (Efraim) Fiszel was part of the retinue of the king's sister, Elizabeth Jagiellon (1482-1517), travelling to Legnica. Almost a decade later, in 1524, King Sigismund I, at the request of his wife, appointed Franczek and his wife Chwałka (Falka) as servants of two royal courts, namely his own and that of Queen Bona (after "Udział Żydów w kontaktach dyplomatycznych i handlowych ..." by Maurycy Horn, p. 6). Franczek's son, Mojżesz (Moses) Fiszel (1480-after 1543), was a medical doctor, he was trained in Padua before 1520 and in 1523, at the request of the Archbishop of Poznań, King Sigismund granted him a privilege exempting him from all taxes that Jews paid (after "Historyja Żydów ..." by Hilary Nussbaum, Volume 5, p. 122). His wife, Estera, came from the court of Queen Bona and was a renowned seamstress, also making liturgical vestments for the Catholic clergy. According to a letter from Piotr Tomicki, Bishop of Kraków to his friend doctor Stanisław Borek, the cantor of Kraków, dated March 25, 1535, he ordered two surplices, "which can be cut by Estera, the wife of doctor Mojżesz". In 1528, when the doctor decided to travel to Germany and Italy, he received from Tomicki a letter of recommendation, dated October 23, 1528 in Kraków, addressed to Bernardo Clesio (1484-1539), Bishop of Trent, in which he asked him to help doctor Mojżesz obtain a letter of safe conduct from King Ferdinand I, who was to ensure the safety of the Jewish doctor during his journey through the countries subject to him to Germany and Italy and during his return to Poland. In a letter to the Bishop of Trent, Tomicki notes that the Jew for whom he interceded gained the favor of the King of Poland and also rendered him many services (after "Medycy nadworni władców polsko-litewskich ..." by Maurycy Horn, p. 9-10).​ In 1547, the first Jewish printing house of Chaim Szwarc was opened in Lublin.

​Among the court favourites was the courtier Jan Zambocki, who was captured by the Tatars and sold into slavery to the Turks. He escaped after a long stay and in 1510 he was already found at the court of Sigismund the Old, where he remained until his death in 1529. He dressed in Turkish style and was known to have converted to Islam. As a friend of the king and Vice-Chancellor Piotr Tomicki, he sometimes worked in the chancellery and was responsible for drafting official documents (after "Z dworu Zygmunta Starego. (Dokończenie)" by Kazimierz Morawski, p. 538). He knew Latin, German and eastern languages ​​and probably also Arabic.

"The foreigner Bona gives an imprint and character to this entire era", asserts Kazimierz Morawski (1852-1925) in his article on the court of Sigismund I published in 1887 ("Z dworu Zygmunta Starego", Przegląd polski, Volume 21, p. 203). The style of her reign, as well as her education, are probably best characterized in the letter of Antonio Galateo de Ferraris (Galateus, ca. 1444-1517), an Italian scholar of Greek origin, sent to the young Bona in 1507, when she was with her mother in Bari. The court physician of the Aragonese dynasty wrote to a 13-year-old princess: "Your sweet letters, noble lady, have given me great pleasure and have awakened in me a great desire to see you. I am accustomed not only to praise your mind, but to admire it, for your soul is enriched every day with new goods. You, if you find the teachings agreeable, you will become the greatest and most intelligent woman of our time. [...] If princes by nature, and not only by law and custom, as many believe, are superior to other people, the greatest difference should be between you and other girls. You were born to rule, they were born to serve; let them use the sieve and the spindle, you the laws, science and good customs; let them occupy themselves with the worship of the body, you must educate the mind". He also advised the future Queen of Poland, Grand Duchess of Lithuania and Lady of Ruthenia: "Begin to acquire knowledge about men little by little, for you were born to rule men" and while her peers were busy with amusement or feminine work, let her study Virgil and Cicero, leaf through the old and new books of St. Jerome, Augustine and Chrysostom, the Greek and Latin poets, "for without teachings no one can live well or have any importance" (after "Królowa Bona ..." by Władysław Pociecha, p. 160). Probably around 1540, more than 20 years after his death, a medal with a bust of Galateo was made (inscription: ANTONIVS GALATEVS). The wax model for this medal is attributed to Leone Leoni (Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv. 1975.1.1277), while the reverse of this medal shows Venus reigning embracing Mars and accompanied by their son Cupid (British Museum, inv. G3,IP.442).

It should be noted, however, that apart from her education, determination and talent, Bona encountered very favourable conditions in Poland-Lithuania-Ruthenia in the 16th century, particularly tolerance and respect for women, which is best expressed by a poem by a certain Złota, from the village near Sandomierz, written at the beginning of the 15th century: "But a knight or a lord / Honours the face of a woman: it is good for you! [...] The lady is a queen, / Whoever criticizes her would perish. / They have this power from the Mother of God, / That princes rise up before them / And give them great glory. / I praise you, ladies, / For there is nothing better than you". "In accordance with the principle that a woman resembles the image of the Mother of God [which also explain the existence of disguised portraits], a medieval man, especially one who knew the etiquette, knelt before her on one knee or even on both knees, as can be concluded from a love poem written by a student from the end of the 15th century", adds Wacław Kosiński (1882-1953) in his publication on the social customs of old Poland ("Zwyczaje towarzyskie w dawnej Polsce", p. 37). Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski (1503-1572) in his famous treatise "On the Improvement of the Commonwealth" (De Republica emendanda), published in Kraków in 1551, complains about Sarmatian women: "especially those who are rich and have many friends, tend to behave more insolently than is appropriate towards their husbands" (after "O poprawie Rzeczypospolitej", ed. Kazimierz Józef Turowski, p. 78). 

From 1531 to 1535 Frycz studied in Wittenberg, lived with Philip Melanchthon, and travelled to Nuremberg, where the approach seems to be very different from that in Sarmatia. It is illustrated by a masterfully executed satirical print on fools and the "power" of women accompanied by verses by Hans Sachs (1494-1576), now in the British Museum (inv. 1933,0614.29). This beautiful woodcut was formerly attributed to Erhard Schön and is thought to have been made between 1530 and 1532. It depicts "The Fool Eater" and the full title in German at the top reads: "Real news about the eater of fools, his servant, and about the hungry man who devours all men who do not fear their wives" (Aigentliche newe zeitung von dem narren fresser, seinem knecht, vnd von dem hungerigen man / der alle men der fryst die sick nicht vor yren weybern furchten). 

Paradoxically, more than twenty years later, in 1554, a woodcut by Schön depicting Julia, Caesar's daughter, an example of great marital devotion during the Renaissance, was reused as an effigy of the elected Queen Wanda, considered a feminist and anti-German symbol in Poland. Along with five other woodcuts, including that of the Roman Lucretia, it was published in Kraków in Kronika wszytkyego swyata ... by Marcin Bielski. Originally, these woodcuts adorned a leaflet containing a poem by Sachs: "The Nine Faithful Pagan Women and Their Marvelous Exploits" (Die Neun getrewesten heydnischen Frawen mit yhren wunder getrewen thaten), published in Nuremberg in 1531.

While Bona has gained great notoriety and was able to influence many areas, her stepdaughter Hedwig Jagellon and her daughters Sophia and Catherine Jagellon, although they followed the same models, are sometimes forgotten in the countries they ruled. Her eldest daughter, Isabella, who ruled post-Jagiellonian Hungary and Transylvania, played a more important role and became the object of a certain notoriety. Bona's daughter Anna, who was unmarried and present in the country after the death of her brother Sigismund Augustus, was elected monarch of the Commonwealth in the second free royal election of 1575.

The role of women in Polish-Lithuanian society during the Renaissance is reflected in distinct women's literature, which has its beginning in anonymous "Senatulus, or the council of women" (Senatulus to jest sjem niewieści) from 1543 and especially Marcin Bielski's "Women's Parliament" (Syem Niewiesci), written in 1566-1567. The idea derives from the satirical Senatus sive Gynajkosynedrion by Erasmus of Rotterdam, published in 1528, which caused a wave of imitations in Europe. Bielski's work, however, brings a whole bunch of articles proposed by married women, widows and unmarried women to be passed at the Sejm, which have no equivalent in Erasmus's work. There is almost no satirical content, which is the core of Erasmus's work willing to point out the faults of women. The main element in Bielski's work is criticism of men (after "Aemulatores Erasmi? ..." by Justyna A. Kowalik, p. 259). The women point to the inefficiency of men's power over the country and their lack of concern for the common good of the Republic. Their arguments about the role of women in the world are based on the ancient tradition, when women not only advised men, but also ruled and fought for their own. This work provoked a whole series of brochures devoted to female matters, in which, however, the emphasis has been shifted more to discussion of women's clothing - "Reprimand of Women's Extravagant Attire" (Przygana wymyślnym strojom białogłowskim) from 1600 or "Maiden's Parliament" (Sejm panieński) by Jan Oleski (pseudonym), published before 1617. 

The work of the Augustinian friar Jacopo Filippo Foresti da Bergamo (1434-1520), De claris mulieribus ("On Illustrious Women"), which updated Giovanni Boccaccio's work of the same title, was undoubtedly well-known in Sarmatia. Published in Ferrara in 1497, it was dedicated to Beatrice of Naples (1457-1508), Queen of Hungary and Bohemia, wife of Vladislaus II Jagiellon (1456-1516) and relative of Queen Bona Sforza. A beautiful woodcut, preceding the prologue and dedication, depicts the author presenting his book to the queen. Two volumes of this work, one in the Kórnik library and the other in the Ossolineum in Wrocław, describe the story of Iaia of Cyzicus, a Greek painter of the 1st century BC, relatively exceptional for being a female artist and painting portraits of women (recorded as Martia Romana, p. 39).

​​As in Italy, women also took up painting, mainly in Kraków, where in 1495 there is a painter Małgorzata (Marusza), called Łukaszowa (Lucaschowa pictrix), widow of the painter Lucas Molner, who came from Wrocław (Lucas Molner von Breslo), perhaps identical with the sister of Veit Stoss of that name, known for buying paints for the sum of 6 florins, for which her brother vouched to the seller Katarzyna Jedwatowa. After her husband's death, she retained a workshop run by the painter Wawrzyniec (perhaps Wawrzyniec Włodarz). ​The painters Katarzyna Gałuszyna in 1477, Magdalena Skorka in 1494 and Katarzyna Siostrzankowa ze Stradomia, between 1497-1504 are mentioned in the municipal registers (compare "Na tropach pierwszych kobiet malarek w dawnej Polsce" by Karolina Targosz, p. 46). Dorota Baczkowska (Dorothea Baczkowskij) is mentioned under the year 1538 and Helena malarka in 1540. In 1575, the city authorities paid a pension to the painter Agnieszka, whose husband was murdered by students in 1570. 

Some widows of painters are also mentioned in records under the Latin term pictrix, the Polish term malarka or the German term molerin, without it being specified that they actually painted. This is the case of Dorota Filipowa, widow of the painter Filip, who decided in 1497 to sell her house and workshop to another painter, Jan Goraj. Nevertheless, their activities, attested in various registers, particularly legal proceedings for payment or restitution of goods, confirm their involvement in the functioning of the workshop. Among the oldest cases are that of Anna, a painter, against Stanisław, a fisherman from Kraków and Bachelor of Arts, "for taking a painted curtain without the plaintiff's knowledge" (Anna, pictrix, aduersus Stanislaum, piscatoris de Cracouia, arcium baccalarium, quod sibi recepisset cortinam pictam absque scitu ipsius actricis, June 18, 1429), or the execution proceedings of the deceased malarka Zofia Sebaltowa, sister of painter Sebald, by pictrix Katarzyna Bartoszowa (Catherina Barthossowa pictrix fecit arestum super omnibus bonis mobilibus et immobilibus [...] ipsius olim Sophie Sebalthowe malarky, November 6, 1525).

​Dorota Koberowa or Dorothea Köberin (1549-1622), born in Kraków, who married the painter Martin Kober in 1586, ran a workshop during her husband's absence and after his death. In her receipt from July 31, 1599 for ten Polish złotys "for work on the coat of arms", she called herself "painter to His Majesty the King" (Malarzowa Króla Jego Mości), i.e. court painter to Sigismund III Vasa.

The regulations of the Lviv painters' guild of 1597 provided for relief in obtaining the title of master for those who would marry the daughter of another painter "who knew how to paint". Barbara, a painter, worked in Lviv in 1611 and Agnieszka Piotrkowczyk, who married the Venetian painter Tommaso Dolabella, was also a painter, as were their daughters, mentioned as authors of paintings in the Dominican monastery in Kraków (Item in dormitario allongavo supra fores cellarum pulchrum prebent in frontibus adspectum imagines ex Schola Cordis efiigiatae, quos praenominati Dolabellae filiae inefformaverunt, ut sponsi et sponsae cordis in omnibus non absimiles habeatur representacio, after "Tomasz Dolabella" by Mieczysław Skrudlik, p. 56, 71). The painting depicting the Mass with the appearance of the Virgin Mary kept in the National Museum in Kraków formerly bore the inscription: Agnes Piotrkowczyk pinxit Dolabella Thomas Cracoviensis direxit. 

One of the peculiarities of former Poland-Lithuania-Ruthenia are the Renaissance funerary monuments inspired by Roman tombs, many of which fortunately survived significant destruction during numerous wars and invasions thanks to their placement in temples. Although some of them were made by Italian sculptors and are based on Italian models, including the so-called "Sansovino pose" of a sleeping person, concering female sepulchre they are typical mainly for Poland-Lithuania-Ruthenia and the women, similar to effigies of the Roman goddess of love, frequenly hold their hands on their genitals in the gesture typical for ancient statues of Venus Pudica (the modest Venus) - Venus sleeping in the church. Among the best are the monument to Barbara Tarnowska née Tęczyńska (ca. 1490-1521) by Giovanni Maria Mosca, called Padovano (ca. 1536, Tarnów Cathedral), the monument to Elżbieta Zebrzydowska née Krzycka (d. 1553) by Padovano or workshop (ca. 1553, Kielce Cathedral), the monument to Anna Dzierzgowska née Szreńska by Santi Gucci Fiorentino (1560s, church in Pawłowo Kościelne), the monument to Urszula Leżeńska by Jan Michałowicz (1563-1568, church in Brzeziny), the monument to Zofia Ostrogska née Tarnowska (1534-1570) by Wojciech Kuszczyc (1570s, Tarnów Cathedral), monument to Barbara Kurozwęcka (d. 1545) by Girolamo Canavesi (1574, Poznań Cathedral), monument to Anna Śleszyńska née Dzierzgowska by the workshop of Jan Michałowicz (ca. 1578, Łowicz Cathedral), monument to Elżbieta Modliszowska née Dembińska by the workshop of Santi Gucci (1589, Łomża Cathedral), monument to Jadwiga Opalińska née Lubrańska (d. 1558) by Santi Gucci (ca. 1590, church in Kościan), monument to Barbara Firlejowa née Szreńska (d. 1588) by Santi Gucci (ca. 1597, church in Janowiec) and monument to Anna Uchańska née Herburt by the workshop of Tomasz Nikiel (1590-1614, church in Uchanie). The funerary monument of the elected queen Anna Jagiellon in the Sigismund Chapel, created by Santi Gucci between 1583 and 1584, also refers to this model. Many such monuments in Lithuania and Ruthenia were damaged or destroyed during the Deluge or during later invasions (for example monument to wives of Lew Sapieha in the Church of St. Michael in Vilnius or monument to Anna Sieniawska in Berezhany).

​In 1390, through the personal efforts of Queen Jadwiga (Hedwig) at the papal court, the Kraków Academy was reactivated. In her will, the queen bequeathed her personal fortune to the academy, which enabled the university to be restored to its full form in 1400. After its restoration, female surnames took an important place among the supporters and benefactors of the reborn school. These included Alexandra of Lithuania (ca. 1370-1434), Duchess of Mazovia, Jogaila's favorite sister, and her daughter Anna, as well as Jogaila's two other wives, Elizabeth Granowska and Sophia of Halshany. There were also wives of dignitaries and nobles in the 15th century: Elżbieta Melsztyńska, Katarzyna Mężykowa, Joanna Gniewoszowa, Konstancja Koniecpolska, Catherine of Dąbrowa, and Margaret of Pokrzywnica. Wealthy townswomen, such as Katarzyna and Urszula Homan, contributed to this donation for scientific purposes.

In the following century, the academy's great supporter was Queen Anna Jagiellon. The tradition of Kraków townswomen who were generous towards the university was continued by Barbara Opatowczykowa, Małgorzata Danielewiczowa, Anna Zwierzowa and Zofia Golowa. The latter, a widow of an innkeeper, achieved the rare honour for a woman of her condition of being entered into the university's winter register of 1580/1, with the addition of de universitate benemerita ("well-deserved for the university"). Outside Kraków, we know that Barbara Zamoyska (ca. 1566-1610), née Tarnowska, was interested in the Zamość Academy, and in cities with Jesuit colleges, women such as Katarzyna Wapowska (1530-1596), a caring guardian of the home for poor students at the Jesuit college in Jarosław, showed great effort and help to students.

Although "public" education was not available to girls, the abbot of the Benedictine "Scottish" abbey in Vienna, Martin of Spis (d. 1464), recalls the story of a female student at the Kraków Academy during the reign of Ladislaus Jagiello. In his work Senatorium sive dialogus historicus Martini abbatis Scotorum Viennae Austriae, written towards the end of his life, the chronicler writes that, during his studies in Kraków, around 1416, he learned that a woman, probably from Greater Poland, had been attending classes with students for two years, dressed in men's clothes, and was about to obtain her bachelor's degree. When her secret was revealed, the woman went, in accordance with her will, to a convent where she became abbess. Martin also adds that at the time he was writing these memoirs, the woman was still alive, as he had recently heard about her from a certain person who was in Kraków. This first female student of what is now the Jagiellonian University is known in Poland as Nawojka, because of the prayer book that bears that name and was previously thought to belong to her (after "Nawojka – pierwsza studentka Uniwersytetu Krakowskiego" by Stanisław A. Sroka, p. 130, 135-137). 

Since the Middle Ages, women have frequently been involved in medicine. In 1278, there lived in Poznań a woman whom the records call Joanna medica, a physician. Also during the reign of Casimir the Great, in the 14th century, a certain Katarzyna practiced medicine. In the 16th century, in Volhynia, the unknown Maria Holszańska carried religious books with her. "Noble and bourgeois girls learn to read and write in their mother tongue and even in Latin either at home or in convents," states priest Marcin Kromer (1512-1589) in his description of Poland published in Cologne in 1578 (Polonia sive de situ, populis, moribus ..., p. 61).

Few formal oratorical speeches by women were commemorated. Queens usually used chancellors and secretaries for this purpose. Anna Jagiellon was an exception, as she personally raised toasts at the feasts she hosted. 

In the 16th and 17th centuries, many books were written or dedicated to women. Andrzej Glaber (c. 1500-1555) from Kobylin dedicated his Problemata Aristotelis. Gadki z pisma wielkiego philozopha Aristotela ..., the first Polish textbook of medicine and human anatomy, to Jadwiga Kościelecka, second wife of Seweryn Boner (1486-1549), court banker to King Sigismund I (published in Kraków in 1535). This dedication contains a very significant and insightful analysis of the reasons for the reluctance of Glaber's contemporary men to educate women: "[they] do it more out of jealousy [...] fearing to lose their fame, lest women surpass them in intelligence, they forbid them to read profound writings, except for prayers and rosaries". The author, however, believed that all knowledge should be accessible to women and wrote this book: "so that women who know letters may, as it were, try the writings in which wisdom is enclosed". In this work, Glaber also warned women against gluttony and, above all, against the consumption of raw fruit and wine, especially during pregnancy (after "Aristotle for women" by Marta Wojtkowska-Maksymik, p. 350). It contain a description of body parts, while the tondo woodcuts could be seen as portraits of Glaber's patients or Kraków inhabitants in general. The author also included an anatomical image of the main internal organs (section of a human body - naked man). On the back of the title page and on the last page bearing the date "1535", one can see the coat of arms of Kościelecka - Ogończyk. Jadwiga was the daughter of Mikołaj Kościelecki, voivode of Inowrocław, and Anna Łaska. As a member of the powerful Kościelecki family, she was a "relative" of Beata Kościeleca (1515-1576). Glaber also dedicated to her the adaptation of the Davidic Psalter (Żołtarz Dawidow ...), published in Kraków in 1539 by Helena Unglerowa, which quickly reached seven editions. The original translation was made before 1528 by Walenty Wróbel (ca. 1475-1537) for Katarzyna Górkowa née Szamotulska.

There are many literary tributes to Queen Bona, including the Latin poem about the bison Carmen Nicolai Hussoviani de statura, feritate ac venatione Bisontis by Mikołaj Hussowski, published in Kraków in 1523. Polish books were created for Princess Hedwig Jagiellon (1513-1573), which she took with her to Brandenburg after her marriage. Later, she also received books dedicated to her, such as Apologia pro sexu foemineo, printed in Frankfurt in 1544 or Kxięgi probowane przez doctory y ludzie nauczone Kościoła rzymskiego, printed in Kraków in 1545. Several books were dedicated to Anna Jagiellon, such as Postille Catholiczney część trzecia ... by Jakub Wujek (1541-1597), published in Kraków in 1575, or Deliberatio de principe Svetiae Regno Poloniae praeficiendo by Łukasz Chwałkowski, published in Poznań in 1587. In the last quarter of the 16th century, books were also dedicated to Krystyna Opalińska, Dorota Barzyna and Anna Złotkowska née Sierpska.

Reyna (Regina) Filipowska's "Pious Song" (Pieśń nabożna), published in Kraków in 1557, is one of the oldest Polish literary works written by a woman. In 1594, the "Meditations on the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ ..." (Rozmyślania Męki Pana naszego Jezusa Krystusa ...), published anonymously in Kraków, were undoubtedly written by a woman and dedicated to Queen Anna Jagiellon. Anna Siebeneicherowa (d. 1610), who signed the 1608 edition of this work, dedicated to Constance of Austria, wife of Sigismund III, is considered the author.

"In addition to the quiet and gentle housewives, there were in old Poland many women full of temperament and energy, resolute matrons who equaled men in deeds, courage and ambition", said Łucja Charewiczowa (1897-1943) in her book "Woman in old Poland" (Kobieta w dawnej Polsce, p. 36-37, 40-41, 69-71, 80, 82-83, 88), published in 1938. The author died in the Nazi German concentration camp of Auschwitz. 

Women often took up arms, especially in the borderlands, exposed to enemy raids, where palaces and manor houses were constantly transformed into defensive fortresses resisting the enemy. In 1577 in Dubno, Beata Dolska, during her wedding festivities, interrupted by a sudden Tatar raid, personally shot at the khan's tent and caused him to withdraw from the siege of the castle.

Barbara Rusinowska, a female robber from the early 16th century, ended her horse-thieving profession on the noose. Captured in her own castle in 1505, she was hanged, according to Bielski and Kromer, in her ordinary clothes, that is, in trousers, spurs, and sword at her side, during the session of the Diet in Radom, on the orders of King Alexander Jagiellon (1461-1506). A Polish medieval robber was a noblewoman, Katarzyna Włodkowa (or Skrzyńska) from Skrzynno, who used to raid on the roads in the 1450s. Around 1570, Hanna Borzobohata Krasieńska née Sokolska, was famous in Volhynia. She knew how to plunder in the Tatar manner and followed the path of quarrels and robberies, driven by the desire to earn money and her passion for horses. Łukasz Górnicki (1527-1603), in turn, mentions the custom of raiding the estates of wealthy widows.

Many women gone to court for every inch of land, every lamb, but most often, they are sued for family, land, or neighborhood disputes. An example of such women is a Ruthenian lady, Mrs. Litavorova, born Princess Olshanskaya, related to the Jagiellons, widow of John Litavor Bohdanovitsh Khreptovitsh, who lived at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries.

Sometimes, the royal letter was even necessary to urge the wife to submit to her husband's will. For example, in 1540, Sigismund I, establishing a joint mortgage on several villages of the poet Mikołaj Rej (1505-1569), included a passage in this privilege: "By this means, king instructs Zofia Rejowa [née Kościeniówna] that she should respect her husband [literally "to be filled with love towards her spouse"]". In some cases, however, even royal pressure proved ineffective. After the death of her husband Albertas Gostautas (ca. 1480-1539), voivode of Vilnius, his wife Princess Sophia Vasilievna Vereyska (ca. 1490-1549) refused to cede the starostships held by the deceased to the king and sent her servants to occupy them. "That the lady voivodess of Vilnius, as you wrote to us, wants to rule after her husband's death, and with the impudence she displayed before, and now does not want to restrain this crazy and indecent stubbornness", King Sigismund Augustus informed Marshal Radziwill in a letter dated May 14, 1540 from Kraków. In February 1559, in Warsaw, Beata Kościelecka (1515-1576), to escape the persuasions of king Sigismund Augustus, who wanted her daughter Halszka to marry Lutheran Łukasz Górka, hid in the bathhouse (after "Cnoty i wady narodu szlacheckiego ..." by Antoni Górski, p. 38, 57, 64, 72, 78, 88).

Some 16th-century women, such as Zofia Działyńska, wife of the Pomeranian voivode (as expressed in her letter of 1554), opposed the cult of beauty on the part of men.

The figure of Giovanna Bianchetti (1314-1354), a learned woman from Bologna, is very interesting from the point of view of Polish-Italian contacts. Giovanna was the daughter of Matteo Bianchetti of Bologna and the wife of Bonsignore de' Bonsignori, a jurist. Francesco Agostino della Chiesa (1593-1662), later Bishop of Saluzzo (1642), in his book "Theater of Learned Women" published in 1620 in Mondovì, states that Giovanna "wrote and spoke Greek, Latin, German, Bohemian [Czech] and Polish correctly, and was very erudite in matters of philosophy" (scriueua, e parlaua correttamente Greco, Latino, Alamano, Boemio, e Polacco, e fù dottissima nelle cose di Filosofia). What is also very interesting is that among many notable women, the author also mentions Anna Jagiellon, "wife of Steffano Battori [Stephen Bathory], Prince of Transylvania, who, through her, was elected king of that state in 1576. She was a queen endowed with virtues so rare that few ladies equal her, and the kingdom has not had greater ones. For, having been trained by her mother Bona Sforza, who was extremely virtuous in all the exercises of the virtues due to queens, and principally in the Catholic religion, and in the study of letters, especially Latin, she made herself so illustrious and appreciated by her people, that she was deemed worthy of the succession of her ancestors, [...] by her prudence and authority, she brought the affairs of that State back to true tranquility, [...] in the affairs of the State, she wrote with her own hand to the Supreme Pontiff, to the kings of France and Spain, and to the other princes of Christendom, with such a beautiful style and such eloquence, that she was praised and exalted by all, one of the wisest Queens that Christianity had in those times" (Theatro delle donne letterate ..., p. 71-72, 165).

The 15th-century preacher Michał of Janowiec, complaining that the wealthier classes do not like to go to church, also gives an image of an elegant woman: "Mothers know how to dress their daughters for dancing or for a walk, but they cannot dress them for church or buy suitable shoes; they teach them to talk frivolously to men, but they do not know how to pray or confess. [...] a silk dress cut out at the back, chains around the neck; a tight dress [...] a gold ring on each finger; cut-out shoes, barely covering the heel and toes" (after "Zwyczaje towarzyskie w dawnej Polsce" by Wacław Kosiński, p. 50). 

Precious fabrics were not only imported from abroad on special order, but also purchased on the local market, in Gdańsk and other large cities. For example, before the planned departure of Sigismund Augustus to Wrocław for a meeting with Emperor Maximilian II, which did not take place, a large quantity of velvet, silk, satin and cloth was purchased in Lublin on May 16, 1569 for the clothes of the courtiers who were to accompany the king (after "Czarno-białe tkaniny Zygmunta Augusta" by Maria Hennel-Bernasikowa,  p. 40). These were exclusively black and white fabrics and probably made in Italy or Turkey.​

From the late 1530s, a specialization began to develop among the royal suppliers of fabrics. The supplies of expensive fabrics: brocade, cloth of gold, damask, satin, velvet and taffeta interwoven with gold and silver threads were taken over by Kraków merchants of Italian origin, Gaspare Gucci and Simone Lippi, both from Florence, and Foltyn Szwab of German origin. For goods sold in the years 1538-1547, they received sums of almost 1,800 złoty at a time. In the years 1549-1550, Jewish merchants delivered fabrics to the court of Sigismund Augustus for a total value of 2,243 zlotys and 16 groszy, which constituted approximately 28% of the total amount (8,064 zlotys and 266 groszy) spent by the royal treasury during those years for the purchase of various types of fabrics and textile products. Among the Christian royal suppliers of fabrics in the years 1548-1559, the main role was played by the already mentioned Foltyn Szwab from Kraków (until 1559) and Simone Lippi (until 1552), and from 1552 by Bernardo Soderini from Kraków. The share of other Kraków merchants, as well as traders and merchants from Lviv, Poznań, Warsaw and Vilnius and the Italian merchants Fabiano Baldi, Giovanni Evangelista and Galleazzo, a citizen of Kraków, in the deliveries of fabrics to the royal court was less significant (after "Dostawcy dworów królewskich w Polsce i na Litwie ..." by Maurycy Horn, Part II, p. 10, 12).

​Authors like Klemens Janicki (1516-1543), Mikołaj Rej (1505-1569), Krzysztof Opaliński (1609-1655) and Wacław Potocki (1621-1696), condemned the variability of costumes as a national vice (after "Aemulatores Erasmi? ...", p. 253) and index of forbidden books of Bishop Marcin Szyszkowski of 1617 banned a large group of humorous, entertaining, often obscene texts, imbued with ambiguous eroticism, and for these reasons condemned by the counter-reformation and the new model of culture. Later, in 1625, in his "Votum on the improvement of the Commonwealth" (Votvm o naprawie Rzeczypospolitey) Szymon Starowolski railed against the Italian or Italianized women spoiling the youth, effeminacy of men and their reluctance to defend the eastern lands against invasions: "He, whom the caressed Italian courtesans have raised in pillows, being entangled with their gentle words and delicacies, he can't stand the hardships with us". "Well, many bad things are brought to Poland from Italy," comments Łukasz Górnicki (1527-1603) in a conversation between a Pole and an Italian about the judicial system in Sarmatia, without citing specific examples, so it must be related to the overall situation at that time.​

The great diversity of costume dates at least to the time of Sigismund I. Janicki in his poem "On the Variety and Inconstancy of Polish Dress" (In poloni vestibus varietatem et inconstanciam) describes King Ladislaus Jagiello rising from the grave and unable to recognize Poles. Pedro Ruiz de Moros, in his De apparatu nuptiarum ..., states about Sigismund Augustus's first wife, Elizabeth of Austria (1526-1545), that she was dressed in the German style (Teutonicum morem) and that her dress was richly adorned with jewels. He adds, about her entry into Kraków in 1543, that "if she had not known that they were Sarmatians, she would have thought she saw people of all nations. One wears a Spanish costume, another Italian, one pierces the air with his tall head draped in long shawls", so, many of them wore turbans (after "Jagiellonki polskie w XVI. wieku: Obrazy rodziny i dworu Zygmunta ..." by Aleksander Przezdziecki, Volume 1, p. 114). The anonymous author of the German description of the ceremony that accompanied the reception of Archduchess Elizabeth in Kraków and the wedding of the couple that took place there on May 4, written by an eyewitness and probably printed in Nuremberg (Kurtze beschreibung dess einzugs der Jungen Künigin zu Cracaw ...) also adds that "The next day, the fourth of May, the young king left Kraków about an hour before noon with all his lords, knights and nobles, four thousand in number, dressed in every manner, such as: German, Polish, Italian, French, Hungarian, Turkish, Tatar, Spanish, Muscovite, Cossack and Venetian style [stratyotka, stradiòtto - light cavalry of the Republic of Venice, notably Albanian, Greek and Dalmatian], His Royal Majesty in silver-white German robe, on a bay steed that was covered with a magnificent tack with pearls on his back and front, and magnificently dressed, arrived a quarter of a mile from the town, where there were three red tents pitched on a meadow" (after "Biblioteka Warszawska ...", Volume 3 [XXXI, 1848], p. 634). The scene of the "Ennoblement of the progenitor of the Odrowąż family by the emperor", a miniature from the Liber geneseos illustris familiae Schidloviciae, created by Stanisław Samostrzelnik before 1532 (Kórnik Library, MK 3641) and evidently inspired by the court of Sigismund I the Old, confirms this diversity of costumes, including the popularity of turbans. It is certainly not the Muslim Turks who worship the Infant Jesus in the large scene painted in 1597 by a Savonese painter Paolo Gerolamo Marchiano (1535-1628) for the sanctuary of Our Lady of Mercy in Savona near Genoa (Pinacoteca Civica di Savona, oil on canvas, 268 x 205 cm, signed and dated lower left: PAULUS HYER [ONIMU]S MARCHIANUS / SAONEN[SIS] / PINΧΙΤ, 1597), but rather the "wise men from the East", that is, Christian nobles from Sarmatia, where the popularity of Ottoman turbans and kiwior (equivalent of the külah cap) has been confirmed since the 15th century (Cum kywer et pileis regis, mentioned in 1419, after "Słownik staropolski", Volume 3, Parts 14-19, p. 281).

Mikołaj Rej in his "Life of the Honest Man" (Żywot człowieka poczciwego), published in 1568, writes about "elaborate Italian and Spanish inventions, those strange coats [...] he will order the tailor to make him what they wear today. And I also hear in other countries, when you happen to paint [describe] every nation, then they paint a Pole naked and put the cloth in front of him with scissors, cut yourself as you deign". Venetian-born Polish writer Alessandro Guagnini dei Rizzoni (Aleksander Gwagnin), attributes this to the habit of Poles of visiting the most distant and diverse countries, from which foreign costumes and customs were brought to their homeland - "One can see in Poland, costumes of various nations, especially Italian, Spanish, and Hungarian, which is more common than others" (after "Obraz wieku panowania Zygmunta III ..." by Franciszek Siarczyński, p. 71). In his Latin poem De vario Polonorum amictu ("On the varied clothing of the Poles") Pedro Ruiz de Moros states that "Roman, Greek, German, Iberian [Spaniards and Portuguese], to the Indians, from Cádiz to Tyre [Lebanon], whatever man is found anywhere, all are recognized by the one proper garment of their nation: Only the Sarmatian wears the clothing of all people (Romanus, Graecus, Germanus, Iberus, ad Indos Gadibus a Tyriis quiequid ubique virum est, Uno ceu gentis proprio noscuntur amictu: Omne genus vestes Sarmata solus habet, after "Petri Rozyii Maurei Alcagnicensis Carmina ...", ed. Bronisław Kruczkiewicz, part II, p. 266).

​Queen Bona is credited with introducing the Italian-style tight-fitting bodices with wide square necklines and outfits complemented with numerous jewels. She gifted Polish women with Italian fabrics, allowing some of them to use the services of royal tailors. The queen employed many Italian tailors, embroiderers and goldsmiths. From 1518, Stefano and his assistant Alessandro worked for Bona and later Pietro Patriarcha (Patriarca) from Bari and Francesco Nardozzi (Nardocci, Nardazzi) from Naples. Ladies, especially those close to the court, imitating the way Italian women dressed, began to replace unattractive dresses with much more colourful dresses more abundantly decorated with various applications and embroideries (after "Bona Sforza d'Aragona i rola mody w kształtowaniu jej wizerunku" by Agnieszka Bender, p. 48). Patriarcha, who remained in the service of the queen from about 1524 until her departure from Poland, joined the court of Sigismund Augustus in 1556 and adopted the law of the city of Kraków in the same year. He married the townswoman Jadwiga Irzykowa. He sewed for Queen Bona, Princess Hedwig, Princess Isabella and Sigismund Augustus, as well as for the ladies-in-waiting. In 1533 he had a lawsuit with the Kraków townswoman Anna Zapalina Brunowska, from whom he demanded the restitution of 32 florins. In the late 1530s, Nardozzi, who in 1529 received the citizenship of Kraków, had a years-long legal dispute with Jadwiga Kaletniczka and her son Erazm Ber, which reached the king (after "Działalność Włochów w Polsce ..." by Danuta Quirini-Popławska, p. 58-59).

Since her betrothal, many Italian poets have praised the Polish queen. Their appreciation of her virtues seems to have increased in the 1540s, when in Poland-Lithuania-Ruthenia the queen's opponents increasingly criticized her actions. A 1542 poem dedicated to Bona by Giovan Battista Nenna, a fellow countryman from Bari, praises her as the embodiment of princely qualities, endowed with "infinite providence, the highest justice, ... wise counsel, clemency, mercy, devoutness, faith, liberality, greatness of soul, humanity, doctrine, and learning". The writer and editor Lodovico Domenichi dedicated the first part of his "Poems" (Rime) of 1544 to her, presenting her as both maternal and noble, a unifying figure meant to alleviate "the bitterness of [Italy's] present woes" and the sharp-tongued Pietro Aretino sought Bona's patronage by presenting her as a national icon, as "the light of Italian women" and "the hope" of Italy itself (after "Twenty-Five Women Who Shaped the Italian Renaissance" by Meredith K. Ray, p. 71).

With Sarmatians visiting Italy so frequently, Italian settlement, customs and clothing, also the fashion for hair dyeing, particularly the "art of bleaching" (l'arte biondeggiante), became widespread in Poland-Lithuania. Szymon Starowolski (1588-1656) is said to have asserted that women "adopt all the habits of European matrons and adapt them to their own country, as it pleases them, no matter rich or poor" (omnes Europaearum matronarum habitus sibi usurpant, et ad suum patrium accommodant, prout cuique tam diviti, quam pauperi libet). Already in 1456 Barbara of Brandenburg (1422-1481), Marchioness of Mantua sent to Bianca Maria Visconti (1425-1468), Duchess of Milan, three bottles of water from Florence (d'acqua di Fiorenza) which had the property of making her hair blonde and this fashion was so widespread in Renaissance Italy that contemporaries were often heard exclaiming: "in the entire peninsula, there is not one brunette to be found" (compare "A History of Women in the West ..." by Georges Duby, ‎Michelle Perrot, ‎Pauline Schmitt Pantel, p. 62). The light blonde hair of a half-naked lady depicted as the Roman heroine Lucretia in a painting by Venetian painter Vincenzo Catena, or his studio, from the first quarter of the 16th century (Sotheby's London, April 24, 2007, lot 207), could be considered a good example of this practice. Hair dyeing was also popular among men in the second half of the 15th century, as confirmed by the Croatian-Hungarian Latinist Janus Pannonius (1434-1472), in his poem Ad Galeottum Narniensem.

According to Flavio Ruggieri, women outside the court were "not very beautiful, but kind and charming, rather thin than fat, it is a great shame for them to add charms by artificial means or to dye their hair; they are busy with housework, they go on errands in town just like German women", while Łukasz Górnicki (1527-1603) complained that "our Polish women are not as educated as Italian women" and that they do not tolerate more daring conversations (bo ani nasze Polki są tak uczone jako Włoszki, ani drugich rzeczy, które owdzie są, cirpiećby ich uszy nie mogły). 

Although sources confirm the wide variety of costumes and the fact that Sarmatians traveled and adapted to foreign customs and fashions, on their final journey to the afterlife they chose to be depicted in national costume and with traditional accessories. Sarmatian matrons, who frequently had monuments erected in memory of their husbands and sons, were generally portrayed wearing modest dresses. The dominant element of this sculptural attire was the rańtuch, a long scarf draped over the head, reaching down to the feet and concealing the dress, giving the garment the appearance of a monastic habit. Examples include the effigies of women from the Jordan family on the tombstone created by the workshop of Santi Gucci around 1603 (St. Catherine's Church in Kraków), and the profile portrait of Małgorzata Zalaszowska from her epitaph by the workshop of Girolamo Canavesi, sculpted in 1578 (St. Mary's Basilica in Kraków). Young Sarmatian women were generally depicted with their hair loose, as on the Jordan tombstone, where the six daughters of Wawrzyniec Spytek Jordan (1518-1568) wear dresses typical of the 1550s and 1560s. Wealthy nobles and magnates were usually depicted in armor with traditional weapons such as an axe and a saber, as in the case of the tombstone of a nobleman, possibly Wawrzyniec Stojowski (d. 1567) by Santi Gucci or his workshop, created after 1567 (St. Catherine's Church in Kraków), or a mace (buzdygan), as in the case of the tombstone of Mikołaj Bogusz (1492-1560), starost of Krasnystaw, made by the circle of Bartolommeo Berrecci around 1560 (Church of the Holy Trinity in Kraków) or the effigy of Wawrzyniec Spytek. A wealthy merchant, banker and first postmaster of the royal post, Prosper Provana (or Prospero Provano, ca. 1520-1584), who later held the post of starost of Będzin and director (żupnik) of the Kraków salt mines, was depicted in armor and in a sleeping pose typical of the high nobility. Townspeople and less wealthy nobles were generally depicted in their everyday attire, such as Jan Mrowiński Płoczywłos (1514-1580) wearing a long coat and holding a hat on his tombstone sculpture, created by Girolamo Canavesi in 1577 (St. Catherine's Church in Kraków) or the physician Jakub Roszkowicz (1571-1622) wearing a long żupan ​​of gold cloth with a silk belt and a fur-lined coat - tombstone made by a follower of Santi Gucci around 1622 (Franciscan Church in Kraków). The Venetian physician Giovanni Battista Gemma (1545-1608) wears a very similar żupan ​​and coat on his monument dating from around 1608, attributed to Giovanni Reitino da Lugano (Franciscan Church in Kraków). Many of these funerary effigies were inspired by other effigies, particularly painted portraits, such as most likely the Jordan tombstone, made several years after the death of most of the people depicted, or the epitaph of Jan Ber (1526-1565), sculpted by Girolamo Canavesi or Giovanni Piacentino around 1565 and commissioned by his wife, Anna Rydlówna (Basilica of St. Mary in Kraków).

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

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

Antonio Niccolo Carmignano (Colantonio Carmignano, Parthenopeus Suavius), treasurer of Queen Bona Sforza from 1518, described the richness of the furnishings of Wawel Castle before 1525 (Viaggio de la Serenissima S. Donna Bona Regina ...) - the entrance to the first floor was via a wide staircase, to the left were the rooms decorated with many beautiful tapestries and fabrics. The second corridor led to the royal apartment, decorated with gold cloth. On the second floor there was a huge hall richly paneled with wood, full of sculptures, often gilded. The adjacent room was hung with tapestries, the next one was covered with brocade (probably a throne room), its beautiful floor was covered with red cloth. Against the background of a wall covered with a thick gold-woven fabric, there was a throne under a canopy. In another corridor there were four more rooms decorated with tapestries and brocades, two of them also having gilded fireplaces and carved wooden doors, framed by stone portals. In the rooms reserved for the coronation feast there were magnificent sideboards with impressive gold and silver tableware (after "Jan Zambocki: dworzanin i sekretarz JKM" by Kazimierz Hartleb, p. 22). Justus Ludwik Decjusz added about the royal bed that it was "very delicately constructed" and "covered with red gold on top, decorated on all sides with the art of painting" (delicatissime extructum [...] aureisque rossis desuper tectum, pictorum artifìcio undique decoratum).

Two pieces of Renaissance fabric, preserved before the Second World War at the National Museum in Warsaw, probably come from Wawel Castle. One of them, lost during the war, is known thanks to a watercolor by Mieczysław Kotarbiński (1890-1943), created in 1917 (inv. DI 9675 MNW). It was a piece of brocade with a golden floral pattern on a red background, decorated with the coat of arms of Poland (the White Eagle) and the biscione (a divine serpent holding a child in its mouth), the historical symbol of the city of Milan, but here referring to Queen Bona Sforza. The fabric, probably made to order in Venice, most likely came from the queen's apartments. The other fragment is decorated only with an eagle with a red pattern on a gold background (inv. SZT 1501 MNW).​

The preserved inventories of the Lubomirski collection in Wiśnicz and the Radziwill collection of the Birzai branch, which survived the Deluge, confirm the great diversity and high class of the Polish-Lithuanian painting collections. The Venetian school and Cranach's workshop are particularly well represented.

​Inventories drawn up in 1671 in Königsberg list the huge fortune inherited by the princess Louise Charlotte Radziwill (1667-1695) from her father Boguslaus Radziwill (1620-1669), whose estates were compared by contemporaries to "Mantua, Modena and other smaller states in Italy". Among over 900 paintings in the inventory, there were portraits, mythological and biblical scenes by Lucas Cranach (24 items) along "The Face of Jesus by Albert Duer", i.e. Albrecht Dürer, and a "painting of Pawel Caliaro", that is Paolo Caliari known as Veronese, about 25 Italian paintings, several portraits of unknown Italian, German, and French ladies and gentlemen, paintings with "naked" and "half-naked" women, Ruthenian and Russian icons, a Greek altar and one "Spanish Fantasy". Portraits of members of the Radziwill family, Polish kings from John I Albert (1459-1501), more than 20 effigies of the Vasas and their families, German emperors, kings of Sweden, France, England and Spain and various foreign personalities, collected over several generations, constituted the dominant part of over 300 pieces in the inventory (after "Galerie obrazów i "Gabinety Sztuki" Radziwiłłów w XVII w." by Teresa Sulerzyska, p. 90).

The inventory also lists many paintings that may be by Cranach the Elder and his son or 16th-century Venetian or Netherlandish painters: A lady in a white robe, with jewels, a crown on her head (71), A lady in a lynx coat in black, a dog by her side (72), A lady in a czamara, a diamond crown on her head with pearls, holding gloves (73), A beautiful lady in a pearl dress and a robe embroidered with pearls (80), A woman who stabbed herself with a knife (292), A woman, semi-circular picture at the top (293), A man of this shape, perhaps the husband of this woman (294), Dido who stabbed herself with a knife (417), A large image of Venice (472), Lucretia who stabbed herself, golden frames (690), A naked lady who stabbed herself, golden frames (691), A well-dressed lady with a child, on panel (692), A lady in a red robe who stabbed herself (693), Small picture: a German with a naked woman (embracing, naked boys serve) (737), A person with a long beard, in black, inscription An° 1553 etatis 47 (753), A lady under the tent showed her breast (840), Venus with Cupid bitten by bees (763), two portraits of Barbara Radziwill, Queen of Poland (79 and 115) and a portrait of King Sigismund Augustus of Poland, on panel (595) (after "Inwentarz galerii obrazów Radziwiłłów z XVII w." by Teresa Sulerzyska). The inventory also includes several nude and erotic paintings and this is only a part of splendid collections of the Radziwills that survived the Deluge (1655-1660).

Perhaps the paintings owned by a citizen of Kraków Melchior Czyżewski (d. 1542): Tabula Judith et Herodiadis ex utraque parte depicta and by Kraków councilor Jan Pavioli in 1655: "bathing Bathsheba", "Judith", "portrait of Christian, king of Denmark", "the duke of Saxony", had something in common with the Wittenberg workshop. In the collection of King John II Casimir Vasa, Bona Sforza's grandson, sold at an auction in Paris in 1672, there was Cranach's Madonna and Child (Une Vierge avec un petit Christ, peint sur bois. Original de Lucas Cronus), possibly bearing features of his famous grandmother. King Stanislaus Augustus (1732-1798), had 6 paintings by Cranach and his workshop, one of St. Jerome, the other five on mythological subjects: Venus et l'Amour sur bois (no. 941), Pyrame et Thisbe (no. 912), Venus Couchee (no. 913), Venus surprise avec Mars (no. 914), Venus et Mars (no. 915).

Before the First World War, in the collection of the splendid Baroque Pidhirtsi Castle near Lviv in Ukraine, which belonged to the Koniecpolski, Sobieski, Rzewuski and Sanguszko families, there were five paintings considered to be originals or copies of Titian's works - The Creation of Eve, Galatea, The Doge of Venice, Venus and Cupid and Venus and Adonis (after "Dzieje rezydencji na dawnych kresach Rzeczypospolitej" by Roman Aftanazy, Volume 7, p. 464, 479). In 1842, in the Tyzenhauz (Tiesenhausen) Palace in Pastavy, Belarus, there were "Adam and Eve under the forbidden tree in paradise, a barbaric hand sawed off the lower half of this painting on wood by Albrecht Dürer", Judith by Andrea del Sarto and "Portrait of a man, half-figure, life-size. Magnificent Spanish costume, ruff, background of red drapery - Tintoretto", as well as two paintings considered to be works by Paolo Veronese - The Illness of Antiochus and The Continence of Scipio (after "Galeria obrazów Postawska" by Aleksander Przezdziecki, p. 196-197, 200, items 4, 5, 6, 9, 32).​ Before World War II, in the Rzewuski Palace in Pohrebyshche, Ukraine, there was a painting by Titian depicting the "half-reclining woman with a jug of water beside her" and two magnificent paintings by the Spanish painter Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (after "Materiały do ​​​​dziejów rezydencji ..." by Roman Aftanazy, Volume 1, p. 279). In the Lubomirski Palace in Przeworsk, filled with national memorabilia, there was a painting by Titian depicting the "Madonna" (after "Zbiory polskie ..." by Edward Chwalewik, Volume 2, p. 131). Unfortunately, this palace was plundered during World War II.​

Several Old Master paintings, many from the Venetian school, were exhibited in Kraków in March 1882. Most belonged to the Potocki family, supplemented by the Lubomirski and, in part, the Tarnowski collections, as well as a few other collectors. While some were mentioned as having been acquired in Venice from a specific gallery, undoubtedly in the 19th century, most were not described in this way, and their provenance and subsequent history remain unknown. It is likely that some were also not correctly attributed, although Venetian or Italian origin is highly probable in most cases. The "List of Paintings", published that year in Kraków, includes: "Prince Alfonso d'Este, returning from a journey; meeting his wife [either Anna Maria Sforza, relative of Queen Bona, or Lucrezia Borgia]", painted on panel and described as being by Giorgione (item 36), "Portrait of a woman, of the Venetian school, painted on wood" (item 48), "The Holy Family" by Bernardino Campi of Cremona (item 49), "Virgin and Child, Saint Catherine and two saints. Painting transferred from wood to canvas" by Francesco Bissolo (item 71, now kept at the National Museum in Warsaw), "Portrait of Cosimo de' Medici" by the Florentine school (item 93), "Portrait of Joanna of Naples" by Giulio Romano, painted on panel (item 94), self-portrait by Bassano (item 97) and "Portrait of Catherine de Medici" by Paolo Cagliari, known as Veronese (item 105, after "Spis obrazów znajdujących się na wystawie urządzonej na rzecz Towarzystwa Dobroczynności Krakowskiego ...", p. 8-9, 11-13). 

​Many Venetian, Italian and German paintings were exhibited in Warsaw in the Bruhl Palace in 1880, some of these may have originally been in the royal collection: Lucas Cranach - Old man with a young girl (35, Museum), Jacopo Bassano - Vulcan forging the arrows (43, Museum), Moretto da Brescia - Madonna with Saint Roch and Saint Anne (51, Museum), Gentile Bellini - Christ after being taken down from the cross, surrounded by saints (66, Museum), Tintoretto - Baptism of Christ (71, 81, Museum), School of Paolo Veronese - Temptation of Saint Anthony (84, Museum), Jacopo Bassano - Adoration of the Shepherds, property of Countess Kossakowska (4, room D), School of Titian - Baptism of Christ, property of Countess Maria Łubieńska (6, room D), Giovanni Bellini - Madonna, property of Count Stanisław Plater-Zyberk (75, room D), Bernardo Luini - Christ and Saint John, property of Mrs. Chrapowicka (76, room D), Bassano - Bible scene, property of Mrs. Rusiecka (19, room E), Venetian school - Historical Item: Feast of the Kings, property of Jan Sulatycki (2, room F), Lucas Cranach - Reclining Nymph, property of Jan Sulatycki (35, room F) (after "Katalog obrazów starożytnych …" by Józef Unger).

Other important paintings by Cranach and his workshop related to Poland and most likely the royal court include Stigmatisation of Saint Francis, created in about 1502-1503, today in the Belvedere in Vienna (inv. 1273), in Poland, probably already in the 16th century and in the 19th century in the collection of the Szembek family in Zawada near Myślenice, comparable to paintings by Italian masters Gentile da Fabriano (Magnani-Rocca Foundation) or Lorenzo di Credi (Musée Fesch), the Massacre of the Innocents in the National Museum in Warsaw (inv. M.Ob.587), which was in about 1850 in the Regulski collection in Warsaw, portrait of Princess Sibylle of Cleves (1512-1554) as a bride from the Skórzewski collection, signed with artist's insignia and dated "1526" (National Museum in Poznań, lost), portrait of George the Bearded, Duke of Saxony, husband of Barbara Jagiellon (Polish Academy of Learning in Kraków, deposit at Wawel Castle​), alleged portrait of Henry IV the Pious, Duke of Saxony (Frąckiewicz collection, lost) and miniature portrait of Katharina von Bora "the Lutheress" (collection of Leandro Marconi in Warsaw, destroyed in 1944) (paritally after "Polskie Cranachiana" by Wanda Drecka). In 1900, Seweryn Tymieniecki (1847-1916) had in his collection in Kalisz a portrait of Elector Frederick III of Saxony (1463-1525) with the imperial crown, painted on panel by a follower of Cranach (Exhibition held at the Kalisz Town Hall in May and June 1900, National Library of Poland, F.84013/IV).​ Ukrainian magnate Volodyslav Valentyn Fedorovich (1845-1917) owned in his palace in Vikno near Ternopil many paintings by Polish painters of the 18th and 19th centuries, as well as about 300 paintings by good Italian and Flemish schools of the 16th and 17th centuries, while the painting "The Old Man and the Girl" (The Ill-Matched Couple) was considered an original by Cranach the Elder (after "Materiały do dziejów rezydencji ..." by Roman Aftanazy, Volume 8a, p. 145). Christ blessing the children by Lucas Cranach the Elder at Wawel Castle (inv. ZKnW-PZS 1716), was acquired in 1922 by the director of the State Art Collections in Warsaw from Ignacy Dubowski (1874-1953), bishop of Lutsk, who probably acquired it in former territories of Poland-Lithuania or in St. Petersburg. Before 1924, Count Zygmunt Włodzimierz Skórzewski (1894-1974) donated to the Greater Poland Museum (now the National Museum) in Poznań, in addition to the aforementioned portrait of Sibylle of Cleves, also the portrait of Emperor Charles V by Cranach the Elder (inv. Mo 473) and a fragment of a hunting scene, attributed to Cranach the Younger (after "Muzeum Wielkopolskie w Poznaniu" by Marian Gumowski, ‎Feliks Kopera, p. 14-15), which was lost during the Second World War. The Nativity from the workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder in the National Museum in Poznań (inv. Mo 108) comes from the Zaborowski collection in Mchówek near Konin and Włocławek.

The epitaph of Jan Sakran (Sacranus, 1443-1527) from Oświęcim, court theologian and confessor of the Jagiellonian kings: John Albert, Alexander and Sigismund I, is a good example of how quickly Cranach's art reached Poland-Lithuania. The painting, now in the Museum of the Missionary Fathers in Kraków, was probably painted shortly before or after Jan's death, i.e. around 1527 (tempera on panel, 144.5 x 133 cm). Originally it was located in the Holy Trinity Chapel of Wawel Cathedral, founded by Queen Sophia of Halshany (died 1461), Jogaila's fourth wife, and hung above the deceased's unpreserved bronze tombstone. In the first half of the 18th century the epitaph was transferred to the Missionary Monastery in Stradom (after "Wawel 1000-2000: wystawa jubileuszowa" by Magdalena Piwocka, p. 83). The style of the painting indicates the local Kraków workshop, but the painter used the composition of Cranach's painting, dated around 1525 - The Man of Sorrows with the Virgin and Saint John. The painting by the German master is now in the Stadtmuseum Baden-Baden (on permanent loan by Baden-Baden Collegiate Church) and must have been created in several copies, one of which also arrived in Silesia, because it was borrowed by an unknown painter in a scene with a donor, now in the Archdiocesan Museum in Wrocław. The Kraków master was also inspired by Cranach's style and colours, especially in the way he painted the trees in the background, the sky and the landscape, which means that he must have seen Cranach's original painting, but his individual style prevails in the epitaph. If we assume that the approximate dating of the Baden-Baden painting is correct, then Cranach's painting became well known in Kraków within just two years.

In 1592, Jan Ponętowski (ca. 1540-1598) bequeathed to the Kraków Academy (Jagiellonian University) a rich and valuable collection of books, prints, paintings, liturgical vestments, tapestries and abbot's insignia. Born in the village of Ponętów near Łęczyca, he received in 1577 from Emperor Rudolf II the dignity of abbot of the Hradisko Monastery near Olomouc. In 1588 or 1589, he returned to Poland and settled permanently in Kraków. The list of items donated to the Kraków Academy, drawn up by Ponętowski himself, dated May 11, 1592, opens with the most valuable works of art, which have not survived, including Flemish tapestries described as tapecie […] virides Flandricae, 14 of them (of different sizes) and 26 Flemish paintings on canvas, as well as 7 less defined paintings on panel. The Flemish paintings and tapestries were probably acquired by Ponętowski while he was abbot in Moravia or after his return to Poland. Since the tapestries were usually decorated with coats of arms, they were probably commissioned by Ponętowski in Flanders. The majority of the books are bound in valuable artistic bindings, most of them dating from the 1580s with supralibros of Ponętowski. Since the University collection contains objects bearing Ponętowski's ownership marks that are not included in the 1592 list, this donation was not the only one (after "The Collection of Jan Ponętowski" by Piotr Hordyński, p. 138-139, 143). His donation also contains two albums of woodcuts by Cranach, which illustrate the priceless contents of two treasures: the collegiate church of All Saints in Wittenberg Castle from 1509 (Dye zaigung des hochlobwirdigen hailigthums der Stifft kirchen aller hailigen zu Wittenburg) and the churches of St. Maurice and Mary Magdalene in Halle from 1520 (Vortzeichnus und Zceigung des hochlobwirdigen heiligthumbs der Stifftkirchen der Heiligen Sanct Moritz und Marien Magdalenen zu Halle, Jagiellonian Library, Cim. 5746-5747).

Notable imports from Saxony to Gdańsk, the main port of Sarmatia, before the mid-16th century include the Altar of the Coronation of Mary founded by the Butchers' Guild for the Church of St. Catherine in the Old Town, created around 1515, whose main carved scene is based on a woodcut by Lucas Cranach from 1509, while the painted figures of Saints Christopher, Roch, Peter and Paul on the altar wings, as well as female saints in the lower part are believed to be products of Cranach's workshop. Before World War II, in the Church of Corpus Christi in Gdańsk there were portraits of Luther and Melanchthon from 1534, of which only the portrait of Melanchthon has survived (National Museum, inv. MNG/SD/4/MED). The epitaph of the family of Johann III Connert in the form of a triptych in St. Mary's Church in Gdańsk, painted in 1556, is considered to have technical similarities with the works of Cranach's workshop (after "Commemoration and Family Identity in Sixteenth-Century Gdańsk ..." by Aleksandra Jaśniewicz-Downes, p. 214).

The contacts, although not all direct, of Albert of Prussia (1490-1568), nephew of Sigismund I, with Cranach the Elder are well documented. Dietrich von Schönberg (1484-1525), Albert's advisor, came into contact with Lucas Cranach, to whom a letter dated June 16, 1516, has been preserved. Schönberg had purchased four of Cranach's paintings for the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, who had them sent to Christof Bintzen (Wintz) in Berlin (Cranach received the sum of 23 guilders). On January 20, 1517, Albert commissioned Cranach to paint "Hercules squeezing a naked man to death" (einen Hercules, der ein nackenden Kerel zu Tod druckt), i.e., Hercules and Antaeus (two versions of this composition by Cranach preserved to this day: at Compton Verney, inv. CVCSC:0381.N and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, inv. 1148). Two portraits of Albert by Cranach are known, one painted around 1511-1512 and the other in 1528. The Grand Master also received paintings from Italy, notably in 1513, when the procurator of Rome sent him a portrait of the newly elected Pope Leo X (after "Vom Ordensstaat zum Fürstentum" by Kurt Forstreuter, p. 68).

The style of the Prussian painter Heinrich Königswieser (ca. 1530-1583) was strongly influenced by that of Lucas Cranach the Younger (as evidenced by the Epitaph of Hans Nimptsch, painted in 1557). In 1552, Königswieser, son of a musician at the ducal court of Królewiec, was sent by Duke Albert to study under Cranach in Wittenberg (in a letter dated January 2, 1552, the Duke addressed Lucas Cranach the Elder, asking him to take him on as a pupil). Later that same month, the young Königswieser began his training in the Wittenberg workshop, which he completed in October 1555. The master, however, did not hold his pupil's abilities in high regard, as evidenced by a letter from Cranach the Younger to the Duke (dated October 14, 1555, after "Das Portrait in Preußen vom 16. bis zur Mitte des 17. Jahrhunderts" by Kamila Wróblewska, p. 441, 448). Back in Prussia, he produced portraits of the ducal family, an annual portrait of the sovereign, and miniatures of the latter, which later served as models for his engraved portraits, published by Hans Luft's printing house. The portrait of Martin Luther for the church in Szczurkowo (Schönbruch) was probably made by Königswieser, simply copying Cranach's iconic pattern (after "Sztuka Albrechta Dürera i Cranachów ..." by Piotr Birecki, p. 58, 62). In 1559, he became court painter to the Duke, while also accepting commissions outside of Prussia. According to commissions recorded in the Treasury accounts, in 1557 he painted the portrait of the Duke's daughter, Anna Sophia of Prussia (1527-1591), who married Duke John Albert I of Mecklenburg (1525-1576) in 1555, as well as the portrait of her mother-in-law, Anna of Brandenburg (1507-1567), and the following year (1558) another "Portrait of the same" (after "Studien zu Cranachscher kunst im herzogtum Preussen" by Asmus von Troschke, p. 45). He must have created these effigies by drawing inspiration from other portraits, since his visit to Mecklenburg is not confirmed by the sources. In 1560, Heinrich decorated two suits of armor for a Wallachian nobleman (an einen walachischen Herrn gesendet), probably Jacob Heraclides (1511-1563), then at the court of Queen Isabella Jagiellon in Transylvania and who became Prince of Moldavia in 1561 (Jacob Binck also participated in the decoration). In 1561, Königswieser created a view of the city of Klaipeda (Visierung der Memel) in Lithuania and, in 1562, he painted the coat of arms of the Queen of Poland in a book.

Several craftsmen active at the court of the Duke of Prussia also worked for his cousin, King Sigismund Augustus. The Nuremberg armorer Jacob Rosenbusch, who settled in Królewiec in 1543, frequently crafted armor for the King of Poland (after "Die Kunst am Hofe der Herzöge von Preussen" by Hermann Ehrenberg, p. 75). He also produced a suit of armor for Gabriel Tarło (d. 1565), Albert's confidant at the Polish royal court. In 1545, Crispin Herrant (Cryspin Herranth) decorated the tournament armor made by Rosenbusch, which, along with a saddle and bladed weapons, was intended for Sigismund Augustus.

Cranach, his collaborators and followers also depicted Sarmatians in their traditional costumes, albeit often in a pejorative manner, as unbelievers in religious scenes, such as the Crucifixion in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (inv. 6905) in which the costume of one of the horsemen is clearly Sarmatian or generally eastern (compare "Studien zur Frühzeit Lukas Cranachs d.Ä." by Fedja Anzelewsky, p. 125). The costumes of two horsemen in the Crucifixion of 1549 by Antonius Heusler (ca. 1500-1561), a follower of Cranach, now in the Salzburg Museum (inv. 123-29), signed with the monogram AH and dated lower right, are also Sarmatian. A painting by Heusler depicting the Allegory of Salvation with a naked man (Adam) standing before the crucified Christ, probably connected with the spread of Protestantism in Poland-Lithuania-Ruthenia, is in the National Museum in Warsaw (inv. M.Ob.2151). Typically Sarmatian are also the fur hats of the men on the left of the scene of Christ and the Adulteress by Lucas Cranach the Elder and his workshop, painted around 1520, today kept in the Franconian Gallery in Kronach (inv. 692) and in the Cathedral Museum in Fulda. The painting in the Franconian Gallery comes from the collection of Elector Maximilian I of Bavaria (1573-1651), and when Aleksander Lesser (1814-1884), a Polish painter of Jewish origin, saw this painting in the Pinakothek in Munich, most likely during his studies there between 1835 and 1846, he also noticed the eastern character of the man's hat and left a drawing of him, now in the National Museum in Warsaw (inv. DI 31735 MNW). The same can be said of the epitaph of Franz von Nostitz (d. 1576) in the village church of Klix in Wulka Dubrawa (Grossdubrau) in East Saxony, painted by the workshop of Lucas Cranach the Younger in 1576 with portraits of the deceased, his wife and children as donors and several figures in eastern costumes.

The 2020 temporary exhibition at the Royal Castle in Warsaw - "Dolabella. Venetian Painter of the House of Vasa" (September 11 - December 6) was dedicated not only to the life and work of Tommaso Dolabella (1570-1650), but also to the economic and artistic relations between the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Republic of Venice.
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This exhibition and its catalogue recall the Polish students at the University of Padua, including Copernicus, Jan Kochanowski and Jan Zamoyski, who created a separate Natio regni Poloniae et magni ducatus Lithuaniae at the end of the 16th century, as well as the supply of grain and the export of Polish cochineal. In 1591, Marco Ottoboni, secretary of the Venetian Senate, stayed in Gdańsk and in the autumn of 1591 concluded a major transaction for the purchase of Polish grain and the organization of a complicated maritime transport to Venice. Although Ottoboni conducted the transaction with the help of Nuremberg bankers, the first phase of the negotiations involved the Montelupi trading house from Kraków, which granted the Venetian Republic a large loan, which was placed at Ottoboni's disposal in Gdańsk.

Important imports included books, glassware and luxury goods. The publishing house of the Manutius family, active between 1494 and 1585, maintained intensive contacts with Poland throughout most of the 16th century. Missale secundum ritum insignis ecclesie cathedralis Cracouiensis with coat of arms of Piotr Tomicki (1464-1535), Archbishop of Kraków and Vice-Chancellor of the Crown, Saint Stanislaus and Saint Florian, published by Peter Liechtenstein in Venice in 1532 (National Library of Poland, SD XVI.F.31) and Partitura pro organo by Mikołaj Zieleński, published at the publishing house of Giacomo Vincenti in Venice in 1611 (Czartoryski Library in Kraków, 40102 III/1 Saf.), are the best examples of books published in the Serenissima. Many individual books were purchased in Venice by Polish bibliophiles travelling in Italy, as evidenced by the provenance notes preserved in many copies, which provide information, sometimes very precise, on the date and place of purchase, such as the register of the buyer, probably Paweł Henik, in Italian, from 1614, who purchased in Venice the Etymologicum Magnum, printed there in 1499. Venetian "health passport", issued on September 9, 1578 to "Mr. Nikodem, a Polish nobleman from [...] numbering 2, with goods", found in one of these books, is further confirmation (Jagiellonian Library in Kraków, BJ Cam. M. IX. 46 (a)).

Luxurious Venetian bindings also enjoyed considerable popularity in Poland and the binding of a copy of Missale secundum ritum ... with a super ex-libris of Bishop Tomicki (Cathedral Chapter Library in Łowicz), executed by Andrea di Lorenzo, dubbed the "Mendoza Binder", who was active in Venice between 1518 and 1555, is the best example. 

The 1544 inventory of the Kraków pharmacy at Main Square 8, owned by Franciszek Scheinborn, whose father was referred to by profession as a vitreator (stained glass artisan), mention large quantities of Venetian glass (vitra venetiana) – in this particular case over 250 vessels, probably imported from Venice by the owner of the pharmacy, who may also have been an intermediary in this field. Scheinborn also placed four Venetian majolica bowls (scutellae de terra Veneziana quatuor pictae in fenestra) in the window of his pharmacy – undoubtedly for decoration, but also perhaps for advertising purposes. A few examples of expensive Venetian silk fabrics, such as velvets and brocades used to sew liturgical vestments, have been preserved, among others, in the treasury of the Wawel Cathedral and the National Museum in Gdańsk (objects from the St. Mary's Basilica in Gdańsk).

It is possible that the altar with scenes of the Annunciation, the Crucifixion and Noli me tangere and figures of saints, made of bone at the beginning of the 15th century in the Embriachi workshop in Venice (Diocesan Museum in Sandomierz, inv. MDS-3/Dep.), was imported to Poland already in the 15th century.

As Venice was at that time an important centre of pictorial production, many paintings were commissioned and acquired there, but unfortunately the sources on this subject are very modest. According to Władysław Tomkiewicz (1899-1982), paintings by Titian, Paris Bordone and Paolo Veronese were undoubtedly in the collection of Sigismund II Augustus, and he cites one specific work, which could have been in the royal collections in the 16th century, the now lost painting "Christ at the Feast of Simon the Pharisee", attributed to the workshop of Veronese, which was in a private collection near Vilnius before the Second World War. Around 1537, or later, Giovanni Jacopo Caraglio (d. 1565), active in Poland since about 1538, produced a beautiful engraving after a painting of the Annunciation by Titian (inscription: IACOBVS / CARALIVS / FE // TITIANI FIGVRARVM / AD CÆSAREM EXEMPLA). This large painting was made for the nuns of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Murano, but was ultimately given in 1537 to Empress Isabella of Portugal, and taken to Spain (it adorned the main altarpiece of the chapel in the Royal Palace of Aranjuez and disappeared after 1794). The device and symbol of Charles V, husband of Isabella, were featured in the upper part of the painting (two columns, the "Pillars of Hercules", supported by angels and bearing the Latin motto PLVS VLTRA) and the work was described in a letter from Aretino to Titian dated November 9, 1537 (after "Titian: His Life and Times" by Joseph Archer Crowe, Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle, Volume 2, p. 5). In the 1540s, Girolamo da Santacroce, a painter of the Venetian school, reused Titian's composition in his small painting, now in the Columbia Museum of Art (inv. CMA 1962.25).

The exhibition catalog also refers, although not directly, to an important and largely forgotten phenomenon of cryptoportraiture citing the portrait of the Byzantine cardinal Bessarion (1403-1472), Catholic theologian and humanist, depicted as Saint Augustine in his study by the Venetian painter Vittore Carpaccio in 1502 (Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni in Venice, compare "Dolabella. Wenecki malarz Wazów. Katalog wystawy", ed. Magdalena Białonowska, p. 28, 29, 42, 44-49, 158, 174). Given that the portrait was made two decades after the cardinal's death and shows him as a relatively young man, it is also a perfect example of creating an effigy from other portraits (paintings, miniatures, drawings, sculptures or reliefs).

​Among the paintings evacuated to New York around September 1939 and exhibited in 1940 by the European Art Galleries, Inc. "to help to maintain the exhibit of Poland at the World's Fair", the Venetian School of painting is particularly well represented. Most come from the Łańcut collection, as well as Potocki collection in Tulchyn (after "Tajemnicza kolekcja Starych Mistrzów" by Przemysław Jan Bloch, p. 9). Although some of them are now considered incorrectly attributed, they were, by and large, created by painters active mainly in the territories belonging to the Republic of Venice or trained in Venice. The catalog of this exhibition includes paintings by Giovanni Bellini (Madonna and Child with Four Saints and a Donor, item 40), Vincenzo Catena (Madonna and Child, item 35), Paris Bordone (Portrait of a Lady [Laura Effrem], item 20), Lorenzo Lotto, now attributed to Giovanni Cariani (Portrait of a Man [Stanisław Lubomirski (d. 1585)], item 23), Titian (Portrait of Aretino, item 19), Moretto da Brescia (Portrait of a Gentleman [Marco Antonio Savelli], item 24), Tintoretto (A Venetian Doge [Pietro Gradenigo (1251-1311)], item 15), Sebastiano del Piombo (The Mystical Marriage of Saint Catherine, item 44), Jacopo Bassano (The Agony in the Garden, item 39), Paolo Veronese (The betrothal of Mary and Joseph, item 30), Palma il Giovane (The Last Supper, item 26), Tintoretto, now attributed to Palma il Giovane (The Woman Taken in Adultery [Susanna and the Elders], item 13), Domenico Tintoretto (Portrait of a Nobleman [Tomasz Zamoyski (1594-1638)], item 37) and Carlo Ceresa (Portrait of a Lady, item 22, National Library of Poland, DŻS XIXA 3a).

The visit of the young Battista Sforza (1446-1472), Duchess of Urbino, and her brother Costanzo (1447-1483), future Lord of Pesaro and Gradara in the Netherlands, around 1460, is not confirmed by the sources and is very unlikely; however, it was undoubtedly in the Brussels workshop of Rogier van der Weyden (d. 1464) that the so-called Sforza triptych bearing their portraits was made (Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, inv. 2407). The triptych was probably commissioned by their father, Alessandro Sforza (1409-1473), Lord of Pesaro, who visited France and Flanders between 1457 and 1458 on a pilgrimage to Saint-Antoine-l'Abbaye to atone for his attempted strangulation of his second wife, Sveva da Montefeltro (1434-1478). In fact, it is certain that, during the absence of the Lord of Pesaro, his children were watched over by the Duchess of Milan Bianca Maria Visconti (1425-1468), and, on site, by his trusted representatives (after "How Lombardy met Northern Europe through Alessandro Sforza and Zanetto Bugatto" by Federico Cavalieri). Their effigies were therefore based on other portraits sent to Brussels or given to the painter to copy by Alessandro. The Lord of Pesaro, a distant relative of Queen Bona, and his family are kneeling in the center, before the crucified Christ. While the portraits of Battista and Costanzo resemble those in other works (Piero della Francesca's portrait and Francesco di Giorgio's relief of Battista and Gianfrancesco Enzola's medal of Costanzo), the resemblance to known effigies of Alessandro is difficult to establish (Gianfrancesco Enzola's medal), although it is certainly his image, as evidenced by the coat of arms. Furthermore, his head was painted on a separate small fragment of parchment applied to the panel.

​From the perspective of the Renaissance artist's travels and drawing inspiration from the works of other painters, three watercolors by Albrecht Dürer depicting Livonian women, preserved in the Louvre in Paris (inv. 19 DR/ Recto; 20 DR/ Recto; 21 DR/ Recto), are interesting. In 1521, according to the date on two of them, the painter depicted six wealthy women from the present-day territories of Estonia and Latvia, dressed in their characteristic traditional dresses, lined with precious furs (reichen frawen in Eiffland / Eyflant, according to Dürer's annotations). It is not known exactly how and where the painter met these women, as he probably never visited Livonia. In 1520, he went to Cologne, and then to Antwerp, where he lived on a street frequented by English merchants. As in the case of a similar drawing depicting a group of five Irish soldiers and two barefoot "peasants" (Kupferstichkabinett in Berlin, inv. KdZ 37), he either had occasion to see the women in Antwerp or elsewhere during his journey, or he copied these models from a collection of costumes circulating at the time. 

The bill from 1531 confirms that the drawing made by Sigismund I's court painter Hans Dürer in Kraków and sent to Nuremberg was sufficient to create the silver altar in Sigismund's Chapel (Exposita extraordinaria in aedificia Capellae Regiae et castri Cracoviensis 1531: Item dedi pro tele ulnis 21, super qua deliniamentum alias visirungk tabulae Nurembergae argenteae fabricandae depictum est ... Item dedi Johanni Durer pictori Regis a labore et pictura dicti deliniamenti ..., after "Peter Flötner: ein Bahnbrecher der deutschen Renaissance ..." by Konrad Lange, p. 86).

In Modena in 1570, Ludovico Monti, agent of Sigismund Augustus, mediated in ordering a medal with a bust of the king from a renowned sculptor, most probably Leone Leoni (d. 1590), "but the poor fellow despairs because he has never seen Your Majesty and cannot find any portrait of Your Majesty in profile as is needed, since mine and Soderini's are frontal representations and were made sixteen years ago, and it will be difficult to be satisfied with these" (ma il poverino si dispera perché non ha mai veduto Vostra Maestà et non trova alcuno ritratto di Vostra Maestà in profilo come bisognaria, che il mio et quello del Soderini sono in faccia et sono fatti già XVI anni sono, et male potrà sodisfare con questi, after "Lodovicus Montius Mutinensis ..." by Rita Mazzei, p. 37), Monti complained to the king. ​

"Artists had little opportunity to take a direct likeness of important sitters and as a result they made portrait patterns, which would often circulate between artists' workshops. These patterns could be copied from existing paintings or be based on pre-existing drawings from the life. Occasionally the demand for images of certain sitters meant that many versions of a portrait were produced by a workshop at the same time, either for patrons or for general sale stock" (after "Double Take: Versions and Copies of Tudor Portraits") - this is how experts from the National Portrait Gallery in London describe studio practice in relation to 16th-century English portraiture, which is also perfectly applicable to other European countries, including Poland-Lithuania-Ruthenia, Venice and Wittenberg.​

​The practice of creating portraits for clients from the territories of present-day Poland from study drawings can be attested from at least the early 16th century. The oldest known is the so-called "Book of effigies" (Visierungsbuch), which was lost during World War II. This was a collection of preparatory drawings depicting the Pomeranian dukes, who were related to the Jagiellons, mainly by Cranach's workshop. Among the oldest were portraits of Boguslaus X (1454-1523), Duke of Pomerania and his daughter-in-law Amalia of the Palatinate (1490-1524) by circle of Albrecht Dürer, created after 1513. All were probably made by members of the workshop sent to Pomerania or less likely by local artists and returned to patrons with ready effigies.

On the occasion of the division of Pomerania in 1541 with his uncle Duke Barnim XI (IX), Duke Philip I commissioned a portrait from Lucas Cranach the Younger. This portrait, dated in upper left corner, is now in the National Museum in Szczecin, while the preparatory drawing, previously attributed to Hans Holbein the Younger or Albrecht Dürer, is in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Reims. A monogramist I.S. from Cranach's workshop used the same set of study drawings to create another similar portrait of the duke, now in the Kunstsammlungen der Veste Coburg.

Studies for the portraits of Princess Margaret of Pomerania (1518-1569) and Anne of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1502-1568), wife of Barnim XI (IX), both dating from around 1545, were meticulously described by a member of the workshop sent to Pomerania to create them indicating colors, fabrics, shapes to facilitate work in the artist's studio. Undoubtedly, based on similar drawings, Cranach's workshop created miniatures of the Jagiellons in the Czartoryski Museum. In the 1620s a court painter of Sigismund III Vasa created drawings or miniatures after which Peter Paul Rubens painted the portrait of the king (Heinz Kisters collection in Kreuzlingen), most likely as one of a series. The same court painter painted the full-length portrait of Sigismund at Wilanów Palace. Between 1644-1650 Jonas Suyderhoef, a Dutch engraver, active in Haarlem, created a print with effigy of Ladislaus IV Vasa after a painting by Pieter Claesz. Soutman (P. Soutman Pinxit Effigiavit et excud / I. Suÿderhoef Sculpsit) and around that time Soutman, also active in Haarlem, created a similar drawing with king's effigy (Albertina in Vienna).

After the destructive Deluge (1655-1660), the country slowly recovered and the most important foreign orders were mainly silverware, including a large silver Polish eagle, the heraldic base for the royal crown, created by Abraham I Drentwett and Heinrich Mannlich in Augsburg, most likely for the coronation of Michael Korybut Wiśniowiecki in 1669, now in the Moscow Kremlin.

Foreign commissions for portraits revived more significantly during the reign of John III Sobieski. French painters such as Pierre Mignard, Henri Gascar and Alexandre-François Desportes (a brief stay in Poland, between 1695 and 1696), active mainly in Paris, are frequently credited as authors of portraits of members of the Sobieski family. Dutch painter Adriaen van der Werff, must have painted the 1696 portrait of Hedwig Elisabeth of Neuburg, wife of James Louis Sobieski, in Rotterdam or Düsseldorf, where he was active. The same Jan Frans van Douven, active in Düsseldorf from 1682, who made several effigies of James Louis and his wife.

In the Library of the University of Warsaw preserved a preparatory drawing by Prosper Henricus Lankrink or a member of his workshop from about 1676 for a series of portraits of John III (Coninck in Polen conterfeyt wie hy in woonon ...), described in Dutch with the colors and names of the fabrics (violet, wit satin). Lankrink and his studio probably created them all in Antwerp as his stay in Poland is not confirmed.

A few years later, around 1693, Henri Gascar, who after 1680 moved from Paris to Rome, painted a realistic apotheosis of John III Sobieski surrounded by his family, depicting the king, his wife, their daughter and their three sons. A French engraver Benoît Farjat, active in Rome, made a print from this original painting which has probably not survived, dated '1693' (Romae Superiorum licentia anno 1693) lower left and signed in Latin upper right: "H. Gascar painted, Benoît Farjat engraved" (H. GASCAR PINX. / BENEDICTVS FARIAT SCVLP.). Two workshop copies of this painting are known - one in Wawel Castle in Kraków, and the other, most likely from a dowry of Teresa Kunegunda Sobieska, is in the Munich Residence. Such a realistic depiction of the family must have been based on study drawings created in Poland, as Gascar's stay in Poland is not confirmed in the sources.

The French painter Nicolas de Largillière, probably worked in Paris on the portrait of Franciszek Zygmunt Gałecki (1645-1711), today in the State Museum in Schwerin.

Also one of the most famous portraits in Polish collections - Equestrian portrait of Count Stanisław Kostka Potocki by Jacques Louis David from 1781 was created "remotely". A collection catalogue of the Wilanów Palace, published in 1834 mentioned that the portrait was completed in Paris "after a sketch made from life in the Naples Riding School". One of such modello or ricordo drawings is in the National Library of Poland (R.532/III).

It was the same for the statues and reliefs with portraits. Some of the most beautiful examples preserved in Poland were ordered from the best foreign workshops. Among the oldest and most beautiful are the bronze epitaphs made in Nuremberg by the workshop of Hermann Vischer the Younger, Peter Vischer the Elder and Hans Vischer in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, such as the epitaph of Filippo Buonaccorsi, called Callimachus, in Kraków, epitaph of Andrzej Szamotulski (d. 1511), voivode of Poznań, in Szamotuły, tomb of Piotr Kmita of Wiśnicz and of Cardinal Frederick Jagiellon (d. 1503), both at the Wawel Cathedral, and tomb of King Sigismund I's banker, Seweryn Boner and his wife Zofia Bonerowa née Bethman at St. Mary's Basilica in Kraków. Particularly splendid were the unpreserved Flemish funerary monument of Archbishop Janusz Suchywilk (ca. 1310-1382) in Gniezno Cathedral (sub lapide in Flandria per ipsum ad pompam preciose comparato), and that of Archbishop Wojciech Jastrzębiec (ca. 1362-1436) in Beszowa, commissioned in Bruges for the sum of 400 grivnas "in Prussian coin" (lapis iam paratus in Brugis). This was a very high sum, as the tombstone of Archbishop Jan Sprowski (ca. 1411-1464), made in Wrocław by the famous sculptor Jodok Tauchen, although partly cast with a silver mixture, was four times less expensive. For its production, transportation from Wrocław and installation in Gniezno Tauchen was to receive 172 florins (after "Polskie nagrobki gotyckie" by Przemysław Mrozowski, p. 59). Around 1687, "Victorious King" John III Sobieski ordered large quantities of sculptures in Antwerp from the workshop of Artus Quellinus II, his son Thomas II and Lodewijk Willemsens and in Amsterdam from the workshop of Bartholomeus Eggers for the decoration of the Wilanów Palace in Warsaw, including busts of the royal couple, today in Saint Petersburg. All of these statues and reliefs were based on drawings or portraits, possibly similar to the triple portrait of Cardinal Richelieu, made as a study for a bust to be made by the Italian sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini in Rome.

For the equestrian statue of Prince Józef Poniatowski (1763-1813), made between 1826 and 1832 and inspired by the statue of Marcus Aurelius in Rome, the Danish-Icelandic sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844), although he arrived from Rome to Warsaw in 1820, had to use other effigies of the prince. The initiator of the construction of the monument was Anna Potocka née Tyszkiewicz (1779-1867). The monument was confiscated by the Russian authorities after the November Uprising (1830-1831) and was returned to Warsaw in March 1922. After the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising, the Nazi German invaders ordered the statue to be blown up on December 16, 1944. A new cast of the sculpture, made in the years 1948-1951, was donated to Warsaw by the Kingdom of Denmark.

Some sources also confirm this practice. During his second stay in Rome, Stanisław Reszka (1544-1600), who admired the paintings by Federico Barocci in Senigallia or the work of Giulio Romano in Mantua, again buys paintings, silver and gold plates. He sends many works of this kind as gifts to Poland. To Bernard Gołyński (1546-1599) he sends paintings, including a portrait of the king and his own effigy and for King Stephen Bathory a portrait of his nephew. These portraits of the monarch and his nephew were therefore made in Rome or Venice from study drawings or miniatures that Reszka brought.

On another occasion, he sends eight porcelain "vessels" in a decorative casket to the king, purchased in Rome and to Wojciech Baranowski (1548-1615), Bishop of Przemyśl, a relief of St. Albert, carved in ebony. Through Cardinal Ippolito Aldobrandini (later Pope Clement VIII), papal nuncio in Poland between 1588-1589, he sends paintings purchased for the king, one of the Savior, embroidered "of the most excellent work" and St. Augustine, made of bird feathers, "the most beautiful" (pulcherrimum), as he says. To the royal secretary Rogulski, who came to Rome, he gives a silver inkwell, and the chamberlain of the chancellor Jan Zamoyski entrusts him with a precious stone to be repaired in Italy, but before that, Reszka consulted the Kraków goldsmiths. All of these objects, including the paintings, must have been the work of the best Italian artists, but names rarely appear in the sources.

In 1584, King Stephen's nephew, Andrew Bathory, with his companions, purchased and commissioned many exquisite items from Venice, including gold cloth with coats of arms, gold-embossed Cordovan (cuir de Cordoue) leather wallpapers, made by the goldsmith Bartolomeo del Calice. Another time he bought "12 bowls, 16 silver orbs" (12 scudellas, orbes 16 argenteos) from Mazziola and supervised the artist working on the execution of "glass vessels" (vasorum vitreorum). In Rome, they visit a certain Giacomo the Spaniard to see the "marvels of art" (mirabilia artis), where Bathory probably bought the trinkets and fine paintings, later shown to the delegates of the Jędrzejów Abbey.

Visitors from Poland-Lithuania gave and received many valuable gifts. In 1587, the Venetian Senate, through two important citizens, offered Cardinal Andrew Bathory, who came as an envoy of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth with the announcement of the election of Sigismund III, two silver basins and jugs, four trays and six candelabra "of beautiful work" (pulchri operis). The Pope gives two medals with his image to Rogulski, and a gold chain to Cardinal Aldobrandini. After returning to Poland, Cardinal Bathory gives Queen Anna Jagiellon a coral cross, received from Cardinal Borromeo, and a box of nacre (ex madre perla), receiving a beautiful, expensive ring in return.

Many artists were also engaged in Italy for the Commonwealth. King Stephen entrusts his nephew with the mission of bringing to the royal court architects who master the art of building fortresses and castles. Urged by the king, Reszka makes efforts through Count Taso, however, only a few months after his arrival he manages to get into the royal service Leopard Rapini, a Roman architect for an annual salary of 600 florins. On his way back to Poland, Simone Genga, architect and military engineer from Urbino, was admitted as a courtier in the presence of the Archbishop of Senigallia.

​We learn from Giorgio Vasari that Wawrzyniec Spytek Jordan (1518-1568), an art lover who frequented the thermal baths near Verona, was offered a small painting depicting the Deposition from the Cross, painted by Giovanni Francesco Caroto. Stanisław Tomkowicz (1850-1933) speculated that the Lamentation of Christ, inspired by Michelangelo's "Florentine Pieta" in the Biecz Collegiate Church, could be this painting. However, it is very likely that it was brought to Poland by a member of the Sułkowski family and its attribution to Caroto is rejected. Wawrzyniec, "a man of great authority with the King of Poland", according to Vasari, also brought to Poland-Lithuania the Italian sculptor Bartolomeo Ridolfi and his son Ottaviano, where they created numerous works in stucco, large figures and medallions and prepared designs for palaces and other buildings. Ridolfi was employed by King Sigismund Augustus "with honorable salaries" (Spitech Giordan grandissimo Signore in Polonia appresso al Re, condotto con onorati stipendi al detto Re di Polonia), but all his works were most likely destroyed during the Deluge. Bartolomeo Orfalla, a townsman from Verona, carried out exploratory drilling in the Spytek's estates to find salt similar to that mined in Bochnia and Wieliczka and Wawrzyniec's magnificent tombstone in the Church of St. Catherine and St. Margaret in Kraków was sculpted by Santi Gucci in 1603.

The funerary monuments preserved in churches that survived wars and accidental fires testify to the excellent artistic taste and wealth of the 16th century Sarmatians. They are also another example of effigies based on other liknesses, since most of them were executed after the death of the persons depicted in the statues. The best example is probably one of the oldest Renaissance funerary monuments in Poland - the so-called monument of the Three Johns in Tarnów Cathedral. This masterpiece of sepulchral statuary is attributed to the workshop of Bartolomeo Berrecci (ca. 1480-1537), an Italian architect and sculptor from Tuscany, who was active in Poland and died in Kraków. It was probably made around 1536, so several years after the death of the persons to whom it was dedicated. The monument was founded by Jan Amor Tarnowski (Joannes Tarnovius, 1488-1561) to commemorate his closest relatives, i.e. his father - Jan Amor Iunior (d. 1500), voivode and later castellan of Kraków, his half-brother - Jan (d. 1514/15), voivode of Sandomierz, and the founder's son, Jan Aleksander (d. 1515), who died in infancy. The sculptor had to receive the effigies of the deceased, painted or sculpted, to create the statues. To meet the high demand for such sculptures, like painters, sculptors and their workshops produced semi-finished products in the "shape" of figures, ready to be refined and given individual characteristics. A document dated January 15, 1545 mentions that a wax model of an "armed man" (sculpturam ceream effigiem viri armati habentem), on the basis of which stone funerary figures were probably sculpted, was destroyed in the workshop of Padovano (Giovanni Maria Mosca) in Kraków. The sculptor also later used wax models as mentioned in another document dated March 22, 1546 (statuas cereas alias ffizirinki). The wax models made it easier to make workshop replicas. In 1562, another Italian sculptor, Girolamo Canavesi, active in Kraków, appeared before the court sued by Katarzyna Orlikowa. He was accused of not having honored the contract, because the funerary statue of Stanisław Orlik in armor that he had made did not correspond to the agreements concluded with the deceased's wife (after "Nagrobek „trzech Janów” Tarnowskich ..." by Rafał Nawrocki, p. 496). The trial ended only in 1574, when the family accepted Canavesi's already satisfactory work. When the statue did not resemble the person who commissioned it or a deceased person, the sculptor often had to make a new one, which was connected with the need to use a new material, such as expensive imported marble or alabaster. In the case of paintings, they could be easily repainted by the author in place or by another painter in the case of imported images.

To attract clients and secure important commissions, painters from the major centers of European painting also traveled abroad. Coronations and royal weddings were events that generated a demand for new effigies: portraits commemorating the event, as well as those presented to dignitaries at home and sent abroad to friendly or allied courts. Based on the similarity with the print reproducing the portrait of the last elected monarch of the Commonwealth Stanislaus Augustus Poniatowski (1732-1798) and other works, the portrait of the king in a beautiful frame with his coat of arms in the Czartoryski Museum in Kraków (inv. MNK XII-363), is attributed to the Bolognese painter Ubaldo Buonvicini (1732-1799), or Bonvicini, perhaps a relative of Alessandro Bonvicino, known as Moretto da Brescia (d. 1554). The mentioned print by Johann Esaias Nilson (1721-1788) was made in Augsburg after a painting by Buonvicini, who made it in Warsaw (Bonvicini Warsov: pinx:), most likely on the occasion of the king's coronation in 1764. Buonvicini's stay in Warsaw was probably very short, as his presence in Bologna is confirmed in 1765 and 1766.

The Italians had many effigies of Polish-Lithuanian monarchs, many of which were forgotten when the Commonwealth ceased to be a leading European power after the Deluge (1655-1660). According to Maciej Rywocki's peregrination books from 1584-1587, written by the mentor and steward of the Kryski brothers from Masovia, during their three-year journey to Italy for study and education, in the Villa Medici in Rome, owned by Cardinal Ferdinando, later Grand Duke of Tuscany, in the gallery of portrait paintings, he saw "with all Polish kings and King Stephen and the queen [Anna Jagiellon] very resembling". This effigy of the elected queen of the Commonwealth, possibly by a Venetian painter, undoubtedly resembled the portraits of her dear friend Bianca Cappello, a noble Venetian lady and Grand Duchess of Tuscany. According to Stanisław Reszka, who was Ferdinando's guest in Florence in 1588, the Grand Duke owned a ritrat (portrait, from the Italian ritratto) of King Sigismund III Vasa and his father John III of Sweden. Reszka sent him a map of the Commonwealth made on satin on which there was also a portrait of Sigismund III (Posłałem też księciu Jegomości aquilam na hatłasie pięknie drukowaną Regnorum Polonorum, który był barzo wdzięczen. Tam też jest wyrażona twarz Króla Jmci, acz też ma ritrat i Króla Jmci szwedzkiego, a także i Pana naszego) (after "Włoskie przygody Polaków ..." by Alojzy Sajkowski, p. 104). A few decades earlier, Jan Ocieski (1501-1563), secretary of King Sigismund I, wrote in his travel diary to Rome (1540-1541) the information about a portrait of King Sigismund, which was in the possession of the cardinal S. Quatuor with an extremely flattering note: "this is a king like never before" (hic est rex, cui similis non est inventus), and "who is the wisest king, and the most experienced in dealing with things" (qui est prudentissimus rex et usu tractandarum rerum probatissimus), according to this cardinal (after "Polskie dzienniki podróży ..." by Kazimierz Hartleb, pp. 52, 55-57, 67-68).

The inventory of the Gonzaga collections of 1540-1542 mentions two clay figures, perhaps busts, of Sigismund I, "King of Sarmatia", and one of his wife Bona Sforza (items 6638-6640, una figura de Sigismondo re de Salmatia de terra cotta, in una scatola tornita; una figura de Sigismondo re di Pollonia, de terra, in una scatola tornita; una figura de Bona Sforcia regina de Pollonia, de terra, in una scatola, after "Le collezioni Gonzaga ..." by Daniela Ferrari, p. 313). It is also possible that these were busts of Sigismund I and his son Sigismund Augustus, who became king during his father's lifetime.

Bernardo Soderini (Italus Florentinus), who was a merchant in Kraków between 1552 and 1583, had in his villa in Montughi near Florence "three paintings of kings and queens of Poland" (tre quadri di re et regine di Pollonia, after "Lodovicus Montius Mutinensis ..." by Rita Mazzei, p. 37-38). Soderini made a great fortune in Poland and returned to Florence, where, besides a residence in Montughi, he owned a palace in Florence, the furnishing of which cost him 60,000 scudi, and his villa Castiglioncello had a circumference of about 27 miles.

The portrait of "Sigismund, King of Poland" (Sigismondo Re di Pollonia) appears first on the list of portraits of monarchs that belonged to Cosimo I de' Medici (1519-1574), before the kings of Spain, France, England and the emperors (Tavola de' ritratti del museo dell'illustriss. et eccellentiss. s. Cosimo, duca di Fiorenza e Siena, probably from the Giovio series, after "Le vite de' più eccellenti pittori ...", 1568, p. 324).

The inventory of the Ducal Garden Palace (Palazzo Ducale del Giardino) in Parma dating from around 1680 lists a "Portrait of Stephen the First [Stephen Bathory], King of Poland" in the dressing room next to the second bedroom (Un quadro alto br. 1. on. 8., largo br. 1. on. 2. e 1/2. Ritratto di Stefano Primo Re di Polonia, di ...) and the 1662 catalogue of paintings belonging to Cristoforo and Francesco Muselli of Verona mentions the portrait of the court jeweller of King Sigismund II Augustus - Giovanni Jacopo Caraglio (d. 1565) with a white eagle, now in Wawel Castle (inv. ZKnW-PZS 5882), without mentioning his name. Interestingly, this painting is now attributed to Paris Bordone, while in the Muselli collection it was considered "one of the most refined and beautiful by Titian" (de' più fiuiti e belli di Titiano, after "Raccolta di cataloghi ed inventarii inediti di quadri, statue, disegni ...", ed. Giuseppe Campori, p. 190, 297).

The situation was similar in other European countries. After the death of Ladislaus IV Vasa in 1648, Francesco Magni (1598-1652), lord of Strážnice in Moravia, ordered the portrait of the Polish-Lithuanian monarch to be moved from the representative piano nobile, a gallery with portraits of the Habsburgs, his ancestors, relatives, and benefactors, to his private room on the second floor of the castle (after "Portrait of Władysław IV from the Oval Gallery ..." by Monika Kuhnke, Jacek Żukowski, p. 75). The portrait of Queen Cecilia Renata of Austria (1611-1644) on horseback, purchased in 1899 from Walter Edmund Christmas-Dirckinck-Holmfeld (1834-1916) for the Danish National Historical Museum at Frederiksborg Castle, was long thought to depict Leonora Christina (1621-1698), Countess Ulfeldt, daughter of King Christian IV of Denmark and Kirsten Munk (after "Danske malede Portrætter ...", Volume 1, p. 162-163), until 1948, when Stanisław Lorentz (1899-1991) noticed that it was a copy of original painting or an engraving with a portrait of the Queen of Poland made in 1645 by Willem Hondius based on a painting by Peter Danckerts de Rij (after "Polski nowożytny portret konny i jego europejska geneza" by Mieczysław Morka, p. 104). The original portraits of King Ladislaus IV and Queen Marie Casimire, after which copies were made in the 18th century for the Ancestral Gallery (Ahnengalerie) of the Munich Residence, were considered to represent Charles X Gustavus of Sweden (CAROLUS X GUSTAVUS) and his granddaughter Ulrika Eleonora (1688-1741), Queen of Sweden (UDALRICA ELEONORA). In Hungary, a research by Szabolcs Serfőző published in 2021 reveals that the iconic painting depicting Ilona Zrínyi (Jelena Zrinska, 1649-1703), the heroine who defended Mukachevo Castle against the imperial army during the Thököly Uprising, does not depict Ilona, ​​but Queen Marie Casimire (Hungarian National Museum in Budapest, inv. 48). This portrait was probably acquired by Countess Elisabeth Rakoczi (1654-1707) in Kraków after 1684 (Egy képmás metamorfózisa ...). The style of the painting, although less elaborate, indicating the involvement of the painter's students, recalls the works of the most important portraitist active in the city at that time, Jan Tricius (1620-1692), comparable to the portrait of the queen in Wilanów Palace (inv. Wil.1584).

The backgammon board, carved in 1537 by Hans Kels the Elder and glorifying the Habsburg dynasty (Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, inv. Kunstkammer, 3419), can be cited as a good example from the earlier period. On this beautifully sculpted board the effigy of Ladislaus the Posthumous (1440-1457), King of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia and Duke of Austria, a member of the Habsburg dynasty, similar to the authentic effigies of this monarch made during his lifetime and coming from the family collections (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Ambras Castle, inv. GG 2984 and GG 4394), was mistakenly used as a portrait of Vladislaus II Jagiellon (1456-1516), King of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia (inscription: VLADISLAS · CAZIMIRI · POLONIAE · [...] HVNG · ET ·BOHEM · / · REX · 1517).

Probably since the 18th century, the inhabitants of the port city of Genoa, Italy, believed they possessed the original portrait of the famous Anne Boleyn, Queen of England from 1533 to 1536, attributed to Holbein or the school of Rubens. It wasn't until the 1960s that the British art historian Andrew Michael Jaffé (1923-1997) identified it as a copy of the portrait of Queen Anna Jagellonica (1503-1547), ancestor of many important European monarchs (after "La Galleria Nazionale di Palazzo Spinola a Genova" by Pasquale Rotondi, p. 26). This painting comes from the historical collection of the Palazzo Spinola in Genoa (inv. 47), where, in the inventory of Giacomo Spinola's possessions dating from around 1830, it is listed as "Anna Bolena in the style of Rubens" (Anna Bolena stile del Rubens). It is probably an early 17th-century copy, made by a Flemish painter, perhaps workshop of Jan Roos (1591-1638), of a portrait of the Bohemian-Hungarian princess painted in 1520 by Hans Maler (Guggenheim collection in New York, before 1931). The historical identification is therefore not entirely erroneous and was probably based on an original inscription on the painting, such as the one from 1520, or on a mention in an earlier inventory: ANNA REGINA.

​The general resemblance and "tradition" sometimes lead, even today, to surprising identifications. The early 17th-century portrait of a bearded dwarf woman Helena Antonia of Liège, lady-in-waiting to Archduchess Maria Anna of Bavaria (1551-1608) and her daughter Constance of Austria (1588-1631), Queen of Poland, with a German inscription confirming her name, was auctioned in 2024 under the title "Portrait of King Eric XIV of Sweden" (Oger & Blanchet in Paris, April 30, 2024, lot 23).

The massive destruction of the Commonwealth's heritage and post-war chaos also contributed to such mistakes in Poland. Thus, in the gallery of 22 portraits of the kings of Poland, painted between 1768 and 1771 by Marcello Bacciarelli to embellish the so-called Marble Room of the Royal Castle in Warsaw, King Sigismund II Augustus is Jogaila (VLADISLAUS JAGIELLO, inventory number ZKW/2713/ab) and son of Anna Jagellonica (1503-1547), Archduke Charles II of Austria (1540-1590) was presented as Sigismund II Augustus (SIGISMUNDUS AUGUSTUS, ZKW/2719/ab), according to the descriptions under the images. These portraits are copies of paintings by Peter Danckerts de Rij dating from around 1643 (Nieborów Palace, NB 472 MNW, NB 473 MNW, deposited at the Royal Castle in Warsaw), based on lost originals.

​During the Deluge (1655-1660), when the situation was desperate and many people expected the barbarian invaders to totally destroy the Realm of Venus - they plundered and burned the majority of the Commonwealth's cities and fortresses and planned the first partition of the country (Treaty of Radnot), King John Casimir Vasa, a descendant of the Jagiellons, turned to a woman - the Virgin Mary for protection. At the initiative of his wife Queen Marie Louise Gonzaga in the fortified city of Lviv in Ruthenia on April 1, 1656, he proclaimed the Virgin his Patroness and Queen of his countries (Ciebie za Patronkę moją i za Królowę państw moich dzisiaj obieram). Soon, when the invaders were repelled, the medieval Byzantine icon of the Black Madonna (Hodegetria) of Częstochowa with scars on her face, revered by both Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians, and already surrounded by a cult, became the holiest of all Poland. The fortified sanctuary of the Black Madonna at Bright Mountain (Jasna Góra) was defended from pillage and destruction by the armies of the "Brigand of Europe" in late 1655, a Ruthenian-style riza (robe) was made for the Virgin and adorned with the most beautiful examples of Baroque and Renaissance jewelry offered by pilgrims, a perfect illustration of the country's culture and its diversity.

​The main statue of the beautiful residence of the "Victorious King" John III Sobieski, who saved Vienna from plunder and destruction in 1683 - Wilanów Palace, except for the planned equestrian monument of the king, was not the statue of Mars, god of war, nor of Apollo, god of the arts, nor even of Jupiter, king of the gods, but of Minerva - Pallas, goddess of wisdom. It was most likely created by the workshop of Artus Quellinus II in Antwerp or by Bartholomeus Eggers in Amsterdam and placed in the upper pavilion crowning the entire structure. Unfortunately, this large marble statue, as well as many others, including busts of the king and queen, were looted by the Russian army in 1707. In "The Register of Carrara marble statues and other objects taken from Willanów in August 1707" (Connotacya Statui Marmuru Karrarskiego y innych rzeczy w Willanowie pobranych An. August 1707), it was described as a "Satue of Pallas [...] in the window of the room above the entrance to the palace, resting her right hand on a gilded marble shield with the inscription Vigilando Quiesco [In watching I rest]" (Statua Pallas [...] w oknie salnym nad weysciem do Pałacu podpierayacey ręką prawą o tarczę z Marmuru wyrobioną pozłocistą, na ktorey Napis Vigilando Quiesco). Later, it most likely decorated the Kamenny Theater in Saint Petersburg (demolished after 1886), which Johann Gottlieb Georgi described in his "Description of the Russian Imperial Capital ...", published in 1794: "Above the main entrance is the image of a seated Minerva made of Carrara marble, with her symbols, and on the shield: Vigilando quiesco".

​The fact that nothing (or almost) preserved does not mean that nothing existed, so perhaps even the stay of some or several great European artists in Poland-Lithuania is still to be discovered.

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

According to Ukrainian researcher Volodymyr Aleksandrovych, the icon of Our Lady of Victory, now housed in the Church of St. Nicholas in Gdańsk, may be the early work of the leading Venetian master of the mid-second quarter of the 14th century, Paolo Veneziano (literally "Paul the Venetian"), considered the first known major Venetian painter and the founder of the Venetian school of painting (after "Istoriya Lvova [History of Lviv]", Volume 1, p. 96-97). Venetian art, including Veneziano's work, was heavily influenced by Byzantine artistic styles due to Venice's dominant position as a trading hub and its close ties with Byzantium. Bernard Berenson (1865-1959) describes Veneziano as "nearly as Byzantine as if trained and working at Constantinople" (after "Italian Pictures of the Renaissance, Venetian School", Volume 1, p. 127).

Strong inspiration from Byzantine art can be seen, for example, in the large lunette-shaped panel above the funerary monument of Doge Francesco Dandolo (d. 1339) in the Frari Church in Venice. It depicts Doge Francesco and Dogaressa Elisabetta Contarini, accompanied by their namesake patron saints, kneeling before the enthroned Virgin with Child. The sculpted scene on the front of the sarcophagus depicts the Dormition, a favorite iconography of Byzantine culture.

Created around the 1340s (or the early 15th century according to other hypotheses), the icon of Our Lady of Victory comes from the Dominican monastery in Lviv. It was brought to Gdańsk in 1946 by friars leaving the city. It was probably commissioned or purchased by the Dominicans of Lviv, although legend has it that the miraculous icon was presented to the Order in 1260 by Constance of Hungary, wife of Leo I of Galicia, King of Ruthenia and Grand Prince of Kyiv. Other researchers believe it may have originated from the Serbo-Macedonian circle or the Galician Ruthenia region. The icon was kept in the Corpus Christi Church in Lviv, first in the Chapel of St. Michael, and later in the Chapel of St. Mary Magdalene. In 1604, it was transferred to the renovated Chapel of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Like the similar icon of the Black Madonna of Częstochowa, the Lviv icon was also considered an authentic image of the Virgin Mary painted by Saint Luke. It is said that it later fell into the possession of the court of the Rurik princes in Kyiv, who held it in special veneration. They used to take the miraculous image with them to war and, thanks to Mary's intercession, they always returned victorious. Hence the traditional name of the image: Our Lady of Victory.

The icon could be a copy of a lost Byzantine or Italo-Byzantine Hodegetria. A similar icon is the Our Lady of Peace (Madonna della Pace), a Byzantine icon brought to Venice in 1349, now preserved in the Dominican Church of Venice (Santi Giovanni e Paolo), in the chapel where there is also a large painting of Saint Hyacinth Crossing the Dnieper, the work of Leandro Bassano. Another similar icon is the Madonna by Berlinghiero Berlinghieri, the leading painter of the Tuscan city of Lucca, created in the 1230s (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv. 60.173). A very similar icon, in terms of composition and not the painter's style, is in the National Museum in Warsaw, attributed to a Macedonian or Byzantine workshop (inv. IK 52, from the collection of Stanisław Neyman in Geneva).

If the icon currently kept in Gdańsk was commissioned abroad by Dominicans from Lviv or other Ruthenian patrons, its style could also have been imposed by them. In Kraków, there is a fragment of the croce dipinta (Painted Cross), considered to be a work by Paolo Veneziano from the early period, strongly inspired by traditional icon painting, although its style is different (National Museum, tempera and gold on panel, 60.7 x 43.5 cm, inv. MNK XII-A-666). The fragment was acquired in 1978 and its early provenance is unknown. Although it is assumed to have been created for an Italian church, it cannot be ruled out that it was an early import from the Venetian Republic to Poland (destroyed in later times as a result of war, fire, or neglect).

According to Igor Mytsko, it is more likely that the Dominican icon is the work of a Bohemian painter, compared with the Madonna of Březnice, created in 1396, and the Madonna of Roudnice, painted after 1380, and that it is connected with the patron of the Dominican monastery, a certain Nicolaus Bohemus ("Nicholas of Bohemia", after "Svyata ikona Petra Ratenskoho" [Holy Icon of Peter of Rata], October 1, 2013). This Lviv burgher, presumably from Bohemia, allocated considerable sums for the construction of the monastery premises and the central nave of the church, as well as for the chapel of St. Michael. On December 12, 1406, he made a donation for the construction of a chapel in honor of the Annunciation and Assumption of the Virgin Mary, Saint Wenceslaus, Blessed Procopius and Erasmus, whose relics were procured by the said Nicolaus Bohemus.

In any case, the Lviv icon reveals strong influences from Central European Gothic painting, particularly in the way the crown and the hand of the Virgin were painted, as well as from Italian painting, through its color palette and its inspiration from Italian painters such as Berlinghieri. It thus testifies to the great syncretism of art at the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries in Red Ruthenia and Galicia, then part of the Kingdom of Poland. If the icon was indeed an import, made abroad for a Ruthenian patron, it is one of the oldest paintings of this type preserved in Poland.

​Icon of Our Lady of Victory by a Bohemian or Venetian (?) painter, turn of the 14th and 15th centuries, St. Nicholas Church in Gdańsk.

​Fragment of a Painted Cross by Paolo Veneziano, 1330s, National Museum in Kraków. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

"A large painting from His Majesty King Casimir in a box. Sub letter R. This image is of the Blessed Virgin, the Lord Jesus standing in front of her on a table covered with a carpet, there is a jug with flowers and behind him a beautiful landscape" (Obraz niemały od Krola Je° Mći Kazimierza w Puzdrze. Sub litera R. Ten Obraz iest Nayswiętsza Panna Pan Jezus przed nią stoi na stole Kobiercem przykrytym, y Dzban z Kwiatami i zanim pękny Lanszawt), this is how the inventory of the collection of paintings belonging to the influential Helena Tekla Lubomirska née Ossolińska (1622-1687), written in Wiśnicz on January 28, 1678 after the death of her husband, describes the painting which was offered to her by the last Vasa on the Polish-Lithuanian throne John II Casimir (1609-1672), descendant of the Jagiellons (National Archives in Kraków, Sanguszko Archive, WAP nr 201, p. 28). Helena Tekla put her signature under this entry, indicating that the painting may have been given to her directly by the king, perhaps shortly after his abdication and before departure for France in 1668. The king took many of his possessions, including those he had inherited from his ancestors and which he managed to evacuate during the Deluge (1655-1660). Many of these belongings were later sold in Paris in 1673. He also offered paintings to different monasteries (several paintings were given to the Visitandines Monastery in Warsaw) and friends. The Lubomirska's painting was probably destroyed during the Great Northern War (1700-1721) or during the great fire of Wiśnicz Castle in 1831.

Nothing more is known about this painting, but the description indicates that it was an Italian painting from the turn of the 15th-16th centuries, since such depictions with a standing Child are the most typical of Italian Renaissance painting. A somewhat similar composition was painted by Pinturicchio in the late 15th century, now in the National Gallery, London (tempera on panel, 53.5 x 35.5 cm, NG703), decorated with the coats of arms of the patrons, but this painting is rather small. At that time, larger Madonnas were "produced" in Venice. For example, the Virgin and Child enthroned with an oriental carpet, made by Gentile Bellini around 1475-85, in the same collection, is much larger (oil on panel, 121.9 x 82.6 cm, NG3911), as well as the Madonna and Child blessing, painted in 1510 by his brother Giovanni, today at the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan (oil on panel, 85 x 115 cm, inv. 298, signed lower left: IOANNES / BELLINVS / M D X). Given Poland-Lithuania's contacts with Venice during the Renaissance, as well as those with the Bellini workshops, it is quite possible that the painting offered by John Casimir was created in their workshop.

When I saw for the first time in November 2023 the painting by Giovanni Bellini, acquired by Wawel Castle, Virgin and Child in front of a green curtain and a landscape (oil on panel, 74.6 x 57.3 cm, ZKnW-PZS 10475, signed lower center: IOANNES BELLINVS P), I was struck by the great resemblance of the woman represented as the Virgin to Queen Elizabeth of Austria (1436/7-1505), wife of Casimir IV Jagiellon (1427-1492). In the effigy we can see a similar shape of the nose and protruding lower lip as in the later copy of the queen's effigy in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (GG 4648) and in the portrait of her son Sigismund I in Gołuchów Castle (Mo 2185).

The painting was also exhibited at the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania in Vilnius in 2024. What a coincidence that one of the most important female monarchs of Central Europe returned to Poland and Lithuania after several centuries of oblivion. This painting has probably never been here before, although we cannot exclude that other versions were in Poland-Lithuania. The sad thing about all this is that I seem to be the only one who noticed it. It is difficult, though, to believe in resemblance and an intuition, when it is not explicitly confirmed in the sources or in the painting itself (inscription, coat of arms) and experts say that it is not a portrait.

It should be noted, however, that the general context and symbols are enough to identify the models in the paintings, but when it comes to Poland-Lithuania, it seems that many researchers want to believe that it was an artistic desert, especially before 1655-1660 and as regards the royal heritage. In recent years, research has revealed that the National Gallery of Victoria's "Portrait of a young man" (inv. 1587-5), attributed to Dosso Dossi or his younger brother Battista, is not a man at all but Lucrezia Borgia (1480-1519), daughter of Pope Alexander VI, called by a Venetian chronicler Girolamo Priuli (1476-1547) "the greatest courtesan of Rome" (Lucrezia la piú gran cortigiana che fosse in Roma, after "Lucrezia Borgia: La sua vita e i suoi tempi" by Maria Bellonci, p. 124). It contains symbolic references to Venus and the ancient Roman heroine Lucretia.

The oldest known provenience of the Wawel painting is the collection of Henry Woods (1822-1882) or his son William at Warnford Park, Hampshire (compare "De la propriété de la Fondation collection Château de Rohoncz", p. 14) or the Moroni collection in Milan (a copy?), reported in 1934 (Fototeca Zeri, Numero scheda 28285) and although it is not confirmed, such a splendid painting was most likely owned by important patrons, such as the Tudor dynasty in England or the Sforza family that ruled Milan when the painting was executed in the late 15th or early 16th century. 

Portraits were part of diplomacy since the beginnings of portraiture as a distinct domain (portraits sent to allies, potential brides or grooms, influential family members abroad etc.) and the contacts of Poland-Lithuania with the Kingdom of England and with the Duchy of Milan are very old. In 1469, Alexander Soltan, son of the Ruthenian Orthodox boyar from Lithuania, visited England. He was sent there as an envoy of Casimir IV. The purpose of his trip was political negotiations and King Edward IV presented him with a gold chain. In December 1468, before arriving in England, Soltan was at the court of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan, who recommended him to other rulers in a special document. Nearly two decades earlier, on August 4, 1450, the English King Henry VI had granted Casimir the Order of the Garter. Nicolaus von Popplau (Mikołaj z Popielowa), described as a Silesian born in Wrocław, who visited England in 1484, as well as several other European countries in the years 1483-1485, stated that "the English also do not regret spending a lot on feasts and a comfortable life, but they are not equal in this respect to the Poles" (after "Mikołaj z Popielowa" by Xawery Liske, p. 6), which gives an idea of ​​the material status of Poland-Lithuania at the end of the 15th century. While in England it is not difficult to find traces of the country's wealth, such as numerous portraits of the queens of England - Elizabeth Woodville (d. 1492) or Elizabeth of York (1466-1503), what happened to the heritage of Poland-Lithuania?

The painting is compared to very similar composition painted by Giovanni Bellini in 1487 - Madonna of the Small Trees (Madonna degli alberetti), which takes its name from the two poplar trees standing symmetrically on the sides of the green curtain which forms the backdrop to the group of the Virgin and Child, now kept in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice (oil on panel, 71 x 58 cm, inv. 596, signed lower center: IOANNES BELLI ... / 1487). The Madonna of the Small Trees was gifted with other works by the aristocrat Girolamo Contarini, a member of one of Venice's founding families, in 1838, so it had probably been in the city since its creation and perhaps represents a member of the Contarini family. Another Contarini - Ambrogio (1429-1499), left a description of the court of Casimir IV during his visit to Poland-Lithuania in 1474 and 1477.

The painter used the same set of study drawings for both compositions (Madonna of the Small Trees and the Wawel painting), changing only a few elements. Besides the trees in the background - poplar in the Madonna of the Small Trees and perhaps a chestnut tree or an oak at the beginning of winter in the Wawel painting, which undoubtedly has an important symbolic meaning, color of the child's hair, he notably changed the face of the Madonna. The lips, nose and eyebrows are different - she's definitely a different woman. If the Madonna was not a portrait, why did the painter change the face of a woman? Especially to the image with less classic features? He already had a beautiful model for his Madonna of the Small Trees, why look for another?, especially for a painting which probably left Venice shortly after its creation (possibly sent as a diplomatic gift).

Each Madonna should be unique and the majority of Bellini's Madonnas are unique. Patrons paid to have a unique image, which is another indication that Wawel painting was not intended for Venetian customers, otherwise two Venetian noble families would have very similar paintings representing two different women. The Bellini workshop was very popular, so the artist and his students had to work quickly to meet the number of orders. This, however, means that they must rely on the reuse of other compositions. In the Madonna and Child with Saint Paul and Saint George in the same gallery (Gallerie dell'Accademia, inv. 610), which comes from the collection of Count Bernardino Renier, member of another old Venetian family, offered in 1850, they borrowed some elements from the Madonna of the Small Trees, notably the woman's face.

In the 16th century, Italian paintings reached as far as China, as evidenced by the Chinese Salus Populi Romani - The Madonna Scroll by Tang Yin (1470-1524), now in the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago (inv. 116027). In the context of disguised portraits, it is possible that this fashion also reached China with other Christian images, so the Madonna Scroll could in fact be a portrait of a member of the imperial family or an aristocrat disguised as a Madonna or Guanyin. 

Disguised portraits or cryptoportraits (kryptoportrety), from the Greek word kryptós meaning hidden, concealed, have been known in Polish literature on the subject since at least the mid-20th century and among the best known is the portrait of Jogaila of Lithuania (King Ladislaus II Jagiello) as one of the Biblical Magi in the triptych of Our Lady of Sorrows (Wawel Cathedral), the portrait of his descendant King Sigismund I as one of the Three Kings in the prayer book of the Chancellor of Lithuania Albertus Gastold/Vaitiekus Gostautas (University Library in Munich) or the Mystical marriage of Saint Catherine with the disguised portrait of Katarzyna Franciszka Denhoffowa née von Bessen (d. 1695), mistress of King John II Casimir Vasa, represented as Saint Catherine of Alexandria (compare "Dzieje sztuki polskiej ..." by Janusz Kębłowski, p. 143). Such representations have origins in ancient times (e.g. the sculptural self-portrait of Phidias on the shield of Athena Parthenos, as described by Plutarch, which depicts him naked in battle against the Amazons) and they often had additional meaning.

One of Giovanni Bellini's best-known portraits - the portrait of Fra Teodoro of Urbino in the National Gallery, London (on loan from the Victoria and Albert Museum, L1115), painted in 1515 (M D XV), is in fact a disguised portrait. It represents the monk of the Dominican monastery of San Zanipolo, located not far from Bellini's workshop, with the attributes of Saint Dominic. The painting from Giovanni Bellini's workshop, now in the Khanenko Museum in Kyiv (panel, 93.5 x 77 cm), described in the "Introduction", is most likely a copy of a painting made in 1469 depicting the Byzantine princess living in Rome Sophia Palaiologina (d. 1503), mother of Helena of Moscow (1476-1513), Grand Duchess of Lithuania and Queen of Poland. The original painting was brought to Moscow by the Venetian merchant Giambattista della Volpe (alias Ivan Fryazin), who, accompanied by a certain Pole, stopped off in Venice on his journey from Russia to Rome. The theory that della Volpe was also accompanied by a member of Bellini's workshop on his trip to Rome and took with him drawings of the Byzantine princess, which were transformed into paintings in Venice, is very likely in this case - one painting was taken to Moscow and copies may have been sent to the Pope, to Sophia's family or to other important courts in Europe. According to sources, Sophia's effigy "was written [painted] on the icon". It is also possible that the princess's "face" was "pasted" into a previously painted painting or a painting ​created while waiting for the drawings of her face from Rome, as in the case of a later painting by Cranach of the daughter of Elizabeth of Austria, Elizabeth Jagiellon (1482-1517), now in the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest (inv. 4328), also identified by me.

More and more disguised portraits, many of which have been forgotten since the time of the Council of Trent (1545-1563), which indirectly prohibited such representations ("there be nothing seen that is disorderly, or that is unbecomingly or confusedly arranged, nothing that is profane, nothing indecorous", after "The Canons and Decrees ..." by James Waterworth, p. 236), are currently being rediscovered, such as the portrait of a lady as Saint Lucy by Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio, painted around 1509 (Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, inv. 52 (1934.44)), portrait of a young woman as Saint Agatha by Giovanni Busi Cariani, painted between 1516-1517 (National Galleries Scotland, NG 2494) or portrait of a lady as Saint Agatha (probably Giulia Gonzaga), painted by Sebastiano del Piombo in Rome in the early 1530s (National Gallery, London, NG24), although the exact identity of many of these effigies still remains a mystery. "This painting, then, is not only a religious painting but also a portrait, bringing together in one canvas two categories of early modern image making that have long been understood as not only distinct but binarily opposed to each other", comments Adam Jasienski on the portrait of a woman in the guise of Saint Barbara from the first half of the 17th century (after "Praying to Portraits", p. 1-2). Church reformers could not openly prohibit such depictions, as this tradition largely concerned Europe's most powerful ruling dynasties, such as the Habsburgs and Medici. The woman with the jewelled headband, depicted as Madonna and Child, painted by Ercole de' Roberti, court painter of the Este family in Ferrara, between 1490-1496 (The Art Institute of Chicago, 1947.90), bears a strong resemblance to the effigies of Beatrice d Este (1475-1497), Duchess of Bari and Milan, who, on January 18, 1491, in Pavia, married Ludovico il Moro (1452-1508), regent of Milan. Some popes and other church officials also lent their features to images of saints (Pope Leo X as Saint Pope Leo I in the Meeting of Leo the Great and Attila by Raphael or the Supper of Saint Gregory the Great with portrait of Pope Clement VII by Giorgio Vasari).

Many of these rediscovered disguised portraits can still be found in the temples for which they were painted or offered, such as Descent of Christ into Limbo with many contemporary portraits (Alessandro Allori as Isaac, Costanza da Sommaia as Judith), painted by Bronzino in 1552 (Medici Chapel at the Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence), Mystical marriage of Saint Catherine with the disguised portraits of counts of Silvano Pietra, painted by Lucrezia Quistelli della Mirandola in 1576 (Chiesa Santa Maria e San Pietro in Silvano Pietra, compare "In mostra a Milano la pala di Silvano Pietra" by Maurizio Ceriani), Adoration of the Magi with portraits of King Sigismund III Vasa, his son Prince Ladislaus Sigismund and their courtiers from the second quarter of the 17th century (Church of St. Nicholas and St. Lawrence in Dłużec near Olkusz, compare "W asystencji, w przebraniu ..." by Jacek Żukowski, p. 21) or mentioned triptych of Our Lady of Sorrows (Holy Cross Chapel at the Wawel Cathedral).

Certain works by Giovanni Bellini, his workshop, his entourage or followers are present in different collections of the former Poland-Lithuania. A painting by Bellini is also linked to the Jagiellons - Lamentation of Christ, painted after 1475, which was located before the Second World War in the Kaunas Cathedral (oil? on wood, 90 x 74 cm). This painting was probably donated by King Alexander Jagiellon (1461-1506), son of Elizabeth of Austria, in 1503, and mentioned in the 1522 inventory of the Kaunas parish church made by Canon Joannes Albinus (Imago Depositionis de Cruce Domini Jesu Christi in assere, erecta a quo et quamdiu in hac ecclesia est, non constat, solum varij sexus hominum linguis et testimonijs fertur ab 80 plus minus annis in liac parochiali ecclesia existere ..., after "Viešpaties Jėzaus Kristaus apraudojimo ..." by Laima Šinkūnaitė, p. 156-158). While it should be noted that the Kaunas painting was a version of a painting generally attributed to the Florentine school (Davide Ghirlandaio and Bastiano Mainardi), the compositions were nevertheless frequently copied at that time by different painters, especially if they contained disguised portraits.

​In Kaunas there is also the Virgin and Child with Saint John the Baptist by the circle of Giovanni Bellini from the beginning of the 16th century (National Museum of Art, ČDM MŽ 1549) and in Kraków there is the Virgin with the Blessing Child by Giovanni Bellini from around 1480 (Czartoryski Museum, MNK XII-202). The latter painting comes from the Czartoryski collection and was mentioned in a register of paintings from their collection published in 1914 (compare "Galerja obrazów: katalog tymczasowy" by Henryk Ochenkowski, p. 37, item 158). The paiting was attributed to pupil of Giovanni Bellini, Niccolò Rondinelli (d. 1520), active mainly in Ravenna, similar to his composition in the Indianapolis Museum of Art (24.6) and repeating the Bellini's composition from Madonna and Child with St. John the Baptist and St. Anne or St. Elizabeth in Städel Museum (inv. 853) and another version from Fonte Avellana Monastery, now in the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche (inv. 643). Two similar Madonnas are in the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin (inv. III.126 and B.12). Earlier provenance has not been established, so an acquisition in the late 15th century and a provenance from the royal collection of Polish-Lithuania can be considered.

The Holy Family from the collection of the architect Stanisław Zawadzki (1743-1806), today kept in the Church of Saint Catherine of Alexandria in Rzeczyca, is attributed to the circle of Giovanni Bellini (compare "Nieznane aspekty biografii architekta Stanisława Zawadzkiego" by Ryszard Mączyński, p. 72-73), but it is another version of a painting attributed to Francesco Bissolo, a student of Bellini, now kept in the Crema Cathedral.

Aleksander Przezdziecki (1814-1871) provides some information on Queen Elizabeth's Italian connections in his article on the queen published in 1852. According to this author, Juan Andrés y Morell (1740-1817), director of the Royal Library of Naples, had a manuscript with the following title: Elisabeth Alberti secundi Imperatoris filia nupta Casimiro IV Poloniae Regi, Hungariae et Bohemiae haeres nata A. D. 1439, denata 1505, hanc institutionem conscripsit filio suo Wladislao Hungariae, Bohemiaeque Regi clarissimo ("Elizabeth, daughter of Albert the Second Emperor, married to Casimir IV, King of Poland, heiress of Hungary and Bohemia, born A. D. 1439, died in 1505, wrote this document to her son Wladislaus, the most serene king of Hungary and Bohemia"). The manuscript, written in beautiful and elegant Latin, had 140 pages and was acquired from the library of Pope Pius VI (1717-1799) by a citizen of Naples.

In the former Habsburg collections in Vienna there is another manuscript under the title Helisabetha Poloniae Regina Wladislao Pannoniae, Воhemiaeque Regi, filio Carissimo S. P. D. De Institutione Regii Pueri, written by the queen (Austrian National Library, Cod. 10573). This small manuscript of 138 pages is decorated with a double coat of arms of Bohemia and Hungary on the first page and the crowned letters W and A (Wladislaus, Anna), undoubtedly belonging to Elizabeth's son King Vladislaus II Jagiellon (1456-1516), king of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia. In this manuscript, written after September 1502 and before July 1503, before the expected childbirth of her daughter-in-law, Vladislas's second wife, Anne of Foix-Candale (1484-1506), Queen Elizabeth sends her son advice on the upbringing of the child, whom she calls a son and calls by her favorite name - Casimir. However, her premonition was wrong, because instead of a son, a daughter, Anna Jagiellonica, was born (July 23, 1503).

The queen advises her eldest son: "Casimir, your father, congratulated himself and considered it a blessing that he had with him Callimachus [Filippo Buonaccorsi], the Italian poet, who taught you and your other brothers Latin literature" and "Casimir, your father, praised the custom of the Italians, who used to eat three or at most four kinds of dishes and add water to their wine; and he did not attribute this moderation in life to stinginess, as many people understand, but to temperance, the most beautiful virtue and care for health". She also adds that "Alexander, also your brother and the invincible King of Poland, who recently gave a certain young man as many pieces of gold and a beautiful horse for twenty-four poems published in his praise, shines with a similar generosity" and that "Often, in my presence, Callimachus told of a cardinal who was killed in the night by his bedchamber servant, simply because he never looked at him with a cheerful eye". "If Casimir and Albert [King John I Albert (1459-1501)] had not treated Callimachus generously and graciously, I don't think any memory of them would have come down to posterity. And you, if you despise the wisdom of scholars, consider what will happen to you after death!", she further praises the court poet (who commissioned portraits in Venice) basing the fame of her husband and son on his activities. She also mentions the Venetian diplomat Sebastiano Giustiniani (1460-1543), who was ambassador to the court of Vladislas for three years: "a learned and prudent man, I heard that he praises your seriousness in a strange way" and advises that the boy should learn Italian and German, in addition to Polish, French and Hungarian. The predominance of Italian and Venetian influences in this single document is astonishing.

The queen also references ancient mythology, heroes and poets, such as Venus and her son Cupid, Artemis (Diana), Aeneas, Alexander the Great and Homer (p. 15 and 18 of the original manuscript), among others.

Przezdziecki, praising the style of the manuscript and its "foreign elegance", speculates that it was not the queen herself who was the author, but her courtiers, supposedly one of the Florentines or other Italians, companions of Callimachus, many of whom were at the court of the Polish kings of the time, such as Arnolfo Tedaldi, to whom Callimachus dedicated his "Elegies of Love", Collenuccio da Pesaro, Ottaviano Calvani di Gucci, who wrote a letter in Italian on the death of Callimachus and Bernardino Galli, author of verses on Callimachus' tombstone. He also describes the wealth of the court of Casimir IV Jagiellon and the richness of the costumes, that in 1487 Elizabeth had a satin dress embroidered with pearls (Vestem ex athlassio et margaritis) and that Jakub Dembiński (1427-1490), chancellor in 1469, ordered from Florence silk fabrics for King Casimir, woven with gold, as evidenced by his letter to Lorenzo de' Medici, preserved in the Medici archives in Florence (after "O królowej Elżbiecie żonie Kazimierza Jagiellończyka ...", p. 524-527, 536, 543-547). 

Elizabeth was born in Vienna in 1436 or 1437 as the daughter of Duke Albert V of Austria (1397-1439), later king of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia and king of the Romans from his union with Elizabeth of Luxembourg (1409-1442), the daughter of Emperor Sigismund (1368-1437). After death of their parents Elizabeth and her brother Ladislaus the Posthumous (1440-1457) were raised in the court of Frederick III (1415-1493), son of Cymburgis of Masovia (d. 1429). Frederick's secretary, Enea Silvio Piccolomini (1405-1464), future Pope Pius II, had an impact on their education and mentioned Juvenal, a Roman poet and author of the collection of satirical poems, as one of the authors for the young Ladislaus to study.

Her marriage to Casimir was happy, although when he first saw Elizabeth he did not want to marry her. The queen also exercised some political influence. She gave birth to 13 children to her husband and thus she is known as the Mother of the Jagiellons and the Mother of Kings (Elizabeth regina Polonia mater plurium regum), because four of her sons became kings and Elizabeth's daughters, through their marriages, were associated with important ruling dynasties.

Among the few artistic foundations of Queen Elizabeth that have been preserved, we can count the finest examples of late 15th and early 16th century art, such as the late Gothic tombstone of Casimir IV Jagiellon by Veit Stoss and Jörg Huber, made between 1492-1496, and the gold reliquary for the head of Saint Stanislaus by Marcin Marciniec, made in 1504, as well as the tombstone of King John Albert, created by Jörg Huber around 1502 and the niche sculpted by Francesco Fiorentino between 1502 and 1505, considered the first fully Renaissance work in Poland, all in Wawel Cathedral. In January 1504, Wojciech Krypa from Szamotuły (d. 1507), who had obtained his doctorate in Padua a year earlier, was appointed by King Alexander as his mother's physician (Albertus de Schamothuli, physicus regine Polonie Elizabeth).

Based on examination of her skeleton discovered in 1972, scientists concluded that the queen suffered from a spinal abnormality, as well as a deformed skull and protruding teeth. Her known effigies confirm that an important feature of her face was prognathism, visible in the miniature in Vienna, in a woodcut from the so-called Łaski's Statute (Commune incliti Poloniae Regni privilegium ...), published in Kraków in 1506 and showing her as a progenitor of the Jagiellons, engraving with her portrait (Elisabetha, Imperatoris Alberti II filia, Casimiri Jagellonidis Uxor), made by the Flemish engraver Gilliam van der Gouwen in 1684 after an original from the second half of the 15th century (National Library of Poland, G.9796), representing her in a costume typical of European fashion of the time, and in a portrait taken from the family tree of Emperor Maximilian I, lithograph from 1820 by Joseph Lanzedelly after the original painting from 1497 by Konrad Doll (Austrian National Library). Protruding lower lip is also a feature visible in effigies of Elizabeth's father, Albert V.

Van der Gouwen reproduced in his engravings several authentic effigies of Polish queens, including Bona Sforza (National Library, G.9659), Anna Jagiellon (G.9592), Anna of Austria (G.9590), Constance of Austria (G.10005), Cecilia Renata of Austria (G.9691), Marie Louise Gonzaga (G.10189), Eleonora Maria Josepha of Austria (G.9795/III) and Marie Casimire d'Arquien (G.10178). They were published in Królewiec in Regni Poloniæ Ius Publicum by Mikołaj Chwałkowski, dedicated to Frederick William (1620-1688), Elector of Brandenburg, from whose collection the original portraits of the Polish queens probably originated (in Poland, the majority of such effigies were destroyed during the Deluge). The engraver reproduced the original effigies with great fidelity, as evidenced by the costumes. Since Elizabeth's costume is typical of the late 15th century, and those of the other queens are also consistent, there is no reason to believe he altered them. Consequently, the original portrait of the queen was one of the earliest depictions of pearl earrings, which became popular in the 16th century (symbolizing the Virgin Mary and Venus). The author of this portrait could be, as with that of Elizabeth Radziwill, née Sakovich (d. 1547), the painter Michel Sittow.

The queen undoubtedly gave her features to the Madonna in the scene of the Adoration of the Magi from the triptych of Our Lady of Sorrows in the Holy Cross Chapel (Wawel Cathedral), painted by Stanisław Durink around 1484. Facial expression with partially closed eyes looking down, resembles Bellini's painting. The Virgin from the Annunciation scene in the mentioned triptych is also strikingly similar. It is also worth noting a great resemblance to the features of Elizabeth's mother in a miniature from the same series in Vienna.

The conclusion of a Latin poem written in her honor by an Italian poet, included by Elizabeth in her De Institutione Regii Pueri, also fits perfectly as a conclusion and summary for the description of this disguised portrait: "No mortal person receives such fame, such honors, You must be a Goddess!" (Non capit has laudes, non tot mortalis honores, / De superis aliquam te decet esse Deam!). Certainly, it was not only in poems that the great queen was a divine being.

​Annunciation with disguised portrait of Queen Elizabeth of Austria (1436/7-1505) by Stanisław Durink, ca. 1484, Wawel Cathedral.

Portrait of Queen Elizabeth of Austria (1436/7-1505), the "Mother of Kings" (Mater Regum), as Madonna and Child in front of a green curtain and a landscape by Giovanni Bellini, after 1487, Wawel Royal Castle.

​Portrait of the Byzantine princess Sophia Palaiologina (died 1503) as Madonna and Child with a view of Rome by workshop of Giovanni Bellini, ca. 1469 or after, Khanenko Museum in Kyiv.

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Queen Elizabeth of Austria (1436/7-1505) by Michel Sittow, early 1490s, lost. © Marcin Latka

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The portrait of the Ruthenian-Lithuanian noblewoman Elizabeth Sakovich (d. 1547), of Pomian coat of arms, depicting a lady in late 15th-century costume, embroidered with pearls and jewels, and wearing a Byzantine-style crown, is also very interesting. This portrait is known from an 18th-century engraving by Hirsz Leybowicz and is probably the oldest reproduction of a portrait per se related to medieval Poland-Lithuania-Ruthenia (ELISABETH ANNA NASILOWSKA Ducissa MEDELENSIS ... from Icones familiæ ducalis Radivilianæ ...). The artist of the original painting, preserved in the Radziwill collection until Leybowicz's time, was probably a painter connected with the royal court, representing the Gothic style, although the frontal representation may have been inspired by Byzantine painting. Nothing is known about the original painting, which was probably lost by the end of the 18th century.

Elizabeth was the daughter of the boyar Bohdan Sakovich (d. 1491), voivode of Trakai from 1484, adopted by the Pomian clan. Probably before 1492, she married Nicholas II Radziwill (1470-1521), nicknamed Amor Poloniae. According to a short biography of her in the Leibowicz print, she died in Vilnius in 1547. A similar frontal representation of the sitter is found in a portrait in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, executed around 1514 and attributed to Sittow (inv. GG 5612, identified as Mary Rose Tudor, sister of Henry VIII of England, depicted with a halo around her head). If the portrait of Elizabeth Sakovich was painted in Vilnius in the early 1490s, or commissioned from there in the Netherlands, it was most likely painted by Sittow.

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

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

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

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

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Elizabeth Radziwill née Sakovich (d. 1547) by Michel Sittow, early 1490s, lost. © Marcin Latka

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

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

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

​The envoy of the Republic of Venice, Signor Ambrogio Contarini (1429-1499), confirms the influences of Callimachus at the Polish-Lithuanian court: "On the 10th day (April 1474) I arrived in the land called Lublin. It is quite arable and has a decent castle where four of the king's sons stayed. [...] And they lived there in a castle with a very enlightened teacher who raised them. [...] One of them welcomed me with a short speech, as honorable and reasonable as one could ask for, and they showed extraordinary respect for their master". On his return from Persia, three years later, Contarini was again lavishly received by the king at Trakai in Lithuania and during the farewell, "the king charged me with greeting the most illustrious Signoria of Venice from His Majesty, and he added many kind words, and bade his sons speak to me in the same way" (after "Matka Jagiellonów" by Karol Szajnocha, p. 21, 23).

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

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

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

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

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

The Kraków copy is also considered to be a work by a 17th-century Flemish painter. It was probably framed in the first half of the 19th century in a neoclassical frame and covered with a glossy varnish, which makes correct attribution difficult. It is exhibited in the museum together with other notable copies from the Czartoryski collection, such as the copy of the Virgin and Child with Saint Anne by Albrecht Dürer (original in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv. 14.40.633) and a copy or rather a version, due to some differences, of the Portrait of a lady by Giovanni Ambrogio de Predis (original in the Ambrosiana, inv. 100), which according to the most recent research could be the effigy of Anna Maria Sforza (1476-1497), wife of Alfonso d'Este (1476-1534), aunt of Queen Bona Sforza.
​
The same man, although younger, was depicted in a painting attributed to Italian school, sold in Rudolstadt in Germany (oil on panel, 36 x 29 cm, Auktionshaus Wendl, October 29, 2022). His outfit, cap and hairstyle closely resemble those seen on the bronze medal with bust of Giovanni Bellini, created by Vittore Gambello and dated to about 1470/1480. The man stands in front of a curtain, which gives a view of a mountainous landscape. Inscription in English on verso on old adhesive label "The Portrait of Antonio Lanfranco ... at Palermo by J. Bellini", seems unreliable, because Jacopo Bellini, the father of Bellini brothers, died in about 1470 and no such inhabitant of Palermo who might have commissioned his portrait in Venice is mentioned in the sources. The style of this painting is close to workshop of Giovanni Bellini.

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

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

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

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

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

Portrait of Filippo Buonaccorsi, called Callimachus (1437-1496) holding a red carnation by workshop or follower of Michel Sittow, after 1488, Czartoryski Museum. ​Virtual reconstruction, © Marcin Latka

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

​The inventory of the sale of the possessions of King John II Casimir Vasa (1609-1672), great-grandson of Queen Bona Sforza (1494-1557), on February 15, 1673  in Paris, mentions "A painting representing a Virgin in glory, with a king below who adores her, and a Saint John, original" (after "Vente du mobilier de Jean-Casimir en 1673" by Ryszard Szmydki, item 458). This painting was probably destroyed during the French Revolution.

Such depictions were typical of Renaissance painting, and a somewhat similar painting with an adoring donor, attributed to the Florentine painter Raffaellino del Garbo (1466-1524), was in the Potocki collection before World War II, most likely in Łańcut Castle, evacuated to the United States around 1939 ("For Peace and Freedom. Old masters: a collection of Polish-owned works of art ...", item 29, National Library of Poland, DŻS XIXA 3a). The painting from the Potocki collection depicted the Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saint James the Great, Saint Catherine of Alexandria, Saint Mary Magdalene, Saint Francis of Assisi and donor and was auctioned in New York in 1981 (tempera on panel, 179 x 155 cm, Christie's, June 12, 1981, lot 108). Federico Zeri (1921-1998) attributed this painting to Michele Ciampanti, an Italian painter active mainly in Lucca between 1463 and 1510 (Fototeca Zeri, Numero scheda 15488). 

Interestingly, the kneeling donor from Potocki painting resembles the well-known portraits of Charles VIII (1470-1498), King of France between 1483-1498, who invaded Italy with his army in 1494. The facial features and costume are reminiscent of the portraits of the French monarch preserved in the Condé Museum (inv. PE 576) and the Palace of Versailles (inv. MV 3101), as well as the miniatures: Saint Michael appearing to Charles VIII (Bibliothèque nationale de France - BnF, Français 14363, folio 3 recto) or Charles VIII presented by Charlemagne and Saint Louis to the celestial assembly (BnF, Vélins 689, folio 1 recto). Charles VIII was frequently depicted wearing the golden collar of the Order of Saint Michael, composed of scallop shells, also known as shells of Saint James (the insignia of pilgrims, particularly those to Santiago de Compostela), linked with double knots. These knots are visible on the hat of the donor in Potocki painting. The latter is presented to the Virgin and the other saints by Saint James the Great, carrying a banner adorned with a scallop shell.

The previous provenance of the painting from the Potocki collection is unknown, so the painting could be related to the royal collection of Sarmatia and constitute a diplomatic gift to King John I Albert (1459-1501), who succeeded his father as King of Poland in 1492.

Taking into account the described contexts, the painting sold in Paris in 1673 could depict King John I Albert, whose patron was Saint John, and its probable author was the workshop of the Venetian painter Giovanni Bellini (d. 1516).

​Hypothetical reconstruction of a painting depicting the Virgin in glory with Saint John the Baptist and King John I Albert Jagiellon (1459-1501) as donor by workshop of Giovanni Bellini, ca. 1492-1501, lost. AI-generated image with my corrections, © Marcin Latka

​Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saint James the Great, Saint Catherine of Alexandria, Saint Mary Magdalene, Saint Francis of Assisi and King Charles VIII of France (1470-1498) as donor from the Potocki collection by Raffaellino del Garbo or Michele Ciampanti, ca. 1494-1499, Private collection. 

​The image of king Casimir IV Jagiellon (1427-1492) reproduced in an engraving by Tomasz Treter (1547-1610), produced in Rome before 1591 (KASIMIRVS IIII., Regum Poloniae icones, Ossolineum in Wrocław), was undoubtedly based on a painted effigy of the king created during his lifetime. It was probably based on a portrait from the collection of Cardinal Stanisław Hozjusz (1504-1579) or on study drawings made in Sarmatia. As an example, the engraving depicting Casimir's father, Jogaila of Lithuania (Ladislaus II Jagiellon) from this cycle, was either inspired by a Ruthenian-Byzantine fresco in the chapel at Lublin Castle, where the king was shown as a donor kneeling before the Virgin Mary, or by another similar image from the first quarter of the 15th century. A similar depiction of Casimir was used by sculptors Veit Stoss and Jörg Huber to create the effigy on his tombstone in Wawel Cathedral between 1492 and 1496. The portrait sculpted on the tombstone is mirrored (according to European and Polish tradition, the king was to hold an orb in his left hand and a scepter in his right) and, like the Treter engraving, it was very likely based on the same now-lost prototype. The composition of Treter's effigy is reminiscent of the portrait of a Benedictine Abbot of 1484 (Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid, inv. 325 (1934.17)), attributed to Jan Polack (Johannes Polonus, d. 1519), active in Bavaria. This painter, probably from Kraków, is believed to have arrived in Bavaria in 1475 in the wedding procession of Hedwig Jagiellon (1457-1502), daughter of Casimir IV, who married George the Rich (1455-1503), Duke of Bavaria-Landshut. The portrait of Sigismund of Bavaria (1439-1501), Duke of Bavaria-Dachau, painted around 1480 (Alte Pinakothek in Munich, inv. 4488), and the image of Saint Augustine on a panel in the Diocesan Museum of Freising, are also comparable.

Polack likely established his workshop in Munich around 1480. Earlier, a certain Hanns Polack was documented in Kötzting, Lower Bavaria, as a supplier to the army of Albert IV (1447-1508), Duke of Bavaria-Munich, which is cited to support the claim that Jan was not a Pole, but a painter from Bavaria (see "Jan Polack. Von der Zeichnung zum Bild, Malerei und Maltechnik in München um 1500" by Peter Bernhard Steiner, Claus Grimm, p. 11). Nevertheless, as early as 1472, Duke Albert IV sought the support of the Jagiellonian dynasty in his struggle against the von Degenberg family and his younger brother, Christopher (1449-1493), who was backed by the emperor. During the summer of that same year, the Duke of Bavaria-Munich concluded an alliance with Casimir IV in Kraków - August 12, 1472 (after "Kazimierz Jagiellończyk, zbiór studiów o Polsce drugiej połowy XV wieku" by Marian Biskup, Karol Górski, p. 290). In early 1473, he also sent two of his advisors to Poland.

Painters active in Kraków, such as Stanisław Durink, undoubtedly followed not only the Western European fashion for disguised portraits, but also that of classical portraits. Today, however, nothing has been preserved from this activity (or is waiting to be discovered). The portrait of Alexander Jagiellon (1461-1506), son of Casimir IV, Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1492 and King of Poland from 1501, reproduced in an engraving by Treter from Regum Poloniae icones, could be the work of a local painter. This effigy closely resembles the disguised portrait of Alexander on the panel of the Miracle of Saint Simeon Stylites in the Polyptych of Saint John the Merciful, which I identified in May 2019 (National Museum in Kraków, inv. MNK ND-13/e). The polyptych is probably the work of Jan Goraj (mentioned in sources between 1489 and 1516 under the names Johannes Gorajsky, Gorayczyk, Goray, Goraycik, Geraycyk). Commissioned by Mikołaj de Brzezie Lanckoroński (d. 1520), treasurer to King Alexander, it was intended for the family chapel in St. Catherine's Church in Kraków and was completed before October 31, 1504 (mentioned in a document from Bishop Jan Konarski dated that year). The scene depicts the conversion of the Saracen king by Simeon Stylites, a 5th-century Christian saint venerated in both the Orthodox and Catholic Churches.

In January 1501, King John I Albert appointed Mikołaj Lanckoroński envoy to Constantinople. On his return journey, following news of the king's death, Mikołaj was detained in Wallachia and placed under the guardianship of the Moldavian hospodar Stephen III (d. 1504) until the accession of Alexander, the deceased king's brother, to the Polish throne. In 1503, Lanckoroński entered the service of the Royal Treasury chancery. The portrait of the king, concealed under a disguise, could be linked to an unsuccessful attempt to obtain a vacant castellan title or other office, or it could refer to the king's wife, Helena Ivanovna of Moscow (1476-1513), daughter of the Byzantine princess Sophia Palaiologina (d. 1503), who was not crowned Queen of Poland because of her Orthodox faith (she nevertheless officially took the title of queen – signature Elena, regina Poloniae in a letter from Minsk dated September 28, 1502). Several other scenes in the polyptych undoubtedly also contain disguised portraits of dignitaries from King Alexander's court, including that of the founder, while the weeping lady, dressed in a rich costume, a low neckline and a pearl necklace, in the scene of the Miracle at the Patriarch's tomb, could be the portrait of Mikołaj's wife, Katarzyna Stadnicka, of the Drużyna coat of arms.

In 1497, Goraj acquired half of the house on Grodzka Street (part of the Royal Route used by Polish kings to travel to Wawel Castle) from the pictrix (painter) Dorota Filipowa and set up his own workshop there with apprentices. In 1502, during the reign of King Alexander, he received 30 florins for his work in the so-called Hen's Foot (pro pictura in Curzonoga) at Wawel, and in the same year, 11.5 grzywnas pro pictura imaginum for the high altar and other paintings intended for the Church of St. Catherine of the Augustinians. In 1506, Goraj took out a loan from the daughter of Casimir IV, Princess Elizabeth Jagiellon (1482-1517). In 1512, he created a painting for Mikołaj of Koprzywnica, parish priest of Książnice Wielkie, and in 1515, several paintings for the Norbertine monastery of Imbramowice. In 1516, he painted a picture commissioned by Marcin Rakowski and his wife Jadwiga (after "Gotyckie malarstwo tablicowe Małopolski, 1460-1500" by Jerzy Gadomski, p. 21, 38, 87, 96). Joachim Libnaw von Drossen, active in Kraków from 1496 to 1526, who was paid in 1502 for the creation of three images for the church of St. Catherine: St. Andrew, St. John and 11,000 virgins and who, around 1508, probably painted a triptych (tabulae imagines) for this church founded by Margaret of Krnov (d. 1508), Duchess of Zator, called Machna Zatorska, is also considered as a possible author of the polyptych described (after "Polski słownik biograficzny", Volume 11, p. 246). Goraj and Libnaw appear in the accounts of the Augustinian convent from 1502 to 1509 and it is possible that they cooperated, as in 1524, when Johannes pictor with Joachim Libnaw undertook to paint a triptych for Andrzej Krzycki, Bishop of Przemyśl.

It is interesting to note that Polish painters, such as Franciszek Polak, Mikołaj Polak, Jan Polak, Łukasz Polak, and Maciek of Kraków, appear in the early 16th-century guild book of the Old Town in Prague, the capital of Bohemia. Among them, a certain Stanisław Goraj stands out: admitted as a master in 1503 and a citizen of the Old Town from 1510. He may have been a relative of the Kraków painter Jan.

If Goraj or Libnaw (either one, or both) were the authors of the painted prototype of the portrait of Alexander Jagiellon, copied by Treter, they were very likely also the authors of a portrait of his wife reproduced as a woodcut, published in Kraków in 1521 in De Iagellonvm familia liber II. The original painted effigies were very likely destroyed during the Deluge.

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the ​portrait of King Casimir IV Jagiellon (1427-1492) by Jan Polack, ca. 1490, lost. © Marcin Latka

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the ​portrait of King Alexander Jagiellon (1461-1506) by Jan Goraj or Joachim Libnaw, ca. 1501-1506, lost. © Marcin Latka

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the ​portrait of Queen Helena Ivanovna of Moscow (1476-1513) by Jan Goraj or Joachim Libnaw, ca. 1501-1506, lost. © Marcin Latka

​Miracle of Saint Simeon Stylites with disguised portrait of King Alexander Jagiellon (1461-1506), from the Polyptych of Saint John the Merciful by Jan Goraj or Joachim Libnaw, ca. 1501-1504, National Museum in Kraków.

​Miracle at the tomb of the Patriarch with disguised portrait of Katarzyna Stadnicka (?), from the Polyptych of Saint John the Merciful by Jan Goraj or Joachim Libnaw, ca. 1501-1504, National Museum in Kraków.

Stephen III (ca. 1433-1504), the longest-reigning and most prominent ruler of medieval Moldavia, ruled in very difficult times, fighting and maneuvering various powers in the region. In 1459, after an unsuccessful campaign against Poland, he signed a treaty recognizing the suzerainty of Casimir IV Jagiellon.
​
When King Matthias Corvinus died unexpectedly on 6 April 1490, Casimir's sons Vladislaus and John Albert and Maximilian I, King of the Romans vied for the Hungarian and Croatian crown. Stephen sided with Maximilian and remained loyal to him even after Vladislaus' election (July 15, 1490). Vladislaus was able to gain the throne with the financial support of Matthias Corvinus' ambitious widow, Beatrice d'Aragona of Naples (1457-1508), who initially wanted to take power for herself, but, realising her unpopularity, supported Vladislaus to rule the country in place of Matthias's illegitimate son, John Corvinus. In October 1490, Vladislaus secretly married her, but the ceremony was deliberately accompanied by several formal errors, so after consolidating his power, Vladislaus divorced her. After the union was made public, it caused a scandal because the new king was already formally married to Barbara of Brandenburg (1464-1515). After a long procedure, Pope Alexander VI Borgia finally dissolved and annulled both of Vladislaus' marriages on April 7, 1500.

With the support of Beatrice, as well as the Hungarian lords, Vladislaus (King of Bohemia since 1471), was crowned king on September 21, forcing Maximilian to withdraw from Hungary. It was only after the Peace of Bratislava, concluded by Maximilian with Vladislaus (November 7, 1491), that Stephen recognised the new king of Hungary and Croatia, who ceded him two castles in Transylvania in 1492.

In the Belvedere Gallery in Vienna there is an interesting painting from the late Gothic and early Renaissance periods (oil on panel, 97 x 59 cm, inv. 4870). It was purchased in 1916 by the Austrian State Gallery in Vienna and was previously in Berlin in the collection of Friedrich Lippmann (1838-1903), a German art historian born and raised in Prague, capital of Bohemia. The painting depicts the scene of the Adoration of the Magi with Mary and the infant Jesus venerated by the Three Wise Men from the East. One of the biblical Wise Men, the crowned man on the right, has the features of Maximilian I Habsburg. His crown is not an imperial corona clausa but an open royal crown, so this effigy was created before his election as emperor in 1508. This effigy is very similar to many of his portraits created by Bernhard Strigel, and Maximilian also wears the collar of the Burgundian Order of the Golden Fleece. Behind the King of Rome is his father, Emperor Frederick III (1415-1493). Both were depicted as Saints Melchior and Caspar in a similar scene of the Epiphany by the Master of Frankfurt (The Phoebus Foundation). Although Frederick's effigy may be part of his son's campaign before his imperial election, which is why the painting is dated to around 1505-1508, it is also possible that it was created during Frederick's lifetime, i.e. before 1493. The inclusion of these two obvious cryptoportraits indicates that the scene has additional meaning.

Such "disguise", intended to convey additional meaning to those familiar with the context and symbolism, was popular at the time and is best illustrated by the splendid diptych of the Judgement of Cambyses by the Early Netherlandish painter Gerard David, commissioned in 1488 and completed in 1498 (Groeningemuseum in Bruges, inv. 0000.GRO0040.I-0041.I). It depicts the arrest and flaying of the corrupt Persian judge Sisamnes on Cambyses' orders, based on Herodotus' "Histories". The corrupt judge bears the likeness of the deposed mayor Pieter Lanchals, who betrayed the city of Bruges to Maximilian I and was executed as a conspirator (after "Encyclopedia of Comparative Iconography ..." ed. edited by Helene E. Roberts, p. 457).

The author of the Vienna painting, whose name is unknown, is considered to be from North Tyrol, but some similarities can nevertheless be found in late Gothic painting from the territories of present-day Slovakia and Hungary, such as the painting of the Adoration of the Child from the Spisska Kapitula in Slovakia from the 1480s (Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest, inv. 55.917.2). It is also generally accepted that his works show strong influences from contemporary trends in Netherlandish painting and that he was active between 1490 and 1520. Because of the painting depicting disguised portraits of Habsburg rulers, this painter is known as the Master of the Habsburgs (Meister der Habsburger) and apart from the Adoration, the Madonna and Child, also in the Belvedere in Vienna, can be attributed to him with certainty. Other works are in the Staatsgalerie Burghausen in Bavaria (Saints Christopher and Sebastian, inv. 10401), two religious paintings in the Tyrolean State Museum, the Ferdinandeum in Innsbruck (inv. Gem 1058 and Gem 1516) and another Madonna and Child attributed to the same master is in the Museo Correr in Venice (inv. CL.M.0237). The painter could therefore be an itinerant painter who worked for some time at the Innsbruck court of Maximilian I, so that neither his stay in Buda nor even his Hungarian origins can be excluded.

The Madonna and Child in the Belvedere (panel, 55 x 43.5 cm, inv. 4954), comes from the collection of Baron di Pauli in Brixen and closely resembles the effigy of the Virgin from the Adoration of the Habsburgs and it is the Virgin and the old man kneeling before her who are the main protagonists of this scene. The Madonna is dated around 1490. Two other protagonists are missing from the Adoration of the Habsburgs - Saint Joseph on the left and the third of the Magi on the right. They were cut either because of the poor condition of these parts of the painting or for some other reason, such as the desire to destroy the controversial image, which is very possible in this case. If these effigies represented Maximilian's "adversaries" around 1490, Vladislaus II Jagiellon was most likely one of the Three Kings on the right and Matthias Corvinus was Saint Joseph, so the Virgin Mary is the effigy of Beatrice of Naples. She wears a similar thin black headband in her hair in her crypto-portrait by Cranach in Opatów. Maximilian looks at "Vladislaus" and points to Corvinus' widow as if he approves of the new king of Hungary and his marriage to Beatrice. 

One of the biblical Magi, Saint Balthazar, traditionally referred to as the King of Arabia, is often, but not always, depicted as a black man, sometimes associated with Muslims in Gothic and Renaissance art of this period (compare the paintings in the National Museum in Warsaw, Śr.254 MNW and Śr.94 MNW). Was the Hungarian king therefore depicted as the enemy of the Habsburg Empire and Christianity? If the painting was commissioned by the Habsburgs and this part of the painting was cut not because it was damaged, this would be a logical explanation.

The old man kneeling before the Queen of Hungary is therefore the prince (or voivode) of Moldavia Stephen III, who was almost 60 years old if we assume that he was born in 1433 and the painting was painted in 1492. The man is wearing a rich princely costume in eastern style and his hat is decorated with a princely crown. On his hat there is also a beautiful brooch with a white bird, perhaps an eagle and perhaps a reference to the sovereignty of Poland.

The same old man can be identified in another painting now preserved in Vienna (Kunsthistorisches Museum, panel, 58.5 x 45 cm, inv. GG 6905). It represents the Crucifixion and was painted by Lucas Cranach the Elder at the beginning of the 16th century, when the 30-year-old painter was staying in the capital of Austria. In the foreground on the right, three horsemen can be seen in the place traditionally reserved for unbelievers in medieval paintings. One of them wears a large, typically Ottoman turban. The old man, thus Stephen III, raises his hand as if making a gesture of approval of the crucifixion of Christ. His costume was identified as typically Polish of the time by Fedja Anzelewsky, who also concluded that Cranach must have been in Kraków before coming to Vienna (after "Studien zur Frühzeit Lukas Cranachs d.Ä.", p. 125). 

The earliest confirmed provenance of this painting is the inventory of the Scottish monastery in Vienna from 1800, where it is listed as a work by Lucas van Leyden. The painting may have originally belonged to the Habsburgs or people in their circle, the main patrons of the relatively young Cranach in Vienna. Corpses of people lie beneath the riders and a hyena gnaws at bones. The sex-changing and corpse-eating hyena has mainly pejorative connotations in medieval art, as a symbol of greed and malice and sexual aberration (after "Marks of Distinctions: Christian Perceptions of Jews in the High Middle Ages" by Irven M. Resnick, p. 50-51). The commissioner of the painting clearly wanted to portray the Moldavian voivode negatively, and the events of 1503, when Cranach was probably still in Vienna (he moved to Wittenberg in 1504), provide an explanation. That year, the general peace between the Sultan and Christendom was concluded in Buda, which officially recognized Moldavia's vassal status, and Stephen III agreed to pay an annual tribute of 4,000 gold ducats to the Porte. In this context, the third horseman in Cranach's painting - the man in the yellow hat and red cloak - could be the effigy of the Hungarian King Vladislaus II Jagiellon.

Such negative portrayals of Eastern rulers were nothing new in Habsburg circles. The best example are the crypto-portraits of Vlad III the Impaler or Vlad Dracula (1428/31-1476/77), voivode of Wallachia, regardless of his reputation, made by various painters active in Austria in the 1460s and 1470s. Vlad Tepes, with his characteristic long hair, moustache and pearl cap, was depicted as an unbeliever in the Crucifixion of Christ from around 1460 (Maria am Gestade Church in Vienna), as Pontius Pilate in the scene of Christ before Pilate by the Master of the Velenje Panels from around 1460 (National Gallery of Slovenia in Ljubljana, inv. NG S 1176), as the proconsul Aegeus who ordered the crucifixion of Saint Andrew in a painting of the Martyrdom of Saint Andrew by the Styrian painter from around 1470 (Belvedere Gallery in Vienna, inv. 4974) and as a Roman soldier in the group of Christ's enemies in the Crucifixion of Christ from the circle of the Master of the Schotten Altarpiece from around 1475 (Belvedere Gallery in Vienna, inv. 4975) (compare "Dracula in Hermannstadt?" by Thomas Schares, p. 68-69). Most of the "standard" portraits of Tepes were made well after his death in the 16th and 17th centuries – for example the paintings in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (inv. GG 8285) and in Forchtenstein Castle (inv. B 523).

There are no known effigies of Stephen III in Western European painting. Most of his portraits are idealized images inspired by Byzantine painting, such as the one in the Dobrovat Monastery founded in 1503 and completed the following year, in which he is depicted as a young man in traditional costume. A gilded silver censer donated by Stephen to the Putna Monastery and dated April 12, 6978 (1470) is decorated with Gothic motifs. The inscription around this censer in the local language indicates that it was most likely made by a local craftsman inspired by Western European motifs. It may also have been commissioned in Transylvania or in Lviv. As a vassal of Poland, he undoubtedly also dressed in the Polish style, as in the painting by Cranach. A late 19th century imaginative drawing by Sava Hentia (1848-1904), depicting the death of Stephen III, shows a very similar bearded old man.

​Portrait of Beatrice d'Aragona of Naples (1457-1508) as Madonna and Child by Central European painter, ca. 1490-1492, Belvedere Gallery in Vienna.

​Adoration of the Magi with crypto-portraits of Beatrice d'Aragona of Naples (1457-1508) and Stephen III (ca. 1433-1504), Prince of Moldavia by Central European painter, ca. 1492, Belvedere Gallery in Vienna.

​Crucifixion with crypto-portrait of Stephen III (ca. 1433-1504), Prince of Moldavia by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1503, Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

"Over the door of an apartment in the said palace he portrayed the Signora Giulia Farnese in the countenance of a Madonna, and, in the same picture, the head of Pope Alexander in a figure that is adoring her" (In detto palazzo ritrasse, sopra la porta d'una camera, la signora Giulia Farnese nel volto d'una Nostra Donna; e nel medesimo quadro, la testa d'esso papa Alessandro che l'adora), describes the fresco titled "The Divine Investiture" by Pinturicchio Giorgio Vasari (compare "Regesto dei documenti di Giulia Farnese" by Danilo Romei, Patrizia Rosini, p. 357 and "Le vite de' più eccellenti pittori, scultori e architetti" by Giorgio Vasari, Volume 5, National Library of Poland, 50.750, p. 269). 

According to this description, published in 1568, this controversial fresco represented Giulia Farnese (1474-1524), mistress of Pope Alexander VI Borgia (1431-1503) and sister of Pope Pope Paul III Farnese (1468-1549), in the guise of the Madonna, in the scene of a intimate encounter of Pope Alexander and the Virgin Mary holding the Child Jesus. The Pope, kneeling before them, held the foot of the Child in his left hand, and little Jesus, holding a globus cruciger (cross-bearing orb), confirmed Alexander's authority in a gesture of blessing. Like other frescoes in the so-called Borgia Apartments of the Vatican Apostolic Palace, this one was also painted by Pinturicchio, painter active at the Vatican court under five popes, between 1491 and 1494 and the effigy of Borgia resembled his portrait in prayer in the fresco in the Room of the Mysteries of Faith (The Resurrection), kneeling at the feet of Christ.

The pope wanted this family picture right in front of his bed where he could see it well, above the door that led to the dressing room. Upon his death, Julius II, does not want to sleep in the same bedroom with the work considered scandalous in front of his eyes. The new pope then commissioned Raphael to paint the upper rooms where he went to reside. The Borgia apartments were closed, no one could enter there except a very few absolutely trustworthy.

Around 1612 the Duke of Mantua, Francesco IV Gonzaga (1586-1612), receives the news from his ambassador that the legendary fresco really exists and is hidden in the Vatican. After bribing a guardarobiere valet with a pair of silk stockings, his ambassador Aurelio Recordati manages to have the fresco, hidden with a piece of cloth, revealed and Pietro Facchetti, the painter and copyist, then makes a copy on canvas and sends it to Mantua. The Duke thus finds himself in the hands of a rather inconvenient testimony for the rival Farnese family, Dukes of Parma and Piacenza. 

Pope Alexander VII (1599-1667), after his inauguration, wanted to erase all traces of the infamous Borgia, in particular the much incriminated fresco, but his nephew prevented him from doing so. Rather than being destroyed, the work is removed by detaching the entire portion of the wall. The scene was divided into 3 parts, while the effigy of Alexander VI was certainly destroyed. The two parts, one with the Child Jesus and that of the Madonna, Chigi takes home to his personal collection at Palazzo Chigi, separated from each other by other works to disguise the recognition. And so it was for centuries, until in 1940 they were rediscovered in the Chigi collection and again after 2004 (compare "Il Bambin Gesù delle mani del Pinturicchio" by Isabella Ceccarelli).

Giulia, a symbol of Renaissance beauty, that the populace called "the pope's concubine" (concubina papæ) or "the bride of Christ" (sponsa Christi) because of her well-known relationship with the pontiff, was married to Orsino Orsini, a relative of Alexander VI, on May 20, 1489, at the age of fifteen, in the palace of then Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia. The relationship between Giulia and Alexander VI could have been instrumental in the cardinal appointment for her brother, who later became pope under the name Paul III.

The fresco in Borgia's bedroom was surely not the only effigy of Madonna Giulia Farnese (old Italian phrase ma donna means "my lady"). Researchers identify her effigies, or Vannozza Cattanei (1442-1518), chief mistress of Cardinal Borgia before he became pope, among the images of the Virgin in the Borgia Apartments, such as a tondo with the Virgin and Child with cherubim, scenes of Annunciation and Visitation. The effigy of Saint Catherine of Alexandria in the scene of the Dispute of Saint Catherine (Hall of the Saints) is considered to represent Pope Alexander VI's daughter Lucrezia Borgia (1480-1519), while the Mystical Marriage of Saint Catherine in the Vatican Museums (MV.40314.0.0) is most likely another disguised portrait of the pope's daughter as Saint Catherine and his mistress as the Virgin.

Our Lady of the Fevers (Mare de Déu de les Febres) by Pinturicchio kept at the Museum of Fine Arts of Valencia (inv. 273), painted around 1495, should also be considered as Giulia's cryptoportrait. The painting was commissioned by Francisco de Borja (1441-1511), a relative of the pope, depicted as a donor kneeling before the Virgin and Child, to send to the family chapel of the collegiate church of Xativa in Spain, perhaps to celebrate his appointment as Bishop of Teano (Campania) in 1495. It includes the Borja/Borgia coat of arms with the typical bull (on a stool on which the Child stands), which is also a dominant motif of the Borgia Apartments. The painting was sent to Spain between 1497 and 1499 from Rome.

Such disguised effigies, originating in antiquity, were certainly not a novelty in the Vatican. Many frescoes in the Borgia Apartments are directly inspired by the Roman statuary and one of the oldest mosaics from the St. Peter's Basilica - Mater Misericordie (Our Lady of Mercy) is most likely a disguised portrait of the Byzantine empress and wife of Emperor Justinian - Theodora (d. 548), a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church, allegedly a former prostitute, known for her promiscuity. The mosaic comes from the Oratory of the Holy Door, built in 703 by Pope John VI, a Greek from Ephesus who reigned during the Byzantine Papacy (VETVSTA HÆC DEI GENITRICIS IMAGO, IN VATICANA BASILICA SVPRA PORTAM SCAM / ORATORIO OLIM A IOHANNE VII PONT-MAX SAL ANNO DCCIII CONSTRUCTO DIV SERVATA / ATQ. AD HVNC DIEM RELIGIOSISSIME CVLTA ...). It was removed in 1606, today in the Church of San Marco in Florence. The Madonna della Clemenza (Our Lady of Clemency), an encaustic painting on panel, in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere in Rome, possibly commissioned by the Greek-born Pope John VII, is another similar effigy.

Pope Alexander VI was very active in European international relations. In a bull Inter cætera published on May 4, 1493, he divided the world outside Europe between Spain and Portugal by drawing a vertical line between the north and south poles. He encouraged the King of France in his plan to conquer Naples and even attempted to ally himself with the Ottoman Sultan Bayazid II. In Poland-Lithuania, the pope, known for his extremely promiscuous lifestyle and illegitimate children, ordered King Alexander Jagiellon (1461-1506) to confiscate the dowry and belongings of his wife Helena of Moscow (1476-1513), who refused to convert to Catholicism, and even "exclude her from the bed, home and any marital community" (compare "Jagiellonowie: leksykon biograficzny" by Małgorzata Duczmal, p. 254). Fortunately for the ruler, Erazm Ciołek obtained a rescission of Pope Alexander's orders to convert her from the next pope, Julius II, in August 1505. 

Such extensive international relations were undoubtedly accompanied by portraits. The counterparts were not only interested in the effigy of the pope, but also in the effigies of his family. Rodrigo Borgia undoubtedly had an interest in ensuring that the effigies were well distributed to his allies in Europe and Rome, as well as to members of his family and his entourage. A well-known portrait of Alexander VI in the Vatican Museums (oil and gold on panel, 40 x 29 cm, MV.40463.0.0) is a good example. The painting comes from the collection of Cardinal Stefano Borgia (1731-1804), member of the collateral branch of the House of Borgia of Velletri, so it was probably a family heirloom (since 1805 in the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, n. 185). The style of this painting is clearly Spanish for the second half of the 15th century, it is thus conditionally attributed to a Spanish painter, whose stay in Italy is highly possible (and therefore the meeting with the pope) - Pedro Berruguete (d. 1504) or the Valencian School, as the pope was also Valencian (Valentinus - his epithet indicating his birth in the Kingdom of Valencia). It is speculated that Berruguete, a painter from the Kingdom of Castile, travelled to Italy in 1480 and worked in the court of Federico III da Montefeltro in Urbino, however he appears documented in Toledo in 1483, while the portrait of the pope can be dated between August 11, 1492 and August 18, 1503, the period of his pontificate.

The style of the painting, with stucco reliefs and gold leaf in the background, is very similar to the painting kept in the National Art Museum of Catalonia in Barcelona depicting the Consecration of Saint Augustine, painted around 1463-1470/ 1475 (inv. 024140-000). This large painting, undoubtedly filled with several cryptoportraits of the local clergy, is attributed to the Catalan painter Jaume Huguet, who died between February 14, 1492, the date on which he made his will, and the month of May of the same year, when his wife is listed as a widow. The Consecration of Saint Augustine comes from the altarpiece of Saint Augustine, commissioned by the Guild of Tanners in 1463 from Jaume Huguet, but it was completed in 1486 and required the participation of several members of the Huguet workshop, as well as members of the Vergós group, to which another similar painting from this cycle is attributed - Saint Augustine disputing with the heretics (inv. 024141-000).

Although it cannot be excluded that members of the Vergós group, such as Pau Vergós (died 1495), Rafael Vergós (died 1500) or Jaume Vergós (II) (died 1503), traveled to Italy during the pontificate of Alexander VI, it is more likely that they created the portrait in Barcelona based on other effigies, most likely by Pinturicchio. Battista Dossi or his circle (painted between 1535-1545, private collection) and Cristofano dell'Altissimo (second half of the 16th century, Uffizi Gallery, inv. 2989 - 1890), probably also based on the paintings of the Perugian painter creating their portraits of the pope. The question remains open as to why, having in his service a painter such as Pinturicchio, Borgia ordered his portrait (or portraits) abroad. Perhaps it was a gift from Barcelona, ​​an advertisement of the Vergós workshop, or their fame prompted the Pope to order something in a different style, something more unusual or something from the country of his youth (in 1448 Rodrigo Borgia became canon of the cathedral chapters of Valencia, Barcelona and Segorbe, thanks to the influence of his uncle in Rome) and closer to his taste (glitter and abundance of gold in the decorations of the Borgia Apartments are attributed to the Hispano-Moorish taste of the Pope, compare "Pittori del Rinascimento: Pintoricchio" by Cristina Acidini, p. 192).

Despite that, Pinturicchio and his workshop could not complain about the lack of work. In particular, they created numerous effigies of the Madonna, many of which closely resemble the "bride of Christ" from "The Divine Investiture", as if they were intentionally reusing the same face in different compositions. Some may argue that these compositions were not intended to depict Giulia, but the use of her features from the famous fresco indicates that they were in fact her cryptoportraits. We must keep in mind that since the time of Pope Julius II, effigies of Borgia and his family were subject to damnatio memoriæ and that many of these sometimes controversial effigies survived because people simply forgot that they were disguised portraits. While effigies of Alexander VI were easy to identify (and destroy) due to his characteristic features, the beautiful Madonna is only an effigy of the Virgin.

We can identify the reuse of the same effigy in the Pinturicchio's Madonnas at the National Museum in Warsaw (tempera on panel, 45.5 x 37 cm, inv. M.Ob.4, earlier 5), Gemäldegalerie in Berlin (inv. 1481), Cleveland Museum of Art (inv. 1944.89), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (P15w35), Ashmolean Museum (WA1899.CDEF.P10), Fitzwilliam Museum (inv. 119) and others.

The Warsaw Madonna is generally dated to around 1495 and is one of the first acquisitions of the Warsaw Museum of Fine Arts, purchased from the collection of Johann Peter Weyer (1794-1864) in Cologne in 1862, the year in which the museum was established (Partitioned Poland). Weyer, the city of Cologne's most notable architect, collected mainly paintings from the Germanic schools, which he undoubtedly acquired locally. Pinturicchio's painting could therefore come from the collection of Hermann IV of Hesse (1442-1508), archbishop-elector of Cologne from 1480 to 1508, who allied himself with Pope Alexander VI and thanks to whom he was elected bishop of Paderborn on March 7, 1498.

​Portrait of Pope Alexander VI Borgia (1431-1503) by the Vergós group, ca. 1492, Paintings Gallery of the Vatican Museums.

​Madonna bearing the features of Giulia Farnese (1474-1524), known as "the pope's concubine" (concubina papæ) or "the bride of Christ" (sponsa Christi), by Pinturicchio, ca. 1495, National Museum in Warsaw.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

​During the recent conservation of the painting from the Czartoryski Museum, some repaintings have been removed, which distances the work from Bellini's style and the man now has red hair and black eyebrows (it is possible that he dyed his hair which was popular in Venice), but the resemblance to the mentioned effigies of Copernicus, including that at early age by Sittow (Pelplin) is still unmistakable.

As in the case of King Ladislaus IV Vasa and Elector Frederick William of Brandenburg, who have different hair colors (including mustache) in some of their portraits or Anna Jagiellon (1523-1596), who has brown eyes in portrait by Cranach and blue in later portrait by Kober, hair and eye color cannot be decisive for considering (or rejecting) the portrait as the effigy of Copernicus. Portraits of Emperor Maximilian I (1459-1519), produced by the circle of Bernhard Strigel, possibly entourage of the Master of Messkirch and Jörg Kölderer (Kunstmuseum Basel, inv. 2276, and Dorotheum in Vienna, June 8, 2021, lot 4), closer to the time of the execution of the Kraków portrait, are another perfect example. In both mentioned portraits, the emperor has dark facial hair and blonde hair, indicating that he dyed his hair or wore wigs. Additionally, Maximilian has different hair colors, from dark brown, red to blonde in many of his other portraits, such as in the paintings in the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin (inv. 2110, 2111) or in two very similar paintings in the Upton House, Warwickshire (NT 446803) and the Louvre Museum (INV 2073; C 325). His eye color also differs in these paintings, ranging from shades of brown to gray-blue.
​
The fashion for hair dyeing was probably introduced to the emperor's court by his third wife Bianca Maria Sforza (1472-1510), whose stepsister Caterina Sforza (1463-1509), Countess of Forlì and lady of Imola, was the author of a treatise Experimenti, in which she explained the most renowned methods of her time in beauty care and hair dyeing, including various means by which the beard can be made black. Caterina also shared many of her alchemical secrets with the emperor (compare "Twenty-Five Women Who Shaped the Italian Renaissance" by Meredith K. Ray, p. 1480). 

Hair dyeing among men was popular in the second half of the 15th century, as confirmed by Janus Pannonius (1434-1472), Croatian-Hungarian Latinist, poet, diplomat and bishop of Pécs, in his poem Ad Galeottum addressed to the Italian poet, writer and physician Galeotto Marzio (Galeottus Martius Narniensis, ca. 1427-1497), who between 1460 and 1486 often traveled to Hungary: "You teach the boys the basics, Galeotto; If you taught them how to dye their hair, you would earn more" (Qui pueros elementa doces, rutilare capillum Si doceas, facias plus, Galeotte, lucri). The dark-haired Galeotto apparently lightened his hair, as evidenced by the word rutilare "to dye gold, to give the color of gold" or "to shine like gold" (aurum rutilat), and he frequently changed his hair color, because in the next poem Ad eundem Pannonius continues "What until recently was blacker than pitch, Galeotto's head suddenly turned yellowish-red?" (Unde tibi, ut, nuper quod erat pice nigrius atra, Tam subito rutilum sit, Galeotte caput? compare "Nauczyciele, uczeni i poeci ..." by Agata Łuka, p. 126). The Portrait of a young man, dating from around 1503 and attributed to Giorgione or Giovanni Cariani, held at the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest (inv. 94), confirms the popularity of this practice among young men at the beginning of the 16th century. It depicts a young man with black hair and eyebrows, with the longer part of his hair dyed red.

Regarding the authorship of the painting after restoration, an option now seems more likely, which had not been considered before, namely that it is not the Italian school but the German school of painting. The composition and costume of the sitter are clearly Italian from the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries, but the style of the painting is very similar to that of Portrait of a lady holding a book, signed and dated by Matthias Gerung (oil on panel, 60 x 42.3 cm, Sotheby's London, July 7, 2016, lot 107, monogram and date top left: ·1·5·2·5· / MG), which also more closely resembles works of the Italian school. Gerung, in older literature also Mathias Geron (d. 1570), painter and engraver from Nördlingen in Bavaria, was perhaps the apprentice of Hans Leonhard Schäufelein (d. 1540). In 1525 he moved to Lauingen and from 1530/31 he worked for Count Otto-Henry of Palatine (1502-1559), grandson of Hedwig Jagiellon (1457-1502), Duchess of Bavaria, who visited Kraków in 1536. If the German painter received a general painting or drawing by Bellini to copy, this would explain the difference in eye color, which was later corrected and removed during the recent conservation of the Copernicus portrait (the more expensive blue color was used less frequently in copies).

The lady in the mentioned portrait sold in London wears a costume typical for Italy in the 1520s. Her dress is black and she is firmly holding a small prayer book, which indicates that she is in mourning, however her décolletage indicates she is probably not a widow. The lady could be of Spanish origin as a similar outfit in Habiti Antichi Et Moderni di tutto il Mondo ... by Cesare Vecellio, published in Venice in 1598 (National Library of Poland, 2434 I Cim) is described as Donna antica di Spagna. Around 1525, at the time of the painting's creation, Queen Bona Sforza (1494-1557) was mourning the death of her mother Isabella of Aragon (1470-1524), suo jure Duchess of Bari, who died in February 1524. On July 5, 1525, John of Brandenburg-Ansbach (1493-1525), viceroy of Valencia, cousin of King Sigismund I (as son of Sophia Jagiellon), died in Valencia. During her widowhood, the queen wore no jewelry and very modest clothing, as evidenced by her famous portrait painted by Lucas Cranach the Younger (Czartoryski Museum, MNK XII-537). The portrait also resembles the effigy of her mother created by an anonymous engraver (Austrian National Library in Vienna, inv. 00041426, inscription: ISABELLA ARAGONIA ALPHONSI REG · FILL · IO · GALEATII MA · VX), the cameo by Giovanni Jacopo Caraglio with the queen's bust (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 17.190.869) and medal by Pastorino dei Pastorini (National Museum in Kraków, MNK VII-Md-70).

Both in terms of composition and the model's costume, the work also resembles two portraits of unknown women attributed to Piero di Cosimo, both in Florence - Portrait of a pregnant woman (Casa Martelli Museum in Florence, inv. Martelli 45) and Portrait of a woman in profile (Pitti Palace in Florence, inv. 1890, 604), being identified as Bona's aunt, Caterina Sforza, Countess of Forlì and Lady of Imola.

If Gerung frequently worked for Polish-Lithuanian clients, many of his works were undoubtedly destroyed or are awaiting rediscovery hidden under the label "Italian school".

"It is also heard that with our Poland, the Hospodar seeks agreement under certain conditions, whether they will be accepted we do not know. Therefore, after reporting all that is important in the letters, I recommend my services and myself to Your Grace", ends his letter, written around 1536 to Jan Dantyszek, the astronomer, who was active in the diplomacy of Poland-Lithuania (after "Zbiór pamiętników historycznych o dawnej Polszcze ..." by Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, Volume 4, p. 55). This letter was in 1839 in the Czartoryski collection at the Temple of the Sibyl.

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

Portrait of Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) by Matthias Gerung after original by Giovanni Bellini or circle, ca. 1525 after original from 1496-1503, Czartoryski Museum (before restoration).

Portrait of Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) by Matthias Gerung after original by Giovanni Bellini or circle, ca. 1525 after original from 1496-1503, Czartoryski Museum (after restoration). Original photo: Archiwum Fotograficzne Muzeum Narodowego w Krakowie.

​Portrait of a lady in mourning, probably Queen Bona Sforza (1494-1557) by Matthias Gerung, 1525, Private collection. 

"The influence of Cranach the Elder on the formation and development of the artistic form of the Polish illustrated book began very early, before 1500," Anna Lewicka-Kamińska states in her article published in 1973 ("Na marginesie „Polskich Cranachianów”", p. 146). The author refers first of all to the beautiful woodcut by Lucas Cranach the Elder, printed on parchment and hand-coloured, first used in the undated Kraków Missal (Missale Cracoviense), printed by Georg Stuchs (d. 1520) in Nuremberg around 1500 (Jagiellonian Library, 21.4 x 15.2 cm, BJ St. Dr. Inc. 2850, leaf 178). The printing was commissioned by Johann Haller (d. 1525), a German merchant, printer and publisher, owner of a printing house in Kraków and citizen of the royal city (Johannes Haller, civis cracoviensis), who secured the privilege of Cardinal Frederick Jagiellon (1468-1503) and the protection of his copyright: "The most illustrious Prince Frederick [...] has firmly sanctioned that none of his dioceses would dare to print this Kraków missal to the detriment of the aforesaid Johannes Haller under a certain penalty" (Illustrissimus princeps Fridericus [...], firmiter sanxit, quas non alter suarum dyecesium quispiam de novo in præfati Johannis Haller detrimentum hoc missale cracoviensis rubrice imprimere audebit sub certa indicta pena). Interestingly, Cranach does not seem to care about his authorship and copyright in this case. Perhaps he was too young (about 28 at the time) and inexperienced, or perhaps there were other reasons. Lewicka-Kamińska speculated that Haller, a native of Rothenburg in Bavaria, could have received or purchased the block with the woodcut of the Crucifixion directly from Cranach as his countryman, or indirectly from Stuchs, who after engraving the Kraków Missal left Haller the woodcut block to use in the Kraków printing house, since this engraving is not found in Stuchs' later missals.

Another hypothesis, however, seems more likely. Around 1500, in search of wealthy patrons, the young Franconian painter settled in Vienna (compare "Cranach the Untamed. The Early Years in Vienna"). He produced his earliest extant works in the Austrian capital and it was there that he took the name Lucas Cranach after his birthplace and began to use the initials "LC". His close association with a circle of humanist writers, in particular Johannes Cuspinian (1473-1529), a poet and diplomat in the service of the Habsburgs, proved very formative. Around 1502, in Vienna, he painted splendid portraits of Cuspinian and his wife. The poet was later active in the Habsburgs' relations with the Jagiellons and in January 1518 he accompanied Bona Sforza on her journey to Kraków. Earlier, around 1500, Cranach had painted the scene of the Crucifixion of Christ, which comes from the Scottish monastery in Vienna, now preserved in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (inv. GG 6905). In 1999, Fedja Anzelewsky concluded that the costume of one of the horsemen is Polish and that before going to Vienna, Cranach must have been in Kraków between 1498 and 1502 ("Studien zur Frühzeit Lukas Cranachs d.Ä.", p. 125). Cranach's works from this early period are considered to be strongly influenced by the style of Jan Polack (Joannes Alasco Polonus, d. 1519), a Polish painter, who was the most important painter in Munich at the time.

The artist could create the woodcut for the Missal in Kraków and offer it to Cardinal Frederick Jagiellon, whose patronage he could have solicited at that time. Frederick, the youngest son of King Casimir IV Jagiellon and his wife Elizabeth of Austria, could also recommend the painter to his Habsburg relatives. If such a stay of Cranach in Poland-Lithuania-Ruthenia would be confirmed in written sources, the young artist experienced a difficult situation in Kraków, faced with the monopoly of local workshops and the increasing presence of agents of foreign workshops, particularly Italian and Netherlandish. This stay would also explain the later popularity of his art in the territories of the former Poland-Lithuania, thanks to valuable connections he gained in the capital. 

Cardinal Frederick attended the Jagiellonian Congress in Levoča, Slovakia, held between April and May 1494, where he appeared with an extremely impressive retinue, thus testifying to his high position and wealth. In 1499 he went to Hungary and in December he participated in the Congress of Bratislava, where he met his brothers Vladislaus II and Prince Sigismund to discuss the dynasty's policy towards Turkey and the Habsburgs. In March 1500, in Kraków, the primate participated in a congress of senators, where financial issues related to the country's defense were discussed. In 1500 he also decided to pay the royal treasury the jubilee sums collected for Rome (after "Zaangażowanie polityczne królewicza ..." by Grzegorz Grąbczewski, p. 138, 140).
 
The cardinal was depicted as a donor, kneeling before Saint Stanislaus resurrecting the knight Piotrawin, in a woodcut by the Nuremberg engraver, placed just after Haller's privilege. This woodcut is similar to another, published in 1493 also in Nuremberg by Haller and Stuchs (Jagiellonian Library, BJ St. Dr. Inc. 2861). In both cases, the engraver must have used other effigies of the cardinal and the Polish saint or drawings were sent from Kraków to Nuremberg. The woodcut of 1493, now in Kraków, was painted and decorated with floral decoration by a local illuminator.

The Kraków Missal with Crucifixion by Cranach was owned before 1504 by a nobleman of Juńczuk coat of arms and later by Marcin Bałza (1477-1542). The Crucifixion was also colorized, possibly in Kraków, but in this context, Cranach's authorship of the colouring cannot be excluded. The best-known coloured imprint of this woodcut is in the Kupferstich-Kabinett in Dresden (inv. A 1888-74). Later, around 1502, Cranach created another version of the woodcut from the Kraków Missal, changing the landscape in the background. It was used in the Olomouc Missal (Missale Olomucense), printed by Johann Winterburger in Vienna in 1505. The Olomouc Missal was dedicated to Stanislaus Thurzo (1470-1540), the Kraków-born Bishop of Olomouc.

​Hand-colored woodcut with Cardinal Frederick Jagiellon (1468-1503) kneeling before Saint Stanislaus from the Kraków Missal, printed by Georg Stuchs in Nuremberg, ca. 1493, Jagiellonian Library. 

​Woodcut with Cardinal Frederick Jagiellon (1468-1503) kneeling before Saint Stanislaus from the Kraków Missal, printed by Georg Stuchs in Nuremberg, ca. 1500, Jagiellonian Library. 

​Hand-colored woodcut with Christ on the Cross between the Virgin and Saint John, from the Kraków Missal, by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1500, Jagiellonian Library. 

Like his Habsburg relatives, Crown Prince Sigismund Jagiellon (1467-1548), future king under the name Sigismund I, was a true Renaissance prince. The son of King Casimir IV (1427-1492) and Elizabeth of Austria (1436/7-1505) was Duke of Głogów from 1499, Duke of Opava from 1501 and governor of Silesia from 1504 in the name of his brother Vladislaus II (1456-1516), king of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia.
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During his stay in Buda, capital of Hungary, Vladislaus allocated many rooms to his brother, however, Sigismund was content with only a few of the most necessary ones for himself and his servants. He brought some of his household equipment from Kraków. He slept on a bed covered with a dark damask duvet, and the pillows were stuffed with light moss. In spring and summer there were always flowers scattered on the bedding. Right next to the bed was a large sword in a scabbard with an expensive hilt. Next to the sword, there was a Turkish saber, a heavy crossbow and a quiver full of arrows. In his room there was also a decorative Latin prayer book, made by a Hungarian illuminator, beautifully bound in leather and always kept in a suede bag to prevent damage. In addition, Sigismund had special correspondence boxes, one for private matters, the other for public affairs.

In these years, Sigismund was always accompanied by his favorite little dog, called "Whitey" (Bielik). He liked to relax in the bathhouse, where he always took his dog with him, which was washed and bathed by the servants. The prince liked a certain luxury in clothing and dressed fashionably. Instead of armor he wore soft, sometimes silk robes. He usually put a velvet cap on his head and wore wreaths of roses, violets or other fragrant flowers. He didn't have much armor, but his treasury contained plenty of robes, bed and table linens, and anything that served the comforts of daily life, such as a beautifully polished steel mirror, in front of which the court barber rubbed the prince's long hair with egg yolk to make it stick better. Right next to the mirror there was also a special gold-framed toothbrushing device, an ordinary bone comb and a box in which scented oils were stored, as well as a tiny box where Sigismund kept small jewels, including a commemorative diamond ring, which was a gift from his mother (after "Zygmunt Stary w Głogowie" by Zygmunt Boras, p. 21-22).

Prince Sigismund spent considerable amounts of money on the purchase of jewels. When he was prince of Głogów and Opava, he collected them in his apartments. From the preserved records, it is known that in the years 1500-1507, everyday items made of silver and gold as well as jewelry such as chains, belts and rings were purchased. In 1502, the goldsmith Marcin Marcinek worked for Prince Sigismund, making a gold chain for him (catena aurea domini principis) and also making and repairing many vessels (after "Klejnoty w Polsce" by Ewa Letkiewicz, p. 37). 

One of the earliest painted effigies of Sigismund, now kept at Wawel Castle in Kraków (oil on paper, mounted on panel, 49.5 x 34.1 cm, inv. ZKnW-PZS 7029), confirms this information. It depicts Sigismund at a relatively young age, perhaps around 1499, when he became Duke of Głogów or around 1504, when he became governor of Silesia. He wears fashionable clothes, a jeweled gold chain with a pendant with Madonna on a crescent moon and a hat decorated with large pearls. Men with pearls or flowers in their hair, all of this seems unnatural today, like memories of a destroyed and long-forgotten civilization.

The painting comes from the collection of Count Leon Jan Piniński (1857-1938) in Lviv and was offered together with a somewhat similar portrait of king's nephew Louis II Jagiellon (1506-1526), ​​son of his brother Vladislaus (oil on paper, mounted on panel, 42 x 31.5 cm, inv. ​ZKnW-PZS 7028), in 1935. Both paintings were previously thought to be 19th century copies, but the 2023 examination revealed that they were made in the 16th century (pigment analysis, after "Dziedzictwo zachowane i na nowo odkryte" by Oliwia Buchwald-Zięcina, p. 138). The inscription at the bottom of Sigismund's portrait was painted on a strip of paper and was probably added later. It titles Sigismund king of Poland and brother of his predecessor Alexander Jagiellon (SIGISMVNDVS POLONIAE REX / ALEXANDRI POL. REGIS FRATER.), so it was added in 1506 (Sigismund was elected king on December 8 of that year) or later.

The two portraits were obviously made by different painters, which is visible not only in the composition but also in the style of the painting. The effigy of Louis, although heavily restored, resembles portraits of Emperor Maximilian I (1459-1519), made by circle of Bernhard Strigel (d. 1528), court painter of the emperor (Kunstmuseum Basel, inv. 2276, and Dorotheum in Vienna, June 8, 2021, lot 4). He was depicted by Strigel in the famous family portrait of Maximilian and in a separate portrait, both in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (inv. GG 832, GG 827). The earliest known portrait of young Louis, in the scene of Saint Ladislaus requesting the patronage of the Virgin Mary, is also attributed to Strigel (Budapest Museum of Fine Arts, inv. 7502). A portrait of him is also attributed to the Habsburg court painter in Brussels - Bernard van Orley (Budapest Museum of Fine Arts, inv. 77.6), who did not have the opportunity to meet the king in person. Therefore Orley or his workshop based on other effigies.

A similar portrait by Bernard van Orley, clearly depicting the same man, is in the Lázaro Galdiano Museum in Madrid (oil on panel, 26.5 x 37 cm, inv. 02710). The man's pose, costume and jewelry are truly regal, which is why this "Portrait of a gentleman" (Retrato de caballero) was identified earlier as depicting Christian II of Denmark (1481-1559), however "this identification seems unfounded when compared with the portraits of the sovereign made in 1515 (Sittow) and 1523 (Cranach)" (esta identificación parece desprovista de fundamento al confrontarlo con los retratos del soberano realizados en 1515 (Sittow) y 1523 (Cranach), according to the catalog note). On the reverse is a Latin inscription: A . FRVCTIBVS. EORVM./. COGNOSCETIS. EOS ("You will know them by their fruits", Matthew, 7:15-20). The painting was acquired, through Luis Tristan, from the Duke of Ánsola in 1934, so an earlier provenance from the Spanish royal collection is possible.

Through his marriage to Mary of Austria (1505-1558), also known as Mary of Hungary (later governor of the Habsburg Netherlands), Louis was a brother-in-law of Emperor Charles V (1500-1558), who frequently resided in Spain. Besides the mentioned portrait by Orley or circle in Budapest, in the Hungarian capital there are also two other portraits of Louis, apparently made by Netherlandish painters, both kept in the Hungarian National Museum (inv. MNB-letét 1, inv. 1391). One of them is dated "1526" (M D / XXVI), the other is undated, but it resembles the full-length portrait of Louis in the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, which, according to the inscription, was made according to the original from 1525 (LVDOVICVS REX HUNGARIÆ / ET BOHEMIÆ. ÆTATIS. 20. / ANNO 1525, inv. ​NMGrh 596). In the Stockholm portrait, like his uncle Sigismund I from the same series (inv. NMGrh 570) and unlike the effigy of his brother-in-law Ferdinand I (inv. ​NMGrh 598), he does not wear any order of the Golden Fleece.

The style of Sigismund's portrait greatly resembles the profile portraits of Mary of Burgundy (1457-1482), first wife of Emperor Maximilian I, both kept at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (inv. GG 4400, GG 4402). These paintings are attributed to Niklas Reiser, an Austrian painter, active between 1498 and 1512 in Schwaz near Innsbruck. The portraits of Mary are dated around 1500, almost twenty years after her death. Stylistically close is also the profile portrait of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria (1503-1564), attributed to the South German school (Kunsthistorisches Museum, inv. ​GG 6914), which, according to the inscription (top in the center: REX.PHILIPVS), depicts Philip the Handsome (1478-1506), Duke of Burgundy and King of Castile (son of Mary of Burgundy). 

The Wawel portrait is very unique for Sigismund's iconography, and does not resemble any other known effigy of the Jagiellon. Fortunately, the inscription was added, otherwise the model would be considered a man from Austria or Germany. For many art historians, the equation is simple: Germanic painter, therefore the model must also be Germanic. This is another factor contributing to the fact that fewer effigies of monarchs and aristocrats from Central Europe, particularly multicultural Poland-Lithuania, are known today.

​Portrait of Crown Prince Sigismund Jagiellon (1467-1548), Duke of Głogów by Niklas Reiser, ca. 1499-1506, Wawel Royal Castle.

​Portrait of Louis II Jagiellon (1506-1526), King of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia by circle of Bernhard Strigel, ca. 1525, Wawel Royal Castle.

​Portrait of Louis II Jagiellon (1506-1526), King of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia by Bernard van Orley, ca. 1525, Lázaro Galdiano Museum in Madrid. 

"The person depicted does not appear as an ideal heavenly figure, but like a human being of flesh and blood" (Der Porträtierte wirkt nicht wie eine himmlische Idealfigur, sondern wie ein Mensch aus Fleisch und Blut), comments the author of the catalog note for a small painting by Jacopo de' Barbari representing Christ, now kept at the Klassik Stiftung Weimar (panel, 32.3 x 25.4 cm, inv. G2, signed with a caduceus and monogram I A [D B]). The painter, described as Venetian by his contemporaries, including Albrecht Dürer (einen man Jacobus genent, van Venedig geporn, ein liblicher moler), captured the specific facial features of a model, which was often the case in Renaissance painting.

The painting comes from the collection of Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna (1786-1859), donated in 1838, who acquired it in Germany or Russia. It is also considered to come from the collection of the merchant Paulus II Praun (1548-1616), who died in Bologna, later transferred to Nuremberg (compare "Catalog des Grossh. Museums zu Weimar", p. 21). It is interesting to note that the painter or his workshop created a copy of this painting, which was however painted with cheaper pigments, notably with very less blue color (tempera on panel, 34 x 25.5 cm, Dorotheum in Salzburg, March 27, 2018, lot 3).

Barbari, who moved to Germany in 1500, used the same model in another similar painting of Blessing Christ, now in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden (oil, transferred from panel to canvas, 61 x 48 cm, inv. Gal.-Nr. 57), which comes from the Elector's Art Chamber in Dresden (added around 1588), and half a century later, in 1553, Lucas Cranach the Elder (ca. 1472-1553) or his son Lucas Cranach the Younger (1515-1586), copied the painting (or a copy of it) in a woodcut describing it as "Effigy of Our Savior Jesus Christ painted fifty years ago by the most excellent artist Iacobo de Barbaris Italo, recently copied, Wittenberg 1553" (Effigies Salvatoris Nostri lesv / Christi ante L. Annos Picta a Praestantissimo Artifice / Iacobo de Barbaris Italo, recens de exemplo illo foeliciter expressa / Vuitenbergae Anno 1553, British Museum, 1864,1210.489), signed with the winged serpent within the image. 

All these elements (specific facial features of the model, copies, as well as provenance from aristocratic collections), indicate that the effigies are portraits disguised as Christ rather than purely religious paintings.

At first, Jacopo was employed as a "portrait painter and miniaturist" (Contrafeter und Illuminist) from April 8, 1500 in Nuremberg by king (and later emperor) Maximilian I. There he met Albrecht Dürer, who later reported that Jacopo de' Barbari had introduced him to the theory of proportion in painting. Barbari is also considered as a teacher of Hans von Kulmbach and Matthias Grünewald. From 1503 to 1505, he worked as court painter to Frederick the Wise (1463-1525), elector of Saxony.

The man in the paintings bears a striking resemblance to Casimir of Brandenburg-Kulmbach (1481-1527), based on his portrait by Hans von Kulmbach in the Alte Pinakothek (inv. 9482, signed and dated: MARGGRAVE • CASIMIR • HET • DISE • GESTALT • ALS • ER • WAS • / DREISSICK • IAR • ALT • C • 1511 / HK). The eldest son of Sophia Jagiellon (1464-1512), received his first name in honor of his maternal grandfather, King Casimir IV Jagiellon (1427-1492). In 1498 Casimir's father Frederick I granted him the position of stadtholder of the margraviate and from 1502 he was involved in disputes with the imperial city of Nuremberg. Earlier, in May 1494, even Sophia's brothers, Vladislaus II (1456-1516), king of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia, and John I Albert (1459-1501), king of Poland, had intervened in Frederick's disputes with Nuremberg. As a vassal of Emperor Maximilian I, who later married the emperor's niece, Susanna of Bavaria (1502-1543), Casimir was undoubtedly a frequent guest at Maximilian's court. His portrait by Kulmbach was painted either in Kraków, where the painter arrived in 1509, or in Nuremberg.

Another portrait-like effigy of a Christian saint, made by Barbari, is in the Slovak National Museum in Bratislava, Castle Betliar (oil on panel, 51.4 x 40 cm, inv. VU 316). It represents the Anglo-Saxon king Oswald of Northumbria, venerated as a saint of whom there was a particular cult in the Middle Ages. Saint Oswald was often portrayed with a pet raven which carried his ring to the Wessex princess he intended to marry. The painting is signed with a caduceus and the number [5]00 on the left probably refers to the date of creation - 1500. It comes from the collection of the Hungarian noble Andrássy family. From the mid-19th century, the painting has long been considered as an effigy of a woman - Elizabeth Szilágyi (d. 1483), mother of King Matthias Corvinus (1443-1490) and was even published as such in 1857 in "The Hunyadi Era in Hungary" (Hunyadiak kora Magyarországon, XII) by József Teleki. The identification was linked to the coat of arms of the Hunyadis, which represents a raven (corvus in Latin) with a gold ring in its beak.

In 1500, on the death of Leonard (Leonhard von Görz, 1444-1500), the last descendant of the junior branch of the counts of Gorica/Gorizia, Maximilian I succeeded to Gorizia, Gradiska, Pazin (Mitterburg), and the Puster Valley. Shortly after the death of his second wife Paola Gonzaga (1464-1496), daughter of Ludovico III Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua, Count Leonard concluded an inheritance contract with Maximilian regarding the county (February 27, 1497). In the event of Leonard's death without children, the county was to be incorporated into the Habsburg domains. It appears that the fifty-three-year-old count was hoping for a third marriage. After his death Maximilian sent troops to occupy Gorizia to prevent Venice from claiming his newly inherited lands.

The facial features of Saint Oswald resemble those of Count of Gorica from his votive statue by Master of the Sonnenberg-Künigl Altar, created around 1470 (Tyrolean State Museum "Ferdinandeum" in Innsbruck). The Count of Gorica was represented in a splendid costume embroidered with pearls, kneeling as a donor in the scene of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary, painted by Simon von Taisten around 1495 (Chapel of Bruck Castle in Lienz).

​Portrait of a man as Saint Oswald, most probably Count Leonard of Gorica (1444-1500), by Jacopo de' Barbari, ca. 1500, Slovak National Museum. 

​Christ bearing the features of Casimir of Brandenburg-Kulmbach (1481-1527) by Jacopo de' Barbari, ca. 1503, Klassik Stiftung Weimar. 

​Christ bearing the features of Casimir of Brandenburg-Kulmbach (1481-1527) by workshop of Jacopo de' Barbari, ca. 1503, Private collection. 

​Christ bearing the features of Casimir of Brandenburg-Kulmbach (1481-1527) by Jacopo de' Barbari, ca. 1503, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden. 

Christ bearing the features of Casimir of Brandenburg-Kulmbach (1481-1527) by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Younger after Jacopo de' Barbari, 1553, British Museum. © The Trustees of the British Museum

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Eleanor's husband, King Manuel I was also depicted in several religious scenes by Portuguese painters, most notably in the scene of Blessing of Saint Aukta by Pope Siricius from the St. Auta Altarpiece (Retábulo de Santa Auta) by Master of Santa Auta, possibly Cristóvão de Figueiredo, Gregório Lopes, Garcia Fernandes or several painters, painted between 1518-1525, founded by Queen Eleanor of Viseu (1458-1525), sister of King Manuel, as biblical King David in the Holy Trinity from the Monastery of the Trinity in Lisbon by Garcia Fernandes, painted in 1537, as one of the Magi in the Adoration of the Magi from the Monastery of Santos-o-Novo in Lisbon by Gregório Lopes, painted between 1540-1545, most probably commissioned by Jorge de Lencastre (1481-1550), Duke of Coimbra, cousin of King Manuel I, all three in the National Museum of Ancient Art in Lisbon, and finally as Saint Alexis in the scene of Wedding of Saint Alexis from the Holy House of Mercy in Lisbon by Garcia Fernandes, created in 1541, today in the Museu de São Roque in Lisbon. For a long time the latter painting was identified as depicting the third marriage of King Manuel I to Eleanor of Austria and is now believed to depict only a religious scene. Both interpretations are disputed by historians, however, no one takes into account that both are correct.

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

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

According to Derek Bair's theory (Discovering da Vinci), Leonardo's famous Mona Lisa is an anagram of Mon Salai ("My Salai" in French) - "Leonardo was known for word and title games and the Mona Lisa is no different. [...] Since they were two men and could not have a child together they, instead, painted one". Other researchers also claim that the image was primarily based on a young man who was Leonardo's apprentice and lover (after "Was the 'Mona Lisa' Based on Leonardo's Male Lover?" by Sarah Cascone).

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

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

Eleanor of Austria mentioned, before marrying King Manuel and becoming Queen of Portugal, was a candidate to marry widowed King Sigismund I. Her grandfather, Emperor Maximilian I, through Brzetysław Świchowski, urged Sigismund to marry Eleanor or Bona, the niece of his second wife Bianca Maria Sforza, and to meet in Vienna or elsewhere about it, where Sigismund could get to know the two princesses and decide on his choice. The emperor would also like the wedding to take place in his presence, but in the meantime he asks Sigismund for a decision before St. Martin (November 11), as there are many competitors for the hands of the aforementioned princesses.

The king wrote letters to the most important senators, and among them to Krzysztof Szydłowiecki, officially communicating the imperial proposals and asking for their opinion. Meanwhile, Jan Boner, the Wieliczka żupnik, had already arranged for a portrait of Eleanor. The effigy pleases the king enough, but he doubted that it was painted "fairly and honestly". So the king asks Szydłowiecki to send him another portrait of the princess, to compare both and thus form a better, more truthful opinion. As the princess was living in the Netherlands at the time (at her aunt's court in Mechelen), both must have been made by Netherlandish painters, although it cannot be ruled out that Szydłowiecki arranged another painter, from the German or Italian school or sent a painter from Poland.

The king decided to choose Princess Eleanor and to inform the emperor about it through his envoy Rafal Leszczyński. He also declared to Maximilian that due to the war with Moscow the wedding could not take place in the summer of 1517. Nevertheless, due to "unforeseen obstacles" on the side of the Habsburgs, this marriage was not contracted, so Sigismund decided to marry Bona Sforza, niece of Empress Bianca Maria. If Eleanor's portrait pleased Sigismund only "enough", then the king writes to the chancellor about Bona's portrait that he liked it very much (bene nobis placet). Nevertheless, in the country there were many people who were reluctant to Sigismund's marriage project. The most influential of them was Archbishop Jan Łaski (1456-1531), who would gladly have married the king to Princess Anna of Masovia. He allegedly received as a gift 1,000 ducats for supporting this candidature from Princess' mother Duchess Anna Radziwill (1476-1522). Already in 1504, as a prince, when he was in Kraków, Sigismund "had his portrait painted and ... sent it to Anna, Duchess of Masovia" (after "Kanclerz Krzysztof Szydłowiecki ..." by Jerzy Kieszkowski, Volume 1, pp. 211-214, 715). He undoubtedly received the likenesses of the Duchess and her daughters. Such effigies were frequently exchanged, unfortunately almost all of them from the Jagiellonian epoch in Poland-Lithuania have been lost or forgotten.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

She died just one year later on the night of 26/27 April 1476. On the day of her funeral she was carried through Florence in an uncovered coffin dressed in white for the people to admire her one last time and there may have existed a posthumous cult about her in Florence. She become a model for different artists and Botticelli frequently depicted her as Venus and the Virigin, the most important deities of the Renaissance, both of which had pearls and roses as their symbol. Among the best are the paintings in the National Museum in Warsaw (tempera on panel, 111 x 108 cm, M.Ob.607) and the Wawel Castle (tempera on panel, 95 cm, ZKWawel 2176) in which the Virgin has her features, as well as the goddess from the famous Birth of Venus in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence (tempera on canvas, 172.5 x 278.5 cm, 1890 n. 878) and Venus in the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin (oil on canvas, 158.1 x 68.5 cm, 1124). She was also very probably the model for the Venus in the Sabauda Gallery in Turin (oil on canvas, 176 x 77.2 cm, inv. 172), purchased in 1920 by Riccardo Gualino, thus known under the name of Venus Gualino. Giorgio Vasari, recalls that similar representations, produced in Botticelli's workshop, were found in various Florentine houses.

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

On 22 December 1476 Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary, Bohemia and Croatia married other Renaissance beauty Beatrice d'Aragona of Naples, a relative of Bona Sforza, Queen of Poland (Bona's grandfather Alfonso II of Naples was Beatrice's brother). Matthias was fascinated by his young, intelligent and well-educated wife. Her marble bust created by Francesco Laurana in the 1470s (The Frick Collection in New York, 1961.2.86) is inscribed DIVA BEATRIX ARAGONIA (Divine Beatrice of Aragon) to further enhance her remote and ethereal beauty. Numerous Italians followed Beatrice to Hungary, among them Bernardo Vespucci, brother to Amerigo, after whom America was named (after Catherine Fletcher's "The Beauty and the Terror: The Italian Renaissance and the Rise of the West", 2020, p. 36).

Corvinus commissioned works of art in Florence and the painters Filippino Lippi, Attavante degli Attavanti and Andrea Mantegna worked for him. He also recived works of art from his friend Lorenzo de' Medici, like metal reliefs of the heads of Alexander the Great and Darius by Andrea da Verrocchio, as Vasari cites. It is highly possible that Venus by Sandro Botticelli or workshop in Berlin was also sent from Florence to Matthias Corvinus or brought by Beatrice to Hungary. After Corvinus' death, Beatrice married in 1491 her second husband, Vladislaus II, son of Casimir IV, King of Poland and elder brother of Sigismund I. 

Two paintings of Madonna and Child from the 1490s by Perugino, a painter who between 1486 and 1499 worked mostly in Florence, in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (tempera and oil on panel, 86.5 x 63 cm, GG 132, from old imperial collection) and in the Städel Museum (tempera and oil on panel, 67.7 x 51.5 cm, inv. 843, acquired in 1832) depict the same woman as the Virgin. Both effigies are very similar to Beatrice's bust by Francesco Laurana.

The painting in the Städel Museum was most probably copied or re-created basing on the same set of study drawings by other artists, including young Lucas Cranach the Elder. One version, attributed to Timoteo Viti, was offered to the Collegiate Church in Opatów in 1515 by Krzysztof Szydłowiecki, who was initially Treasurer and Marshal of the Court of Prince Sigismund since 1505, and from 1515 Great Chancellor of the Crown. He was a friend of king Sigismund and frequently travelled to Hungary and Austria. Other two versions by Lucas Cranach the Elder are in private collections, including one sold in Vienna in 2022 (oil on panel, 76.6 × 59 cm, Im Kinsky, June 28, 2022, lot 95).

The same woman was also depicted as Venus Pudica in a painting attributed to Lorenzo Costa in the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest (oil on panel, 174 x 76 cm, inv. 1257). It was purchased by the Budapest Museum in Brescia in 1895 from Achille Glisenti, an Italian painter who also worked in Germany. 

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

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

The painting of Venus and Cupid, signed with initials LC and dated 1509 on the cartellino positioned against a dark background was acquired by Empress Catherine II of Russia in 1769 with the collection of Count Heinrich von Brühl in Dresden, now in the State Hermitage Museum (oil on canvas transferred from wood, 213 x 102 cm, ГЭ-680). Its prior history is unknown, therefore it cannot be excluded that Count Brühl, a Polish-Saxon statesman at the court of Saxony and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, purchased it in Poland. The painting is inspired by Botticelli and Lorenzo Costa's Venuses. However, the direct inspiration may not have been a painting but a statue, such as that of Venus and Cupid discovered near the church of Santa Croce de Gerusalemme in Rome before 1509. This large marble sculpture, now kept at the Pio Clementino Museum (214 cm, inv. 936), which is part of the Vatican Museums, was in turn inspired by Aphrodite of Cnidus (Venus Pudica) by Praxiteles of Athens. According to the inscription on the base: VENERI FELICI / SALLVSTIA / SACRVM / HELPIDVS D[onum] D[edit] (dedicated by Sallustia and Helpidus to the happy Venus), it was long believed to represent Sallustia Barbia Orbiana, a third-century Roman empress, with the title of Augusta as wife of Severus Alexander from 225 to 227 AD, represented as Venus Felix and dedicated by her liberti (freed slaves), Sallustia and Helpidius. The portrait heads are also interpreted to represent unknown Sallustia as Venus and her son Helpidus as Cupid and the origins described as possibly coming from the temple near the Horti Sallustiani (Gardens of Sallust).

Nowadays, the statue is considered to be a "disguised portrait" of Empress Faustina Minor (died ca. 175 AD), wife of Emperor Marcus Aurelius (compare "The Art of Praxiteles ... " by Antonio Corso, p. 157). It resembles another disguised statue of Faustina, represented as Fortuna Obsequens, Roman goddess of indulgent fate (Casa de Pilatos in Seville) and her bust in Berlin (Altes Museum). 

The second painting, very similar to effigies of Beatrice of Naples as Madonna, shows this woman against the landscape which is very similar to topography of the Trenčín Castle, where Barbara Zapolya spent her childhood and where she met Sigismund. This painting, now kept at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid (oil on panel, 71.5 x 44.2 cm, 114 (1936.1)), comes from the collection of the British art critic Robert Langton Douglas (1864-1951), who lived in Italy from 1895 to 1900, and was acquired in New York in 1936. She offeres the Child a bunch of grapes a Christian symbol of the redemptive sacrifice, but also a popular Renaissance symbol for fertility borrowed from the Roman god of the grape-harvest and fertility, Bacchus. Both women resemble greatly Barbara Zapolya from her portrait with B&S monogram. ​In the main altar of the 13th century church in Strońsko near Sieradz in central Poland, there is very similar version of this painting by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder (tempera and oil on panel, 47 x 33 cm). It was first mentioned in the protocol of the years 1761-1763 (after "Nieznany obraz Lucasa Cranacha Starszego" by Paweł Migasiewicz, p. 143-144).

​Another similar Madonna and Child, from the same period and in a comparable style, is located in the Church of St. Adalbert in Książ Wielki (oil on panel, 83.5 x 63.5 cm). This painting was probably executed by Cranach's workshop or by a painter from his circle during the first quarter of the 16th century (after "Epitafium Jana Sakrana" by Michał Walicki, p. 46, 52). The sitter is different, and her distinctive features and clothing indicate that it is a disguised portrait. This could be Jadwiga Kamieniecka, née Sienieńska (ca. 1500-1558), wife of Marcin Kamieniecki (d. 1530), field hetman of the Crown, courtier of Sigismund I and owner of Książ Wielki before 1521. Jadwiga was the great-grandmother of Marina Mniszech, Tsarina of Russia. Her portrait, dating from the late 18th or early 19th century, is kept at Olesko Castle in Ukraine. The Latin inscription in the upper left can be translated as: "There was no one among those born of a woman greater than you" (NON FVIT IN NATI O MULIER / EXCELSIOR TVO / NEC SVRGET MINIME / ASSIMILANDO TVIS). Such paintings were generally not intended for devotion, as indicated by the disguised portraits of Giulia Farnese in the Borgia apartments or the portrait of the Marquis of Mantua, brought to Vilnius in 1529. Nevertheless, at the end of the 17th century and in the 18th century, when their history had fallen into oblivion and very few of them had survived due to the looting and great destruction of the Sarmatian heritage, preserved images were placed on the altars in churches, where some still remain today.

​The Latin inscription on Venus in Saint Petersburg warns the man for whom it was intended: "Drive out the excesses of Cupid with all your strength, so that Venus may not take over your blinded heart" (PELLE · CVPIDINEOS · TOTO / CONAMINE · LVXVS / NE · TVA · POSSIDEAT / PECTORA · CECA · VENVS). 

​Statue of Empress Faustina the Younger (ca. 130-175) as Venus Felix, Ancient Rome, ca. 170-175 AD, Pio Clementino Museum. 

Portrait of Simonetta Vespucci (1453-1476) as Madonna and Child with St. John the Baptist and an angel by Sandro Botticelli, 1470s, National Museum in Warsaw.

Portrait of Simonetta Vespucci (1453-1476) as Madonna and Child with angels by Sandro Botticelli or workshop, 1470s, Wawel Royal Castle in Kraków.

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

Portrait of Simonetta Vespucci (1453-1476) as Venus by Sandro Botticelli or workshop, fourth quarter of the 15th century, Gemäldegalerie in Berlin.

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

Portrait of Beatrice of Naples (1457-1508) as Venus by Lorenzo Costa, fourth quarter of the 15th century, Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest.

Portrait of Beatrice of Naples (1457-1508) ​as Madonna and Child with Saints by Perugino, 1490s, Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

Portrait of Beatrice of Naples (1457-1508) ​as Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist by Perugino, 1490s, Städel Museum in Frankfurt am Main.

Portrait of Beatrice of Naples (1457-1508) ​as Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1490s, St. Martin's Collegiate Church in Opatów. Virtual reconstruction, © Marcin Latka ​

Portrait of Beatrice of Naples (1457-1508) ​as Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1490s, Private collection.

Portrait of Barbara Zapolya (1495-1515) as Venus and Cupid by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1509, The State Hermitage Museum.

​Portrait of Barbara Zapolya (1495-1515)​ as Madonna and Child with a bunch of grapes by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1509-1512, Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid.

Portrait of Barbara Zapolya (1495-1515) as Madonna and Child against a landscape by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. ​1509-1512, Parish church in Strońsko. ​Virtual reconstruction, © Marcin Latka 

​Portrait of lady, possibly Jadwiga Kamieniecka, née Sienieńska (ca. 1500-1558), as Madonna and Child by workshop or circle of Lucas Cranach the Elder, first quarter of the 16th century, Church of Saint Adalbert in Książ Wielki. ​Virtual reconstruction, © Marcin Latka 

​Between 1530 and 1535, the Saxon Duke George the Bearded (1471-1539) rebuilt the old medieval Dresden Castle in the Renaissance style. He had the Georgenbau, which literally means "George's building", built with the Georgentor, i.e. "George's gate". The newly built wing was also named Georgenschloss ("George's castle") in honour of the builder. The building, which was later extensively modified and of which only fragments remain, was one of the most important buildings of Renaissance architecture in Germany. Its figurative architectural decoration, created in the workshop of the sculptor Christoph Walther I (1493-1546), originally from Wrocław in Silesia, was also of great importance. Duke George had the old, heavily fortified Elbe Gate on the left bank of the Elbe river leading to the bridge replaced by a residential building almost 30 metres high. All new arrivals in the ducal residence were greeted by a splendid north portal with a two-storey bay window decorated with portraits of the Duke, his wife Barbara Jagiellon (1478-1534) and their two sons John (1498-1537) and Frederick (1504-1539). 

The Renaissance decorations were removed after the great fire of the castle in 1701 and the gate was remodelled. The current exterior appearance of the neo-Renaissance façade of the Georgenbau dates back to a reconstruction after 1899. Nevertheless, the engraving published in Nuremberg in 1680 ("Der Chur-Fürstlichen Sächsischen weitberuffenen Residentz- und Haupt-Vestung Dresden Beschreib ..." by Anton Weck, p. 71), shows the splendid decorations of the north and south facades of the Georgentor. The date above the portal of the north facade "1534" is the date on which the work was completed or begun, but it can also commemorate an important event. At the beginning of that year, the Duke was struck by two family tragedies: on January 25, his daughter Magdalena, Margravine of Brandenburg, died and on February 15, his wife Barbara died. The decoration of the gate was largely influenced by these two events, as the upper part, with its two tondos depicting the Duke and his wife, was accompanied by a large relief depicting the Dance of Death, now preserved in the Church of the Three Kings (Dreikönigskirche) in Dresden. Directly above the door there was a skull with crossed bones, the date and a fragment from the Bible: "But by the envy of the devil, death entered the world" (PER INVIDIAM DIABOLI MORS INTRAVIT IN ORBEM, The Book of Wisdom 2:24), which is interpreted that it refers to Adam, the first man and the "image of God". Above the inscription there was a niche with a depiction of the fratricide of Cain and lions holding the coats of arms of George and his wife. The most important part of the decoration was the tree of life (tree of the knowledge of good and evil) and the serpent that coiled around it. On either side of the tree were the figures of Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit and the tree was a base from which rose the pillars of the bay window as the branches of the tree framing the portraits of the Duke, his wife and sons and the coats of arms of Saxony and Poland (compare "Das königliche Dresden …" by Friedrich Kracke, p. 13). Interpretations may vary, however this symbolism, particularly that of the tree of life and the first parents, was particularly important to the Duke since he ordered it to be placed on the main gate of his main residence.

As trees and snakes played a special role in Slavic and Lithuanian mythology, this symbolism was undoubtedly also important for George's wife, the Jagiellonian princess Barbara. In Slavic mythology, the sacred and cosmic tree was the oak, whose branches supported the sky and were inhabited by the gods. The roots of the oak were entangled by the serpent of chaos and the guardian of the afterlife, while in the middle of the tree was the world inhabited by people. They believed that the oak contained three components of their world, three different realities, called: Prawia (driving force, reason), Jawia (reality, visible world) and Nawia (underworld), supervised by Veles, god of the earth, waters, cattle and the underworld (compare "Odradzanie się kultury słowiańskiej w Polsce" by Piotr Gulak, p. 13-15). In Lithuanian mythology and folklore, Žaltys (literally snake) was a household spirit, a symbol of fertility and prosperity, meeting him meant marriage or birth, and killing him was considered sacrilege. The Venetian envoy Pietro Duodo (1554-1610) confirms in his 1592 report to the Venetian Senate that a small black snake was still worshiped in Lithuania at that time (after "Zbiór pamiętników historycznych o dawnej Polszcze ..." by Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, Volume 4, p. 71).

The portrait of George by the workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder at Wawel Castle (oil on panel, 20.4 x 14.7 cm), was probably also created in 1534 because it recalls the dated effigy of the duke on the wing of the triptych in Meissen Cathedral (date "1534" on the central panel), probably commissioned after his wife's death. Two paper cards on the back of the painting confirm the identity of the sitter, one of which reads: HERTZOG GEORGE ZU SACHSEN / NATUS ANNO 1471. 27. AUG. / DENATUS D. 17. APRIL: A ° 1539. / AETATIS 68. / SEPULTUS MISNIAE, the other mentions that he was elector of Saxony (Georgius I elector Saxoniae barbatus ...), which is inaccurate. The painting has been a deposit of the Polish Academy of Learning in Kraków since 1938 and is considered to have been bequeathed to the Academy by Karol Boromeusz Hoffman (1798-1875), husband of Klementyna née Tańska (1798-1845). Hoffman had been living in Dresden since 1848, which is why it is believed that he acquired the painting there, but there is no evidence for this. Lepszy Leonard (1856-1937) thought that it might have come from the former collection of the Wawel Royal Castle (after "Studia nad obrazami krakowskiemi", p. 61). Such a provenance cannot be entirely excluded, since Barbara's brother, King Sigismund I must have had portraits of his brother-in-law. The inventory of the Radziwill collection from 1671 mentions two portraits of George's relatives, the electors John the Constant (1468-1532) and his brother Frederick III (1463-1525), most likely made by Cranach (items 486/6 and 487/7, compare "Inwentarz galerii obrazów Radziwiłłów z XVII w." by Teresa Sulerzyska). It is interesting to note that the Yearbook of Polish Numismatists and Bibliographers for 1869, published in Kraków in 1870, mentions that before May 13, 1869, Mrs. Julia Załęska née Konopka, owner of the Iskań estate near Przemyśl, donated "the portrait of George I, Elector of Saxony, husband of Barbara, daughter of Casimir the Great" to the Kraków Scientific Society ​(after "Rocznik dla archeologów, numizmatyków i bibliografów polskich", ed. Stanisław Krzyżanowski, p. 58), transformed in 1872 into the Academy of Learning. This means that Karol Boromeusz Hoffman owned a different portrait.

The portrait of Duke George as a donor from a painting by Cranach, now in the National Art Museum of Catalonia in Barcelona (Thyssen-Bornemisza collection, inv. 110.a (1928.14.2)) was made around 1514, making it one of the oldest known effigies of the Duke. Maike Vogt-Lüerssen (Georg „der Bärtige“ (1471-1539), Herzog von Sachsen (Albertiner), kleio.org) believes that the Duke lent his facial features to his namesake - Saint George by Cranach in the same museum (inv. 111.b (1928.14.3)), which, together with the aforementioned panel, was part of a triptych whose central image is now lost. This seems very likely given the resemblance to the effigy as donor, the context and the fact that the Saint is looking at the viewer. Saint Anne from the panel with the portrait of Barbara Jagiellon as donor (inv. 111.a (1928.14.4)) is also looking at the viewer, which means that probably the duchess lends her features to this saint. It could also be a crypto-portrait of wife of Barbara's brother - Barbara Zapolya, because the facial features resemble the Venus in the Hermitage (inv. ГЭ-680). If this painting was created around 1515 and not 1514 as it is assumed, such depiction would be connected with a sudden death of the Polish queen that year. 

Like his Ernestine relatives Frederick III and John the Constant, Duke George not only used the same painting workshop, but also the same tradition of disguised portraiture in religious painting. Frederick III lends his features to Alphaeus and John to Zebedee in Cranach's The Holy Kinship, known as the "Torgau Altarpiece", painted in 1509 (Städel Museum, inv. 1398B and 1398C), and the two brothers appear in the same roles in a painting from around 1522 by Cranach's circle in Cologne (Wallraf-Richartz Museum, inv. WRM 382). It is possible that the Saint George from a 1506 woodcut by Cranach (Cleveland Museum of Art, inv. 1926.258) is a cryptoportrait of Frederick's favourite Degenhart Pfäffinger (1471-1519), since the man bears a striking resemblance to Pfäffinger as depicted on his marble epitaph erected by the Elector of Saxony in his honour around 1520. A woodcut from around 1511 depicting Pfäffinger's coat of arms was made by Cranach.

Although there are many portraits of the Duke made after Barbara's death, the portrait as donor is very exceptional, indicating that many other disguised portraits of George await discovery. In well-confirmed effigies, the Duke displays a considerable variety of his appearances. In a woodcut by Cranach from around 1533 (Bassenge Auctions in Berlin, November 30, 2022, lot 5550) and in a 17th-century painting in the National Museum of Slovenia in Ljubljana (inv. N 13336), the Duke is bald and shaved, in a mentioned Wawel portrait he has a shorter beard, and in the painting in the Historical Museum of the City of Leipzig, attributed to Hans Krell, he has a longer beard. Cranach's portrait in the Coburg Fortress (inv. M.326), dated "1524", is now considered to depict Christian II, King of Denmark, hence the inscription, probably added in the second half of the 16th century, identifying the sitter as "Duke George of Saxony, died 1539" (Herzog Georg von Sachsen. obyt, 1539) is incorrect, although the author of the inscription probably knew another portrait of the duke, showing him when he still had hair.

At the Museum of Fine Arts and Archaeology in Besançon there are two paintings depicting Adam and Eve on either side of the Tree of Knowledge on a dark background (panel, 139 x 53.9 cm, inv. 896-1-54a and 896-1-54b). They are traceable in Besançon since 1607 - in the inventory of the gallery of the Granvelle Palace, built for Nicolas Perrenot de Granvelle (1486-1550), between 1534 and 1547. It is very likely that these paintings belonged to Granvelle, a Burgundian politician who was a close advisor to Emperor Charles V. In 1515, George the Bearded sold Friesland to the future Emperor Charles V (then Duke of Burgundy). The paintings are dated to around 1508-1510, while the facial features of a man depicted as the first biblical man bear a striking resemblance to Duke George from Cranach's woodcut of around 1533 and the Ljubljana painting. The woman depicted as Eve is clearly the same as the one depicted in Cranach's Salome in the Bavarian National Museum (inv. R8378), which, according to my identification, is a portrait of George's wife, Barbara Jagiellon.

Representations in the guise of first parents were popular in the Renaissance, as evidenced by the portraits of Joachim Ernest (1536-1586), Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst as Adam and his wife Agnes of Barby-Mühlingen (1540-1569) as Eve, painted around 1570 (Dessau Castle, inv. I-58 and I-59). The Adam in a painting by Cranach in Antwerp (Royal Museum of Fine Arts, inv. 42) bears the features of Ernest of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1497-1546), while Eve is his wife Sophia of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1508-1541), according to my identification. Cranach's 1509 woodcut Adam and Eve in Paradise features the coat of arms of his patron, Elector Frederick III (Cleveland Museum of Art, inv. 1925.115), so Adam's characteristic features are most likely those of the Elector.

Due to the great similarity of the models, Cranach's painting in Warsaw (National Museum, 59 x 44 cm, inv. M.Ob.588 MNW) is considered a reduced version of the painting in Besançon. However, the painter changed their poses and Adam does not look at Eve, but at the sky or at the branches of a large tree, which, judging by the thickness of the trunk, undoubtedly covered the night sky and the stars. What is striking in this painting is that the tree is not an apple tree, typical for most paintings of this genre, especially in northern art, but an oak, the sacred tree of the Slavs and Baltic tribes. Eve-Barbara looks at the viewer and holds in her hands a mysterious fruit that looks more like an orange, typical along with the apple for such representations in Renaissance painting and which symbolizes the fall of man and his redemption (after "Signs & Symbols in Christian Art" by George Ferguson, p. 35). This painting comes from the collection of the Dukes of Hohenzollern-Hechingen, a branch of the family that ruled Brandenburg. Furthermore, near Hechingen is Hohenzollern Castle, the seat of the Hohenzollern family, reconstructed between 1850 and 1867 by the Brandenburg-Prussian and the Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen lines of the Hohenzollern family. It is possible that the painting came from the dowry of Magdalena of Saxony, Margravine of Brandenburg, who probably took many effigies of her parents with her to Brandenburg or that it found its place there through other family connections. A good copy of the Warsaw painting is known, probably made by Cranach's workshop (panel, 30.8 x 23.3 cm, Neumeister in Munich, July 2, 2003, lot 530). It was in the collection of C. Mori in Paris before 1929. It was probably commissioned to be given to other members of the family or to be sent to important friendly courts in Europe. The copy sold in Mexico City (Morton Subastas, June 18, 2013, lot 121) was most likely made in the early 20th century in Paris or Wrocław, at the time when the painting now in Warsaw was in a private collection in France or in the collection of the Silesian Museum of Fine Arts (acquired in 1925).
 
If the concept of these disguised portraits was the initiative of Duchess Barbara, which is very likely, the interpretations according to Slavic and Lithuanian mythology are more appropriate. Unlike her husband, whose confirmed portraits present a great diversity, Barbara was known before this article from a very uniform set of effigies, almost always depicted in a black dress and white bonnet. It should be noted, however, that her facial features were interpreted differently by Cranach's workshop, as evidenced by the painting as a donor in Barcelona and the portrait from around 1546 in the Collection of portraits of Saxon princes (Das Sächsische Stammbuch, p. 91, Saxon State and University Library in Dresden, Mscr.Dresd.R.3)

​Adam and Eve with disguised portraits of George the Bearded (1471-1539), Duke of Saxony and his wife Barbara Jagiellon (1478-1534) by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1508-1510, Museum of Fine Arts and Archaeology in Besançon. 

​Adam and Eve with disguised portraits of George the Bearded (1471-1539), Duke of Saxony and his wife Barbara Jagiellon (1478-1534) by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1508-1510, National Museum in Warsaw. 

​Adam and Eve with disguised portraits of George the Bearded (1471-1539), Duke of Saxony and his wife Barbara Jagiellon (1478-1534) by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, after 1508, Private collection. 

​Portrait of George the Bearded (1471-1539), Duke of Saxony by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1534, Wawel Royal Castle. 

Although unsigned and forgotten, the woodcut depicting the city's patron saints, published in the Kraków Missal (Missale Cracoviense ...) in 1510, is an undisputed work by one of the leading masters of the German Renaissance, Hans Baldung Grien (1484/1485-1545). It was discovered in the early 20th century by Feliks Kopera (1871-1952). In this magnificent print, placed on the reverse side of the title page, the artist included the effigies of the patron saints of Kraków, then the capital of the Kingdom of Poland: Saint Stanislaus, depicted as a bishop, and Saint Florian, depicted as a knight with a large codpiece (17.3 x 12.4 cm, Kórnik Library, sygn.Cim.Qu.2857). The center of the print is filled with the Abdank coat of arms (two joined chevrons, similar to the letter W) of Jan Konarski (1447-1525), Bishop of Kraków from July 21, 1503, the Aaron coat of arms (three crowns) of the Kraków Chapter on the left, and the city coat of arms (a brick wall with three towers) on the right.

Kopera based the attribution of this woodcut on the interlaced HB monogram, characteristic of many of the artist's works, placed on the base of the cross in the Crucifixion scene he published (17.2 x 12.3 cm, "Wiadomości Numizmatyczno-Archeologiczne", R.12, 1900, nos. 3 and 4, p. 241-244). The Crucifixion scene probably appeared in a lost version of the Missal, because no other known book contains this engraving. Both scenes are very close to the master's style, if we compare, for example, with the unsigned scene of Christ on the Cross with the Virgin and Saints Longinus, Mary Magdalen and John, dating from 1505 (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv. 20.34.4).

The Missal was published in Strasbourg; all the necessary elements for its publication must therefore have been delivered from Kraków, including probably some models for the effigies of the patron saints and the coats of arms. It was printed in folio book in black and red ink, in the format 19.5 x 12.6 cm, by the Strasbourg printer Johann Knoblauch (d. 1528) and the citizen of Kraków Nicolaus Schickewick (Impressum Argentine per honestum virum Calcographum Joannem Knoblouch: Impensis honesti viri Nicolai Schickewick: ciuis et bibliopole Cracouiensis. Anno domini M.D.X. in die sancti Calixti pape, fol. LXXVI recto, p. 761). Schickewick, better known as Mikołaj Szykwik in Polish (Niclos Szykowig von der Olaw, Niclos Schikwik, Nicolaus Schykwyk, Nicolaus Schikywik, Nicolaus Schickwik, Nicolaus Schickewyk), was a bookseller and publisher. He was originally from Oława in Silesia and received Kraków citizenship in 1485, where he ran a bookstore in his house on St. Anne's Street. The author of the woodcut, Hans Baldung, nicknamed Grien (Green), having received city citizenship in 1509, immediately came into contact with numerous printing houses, including the one of Knoblauch. In 1510, he was admitted as a master by the zur Steltz guild and opened his own workshop. From 1503, Baldung lived in Nuremberg, where he could come into contact with patrons from Sarmatia, who frequently commissioned works of art and luxury items there. Like Hans von Kulmbach he studied under Albrecht Dürer. The settlement of several Upper Rhine merchants in Kraków at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries may also have played a role in the selection of Strasbourg and its artisans.  

The painter is known for his self-portrait (wearing a green costume, an allusion to his nickname), standing behind the half-naked Saint Sebastian, placed at the center of the scene of the saint's martyrdom on the triptych in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum (inv. Gm1079). This painting also includes the disguised portrait of the potential patron, depicted as Emperor Diocletian on the right. The altarpiece is considered to have probably been commissioned by Ernest II of Saxony (1464-1513), Archbishop of Magdeburg, for the Mary Magdalene Chapel at Moritzburg Castle in Halle, near Leipzig; the donor is therefore identified as a member of the Wettin dynasty. The same sitter, although with a different hair and eye color, looks out at the viewer from the central panel of another Baldung Grien's triptych, created for the same chapel, now in the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin (inv. 603A). It depicts the Adoration of the Magi, and the man is represented as Saint Caspar, one of the Magi, alongside Melchior and Balthazar, identified as having brought the incense. The characteristic green hat and yellow (gold) and green costume of this model are considered an allusion to the Saxon coat of arms; therefore, Ernest's brother, Frederick the Wise (1463-1525), Elector of Saxony, is proposed as a possible model. Saint Melchior, often considered the oldest member of the Magi, in this composition is also a portrait of a real ruler, and the model bears a certain resemblance to Ernest and Frederick's father, Elector Ernest of Saxony (1441-1486), after a miniature by Lucas Cranach the Younger in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (inv. GG 4795). Nevertheless, the resemblance to another contemporary ruler is striking: Christopher I (1453-1527), Margrave of Baden, from a print by Hans Baldung Grien, made in 1511. Four years later, in 1515, the painter also painted the best-known portrait of the Margrave (Alte Pinakothek in Munich, inv. 1407). The younger man in both scenes could therefore be Christopher's eldest son, Bernhard III (1474-1536). Both triptychs were painted around 1507 (the one in Nuremberg is dated).

In Poland, Baldung Gien's most splendid work is the painting Hercules and Antaeus from the 1530s, dedicated to the "Divine Hercules" (DIVO / HERCVLI), according to the inscription at the top left, now in the National Museum in Warsaw (oil on panel, 98.5 x 72.6 cm, inv. M.Ob.837 MNW, dated lower left: 153[...]). Two engravings by Nicoletto da Modena may have served as models for the architecture in this panel. The painting is one of five works of similar size depicting examples of virtue in ancient scenes: Pyramus and Thisbe (Gemäldegalerie in Berlin, inv. 1875), The Death of Marcus Curtius (Klassik Stiftung Weimar, inv. G 817), Mucius Scaevola before Porsenna, where the effigy of the Etruscan king, known for his war against the city of Rome, bears a close resemblance to the known effigies of Ferdinand I, King of the Romans from 1531, when the painting was created (Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden, inv. Gal.-Nr. 1888 B, signed bottom right on chest: H G Baldung Fec. 1531, inscribed left, beneath the fire: 1531 MUCI), and perhaps Lucretia. It could also be a humanist allegory of culture versus nature, the opposition of civilization and barbarism.

Baldung was most likely also the author of several initials in the Missal, such as the magnificent Nativity scene (initial P[uer natus], fol XI verso, p. 50), stylistically very similar to the two large scenes mentioned above. Also very interesting is the scene of the Procession with the Blessed Sacrament (initial C[ibauit], fol. CXXIII verso, p. 274), probably by another artist. This representation, close to the portrait, is undoubtedly linked to the diocese of Kraków; the priest carrying the monstrance is therefore probably Bishop Konarski (the effigy recalls the statue of the bishop found on his tombstone in Wawel Cathedral, attributed to Bernardino Zanobi de Gianotis or Giovanni Cini). The bald man with the long beard supporting the bishop's hand, dressed in a characteristic fur-lined cloak, could be Mikołaj Kamieniecki (1460-1515), Grand Hetman of the Crown and Voivode of Kraków. The inclusion of the bishop's coat of arms and his portrait indicates that he was probably the initiator or sponsor of this publication, and not Schickewick as is generally believed.

​Saint Stanislaus and Saint Florian with the coat of arms of Bishop Jan Konarski (1447-1525), the coat of arms of the Chapter and the city from the Kraków Missal by Hans Baldung Grien, 1510, Kórnik Library. 

​The Crucifixion from the Kraków Missal by Hans Baldung Grien, 1510, lost. 

​Initial P with Nativity scene from the Kraków Missal by Hans Baldung Grien, 1510, Kórnik Library. 

​Initial C with Procession with the Blessed Sacrament in Kraków from the Kraków Missal by circle of Hans Baldung Grien, 1510, Kórnik Library. 

​Hercules and Antaeus by Hans Baldung Grien, ca. 1530-1531, National Museum in Warsaw.

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

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

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

In 1520, Hans Kemmer, a pupil of Lucas Cranach the Elder in Wittenberg, probably shortly after his return to his native town of Lübeck (first mentioned in the Town Book on May 25, 1520), created a copy or rather a modified version of this painting. He signed this work with a monogram HK (linked) and dated '1520' at the edge of the dish. It comes from private collection in Austria and was sold in 1994 (oil on panel, 58 x 51 cm, Dorotheum in Vienna, October 18, 1994, lot 151). Her costume is more ornate in this version, but the face is not very elaborately painted.

The sitter's velvet fur-lined hat is evidently Eastern European and similar was depicted in a Portrait of a man with a fur hat by Michele Giambono (Palazzo Rosso in Genoa), created in Venice between 1432-1434, which is identified to represent a Bohemian or Hungarian prince who came to Italy for the coronation of Emperor Sigismund. Her left hand is unnatural and almost grotesque or "naively" painted (repainted in the Lisbon version most likely in the 19th century), which is an indication that the painter based on a study drawing that he received to create the painting and not seen the live model.

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

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

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

​Portrait of Barbara Zapolya as Salome with the Head of Saint John the Baptist by Hans Kemmer, 1520, Private collection.

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

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

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

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

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

A painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder in the National Gallery of Denmark in Copenhagen dated to about 1510-1512 shows a scene of the Mystical marriage of Saint Catherine (panel, transferred to canvas, 96.5 x 80.5 cm, inv. KMSsp731). The Saint "as a wife should share in the life of her husband, and as Christ suffered for the redemption of mankind, the mystical spouse enters into a more intimate participation in His sufferings" (after Catholic Encyclopaedia). Virgin Mary bears features of Queen Barbara Zapolya, similar to paintings in the Parish church in Strońsko or in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid (inv. 114 (1936.1)). The woman on the right, depicted in a pose similar to some donor portraits, is identified as effigy of Saint Barbara. It was therefore she who commissioned the painting. Her facial features bears great resemblance to the portrait of Barbara Jagiellon by Cranach from the Silesian Museum of Fine Arts in Wrocław, today in the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin (inv. 1312). The effigy of Saint Catherine bears strong resemblance to the portrait of Dorothea of Saxe-Lauenburg, queen of Denmark and daughter of Catherine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, Duchess of Saxe-Lauenburg, in the Frederiksborg Castle, near Copenhagen. Described painting comes from the Danish royal collection and before 1784 it was in the Furniture Chamber of the royal Christiansborg Palace in Copenhagen. The painting bears coat of arms of the Electorate of Saxony in upper part. The message is therefore that Saxe-Lauenburg should join the "Jagiellonian family" and thanks to this union they can regain the electoral title. A good workshop copy, acquired in 1858 from the collection of a Catholic theologian Johann Baptist von Hirscher (1788-1865) in Freiburg im Breisgau, is in the Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe (panel, 43.5 x 32.5 cm, inv. 107).

The painting is very similar to other Mystical marriage of Saint Catherine by Lucas Cranach the Elder, which was in the Bode Museum in Berlin before World War II, lost (panel, 95 x 76 cm, inv. 1970). In this scene Queen Barbara is most probably surrounded by her Hungarian and Moravian court ladies in guise of Saints Margaret, Catherine, Barbara and Dorothea. One such Morawianka, hence originally from Moravia, was later a court lady of Barbara's daughter, Hedwig Jagiellon (after "Królewna Jadwiga i jej książeczka do spowiedzi" by Urszula Borkowska, p. 85). It was purchased from a private collection in Paris, hence the provenance from the Polish royal collection cannot be excluded - John Casimir Vasa, great-grandson of Sigismund I in 1668 and many other Polish aristocrats transferred to Paris their collections in the 17th century and later. The copy of this painting from about 1520 is in the church in Jachymov (Sankt Joachimsthal), where from 1519 Louis II, King of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia minted his famous gold coin, Joachim thaler. 

A detail visible on an old black and white photograph of the painting indicates that it was one of the many copies of this composition, one of which was also copied into the Jachymov Altarpiece. There is a brighter part indicating an exposed forearm of the Virgin near the Child's left hand in the lost painting, while logically this part of her hand should have been covered with red cloth, as in the Jachymov painting. This was probably a mistake, when working on a large royal commission, which went unnoticed. If the work was unique, for a particular client from Germany, such a defect could be much easier to point out and correct. Customers from more distant areas had difficulty making complaints, which is probably why this defect was not corrected.

The woman in an effigy of Lucretia, a model of virtuous woman by Lucas Cranach the Elder, which was in the late 19th century in the collection of Wilhelm Löwenfeld in Munich (panel, 60 x 47 cm, Sotheby's New York, February 1, 2018, lot 10), is very similar to the effigy of Barbara Jagiellon in Copenhagen. It is one of the earliest of the surviving versions of this subject by Cranach and is considered a pendant piece to the Salome in Lisbon (Friedländer). Both paintings have similar dimensions, composition, style, the subject of an ancient femme fatale and were created in the same period. The work in Lisbon depicts Barbara Jagiellon's sister-in-law, Queen Barbara Zapolya. Similar effigy of Lucretia, also by Cranach the Elder, was auctioned at Art Collectors Association Gallery in London in 1920 (panel, 60.3 x 48.9 cm, Sotheby's New York, January 26, 2012, lot 34). 

The effigy of the Virgin of Sorrows in the National Gallery in Prague (panel, 63.1 x 47.2 cm, inv. O 528), which was donated in 1885 by Baron Vojtech (Adalbert) Lanna (1836-1909), is almost identical with the face of Saint Barbara in the Copenhagen painting. In 1634 the work was owned by some unidentified abbot who added his coat of arms with his initiatials "A. A. / Z. G." in right upper corner of the painting. On the other hand, the face of Madonna from a painting in the National Museum in Warsaw (oil on panel, 78.5 x 52 cm, inv. M.Ob.2542 MNW) is very similar to that of Salome in Munich. This painting is attributed to follower of Lucas Cranach the Elder and dated to the first quarter of the 16th century. As for the Warsaw painting, inspirations from Italian painting are indicated, as well as a fig held by the Child in his left hand, which is quite unusual, as it is generally considered a symbol of lust and fertility (compare "Signs & Symbols in Christian Art" by George Ferguson, p. 31). 

​The effigy of Salome from the same period by Lucas Cranach the Elder, acquired in 1906 by the Bavarian National Museum in Munich from the Catholic Rectory in Bayreuth (panel, 72.5 x 54.3 cm, inv. R8378, on loan to the Franconian Gallery in Kronach), also depict Barbara Jagiellon. A modified copy of this painting by Cranach's workshop or a 17th century copist, possibly Johann Glöckler, with the model shown wearing a dress made of exquisite brocade fabric was in the Heinz Kisters collection in Kreuzlingen in the 1960s (panel, 34.8 x 24.5 cm). It is one of the many known variants of the composition. A reduced version of this "Salome", but without the head of Saint John the Baptist and depicting the model in a richer costume, was sold in Vienna in 2024 with an attribution to a follower of Lucas Cranach the Elder (oil on panel, 60 x 54 cm, Dorotheum in Vienna, February 6, 2024, lot 138-082018/0001). This painting is also considered to be a work of a 19th-century imitator of Cranach. Such copyists, such as Franz Wolfgang Rohrich (1787-1834), frequently copied original paintings, so even though the painting does not date from the 16th century, it can be considered a copy of a lost original. This painting bears a Latin inscription, which also appears to be original from the 16th century and refers to the perception of beauty and how "a head can be lost" (NON CAPVT IN TOTO FVERAT FORMOSI VS ORBE HOC / QoD DOCTA EXPALLET EMORITVRQ MANV). In the mentioned paintings, the model wears a richly decorated headdress, which resembles the Italian balzo of the 1530s. The balzo is assumed to be a fashion invention of Isabella d'Este, first documented in letters in 1509 and 1512. The Duchess of Saxony was depicted in a similar dress on the title page of the Marian Psalter by Marcus von Weida (1450-1516), published in Leipzig in 1515 (Der Spiegel hochloblicher Bruderschafft des Rosenkrantz Marie, der allerreinsten Jungfrawen: vff begere, der durchlauchtigen hochgebornen Furstin, vnd frawen [...] Barbara geborn auß königliche[m] Stam[m] czu Poln, Hertzogin czu Sachssen [...], Bavarian State Library in Munich, Res/4 Asc. 1031). This Psalter also reflects the her particular cult for the Virgin Mary.

Possibly around that time or later, when her sister-in-law Bona Sforza ordered her portraits in about 1530, the Duchess also commissioned a series of her portraits as another biblical femme fatale, Judith. The portrait by workshop or follower of Cranach from private collection, sold in 2014 (panel, 73 x 52 cm, Auktionshaus Wendl in Rudolstadt, October 25, 2014, lot 4431), is very similar to the painting in Munich, while the pose essentially corresponds to the portrait of her niece Hedwig Jagiellon from the Suermondt collection, dated 1531 (Gemäldegalerie in Berlin, inv. 636A).

Lesser-known prints by anonymous engravers show the Duchess of Saxony in her younger years and in various costumes, comparable to those depicted in Cranach's paintings. In a woodcut from around 1516 depicting the founding of the Königstein Monastery (In dedicationem Regii Lapidis. Hecatostichon Hieronymi Emser, National Museum in Warsaw, inv. 78385 MNW), Barbara kneels in a Renaissance dress similar to that in the Salome and Judith paintings, while a large headdress resembling a balzo is visible in a woodcut made in Leipzig around 1525 depicting the Duchess holding her coat of arms (private collection). The dress similar to that in the Lucretia paintings was depicted in an etching from around 1700 reproducing the Duchess's tomb slab in Meissen Cathedral (National Museum in Warsaw, inv. 78381 MNW).

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

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

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

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

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

​Portrait of Barbara Jagiellon (1478-1534), Duchess of Saxony as Salome by workshop or follower of Lucas Cranach the Elder, after 1512 (17th century?), Private collection.

​Portrait of Barbara Jagiellon (1478-1534), Duchess of Saxony by follower of Lucas Cranach the Elder, 19th century after original from about 1512, Private collection.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A painting of Lucretia, the epitome of female virtue and beauty, by Lucas Cranach the Elder or his workshop was acquired by Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Kassel from the art dealer Gutekunst in Stuttgart in 1885 (panel, 41.5 x 28.5 cm, inv. GK 14). According to inscription on reverse of the panel it was earlier in private collection in Augsburg, a city frequently visited by Emperor Maximilian I. The tower on a hilltop visible on the left in the background is astonishingly similar to the dominant of the 16th century Vilnius, the medieval Gediminas Tower of the Upper Castle. Lucretia's pose, costume and even facial features are very similar to the portrait of Elizabeth's elder sister Barbara Jagiellon (1478-1534), Duchess of Saxony as Lucretia from Wilhelm Löwenfeld's collection in Munich. A study drawing for this painting by an artist from Cranach's studio, possibly a student sent to Poland-Lithuania to prepare initial drawings, is in the Klassik Stiftung Weimar (paper, 16.3 x 16.9 cm, inv. CC 100). 

The same woman was also depicted as reclining water nymph Egeria, today in the Grunewald hunting lodge in Berlin (panel, 58.2 x 87.1 cm, inv. GK I 1926). The painter most likely used the same template drawing to create both effigies (in Kassel and in Berlin). Egeria, the nymph of the sacred source, probably a native Italic water goddess, had the power to assist in conception. "Her fountain was said to have sprung from the trunk of an oak tree and whoever drank it water was blessed with fertility, prophetic visions, and wisdom" (after Theresa Bane's "Encyclopedia of Fairies in World Folklore and Mythology", p. 119). Medieval tower on a steep slope in the background is also similar on both paintings. This painting was presumably in the Berlin City Palace since the 16th century and in 1699 it was recorded in the Potsdam City Palace. It cannot be excluded that it was sent to Joachim I Nestor, Elector of Brandenburg or his brother Albert of Brandenburg, future cardinal, or it was taken from Poland during the Deluge (1655-1660). Initial drawing for this painting is in the Graphic Collection of the Erlangen University Library (paper, 7.6 x 19.6 cm, inv. H62/B1338).

Another similar Lucretia was sold in Brussels in 1922 (panel, 41.5 x 27 cm, Christie's London, Auction 1576, December 3, 2014, lot 113). Brussels was a capital of the Habsburg Netherlands, a dominium of Emperor Maximilian. It is highly possible that his daughter Archduchess Margaret of Austria, Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands from 1507 to 1515, who resided in nearby Mechelen, received a portrait of possible stepmother. This portrait is also very similar to another portrait of Elizabeth's sister Barbara as Lucretia, which was auctioned in London in 1920.

The Lucretia from Brussels was copied in another painting, today in Veste Coburg (panel, 27 x 17, inv. M.039), which according to later inscription is known as Dido the Queen of Carthage. It was initially in the Art Cabinet (Kunstkammer) of the Friedenstein Palace in Gotha, like the portrait of Elizabeth's niece Hedwig Jagiellon by Cranach from 1534. The costume of Dido is very similar to the dress of Salome visible in a painting of the Beheading of Saint John the Baptist (Kroměříž Castle), dated "1515" and created by Cranach for Stanislaus Thurzo, Bishop of Olomouc, brother of Bishop John V Thurzo. This painting bears the inscription in Latin DIDO REGINA and date M.D.XLVII (1547). Friedenstein Palace was built for Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha, and one of the most important events in the history of his family was the Battle of Mühlberg in 1547, lost by his great-grandfather John Frederick I, who was stripped of his title as Elector of Saxony and imperial forces blew up the fortifications of Grimmenstein Castle, the predecessor of the Friedenstein Palace. It is possible that a portrait of Elizabeth as Lucretia, whose identity was already lost by 1547, become for John Frederick's family a symbol of their glorious past and tragic fall, exactly like in the Story of Dido and Aeneas.

The same facial features were also used in a series of paintings of Nursing Madonna (Madonna lactans), a symbol of maternity and Virgin's capacity for protection. This popular image of Mary with the infant Jesus is similar to the ancient statues of Isis lactans that is the Egyptian goddess Isis, worshiped as the ideal, fertile mother, shown suckling her son Horus. The best version is now in the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest (panel, 81.6 x 54 cm, inv. 4328). This painting was donated to the museum in 1912 by Count János Pálffy from his collection in the Pezinok Castle in Slovakia. The painting was earlier, most probably, in Principe Fondi's collection which was auctioned in Rome in 1895. The work is exquisitely painted and the landscape in the background resemble the view of Vilnius and Neris river in about 1576, however the face, was not very skilfully added to the painting, most likely as the last part, and the whole effigy looks unnatural. The same mistake was replicated in copies and the face of the Virgin in the copy in the Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt has almost grotesque appearance (panel, 59 x 38 cm, inv. GK 69). The latter painting was acquired before 1820, probably from the collection of the Landgraves of Hesse-Darmstadt and the hilltop tower behind the Virgin is almost identical with that in the painting of Lucretia in Kassel. Other versions are in the Capuchin monastery in Vienna (panel, 87 x 58 cm, inv. 11500/179, before 1787 in the Capuchin Monastery in Tulln an der Donau, built after 1635), most probably from the Habsburg collection, one was sold in Lucerne in 2006 (Galerie Fischer, May 31 to June 6,2006, lot 1461) and another in 2011 in Prague (oil on canvas, 91 x 63 cm, Arcimboldo, May 28, 2011, lot 30). The painting sold in Prague at the Arcimboldo Auctions, in a beautiful Renaissance frame, is attributed to the German school of the late 16th century, but its style indicates Italian influences and is comparable to works attributed to Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1527-1593), such as a series of portraits of the daughters of Emperor Ferdinand I and Anna Jagiellonica in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. It is quite possible that Arcimboldo's workshop copied a painting that was in the collection of Elizabeth's relatives in Prague. The sitter's face in all mentioned effigies with distinguish Habsburg/Masovian lip, resemble greatly Elizabeth's sister Barbara Jagiellon, her mother Elizabeth of Austria and her brother Sigismund I. 

The mentioned features of the woman's face are also visible on another Madonna, now in a private collection (panel, 41.6 x 28.6 cm, Christie's London, July 8, 2009, lot 198). The painting came onto the art market in 1954 from the collection of Croatian art dealer Ante Mimara (1898-1987), who was involved in numerous dubious restitution cases after World War II. It depicts the sitter as the Virgin and Child with the infant Saint ​John offering an apple, in front of a curtain held by two angels. The work is inscribed on the rocks of the castle hill in the background with the monogram LC, while the partially illegible date below is usually read as 1512 (center left). This could be also a later copy of a painting created in the 1510s. The composition is generally similar to that of Cranach's Madonna under the Apple Tree, now in the Hermitage Museum (inv. ГЭ-684), which, according to my identification, is a disguised portrait of Bona Sforza. Not only is the composition similar, but so is the landscape in the background, although disguised like the model. As in Bona's portrait, the Wawel Royal Castle and the Vistula River are seen looking south towards Tyniec Abbey, as in an engraving published in 1550 in Basel in Cosmographiae uniuersalis Lib. VI ... by Sebastian Münster (National Library of Poland, ZZK 0.354, p. 889). The painter also used it in the portrait of Elizabeth's niece, Hedwig Jagiellon, now kept at the Veste Coburg (inv. M.163), also identified by me.

There is also a painting in the Klassik Stiftung Weimar (panel, 75.5 x 58 cm, inv. G 984), created by workshop or follower of Lucas Cranach the Elder, representing the Virgin Mary flanked by two female saints, very similar to the compositions in the National Gallery of Denmark in Copenhagen and in the Bode Museum in Berlin, lost during World War II. The painting was acquired before 1932 on the Berlin art market. The effigy of Mary is a copy of a painting in Strońsko near Sieradz in central Poland, the portrait of Barbara Zapolya. The woman on the left, receiving an apple from the Child, is identical with effigies of Barbara Jagiellon, Duchess of Saxony and the one on the right resemble Elizabeth Jagiellon. The castle in the background match perfectly the layout of the Royal Sandomierz Castle in about 1515 as seen from the west. The Gothic castle in Sandomierz was built by king Casimir the Great after 1349 and it was rebuilt and extended in about 1480. On July 15, 1478 Queen Elizabeth of Austria gave birth to Barbara Jagiellon there and the royal family lived in the castle from about 1513. In 1513 Sigismund I ordered to demolish some ruined, medieval structures and to extend and reconstruct the building in the renaissance style. Two-storey arcaded cloisters around a closed courtyard (west, south and east wings) were constructed between 1520-1527. The castle was destroyed during the Deluge in 1656 and the west wing was rebuilt between 1680-1688 for King John III Sobieski. 

Before 1515, a clergyman, Baltazar Opec (also Opeć, Opetcz, Opecius or Balthazar de Cracovia), son of a baker from Kraków, Wacław Opec, educated at the Kraków Academy, with the support of Princess Elizabeth, undertook the first translation of "The Life of Christ" into Polish. The work, entitled Żywot wssechmocnego syna bożego, pana Jezu Krysta ..., was published in Kraków in 1522 by Hieronymus Vietor (Jagiellonian Library, BJ St. Dr. Cim. 8032). The author included the following dedication: "Baltazar Opec, master of Kraków, to the enlightened noble lady Elizabeth, princess of Poland of good memory" (Baltazar Opec, mistrz krakowski, dobrey pamięci ślachetney pannie oświeconey Elżbiecie, królewnie Polskiey), dated May 4, 1522. Most interesting in this publication is the use of woodcuts depicting scenes from the life of Christ, produced before 1507 in Nuremberg by Hans Leonard Schäufelein, Hans Baldung Grien and Hans Suess von Kulmbach. They were originally used in Speculum passionis domini nostri Ihesu Christi, printed in 1507 by Ulrich Pinder (d. 1519), personal physician to Elector Frederick III of Saxony, editor and printer. The original blocks used for the 1507 publication were either borrowed or acquired by Vietor, perhaps through Opec or even someone in the entourage of Sigismund I or Frederick III, who was Cranach's most important early patron. 

​Portrait of Princess Elizabeth Jagiellon (1482-1517) as Madonna against the idealized view of Wawel Castle by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1512 or after, Private collection.

​Study drawing for portrait of Princess Elizabeth Jagiellon (1482-1517) as reclining water nymph Egeria by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1510-1515, Graphic Collection of the Erlangen University Library.

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

​Study drawing for portrait of Princess Elizabeth Jagiellon (1482-1517) as Lucretia by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1510-1515, Klassik Stiftung Weimar.

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

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

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

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

Portrait of Elizabeth Jagiellon (1482-1517), Duchess of Legnica as Madonna lactans by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1515, Capuchin Monastery in Vienna. 

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

​Portrait of Elizabeth Jagiellon (1482-1517), Duchess of Legnica as Madonna lactans by workshop of Giuseppe Arcimboldo, second half of the 16th century, Private collection.

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

Christ taking leave of his mother from Żywot wssechmocnego syna bożego, pana Jezu Krysta ... by Hans Leonard Schäufelein, published in Kraków in 1522, Jagiellonian Library. 

Renaissance painters frequently placed religious scenes in surroundings that they knew from everyday life. This kind of Renaissance mimesis reproduced reality and, as it included real people in the form of saints and historical figures, interiors and landscapes, it gave rise to other genres, such as portraiture, still life or the landscape.

The wealthy patrons who commissioned such religious scenes often wanted to be included, either as donors or protagonists. Sometimes they also wanted to show off their wealth and power, like Nicolas Rolin (1376-1462), chancellor of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, and one of the richest and most powerful men of his time. In the so-called Madonna of Chancellor Rolin, painted by Jan van Eyck around 1435 (Louvre, INV 1271; MR 705), the chancellor kneels before the Virgin herself in a splendid room or chapel offering a magnificent view.

German painter Hans Suess von Kulmbach during the creation of panels of the Altar of Saint Catherine and the Altar of Saint John for the Church of Saint Mary in Kraków, created between 1514 and 1519, also inspired by real life. Both cycles are considered to have been created in Kraków on the orders of the merchant and banker Johann (Hans) Boner (1462-1523), also Hannus Bonner (Bonar, Ponner), a native of Landau in the Palatinate, who settled in Kraków in 1483. Unfortunately, several paintings from these cycles, as well as other paintings by Kulmbach, were lost after the Nazi German invasion of Poland in 1939.

Around 1493, Johann married Szczęsna Morsztynówna (died before 1523), Felicia Morrensteyn or Morstein in German sources, the youngest daughter of Stanislaus Morsztyn the Elder, a patrician from Kraków, who brought him houses worth 2,000 zlotys as a dowry. In 1498 he became a city councilor. In 1514 he was ennobled (Bonarowa coat of arms) and obtained the office of burgrave of Kraków Castle, then the starosty of Rabsztyn and Ojców. In 1515 he became manager of the Wieliczka salt mines and was at that time the main banker of Sigismund I. 

As a painter of the Boner family, who enjoyed special royal protection, Kulmbach did not need to join the Kraków painters' guild, which probably explains why the city documents did not preserve his name. Johann probably met the painter while serving as intermediary between King Sigismund I and his sister Sophia Jagiellon (1464-1512), Margravine of Brandenburg-Ansbach. He probably carried letters from one court to another, and it is quite possible that he represented the king at Sophia's funeral (after "Hans Suess z Kulmbachu" by Józef Muczkowski, Józef Zdanowski, p. 12). In 1511, the Kraków city council granted him the Chapel of the Holy Spirit in St. Mary's Church, which Pope Leo X approved on July 19, 1513 encouraged by the message provided by the Bishop of Płock, Erazm Ciołek, that the king treated the Boner Chapel with special devotion. In 1513, the chapel received a new patron, Saint John the Baptist, and in 1515 its invocation was supplemented with Saint John the Evangelist. The two cycles were most likely created for this chapel.

Most interesting is the panel from the altar of Saint Catherine depicting the Disputation in which Saint Catherine converted pagan philosophers to Christianity (tempera and oil on panel, ca. 118 x 62 cm), as it makes a direct reference to the Boners - their coat of arms in the stained glass quatrefoil which adorns the window. The style of the painting is also very interesting because it refers to Jacopo de' Barbari and Albrecht Dürer, thus joining the Venetian and German tradition, so popular in Poland-Lithuania at that time. The scene obviously takes place in Johann's house in Kraków.

Interestingly, apart from paintings by Kulmbach, he also commissioned luxury items from Venice, like exquisit glass pilgrim fask adorned with his coat of arms and mongram (initials H and P), now in the Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon (41.3 cm, inv. D 697). The collection of the Museum of Applied Arts Vienna includes a large footed glass plate which also bears Boner's coat of arms, supplemented by his initials (diameter: 44.9 cm, inv. F 180), and suggests that a large set was probably made for Hans in Venice at the beginning of the 16th century. In 1510/1511, he received the following merchandise from Venice alone: 10,054 pieces of window glass, three crates of Venetian glass (luxury glass), and 4,090 glass containers for everyday use (after "An early 16th century Venetian Pilgrim Flask ..." by Klaas Padberg Evenboer, p. 304, 306, 308). 

The glass in the windows of his house was certainly also imported from Venice, which is why Boner wanted to boast to the other citizens of Kraków. They were probably designed by Hans Suess - one of his most important drawings, made in Kraków in 1511 (dated upper right) is a tondo with the Martyrdom of Saint Stanislaus, which is most likely a design for a stained glass window (Kunsthalle Bremen, inv. 1937/613).

All these elements, combined with a very portrait-like effigy in profile of one of the philosophers on the right, standing directly under the quatrefoil with the coat of arms, indicate that this is the cryptoportrait of Johann. The same man was also depicted on the left of the scene of the self-burial of Saint John the Evangelist, painted in 1516 (St. Mary's Basilica in Kraków), which takes place in the Wawel Cathedral before the original Gothic reliquary-sarcophagus of Saint Stanislaus, as well as one of the Apostles in the Ascension of Christ, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, attributed to Kulmbach and dated around 1513 (oil on panel, 61.5 x 35.9 cm, inv. 21.84, compare "Just what is it that makes identification-portrait hypotheses so appealing? ..." by Masza Sitek, p. 3, 7, 11-12, 17). 

Other members of the Boner family were also depicted in the paintings commissioned by Johann, including his wife. Already at the beginning of the 20th century, an interpretation was proposed according to which Empress Faustina from the Conversion of the empress was the disguised portrait of Johann's wife. The empress is the secondary figure of the cycle, while Szczęsna was the central female figure in Johann's life and household, just like Saint Catherine in the Dispute scene by Kulmbach. The woman in rich crimson attire, typical for the Polish nobility, wearing a pearl necklace and a headpiece decorated with pearls (symbols of the Virgin Mary and Venus), points towards the quatrefoil with the image of the Madonna and Child. As the mystical bride of Christ, Saint Catherine ranked second only to the Virgin Mary. The painting of the Madonna also played a decisive role in the conversion of the pagan-born princess, as shown in the first panel of the Kulmbach cycle. A lapdog at her feet, a symbol of marital fidelity, similar to that visible in portrait of Catherine of Mecklenburg, painted by Lucas Cranach the Elder in 1514 (Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden, inv. 1906 H), indicate that she is a wealthy lady of the Renaissance. 

Her costume reflects her husband's status and the fashion of Kraków at that time. It is comparable to the dresses of the ladies in the Miracle at the tomb of the Patriarch from the polyptych of John the Merciful, painted by Jan Goraj or Joachim Libnaw around 1504 (National Museum in Kraków, inv. MNK ND-13) or costume of Agnieszka Ciołkowa née Zasańska (died 1518), depicted as Saint Agnes in the Kraków Pontifical from 1506 to 1518 (Czartoryski Library, 1212 V Rkps, p. 37). The clothing of the wife of Erazm Schilling (d. 1561) from Kraków is so rich that her portrait was considered to represent Sibylle of Cleves (1512-1554), electress of Saxony. It was sold as a pendant to the portrait of Frederick III the Wise (1463-1525), prince-elector of Saxony, who was never married (Lempertz in Cologne, Auction 1017, September 25, 2013, lot 112). All copies of this portrait were probably painted by the Nuremberg painter Franz Wolfgang Rohrich (1787-1834), who also copied the portrait of Sigismund I's sister Sophia (Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv. 07.245.2), yet, one copy bears an inscription in German confirming that the woman was a daughter of Stenzel from Poznań and that she married Erazm in 1521. The coat of arms of the Silesian noble family Schilling joined to that of the woman also confirms that she was the wife of this patrician of Kraków (oil on panel, 64.5 x 46 cm, Galeria Staszica in Poznań, December 15, 2022, lot 3, inscription: ANNO MDXXI IST DEM EDLENE VND VESTEN ERASMO SCHILLINGIN CROCAVVER ...). The Venetian-style portrait of the Kraków goldsmith Grzegorz Przybyła or Przybyło (d. 1547) and his wife Katarzyna (d. 1539) is another confirmation of the great prosperity of the Kraków bourgeoisie at the beginning of the 16th century (National Museum in Warsaw, inv. 128874).

The big décolletage of Szczęsna's dress in turn confirms that it was popular in Poland-Lithuania long before Queen Marie Louise Gonzaga (1611-1667), who is said to have introduced it upon her arrival in 1646.

​Tondo drawing with Martyrdom of Saint Stanislaus by Hans Suess von Kulmbach, 1511, Kunsthalle Bremen. 

​Conversion of Saint Catherine with disguised portrait of Szczęsna Morsztynówna by Hans Suess von Kulmbach, 1515, St. Mary's Basilica in Kraków. 

​Disputation of Saint Catherine with pagan philosophers with disguised portraits of Szczęsna Morsztynówna and her husband Johann Boner (1462-1523) by Hans Suess von Kulmbach, 1515, St. Mary's Basilica in Kraków. 

​Self-burial of St. John the Evangelist with portrait of Johann Boner (1462-1523) by Hans Suess von Kulmbach, 1516, St. Mary's Basilica in Kraków. 

​Portrait of wife of Erazm Schilling (d. 1561), patrician of Kraków, by Franz Wolfgang Rohrich (?), before 1834 after original from the 1520s, Private collection. 

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

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

The portrait of a woman with necklace and belt with B&S monogram, dated by the experts to about 1512, which was in the Imperial collection in Berlin before World War II, now in private collection (oil on panel, 42 x 30 cm), is sometimes identified as depicting Barbara Jagiellon, Duchess of Saxony and Barbara Zapolya's sister-in-law.

A pendant with the monogram of the married couple SH (Sophia et Henricus) is visible on the tombstone of Sophia Jagiellon (1522-1575), Duchess of Brunswick-Lüneburg, daughter of Sigismund and his second wife Bona Sforza, in the St. Mary's Church in Wolfenbüttel. Such jewelry with monograms, called "letters" (litera/y), were popular and are mentioned in many inventories. Among more than 250 rings of Queen Bona, there was a ring with black enamel, a diamond, rubies and an emerald, on which there were the letters BR (BONA REGINA) and three others with the letter B. Sigismond's daughters, Sophia, Anna and Catherine, owned the jewels with the letters S, A and C from the first letter of their names in Latin of which only Catherine's jewel has survived (Cathedral Museum in Uppsala). They were made in 1546 by Nicolaus Nonarth in Nuremberg and depicted in their portraits by the workshop of Lucas Cranach the Younger.

Florian, court goldsmith between 1502-1540, elder of the guild in 1511 was paid in the years 1510-1511 for various works for the king and his illegitimate son John (1499-1538), later bishop of Vilnius and Poznań. He made silver belts for the king, a base for a clock, harnesses for horses, cups for king's mistress Katarzyna Telniczanka and silver utensils for the royal bathroom (after "Mecenat Zygmunta Starego ..." by Adam Bochnak, p. 137). The gold sheet with Saint Barbara made as the background of the painting of Our Lady of Częstochowa is considered to be a gift from Queen Barbara given during a pilgrimage to the monastery on October 27, 1512.

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

Although his stay in Berlin is not confirmed by the sources, the mentioned portrait of Barbara's daughter Hedwig Jagellon, now in the Grunewald hunting lodge in Berlin (oil on panel, 49. x 35.8 cm, inv. GK I 2152) is attributed to Krell, who lived in Leipzig between 1533 and 1573. This portrait comes from the old collections of the House of Hohenzollern, formerly in the Hohenzollern Museum; the German inscription on the upper edge confirms the identity of the sitter (HEDEWICK GEBOREN AVS / KÖNIGLICHEM STAM. / ZV POLEN. MARGGREFIN / ZV BRANDENBVRG / ANNO DOM M D XX ...), while the style is also typical of Krell, who most likely relied on study drawings sent from Berlin to create the portrait of the Electress.

​Portrait of Hedwig Jagiellon (1513-1573), Electress of Brandenburg, wearing a dress with her father's monogram S on the sleeves, by Hans Krell, ca. 1537, Grunewald hunting lodge in Berlin.

"The painter from Gdańsk, Michael, told me that Your Ducal Grace possesses a painter, or rather a sculptor, who excels in the representation of the human figure in bronze, stone, and wood. I request that Your Ducal Grace send him to me, along with his tools, as soon as possible for a while, for I am in great need of his services; I promise to take good care of him" (Der Danziger Maler Michael erzählte mir, daß E. f. G. einen Maler oder vielmehr Bildhauer besitzen, welcher auf das beste menschliche Bildnisse in Erztafeln, Stein und Holz darzustellen weiß. Ich bitte E. f. G., ihn mit seinen Werkzeugen mir bald auf einige Zeit zuzuschicken, da ich ihn sehr nötig brauche; ich verspreche ihn gut zu pflegen und zu hegen), wrote Chancellor Krzysztof Szydłowiecki (1466-1532) in a letter dated from Malbork, March 9, 1526. The recipient of the letter was Duke Albert of Prussia (1490-1568), patron of Lucas Cranach the Elder. In a letter dated March 12 and 16, 1526, the Duke informed Szydłowiecki that he was sending the sculptor, along with a silver coin of his making, as a token of his talent. This sculptor has been identified as Hans Schwarz (born in Augsburg in 1492 and died around 1550), and the only known copy of a medal by his hand depicting Szydłowiecki is in the Hermitage Museum (copper, 6.5 cm, inv. ИМ-13497). In a later letter, dated April 7, 1526, Albert asks the Chancellor to send a sculpted effigy of the Turkish Sultan (Symulachrum imperatoris Turcarum quam primum sculptum fuerit, mitti nobis rogamus plurimum). On May 26, 1526, Krzysztof signed a pact of mutual friendship with the Duke of Prussia in Gdańsk (Czartoryski Library in Kraków, 764 Perg.).

Letters from Szydłowiecki, dated July 31 and August 1, 1526, both written in Sztum, concern the transfer of the painter Peter, probably Lutheran and former Catholic priest, to the author's brother, Mikołaj Szydłowiecki (1480-1532), to decorate his buildings. In a letter dated September 28, 1526, the Duke advised Szydłowiecki, in the face of the imminent Ottoman invasion, to confiscate the silver vessels, images and other valuable objects from the churches "rather than risk complete destruction and ruin". On the same day, Albert probably wrote a letter to Duke Frederick II of Legnica, asking him to dispatch an experienced pond digger and assistants. Following this were letters to Lucas Cranach the Elder concerning the acquisition of new books (September 29, 1526), ​​to Wilhelm von Worms, a Nuremberg armorer, regarding a skilled and experienced armorer for the King of Sweden (November 14, 1526), ​​and another letter to Cranach of unknown content (November 24, 1526, after "Die Kunst am Hofe der Herzöge von Preußen" by Hermann Ehrenberg, p. 145-146, letters 16-18, 23-29). This represents only a portion of the known correspondence, and none of the known documents relate to the preserved portraits of the Duke of Prussia painted by Cranach.

It is possible that the bronze funerary plaque bearing Szydłowiecki's effigy was made in 1526, as the inscription, founded by his wife, Zofia Targowicka (ca. 1490-1556), states that he commissioned the monument during his lifetime (MONVMENTVM HOC · QVOD CINERIB · SVIS IMMINET · VIVENS FIERI FECIT). The plaque measures 2 meters long; the figure itself is 1.84 meters long. Other elements of the monument, such as the Opatów Lamentation, are dated 1536. The entire monument is attributed to the workshop of Bartolommeo Berrecci and Giovanni Cini. According to Jerzy Kieszkowski (1872-1923), the plaque is the work of a German artist (after "Kanclerz Krzysztof Szydłowiecki ...", Volume 3, p. 374-378, 383-384). The effigy depicts the chancellor as a knight in armor holding a banner adorned with his coat of arms. It portrays him as younger, not as an elderly man in his sixties, shortly before his death. It could therefore be based on an original portrait of Krzysztof painted in 1526 or dating from 1515, the year he became Grand Chancellor and Voivode of Kraków. Interestingly, in 1514, Lucas Cranach the Elder created one of his masterpieces, full-length portraits of Henry IV of Saxony and Catherine of Mecklenburg (Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden, inv. 1906 G, 1906 H). The portrait of the Duke of Saxony, holding a sword, bears a striking resemblance to the chancellor's effigy. The Duke of Saxony holds a similar sword in his full-length portrait of 1537 by Cranach, lost during the Second World War (Gemäldegalerie in Dresden, inv. 1915). Even more similar are the full-length portraits of Frederick III (1463-1525) and John the Steadfast (1468-1532), Electors of Saxony, holding a sword, produced by the Cranach workshop around 1540-1545, several years after their deaths, and undoubtedly inspired by other effigies (Klassik Stiftung Weimar, inv. G 16, G 18). It is interesting to note that very similar effigies of the two electors were reproduced in their bronze epitaphs in the Castle Church (Schlosskirche) at Wittenberg, cast in Nuremberg by Peter Vischer the Younger and Hans Vischer in 1527. Moreover, Peter Vischer the Elder is the author of the bronze tombstone of Paweł Szydłowiecki (1478-1506) in Wawel Cathedral, founded by his brothers Krzysztof and Mikołaj. Between 1496 and 1501, Paweł studied in Bologna and Ferrara, and shortly thereafter joined the court of Prince Sigismund Jagiellon (1467-1548), then ruler of Silesia and Lusatia. He became a canon of Kraków in 1500 (after "Filippo Beroaldo a humaniści polscy" by Stanislaw A. Sroka, p. 525-527). His effigy, reproduced in Liber geneseos ..., created in about 1532, was undoubtedly based on other effigies created during his lifetime. The depiction of the model's hands is very interesting, as it is very characteristic of Cranach in his early works, such as the Portrait of Anna Cuspinian (1502) or the Portrait of the wife of a jurist (1503).

Did Cranach or his workshop therefore produce a portrait of the chancellor around 1515 or later, reproduced on his tombstone? It is very likely, not only because of the resemblance to the works mentioned, but also because of the context of Szydłowiecki's contacts with the Duke of Prussia, the painting of the Virgin, disguised portrait of Beatrice of Naples, by Cranach given by the chancellor to the collegiate church of Opatów in 1515, and all my discoveries concerning the works of Cranach linked to the Szydłowiecki family, as well as Polish Cranachiana. The portrait of young Philip II of Spain (1527-1598) by Master I.S., made around 1560 after the lost original by Cranach, probably dating from the 1540s or early 1550s, proves that the painter and the model did not need to meet when creating the portrait (Friedenstein Castle in Gotha, panel, 46.7 x 34 cm, inv. SG 897, inscribed upper right: Philippus Rex Hispani ...). Although Cranach probably had the opportunity to meet the prince in person and paint his portrait in Augsburg around July 1550, this likeness with large, elongated ears bears a strong Cranach imprint. The lack of apparent resemblance to Antonis Mor's portrait of Philip from the same period (Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, inv. 92/253), and the model's youthful appearance, suggest that the German painter may have drawn inspiration from other artists' portraits. No source confirms that he actually painted Philip's portrait.

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Paweł Szydłowiecki (1478-1506), canon of Kraków, by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1502, lost. © Marcin Latka

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Chancellor Krzysztof Szydłowiecki (1466-1532) by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1515, lost. © Marcin Latka

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Chancellor Krzysztof Szydłowiecki (1466-1532) by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1515, lost. © Marcin Latka

​Gold medal bearing the image of Chancellor Krzysztof Szydłowiecki (1466-1532) Hans Schwarz, 1526, lost. Virtual reconstruction, © Marcin Latka

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of young Philip II of Spain (1527-1598) by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1545, lost. © Marcin Latka

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

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

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

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

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

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

Portrait of a man with a big fur collar by follower of Michel Sittow (oil on oak panel, 33.8 x 23.5 cm, sold at Sotheby's London, 06 December 2012, lot 101) is largely based on Sittow's portrait of Diego de Guevara, created according to different sources between 1514 and 1518. The pose and costume are very similar, as well as composition and even the carpet on the parapet. However, the face is completely different. It appears that Sittow's pupil used the same set of study drawings for the composition and a different for the face. The model resemble greatly the effigy of Sigismund I from The Congress of Princes by Albrecht Dürer, and his portrait attributed to Hans von Kulmbach (Gołuchów Castle). The face with protruding lower lip of the Habsburgs and Dukes of Masovia is similar as in the portrait of the Polish king by Titian (Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, inv. GG 94), identified by me. Like the portrait of de Guevara, also this painting is a part of a diptych. Madonna and Child and the bird by follower of Sittow (oil on oak panel, 34 x 24 cm, sold at Koller Auktionen Zürich, 18 March 1998, lot 20) match perfectly in terms of composition, style and dimensions. Similar to the portrait sold in London, it is a copy of the painting of the Virgin from Berlin (Mary Rose Tudor), however, the face is different and resembles effigies of Queen Barbara Zapolya, first wife of Sigismund, who died on 2 October 1515, few months after his return from Vienna. This effigy also resemble the queen's marble bust in the Olesko Castle, most probably created by Netherlandish sculptor. Taking into account that royal effigies, such as the portraits of Emperor Maximilian by Strigel, were created in many copies and versions, the described effigies could be workshop copies of lost originals by Sittow.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Before 1500, the interior of the residential part of the Albrechtsburg castle in Meissen was rebuilt for Barbara Jagiellon (1478-1534) and her husband George the Bearded (1471-1539), Duke of Saxony. This medieval castle was erected on the site of the former West Slavic settlement of Misni inhabited by Glomatians. Another reconstruction, on larger scale, occurred between 1521-1524, when Jacob Haylmann completed the Coat of Arms Hall on the 2nd floor and the 3rd floor of the palace and a separate sepulchral annex was created at the Cathedral, the so-called Capella Ducis Georgii for George and his wife. Between 1521 and 1524, the sculptor Christoph Walther I (1493-1546) from Wrocław, decorated the interiors and created figurative reliefs for the balustrades of the Grand Staircase tower, depicting several nude female figures, including Venus and Cupid and Bathsheba at her bath. The couple mainly resided in the ancestral seat of the Albertine line of the House of Wettin, Dresden, originally also a Slavic settlement, called Drežďany in Sorbian. Barbara gave birth to 10 children, six of whom died in infancy, she died in Leipzig at the age of 55. She was buried in Meissen Cathedral in a burial chapel built by her husband. Barbara and George are the last Wettin couple to be buried in Meissen Cathedral. The altarpiece in the burial chapel was created by Lucas Cranach the Elder shortly after Barbara's death and depicts the couple as donors surrounded by apostles and saints.

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

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

The same woman was depicted in another naked painting, showing her as Lucretia, a noblewoman in ancient Rome, the epitome of female virtue and beauty. Her face is very similar to Lucretia, which was in the late 19th century in the collection of Wilhelm Lowenfeld in Munich, the likeness of Barbara Jagiellon. The landscape behind her depict Königstein (lapide regis, "King's Rock") near Dresden, in Saxon Switzerland. The place takes its name from the castle belonging to the Bohemian kings, who controlled the Elbe valley. The fortress was probably a Slav stronghold as early as the 12th century, but it is not mentioned in chronicles before the year 1241 (after "The Story of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1768-1943" by Paul Robert Kruse, p. 896). In 1459 it formally passed to the margraves of Meissen. In 1516, Duke George the Bearded, a fierce opponent of the Reformation, founded a Celestine abbey on the Königstein, dedicated to Virgin Mary, nevertheless, more and more monks fled until only one monk and one woman in childbed remained, hence the monastery was closed in 1524. The rocky plateau, visible in Cranach's painting, resemble greatly the view of Königstein by Matthäus Merian, published in the Topographia Superioris Saxoniae (1650, part of Topographia Germaniae), as well as the view of Königstein Fortress in about 1900 (photochrom print). In a woodcut from around 1516 depicting the founding of the Königstein Monastery (In dedicationem Regii Lapidis. Hecatostichon Hieronymi Emser, National Museum in Warsaw, inv. 78385 MNW), Barbara has a hairstyle very similar to that in Cranach's painting.

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

Barbara was buried in the funerary chapel of Meissen Cathedral, just a few days after her death in Dresden (February 15, 1534). The structure is believed to be inspired by the Fugger family chapel, which George admired during his stay in Augsburg in 1518. Jakob Fugger (1459-1525) established contact with the Augsburg sculpture workshop of Hans Daucher (1486-1538), who in 1521 designed the portal for the future mausoleum of the Duke of Saxony in the new Italian style (maniera italiana). According to Daucher's drawing, the portal was created by Saxon sculptors. Only the central panel, decorated with the relief of the Lamentation and inscription plaques, was made in Augsburg. The brass tombstones of the ruling couple are set into the chapel floor. Duchess Barbara's tombstone was cast shortly after her death at the Freiberg foundry of Martin Hilliger the Elder (after "Polnische Adler im Meißner Dom. Die Jagiellonin Barbara und ihre Grabkapelle" by Matthias Donath, p. 106-109).

The image of the duchess reproduced on this plaque was undoubtedly based on other portraits made during her lifetime, probably around 1530, given her age. However, it does not resemble the known portraits of Barbara in a black dress painted by Cranach. It is possible that the original portrait was executed by another renowned painter, likely commissioned in Imperial Augsburg, and not in Lutheran Wittenberg. The most probable artist would therefore be Christoph Amberger (ca. 1505-1562), who, after training in northern Italy and Venice, settled in Augsburg in 1530 and painted a portrait of Charles V during the Imperial Diet of that year.

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

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

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

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Barbara Jagiellon (1478-1534), Duchess of Saxony by Christoph Amberger, 1530, lost. © Marcin Latka

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Barbara Jagiellon (1478-1534), Duchess of Saxony by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1530, lost. © Marcin Latka

"As for beauty, it is in no way different from the portrait that Mr. Chryzostom brought, her hair is lovely light blonde, when her eyelashes and eyebrows are completely black, eyes rather angelic than human, forehead radiant and serene, nose straight without any hump or curvature", described Bona Sforza d'Aragona on December 21, 1517 in his letter to King Sigismund I, Stanisław Ostroróg, castellan of Kalisz (after "Zygmunt August: żywot ostatniego z Jagiellonów" by Eugeniusz Gołębiowski, p. 20).

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

The effigies of the Queen from 1520s and 1530s confirms her particular liking for different types of hairnets, most probably to expose her beautiful hair, while chasubles she founded, possibly made from her dresses (in Kraków and Łódź), confirms that similar fabrics and embroideries to these visible in the portrait were in her possession. The rabbit hunt on her bodice is an allusion to Queen's fertility and ability to produce male heirs to over 50 years old Sigismund.

The sources confirm not only the richness of Bona's clothes, but also the use of symbols in their decoration. During her opulent entry into Naples accompanied by Polish-Lithuanian ambassadors on November 21, 1517, she wore a golden dress with gold plates in the form of victory palms. The magnificent wedding ceremony per procura took place in the great hall of Castel Capuano on December 6. Bona wore a dress of turquoise Venetian satin, sewn with beehives of gold, which also adorned her azure beret. The decoration of the dress was probably intended to symbolise the diligence and foresight of the future queen and her ability to manage the kingdom. Her headdress was also adorned with other sewn-on jewels and pearls. The colour of the dress probably referred to the blue with a shade of green of the dragon from the Sforza coat of arms. The chronicler Giuliano Passero valued the entire outfit at 7,000 ducats. Bona was accompanied by six courtiers, dressed in robes of azure satin and brocade. Passero, describing her trousseau presented after the wedding, lists twenty-one richly decorated and expensive dresses, many of which were in crimson and beige-pink tabinet, satin, velvet and brocade, decorated with various symbolic motifs, such as the ostrich eggs, flames, golden branches, checkerboard pattern, gold and silver plates.

In addition to splendid clothes and jewels, the queen owned magnificent tapestries and collected objects made of precious metals, clocks, furniture, as well as ancient vases (she allegedly had two hundred of them) from excavations in Apulia (after "Bona Sforza d'Aragona i rola mody w kształtowaniu jej wizerunku" by Agnieszka Bender, p. 35, 38-39, 42). 

The arch, dress, hairnet and hair style in the effigy of Queen Bona published in Kraków in 1521 (De Iagellonvm familia liber II, Impressum Craccouiae [...] XII 1521, National Library of Poland, SD XVI.F.643 adl.), are astonishingly alike. The printmaker was undoubtedly basing on Queen's painted portrait, possiby another version of the painting in London. The portrait of Sigismund I, very similar in its composition and reproduced in an engraving published in 1524 in Statvta Serenissimi Domini: Sigismundi Primi ..., was very probably based on a pendant portrait of the king.

The practice of producing engraved versions of painted portraits, which made the monarch's image accessible to a wider public, spread from the beginning of the 16th century. However, it was only in the 17th century that engravers began to more frequently indicate the name of the author of the original image, painting or drawing, by mentioning it in Latin: the engraver sculpsit (engraved) or fecit (made) the plate, the painter pinxit, delineavit or invenit (painted, drawn or conceived) and the publisher excudit or divulgavit (published) the print. The 1519 engraving by Hans Weiditz the Younger, depicting Emperor Maximilian I, was made after a drawing or painting by Albrecht Dürer (Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv. 1975.653.108), while the woodcut depicting Sibylle of Cleves (1512-1554), probably executed shortly after her betrothal to Elector John Frederick of Saxony in 1526, is considered a copy of a portrait painted by Lucas Cranach the Elder (Victoria and Albert Museum, inv. E.614-1885). Several effigies of Anna Jagellonica (1503-1547) perfectly illustrate this practice: a portrait by Hans Maler (Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, inv. 275 (1937.2)) and prints by Erhard Schön (dated 1519) and Hans Weiditz, as well as full-length portraits with children by Hans Bocksberger the Elder (Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, inv. GG 4386 and Alte Pinakothek in Munich, inv. 6940) reproduced in half-length in an anonymous print probably from the first half of the 17th century (inscription: ANNA VLADISLAI HUNG: ET BOHEM: REGIS FILIA / FERDINANDI I.Uxor.) and two modified mirror versions from the 16th century by N. Hautt and Gaspare Oselli after a drawing by Francesco Terzio.

The described painting by Venetian school, today in the National Gallery in London (oil on panel, 36.8 x 29.8 cm, inv. NG631), is generally dated about 1510-1520. It was purchased from the collection of Edmond Beaucousin in Paris, in 1860, like the portrait of Lorenzo de' Medici (1492-1519), Duke of Urbino by Palma Vecchio (inv. ​NG636) from the same period, identified by me. It is possible that the two effigies come from the Polish royal collection, because since the abdication of John II Casimir Vasa, who settled in Paris, many artistic collections from Poland have been transferred to France. This bust "with blond hair confined in a net, and in a rich dress of embroidered Byzantine stuff" was initially attributed to Francesco Bissolo (1470/72-1554), a Venetian painter described as a pupil of Giovanni Bellini, "distinguished for a delicacy of execution and a fine feeling for colour" (after "Descriptive and Historical Catalogue of the Pictures ..." by Ralph Nicholson Wornum, p. 38). The same woman was depicted in guise of the Virgin Mary in the painting by Francesco Bissolo, now in the National Museum in Warsaw (inv. M.Ob.953, earlier 128830).
​
The likeness of the blonde lady to other effigies of Queen Bona, notably the portrait by workshop of Giovanni Battista Perini (Royal Castle in Warsaw, inv. ZKW/60) and a miniature by Lambert Sustris or circle (Czartoryski Museum, inv. XII-141) is unmistakable. A great similarity can also be underlined with the portrait of Bona's mother, Isabella of Aragon, Duchess of Milan, painted by Bernardino de' Conti or circle of Ambrogio de Predis (inscribed indistinctly: ISABELLA / SFORZAAL / LAS.DVCHESSA / DICASTRO), from the Rothschild collection - lips and dyed hair.

Although the model's hairstyle is typical of Italian fashion around 1520, in this context the inspiration of Roman portraiture, in particular the busts of the Roman Empress Julia Domna (c. 160-217 AD), is noticeable - marble bust by Roman workshop from the late 2nd century AD - early 3rd century AD (Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon) and Renaissance bust carved in marble and porphyry from the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries (Wawel Royal Castle). Julia was the first empress of the Severan dynasty and in her marble statue from the portico of the fountain with oil-lamp in Ostia Antica (Archaeological Museum of Ostia in Rome), she was depicted in guise of Ceres (Demeter), goddess of agriculture, grain crops, fertility and motherhood. 

Bona drew inspiration from ancient Rome in many aspects of her life (her son was the new Augustus) and the busts of Roman emperors and empresses in medallions in a painted frieze in the upper part of the arcaded courtyard of Wawel Castle, created between 1535 and 1536 by Dionisius Stube, could be her initiative. According to 17th-century accounts the statues of Roman emperors decorated the Wawel interiors. ​It is most likely the queen who was depicted naked with a similar hairstyle, embraced by her husband, in the right corner of the small painting painted in 1527 by Hans Dürer depicting the Fountain of Youth (National Museum in Poznań, tempera and oil on panel, 56 x 83 cm, inv. MNP M 0110​, signed and dated center left, on tree trunk: 1527 / HD). Hans, younger brother of Albrecht Dürer, was appointed court painter to King Sigismund I in 1527.

In this context, it is interesting how one of the best works of the court artist of Sigismund I reached Venice (Galleria Giorgio Franchetti alla Ca' d'Oro, panel, 62 x 49 cm, inv. d.134). Unfortunately, the provenance of "Saint Jerome penitent in the desert", signed and dated on the trunk in the lower right corner: 1533 / HD (intertwined, the year also read as 1532), is unknown. In Italian sources the painting is attributed to Daniel Hopfer (1471-1536), primarily known as an engraver and signing his works with the monogram D/H. Nevertheless, the painting style and signature are characteristic of Albrecht's younger brother, and German sources recognized the work as his in 1961, highlighting the inspiration drawn from Hans von Kulmbach's altarpieces executed in Kraków (after "Meister um Albrecht Dürer. Ausstellung im Germanischen National-Museum ...", p. 93). The way the painter depicted the saint's red cloak on the left, however, is inspired by Venetian painting (for example, Giovanni Cariani's "Reclining woman in a landscape", dating from the early 1520s, now in the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin). Since Hans is mentioned in the Wawel Castle accounts between 1529 and 1534, he most likely created this work in Kraków.​

​​Hypothetical reconstruction of the ​portrait of Queen Bona Sforza d'Aragona (1494-1557) by Francesco Bissolo, ca. 1521, lost. © Marcin Latka

​​Hypothetical reconstruction of the ​portrait of King Sigismund I (1467-1548) by Francesco Bissolo, ca. 1521, lost. © Marcin Latka

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Queen Bona Sforza d'Aragona (1494-1557) by Hans Dürer, ca. 1527, lost. © Marcin Latka

​The Fountain of Youth by Hans Dürer, 1527, National Museum in Poznań.

​Saint Jerome penitent in the desert by Hans Dürer, 1533, Galleria Giorgio Franchetti alla Ca' d'Oro in Venice. 

"There he said he met Brother Marco the Venetian of the Torre family, Friar Minor, a cunning and prudent man, who, as a queen's confessor, had immediately known the king's actions" (Illic dicit se nosse fratrem Marchettum Venetum e familia a Turri ordinis Minorum, hominem astutum et prudentem, fuisse a confessione reginae intellexisseque mox etiam regis factum), describes the favorite of Queen Bona Maria Sforza d'Aragona, Cardinal Girolamo Aleandro (1480-1542) in his note of February 10, 1539. Aleandro relied on information provided to him by Andrea Sbardellato (or Sbardellati), father guardian of Strygonia (Esztergom in Hungary), who in 1522 had visited Poland in the company of the Apostolic Nuncio Tommaso Nigri.

Sbardellato, a member of the noble Venetian family and grandfather of Andrzej Dudycz (1533-1589), also reported some rumors about the queen, that Aleandro noted in Greek, namely "that she gave birth to a child six months after her arrival in Poland, and that they said that she was pregnant by an ambassador of the king, whom he had sent to her country", as well as that her other favorite, the physician Valentino, had become a wealthy man (after "Nuntiaturberichte aus Deutschland ...", Volume 1 [1533-1559], p. 286-287). 

Marco de la Torre, also Marco della Torre Veneto or Marek od wieże Wenet (Marcus a Turri Venetus, Marco de la Turri in Latin) was a Franciscan monk who earned his university degree in Padua. His primary mission was to govern the queen's court, but he also became an advisor to Bona, thus acquiring considerable political power in Sarmatia. Internationally, della Torre worked to strengthen relations between Poland-Lithuania-Ruthenia and the Republic of Venice. Domestically, he focused on religious matters, particularly curbing the spread of Protestantism. The Italian community of merchants, artists, and other court employees found in him a leader who also carried out their spiritual ministry in a separate chapel of the Franciscan church in Kraków (after "Isabella Jagiellon, Queen of Hungary (1539-1559)", ed. Ágnes Máté and Teréz Oborni, p. 167). 

The first news of the new provincial superior, Marco a Turre, dates back to December 14, 1518, but it is clear from its wording that he had been in office in Poland for some time. He was then in Lviv, as provincial and commissioner, and was relieving the burdens of his subjects in Czyszki (after "Franciszkanie polscy" by Kamil Kantak, Volume 2 [1517-1795], p. 17-18, 20, 28). It is therefore assumed that he arrived in Kraków in 1517, when he would have been between 30 and 40 years old. In 1519, he also assumed the functions of court chaplain and confessor to Queen Bona. It is also possible that he was the same age as the queen, born around 1494, which would explain why he gained her favor so quickly after her arrival in Poland.

His belonging to the Venetian province indicates Venetian origin, which of course should be understood as referring to the entire Venetian territory. The Torre family, originally from France and bearing the name La Tour (de la Turre), settled in Northern Italy and then in Sicily at the end of the 14th century. It was probably with the cooperation of Father Marco that the queen established her diplomatic and commercial agency in Venice, which she maintained until her death. He was also used for confidential diplomatic services. For example, in the summer of 1524, on the orders of Vice-Chancellor Tomicki, he skillfully obtained from the imperial envoy Antonio de Conti, returning from Moscow, that the purpose of his mission was to renew the alliance between the Grand Prince of Moscow and the emperor against Poland. Marco's unofficial position as an influential advisor was well known abroad. Pope Paul III, sending his nuncio Pamphilus a Strasoldo to Poland in September 1536 to announce a general council, asked him to seek Father Marco's assistance (after "Królowa Bona ..." by Władysław Pociecha, p. 72). As a reward for his services in royal affairs, he obtained a rectory in the royal estates in Czchów before 1529.

In a letter from the king to the Doge of Venice dated 1522 or 1523, Sigismund I speaks in glowing terms of Marco. He represented innovative trends. Thanks to Sigismund and Bona, he became a professor at the Kraków Academy in 1519, where he taught theology. As a professor, de la Torre initiated courses on biblical studies and patristics. Interestingly, Alifio, another of the queen's protégés, gave lectures on Roman law, and thanks to the queen's financial support, doctor Valentino was able to conduct research in the natural sciences.

Marco gathered around him friars from the Venetian province, and at the monastery, Greek was also taught alongside Latin. The most talented students were sent to study in Padua. As commissioner of the Czech and Polish provinces of the Franciscans, Marco de la Torre also became a zealous reformer within his order. He attempted to compensate for the lack of new friars by bringing in Italians, his compatriots from the Venetian province, as did his predecessor Alberto Fantini (d. 1516). Already at the reception of the General of the Observants Francesco Lichetto in 1520, Marco appeared with two companions, one of whom was a very young Italian, perhaps Francesco Lismanini (ca. 1504-1566). Furthermore, in the years 1530 and 1531, we find Gabriel de Amicis, also a Venetian, as custodian of Kraków. In November 1531 he was in his native city, where Doge Andrea Gritti (1455-1538) gave him a letter of recommendation for his return journey.

During the plague that struck Kraków in 1544, de la Torre remained in the city for five months. However, he did not isolate himself in the monastery and, together with other brethren, in the monastery garden, he distributed a powder with medicinal properties which, dissolved in wine, was supposed to help prevent a fatal infection, as confirmed by his letter to the Bishop of Warmia, Jan Dantyszek (1485-1548), dated April 12. In a letter dated March 23, 1545, he thanked Dantyszek for the muscat, which he used to treat his aging body. In February 1538 he resigned from the position of provincial in favour of Lismanini. He died sometime after June 26, 1545.

The Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest houses a painting attributed to the Venetian painter Paris Bordone (1500-1571) depicting a Bearded man with a crucifix (oil on panel, 38.5 x 33.5 cm, inv. 835). The painting was donated in 1836 by János László Pyrker (1772-1847), a Hungarian Cistercian abbot who became Bishop of Spiš (1818), Patriarch of Venice and Primate of Dalmatia with the seat of Venice (1820), and later Archbishop of Eger (1827). He spent seven years in Venice, where he collected nearly 200 paintings, Italian works from the 16th and 17th centuries. There is, however, no clear evidence that he purchased the painting by Bordone in Venice. The man is wearing a dark monk's habit, very similar to that of the Franciscans. The work is generally dated to the 1520s and although the man appears relatively young, nothing is known of his age, as there is no inscription. His appearance could be the result of an idealization or that the painter based the image on general study drawings. Bordone is the author of the painting depicting the royal jeweler Giovanni Jacopo Caraglio (Wawel Castle, inv. ZKnW-PZS 5882). This fact, along with the Franciscan habit, could indicate that it was the influential friar Marco de la Torre who was depicted. If the painting was made in Venice for Marco's family, like the portrait of Caraglio, the lack of information on the identity of the sitter could be explained by his greater notoriety abroad, than in his home country.

The portrait of the jeweler of Sigismund Augustus was in the collection of Andrzej Ciechanowiecki before 1972. In the second half of the 17th century, this painting, or a similar one, was mentioned in the Muselli collection in Verona, as follows: "Portrait of a jeweler. On the workbench are various art instruments and a gilded morion, on which rests a white eagle with outstretched wings, from whose beak hangs a chain, and on this chain a gold medal bearing the imprint of a man in armour, with the inscription: Sigismundus Augustus Poloniae Rex: [...]; three arms high and two arms wide, it is one of Titian's finest and most refined works" (Un ritratto d'un Gioielliero, sopra il banco vi sono diversi instrumenti per l'arte et un morione dorato, sopra il quale posa un' Aquila bianca con l'ali sparse, dalla bocca della quale pende una colonna, e dalla colonna una medaglia d' oro con l'impronta d'un uomo armato, scrittovi intorno: Sigismundus Augustus Poloniae Rex: [...]; è tre braccia in altezza, in larghezza due, de' più fiuiti e belli di Titiano, after "Raccolta di cataloghi ed inventarii inediti di quadri, statue, disegni ...", ed. Giuseppe Campori, p. 190). Caraglio was thus forgotten in his hometown, a century after his death in 1565 in Kraków, as was the author of the painting, if it is indeed the same painting now preserved in the Wawel collection.

Besides the aforementioned portrait of Caraglio, there are three other notable paintings by Bordone in Polish collections, but all were transferred to Poland after the Second World War, namely Venus and Cupid from the collection of Adolf Hitler at the Berghof and Sacra conversazione from the collection of Frederick William IV of Prussia (National Museum in Warsaw, inv. M.Ob.628 MNW and M.Ob.630 MNW), as well as Daphnis and Chloe from the collection of Zbigniew and Janina Porczyński (Museum of John Paul II Collection in Warsaw).

Before World War II, the Wilanów Palace in Warsaw housed a beautiful allegorical scene by Bordone: "Time reveals beauty" (oil on canvas, 126 x 177 cm, inv. 246, signed lower right on the stone: OPVS / PARIS · BOR). This painting was considered to have been acquired by the owner of Wilanów, Count Stanisław Kostka Potocki (1755-1821) in September 1785 in Venice. In his letter to his wife Aleksandra Lubomirska, dated Vicenza, October 2, 1785, Potocki states: "I have made some fine acquisitions in Venice. I have a magnificent Paolo Veronese, a Tintoretto, two Bassanos, a Schiavone and a Paris Bordone. These are choice paintings, pure and well-preserved originals" (J'ai fait quelques belles emplettes a Venise. J'ai un beau Paule Veronese, un Tintonet, deux Bassanus, un Schiavone, et un Paris Bordone, ce cont des tableaux de choix, pures originaux et bien conservés, Archives of Historical Records in Warsaw, 262 t. 1, Mikrofilm: 19007, page 78). However, since several paintings from his collection are considered lost or misattributed, it is difficult to determine whether he was actually referring to the lost painting from Wilanów.

Bordone's Rest on the flight into Egypt, held at the Courtauld Gallery in London (oil on canvas, 49 x 68.9 cm, inv. P.1978.PG.35), comes from the Potocki collection in Kraków (after "Italian Paintings and Drawings at 56 Princes Gate London SW7 ..." by Antoine Silern, p. 14), and Bordone's "Portrait of a Cardinal" from the collection of Stanisław Potocki (1825-1887), grandson of Stanisław Kostka, was included in the auction organized on May 8, 1885 in Paris (Catalogue de beaux tableaux ancien [...] le tout composant la collection de M. le comte Potocki [...], item 8, p. 9). According to the inscription at top right: ANDREAS · CARS · A · PAVLO III, MDXXXVII, this painting probably depicted the Neapolitan cardinal Andrea Matteo Palmieri (1493-1537), appointed governor of Milan by Emperor Charles V shortly before his death. Palmieri's connections to Naples and Milan indicate that this painting, created in Venice, may have come from the collection of Queen Bona, and that it miraculously survived destruction during numerous military conflicts. Although its current location is unknown. 

Wawel Castle also houses a painting attributed to Pomponio Amalteo (1505-1588), a painter of the Venetian school, depicting the Pietà adored by a nun as a donor (oil on canvas, 95 x 87 cm, inv. ZKnW-PZS 244, inscription: A. P.). The painting comes from the collection of Jerzy Mycielski (1856-1928), where it was attributed to Amalteo. According to the Italian art historians Alessandro Ballarin and Rodolfo Pallucchini, this painting should be attributed to Paris Bordone's late period. The initials "A" and "P" inscribed at the bottom probably suggested the attribution to Amalte. However, they most likely refer to the name of the nun who commissioned it (after "Recenzje z wystawy 'Malarstwo weneckie XV-XVIII w.' ...", p. 47, 50). Jan Duklan Modest Ochocki (1766/1768-1848), memoirist, chamberlain of King Stanislaus Augustus Poniatowski and standard-bearer of Zhytomyr, mentions in his memoirs published in 1857 that in the Iliński collection in their large classical palace in Romaniv, Ukraine (burned down on December 5, 1876) were Paris Bordone's The Repose of the Holy Family, as well as Titian's The Three Parts of the World, Jacopo Bassano's The Adoration of the Magi, Jacopo Tintoretto's The Descent from the Cross, Rubens' Roman Women Bathing, as well as paintings by Paolo Veronese, the Carracci brothers, Rembrandt, Nicolas Mignard and "many others" (after "Pałac w wołyńskim Romanowie i jego rzeźby" by Katarzyna Mikocka-Rachubowa, p. 46, 53, 67). 

The inventory of the sale of the possessions of King John II Casimir Vasa, great-grandson of Queen Bona Sforza, on February 15, 1673 in Paris, lists "A portrait of a monk holding a cross in his hands, painted on canvas" (after "Vente du mobilier de Jean-Casimir en 1673" by Ryszard Szmydki, item 393), which could potentially be a copy of the painting now in Budapest.

​Portrait of a Franciscan monk holding a crucifix, most likely Marco de la Torre, confessor and advisor to Queen Bona Sforza, by Paris Bordone, 1520s, Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest.

​Rest on the flight into Egypt from the Potocki collection in Kraków by Paris Bordone, 1520s, Courtauld Gallery in London. 

​Time reveals beauty by Paris Bordone, second quarter of the 16th century, Wilanów Palace in Warsaw, lost during World War II. Virtual reconstruction, © Marcin Latka

The royal and grand-ducal court of Sigismund I and Bona Sforza was certainly one of the most splendid in Renaissance Europe, comparable to those of Charles V in Spain, Francis I in France, John III in Portugal, Anna Jagellonica in Bohemia and Henry VIII in England. It was also probably the most diverse court, because in addition to the various indigenous nationalities of Poland-Lithuania-Ruthenia, it included many Italians, who arrived there in large numbers with Bona. Their homeland was famous for the most outstanding painters and sculptors of the Renaissance, so they forgot this in a faraway country or maybe art historians of the modern era forgot about the Italian community in Poland-Lithuania?

At Bona's court, in addition to diplomats such as Andrea Carducci (from a Florentine patrician family), there were Neapolitan emigrants such as Gugielmo Braida, Baron Casalecti (Bona's court equerry), as well as members of Italian ruling families, such as Annibale Bentivoglio of Bologna, the queen's favourite, probably from the family of the sovereigns of Bologna, related to the Sforzas. Annibale arrived in Poland in the autumn of 1518. The queen accepted him into her court as a valet with a salary of 20 zlotys per year, set for him by the treasurer on February 3, 1519. His duties included supervision of the Queen's chambers and the valet service, so he had a very confidential and influential position (after "Studia z dziejów kultury polskiej ..." by Henryk Barycz, ‎Jan Hulewicz, p. 200, 207). Before 1524, the queen built a small palace on Wawel Hill as Annibale's residence, often referred to after 1541 in royal accounts as domus olim Annibalis or domus Hannibalis reginalis M-tis. Bentivoglio died during his stay with Bona's court in Vilnius in April 1541. The royal secretary Stanisław Hozjusz did not fail to inform Dantyszek about this, adding that Annibale had always been in great favour with the queen (after "Królowa Bona, 1494-1557 ..." by Władysław Pociecha, p. 79, 90). She also had Renaissance palaces built for her favourites Alifio and Doctor Valentinis. 

Bona's cook in Kraków was a Neapolitan nobleman, Cola Maria de Charis, who also served her as a court musician and diplomat. He was married to Lucrezia Planelli, from a powerful family of Neapolitan barons, and lived in Poland until the end of his life. During the ceremony of the Prussian homage in 1525, Sigismund I invested him, along with two other Italians Andrea Carduccio and Verspaziano Dottula, with the title of golden knight (eques auratus). His nephew Cola married Giulia, the daughter of Bona's auditor, a learned lawyer, Vincenzo Massilli. A Neapolitan nobleman, Antonio Niccolo (Cola) Carmignano (d. 1544), who used the pseudonym Parthenopeus Suavius ​​​​as a poet, was treasurer to Queen Bona and author of panegyrics praising the Polish royal family.

The aforementioned Verspaziano Dottula from Bari, who also came to Poland with Queen Bona in 1518, was her cupbearer from 1534. After Bona left Poland, Dottula moved to the court of Sigismund Augustus. He retained his previous title of pocillator Sacrae Reginalis Mtis olim Bonae dei gratia Reginae Poloniae until 1567. Bona's servants who performed unpaid service for the queen and in her chambers in 1518 were Camillo Lampugnano, Ascanio Musatini, Ferdinando Carlini and Alessandro from Bari (after "Działalność Włochów w Polsce ..." by Danuta Quirini-Popławska, 16-17, 25).

The list of income and expenses of the royal treasury in 1518, kept by the treasurer Mikołaj Szydłowiecki (1480-1532), lists several of the queen's courtiers, as well as her ladies, including noble matrons (Matrone nobiles): Beatrice Zurla and Ifigenia, noble maidens (Puelle nobiles): Lucrezia Alifio, Beatrice Roselli, Porzia Arcamone, Isabella de Dugnano (possibly Isabella of Venice, mentioned in 1551), Laodomia Caracciolo, Faustina Opizzoni and Laura Effrem, old women guarding maidens (Vetule custodientes puellas): Violenta the Greek and Laura the Neapolitan, chambermaids (Puelle cubicularie): Albina the Neapolitan and Samuela Armizana (compare "Wiadomość o dworze Bony i królewien w 1518 r., podał Tymoteusz Lipiński"). There were rumors about the "extremely loose morals" of these Italian women, who read Plato and Boccaccio (after "Opowieści o Włochach i Polakach" by Joanna Olkiewicz, p. 204). Bona, wishing to expand her influence, married her ladies to Poles. Beatrice Roselli was married to a royal courtier, Gabriel Morawiec from Mysłów (from 1525), Porzia Arcamone married Jan Trzcieński of the Rawicz coat of arms (in May 1525), and Faustyna Opizzoni married a royal courtier Mikołaj Skoruta (in September 1535).

Even though most of these people came from Southern Italy (Bari and Naples), and not from Venice, it was they who spread and most likely further facilitated in Poland-Lithuania the custom of ordering paintings from the famous Venetian workshops.

"For centuries, the Republic of St. Mark had an important role in the spread of works of art along the two shores of the Adriatic" (after "Venice and the Adriatic side of the Kingdom of Naples: Imports and influences of Venetian art" by Marialuisa Lustri, p. 1). Before 1439, the Venetian painter Jacobello del Fiore (ca. 1370-1439) painted the polyptych for the Cathedral of Teramo in Abruzzo (central Italy), commissioned by the Augustinian monk Nicholas (Nicola, MAGIST(ER) NICOLAUS), a Venetian citizen since 1413, who was depicted as a kneeling donor beneath the central panel of the polyptych. From the 1450s onwards, the Vivarini workshop in Venice, which dominated the local market for altarpieces from the 1440s onwards, also enjoyed a thriving export market in south-eastern Italy, where trade links with Venice were strong (after "Ell maistro dell anchona ..." by Susan Ruth Steer, p. 15, 29, 221, 223). In 1475 Bartolomeo Vivarini executed in Venice a polyptych commissioned for the Cathedral of Conversano near Bari (now in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice, inv. 581, purchased by the State in the 1880s), which is confirmed by a corresponding inscription in Latin in the lower part of the Nativity scene in the central part of the polyptych (HOC OPVS SVMPTIBVS DOMINI ANTHONII DE CHARITATE CA/NONICI ECCLESIE DE CONVERSANO IN FORMAM REDACTVM • EST • 1475 / OPVS FACTVM VENETIIS PER BARTOLOMEVM VIVARINVM). A year later, in 1476, he executed the Bari Altarpiece (Basilica of St. Nicholas) for Alvise Cauco, a Venetian expatriate, canon of the church of St. Nicholas in Bari. The Zumpano Triptych, considered a workshop work, was made for export to a "very obscure" and very distant village in Southern Italy near Cosenza. The inscription on Vivarini's Saint George Slaying the Dragon (FACTVM • VENETIIS), painted in 1485 (Gemäldegalerie in Berlin, inv. 1160, lost during the Second World War), also indicates that the work was made for export.

Another example of export from Venice was the arrival at the Probi estate in Atri, Abruzzo, of Giovanni Bellini's Portrait of Giovanni Andrea Probi, painted in 1474, now in the Barber Institute of Fine Arts in Birmingham (inv. 46.11). Giovanni Andrea was the son of Angelo Probi (d. 1474), Venetian ambassador to the King of Naples. This portrait formed the lid of an inheritance chest. In the archival documents of the Probi estate, the inheritance chest is described as an Arab casket containing a marble bust of Angelo Probi and a sonnet.

In the Łańcut Castle, which houses some paintings from the former Lubomirski collection, there is a painting entitled "A Man and Two Courtesans", attributed to Lorenzo Lotto (oil on canvas, 92 x 118.5 cm, inv. S.850MŁ). It comes from the collection of Princess Izabela Lubomirska (1736-1816), patron and art collector, called the "Blue Marquise" and bears the inscription on the reverse: "Property of Prince Henryk / Izabella Lubomirska" (Xięcia Henryka własność / Izabella Lubomirska), it was therefore given by the princess to her adopted son Henryk Lubomirski (1777-1850). The scene depicts a man as a shepherd holding a flute and two ladies, one reaching seductively into the other's shirt. It is a copy of an "Allegory of Profane Love" (or "A Shepherd and Two Women", oil on panel, 69.2 x 94.6 cm) by Palma Vecchio (ca. 1480-1528), also known as Jacopo Negretti, presented during the exhibition "In In Light of Venice: Venetian Painting in Honor of David Rosand" in 2016 at the Otto Naumann gallery in New York, together with a copy of Bernardo Bellotto's Architectural capriccio with a self-portrait in the costume of a Venetian nobleman (the original given to the king Stanislaus Augustus in 1765 is in the National Museum in Warsaw, Dep.2438 MNW). 

The post-Renaissance tradition associates most similar scenes and portraits of "Venetian" women in negligee with famous courtesans of Venice, but in this case we have no evidence that the scene takes place in a brothel or that it involves courtesans. A somewhat similar scene from the 1520s, close to Dosso Dossi, but attributed to Giovanni Cariani, is in the Galleria Borghese in Rome (inv. 311). This "Allegory of Worldly Love" is interpreted as symbolizing the ephemeral nature of passions, so it is more likely a moralistic court scene.

In the 18th century, the painting from the Lubomirski collection was located in the former royal residence in Wilanów (after "Mecenat artystyczny Izabelli z Czartoryskich Lubomirskiej 1736 - 1816" by Bożenna Majewska-Maszkowska, p. 475). If we assume that the painting was sent to Poland-Lithuania already in the 16th century, the possible owner could be Stanisław Lubomirski (died 1585), the grandfather of another Stanisław (1583-1649), who built the castle in Łańcut. In 1537, he married a lady from the court of Queen Bona, Laura Effrem. The provenance from the royal collection is also possible. A beautiful painting by Palma Vecchio, painted between 1516 and 1518 and depicting the Virgin and Child, St. John the Baptist and St. Sebastian, is mentioned in the catalogue of the Wilanów Gallery in 1834 ("Spis obrazów znaidujących się w galeryi i pokojach Pałacu Willanowskiego ...", p. 8, item 65). This painting, now kept in the National Museum in Poznań (tempera and oil on panel, 84.5 x 106 cm, inv. Mo 24), is considered to most likely belong to the collection of King John II Casimir Vasa, grandson of Queen Bona, who managed to evacuate several paintings from the royal collection to Silesia during the Deluge (compare "Dolabella. Wenecki malarz Wazów. Katalog wystawy", ed. Magdalena Białonowska, p. 54). 

The Łańcut painting, as well as the original by Palma in New York, could be considered a pure invention of the workshop, if not for the fact that the woman on the right, holding her hand on another woman's breast, was depicted in another painting from the Wilanów collection (oil on canvas, 75.8 x 63.5 cm, Wil.1753). This painting is attributed to a follower of Titian from the 17th or 18th century and was most likely mentioned in the 1834 catalogue under number 296 as "Portrait of a Woman, half-length: School of Titian" (Portret kobiety, pół fig: Szkoła Tycyana, p. 27). The style of this painting recalls works attributed to Giovanni Busi, known as Cariani (ca. 1485-1547), who worked in Lombardy and Venice, including Portrait of a Gentleman, Half-Length, Holding a Portrait of a Lady (Freeman's in Philadelphia, June 14, 2016, lot 32) and Portrait of a Young Woman as Saint Agatha (National Galleries of Scotland, inv. NG 2494). It is less finely painted than the portraits mentioned, indicating the involvement of assistants.

The pose of the woman in the centre, as well as the woman herself, recall the model for Judith in a painting by Palma Vecchio, now kept in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence (oil on panel, 90 x 71 cm, inv. 1890 / 939). The painting is considered to have been painted between 1525 and 1528 and comes from the Ducal Palace of Urbino, transferred in 1631 with the inheritance of Vittoria della Rovere (1622-1694).

Interestingly, the woman at the centre of Palma's allegory can also be identified in a portrait by Cariani, now in a private collection (oil on canvas, 54 x 43 cm, Farsettiarte in Prato, April 21, 2023, lot 117), which was previously attributed to Palma Vecchio. This woman was depicted holding an attribute of Saint Catherine of Alexandria - breaking wheel, hence the title of this painting - Santa Caterina d'Alessandria. A workshop copy of this painting of inferior quality was auctioned in London in 2019 with an attribution to Palma Vecchio (oil on canvas, 54.4 x 38.9 cm, Sotheby's London, May 8, 2019, lot 9) and probably another copy from the collection of Marquess of Donegall, attributed to Cariani, was sold at auction in London from 22 to 25 June 1895 (oil on canvas, 48.9 x 41.3 cm, after "Catalogue of the highly important collection of pictures by old masters of Henry Doetsch ...", item 61, as "Portrait of a Lady as St. Catherine"). 

Since very little is known about the court ladies of Queen Bona, whether Italian or Polish noblewomen (Puelle nobiles Polone: Anna Zarembianka, Katarzyna Mokrska, Urszula Maciejowska and Elżbieta Pękosławska in 1518 and later Magdalena Bonerówna, Petronela Kościelecka and Zuzanna Myszkowska), it is difficult to determine the real names of the models in the paintings, but with great probability the persons depicted can be considered members of the Polish-Lithuanian royal-grand-ducal court.

​In the National Art Gallery in Lviv, Ukraine, there is another beautiful painting by the school of Palma Vecchio from the Lubomirski collection (oil on panel, 68 x 141, inv. Ж-2124). It depicts a naked woman sleeping on a green fabric - "Sleeping Venus". It is dated between 1510-1515. The landscape behind her shows a man sitting on the grass and admiring the sunset over the view of Venice. So was this painting a souvenir of a pleasant stay in the Venetian Republic or a place known only from the stories of others? Together with the portrait of Catherine de Medici (1519-1589), the future Queen of France, also from the Lubomirski collection (inv. Ж-1974), this painting is one of the forgotten treasures of the Lviv Gallery. According to my identification, Giovanni Cariani created a series of portraits of Catherine in the early 1530s - the so-called portraits of Violante with the letter V.

​Sleeping Venus with a view of Venice at sunset by School of Palma Vecchio, ca. 1510-1515, Lviv National Art Gallery.

​Virgin and Child, St. John the Baptist and St. Sebastian by Palma Vecchio, ca. 1516-1518, National Museum in Poznań.

​Allegorical court scene (Allegory of Profane Love) by Palma Vecchio, ca. 1518-1528, Private collection. 

​Allegorical court scene (Allegory of Profane Love) by workshop of Palma Vecchio or Lorenzo Lotto, ca. 1518-1528, Łańcut Castle. 

​Portrait of a lady as Judith by Palma Vecchio, ca. 1518-1528, Uffizi Gallery in Florence. 

​Portrait of a lady as Saint Catherine of Alexandria by Giovanni Cariani, ca. 1518-1528, Private collection. 

​​Portrait of a lady as Saint Catherine of Alexandria by workshop of Giovanni Cariani, ca. 1518-1528, Private collection. 

​Portrait of a lady by workshop or follower of Giovanni Cariani, after 1518, Wilanów Palace in Warsaw. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Double portrait known as Bellini brothers is reported in French royal collection since at least 1683 (inventory number 107, as manner of Giovanni Bellini, now in the Louvre, oil on canvas, 45 x 63 cm, INV 101 ; MR 59). It is now atributed to Giovanni Cariani and the costumes are typical to about 1520, threfore this cannot be the Bellinis, who died in 1507 (Gentile) and in 1516 (Giovanni). Edgar Degas, beliving that this is the effigy of the famous Venetians, created a copy of this portrait (Saltwood Castle, oil on canvas, 43 x 63 cm). 

This portrait is known from several versions, some of which are attributed to Vittore di Matteo, called Vittore Belliniano, son of Matteo, a pupil of Gentile Bellini. The version in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (oil on canvas, 43.8 x 59.3 cm, 50.3412) is very similar to the Louvre painting. In the version in the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston (oil on canvas, 45.7 x 63.2 cm, 44.553), which was in the Solly collection in London until 1821, the men changed places. Another, with the same composition as the Louvre painting, was cut in half (one indistinctly monogrammed lower right). Both paintings are now in private collections (oil on canvas, 44.3 x 35.3 cm, Christie's London, Auction 4936, May 4, 2012, lot 63 and oil on canvas, 44.8 x 31.8 cm, Christie's London, Auction 6360, July 6, 2012, lot 57). Half of another painting or a separate composition, attributed to Vittore Belliniano, was in the Hermitage before 1937 and previously in the Barbarigo collection in Venice (oil on canvas, 42.5 x 36.5 cm, Christie's London, Auction 17196, July 5, 2019, lot 174). The number of contemporary copies of this painting also indicates that both men were important European leaders whose effigies were spread throughout Renaissance Europe. These portraits perfectly match known iconography of both dukes of Masovia, as well as examination of their remains. 

The man with "reddish hair" was also depicted in another painting, also from the Solly collection, in the National Gallery in London (oil on wood, 64.5 x 49.2 cm, NG1052, bequeathed by Miss Sarah Solly, 1879). It is painted in the style of Andrea Previtali, an Italian painter also active in Venice. The "subnordic" man was depicted in several portraits by Bernardino Licinio, like the effigy holding a book in the Royal Palace of Turin (oil on canvas, 52 x 51.5 cm, 687, from the old collection of the dukes of Savoy), a portrait holding his fur coat, which was in the Manfrin Gallery in Venice before 1851, now in private collection (oil on canvas, 77.5 x 59.7 cm, Sotheby's New York, May 20, 2021, lot 2), another portrait holding gloves in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (oil on canvas, 58.8 x 53 cm, GG 1928, from the collection of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in Brussels), and another against a landscape and holding a cane, in the Vittorio Cini Collection (oil on canvas, 32 x 25.5 cm). 

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

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

​Given these facts, it is quite possible that the prototypes of the effigies, on which the drawings preserved in the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg (inv. ОР-45847 and ОР-45848) were based, were probably also produced in Venice. The drawings were probably made around the middle of the 17th century, along with other effigies of members of the Radziwill family; the original paintings were therefore part of their collection. Judging by the pose of the hands and the general composition, the likely author could be Licinio, active in Venice since around 1511.

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Stanislaus (1500-1524), Duke of Masovia by Bernardino Licinio, ca. 1515-1518, lost. AI-generated image with my edits and corrections, © Marcin Latka

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Janusz III (1502-1526), Duke of Masovia by Bernardino Licinio, ca. 1515-1518, lost. AI-generated image with my edits and corrections, © Marcin Latka

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In 1522 he also created a portrait of a man in a fur coat, which was in Marczell von Nemes' collection in Munich before 1936 (oil on panel, 48.2 x 33.6 cm). According to inscription in Latin, tha man was 22 in 1522 (ETATIS · SVE · ANNORVM · XXII · 1522 ·), exactly as Stanislaus (1500-1524), Duke of Masovia, son of Anna Radziwill. The age of the Duke of Masovia was confirmed on a marble plaque from his tomb in Warsaw's Cathedral, destroyed during World War II. According to the inscription in Latin he died in 1524 at the age of 24 (OBIERVNT. STANISAVS ANNO SALVTIS M.DXXIV AETATIS SVAE XXIV). The man bear a great resemblance to effigies of the blond Duke by Giovanni Cariani and Andrea Previtali and his costume is very similar to that of King Louis from his portrait by Krell created in 1522 or 1526 (Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna). 

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

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

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

Very less is known about her later life and close family. She was probably married or widowed as some sources called her a matron (matrona) (after "Działalność Włochów w Polsce w I połowie XVI wieku" by Danuta Quirini-Popławska, p. 29), i.e. married woman in Roman society. The 1518 list of income and expenditures of the royal treasury, kept by treasurer Mikołaj Szydłowiecki (1480-1532), mentions her as Beatryxa Tarla, with a payment of 25 zlotys. For comparison, the master cook (magister coquine) Jerome received 20 zlotys, according to this register. It also mentions "a manservant of lady Beatrice" (Służący pani Beatryxy, after "Wiadomość o dworze Bony i królewien w 1518 r., podał Tymoteusz Lipiński", Biblioteka Warszawska, p. 641). Her great attachment to Bona was most probably a reason why she decided to leave her family. In 1520 a certain nobleman Leonardo Zurla, possibly Beatrice's brother or husband, built himself a magnificent palace in Crema, a city in Lombardy near Cremona, which from 1449 was part of the Venetian Republic and earlier belonged to the Duchy of Milan. In 1523 he wa sent to Venice with two other speakers, to greet the new Doge Andrea Gritti. 

The portrait attributed to Bernardo Licinio in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich from about 1520, shows a Mediterranean-looking woman (oil on panel, 57.2 x 59.7 cm, inv. 5093). The bodice of her rich gown is embroidered with a motif of vining plant, a symbol of attachment, and she holds her hand on her right breast. It is a reference to Amazons a Scythian race of female warriors, a close - knit sisterhood that valued friendship, courage, and loyalty and who supposedly, according to Hellanicus of Lesbos, removed their right breast to improve their bow strength (after "The Early Amazons ..." by Josine Blok, p. 22). It is therefore a symbol of attachment to another, very important woman. The book in her left hand, as not identifiable, could be a reference to the sitter's first name and the most famous literary Beatrice, Dante's muse, Beatrice Portinari. 

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

The painting was transferred in 1804 to Munich from the Neuburg Castle in Neuburg an der Donau. On June 8, 1642 a great-granddaughter of Bona, princess Anna Catherine Constance Vasa, starost of Brodnica, married in Warsaw Philip William, heir of the Count Palatine of Neuburg. She brought a considerable dowry in jewels, estimated in 1645 at the astronomical amount of 443,289 minted thalers, and cash, calculated at a total of 2 million thalers.

By the late 16th and early 17th century, such cabinet paintings, as the portrait in Munich, of not necessarily related people, become highly praised objects in princely and royal collections in Europe and their Kunstkammer (art cabinets). An avid collector of such items was Anna Catherine Constance's cousin Archduke Leopold Wilhelm, who had her portrait by Frans Luycx, and who accompanied her during her visit to her Austrian relatives and spa town of Baden-Baden from August and October 1639. It is highly probable that the portrait of the chamberlain of Queen Bona was on one of 70 wagons, that transported Anna Catherine Constance's enormous dowry to Neuburg. 

The portrait of the Venetian jurist and orator Francesco Filetto, "one of the greatest lawyers in that country" (uno dei più grandi causidici di questa terra, according to the letter from Bernardo Sandro to Thomas Starkey, dated June 25, 1535), who had a brilliant career in the 1520s, which almost led to his being elected Chancellor of the Republic of Venice, is an example of the thoroughness of the research aimed at establishing the author and the identity of the sitter. The painting, now in the Palazzo Rosso in Genoa (Musei di Strada Nuova, oil on panel, 91 x 82 cm, inv. PR 93, inscribed lower left: FRANC PHILETVS / DOCTOR), appeared in the Brignole-Sale art gallery as early as 1694, mentioned as "the portrait of a doctor" (il ritratto di dottore) by Hans Holbein the Younger. It was later attributed to Andrea Schiavone, Giovanni Bellini, Giorgione, and Sebastiano del Piombo. The first to put forward the name of Bernardino Licinio was Gustavo Frizzoni (1840-1919) in 1895.

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

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

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

The portrait by Giovanni Cariani in Gemäldegalerie in Berlin (oil on canvas, 91.9 x 82.1 cm, inv. 2201), created in about 1520, shows a man holding an armillary sphere with signs of the zodiac, against the landscape with hills (possibly Euganean Hills, from Greek Eugenes - well-born), and the bird flying through a gap in the stone wall toward the light of knowledge. He is holding a Greek/Byzantine manuscript (after Georgios Boudali's "The Codex and Crafts in Late Antiquity"). 

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

Provenance of the painting is unknown. The museum's records only indicate that it was transferred from the Soviet Union in 1958, possibly as a restitution. It is possible that it was transferred to Berlin with dowry of Hedwig Jagiellon, Electress of Brandenburg or it was taken from Poland during the Deluge (1655-1660), as such "ancient" cabinet paintings become very popular in the 17th century cabinets of art (Kunstkammer). 

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

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

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

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

A painting by Giovanni Cariani from the Wawel Royal Castle in Kraków (oil on canvas, 85.5 x 73.5 cm, inv. ZKnW-PZS 5831), depict a blond lady in a dress from the 1520s. The painting was transferred to Wawel collection in 1931 from Stanisław Niedzielski's collection in Śledziejowice near Wieliczka. Earlier, it was in the collection of Wenzel Anton, Prince of Kaunitz-Rietberg, Austrian State Chancellor who contributed to the partitions of Poland. His collection was sold at an auction in Vienna in 1820 by his heirs. It is interesting that Aleksander Przezdziecki (1814-1871) states that "in the possession of Mr. Niedzielski (in Śledziejowice near Kraków) there is a very beautiful portrait of a woman from the Italian school in a rich 15th-century costume", which "is traditionally considered to be a portrait of Queen Bona" (after "Jagiellonki polskie w XVI. wieku ...", Volume 4, p. V).

A good copy of this painting, although attributed to the workshop of Cariani and earlier to Giorgione, is in the Museum of Fine Arts and Archaeology in Besançon (oil on canvas, 78 x 64, INV. 896.1.322). The painting was bequeathed in 1894 by the French painter Jean François Gigoux (1806-1894), who was the lover of the Polish noblewoman Ewelina Hańska née Rzewuska (ca. 1805-1882), wife of Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850). The earlier provenance is not known, however in this context it is quite possible that Gigoux received or inherited the painting from Hańska, who, like so many Polish aristocrats during the Partitions, moved her collections to France.

There are several other copies of this portrait and the version that was in the Mieltke collection in Vienna before 1957 has been attributed by Bernard Berenson to Cariani (after "Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Venetian School", Volume I, p. 56). This or another copy, attributed to Cariani's workshop, was auctioned in Vienna in 2025 (oil on canvas, 82 x 63 cm, Dorotheum, December 18, 2025, lot 40). The number of copies also testifies to the importance of the woman represented in Europe in the 1520s. Furthermore, according to my research, the portrait by Cariani now kept at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (inv. GG 6434), represents Magdalena's brother, Seweryn Boner (1486-1549). 

The same woman in similar costume was depicted as Saint Mary Magdalene in another painting by Cariani showing Sacra Conversazione with Madonna and Child, Mary Magdalene and Saint Jerome from the same period (oil on canvas, 62 x 89 cm, Cambi Casa d'Aste in Genoa, Live Auction 192, April 15, 2014, lot 64). Mary Magdalene is a patron of women's preaching, moral rebirth and of sinful women and Saint Jerome, who encouraged the Roman women who followed him to study and identified how a woman devoted to Jesus should live her life, was a saint of particular importance to women during Renaissance. She can also be identified in another painting by the Venetian painter, now in a private collection (oil on panel, 45.7 x 34.9 cm), which is generally attributed to the school of Jacopo Palma il Vecchio (ca. 1480-1528). In some older publications Cariani is considered a pupil or imitator of Palma Vecchio. If the paintings were created by different workshops, they must be based on similar or identical study drawings.

In the National Art Museum of Belarus in Minsk, there is another portrait from the same period, painted in Cariani's style, from the Radziwill collection (oil on canvas, 100 x 78 cm, inv. ЗЖ-111). Basing on 17th and 18th century paintings and engravings it is identified as effigy of Nicolaus I Radziwill (ca. 1440-1509) or Petras Mantigirdaitis (d. 1459). However a drawing from the State Hermitage Museum (inv. ОР-45835), created in mid-17th century or earlier bears the inscription Nicolaus II Radziwill. It is therefore a portrait of Nicolaus I's son and Magdalena Bonerówna's father-in-law who was a voivode of Vilnius from 1507 and the Grand Chancellor of Lithuania from 1510. On 25 February 1518 he received, as the first member of the family, the princely title (Reichsfürst) from the emperor Maximilian I. It was undoubtedly Cariani who was also the author of the portrait of Nicholas II's younger brother, John Radziwill (1474-1522), nicknamed "the Bearded" (father of Nicolaus "the Black"), reproduced in a drawing at the Hermitage with the inscription Jan Xiąże Marszałek WXL (inv. ОР-45838), and probably also in Icones familiæ ducalis Radivilianæ ... (IOANNES. II. RADZIWIL De Musniki. Cognto BARBATUS ...). ​Chancellor Krzysztof Szydłowiecki (d. 1532) was depicted in very similar armor in a miniature from Liber geneseos illustris familiae Schidloviciae, made around 1532 after an earlier effigy (Kórnik Library).

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

​Portrait of Magdalena Bonerówna (1505-1530) in white by workshop of Giovanni Cariani, ca. 1520-1527, Private collection.

​Portrait of Magdalena Bonerówna (1505-1530) in white by workshop of Giovanni Cariani, ca. 1520-1527, Museum of Fine Arts and Archeology in Besançon.

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

​Portrait of Magdalena Bonerówna (1505-1530) in gold dress by circle of Palma Vecchio, ca. 1520-1527, Private collection.

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

Hypothetical reconstruction of the ​portrait of John "the Bearded" Radziwill (1474-1522) by Giovanni Cariani, ca. 1520, lost. © Marcin Latka

In Tarnów Cathedral, hidden behind the monumental tomb of the Ostrogski family created in the style of Flemish mannerism (Willem van den Blocke and Johann Pfister) and located opposite another monumental tomb of the Tarnowski family in the style of the Venetian renaissance (Giovanni Maria Mosca), there is a smaller tomb of Barbara of Rożnów (1447-1517), the oldest in the cathedral and joining the late gothic and renaissance styles.

This splendid sculpture is exceptional in many respects, notably because its author remains unknown. It seems that the sculptor created only this particular work in Poland, as it is difficult to find anything comparable. The way he carved the banderole held by two angels in the upper part testifies to his mastery, so the tomb of Barbara of Rożnów was certainly not the only work he executed. The portal of the cathedral in the south vestibule with Christ in a well and the coat of arms of the founders, dating from around 1511, was also made by a skilled sculptor, but is different in style.

Barbara was the daughter of Jan Zawiszyc and Małgorzata Szafraniec and the granddaughter of the famous knight Zawisza Czarny of Garbowo (Zawissius Niger de Garbow, died in 1428). She married Stanisław Tęczyński (1435-1484) and after his death she was the second wife of Jan Amor Tarnowski (d. 1500). In the upper part, the monument is decorated with two cartouches with the coat of arms Sulima of Barbara's father and Starykoń of her mother. It was carved from fine sandstone, probably brought from Sancygniów or Szydłów, north of Tarnów.

The monument was founded by Barbara's son, Jan Amor Tarnowski (1488-1561), future hetman, who ordered an inscription to be placed above the deceased's sarcophagus praising the best and most caring mother (... MATRI INDULGENTISSIME ET / OPTIME FEMINE POSUIT. VIXIT ANNIS LXX. OBIIT A. 1517.). Jan Amor apparently had a special attachment to his mother, since his father died when he was only twelve years old. He also founded a monument to his father, created by the workshop of Bartolommeo Berrecci, but much later around 1536 - the so-called Monument to the Three Johns (his father, his stepbrother and his son).

Another exceptional element of Barbara's tomb is the sculpture of the deceased. Lady Tarnowska's pose and clothing are modeled on the Sorrowful Virgin Mary (Mater Dolorosa), such as Our Lady of Sorrows from the church in the Włocławek diocese, created in about 1510 (National Museum in Warsaw, inv. 210488). Tomb effigies were often inspired by portraits, indicating that the effigies of Barbara were portraits in the guise of the Virgin Mary or Mater Dolorosa. "This desecration of sacred things in the Middle Ages resulted, as [Johan] Huizinga claims, from a vulgar familiarity with the sacred. It consisted primarily in the desire to exalt man and deify him. In the case of Barbara of Rożnów, on the contrary, we are dealing with the disavowal of divinity in favor of a secular matron. The person of Mary, especially as the Sorrowful Mother, identified with Barbara the best mother, convinces even more strongly of the conscious choice of this iconographic scheme by the artist", comments Ewa Trajdos in her article about sculpture published in 1964 ("Treści ideowe nagrobka Barbary z Rożnowa ...", p. 4, 8, 13-14). Describing the decoration of the monument with several fantastic characters, mermaids, semi-homines (half men), monkeys, jesters, a winged man and woman with snake tails, the author refers to some sculptures preserved in the Iberian Peninsula, such as the Roman sacophagus used as a tomb of King Ramiro II (1086-1157), king of Aragon, in Huesca or tomb of Pedro González de Valderrábano in Ávila, sculpted by Juan Guas in 1468, which, in general, resembles the tomb in Tarnów. Many elements of the decoration have a symbolic meaning, such as the sirens, a symbol of deceptive temptations, which, according to the texts of Isidore of Seville, emphasize the ideas of vanity.

Shortly after the death of his beloved mother, Jan Amor Tarnowski decides to go on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. In order to obtain funds for this expedition, he pledged some of his estates for 1,000 zlotys to his brother-in-law Stanisław Szczęsny Ligęza. He also borrowed money from Florentine and Roman bankers. Before setting off on his journey, Tarnowski participated in the coronation and wedding of Bona Sforza to King Sigismund. In the spring of 1518, equipped with letters of recommendation from the king, he went to Rome, where he was received by Pope Leo X Medici. On July 4, 1518, he sailed from Venice towards Jaffa, arriving there on August 14. He made a pilgrimage to places related to the life of Jesus Christ and also traveled to Egypt to see the monastery of Saint Catherine at Mount Sinai. 

During the pilgrimage, which lasted until September 4, he was named Knight of the Holy Sepulchre. On his return journey he probably visited other famous places in the Mediterranean basin and the following year, through Spain, he reached Portugal, which was flourishing as a rich overseas empire under the rule of King Manuel I. Received at his court along with two other Poles, he was ceremonially knighted by the king in Lisbon. He joined the king of Portugal in an expedition to Africa. "He distinguished himself there in such a manner, that he received from the Portuguese monarch the most brilliant offers if he would remain in his service: but having refused them, he was dismissed with rich presents" (after "Historical Sketch of the Rise, Progress, and Decline of the Reformation in Poland ..." by Count Valerian Krasinski, Volume 1, p. 168). From Portugal, Tarnowski went to France, visiting England, Brabant (where he was received in Brussels by the young Emperor Charles V), Germany and Bohemia. After a year and a half of travel, he returned to Poland with letters from the Pope and other monarchs. Probably shortly after Tarnowski's return (1520), "a tombstone for his mother, Barbara of Rożnów, was erected in the Tarnów collegiate church, which was to become the first of the monuments dedicated to his family" (after "Panowie na Tarnowie. Jan Amor Tarnowski, kasztelan krakowski I hetman wielki koronny ..." by Krzysztof Moskal, part 8/1). 

The Lord of Tarnów undoubtedly brought many exquisite works of art acquired or received during his journey and perhaps even a few artists with him. He was one of the richest lords in the kingdom, and as the owner of 120 villages and 5 towns, which would be enough to support the entire Polish national defense system for a year (compare "Jan Tarnowski ..." by Wojciech Kalwat), he could compete in patronage even with the king. After 1520 he rebuilt Tarnów Castle in the Renaissance style, and around 1535 or later he built a splendid palace in Kraków (Wielopolski Palace), which Stanisław Tomkowicz compared to Palazzo Venezia in Rome ("Pałac Wielopolskich w Krakowie ...", p. 4). The old photograph of the palace from around 1918, before reconstruction, indicates clear Italian influences and the comparison with Palazzo Venezia is fully justified.

Around 1536 or later, Tarnowski honored the memory of his wife Barbara Tarnowska née Tęczyńska (ca. 1490-1521), the eldest daughter of Mikołaj Tęczyński (d. 1497), voivode of Ruthenia (BARBARÆ DE THANCZYN NICOLAI RVS/SIÆ PALLATINI FILIÆ ...), with one of most beautiful female monuments in Poland, whose equal it would be difficult to find even in Italy. The monument, attributed to Giovanni Maria Mosca, is made of sandstone and inlaid with expensive red marble. Her pose is inspired by statues and paintings of Venus, such as the Roman statues of Venus Pudica and the Venetian paintings of sleeping/reclining Venus. It may have been inspired by an effigy of Crown Princess Isabella Jagiellon nude - Venus of Urbino, created around that time, or "disguised" portraits of Jan Amor's wife. 

In Lisbon, Jan Amor had the opportunity to admire newly accomplished masterpieces of Portuguese architecture and sculpture, the most important examples of the Manueline style, such as the Belem Tower, completed in 1519, the rich south and west portal of the monumental Jeronimos Monastery, completed between 1517-1518, or the luxurious Ribeira Palace (destroyed during the Lisbon earthquake in 1755) with its loggias and gardens, rebuilt before 1510, among others. The distinctive Manueline style, which united elements of late Gothic, Plateresque, Mudejar and Italian Renaissance, with maritime (armillary spheres, ropes, knots) or naturalistic ornamentation (corals, algae, artichokes, pine cones), various animals and fantastic elements (ouroboros, mermaids, gargoyles), is characterized by the great skill of stonemasons, who created intricate decorations for buildings and monuments.

It is interesting to note that the tomb of Barbara of Rożnów has a shape and composition typical for Manueline funerary monuments: the arch filled with ornaments, the lying figure of the deceased and the plinth with two figures supporting a scroll of parchment, symbolizing the tabula ansata. These elements are clearly visible in two similar tombs of the first two kings of Portugal - Afonso I (died 1185), also called Afonso Henriques, and his son Sancho I (1154-1211), both located in the monastery church of the Holy Cross (Mosteiro de Santa Cruz) in Coimbra. They were founded by King Manuel I, who ordered extensive renovations, reconstructions and redecorations of the monastery and church, and created between 1507 and 1520 by Portuguese of Castilian origin Diogo de Castilho (design), Frenchman Nicolau Chanterene (main statue) and Master of the Royal Tombs (remaining statuary).

The Manueline tombs of the first kings undoubtedly inspired two adjacent tombs of Gonçalo Gomes da Silva, lord of Vagos and his great-grandson Aires Gomes da Silva (d. 1500) in the church of the Monastery of Saint Mark (Mosteiro de São Marcos) in Coimbra (Silva Pantheon), sculpted by Diogo Pires the Younger (Diogo Pires, o Moço) in 1522. The style of the decorations on Lady Tarnowska's tomb is reminiscent of those on the Silva monument, which in turn indicates that they could have been made by the member of the same workshop. In the church of Saint Mark in Coimbra there is also a more renaissance tomb of João Gomes da Silva (1412-1431), lord of Vagos, founder of a hermitage which later gave rise to the Monastery of Saint Mark, also attributed to Diogo Pires the Younger, which follows the same model described. Another striking similarity between the Silva and Tarnowski Pantheon is the tomb of Dona Brites de Menezes (Beatriz de Meneses, d. 1466), second wife of Aires Gomes da Silva, 3rd Lord of Vagos, carved in limestone in the second half from the 15th century. Its decoration is similar to that of the portal of the Tarnów Cathedral.

Pires, one of the greatest figures of Manueline sculpture, active in Coimbra, also exported his works, as the statue of Saint Sebastian from the Chapel of Saint Sebastian in Câmara de Lobos, Madeira is attributed to him (Museum of Sacred Art in Funchal, inv. MASF379). At that time, many works of art were imported to the island from mainland Portugal and the Low Countries. The sculpture of Saint Sebastian is believed to be a disguised image of the chapel's patron (Esta escultura deve ser a imagem do orago primitivo da capela de São Sebastião de Câmara de Lobos, no início do século XVI, according to catalog note). 

Additionally, in the 15th century and 16th century, sculptures were frequently transported from Nuremberg to Poland-Lithuania (bronzes by Vischer workshop in Szamotuły and Kraków) or from Kraków to other places, such as Vilnius (marble tomb of Queen Elizabeth of Austria, first wife of Sigismund II Augustus).

In conclusion, three options are possible: a member of the Pires workshop was invited to Tarnów by Jan Amor and after completion of the work, he returned to his country, Tarnowski commissioned from the Portuguese sculptor a design for his mother's grave (drawings, clay or wooden model), which was executed in Tarnów by the author of the cathedral's portal or, less likely, the entire monument was transported from Coimbra by land to Kraków or by sea to Gdańsk (the most expensive option, which would probably leave a trace in the documents). 

With sculptures in Manueline, Italian and Flemish styles, the great diversity of Poland-Lithuania and its art, as well as its international and European aspect, are perfectly represented in the monuments of Tarnów Cathedral.

​Tomb monument of Barbara of Rożnów (1447-1517) by circle of Diogo Pires the Younger, ca. 1520, Tarnów Cathedral. 

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

The effigy of the blond Virgin Mary in the painting by Francesco Bissolo in the National Museum in Warsaw (oil on canvas, 72 x 96 cm, inv. M.Ob.953, earlier 128830), bears a great resemblance to other effigies of Bona, notably her portrait by Bissolo (National Gallery, London, inv. ​NG631) or her disguised effigy as Venus by Lucas Cranach the Elder (Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, inv. ​NM 259). This painting was transferred to the Museum from the Potocki collection in their Italian style palace in Krzeszowice near Kraków, nationalized after the World War II. It's earlier history is unknown, it is highly probable though, that it was acquired by the Potockis in Poland. 

The American art historian Bernard Berenson (1865-1959) attributed the Warsaw painting to Pietro degli Ingannati, a Venetian painter sometimes confused with Francesco Bissolo (compare "Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Venetian School", Volume I, p. 92). Ingannati was active between 1529 and 1548 (however, several of his works are dated earlier), his last known work, the Holy Family with Saints Catherine and John the Baptist, was signed PETRUS.DE.INGANATIS.FECIT. and dated MDXLVIII (1548) on a cartellino visible at lower left (from the Sellar collection in London, sold on March 17, 1894, after "Saggi e memorie di storia dell'arte", 1978, Volume 11, p. 31). Between 1520 and 1525, he made portraits of ladies in religious disguise: portrait of a woman as Saint Catherine of Alexandria (Museo Poldi Pezzoli in Milan, inv. 3493), portrait of a lady as a virgin martyr (Portland Art Museum, inv. 61.40) and The Virgin and Child with a lady as Saint Agnes in a landscape (Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, on deposit at the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, inv. 200 (1934.11)).
​
According to Paweł Pencakowski, it was Ingannati who, between 1546 and 1547, painted in Venice the Crucifixion for the main altar of Wawel Cathedral (signed and dated: PETRVS VENETVS 1547), today in the Church of St. Stanislaus in Bodzentyn, and the amount of 159 florins paid to Queen Bona from the royal treasury on August 9, 1546, transferred by her agent in Venice for paintings for the cathedral (quos factor S. M. Reginalis Veneciis exposuit) was an advance payment for this work (compare "Renesansowy ołtarz główny z katedry krakowskiej w Bodzentynie", p. 112, 149). 

​Another comparable painting from the same period can be found today in the Church of Saint Catherine of Alexandria in Rzeczyca. It represents the Holy Family - Virgin and Child with Saint John the Baptist and his parents Elisabeth and Zechariah and comes from the collection of the architect Stanisław Zawadzki (1743-1806). Although attributed to the circle of Giovanni Bellini, a similar painting in Crema Cathedral titled Sacra Conversazione is attributed to Francesco Bissolo, a student of Bellini.

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

There was probably also a reduced version or a study of the model's head against the sky, like the painting of Saint Francis, attributed to Bissolo (Sotheby's London, April 24, 2008, lot 302).

Ingannati, who, around 1526-1528, produced the portrait of Anna of Masovia (ca. 1498-1557), according to my identification (portrait kept in Buscot Park), was very probably the author of the portrait of Queen Bona reproduced in intaglio with her bust, now kept in the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana in Milan (inv. 284, inscription around the bust: • BONA / • SPHOR • REG / • POLO •). The intaglio, engraved on a precious sapphire, is attributed to Giovanni Jacopo Caraglio, active in Poland from around 1538; however, the queen's costume indicates that the original effigy dates from the 1520s. As with the two-sided sardonyx cameo depicting, on one side, the bust of Emperor Charles V (1500-1558) and his son Philip II of Spain (1527-1598), and on the other, that of Isabella of Portugal (1503-1539), Charles's wife and Philip's mother, created in Milan in 1550 by Leone Leoni (Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv. 38.150.9), the intaglio's creator was probably inspired by other effigies of the Polish queen. The date of execution of Leoni's cameo is confirmed by a letter from 1550 addressed from Milan to Cardinal Granvella, Charles V's agent in Brussels. The sculptor depicted the emperor and his son in the typical style of Roman emperors ("the way a sculptor used to do for Caesar and Augustus").

Sources also confirm that in 1546, the emperor himself commissioned a medal from the Milanese sculptor bearing the likeness of his wife, Empress Isabella, who had died seven years earlier (National Archaeological Museum in Madrid, inv. 1993/80/156BIS). Leoni drew inspiration from Titian's portraits of her - as he himself stated in a letter to Cardinal Granvelle in November 1546, claiming that he had done it "according to Titian". Several other sculpted effigies of Charles V's wife by Leoni are based on her earlier portraits, such as the medal adorned with the Three Graces on the reverse and bearing the inscription "Divine Empress Isabella, wife of Charles V" (DIVA ISABELLA AVGVSTA CAROLI V VX), created around 1549, a marble relief dating from around 1550-1555, and a large bronze statue from 1564 (Prado Museum, inv. E000269 and E000274). This is probably Leoni, who was commissioned in 1570 to create the medal with the bust of Bona's son, Sigismund Augustus, based on portraits of the king (according to a letter from Ludovico Monti).

​Caraglio drew inspiration for many of his engravings from the works of other artists, notably Rosso Fiorentino, Parmigianino, Giulio Romano, Baccio Bandinelli, Raphael, Titian, Michelangelo and Perino del Vaga.

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Queen Bona Sforza (1494-1557) as Madonna by Francesco Bissolo, ca. 1520-1525, lost. © Marcin Latka

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Queen Bona Sforza (1494-1557) by Pietro degli Ingannati, ca. 1520-1528, lost. © Marcin Latka

​Sapphire intaglio with bust of Queen Bona Sforza (1494-1557) by Giovanni Jacopo Caraglio, 1520s or 1530s, Pinacoteca Ambrosiana. Virtual reconstruction, © Marcin Latka

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

The king was represented as a kneeling donor in several miniatures in his Prayer Book, created by Stanisław Samostrzelnik in 1524 (British Library) and as one of the Magi in the Adoration of the Magi by Joos van Cleve, created between 1520-1534 (Gemäldegalerie in Berlin, oil on panel, central panel 72 x 52 cm, wings 69 x 22 cm, inv. 578). In such form, however this time more like Saint Sigismund, he is depicted in the painting by Bonifacio Veronese (born Bonifacio de' Pitati). His effigy is very similar to the painting by Titian in Vienna and by Joos van Cleve in Berlin, but he is much younger. A rich crown is placed beside him and he is accompanied by his favourite little dog. The landscape behind him is very Netherlandish in style, it is therefore possible that it was commissioned together with the painting by Joos van Cleve, as a part of international propaganda of the Jagiellonian state. The king is receiving or giving the globe to the Infant Jesus. He was elected, but was anointed and crowned before the Lord in the Wawel Cathedral, therefore his power comes from the God. The Infant might also represent his newly born son Sigismund Augustus. 

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

Such depictions became standard for many religious scenes in the 16th century and for example in Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo's beautiful painting from around 1527, two donors, most likely a husband and wife, are equal participants in the adoration of the Child to the Virgin Mary (Royal Collection, inv. RCIN 405755).

The painting is in the Medici collection in Florence since the early 18th century (Palatine Gallery) and it was previously attributed to Palma il Vecchio (oil on panel, 106 x 145 cm, inv. Palatina 84 / 1912). In private collection in Rome there is a copy of this painting, painted in the style of Bernardino Licinio (compare Fototeca Zeri, Numero scheda 39906). Another copy, probably by Pitati's workshop, is in a church in the diocese of Venice (oil on canvas, 91 x 143 cm). 

In the 1520s or before 1537, Bonifacio created one of his most famous works: the Adoration of the Magi, now in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice (oil on canvas, 194 x 339 cm, inv. 287). This "singular painting", as Marco Boschini described it in 1664, comes from the second room of the Revenue Governors' Office (Magistrato dei Governatori alle Entrate) in the Palazzo dei Camerlenghi. It was originally placed in a splendid carved frame in the shape of an arch and adorned with the coats of arms of Antonio Venier, Vicenzo Gritti, Alvise Contarini, and Girolamo Zen, who left office between 1542 and 1544 and were probably the commissioners of the work. It has also been suggested that the donor of the painting was Natalino Contarini, Revenue Magistrate (Magistrato alle Entrate) between June and November 1534. If this painting was indeed founded by Natalino, it should be noted that his relative Ambrogio Contarini (1429-1499), visited Poland-Lithuania-Ruthenia in 1474 and 1477.

The Palazzo dei Camerlenghi, adjacent to the Rialto Bridge, was the seat of the senior fiscal officials of the Republic of Venice. Their role was that of treasurers and cashiers of the Republic, and they managed all public expenditures and revenues. From 1525 to 1528, the palace was enlarged according to a design by Guglielmo dei Grigi. Pitati produced several paintings to adorn this important building of the Republic, including the large tripartite painting from another room, now also housed in the Gallerie dell'Accademia (inv. 942-917-943). It depicts the Annunciation with the Eternal Father, while God the Father, at the center of the composition, hovers over St. Mark's Square. The Adoration of the Magi also reflects Venetian reality in religious disguise and the most important role is played by the costumes, which was obvious to the people of the time and especially to the revenue magistrates. Saint Balthazar, traditionally called the King of Arabia, stands on the left, dressed in a splendid Ottoman costume. He represents the states south of the Republic of Venice, an important trading partner - the Ottoman Empire. Saint Gaspar, depicted as a young man wearing a splendid green doublet, very fashionable in northern Italy and generally in Western Europe at that time, stands closer to the Virgin. He represents Venice and Western Europe. The third biblical Magi, Saint Melchior, is dressed in a long golden cloak lined with precious fur. Melchior was the oldest Magi and was traditionally called King of Persia. He represents the East, Sarmatia, another very important trading partner of the Republic of Venice. His costume is typical of Poland-Lithuania-Ruthenia, as evidenced by the Adoration of the Magi in the epitaph of Melchior Sobek (d. 1542), now in the Museum of the Missionary Fathers in Kraków. Sobek's epitaph was painted in Kraków in 1542 (dated in the lower center on the base of the column). It depicts the donor in the right corner of the painting with his coat of arms. The epitaph was originally located in the Chapel of the Holy Trinity in the Wawel Royal Cathedral. Unlike Bonifacio's painting, Saint Balthazar, on the left, is dressed in the Western European style, while Saints Caspar and Melchior wear typical long Sarmatian cloaks, lined with fur. Similar cloaks are also visible in another Adoration of the Magi, preserved in the collection of the Archdiocesan Museum of Religious Art in Lublin. It is an early 17th-century altar predella from the Church of the Holy Cross in Rzeczyca Księża (tempera on panel, 53.5 x 168 cm). King Sigismund in Bonifacio's paintings is also wearing such a cloak.

It is interesting to note that the predella from Rzeczyca Księża, although undoubtedly painted by a local painter from the Lublin region, also shows strong influences of Venetian painting and its author may have been familiar with the works of Bassano and Tintoretto. 

Venetian painters created the most famous effigies of the sultans of the Ottoman Empire, as well as portraits of important monarchs of Western Europe (Emperor Charles V, King Philip II of Spain, King Francis I of France among others), they also created the portraits of the "eastern", Sarmatian monarchs.

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

​Sacra Conversazione with portraits of Sigismund I and Bona Sforza by workshop of Bonifacio Veronese, ca. 1520, Diocese of Venice.

Sacra Conversazione with portraits of Sigismund I and Bona Sforza by workshop of Bernardino Licinio, ca. 1520, Private collection. ​Virtual reconstruction, © Marcin Latka 

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

​Adoration of the Magi with Ottoman, Western European and Sarmatian costumes by Bonifacio Veronese, before 1537, Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice.

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

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

The portrait in Stockholm (Nationalmuseum, oil on panel, 90 x 49.5 cm, NM 259) bears a great resemblance to other effigies of Bona. It is dated by experts to 1520-1525 and Sweden was one of the invaders between 1655-1660, however we can only assume that it was taken from Poland. The painting is believed to have come from a robbery by Swedish troops in Prague in 1648, but inventory descriptions do not allow this to be fully confirmed (inventory of Prague collection of 1621 - no. 1138 or 1293, inventory of Queen Christina - no. 167 or 217). It's also very similar in form and face features to the Wilanów painting, showing Bona holding a bouquet of forget-me-nots.

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

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

During the Early Empire the emperor and empress assumed a variety of divine guises, including nudity. Statues of Roman empresses disguised as Venus from later periods include the statue of empress Sabina as Venus Genetrix (Museo Archeologico Ostiense), statue of empress Faustina the Younger as Venus Felix (Vatican Museums) and from the group of Mars and Venus (Capitoline Museums), as well as the statue of her daughter, empress Lucilla, as Venus (Skulpturensammlung in Dresden) and from the group of Mars and Venus (Louvre Museum). The statue of Lucilla in Dresden comes from the collection of Cardinal Flavio Chigi (1631-1693), assembled at the Palazzo Chigi-Odescalchi in Rome since 1661. It was acquired in 1728 by Augustus II the Strong (1670-1733), elected monarch of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Elector of Saxony (marble, 176 cm, inv. Hm 394). Also the queen's famous aunt Caterina Sforza (1463-1509), Countess of Forli and Lady of Imola, was most likely depicted in guise of Venus and Madonna in paintings by Lorenzo di Credi. The same her other famous relative Isabella d'Este (1474-1539), Marchioness of Mantua. In about 1505-1506 Lorenzo Costa, a painter from Ferrara, created the painting Allegory of the coronation of Isabella for her studiolo (private study). In this scene, the Marchioness, in the center, is crowned with laurel by Anteros (god of requited love), who is held by his mother, Venus (goddess of love). The same woman was depicted in two other paintings attributed to Costa - as the Madonna in the scene of the Adoration of the Child (private collection, oil on panel, 68.4 x 95.2 cm) and as Venus with the horn of plenty - cornucopia (private collection, oil on panel, 156 x 65 cm), both painted between 1505 and 1510.

After the birth of his son in 1520, Sigismund I was frequently absent, occupied with war with Muscovy (1512-1522) on north-eastern border, leaving his wife in Kraków in southern Poland. A small painting like this one would be a good reminder of his wife's affection. If the painting comes from Prague, it could have been a gift to Sigismund's relatives.​

​Statue of Empress Lucilla (148/150-182) as Venus, Ancient Rome, ca. 164-169 AD, Skulpturensammlung in Dresden.

In 1623 hetman Marcin Kazanowski (1563-1636) founded a church for the Carmelites in Bołszowce (today Bilshivtsi in Ukraine). He most probably ordered a painter in Warsaw or Kraków to copy some painting from his own or royal collection to the main altar of the new church. The painting, now in Gdańsk, is astonishingly similar to the Madonna and Child under an apple tree by Lucas Cranach the Elder in The State Hermitage Museum (panel, transferred to canvas, 87 x 59 cm, inv. ГЭ-684).

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

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

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

Several copies of this painting exists, some of which were probably created by Italian or Netherlandish copists of Cranach, as their style is different. One, recorded in French collections before 1833, was later sold in England in 1919 (panel, 100 x 70 cm, Christie's, January 31, 1919, lot 19), the other, owned by the Barons of Stackelberg in Tallinn (Reval, which became a dominion of Sweden in 1561), was auctioned in Düsseldorf in 1933 (panel, 88 x 61 cm, Julius Stern Kunst-Auktionshaus, March 18, 1933, lot 11). Based on an old photograph of this painting, the possible author of the copy would be Giovanni Cariani. Another, very well painted, was with Farsetti, Milan, until 1953 (oil on panel, 85.6 x 58 cm, Christie's London, Auction 20684, July 7, 2023, lot 131). 

Despite that none of the copies of the queen's portrait made during her lifetime are found in Poland today, the enormous destruction during numerous wars and invasions and the impoverishment of the country which led to the sale of important objects, evacuation of works of art by different means, the collections of Cranachiana in Poland are still one of the most important outside of Germany.

As an example, we can cite some lesser-known works by Cranach, his workshop and his followers from the 1520s, such as the Virgin and Child with dancing Cupids from the Franciscan Monastery in Kraków (on permanent loan to Wawel Castle since 2020, panel, 60 x 40 cm) or portrait of Princess Sibylle of Cleves (1512-1554) as a bride from 1526, which was before the Second World War in the Greater Poland Museum in Poznań (panel, 36 x 24 cm, signed with the artist's insignia at the top right: winged serpent and dated 1526). The portrait of the German princess came from the Skórzewski collection (after "Muzeum Wielkopolskie w Poznaniu ..." by Marian Gumowski, p. 14, item 59) and if it originally came from the royal collection, which cannot be excluded, it could be a gift for Sigismund I and Bona Sforza.

In the Nieborów Palace there is a splendidly painted Christ crowned with thorns (oil on copper, 31.7 x 24.8 cm, without black frame: 27.2 x 21 cm, NB 792 MNW), which most probably comes from old Radziwill collections. This is most likely a workshop copy of a devotional image, now in a private collection (panel, 27.5 x 20.7 cm), created around 1520-1525, probably painted in a context associated with the collection of relics of Elector Frederick III (1463-1525) in Wittenberg. 

From the first quarter of the 16th century also come three paintings considered to be the works of Cranach's followers active in Poland, such as the Madonna (very probably a cryptoportrait) by the master I.G., today in the Archdiocesan Museum in Kraków (inv. DZIELO/05929). This painting comes from the Church of St. Margaret in Raciborowice, which was the endowment of the Wawel Cathedral Chapter, and was painted in 1526 (signed and dated center right: I ... Z / IG / 1526). The style of the painting reveals strong influences from Lucas Cranach the Elder and its possible author could be Master Georgius (Irzik de Kromierzisch) or circle. In the Church of St. Adalbert in Książ Wielki, north of Kraków, there is another Madonna and Child, clearly inspired by the works of Cranach, and the Holy Family in the Carmelite Church in Warsaw, also inspired by the works de Cranach, was probably lost during the First World War (published in "Album Wystawy Maryańskiej w Warszawie w roku 1905. Z. 3-4", p. 40-41).

In the context of the disguised portraits of Bona by German painters, the effigy of the legendary Princess Wanda, published in the Chronica Polonorum, is also very interesting. This work was written in Latin by Maciej Miechowita (1457-1523), historian, geographer, astrologer, and royal physician to King Sigismund I, based on the earlier work of Jan Długosz (1415-1480). The first edition of the chronicle appeared in December 1519 (Decembris. Anno. M. D. XIX.), but was confiscated for political reasons, as some magnate families felt offended by the account of their ancestors. A revised edition was published in 1521. This portraitlike depiction of the legendary princess is attributed to a woodcarver from the circle of the publisher Hieronymus Vietor (Latinized version of Binder, Böttcher, or Büttner), originally from Silesia and, like Vietor, probably a member of the German-speaking community in Kraków. What is striking about this engraving, besides the woman's gaze, is its great resemblance to the effigy of Queen Bona, very likely created by the same engraver and appearing in the Jagiellon family tree published in De Jagellonum familia liber II in 1521, also by Vietor. The facial features and costume bear strong similarities. Wanda's face in turn resembles the effigies of Bona by Cranach that I have identified. It is also the only female image appearing in a major work on Polish history published by a member of the royal court shortly after the queen's coronation (April 18, 1518). Logically, Bona must have influenced its inclusion or been associated with it in some other way. According to Wincenty Kadłubek's chronicle, Wanda ruled Poland after deposing her brother Krak, guilty of fratricide. Miechowita indicates near the ruler's image that she "was unanimously elected lady and queen" (pro domina & regina ex unanimi uoto omnium deputarunt). Invaded by a certain "Lemanian tyrant" (Lemanorum tyrannus, Alemanni, i.e. German), she led the army and forced the enemy to retreat. Jan Długosz gave the German invader the name Rytygier (Rithogarus princeps theutonoru) and propagated the legend that Wanda refused to marry him and committed suicide by throwing herself into the Vistula River (fluvius Vandalus) in Kraków as a sacrifice for the victory. The legend of Wanda was also recorded by the royal secretary Bernard Wapowski, who had studied in Italy, in his Chronicle.

The print depicting an effigy of Wanda, published in 1578 in the Sarmatiae Europae descriptio, is signed with the interlaced monogram HB (National Library of Poland, SD XVI.F.604, p. C3r / Fol. 10). Given the style of this print and a similar monogram visible in a scene of the Crucifixion from the Kraków Missal, published in Strasbourg in 1510, or in a scene of Saint Elizabeth spinning from around 1511 (Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe, inv. 1957-21 G), the probable author is Hans Baldung Grien (1484/1485-1545). The work was published in Kraków by Maciej Wirzbięta (1523-1605), and for this edition, the author Alessandro Guagnini (1538-1614) reused several earlier prints. For the subsequent edition, published in Speyer in 1581, a copy of the original woodcut was used. Even though, as with Wanda in Bielski's 1554 edition, Hans Baldung's woodcut was not originally intended to depict the ruler of the Poles, Wirzbięta must have had access to the original woodblock for his publication. The style of Wanda's costume indicates that the original woodcut dates from approximately the 1520s. 

The motif of Wanda was often used politically as proof that a woman could rule in Poland and in anti-German propaganda. The Venetian statesman and geographer Marino Sanuto or Sanudo the Elder of Torcello (1260-1338), mentioned Poland, Kraków, and the Vuandalus River on his 1320 world map (after "Wisła w dziejach Polski" by Stanisław Gierszewski, p. 20), suggesting that the legend was also known in the Italian peninsula. The portrayal as a legendary Polish ruler could therefore be interpreted as a justification for Bona's growing influence. Furthermore, the depiction of the first elected queen, Hedwig of Anjou in the Jagiellonian family tree bears a resemblance to Bona's effigy (both in terms of costume and facial features). On the other hand, the use of a German painter and woodcarver, at a time when the German community was significant in many towns and regions, could be perceived negatively in this context. However, the case of the portrait of the Marquis of Mantua brought to Vilnius in 1529, demonstrates that the queen was not afraid of controversy and did not hesitate to criticize her allies.

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the ​portrait of Queen Bona Sforza (1494-1557) as elected Queen Wanda by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1518-1519, lost. © Marcin Latka

​Disguised portrait of Queen Bona Sforza (1494-1557) as elected Queen Wanda from the Chronica Polonorum, 1519 and 1521, National Library of Poland.

​Elected Queen Wanda from the Sarmatiae Europae descriptio by Hans Baldung Grien, 1520s, National Library of Poland.

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

Portrait of Bona Sforza and her son as Madonna and Child from the Stackelberg collection in Tallinn by Giovanni Cariani (?), ca. 1521-1525, Private collection, lost. ​Virtual reconstruction, © Marcin Latka

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

​Madonna and Child with dancing Cupids from the Franciscan Monastery in Kraków by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1520s, Wawel Royal Castle.

​Portrait of Princess Sibylle of Cleves (1512-1554) as a bride by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1526, Greater Poland Museum in Poznań, lost during World War II. Virtual reconstruction, © Marcin Latka

​Christ crowned with thorns by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, second quarter of the 16th century, Nieborów Palace. 

Around 1520 and after, various European painters copied a mysterious portrait of a child. One of these portraits, at Gorhambury House in England, is traditionally identified as the effigy of Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626), however others have never been linked to the English philosopher and the identity of the model has never been determined.
​
The fact that the portrait exists in many different versions and in different locations indicates that the child depicted was an important person, an heir to the throne of a major European country. One was acquired in Rome in 1839 by Prince Albert (1819-1861), husband of Queen Victoria, as by Paolo Veronese, recorded at Osborne House in 1876 (The Royal Collection Trust, oil on canvas, 40.6 x 30.8 cm, inv. RCIN 406402). The Gorhambury House version was there since at least the 18th century, the other two are in the United States - at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts (oil on panel, 42 x 31.2 cm, inv. 955.945), sometimes attributed to the German school, which resemble works by Hans Holbein the Younger, such as Portrait of the artist's wife with the two eldest children (Kunstmuseum Basel, inv. 325), and at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore (oil on panel, 55.8 x 45.7 cm, inv. 37.2004), probably by the Italian painter, acquired in various European collections. Another copy, in a splendid frame, was sold in New York under the attribution "Manner of Agnolo Bronzino", thus created by the workshop or follower of an Italian Mannerist painter from Florence Agnolo di Cosimo (1503-1572), known as Il Bronzino (oil on panel, 39.7 x 31.1 cm, Christie's, Auction 1756, October 3, 2006, lot 6). At the end of the 17th century, Antonio Amorosi (1660-1738), active in Ascoli Piceno and Rome, copied another version which was then in Italy, because the painting sold in Paris was attributed to him (oil on canvas, 48.2 x 37.5 cm, Ader, Hôtel Drouot, December 20, 2022, lot 39). 

"Portraits of children of noble houses were often commissioned to be sent to distant relatives who might otherwise never see the child, especially as many died before becoming adults" (after the catalog note for the Baltimore painting). Additionally, portraits of children of various rulers of Europe, especially heirs to the throne, were sent to other countries as diplomatic gifts.

The costume is similar to the clothing seen in portraits of the sons of Francis I of France from the early 1520s - portrait of Francis (1518-1536) at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp (inv. 33) and portrait of Henry (1519-1559) at the Condé Museum (PE 259), attributed to Jean Clouet, however, the hand gesture and facial features are strikingly similar to those seen in a print published in Kraków in 1521 showing a one year old Sigismund Augustus (De Iagellonvm familia liber II, Impressum Craccouiae [...] XII 1521, National Library of Poland, SD XVI.F.643 adl.). The boy's appearance (blond hair, dark eyes, a bit retracted jaw) are also similar to these known from the effigies of Sigismund Augustus' mother - Bona Sforza. Despite the fact that the throne of Poland-Lithuania was elective, the ambitious queen undoubtedly made sure that all important monarchs of Europe and the Pope had no doubt that her son would rule Poland-Lithuania after his father.

"No detail of good Renaissance painting was without an intended symbolic meaning", also the gesture. The child is pictured holding an apple (an age old symbol of the fruit of knowledge and emblem of royal power - an orb) in his right hand (field of action), whilst holding his left hand over his heart (charitable and useful) (compare "Dedication to the Light" by Peter Dawkins).

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

The 1521 print, as indicated by its form and composition, was most likely inspired by a painted effigy of the young prince, commissioned like that of his mother in Venice. The painter, judging by the presence of the arch, could be Francesco Bissolo, the probable author of the portrait of Bona in London (National Gallery, inv. NG631). Another element that supports this interpretation is the presence of a bird, identified in old sources as a parrot (compare "Wizerunki książąt i królów polskich" By Józef Ignacy Kraszewski, Volume 1, p. 255). Sigismund Augustus particularly appreciated these birds and kept them in his residences, so much so that the lords of the kingdom complained that "the Grand Duke of Lithuania keeps cuckoos and parrots instead of soldiers" (after "Zygmunt August ..." by Eugeniusz Gołębiowski, p. 131). It could therefore be a green parrot like the one depicted in the portrait of Countess Latalska, made in 1563 by the circle of Paolo Veronese (Kensington Palace). Birds, especially the goldfinch, are typical of many painted effigies of children of the period - for example the portrait of Archduke Maximilian (1527-1576), a relative of Sigismund Augustus, painted in 1537 by Jakob Seisenegger (private collection) or the portrait of Giovanni de' Medici (1543-1562), created by Agnolo Bronzino around 1545 (Uffizi Gallery). The child's older appearance (the prince was one year old when this effigy was published) also supports the interpretation that the painter based it on study drawings and did not see the actual model.

The hypothesis that Holbein's workshop in Basel, Flemish, Venetian and Florentine painters received a drawing of a royal child from Kraków to copy is very probable. The fact that the portraits were created by different workshops is another indicator that they were commissioned by the multicultural Jagiellonian court.

​​Hypothetical reconstruction of the ​portrait of Sigismund Augustus (1520-1572) as a child with a parrot by Francesco Bissolo, ca. 1521, lost. © Marcin Latka

Portrait of Sigismund Augustus (1520-1572) as a child holding an apple by circle of Hans Holbein the Younger, ca. 1521, The Clark Art Institute.​​

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

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

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

​Portrait of Sigismund Augustus (1520-1572) as a child holding an apple by circle of Agnolo Bronzino, after 1521, Private collection.​​

​Portrait of Sigismund Augustus (1520-1572) as a child holding an apple by Antonio Amorosi, end of the 17th century, Private collection.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Similar to Anna van Bergen (1492-1541), Marquise de Veere, the Queen ordered her effigy as Madonna and Child and the face of the Virgin bear a strong resemblance to her portraits by Francesco Bissolo (ca. 1520, National Gallery in London), by Cranach (1526, The Hermitage, 1530s, Arp Museum, 1535-1540, National Gallery in Prague) and by Bernardino Licinio (1530s, Government Art Collection, UK), all identified by me. Probably the success of this composition prompted the artist to make copies, in which, however, the resemblance to Bona is not so evident. Madonna and Child playing with the veil by workshop of Jan Gossaert, most probably purchased by Stanisław Kostka Potocki in France in 1808, is in the royal Wilanów Palace in Warsaw (oil on panel, 94 x 68 cm, inv. Wil.1008) another in the National Museum in Warsaw (oil on panel, 88.5 x 69.5 cm, inv. M.Ob.63). A good quality version from the Miączyński-Dzieduszycki gallery in Lviv was in the Wawel Royal Castle, lost during World War II (oil on panel, 67 cm x 87.5 cm, inventory of the State Art Collections - PZS from 1932: 2158).

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

Interestingly, the painter used the face of the same model for his Vanitas (also known as Venus), housed in the Pinacoteca of the Accademia dei Concordi in Rovigo (oil on panel, 59 x 29.9 cm, inv. 79). This personification of the vanity of human life is also dated to around 1520-1525 and comes from the collection of Count Giovanni Francesco Casilini or Casalini (1748-1820) in Rovigo, between Padua and Ferrara. He left his collection to his brother Nicolò, with the agreement that he would then leave it to the Accademia dei Concordi. The transfer took place in 1833. It comprised 174 works, primarily paintings by Venetian and Ferrarese artists, as well as Mabuse's Vanitas. As evidenced by his correspondence, in 1799, after lengthy negotiations, Giovanni Francesco acquired paintings attributed to Flemish artists from Elena Capitanachi (after "La pittura fiamminga nel Veneto e nell'Emilia" by Caterina Limentani Virdis, ‎Davide Banzato, p. 124), including the Verità, attributed to Van Dyck. The composition clearly refers to Botticelli's and Cranach's Venus. The hypothesis that Venetians commissioned or acquired this painting, criticizing the disguised representations of the Queen of Poland, seems plausible.

​Within the context of royal commissions in the Netherlands during the first half of the 16th century, the small painting of the Virgin and Child in the Poor Clares Monastery in Kraków is of great interest (tempera on panel, 37.7 x 27 cm). This painting is considered a copy of the icon of the Madonna del Popolo in Rome (painted in the 13th century by Filippo Rusuti), executed by a Flemish painter. According to the inscription on the back: "This image was painted / Originally in 1515". Furthermore, the 1718 inventory states that it was painted by King Sigismund the Old during the war against Muscovy and later brought from Moscow by the brother of Jadwiga Tarłówna, who took her vows in 1616 and was abbess of the monastery from 1648 to 1651 (after "Pax et bonum. Skarby klarysek krakowskich. Katalog wystawy", p. 50-54, item III/3). It is highly unlikely that the painting was made by the king, although he could have ordered it in Flanders in 1515, shortly after the Battle of Orsha against the Grand Duchy of Moscow (September 8, 1514), commemorated by a painting attributed to the workshop or circle of Cranach (National Museum in Warsaw). Three years earlier, in 1512, Chancellor Krzysztof Szydłowiecki had asked the Bishop-elect of Warmia, Fabian Luzjański, to send a painting of the Virgin Mary Monstra te esse Matrem from Warmia to Kraków, or to bring him a similar one via Gdańsk from Flanders (Si autem cum molestia aliquantula deberet esse, tune nollo, quia ibi Dominatio vestra de Flandria per Gdanum talia multo facilius poterit habere quam nos qui remociores sumus). According to Jerzy Kieszkowski (1872-1923), the early 16th-century panel painting of the Assumption of the Virgin, which was in the Parish church in Ćmielów before 1911, was probably brought from Flanders by Chancellor Szydłowiecki (after "Kanclerz Krzysztof Szydłowiecki. Z dziejów kultury i sztuki ...", p. 561). 

The painting in Kraków is probably a reversed copy of the Madonna del Popolo from Pesaro Cathedral, a detached fresco from the second half of the 15th century, now in the Diocesan Museum of Pesaro (tempera on plaster, 68 x 46.7 cm). In 1461, Alessandro Sforza (1409-1473), Lord of Pesaro, commissioned Melozzo da Forlì (ca. 1438-1494) to create one or more copies of a Madonna del Popolo (after "Umbria Santa" by Corrado Ricci, p. 182). Around 1460, Alessandro also commissioned the Sforza Triptych from the workshop of Rogier van der Weyden in Brussels (Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, inv. 2407).

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

​Vanitas bearing the facial features of Queen Bona Sforza d'Aragona (1494-1557) by Jan Gossaert, ca. 1520-1525, Pinacoteca of the Accademia dei Concordi in Rovigo.

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

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

​Madonna del Popolo by Flemish painter, ca. 1515, Poor Clares Monastery in Kraków. 

"Stanislaus and Janusz, sons of Konrad, Duke of Masovia, from the ancient Polish kings, the last male offspring of Masovian princes, ruling happily for 600 years. The young men both excelled with good honesty and innocence, with the power of a premature and unfortunate destiny in short intervals, with great sorrow of their subjects, died: Stanislaus, in the year of salvation, 1524, at the age of 24, and Janusz in 1526, at the age of 24; after the death of which the inheritance and reign over the entire Masovia passed to the king of Poland, Anna, the princess, adorned with virginity and unparalleled honesty, made her brothers with bitter tears [this monument]", reads the incription in Latin on the tombstone plaque of the last Dukes of Masovia (destroyed during World War II, compare "Nagrobek ostatnich książąt mazowieckich ..." by Daria Milewska, p. 9, 10, 13). 

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

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

The portrait by Licinio in the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest (oil on panel, 83.5 x 71.5 cm, inv. 51.802), depict a young woman in a simple white shirt, black coat of Venetian satin lined with fur and a cap of black brocaded damask. She holds an open book on a marble block with a date 1522 (MDXXII) and a solitary oak leaf. Oak was a symbol of power, authority and victory in the Roman times. "In moralizations the oak represented patience, strength of faith, and the virtue of Christian endurance in the face of adversity. As such, it was depicted as the attribute of Job and martyred saints in Renaissance art" (after "Animals as Disguised Symbols in Renaissance Art" by Simona Cohen, p. 86). The painting was acquired by the museum in 1951 from the collection of Leopold M. Herzog. Its early provenance in Hungary is not known, so it is quite possible that Anna of Masovia sent her portrait to her sister Sophia as a sign of mourning for the death of their mother.

In 1525, Albert of Prussia asked for Anna's hand in marriage. His dynastic endeavors as well as plans to marry Anna to his brother William of Brandenburg, were stopped by the firm policy of Bona Sforza. Soon after, Queen Bona, not wanting to exacerbate internal conflicts, resigned from marring her, despite the insistence of the Masovian nobles, to her son Sigismund Augustus. The facial features of two women in paintings by Lucas Cranach the Elder entitled "Portrait of a courtly lady", in private collection (panel, 40 x 27 cm), and "Venus and Cupid", in Compton Verney (panel, 39 x 26 cm, inv. CVCSC:0339.N), are very much alike. It is also the same woman as in the portraits by Licinio, her facial features, protruding lower lip and expression are identical. The painting in Compton Verney bears a date 1525 (indistinct), a date when it was proposed to marry Anna with a nephew of King of Poland, newly created Duke of Prussia (after secularisation of the Monastic state of the Teutonic Knights), who was painted by Lucas Cranach the Elder several times (e.g. portrait in the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, dated 1528). The woman in the effigy of a courtly lady in wide red hat decorated with plumes from about 1530 was most probably hoding a flower in her left hand, just as Queen Bona in her portrait by Cranach in the Wilanów Palace. The painter possibly forgot to add it or changed the concept, which might indicate that the painting was one of a series dedicated to possible suitors. In 1536 Anna finally married Stanisław Odrowąż, voivode of Podole, who already in 1530 was planning to marry her.

The earliest confirmed provenance of the Compton Verney painting is the collection of Paul Cassirer (1871-1926), a German art dealer from a family of Jewish origin, originally from Silesia. The "Portrait of a courtly lady" was auctioned in Munich in 2008. 

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

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

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

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

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

The portrait by Bernardino Licinio in the Castello Sforzesco in Milan (oil on canvas, 77.5 x 91.5, inv. 28), shows the same woman as in the portrait in Budapest holding a portrait of a man, very similar to the portrait by Licinio depicting a man holding a cane (Janusz III). She is dressed in black and the bodice of her rich dress is embroidered with a motif of dogs, a symbol of loyalty and fidelity. The landscape in the background with a castle is very similar to the castle in Płock, the ancient capital of Masovia (till 1262), the de facto capital of Poland between 1079 to 1138 and a seat of one of the oldest dioceses in Poland, established in 1075. Between 1504-1522, the Bishop of Płock was Erazm Ciołek (1474-1522) a diplomat, writer and patron of the artists, who travelled to Rome, studied in Bologna with Filippo Beroaldo and negotiatied the marriage of Sigismund I with Bona Sforza. He was followed in 1522 by Rafał Leszczyński (1480-1527), educated in Padua and the secretary of Prince Sigismund during his reign in the Duchy of Głogów and after his death by Andrzej Krzycki (1482-1537), secretary of Queen Bona, patron of arts and a poet writing in Latin, who was studying in Bologna under prominent humanists. In this painting Anna wanted to express that she would not renounce Masovia. 

The painting in Milan was bequeathed to the museum in 1876 along with thirty-eight others by the nobleman Malachia De Cristoforis (1832-1915), whose collection had mostly been formed in Venice, although information is scarce.

A portrait somewhat similar to that in the Castello Sforzesco, depicting the same woman in a black dress, is now in Buscot Park near Oxford in England. The work is largely retouched and was originally attributed to Francesco Bissolo and now to Pietro degli Ingannati (oil on panel, transferred to canvas, 41.3 x 35.6 cm, inv. 44, sold by J. H. Ward at Christie's, June 14, 1907, lot 54, as Bissolo). Paweł Pencakowski attributed to Ingannati the authorship of the Crucifixion for the main altar of Wawel Cathedral, painted in 1547 (signed and dated: PETRVS VENETVS 1547), now in the Church of Saint Stanislaus in Bodzentyn. Although he is considered active from around 1529, many of his important works are now dated to the early 1520s, such as the painting in the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection (inv. 200 (1934.11)). A painting close to Ingannati's style is now in the National Art Gallery in Lviv, Ukraine (oil on panel, 26.3 x 29.5 cm, inv. Ж-1928). It comes from the collection of the Lviv City Gallery and depicts a lady in the guise of a saint, probably Mary Magdalene, kneeling before the Virgin and Child. The style of this painting is very reminiscent of the Holy Family with Saint John the Baptist (Sacra famiglia con San Giovannino), attributed to Ingannati, from a private collection in Italy. What is interesting about the Lviv painting is that a similar painting, attributed to Giovanni Bellini, is in the National Museum of Art in Kaunas, Lithuania (panel, 45.5 x 52 cm, inv. ČDM MŽ 1549). Both painters used the same set of study drawings for the right hand of the Virgin. They were also reused by several other painters, for example in compositions attributed to the school of Lorenzo Lotto (Fischer Gallery in Lucerne, June 16, 2010, lot 1008) or to Francesco Rizzo da Santacroce (Museo di San Domenico in Forlì, inv. 121). Another interesting element of the Lviv and Kaunas paintings is the castle in the background, which is very similar. Unfortunately, due to wartime destruction, we do not know today the appearance of many historical castles in the territories of the former Poland-Lithuania-Ruthenia, several of which were probably built or rebuilt by Italian architects. It is therefore possible that this castle really existed in the Realm of Venus.

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

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

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

​Portrait of Anna of Masovia (ca. 1498-1557) in a black dress by Pietro degli Ingannati, ca. 1526-1528, Buscot Park.  

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

​Madonna and Child with a female donor in the guise of a saint by workshop of Pietro degli Ingannati, 1520s, Lviv National Art Gallery.

​Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist by circle of Giovanni Bellini, early 16th century, National Museum of Art in Kaunas.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The same woman as in Cariani's painting in Milan was also depicted in another portrait from the same period. The painting, now in the Civic Museum of Bassano del Grappa (Museo Civico di Bassano del Grappa), comes from the collection of the Paduan Count Giuseppe Riva and was bequeathed in 1876 (oil on canvas, 84 x 67 cm). It was originally attributed to Giorgione, Titian and Il Pordenone and now to Bernardino Licinio (after "Il Museo civico di Bassano del Grappa ..." by Licisco Magagnato, Bruno Passamani, p. 71). The painting has a beautiful period frame and the woman is holding a strange animal, which was thought to be a dog or a lion cub, but it is most likely a monkey. The painter probably received some general study drawings to prepare this effigy, and did not see the model and her animal, which is why the monkey looks more like a sea-cat (Cattus Marinus) from the Ruthenian-Polish-Lithuanian noble coat of arms of Kot Morski or other fantastic animal. Due to all these factors, this "exotic" wealthy woman was first believed to be Caterina Cornaro, Queen of Cyprus, as in many other effigies of unknown noble ladies from Central and Eastern Europe.
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It should be noted that the portrait of Tatyana's son, Illia (1510-1539), Prince of Ostroh from the Coburg Palace in Vienna, identified by me, can be attributed either to Giovanni Cariani or to Bernardino Licinio, or even to both, which indicates that the painters could have cooperated closely.
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Chained monkeys also have a certain symbolism during the Renaissance and "at the feet of the Virgin Mary seems to symbolise the suppression of sins - sensuality, greed, and excess the vices of Eve defeated by the virtue of the Virgin Mary" (after "111 Masterpieces of the National Museum in Warsaw" by Dorota Folga-Januszewska, p. 81). In this portrait it can therefore be considered as the embodiment of erotic passion, a symbol of lust and control over passions.

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

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

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

​Portrait of Tatyana Olshanskaya (ca. 1480-1522), Princess of Ostroh holding a monkey by Bernardino Licinio, ca. 1522, Civic Museum of Bassano del Grappa.

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

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

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

To commemorate his glorious victory over the forces of Vasily III, Grand Prince of Moscow in the Battle of Orsha on September 8, 1514, he most probably commissioned a painting depicting the battle in the workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, attributed to Hans Krell (National Museum in Warsaw), possibly one of a series. He is depicted three times in this work in different stages of the battle: instructing his officers - Poles, Lithuanians and Tatars (1st), giving orders for hiding artillery in the wood (2nd) and wielding a buzdygan mace, he exhorts the group of Lithuanian Tartars to pursue the enemy (3rd, after "The Battle of Orsha: An Explication of the Arms ..." by Zdzisław Żygulski, p. 116, 124, 128). In 1514 the Hetman received permission from King Sigismund I to build two Orthodox churches in Vilnius. Instead of building a new one, he decided to repair and rebuilt in the Gothic style two old, dilapidated churches, Church of the Holy Trinity and the Church of Saint Nicholas.

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

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

A painting of the Adoration of the Magi in the Historical Museum in Bamberg, donated by the cathedral canon Georg Betz (1768-1832), is dated "1522" and bears Cranach's mark, the crowned snake (panel, 85.8 x 58.5 cm, inv. 5). It is known from many versions, but only in this one is the artist's sign closest to the original, although probably added by a member of the workshop.

There is a noticeable divergence from Cranach's style, the work was therefore created by a pupil in his workshop working on some large scale commission and just signed by the master's mark. Other versions are in the State Art Gallery in Karlsruhe, from the collection of the Margraves and Grand Dukes of Baden (panel, 86 x 57 cm, inv. 812), in the Burg Eltz, old family property of the Counts of Eltz-Kempenich (panel, 86 x 59 cm) and in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow from the Ducal picture gallery in Gotha (panel, 85 x 56 cm, object number 101048). One was sold in 1933 by Galerie Helbing in Munich (panel, 81 x 58.5 cm, October 18/19, 1933, lot 424) and another in London (panel, 83 x 63.5 cm, Sotheby's, October 27, 1993, lot 155). The mirror version of the whole composition from the collection of Edward Solly (1776-1848) is in the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg (oil on panel, inv. GK I 2032, exhibited at the Grunewald hunting lodge, R.11). All are considered to be workshop copies. As with the artist's marks, the dates indicated on these copies are clearly not authentic - L. / C. / 1 5.Z.[0]. (Eltz Castle, upper left), [1]5[3]2 (Karlsruhe, upper center), 1500 (from the Solly collection, lower right). The mirror version from the Solly collection is the most interesting, as it was clearly made by a Flemish painter. The copyist was inspired by Cranach's style, but the closest works are those attributed to the circle of the Flemish painter Maerten de Vos (1532-1603), active in Antwerp, such as Penitent Mary Magdalene (Dorotheum in Vienna, December 16, 2021, lot 21), a copy of a painting by Quentin Matsys (Gemäldegalerie in Belin, inv. 574C). The painter copied Cranach's mark (lower right), but it is not known why he added the date 1500. The most plausible explanation is that the copy of Cranach's work he received for copying was in poor condition, and instead of 1522, he read the date 1500.

The original was undoubtedly a larger composition - the altar. Closed wings in the altar design by Lucas Cranach the Elder in the State Art Collections in Weimar (Schlossmuseum) depict identical scene of the Adoration of the Magi (ink on paper, 25.4 x 25 cm, inv. KK 97). One of the three "wise man from the East" and the Virgin and Child holding a bowl of gold coins are in the center on separate panels to further accentuate their importance. Melchior, the old man of the three Magi, venerated in Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Church, was traditionally called the King of Persia and brought the gift of gold to Jesus, signifying the regal status, a symbol of wealth and kingship on earth.

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

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

The effigy of a bearded old man as Melchior is very similar to other known portraits of Constantine, Prince of Ostroh. The same woman who lend her features to Virgin Mary in described paintings was also depicted in a moralistic painting of the ill-matched lovers by Lucas Cranach the Elder. This painting, today in the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest, is signed with artist's insignia and dated "1522" in upper left corner (panel, 84.5 x 63.6 cm, inv. 130). The painting was initially in the Imperial collection in Vienna, hence it was most probably commissioned by the Habsburgs, although it cannot be excluded that it was ordered by some of Constantine's opponents in Poland-Lithuania. The hetman, like the king and his wife Bona, supported the elected King of Hungary, John Zapolya against the Habsburgs and in May 1528 he met with his envoy Farkas Frangepán (1499-1546).

​According to the inventory of the Oettingen-Wallerstein collection (Grundbuch) from 1817-1818, Cranach's ill-matched couple, preserved in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg (inv. Gm218), depicts Mayor Tucher of Nuremberg and his maid. It is stated that his relatives had this painting painted to mock him, which indicates that some of these paintings were indeed intended to criticize real people. The anecdote written around 1620 links it to the so-called Tucher coin oracle (Tucher'schen Münzorakel) and to a certain Berthold Tucher, a fifty-four-year-old nobleman, and to his decision to remarry or enter the clergy (afer "Die Gemälde des 16. Jahrhunderts", ed. Kurt Löcher, Carola Bettina Gries, p. 141). The early 17th-century copy of a lost composition by Cranach even bears the coats of arms of the Tucher and Pfinzing families (Tucher Kulturstiftung, inv. HI Gm 049), the oldest patrician families of the imperial city of Nuremberg, in which the sitters are identified as Berthold I Tucher (1310-1379) and his wife Anna Pfinzing (ca. 1340-1381).

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

She was also represented as Judith with the head of Holofernes in a painting, today in the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (panel, 79.9 x 55.6 cm, inv. 1954.74). It is attributed to Hans Cranach, the oldest son of Lucas Cranach the Elder who was active from 1527 and who died in Bologna in 1537. This work, almost like a pendant to a portrait of Queen Bona Sforza as Judith in Vienna, was in the late 18th century in the collection of king Charles IV of Spain. It cannot be excluded that like the portrait of the Queen, it was sent to the Habsburgs in Spain. Perhaps two preparatory drawings for this portrait were in the Dessau State Gallery before World War II, lost (silverpoint on paper, 14.9 x 14.1 cm, inv. B II/2). Both were signed with monogram IVM, an unknown painter from the workshop of Lucas Cranach who was sent to create some drawings or a court painter of Constantine, Prince of Ostroh and his wife. The verso of the larger drawing, also signed with monogram IVM, depict Saint George fighting a dragon, a symbol of the Princes of Ostroh, being thence a study to another painting commissioned by the family and most probably bearing the features of Constantine's eldest son Illia. 

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

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

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

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

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

​Adoration of the Magi with portraits of Constantine, Prince of Ostroh and his wife Alexandra Olelkovich-Slutska as Saint Melchior and the Virgin by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1522 or after, Historical Museum in Bamberg.

​Adoration of the Magi with portraits of Constantine, Prince of Ostroh and his wife Alexandra Olelkovich-Slutska as Saint Melchior and the Virgin by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1522 or after, Private collection (sold in Munich).

​Adoration of the Magi with portraits of Constantine, Prince of Ostroh and his wife Alexandra Olelkovich-Slutska as Saint Melchior and the Virgin by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, after 1522, Eltz Castle.

​Adoration of the Magi with portraits of Constantine, Prince of Ostroh and his wife Alexandra Olelkovich-Slutska as Saint Melchior and the Virgin by circle of Maerten de Vos, mid-16th century, Grunewald hunting lodge.

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

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

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

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

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

​Hetman Ostrogski instructing his officers, fragment of the Battle of Orsha (1514) by workshop or follower of Lucas Cranach the Elder (Hans Krell?), ca. 1525-1535, National Museum in Warsaw. 

​Hetman Ostrogski laying an ambush for the enemy, fragment of the Battle of Orsha (1514) by workshop or follower of Lucas Cranach the Elder (Hans Krell?), ca. 1525-1535, National Museum in Warsaw. 

​Hetman Ostrogski giving the order of pursuit, fragment of the Battle of Orsha (1514) by workshop or follower of Lucas Cranach the Elder (Hans Krell?), ca. 1525-1535, National Museum in Warsaw. 

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

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

​It was probably Katarzyna Górkowa who commissioned a magnificent painting for the Szamotuły Collegiate Church, depicting the Virgin and Child with Saint Anne, Saint Andrew, and Saint Jerome, as well as a portrait of Andrzej Szamotulski, kneeling to the left of the painting, bearing the coats of arms of Nałęcz and Sulima (after "Malarstwo polskie: Gotyk, renesans, wczesny manieryzm" by Michał Walicki, p. 337, item 188). This painting is now in the Archdiocesan Museum in Poznań (oil on panel, 126.5 x 98.5 cm, inv. MAdP 3131). It is estimated to have been painted around 1521, probably at the same time as a large panel depicting the Assumption of Mary, also from the collegiate church and dated "1521" (lost during the Second World War, it is now in the Turkmenistan Museum of Fine Arts in Ashgabat). The Saint Jerome in cardinal's robes undoubtedly refers to Cardinal Frederick Jagiellon, thanks to whom Szamotulski became voivode of Kalisz in December 1500, and then voivode of Poznań six months later. It is therefore likely that the saint bears the cardinal's features. The same is true for other figures, notably the very portrait-like representation of the young Mary (perhaps a cryptoportrait of Elizabeth Jagiellon). The colors and composition clearly recall the works of Lucas Cranach the Elder, such as the wings of a triptych depicting Barbara Jagiellon and her husband Duke George of Saxony, dating from around 1514 (Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid). The depiction of hands, Mary's hair, and the ground is characteristic of Cranach, indicating that the painter was undoubtedly trained in the Wittenberg workshop. Stylistic similarities can be found with the Madonna of Książ Wielki (St. Adalbert's Church, disguised portrait of Jadwiga Kamieniecka) and at the National Museum in Warsaw (inv. M.Ob.2542 MNW, disguised portrait of Barbara Jagiellon).

A painting from 1529 founded by Łukasz to the Górka Chapel at Poznań Cathedral, today in the Kórnik Castle (inv. MK 03356), and attributed to so-called Master of Szamotuły, shows him as a donor before the scene of the Annunciation to the Virgin, possibly bearing features of his wife Katarzyna. 

Łukasz Górka and Katarzyna Szamotulska had a son Andrzej (1500-1551), who in 1525 married Barbara Kurozwęcka (d. 1545), and two daughters Anna and Katarzyna (Catherine). Anna married in 1523 Piotr Kmita Sobieński, nephew of the voivode of Kraków mentioned above, and one of the most trusted followers of Queen Bona Sforza. In 1523 he secured her a dowry of 1,000 ducats on Wiśnicz and Lipnica and in 1531 life tenancy (after "Herbarz polski ..." by Adam Boniecki, p. 200). He was the Court Marshal of the Crown from 1518 and Grand Marshal of the Crown from 1529 and a celebrated patron of the arts, his court in Wiśnicz was one of the finest centers of Polish Renaissance.

Katarzyna married in 1528 Stanisław Odrowąż (1509-1545), Bona's protege, who after her death married in February 1536 Duchess Anna of Masovia. In 1528 Stanisław secured Katarzyna a dowry of 30,000 zlotys on his estates Jarosław and others, and on the royal estate Sambir (Sambor) in Ukraine. According to other sources they were married in 1530. In 1537 king Sigismund I buys the Sambir estate from Odrowąż and obliges him to return 15,000 zlotys of his deceased wife's dowry to her father Łukasz Górka (after "Słownik historyczno-geograficzny województwa poznańskiego ..." by Karol Buczek, p. 644). Stanisław was castellan of Lviv from 1533, starost of Lviv from 1534, with the support of Queen Bona, and voivode of Podolia from 1535.

A painting of Madonna and Child which was in the Saint Erasmus Church in Sulmierzyce (panel, 57 x 38 cm), stolen in 1995, was probably offered to the church by Jan Sulimierski (Sulimirski) around 1550. In the 16th century, the nearby Wieluń was incorporated into the private estates of Queen Bona Sforza. Since then, the castle in Wieluń often hosted royal wives or sisters. 

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

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

The same woman was also depicted in a portrait painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder from Walters collection (mode of acquisition unknown) in the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, known as the effigy of Mary Magdalene (panel, 36.3 x 25.7 cm, inv. 37.269). "Her hair hangs loosely, so she is a not a married woman, whose hair would be discretely controlled", according to museum's description, thence it could be created before the marriage. A small round miniature signed with the artist's insignia at centre right and dated above "152[7]" (repainted), shows her with a large red hat. This miniature is now in the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart (panel, 14.5 cm, inv. L 796) and was acquired between 1834 and 1836 by Christoph Friedrich Karl von Kölle in Paris. Its earlier provenance is unknown and its acquisition in Paris, where many aristocratic collections from the former Poland-Lithuania were transferred after the November Uprising (1830-1831), suggests that it may have come from such a collection. "Such round images based on ancient coins and Renaissance medals were probably intended as gifts and, as the large number of surviving examples shows, enjoyed great popularity," the museum's description says, which also indicates that the woman was a member of a very wealthy family. 

She was also depicted in Italian dress of shiny satin in a portrait from the collection of David Goldmann (1887-1967) in Vienna (oil on canvas, 60.3 x 50.1 cm, Sotheby's New York, May 20, 2021, lot 10). This painting is attributed to Paris Bordone, connected to the Jagiellons and Queen Bona (therefore also to Piotr Kmita Sobieński). Andrea Donati dates this elegant portrait to circa 1525-1530.

A similar woman was represented in a painting which before World War II was in a Parish Church in Radoszyn (Rentschen) near Poznań. The church in Radoszyn was founded at the end of the 15th century by the nuns of the Cistercian monastery in Trzebnica, who owned the village till 1810. After the war the work was transferred to the National Museum in Warsaw from the Nazi German Art Repository in Szczytna (Rückers) (tempera and oil on panel, 69 x 55 cm, inv. M.Ob.2154 MNW). The painting bears the date "1530" and a mark of the Cranach workshop (below the window). The castle on fantastic rock in the background is very similar to the remains of the Szamotuły Castle, visibe on lithography by Napoleon Orda from 1880. Medieval castle in Szamotuły was built most likely in the first half of the 15th century. In 1496 Andrzej Szamotulski guaranteed a dowry to his only daughter Katarzyna worth 2,000 grzywnas of silver "on the half of the city of Szamotuły". Katarzyna married Łukasz II in 1499, bringing in the part of the city inherited from her father, including the castle, as a dowry. Around 1518, Łukasz rebuilt the seat.

The Warsaw painting is a workshop copy of a work by Cranach, which is known from number of copies. The best is now in the National Gallery of Art in Washington (oil on panel, 71.2 x 52.1 cm, inv. 1953.3.1), which by 1929 was probably in H. Michels Gallery in Berlin. Many authors underline clear inspiration of Venetian painting (direct or indirect through works of Albrecht Dürer) in the composition, found in the Madonnas of Giovanni Bellini.

Two other replicas, containing a landscape, are known. One was sold by Galerie Fischer in Lucerne on November 21, 1972 (panel, 84 x 61 cm, lot 2355), the other, from private collection in Austria, was sold in 1990 in London (panel, 80 x 56.5 cm, Sotheby's, October 22, 1990).

She was also depicted in a portrait painting, similar to that of Anna Górka in the Walters Art Museum, wearing a wide rimmed hat with a plume. This work was sold at an auction in Cologne in 1920 (panel, 84 x 55 cm, February 11, No. 631). She is holding a plant, possibly quince sacred to Venus and a symbol of fertility. "Plutarch advised Greek brides to eat a quince in preparation for their wedding night" (after "Illustrated Dictionary Of Symbols In Eastern And Western Art" by James Hall, p. 156). The painting bears Cranach's insignia at the bottom left. The woman's big hat from the 1520s was repainted in the 1530s, when this type of hat went out of fashion. The original hat was probably uncovered during the restoration work. A copy of this portrait from the collection of Miklós Jankovich (1772-1846), art collector and historian, is in the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest (oil on canvas, 48.1 x 38.1 cm, inv. 3127). This painting was thought to represent Philippine Welser (1527-1580), the morganatic wife of Archduke Ferdinand II, son of Anna Jagellonica (1503-1547). It is painted on canvas, so it is thought to have been moved from a panel or created in the 17th century or later. Although it is certainly a copy of Cranach's original, the style, particularly the way the white parts of her dress and feathers on her hat are painted, indicate Italian influences. The overall style of this painting is close to that of Bernardino Licinio, whose workshop most likely received a painting by Cranach to copy. Comparable is for example the style of the Madonna and Child with Helena Capella and her husband as donors by Licinio (Sotheby's New York, October 22, 2021, lot 102). The use of canvas is also more typical for Italian and especially Venetian painting. 

She was finally depicted in guise of Saint Catherine of Alexandria in a paining of Sacra Conversazione by Bernardino Licinio, another painter connected to Queen Bona. Katarzyna's husband, Queen's protege, in shining armour, stand beside her. He is most probably representing Saint George, a military saint venerated in Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Church, who was a patron Saint of Lithuania. Stanisław cound not be depicted as his namesake patron Saint Stanislaus of Szczepanów, as he was a bishop. This painting was sold in 2002 in New York (oil on panel, 91.6 x 118.1 cm, Christie's, January 25, 2002, lot 23). "Saint George" and "Saint Catherine" look at the viewer in a meaningful way, which indicate an additional meaning of this religious scene and in the Lot Essay it was noted that: "It is possible that the two saints in the composition may be portraits of the donors".

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

​Votive painting of Andrzej Szamotulski (d. 1511) from the Szamotuły Collegiate Church by follower of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1521, Archdiocesan Museum in Poznań. 

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

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

​Portrait of Anna Kmicina née Górka by Lucas Cranach the Elder or workshop, ca. 1525-1527, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart.

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

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

Portrait of Katarzyna Górka by workshop of Bernardino Licinio, ca. 1530-1536, Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest.

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

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

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

Portrait of Katarzyna Górka as Madonna and Child nibbling grapes by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1530 or early 17th century copy, National Museum in Warsaw.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Portraits of Stanisław Oleśnicki, Bernard Wapowski and Nicolaus Copernicus by Venetian painters

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

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

It is interesting to note that in 1525 Oleśnicki was simultaneously secretary to the king and queen (regio et reginali secretario), as mentioned in a royal document. The queen's secretaries were mostly foreigners. Her personal secretary and first superior of her chancellery was Ludovico Masati de Aliphia (Aliphius), a member of an old Neapolitan noble family, who came to Kraków with Bona in 1518. In the years 1520-1545, it was also Marco de la Torre, provincial of the Franciscans in Poland and reformer of this order, also Bona's confessor, who enjoyed the reputation of a trusted secretary. One of Bona's favourites was Carlo Antonio Marchesini da Monte Cinere from Bologna, canon of Płock, previously secretary to the Bishop of Płock, Erazm Ciołek. He often travelled with her and Andrzej Krzycki sought the queen's favour by rendering services to Marchesini. Later, between 1530 and 1550, Bona's secretary was Scipio Scolare (Scholaris) from Bari.

Foreign queens, for obvious reasons, favoured their compatriots or speakers of their native language, as in the case of Jan Liberanth or Lieberhandt, most likely a German speaker from Gdańsk or Toruń (although also considered Greek), the long-time physician of Queen Elizabeth of Austria (1436-1505), who on August 28, 1495 was appointed chancellor of her court, while Queen Helena of Moscow (1476-1513), who although uncrowned, is commonly considered in the sources as reginam Poloniae, had at her disposal a Ruthenian secretary (or scribe), Miklasz or Nyklasz (Nicolas), who had previously been secretary to Queen Elizabeth.

By strengthening the position of their courtiers, the queens also strengthened their power at court, and they worked to obtain for them the best offices, important prebends and ecclesiastical benefices. For her favourites, already in 1522, Bona tried to obtain from the king the canonry of Sandomierz for her Italian doctor and the altar of St. Dorothy for her court musician. Sigismund I did not agree, arguing in a letter from Vilnius dated May 3, 1522 that "by what right, to the detriment of deserving natives, could we entrust this office to a young foreigner, already well paid, not even a clergyman, who could perhaps do what so many other Italians have done, who, having taken an abundance of ecclesiastical bread, have left us" (after "Zbiór pamiętników historycznych o dawnej Polszcze ..." by Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, Volume 4, p. 20). Later, however, the queen managed to secure for Doctor Valentinis the canonry of Kraków in 1531 and for her organist and bandmaster Alessandro Pesenti (de Pesentis, d. 1576), a nobleman from Verona, the canonry of Vilnius in the same year. Such favouritism towards foreigners naturally aroused opposition, and in the movements of 1536 and 1537 against the queen her opponents bestowed upon her favourites a whole series of expressive epithets, such as sodomites, epicureans, simonians, and atheists (after "Z dworu Zygmunta Starego. (Dokończenie)" by Kazimierz Morawski, p. 544).

Among the Poles at Bona's court there was also the Latin secretary, Father Jan Lewicki, who, before entering her service, had been in Rome, where he dealt with the affairs of Primate Jan Łaski. Although later rewarded with the title of abbot of the monastery of canons regular in Czerwińsk, which received the protectorate of the queen, Lewicki is an example of Bona's difficult character in her relations with her subordinates. In April 1532, Jan Dantyszek, complaining about the queen's dissatisfaction with his work, which he found incomprehensible, wrote to Piotr Tomicki that "she is about to tear my hair out, as she used to do with Lewicki" (Nihil reliquum est, quam quod me crinibus, ut Levicio facere solebat, non protrahat), and a few days later he added: "I would not like to be Lewicki, nor to meet her in disgrace, as changeable and unstable as ever" (Nollem enim esse Levicius vel sub indignatione quovis modo illam convenire, varium et mutabile semper etc.). Unlike Lewicki, another Pole in the queen's service, Stanisław Górski (1497/99-1572), who was her secretary between 1535-1548, was apparently less docile since his correspondence is considered to contain criticism of the queen and her favourite Marco de la Torre (after "Sekretarze na dworach polskich królowych ..." by Agnieszka Januszek-Sieradzka, p. 120, 121, 123-126).

A signed portrait by Bernardino Licinio (P · LYCINII·) in the York Art Gallery shows a clergyman holding a half open missal with both hands (oil on canvas, 92 x 76.8 cm, inv. YORAG : 738). According to inscription in Latin (M·D·XXIIII·ANNO · AETATIS · LV·) the man was 55 in 1524, exactly as Stanisław Oleśnicki, born in 1469. In 1524 Jacopo Filippo Pellenegra published in Venice his Operetta volgare, a collection of poems addressed to Queen Bona and her mother Isabella of Aragon, Duchess of Milan. The same man was also depicted in the painting by Licinio in the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin (oil on canvas, 74.5 x 67 cm, inv. 179), most probably acquired in 1815 from the Giustiniani collection in Rome. 

In the private collection there is a portrait of an astronomer from the same period, attributed to Giovanni Cariani (oil on canvas, 70 x 50 cm, Christie's New York, Auction 8584, January 31, 1997, lot 201). He is holding astronomical rings consisting of three brass rings that swiveled inside each other and engraved with hours of the day, compass directions, and other measurments. It was an instrument used by astronomers, navigators, and surveyors (after "Gerardus Mercator: Father of Modern Mapmaking" by Ann Heinrichs, p. 44). Licinio and Cariani, who probably collaborated in the execution of important orders of the Polish-Lithuanian royal court, created the portraits of Queen Bona that I have identified. With great probability, we can consider that this portrait represents Bernard Wapowski (ca. 1475-1535), called Vapovius, a nobleman of the Nieczuja coat of arms, canon of Kraków, historian, orator, astronomer and cartographer.

Wapowski, considered to be the "Father of Polish Cartography", studied with Copernicus in Kraków, before leaving for Italy, where he studied in Bologna beteen 1503-1505 and then left for Rome. He returned to Poland in 1515, when he was about 40. He become cantor and canon of Kraków in 1523. Three years later in 1526 he assisted his life-long friend Copernicus, "with whom he wrote about the motion of eight sphere" (motu octavae sphaerae), in mapping the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The same year he created and published in Kraków his most notable map, the first large-scale (1:1,260,000) map of Poland.

​The red marble tombstone in Wawel Cathedral, traditionally identified as the image of Bernard Wapowski, iconographically joins the portrait by Cariani and by Licinio in York. The appearance and the beret resemble those of Cariani's painting, while the large book on which the man holds his head is similar to that of Licinio's painting.

In the Lviv National Art Gallery there is a portrait of an astronomer by Venetian painter Marco Basaiti, created in 1512 (oil on canvas, 101.5 x 80 cm, inv. Ж-763), which traditionally is identified as effigy of Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543). The painting is signed and dated on the table: M. BASAITI FACIEBAT MDXII. In the years 1510-1512, Copernicus drew up a map of Warmia and the western borders of Royal Prussia, intended for the congress of the royal council in Poznań. In 1512 together with the Chapter of Warmia, he swore an oath of allegiance to the king of Poland. In 1909 the painting was in the collection of Prince Andrzej Lubomirski in Przeworsk (after "Katalog wystawy obrazów malarzy dawnych i współczesnych urządzonej staraniem Andrzejowej Księżny Lubomirskiej" by Mieczysław Treter, item 33, p. 11). Most probably 19th century copy of this paining is in the Royal Wilanów Palace in Warsaw (oil on canvas, 103 x 81.5 cm, inventory number Wil.1850).

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

Portrait of Stanisław Oleśnicki (1469-1539), cantor of Gniezno by Bernardino Licinio, ca. 1524, Gemäldegalerie in Berlin. ​Virtual reconstruction, © Marcin Latka 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

​In addition, a painting very similar in style to the Stockholm portrait is now kept in the National Museum in Warsaw (oil on canvas, 202 x 130 cm, M.Ob.1856 MNW). This large painting, acquired from a private collection, depicts the martyrdom of a Dominican friar and a celebrated preacher, St. Peter of Verona, patron saint of Lombardy and the Duchy of Modena and Reggio. Due to some similarities in style, it is attributed to a 17th-century follower of Titian. "Dosso Dossi was greatly influenced by Venetian art, especially the use of color and treatment of landscape as seen in works by Titian and Giorgione," says the catalogue note of a painting of the Trojans repairing their ships in Sicily in the National Gallery of Art in Washington (inv. 1939.1.250), which shows a landscape painted in a similar manner. The Warsaw painting can also be compared to Dossi's St. George (Getty Center, Los Angeles, inv. 99.PB.4). The early provenance of this painting is not known, so it may have been commissioned in Italy for one of the Dominican monasteries in Poland-Lithuania, such as the monastery in Kraków where the brothers came from Bologna in 1222. In 1649 Antoni Nuceni (Antonio Nozeni), a member of the Italian community in Kraków (mentioned in 1636), created a painting of the Martyrdom of St. Adalbert (and the Martyrdom of St. Andrew, repainted), in which the inhabitants of the royal city in their traditional costumes were depicted in a religious scene.

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

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

​Martyrdom of Saint Peter of Verona by Dosso Dossi, before 1542, National Museum in Warsaw. 

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

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

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

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

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

At the beginning of the 19th century, the painting was in the collection of the German banker Johann Abraham Anton Schaaffhausen (1756-1824) in Cologne and was donated in 1867 by Therese Schaaffhausen to the Wallraf-Richartz Museum (panel, 47.8 x 30 cm, inv. WRM 0390). The work bears Cranach's mark and the date "1525" in the lower left corner. It was probably at the same time that the painter or his studio created a small tondo miniature, which is a reduced version of this "disguised portrait" of the queen, now in private collection (panel, 10.7 cm).

Similar is the context of Bona's portrait in guise of Saint Helena holding the Cross by Lucas Cranach the Elder in the Cincinnati Art Museum (oil on panel, 41 x 27 cm, inv. 1927.387). The coronation cross of the Polish monarchs was a reliquary of the True Cross (Vera Crux) of the Byzantine emperor Manuel Komnenos, created in the 12th century, today in the Notre-Dame de Paris. Like the legendary finder of the True Cross, Helena, Empress of the Roman Empire and mother of Emperor Constantine the Great, Bona found the truth and the right way and in the guise of Saint Empress is addressing Emperor Charles V. 

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

Emperor Charles V must have owned portraits of Queen Bona and her husband, and many effigies of the emperor were undoubtedly in the collections of the Jagiellons and the magnates. In order to gain supporters, the emperor readily granted imperial titles to the magnates of Poland-Lithuania-Ruthenia. The inventory of the Radziwill collection of 1671 lists among the paintings that survived the Deluge many by Cranach or probably made by him or his workshop (also included in the earlier inventory of 1657). Among the portraits of the family members, the inventory mentions a scene Caroli V Imperatoris Romano translatio Principatus de Metele et Goniodz in Olikam et Nieśwież Nicolao Radziwił Palatino Vilnensis (91/10), thus depicting the granting of the title of imperial prince by the emperor to Nicolaus "the Black" Radziwill in 1547 (after "Inwentarz galerii obrazów Radziwiłłów z XVII w." by Teresa Sulerzyska). It is confirmed by sources that in 1553 Nicolaus "the Black" had a tapestry with the Baptism of Christ based on a drawing or painting by Lucas Cranach (it is also possible that he made a cartoon for a tapestry). The inventory of 1671 also mentions two small portraits: "John, Elector of Saxony, on a small board" (Joanes kurfirsz[t] saski, na desce małej, 486/6) and "Frederick, Elector of Saxony, on a small board" (Fridericus kurfirszt saski, na desce małej, 487/7), which were undoubtedly copies of the portraits of the Electors John the Steadfast (1468-1532) and his brother Frederick III (1463-1525).
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It is highly likely that the portrait of the emperor, now kept in the Gołuchów Castle near Poznań, was acquired as early as the 16th century. It comes from the collection of Count Zygmunt Włodzimierz Skórzewski (1894-1974), son of Princess Maria Radziwiłł, in Czerniejewo near Poznań. Since 1949, the painting has belonged to the National Museum in Poznań and is exhibited in the Gołuchów Castle (oil on panel, 32 x 35.5 cm, inv. Mo 473). It was signed with Cranach's mark and dated in the upper right corner "15[3]0", which is no longer visible today. The date has also been given as 1550, but taking into consideration that a similar portrait by Cranach in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid is dated "1533" (oil on panel, 51.2 x 36 cm, inv. 112 (1933.7)), the date 1530 seems more likely.

It is also confirmed by sources that the Poznań City Council purchased the portrait of Emperor Charles V in Leginca in Silesia in 1550. Interestingly, the later version in Madrid also comes from Silesia, because the oldest confirmed provenance of this painting is the Wallenberg-Pachaly collection in Ilnica (Ramułtowice), then known as Illnisch-Romolkwitz, between Wrocław and Legnica.

The unusual composition of the Gołuchów portrait with the important Habsburg insignia - Order of the Golden Fleece, cut off and only the chain is visible, indicates that the portrait could be a fragment of a larger painting, which was probably damaged during one of the many invasions of Poland-Lithuania and the preserved fragment was cut to this format. The similarity in width with the Madrid painting (35.5 cm and 36 cm) also indicates this.

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

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

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

Portrait of Emperor Charles V (1500-1558) from the Skórzewski collection by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1530, Gołuchów Castle. 

​Portrait of Emperor Charles V (1500-1558) from Ilnica by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1533, Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid. 

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

1526 was a very important year for the Jagiellons. In January, the main port of the kingdom, Gdańsk, and other cities of Royal Prussia revolted against the Crown. In March, the Duchy of Mazovia fell into the hands of the Jagiellons after the death without an heir of the last male member of the Piasts of Mazovia, Janusz III (Bona was accused of poisoning the duke) and on May 22, 1526, Bernardino de Muro and Andrea Melogesio, on behalf of the inhabitants of Rossano, swore an oath of loyalty to Bona Sforza and Sigismund the Old in Wawel Cathedral, the so-called "Italian homage". Finally in August, the Ottoman Empire invaded Hungary and Sigismund I's nephew, Louis II, King of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia was killed in the Battle of Mohács, ending independent Jagiellonian rule in that part of Europe (except for the reign of Bona's daughter Isabella in Transylvania, which was a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire).
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The frequent absence of King Sigismund in Kraków at that time allowed the ambitious Queen Bona to considerably strengthen her position at court and in the administration of the vast country. Although her official position in Poland-Lithuania-Ruthenia could be considered in today's terms as that of a queen consort, "Bona soon realized that she could only rule indirectly, on the one hand by shaping her husband's opinions and decisions, and on the other by influencing high-ranking dignitaries and officials of the kingdom" (after "Bona Sforza" by Maria Bogucka, p. 108). 

Her position as de facto ruler of the kingdom reached its peak in the 1540s, when the old and sick Sigismund sometimes found himself unable to govern. The letter of the Habsburg ambassador to the Polish-Lithuanian court Giovanni Marsupino (Jan Marsupin), dated July 6, 1543, although sometimes considered exaggerated, also confirms her great influence on her son Sigismund Augustus. "Good God, talking to the old king is like talking to nobody. The king His Majesty has no will of his own, he is so curbed. Queen Bona has everything in her hands. Bona alone governs the whole state, gives orders to everyone [...] The young king says nothing, does not want to listen to anything and does not dare to intervene in any matter, he is so afraid of Queen Bona, his mother. And I almost believe that this young king is under the influence of his mother's spell; for every day (from what I have heard) he goes to see her, from the first night until today. She does not allow her son to act or speak, only as she commands", Marsupino reports to Ferdinand I of Austria (after "Jagiellonki polskie w XVI wieku ..." by Alexander Przezdziecki, Volume 1, p. 121). Due to his conflict with the queen, Marsupino was soon dismissed from court, although it should be noted that in addition to his arrogant manners, he was actually carrying out espionage activities for the Habsburgs (after "Sekretarze na dworach polskich królowych ..." by Agnieszka Januszek-Sieradzka, p. 129). Interestingly, in 1532, another Italian Ercole Daissoli, confirmed the great power of "the Queen of Poland, Grand Duchess of Lithuania, Duchess of Bari and Rossano, Lady of Ruthenia, Prussia, Mazovia, etc." (regina Poloniae, Magna Dux Lithuaniae, Barique princeps Rossani, Russiae, Prussiae, Masoviae, etc. domina), as was Bona's official titulary in Latin in many letters, and compared her to "the queen regent in France" (compare "Królowa Bona ..." by Władysław Pociecha, p. 132). 

On October 10, 1526, the two most important women of the kingdom, Queen Bona and Crown Princess Hedwig Jagiellon, took part in the exequies held for the soul of King Louis (after "Królewna Jadwiga i jej książeczka do spowiedzi" by Urszula Borkowska, p. 87). 

Portraits of ladies by Cranach, one preserved in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, dated "1526", on the windowsill (oil on panel, 88.5 x 58.5 cm, inv. ГЭ-683), and the other in the Coburg Fortress in Bavaria, dated around 1526 (panel, 86 x 58.5 cm, inv. M.163), are similar to the miniatures of Bona and her stepdaughter from the same period (Wilanów Palace, inv. Wil.1518; Prague Castle Picture Gallery, inv. HS242). The facial features and costumes were depicted similarly.

The St. Petersburg portrait comes from the collection of Empress Catherine II of Russia (1729-1796) and entered the Hermitage between 1763 and 1796, perhaps acquired in 1769 from the Dresden collection of Count Heinrich von Brühl (1700-1763), a favourite of the monarch of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Augustus III. It was once thought to be a portrait of Princess Sibylle of Cleves (1512-1554), the wife of Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony, but this identification is now rejected by scholars and the woman bears no resemblance to confirmed effigies of Sibylle.

The Coburg painting comes from the former collections of the Dukes of Saxe-Coburg. At the beginning of the 16th century, the castle in Coburg belonged to the Electors of Saxony, including the widower John the Steadfast (1468-1532), who could receive the portrait of the Polish-Lithuanian princess. John was an Elector from 1525, and his wife died in 1521. The fortress is also not far from the estates of Hedwig's cousins, the Margraves of Brandenburg-Kulmbach, sons of her aunt Sophia Jagiellon (1464-1512).

The topography of the landscapes in both portraits, although idealized and seen through the artistic prism of Cranach, perfectly corresponds to the capital of the Kingdom of Poland - Kraków (Cracow). In Bona's portrait, one can distinguish Wawel Hill with the Sandomierz Tower towards the Zwierzyniec Monastery to the north, and in Hedwig's portrait, one can see the Wawel Royal Castle and the Vistula River towards the Tyniec Abbey to the south, as in an engraving published in 1550 in Basel in Cosmographiae uniuersalis Lib. VI ... by Sebastian Münster (National Library of Poland, ZZK 0.354, p. 889). The costumes of the Polish voivodes included in this publication (De Palatinis Poloniæ, p. 888) are similar to costumes popular in Germany and Central Europe at that time, while the profile portrait of King Sigismund I (p. 904) is possibly based on an original by Hans von Kulmabach or an Italian painter.

Both portraits by Cranach have good quality contemporary copies. The copy of the portrait of Bona from the Hermitage was in the Fasanerie Palace in Eichenzell (oil on canvas, 76.1 x 60.9 cm, possibly lost during World War II), a late Baroque palace built for Adalbert von Schleifras (1650-1714), Prince Abbot of Fulda. According to the German inscription at the top left, probably added in the 17th or 18th century, the painting depicts "the Electress Amalie of the Palatinate" (Amelia Churfürstin v. Hauß Pfalltz). The author of the inscription probably thought that the person depicted was Amalia of Neuenahr-Alpen (1539-1602), Electress of the Palatinate by marriage, but since she was born more than a decade after the Hermitage original was painted, this is very unlikely. Another Amalie of the Palatinate, wife of George I of Pomerania (1493-1531), son of Anna Jagiellon (1476-1503), was the Duchess of Pomerania-Wolgast and was probably painted by Cranach. However, since she died in Szczecin in 1524 or 1525 and a study drawing with her portrait from the "Book of effigies" (Visierungsbuch), probably made by a student of Albrecht Dürer sent to Pomerania, does not resemble the woman in the Hermitage painting, she could not have been a model for a painting painted in 1526. Another important thing about this painting is its author. Although the portrait is most likely a copy of a painting (or paintings) painted in 1526 by Cranach, it is rather in the Italian style. Unlike the version in St. Petersburg, it was painted on canvas and not on panel, which is also more typical for Italian painting. The general style of this portrait recalls works attributed to Bernardino Licinio, such as Salome (Pushkin Museum in Moscow, inv. 170), in which the costume of the knight on the right is painted in a similar manner.

Equally interesting is the copy of the portrait of Hedwig from the Coburg Fortress, now in a private collection (oil on panel, 30 x 23.5 cm, Dorotheum in Vienna, April 9, 2014, lot 705). It comes from a private collection in Spain. Apart from its general appearance, it has little in common with Cranach's style and reveals both Venetian (blurred brushstrokes) and Netherlandish influences (colours). The most likely author seems to be Lambert Sustris (ca. 1515 - ca. 1584), a Dutch painter active mainly in Venice, whose Venus and Cupid in the Louvre (INV 1978 ; MR 1129) is painted in a similar style. The cycle of four small paintings depicting women in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam (inv. SK-A-3424; SK-A-3425; SK-A-3426; SK-A-3427), attributed to the circle of Sustris, is also very similar. 

These copies are further evidence that the paintings were commissioned by the multicultural court of the Jagiellons. It is interesting to note that in the Fasanerie Palace in Eichenzell there was a "Portrait of an Unknown Prince" (Bildnis eines unbekannten Fürsten, Bildarchiv Foto Marburg, Bilddatei-Nr. fm1547546), which strongly resembled the effigies of the son of Anna Jagellonica (1503-1547) - Archduke Ferdinand II of Austria (1529-1595), Imperial Count of Tyrol, and its style was also close to that of Lambert Sustris.

The woman from the Hermitage painting was also depicted at that time, that is around 1526, in a miniature by Cranach or his studio, sold in Paris in 1942 (panel, 37 x 24 cm, Hôtel Drouot, October 30, 1942, Tableaux anciens des Écoles Allemande, Flamande, Française et Hollandaise, item 5), in the middle of World War II, when many paintings were again evacuated and confiscated in Poland. Although the Polish provenance of this work is not confirmed, it is highly possible in this case. It is considered lost during the war. The portrait was reduced to an oval format, probably in the 17th or 18th century, with the artist's mark and the date (15 ...) cut off at the top right. This portrait is very similar to Bona's miniature in the Wilanów Palace.

The 16th-century portrait kept at Trausnitz Castle in Landshut deserves to be re-examined in the context of the portrait in Coburg Fortress. This work is generally believed to depict Hedwig Jagiellon (1457-1502), Duchess of Bavaria-Landshut, daughter of Casimir IV Jagiellon and sister of Sigismund I. However, experts date it to around 1530 (mixed media on parchment, transferred to canvas, 69 x 54 cm, inv. LaT. G 11). The costume, with its distinctive sleeves and hat, supports this dating. The model's dress, with its large rounded neckline exposing breasts and short sleeves, resembles that of Maryna Sobkowa née Ezofowiczówna (d. 1530) according to her funerary monument in Opatów, created around 1530, as well as that of Anna Szydłowiecka née Tęczyńska (died after 1523), a miniature from the Liber geneseos illustris familiae Schidloviciae by Stanisław Samostrzelnik, created in 1532 (Kórnik Library).

This painting likely comes from a series of female portraits created or assembled around 1530 for the castle. Six other portraits, painted in tempera directly onto canvas, are displayed in the same room (the Knights of St. George Hall, remodeled in 1535). The current identification as that of Casimir IV's daughter and Duchess of Bavaria rests primarily on the provenance and the inscription on the back of the wooden panel, from which the portrait, painted on parchment, was transferred to canvas in the 20th century. The work was part of the former painting collection of Trausnitz Castle and bore the later inscription: Jadwiga (Hedwig in Polish, after "Ewig blühe Bayerns Land" by Brigitte Langer, ‎Katharina Heinemann, p. 166). The effigy differs significantly from other known images of the Duchess of Bavaria, such as the relief depicting her as a donor in the so-called Hedwig Chapel at Burghausen Castle, built between 1479 and 1489. 

The portrait is attributed to the circle of Mair von Landshut, but its style bears a striking resemblance to that of the portrait of Sigismund I in the National Museum in Warsaw (oil and tempera on panel, 113 x 82.5 cm, inv. MP 3177) and even more so to the painted friezes of Wawel Castle, particularly that in the Chamber of Deputies - Allegory of human life - attributed to Dionisius Stube (active in Kraków from around 1534). The portrait of Sigismund was acquired in 1934 from Witold Grabowski and, based on the signature (top left: 1530 / HD), was attributed to the royal court painter Hans Dürer. This attribution is now refuted, and the work is now considered to be by an unknown painter, executed after 1575 (after a woodcut depicting Sigismund I in the gallery of illustrious men of Bishop Paolo Giovio). The frieze in the Chamber of Deputies was previously attributed to Hans Dürer and thought to have been painted in 1532 (it could also be based on earlier drawings by this painter). Therefore, in light of the evidence presented and the resemblance to Cranach portraits I have identified, the painting in Trausnitz Castle should be identified as the portrait of Sigismund I's daughter, not his sister. The model is holding a bird, probably a dove, a symbol of purity in Christian art.

It is possible that the beautiful depiction of Saint Catherine of Alexandria in Albertas Gostautas's prayer book, where she is portrayed as a princess in Sarmatian costume with similar facial features, is a disguised portrait of Hedwig (the prayer book contains a portrait of the princess's father, depicted as Saint Gaspar in the scene of the Adoration of the Magi, Munich University Library, Cim. 89, 329/161v, 455/224v). It can be compared to disguised portrait of Magdalena Wrzesińska née Tomicka (d. 1534) as Saint Mary Magdalene by Samostrzelnik, where the sitter wears a similar traditional costume.

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

Portrait of Queen Bona Sforza (1494-1557) by Bernardino Licinio, ca. 1526, Fasanerie Palace in Eichenzell, lost. Virtual reconstruction, © Marcin Latka​

​Portrait of Queen Bona Sforza (1494-1557) by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1526, Private collection, lost. Virtual reconstruction, © Marcin Latka

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

​Portrait of Crown Princess Hedwig Jagiellon (1513-1573) against the idealized view of Kraków by Lambert Sustris, 1540s, Private collection.

​Portrait of Crown Princess Hedwig Jagiellon (1513-1573) in Sarmatian costume by circle of Hans Dürer, ca. 1527-1530, Trausnitz Castle in Landshut. 

Portrait of King Sigismund I (1467-1548) by Hans Dürer or circle, 1530, National Museum in Warsaw. 

​Allegory of human life, fragment of frieze in the Chamber of Deputies by Dionisius Stube after Hans Dürer, ca. 1532-1540, Wawel Castle. 

​Saint Catherine of Alexandria in Sarmatian costume from the prayer book of Albertas Gostautas, disguised portrait of Princess Hedwig Jagiellon (?), by Stanisław Samostrzelnik, ca. 1528, Munich University Library.

​Saint Mary Magdalene in the initial I in the Evangeliary of Bishop Piotr Tomicki, disguised portrait of Magdalena Wrzesińska née Tomicka, by Stanisław Samostrzelnik, ca. 1533-1534, Archives and Library of the Chapter of Kraków Cathedral.

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

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

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

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

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

His portrait in the Jagiellonian University Museum was also painted on wood - tempera and oil on oakwood, and has similar dimensions (40.5 x 29.3 cm, inventory number 1985). This version is strikingly similar, both in style and composition, to signed works by Venetian painter Marco Basaiti (ca. 1470-1530) - notably portrait of Nicolaus Copernicus, created in 1512 (oil on canvas, Lviv National Art Gallery) and portrait of a gentleman in black, created in 1521 (oil on panel, Accademia Carrara in Bergamo, signed M. BAXITI. F. MDXXI). It is highly possible that Dantyszek commissioned a copy of his portrait by Gossaert's workshop in Venice or vice versa, a copy of portrait by Basaiti's workshop in the Netherlands. 

The painting in the Jagiellonian University Museum was repainted in the 19th century and these interventions were removed during restoration in 1992. Based on examination of the painting's support, some scholars date the painting to the end of the 16th century, but according to the 19th century note in French on the back on the frame there was initially an inscription in Latin: Johannes Dantiscus serenissimi Poloniae regis orator Aetatis 48 anno 1531 (after "Portret w Gdańsku ..." by Aleksandra Jaśniewicz, p. 381), according to which it shows Dantyszek in 1531 at the age of 48. The frames were generally added later and the date is not very precise because according to the inscription Dantyszek would have been born in 1483 and not in 1485 as the majority of sources claim.

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

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

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

Another two-dimensional work of art from the Netherlands, which, like Gossaert's painting in Rome, combines Polish and Italian influences in its history, is the so-called Grompo Tapestry (Arazzo Grompo), now in the Civic Museums of Padua (wool and silk, 440 x 783 cm, inv. 606). This tapestry is said to depict a biblical episode related to the story of David and Bathsheba, the gathering of the knights of David's army. It was executed by Brussels workshops in the 1510s or 1520s, and another, slightly larger version of the same composition is in France at the National Museum of the Renaissance in the Château d'Écouen (inv. E.Cl. 1616). The Écouen tapestry is one of a series believed to have been made after a design by Jan van Roome for Margaret of Austria (1480-1530), governor of the Habsburg Netherlands. In 1528, King Henry VIII of England purchased a ten-piece series of similar dimensions depicting the story of King David from a Flemish merchant. The Grompo Tapestry was acquired on December 27, 1618 by the Venerable Arca of St. Anthony of Padua from Giacomo Grompo (suo bel Razzo d'oro, d'argento et di lana finissima). Later, until 1862, the tapestry hung inside the Basilica of St. Anthony of Padua, above the main door. The 1852 book on the Basilica of St. Anthony states that "its provenance, in reality, would rather indicate that it was made in Poland; from where it seems that one of the ancestors of the donor Grompo brought it to Padua, who, in the 16th century, according to family tradition, would have lived for some time in these countries, perhaps to serve in times of war. Certainly, in that period Polish magnates and the Court held tapestries in high esteem and paid highly skilled artisans to create them" (La provenienza, per verità, ci accennerebbe piuttosto che fosse lavorato in Polonia; donde sembra che lo portasse a Padova uno degli antenati del Grompo donatore, che nel secolo XVI, come dicono le tradizioni di famiglia, dimorava qualche tempo in quei paesi, forse per servigi di guerra. Certo, in quella stagione i magnati polacchi e la Corte teneano in gran conto gli arazzi e stipendiavano a lavorarne abilissimi artefici, after "La Basilica di S. Antonio di Padova" by Bernardo Gonzati, Volume 1, p. 299, CXLV-CXLVI). "It probably represents a Polish fact, since a member of the Grompo family brought it from there" (probabilmente rappresenta qualche fatto de' Polachi, poichè uno di Casa Grompo lo portò di colà), adds Giovanni Battista Rossetti in his book published in Padua in 1780 ("Descrizione delle pitture, sculture, ed architetture di Padova ...", p. 80).

The splendid tapestries of Wawel Castle in Kraków are confirmed in the panegyric for the marriage of Sigismund I to Bona Sforza by Andrzej Krzycki, written in Latin verse in 1518 (Attalicos superant aulaea tapetas) as well as in the description by Antonio Niccolo Carmignano (Colantonio Carmignano, Parthenopeus Suavius), which mentions belli razzi and razzi in seta. In 1526, the treasurer Boner, commissioned in Antwerp sixteen tapestries for the king (16 pannos de lana cum figuris et imaginibus alias opponi secundum probam) and in 1533 six tapestries with figures, sixty with the coats of arms of Poland, Lithuania and Milan as well as twenty-six tapestries without coats of arms, through Maurits Hernyck of Antwerp, who supervised the execution (after "Arrasy Zygmunta Augusta" by Mieczysław Gębarowicz, Tadeusz Mańkowski, p. 5-6).

Portrait of Isabella of Austria (1501-1526), Queen of Denmark by Jan Gossaert, ca. 1514, Tarnowski Castle in Dzików, lost. Virtual reconstruction, © Marcin Latka

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

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

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

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

​Gathering of the knights of David's army (Grompo Tapestry) by Brussels workshops, 1510s or 1520s, Civic Museums of Padua. 

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

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

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

Jan Janusz Kościelecki from Kościelec (Joannes a Cosczielecz) of Ogończyk coat of arms was born in 1490 as the only son of Stanisław, voivode of Poznań from 1525 and his wife nee Oporowska. In 1529 he was a deputy of the Warsaw general assembly to the king in Lithuania.
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A portrait attributed to Giovanni Cariani or Bernardino Licinio in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice shows a blond man wearing a large black coat, with large sleeves lined with very expensive ermine fur (oil on canvas, 82 x 76 cm, inv. 0300/ E15). Under the coat he wears a long black robe and on his hands he wears a pair of leather gloves, typical of men of high social status. According to inscription in Latin on the plinth beside him, the man was 36 in 1526 (MDXXVI/ANN. TRIGINTASEX), exactly as Jan Janusz Kościelecki when he became the castellan of Łęczyca. In the museum files, this portrait is considered to be probably a counterpart to the portrait of a lady in a black dress in the same museum (inv. 0304/ E16, compare Codice di catalogo nazionale: 0500440177), which according to my identification represents Princess Hedwig Jagiellon (1513-1573). 

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

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

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

A tombstone dating from around 1530, located in the Romanesque collegiate church in Opatów, is one of the oldest and most interesting female monuments in Poland. This is primarily due to the deceased woman's attire, depicted wearing a large bonnet and a dress with a large décolletage that reveals her bare arms. This tombstone, along with a similar one of Zofia Lasocka née Szydłowiecka (d. 1532) in the church of Brzeziny, contradicts the common belief that such daring women's costumes were introduced to Poland more than a century later by Marie Louise Gonzaga.

Before 2003, the tombstone was largely concealed by a thick wall separating the south porch from the chapter house, and only a portion, adorned with the Leliwa coat of arms, remained visible. Consequently, it was believed to be a monument dedicated to Zofia (1514-1551), the eldest daughter of Chancellor Krzysztof Szydłowiecki and wife of Hetman Jan Amor Tarnowski (1488-1561) of Leliwa coat of arms. The demolition of the wall and the uncovering of the remaining damaged section of the monument revealed an almost entirely preserved inscription, confirming that the monument had been erected by Baltazar Sobek of Sulejów (d. 1534), Starost of Solec, for his wife Maryna, who bore him three sons and died in 1530 (GENEROSVS BALTISAR SOBEK DE SVLY/EW / CAPITANEVS SOLECEN(SIS) ET LYAZEN(SIS) / NOBILI MARINE CONIVGI CHARISS/ME POSVIT MORTVA EST AVT(EM) AN(NO) D(OMI)NI / MDXXX TRIBVS FILYS VTI FLOSCVLI / ET MARITI DESYDERIO POST SERELICTO). Kasper Niesiecki (1682-1744) states in his "Polish Armorial" that "Balcer Sobek of Sulejów, starost of Solec, erected a tombstone in the church of Opatów for his wife, née Leliwa, in 1530" (after "Herbarz polski", Volume 8, p. 426).

Maryna was the daughter of Abraham Ezofowicz, a Ruthenian-Lithuanian Jew, baptized in 1495 and converted to Orthodoxy under the name John. Her mother's name was Hanna Vasilyevna and she had two brothers, Vasily and Constantine. After the destruction of Kyiv by the Tatars in 1482, Ezofowicz settled in Lithuania. From 1496 to 1505, he held the office of starost of Smolensk, and in 1507, Sigismund I granted him the nobility and coat of arms of Leliwa. He was also the court banker of the King in Lithuania (in 1514, he lent Sigismund the considerable sum of 10,000 Hungarian red zlotys). In 1509, he became land treasurer of Lithuania and undertook to reform the treasury administration. He traded with his brothers Michael and Isaac (Ajzak or Ajzyk), who remained Jewish and were exiled in 1495 (following a decree by Grand Duke Alexander Jagiellon, in effect until 1503). He bought damask, velvet, and other fabrics from them. Michael later returned to Lithuania and was ennobled in 1525.

From 1515, Abraham served as the starost of Kaunas, and in 1516 he purchased the castle, town, and commune of Solec nad Wisłą in the Sandomierz Voivodeship, thus obtaining Polish citizenship. He knew the voivode and starost of Kraków, Krzysztof Szydłowiecki (1466-1532), and influenced him to allow Jews to settle freely in Opatów and trade in the city's markets. On June 1, 1518, in Kraków, Abraham Ezofowicz entered into a marriage contract with the royal courtier Hieronim Jarosławski (1499-1521), promising to marry him his daughter Maryna in 1521, but the marriage did not take place due to Jarosławski's death (before August 5, 1521). Chancellor Szydłowiecki, who took custody of Ezofowicz's estates and his daughter Maryna, married her off to his nephew Baltazar Sobek, heir to Wąsosz and Sułów Wielki in the Duchy of Głogów in Silesia, around 1526. In addition to the trousseau, Maryna received income from her brother Vasily's estates. Her brothers also paid her 200 kopecks of groschen upon their marriage and she brought her husband the Solec estate as a dowry. From this union, three sons were born: Krzysztof, Mikołaj, and Stanisław, all educated at the Kraków Academy and abroad. 

Maryna's husband, Baltazar, was also closely connected to the royal court. His father, Wojciech (or Albrecht, d. 1519), was a Silesian nobleman who had married Anna Szydłowicka, Krzysztof's sister, in February 1503. Wojciech was a trusted courtier of Sigismund I, then Duke of Głogów. Along with his brothers Melchior and Zygmunt, Baltazar founded an altar in the Royal Chapel of the Holy Trinity at Wawel Cathedral (after "Fundacja Melchiora i Baltazara Sobków ..." by Irena Kaniewska, p. 165-166). The sculptor of Maryna's tombstone must therefore have been connected to the royal court and the Szydłowiecki family. Its resemblance to the later tomb of Anna (1522-1536), daughter of Krzysztof Szydłowiecki, also located in the collegiate church of Opatów, suggests that it was probably the work of Bernardino Zanobi de Gianotis (d. 1541), known as Romanus, or another sculptor from the circle of Bartolommeo Berrecci. It was perhaps Maryna's last wish to have a funerary monument in Opatów, and it was most likely completed shortly after her death. However, it is highly improbable that, before the funeral, her husband would have already chosen the sculptor and summoned him or his assistants to carry out preparatory studies. The statue of Lady Sobkowa must therefore have been based on her other effigies, most likely painted portraits.

The splendid double portrait of the Kraków goldsmith Grzegorz Przybyła and his wife Katarzyna (National Museum in Warsaw, oil on canvas, 91 x 133.5 cm, inv. 128874) and its wooden sculpted counterpart, executed in 1534 by the monogrammist M.S. (most likely the medalist Matthias Schilling, Kraków Museum, inv. MHK-623/II and MHK-624/II), attest to the popularity of these two types of portraits in Poland at that time. The Przybyła portrait reveals strong influences from Venetian painting, particularly in its contrasts in light brushstrokes laid against dark and soft, blurred edges. Its author remains unknown, and although it is considered the work of a local painter, the possibility of a foreign artist close to the royal court cannot be ruled out (despite Venetian influences in style, there is no indication that it was commissioned in Venice). The portrait of Konrad III the Red (d. 1503), Duke of Masovia, considered a work from the first half of the 16th century and painted in a very similar style, is undoubtedly the work of the same artist (Wilanów Palace, oil on canvas, 97 x 82.5 cm, inv. Wil.1141, inscription: IOANNES.CONRA. / DVS.DVX.MASO. / VIAE.ET.&C.). The two portraits (that of Przybyła and that of the Duke of Mazovia) bear a striking resemblance to the series of large canvases known as "Princely Portraits", painted between 1551 and 1552 and kept in the Great Hall of the old town hall in Leipzig, the main building of the city's History Museum. Several of the earliest portraits of princes are the work of Hans Krell, who worked in Leipzig from 1531 to 1565. He developed his style under the influence of the Wittenberg school of painting and was nicknamed the "painter of princes" (Fürstenmaler) by his contemporaries. According to the city accounts of 1553, he received 16 Schock Groschen for having "hung several portraits of princes in the main hall" (vor etzliche Fürstenbilder in die große Stube ufzuhängen), and five years later, 15 Gulden for "5 portraits" (5 Conterfactur, after "Das Alte Rathaus zu Leipzig ..." by ‎Heinz Füssler, p. 8). Krell painted the portrait of Louis Jagiellon (1506-1526), ​​King of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia, and, according to my identification, that of Duke Stanislaus of Masovia (1500-1524). Among the portraits in the Leipzig series, the closest to the Przybyła portrait are the full-length portraits of Duke Albert III of Saxony (1443-1500), Emperor Maximilian I (1459-1519), Duke Henry IV the Pious (1473-1541), Elector John the Steadfast (1468-1532), Landgrave Philip I of Hesse (1504-1567) and Electress Anne of Denmark (1532-1585). The style of the portrait of King Philip II of Spain (1527-1598) closely resembles that of Konrad III the Red in Wilanów. To create all these effigies, Krell must have used other portraits of the sovereigns, some of which were undoubtedly made by Cranach and his workshop (oil on canvas, 205 x 90 cm, inv. Fürstenbild Nr. 1, Nr. 4, Nr. 6, Nr. 7, Nr. 12, Nr. 14; K/14/2004).

Based on available information about Krell, it appears that before settling in Leipzig in 1531, he was an itinerant artist who traveled from Prague and Buda to Królewiec, passing through Kraków, Warsaw, and Vilnius. As with the portrait of Albert III of Saxony, the artist likely drew inspiration from other depictions of the duke to create the portrait of Konrad III the Red, probably also painted by itinerant artists or commissioned from abroad. The painting is first recorded in the Wilanów collection in 1834 and likely originated in a church in Masovia.

The supposed portrait of Maryna was probably painted between 1526 and 1530, making Krell the likely author. Hans Dürer, Albrecht's brother and active at the royal court from 1527, could also be the artist. The sources do not confirm the name of any other renowned portrait painter. As Sebastian Fabian Klonowic lamented in a poem published in Kraków in 1585 upon the death of Jan Kochanowski, in Poland, "the foreigner must ever hold first stand" in this field, even if he does not equal Albrecht Dürer's talent. It is also possible that the portrait was commissioned abroad, from Cranach's workshop in Saxony or from Giovanni Cariani's or Bernardino Licinio's in the Republic of Venice. Given the diversity of Sarmatian patronage, it is also conceivable that versions of this same portrait were commissioned in Germany and Venice.

Although more modest in the neckline, Katarzyna Przybyła's dress is very similar to that of Lady Sobkowa. The wife of Erazm Schilling (d. 1561), a patrician of Kraków, also wears a similar dress in her portrait from the 1520s (known from a 19th-century copy probably painted by Franz Wolfgang Rohrich). The legendary Princess Wanda in her imaginative effigy published in 1521 in Maciej Miechowita's Chronica Polonorum (p. VIII) and Zofia Bonerowa née Bethman in her tombstone by Hans Vischer, created between 1532 and 1538 (Church of St. Mary in Kraków), also wear similar dresses with a large neckline. The same goes for the effigies of Bona Sforza, Elizabeth Jagiellon (sister of Sigismund I) and the first elected queen Jadwiga (Hedwig of Anjou) in De Iagellonvm familia liber II, published in 1521.

A similar costume, with a plunging neckline and bare shoulders, also appears in a print published in Kraków in 1562 in Mikołaj Rej's Zwierziniec ... (Czartoryski Library, 1793 II Cim Saf., p. 13). This engraving depicts a man holding a hat and addressing a woman, before a poem expressing the complaint of the personified Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which suffers most from the actions of its own citizens and private interests. Like many other engravings in this publication, it is earlier. The style of the woodcut and the costumes suggests that the original can be dated to the late 1520s and attributed to the circle of Hans Baldung (d. 1545). The artist dressed an archer in the costume of a Sarmatian nobleman in his woodcut depicting the Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian (Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv. 24.28.25).

​The origins of this costume may date back to the Central European fashion of the Middle Ages, as evidenced by several miniatures in the Wenceslas Bible, such as Samson and Delilah (Austrian National Library, Codex 2760, fol. 21r), produced in Prague in the 1390s, and the rather extravagant depiction of Euphemia of Masovia, Duchess of Opole, on her seal of 1394 and 1405 (State Archives in Opole, 45/22/0/1/8).

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Euphemia of Masovia (1344/1357-1418/1424), Duchess of Opole, by the workshop of the Master of the Třeboň Altarpiece, before 1394, lost. © Marcin Latka

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the ​portrait of Maryna Sobkowa née Ezofowiczówna (d. 1530) by Hans Krell or Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1526-1530, lost. © Marcin Latka

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the ​portrait of Maryna Sobkowa née Ezofowiczówna (d. 1530) by Giovanni Cariani or Bernardino Licinio, ca. 1526-1530, lost. © Marcin Latka

​Sarmatians from Mikołaj Rej's Zwierziniec ... by circle of Hans Baldung Grien, 1520s, Czartoryski Library.

​Double portrait of the Kraków goldsmith Grzegorz Przybyła and his wife Katarzyna by Hans Krell, before 1534, National Museum in Warsaw.

​Portrait of Konrad III the Red (d. 1503), Duke of Masovia by Hans Krell, ca. 1526-1530, Wilanów Palace in Warsaw.

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

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

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

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

According to historian Kazimierz Morawski (1852-1925) "the aging Katarzyna Telniczanka followed the current of the age, venturing into the slippery field of bewitching and intoxicating her contemporaries. We know of many letters written by Krzycki in 1520 to the sick vice-chancellor Piotr Tomicki, in which there are repeated admonitions that he should consult real doctors, and push away sirens, not listen to women's madness, and avoid the whispers and medicines of some woman, here given the unflattering name of "Circe". The mysterious expression would have remained a mystery to us if other notes had not given us the valuable information that this "Circe" was Katarzyna Telniczanka, who did not even act as an intermediary, but simply wanted to entangle [Bishop] Tomicki in the web of love for herself. From the same source we learn that Chancellor Szydłowiecki was also the target of similar machinations on her part" (after "Z dworu Zygmunta Starego" by Kazimierz Morawski, Przegląd polski, Volume 21, p. 205-206). 

Telniczanka "died in the late summer of 1528 in Vilnius, her remains were transported to Kraków and buried there on December 11 of the same year with great pomp. The funeral of the former royal mistress therefore took place under the watchful eye of legal wife and the queen, which proves Bona's great generosity" (after "Bona Sforza" by Maria Bogucka, p. 136). ​With a high probability, the effigy of a lady depicted as Saint Elizabeth, the cousin of the Virgin Mary, wearing a crimson Sarmatian robe lined with expensive white fur in the Visitation scene in the Book of Hours of Queen Bona Sforza (Bodleian Library, MS. Douce 40; 48v), can be considered a disguised portrait of Katarzyna Telniczanka. It undoubtedly corresponded to similar effigies, some of which may have been made by Hans Krell, who, in the 1520s, created portraits of relatives of Sigismund I.​

The small painting by Cranach from 1526, acquired in 1890 by Gemäldegalerie from Frau Medizinalrat Klaatsch in Berlin (panel, 38.8 x 25.6 cm, 567B), shows a courtly scene with Bathsheba bathing her feet in the river. The main character however is not Bathsheba, nor the King David standing on a high terrace to the left. It's a lady standing in the right foreground, who most probably commissioned the painting. Her effigy and costume is astonishingly similar to the portrait of queen Bona holding a bouquet of forget-me-nots created the same year (Wilanów Palace, Wil.1518)​. She is holding Bathsheba's shoes, a clrear sign of approval for the royal mistress Telniczanka, a life-long companion of her husband, who was depicted as Bathsheba.

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

The same woman, Bathsheba - Telniczanka, was also depicted in the small painting which was before World War II in the Branicki Palace in Warsaw, converted into the British Embassy in 1919. It is considered to be lost, however according to Friedländer, Rosenberg 1979, No. 247 it is in a private collection in New York (panel, 37.5 x 23.5 cm). The work shows Venus with Cupid stealing honey, which has been interpreted as an allegory of the pleasure and pains of love. Fragment of Latin inscription reads: "And so do we seek transitory and dangerous pleasures / That are mixed with sadness and bring us pain" (SIC ETIAM NOBIS BREVIS ET PERITVRA VOLVPTAS / QUAM PETIMVS TRISTI MIXTA DOLORE NOCET).

The effigy of unknown lady from the National Gallery in London (panel, 35.9 x 25.1 cm, NG291), created around 1525, matches perfectly the portrait of the eldest daughter of Telniczanka, Regina Szafraniec, in the Berlin painting. On October 20, 1518 in the Wawel Cathedral, she married the starost of Chęciny and a royal secretary, Hieronim Szafraniec. The letter M on her bodice is a reference to her patron saint, Maria Regina Caeli, Latin 'Mary, Queen of Heaven', as the name Mary (Maria) was at that time in Poland reserved solely to the Virgin. 

​The painting of Venus in the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum in Brunswick (panel, 41 x 26.5 cm, GG26), painted by Lucas Cranach the Elder, is stylistically close to portrait of Anna of Masovia as Venus in Compton Verney, therefore it should be dated to about 1525. Originally, Venus in Brunswick was accompanied by a Cupid on the left side, however it was overpainted in 1873 due to its damaged state. The face and pose of Venus are almost identical to Regina Szafraniec's portrait by Cranach in London. It was recorded in the inventory of the Palace of the Dukes of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel in Salzdahlum from 1789-1803, it is hence possible that that it comes from the collection of Regina's step-sister Sophia Jagiellon, Duchess of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel.

Portrait of a young woman with an apple, a symbol of the bride in ancient Greek thought, from about 1525, also lost during World War II (panel, 59.5 x 25.5 cm​), is very similar to the effigy of one of the daughters of Telniczanka in the Berlin painting. It is undoubtedly Katarzyna, countess of Montfort.​ ​Before the war, this painting was kept in the palace of the Pomeranian Puttkamer family in Trzebielino near Słupsk, which was then part of the German Reich. Other version of this effigy is in the Fondation Bemberg in Toulouse (panel, 31 x 26 cm, INV1016). 

King Sigismund I (1467-1548) and Katarzyna Telniczanka (ca. 1480-1528)​ as David and Bathsheba by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1526, Gemäldegalerie in Berlin.

Portrait of ​Katarzyna Telniczanka (ca. 1480-1528) as Venus with Cupid stealing honey by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1526-1528, Branicki Palace in Warsaw, lost during World War II. ​Virtual reconstruction, © Marcin Latka

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

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

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

​​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Katarzyna, countess of Montfort (ca. 1503-1548), natural daughter of king Sigismund I by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1525-1526, lost. © Marcin Latka

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

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Katarzyna Telniczanka (ca. 1480-1528), mistress of King Sigismund I, by Hans Krell, 1527, lost. © Marcin Latka

In February 1526, King Sigismund I left Kraków in southern Poland for Pomerania in the north, to take an active stand against the revolt in Gdańsk and other cities of Royal Prussia. He then travelled to Mazovia, which had fallen into the hands of the Crown after the last duke of the House of Piast died without an heir. He returned to the capital on September 23, 1526. He remained absent for almost a year, leaving his second wife, Bona Sforza, who was pregnant (on November 1, 1526 she gave birth to her daughter Catherine Jagiellon), in Kraków.
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In the early autumn of 1525, when the plague began to spread in the city, Bona, with her children and part of her court, left for Niepołomice, near Kraków, the favourite summer residence of the king and queen, while Princess Hedwig Jagiellon and her court were taken to the royal manor in Proszowice. They remained separated until Easter 1526, and the court's return to Wawel was solemn. Thus, most likely in Niepołomice, Bona received from Pope Clement VII the breve allowing her to appoint Jan Dantyszek to the canonry and prebend of Warmia, issued in Rome on March 9, 1526 (Clemens VII papa ad Bonam reginam Poloniae, Kórnik Library, sygn.BK00230). There she also learned that on January 31, 1526, the Pope excommunicated Sigismund I's nephew, Duke Albert of Prussia (1490-1568), declaring him an apostate and ordering the Emperor to take action against him. Although Bona often objected to Albert's growing influence, it must be remembered that they could be considered family members and that, as in the case of the Habsburgs of Madrid and Vienna, who were sometimes painted by the same painters, there were similarities in the artistic patronage of Albert and the ruling house of Poland-Lithuania. Furthermore, the Duchy of Prussia was a fief of Poland and Albert paid solemn homage in Kraków in 1525. Earlier, around 1512 and in 1528, the Wittenberg court painter Lucas Cranach the Elder had made portraits of the Duke of Prussia (private collection and Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum).

The busts of a woman and a man in costumes from the 1520s, from an old building at 2 Muitinės Street in Kaunas, Lithuania, are believed to be effigies of Anna Jagellonica (1503-1547), Queen of Hungary, Bohemia and Croatia, and her husband Ferdinand I of Austria (1503-1564), but the effigy of a man lacks two important elements - the Habsburg jaw and the Order of the Golden Fleece, almost obligatory elements of a Habsburg effigy. The busts are more likely to represent the owner of the house, a wealthy merchant, and his wife. If they were in fact effigies of monarchs, it is more likely that they were Albert of Prussia and his wife Dorothea of ​​Denmark (1504-1547), or Albert's uncle Sigismund I the Old and his second wife Bona Sforza. Two glazed stove tiles with the monogram of Sigismund Augustus dating from the mid-16th century and two other tiles depicting duels from the first quarter of the 17th century, found in houses in the old town of Kaunas, give an idea of ​​the prosperity of this Lithuanian city before the Deluge. They also confirm that fashion in Poland-Lithuania during the Renaissance was comparable to that in Wittenberg or Venice.

Miniatures by Stanisław Samostrzelnik from the 1520s confirm that not only German graphics were popular at the royal and grand-ducal courts in Kraków and Vilnius, but also German fashion. In the Visitation scene, a leaf from the Prayer Book of Bona Sforza by Samostrzelnik, made between 1527 and 1528 (Bodleian Library, MS. Douce 40, fol. 048a verso), the queen in a golden dress lined with ermine fur is depicted as the Virgin Mary, while one of her ladies standing at the door of the house wears a green dress typical of German fashion of that time. A small pet dog at the bottom of the scene, similar to the one visible in the portrait of Catherine of Mecklenburg (1487-1561), painted by Cranach in 1514 (Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden, inv. 1906 H), as well as the queen's coat of arms confirm that this is a court scene in religious disguise. 

The Neapolitan chronicler Giuliano Passero (or Passaro), a manufacturer or merchant of silk fabrics (setaiuolo), describing the trousseau of Queen Bona presented at the Castel Capuano in Naples on December 6, 1517, says that she had sixty-one richly decorated berets, some in crimson (ten) and turquoise (fifteen) satin, the rest in black (twelve) and fawn velvet, with elements of white and crimson satin (after "Bona Sforza d'Aragona i rola mody w kształtowaniu jej wizerunku" by Agnieszka Bender, p. 41), undoubtedly in reference to the Polish national colours. 

Several Cranachiana from the 1520s that were or are still present in Polish collections, such as the miniature portrait of Katharina von Bora (1499-1552) from around 1526, which was in the collection of Leandro Marconi in Warsaw in 1912 (compare "Pamiętnik wystawy miniatur, oraz tkanin i haftów, urządzonej w domu własnym w Warszawie przez Towarzystwo Opieki nad Zabytkami Przeszłości w czerwcu i lipcu 1912 roku", p. 31 / XIV, item 186), old inventories, such as the register of paintings of Boguslaus Radziwill (1620-1669) from 1657 (AGAD 1/354/0/26/84), or the Virgin and Child by Master I.G., dated "1526" and inspired by the style of Cranach (Archdiocesan Museum in Kraków, inv. DZIELO/05929), confirm not only the popularity of such imports, but very probably also the presence of Cranach's pupils or members of his workshop in Poland-Lithuania.

There is a certain dissonance in the public image of Queen Bona. Some historians want to see her as an ultra-Catholic and intolerant shrew, while others cite her as a protector of free thinkers and reformists. Perhaps inspired by the diversity of the country, she intentionally or unintentionally represented both aspects. Her strong support for the Lithuanian jurist and church reformer Abraomas Kulvietis (ca. 1510-1545), educated in Wittenberg, speaks further in favour of the tolerant aspect of her religious beliefs (compare "Abraomas Kulvietis and the First Protestant Confessio fidei in Lithuania" by Dainora Pociūtė, p. 43-44, 47-50). 

Lucas Cranach the Elder's portrait of a woman from 1526, from the old collection of the Wilanów Palace (tempera and oil on panel, 34.9 x 23.8 cm, inv. Wil.1518, the mark of Cranach the Elder and date "1526", upper right), bears a strong resemblance to effigies of Bona Sforza, especially her effigy as the biblical Judith by Cranach (Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, inv. GG 858) or a portrait by the Venetian school, probably by Francesco Bissolo (National Gallery, London, inv. NG631), both identified by me. According to a historical account, the painting was part of the Czartoryski collection in the former royal residence in Wilanów as early as 1743. It is small in size, a good object to take on a journey or to send to someone with a love letter. The woman holds a bouquet of forget-me-nots, a symbol of true love and fidelity, and holds her left hand over her protruding belly, indicating pregnancy. ​

Portrait of Queen Bona Sforza (1494-1557)​ holding a bouquet of forget-me-nots by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1526, Wilanów Palace in Warsaw.

In 1527, Crown Princess Hedwig Jagiellon (1513-1573), aged just 14, daughter of King Sigismund I the Old and his first wife Barbara Zapolya, was one of the most eagerly sought-after brides in Europe.

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

Hedwig was baptized shortly after her birth in Poznań, and her godparents were Mikołaj Gardzina-Lubrański (ca. 1460-1524), voivode of Poznań, and his wife Jadwiga Żychlińska. The princess was thus named after her grandmother Hedwig of Cieszyn (1469-1521) and her godmother. Treated kindly by Bona from her arrival in 1518, Hedwig, together with the queen and her father, took part in a pilgrimage to Jasna Góra on April 20-27, 1523. She was then given a certain sum of money "for the journey to Częstochowa", to the sanctuary of the Black Madonna, so that she could give alms herself, following her father's example.

As a child, as the eldest legitimate daughter of the king, she had her own court and her own house, no longer existing, on Wawel Hill, opposite the southern entrance to the cathedral, in front of the gate leading to the castle courtyard. According to the royal accounts of 1518, Mikołaj Piotrowski was the princess's court chamberlain, the nobleman Jan Guth (or Grot) of the Radwan coat of arms of Pliszczyn, was the cook. The position of steward was held by Orlik, while Żegota Morski, Hincza Borowski, Andrzejek and Szczęsny were servants. Among the many ladies and girls who made up Hedwig's court were the ladies Szydłowiecka, Zborowska, Ożarowska and Ossolińska, Anna Zopska, Morawianka, who came to Poland with Hedwig's mother, Elżbieta Długojowska, Stadnicka and Lasocka, the dwarf Dorota and the washerwoman, also Dorota. The princess's court also included the priest Aleksy, who appears in the sources as lector missarum reginule, with a salary of 6 florins and 12 groszy. The maintenance of the princess's small court, including expenses for her clothing and kitchen, cost between 3,000 and 5,000 florins annually (after "Królewna Jadwiga i jej książeczka do spowiedzi" by Urszula Borkowska, p. 84-86). 

The portrait of a lady holding an apple from the Picture Gallery at Prague Castle, painted by Lucas Cranach the Elder and his workshop in 1527 (panel, 37.8 x 25.3 cm, inv. HS242, winged serpent and dated "1527", lower right), bears a strong resemblance to the portrait of Hedwig depicted in her wedding dress with her father's monogram S by Hans Krell around 1537 (Grunewald hunting lodge in Berlin, inv. GK I 2152), and a portrait of her mother with necklace and belt with the monogram B&S, painted by Cranach (private collection).

The painting probably comes from the collection of a distant relative of the princess, Emperor Rudolf II, and its provenance in the collection of the imperial residence in Prague can be traced back to the inventory of 1685, so it was most likely sent to the princess's cousin and Rudolf's grandmother, Anna Jagellonica (1503-1547) or to her husband, King Ferdinand I (1503-1564), who was undoubtedly very interested in finding a pro-Habsburg match for Hedwig. It is also very similar in composition and format to the portrait of Hedwig's stepmother Bona Sforza holding forget-me-nots, dated 1526 (Wilanów Palace, inv. Wil.1518). Both portraits could therefore have been commissioned simultaneously in Cranach's workshop. She holds an apple, a long-standing symbol of royalty and kingship - the royal orb, and a strong symbol of the bride in ancient Greek thought (Sappho, Plutarch).

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

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

One of the first mentions of the costumes of Bona and Sigismund's children dates from November 20, 1522, when 15 ells of damask with large flowers were purchased for Isabella and her younger sister Sophia (Accepti pro sua Mtate per Petrum pro Illmis duabus filiabus Elisabeth et Sophia 15 ulnis Adamasci leonati cum magnis floribus per gr. 48 fl. 24), while Sigismund Augustus was dressed in a costume of crimson satin and gray velvet (velutum griseum, after "Izabella királyné, 1519-1559" by Endre Veress, p. 20). 

Portraits of a young boy and an older girl by Lucas Cranach the Elder, comes from Julius Böhler's collection in Munich, owned jointly with August Salomon, Dresden, through Paul Cassirer, Berlin. They were acquired by the National Gallery of Art in Washington in 1947 (panel, 43.7 x 34.4 cm, inv. 1947.6.1 and panel, 43.4 x 34.3 cm, inv. 1947.6.2). The boy wears a jewelled wreath on his head which suggest his betrothal. The girl, however, has no garland on her head, she must be therefore his sister, exacly as Sigismund Augustus (1520-1572), betrothed to Elizabeth of Austria in 1526 or 1527, and his elder sister Isabella Jagiellon (1519-1559). The boy's effigy is similar to portrait of Sigismund Augustus as a child in a red tunic from Wallraf-Richartz Museum (inv. WRM 0874), created by Lucas Cranach the Elder in 1529. He and his sister wears garments of crimson Venetian damask, typical for Polish nobilty, possibly acquired in Venice by Jewish merchant Lazarus of Brandenburg, probably expelled from this country in 1510, sent to Venice as a trade expert by Sigismund I. Lazarus also acquired pearls for the Queen. The doublet of a boy is embroidered with gold and silk and shows the scene of a rabbit hunt, an allusion to fertility, exaclty as in the portrait of Sigismund Augustus' mother Bona Sforza d'Aragona by Venetian painter, possibly Francesco Bissolo, in the National Gallery in London. The boy's hand gesture, as if holding the royal orb, is clear information, who will be elected the next king of Poland after Sigismund I. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Controversial lifestyle of Barbara Kolanka and her daughters was the source of stigmatization, rumors and libel. Anna Elizabeth, before her marriage, was accused of sexual misconduct and having illegitimate children and her sister Barbara, after her marriage, that she had as many as 38 lovers, according to canon Stanisław Górski, and "that she either equaled or surpassed her mother in disgrace, and was marked by many blemishes of lust and immodesty" (Itaque cum adolevisset et priori marito collocata esset, ita se gessit, ut matrem turpitudine aut aequarit aut superarit et multis libidinis et impudicitiae maculis notata fuerit), according to Stanisław Orzechowski. 

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

The portrait of a woman as Saint Barbara by Lucas Cranach the Elder from about 1530 was in the late 19th century in the collection of Geheimrat (the title of the highest advising officials at the Imperial, royal or princely courts of the Holy Roman Empire) Lucas in Berlin, now in the Sammlung Würth in Schwäbisch Hall, Germany (wood, 73 x 56.5 cm, inv. 9325). Her rich outfit and jewels indicate her noble origins. She is being pursued by her father,  who kept her locked up in a tower in order to preserve her from the outside world. 

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

The same woman was also depicted as the princess raped by Saint John Chrysostom (Penance of Saint John Chrysostom), holding her daughter, now in the Wartburg-Stiftung in Eisenach (wood, transferred to canvas and plywood, 60.5 x 37.5 cm, WSE M 0002). The long-bearded saint, particularly revered in the Orthodox world and barely visible above the child's head, is expiating his guilt in seducing and slaying the princess by crawling about on all-fours like a beast. John imposed upon himself the penance and his baby miraculously pronounced his sins forgiven. The castle in the background can be also compared with the Vilnius Castle. The painting is therefore a message to Voivode Albertas Gostautas and his supporters, that George Hercules regrets his actions against him, he is worthy to become the castellan of the Vilnius Castle and its surrounding territory and his daughter to be engaged with Voivode's son. The painting was before 1901 in the colletion of Graf Einsiedel in Berlin. The same woman can also be identified in a painting considered to be an effigy of Saint Barbara seated in front of a green velvet drape, which was in the private collection in Brunswick before 1932 (wood, 55 x 38 cm).

She was also depicted as Lucretia, the beautiful and virtuous wife of a commander Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus, whose suicide precipitated a rebellion that overthrew the Roman monarchy. The painting was probably in the collection of Franz Reichardt (1825-1887) in Munich and was cut to oval shape in the 17th or 18th century (wood, 33.5 x 24.5 cm, Sotheby's London, December 6, 2017, lot 6). In a similar, full length effigy as Lucretia from the late 1520s in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich (wood, 194 x 75 cm, inv. 691), her face features are identical with the portrait in Sammlung Würth. The painting is listed in the 1641 inventory of the art cabinet of Maximilian I (1573-1651), Duke of Bavaria (oldest confirmed provenance), who exchanged paintings with the Polish-Lithuanian Vasas.

She was eventually depicted in the repertoire of the three other popular variants of portraits historiés. One is Venus and Cupid by Cranach the Elder from the collection of William Schomberg Robert Kerr (1832-1870), 8th Marquess of Lothian, now in the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh (wood, 38.1 x 27 cm, NG 1942). Inventory of the Kunstkammer of the Radziwill Castle in Lubcha from 1647 lists a painting of Venus and Amor, an old painting of Adam and Eve and Saint John in the wilderness, signed L. C. and also a tondo with Madonna and Madonna and Child offered by Antoni Tyszkiewicz (after "Galerie obrazów i "Gabinety Sztuki" Radziwiłłów w XVII w." by Teresa Sulerzyska, p. 93). "Venus and Hercules by Lucas Cranach", mentioned in the register of paintings of Boguslaus Radziwill (1620-1669) from 1657 (AGAD 1/354/0/26/84), could be another disguised portrait of Kolanka, this time accompanied by her husband George "Hercules". The "Old art by Lucas Cranach" and "Similar painting of a Centaur" in this register suggest that an entire series depicting the acts of Hercules could have been created by Cranach and his workshop for the Radziwills, similar to the series depicting "The Labors of Hercules" (Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum).

The effigy of the Virgin in the painting by Cranach in the Pushkin Museum (wood, 58 x 46 cm, Ж-2630) resemble greatly the portrait of Barbara in Sammlung Würth. The landscape behind Mary is entirely fantastic in upper part, however in lower part is very similar to view of Trakai in Lithuania by Tomasz Makowski, created in about 1600. Central keep, dilapidated in Makowski's print, surrounded by walls with towers, the bridge leading to the Island Castle, fishermen on the lake, are almost identical. The painting was since 1825 in the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg and in 1930 it was transferred to the Pushkin Museum in Moscow. Its earlier history is unknown, therefore provenance from Radziwill estates cannot be excluded. It is dated by various sources to around 1520 to 1525. 
​
In 1522, thanks to the support of Queen Bona, George Hercules, husband of Barbara, received the castellany of the Trakai castle, an important defensive structure protecting Trakai and Vilnius, capital of the Grand Duchy, one of the most important offices in Lithuania. This nomination was related to Queen's efforts to gain support for the project of elevation of her son Sigismund Augustus to the grand-ducal throne. In 1528 George Hercules was also made Marshal of the Court of Lithuania and Grand Hetman of Lithuania in 1531. When in 1529 Sigismund I the Old agreed to approve the First Statute of Lithuania, which further expanded the rights of the nobility, his son Sigismund Augustus was proclaimed the Grand Duke of Lithuania. 

As the wife of the Marshal of the Court, who was taking care for the court and the safety of the dames, Barbara was the most important woman at the ducal court in Vilnius after the Queen and Grand Duchess Bona Sforza. She undeniably supported the Queen's policy and her portrait as Judith with the head of Holofernes from about 1530 in the Museo de Arte de Ponce in Puerto Rico (wood, 87 x 82.6 cm, 60.0143) is the expression of her support. ​A painting of "Judith" is among the paintings belonging to Boguslaus Radziwill, who owned several paintings by Cranach.

​Interestingly, the earliest known effigy of Barbara's husband was also painted by a painter from Cranach's circle. George, then Voivode of Kyiv, took part in the Battle of Orsha on September 8, 1514 at the head of the Lithuanian cavalry. The painting in the National Museum in Warsaw (inv. MP 2475), depicting the battle, includes his coat of arms, visible on a banner held by one of the knights of his private army crossing the river. According to Zdzisław Żygulski (1921-2015), the man in the group of leaders on the right, "black hair and beard, wearing a hussar top hat of black felt with gilded metal rim and plume holder, a purple Hungarian dolman coat with gold braid and a sleeved Hungarian mente cloak lined with ermine", is probably the effigy of George (after "The Battle of Orsha: An Explication of the Arms ...", p. 117). Although it also appears that this man is advising the man in the green hat, who arguably held a more prominent position during the battle. This same group probably includes the effigies of Prince Yuri Olelkovich-Slutsky (ca. 1492-1542), brother of Alexandra Olelkovich-Slutska, and Ivan Bogdanovich Sapieha (1486-1546), who also participated in the battle alongside Radziwill. The painting is attributed to Hans Krell, but it shows a strong influence of Cranach's style and can also be considered a work created by his studio. It was created several years after the battle, so the painter(s) must have based their work on earlier depictions of the participants. It is also highly likely that George owned this painting or a copy of it, as a large, "subtly painted" depiction of the battle "of the Shusha" on wood belonged to his descendant, Princess Louise Charlotte Radziwill (1667-1695), mentioned in the inventory of her possessions from 1671 (after "Śląskie losy kolekcji dzieł sztuki księżnej Ludwiki Karoliny Radziwiłłówny ..." by Piotr Oszczanowski, p. 204-215). 

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

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

Portrait of Barbara Kolanka (d. 1550) as Saint Barbara by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1527, Private collection​, lost. Virtual reconstruction, © Marcin Latka

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

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

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

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

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

​Detachment of fourteen hussars approaching the ford with portraits of George I "Hercules" Radziwill (1480-1541), Prince Yuri Olelkovich-Slutsky (ca. 1492-1542) and Ivan Bogdanovich Sapieha (1486-1546), fragment of the Battle of Orsha (1514), by workshop or follower of Lucas Cranach the Elder (Hans Krell?), ca. 1525-1535, National Museum in Warsaw. 

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

The portrait by Licinio in the Pushkin Museum (oil on canvas, 94 x 80 cm, inv. 3916), shows a young, twenty-one year old Stanisław Bojanowski (1507-1555), a nobleman and influencial courtier who become a secretary of king Sigismund Augustus in 1543. He is depicted in red żupan (from Arabic dіubbah or giubbone, giuppone, giubba in Italian) of Venetian silk and wearing a fur coat, holding one hand on his belt and the other on a volume of Petrarch's poetry (F PETRARCHA). 

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

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

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

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

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

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

The same man as in the Moscow painting was also depicted in another canvas by Licinio, today in Palazzo Pitti in Florence (oil on canvas, 86 x 68.5 cm, inv. Palatina 69 / 1912). According to Latin inscription on a stone pedestal in lower left corner of the painting it was created in 1537 and the man was 30 (AETA. ANNOR / XXX / MDXXXVII), exactly as Bojanowski at that time. He is wearing a coat lined with expensive fur and holding a letter, most likely the envoy's credentials. His effigy with a long beard resemble more closely Bojanowski's bust from his epitaph.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

These two men were depicted in another painting attributed to Strigel or his workshop, today in the National Museum in Warsaw (oil on panel, 34.5 x 36 cm, inv. ​M.Ob.1771 MNW). The depiction of the hands and the general style indicate that it could be a copy of a lost original by Lucas Cranach the Elder. It represents Saints Anthony the Great and Paul of Thebes, the Desert Fathers, venerated among the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic churches. The painting was purchased by the museum from Zbigniew Kamiński's collection in Warsaw in 1974. Saint Joseph/Anthony the Great resemble greatly the effigies of King Sigismund I, especially a woodcut from Marcin Bielski's "Chronicle of the Entire World" (Kronika wszytkiego świata), published in Kraków in 1551, and a miniature by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Younger, painted in Wittenberg (Czartoryski Museum). His protruding lower lip of the Habsburgs/Dukes of Masovia is perfectly visible, like in the portrait attributed to Hans von Kulmbach (Gołuchów Castle). The other man, Ephaim-Aaron/Paul of Thebes, with a long beard resemble the effigies of Sigismund's elder brother Vladislaus II (1456-1516), who was elected King of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia, especially his face from the Congress of Princes at Vienna by Albrecht Dürer and from medal known from the 19th century engraving in the Austrian National Library. In 1515 or before Strigel created a portrait of Vladislaus, his son and daughter, in a devotional painting with his coat of arms, showing Saint Ladislaus of Hungary interceding with the Virgin for the king and his children (Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest, oil on panel, 43 x 30.8 cm, inv. 7502). He and his wife, which should be identified as the third wife of Vladislaus II, Anne of Foix-Candale (1484-1506), were depicted in another painting by Strigel in very similar costumes, today in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, sold in London in 1900. It shows Saint Mary Salome (inscription SANCTA MARIA SALOME on halo of female figure) and her family, it is one of two wings, which were part of an altarpiece that probably depicted the Holy Kinship (oil on panel, 125 x 65.7 cm, inv. ​1961.9.89). If the painting was created in about 1526-1528, two sons of Mary Salome, Saint James (SANCTVS IACOBVS MA) and Saint John (SANCTV IOHANES EWAN), visible in the painting, should be identifed as Louis II, the only son of Vladislaus II and Anne of Foix-Candale, who died on 29 August 1526 in the Battle of Mohács and John Zapolya (d. 1540), brother of first wife of Sigismund I Barbara (1495-1515), who claimed the throne of Hungary. The man in a green coat to the right of Mary Salome could be therefore the father of John Zapolya - Stephen (d. 1499), Palatine of the Kingdom of Hungary or Anne's father Gaston de Foix (1448-1500), Count of Candale. The counterpart wing represents Saint Mary of Cleophas (SANCTA MARIA CLEOP[H?]E) and her four holy sons - Jude, Simon, Joseph and James (SANCTVS IVDAS XPI APOSTOLV, SCTVS SIMON, ST[ ]SANCTVS IOSEPHI, SANCTVS IACOBVS MINOR AIPHE) (oil on panel, 125.5 x 65.8 cm, inv. ​1961.9.88). Beside her stands her husband Saint Cleophas and the effigies of the couple correspond perfectly with the parents of the Vigin Mary from the painting in Vienna - Saint Anne (ANNA VNICUVM VIDVI/MATIS SPECIMEN) and her husband Joachim (IOACHIM VNICVS / MARITVS ANNÆ), patron saint of fathers and grandfathers. The protruding lower lip of Mary of Cleophas/Saint Anne indicates that she is unmistakably a Habsburg, it is therefore the portrait of Elizabeth of Austria (1436-1505), called the "mother of kings" (or the "mother of the Jagiellons"), similar to that by Antoni Boys in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (inv. ​GG 4648). All of her sons who become kings were depicted in this painting, including the youngest living in in about 1526-1528, Sigismund I, sitting on her knees, as well as Alexander Jagiellon, John I Albert and Vladislaus II. Elizabeth's husband Casimir IV Jagiellon (1427-1492) was consequenly depicted as Saint Cleophas/Saint Joachim in the paintings in Washington and Vienna and his facial features match the counterpart of Elizabeth's portrait by Antoni Boys in Vienna (GG 4649). The old man standing next to the couple in Washington painting is identified to represent Emperor Frederick III (1415-1493), son of Cymburgis of Masovia, however his effigy also resemble posthumous portraits of Elizabeth's father Albert the Magnanimous (1397-1439), Duke of Austria, through his wife (jure uxoris) King of Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia, elected King of the Romans as Albert II by Boys and from the Bohemian chronicle (Charles University in Prague). 

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

The Habsburgs were masters of propaganda and employed the best artists, such as Albrecht Dürer, for this purpose. Copies of portait of Emperor Maximilian and his family by Strigel were sent to different royal and ducal court in Europe - an old copy, most probably originally from the Spanish royal collection, is in the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid (collection of Manuel Godoy, First Secretary of State of Spain, inv. ​0856). It was probably Maximilian who ordered a portrait of young Louis Jagiellon. The wreath of carnations that the boy wears in his loose hair alludes directly to the politically desired union with the House of Austria (Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, oil on panel, 29 x 22.2 cm, inv. GG 827). As historian Hugh Trevor Roper put it, to Emperor Maximilian "all the arts were propaganda" (after "Easily Led: A History of Propaganda" by Oliver Thomson, p. 169). "Certainly the art itself was supposed to make the ruler look good; effusive symbolism linking him and his family with divinity as well as with virtues such as wisdom, clemency, piety and valor were blatant propaganda. This was not mass propaganda aimed at the general population, however. Few people ever actually saw the art that such rulers commissioned. Rather, patronage was targeted marketing, configuring the dynasty's status to other elites" ("The Habsburgs: The History of a Dynasty" by Benjamin Curtis, p. 50).

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

It is worth noting that the effigy of King Sigismund I in armor and wearing a crown, holding a scepter and a sword in his other hand, taken from De Iagellonum familia liber II, published in 1521 (National Library of Poland, SD XVI.F.643 adl.), bears a striking resemblance to the series of profile portraits of Emperor Maximilian I produced by Strigel, his workshop, and his followers, such as the portrait in the State Gallery of St. Catherine's Church in Augsburg (inv. WAF 1081). The Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna holds at least four similar images of the emperor, created between approximately 1500 and 1507 (inv. GG 922, GG 2599, GG 4401, GG 4403). The portraits of the emperor's second wife, Bianca Maria Sforza (1472-1510), aunt of Queen Bona, were probably created as pendants to Maximilian's portraits, as indicated by their composition (Kunsthistorisches Museum, inv. GG 4404, GG 5732). While the emperor's portrait features a red Italian silk damask from the second half of the 15th century, Bianca Maria is depicted against a similar, but green, fabric, comparable to that held at the Cleveland Museum of Art (inv. 1954.292.b; this motif is also found in the portraits at Ambras Castle in Innsbruck and Dumbarton Oaks, the latter being considered a portrait of Mary of Burgundy). If the woodcut in Decjusz's book of 1521 was based on the original portrait of the king by Strigel, which is very likely, its counterpart could be the effigy of Bona reproduced in the same book in the genealogical tree of the Jagiellons and accompanied by a similar portrait of Sigismund in a fur coat, which in turn resembles the profile portrait of Maximilian, also considered to be the work of Strigel (Kunsthistorisches Museum, inv. GG 828). Moreover, such an effigy of the emperor also appears in the religious scene painted by Strigel around 1509, depicting Christ among the Doctors (Jesus at the age of twelve in the Temple, Strigel Museum in Memmingen, tempera on wood, 84.5 x 54 cm). Maximilian is portrayed there as a scholar, holding the infant Jesus on his lap. In the Jagiellonian family tree, Bona is depicted facing left, like Bianca Maria, opposite her husband, dressed in a traditional Sarmatian costume with bare shoulders. Portrait of a man against a red damask background by Strigel, created as a pendant to the image of his wife dated 1528 (Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, inv. 379 (1934.26)), indicates that the painter produced similar compositions until the end of his career. The splendid chasubles commissioned by Sigismund I and Bona, such as those preserved in the Wawel Cathedral Museum, the Dominican Monastery in Kraków, the Jasna Góra Monastery, and the Łódź Archdiocese Museum, made from precious Italian fabrics, as well as some preserved fragments (National Museum in Warsaw, inv. SZT 1501 MNW, DI 9675 MNW), testify to the refined taste of the Jagiellons. Many, if not all, of these liturgical vestments, such as the brocade chasuble and mantle from Jasna Góra with a knot symbol, or the altar frontal commissioned by Sigismund I for the Sigismund Chapel at Wawel Cathedral, were undoubtedly made from fabrics that had originally adorned the interiors of the palace.

Furthermore, two realistic miniature portraits of members of the Szydłowiecki family, included in the Liber geneseos illustris familiae Schidloviciae, created around 1532 (Kórnik Library), are very interesting in this regard. They also reproduce a wide variety of imported fabrics and depict Anna Szydłowiecka née Tęczyńska (died after 1523), wife of Mikołaj Stanisław Szydłowiecki (1480-1532), and Barbara Tarnowska née Szydłowiecka (ca. 1490 - ca. 1564), wife of Jan Spytek Tarnowski (ca. 1493 - ca. 1553), Grand Treasurer of the Crown. In both miniatures, the author Stanisław Samostrzelinik included their patron saints in the clouds on the left - Saint Anne and Saint Barbara respectively. The inscription in gold Roman letters above their heads confirms their identities (· DÑA · ANNA · DE · TANCZIN · ... and · DÑA · BARBARA · SPITKOWA ·). The image of Anna, her eyes raised towards the sky, wearing her characteristic bonnet, against a blue background, and the inscription above her head bear a striking resemblance to the portrait of Empress Bianca Maria Sforza as Saint Mary of Cleophas from aforementioned painting The Family of Emperor Maximilian I by Strigel. At the Vienna Congress of the Jagiellons and Habsburgs on August 2, 1515, Chancellor Szydłowiecki, received the title of Baron of the Holy Roman Empire and was admitted by Emperor Maximilian I into the prestigious Order of the Dragon (after "Zjazd wiedeński 1515: geneza, przebieg i znaczenie" by Krzysztof Baczkowski, p. 226). In terms of patronage, the Szydłowiecki family were undoubtedly inspired by that of the emperor and called upon the same artists.

Judging by the reproduction included in the Album of the 1911 Old Masters Exhibition, the painting depicting Christ's farewell to his mother, from the collection of Włodzimierz Łukasiewicz (1860-1924) in Lviv, was the work of Bernhard Strigel or his workshop. This painting, probably lost during the Second World War, was attributed to a 15th-century Netherlandish painter in the manner of Rogier van der Weyden (oil on copper, 39.5 x 29 cm, after "Album wystawy mistrzów dawnych" Mieczysław Treter, p. 25, item/picture 80). However, its composition resembles a similar painting by Strigel in the Gemäldegalerie Berlin (inv. 1197A). The story of this painting perfectly illustrates that of many other works by Strigel linked to the former territories of Sarmatia.

​Christ among the Doctors with disguised portrait of Emperor Maximilian I (1459-1519) by Bernhard Strigel, ca. 1509, Strigel Museum in Memmingen. 

​Portrait of Vladislaus II Jagiellon (1456-1516), elected King of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia, his son Louis Jagiellon (1506-1526) and daughter Anna Jagiellonica (1503-1547), in a devotional painting with his coat of arms, showing Saint Ladislaus of Hungary interceding with the Virgin for the king and his children by Bernhard Strigel, 1515 or before, Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest. 

​Portrait of Prince Louis Jagiellon (1506-1526) as a boy by Bernhard Strigel, after 1515, Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. 

​The Habsburgs (family of Bianca Maria Sforza and Emperor Maximilian I with Louis Jagiellon) as the family of Mary of Cleophas by Bernhard Strigel, ca. 1515-1520, Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

​Christ taking leave of his mother by Bernhard Strigel or his workshop, ca. 1520, collection of Włodzimierz Łukasiewicz in 1911, lost. Virtual reconstruction, © Marcin Latka

Reconstruction of the Italian brocade fabric from Wawel Castle, adorned with the coats of arms of Sigismund I and Bona Sforza, ca. 1520-1540. © Marcin Latka

Reconstruction of the Italian brocade fabric from the chasuble founded by Bona Sforza, adorned with a knot symbol, 1520s. © Marcin Latka

​​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of King Sigismund I (1467-1548) with a view of Wawel Castle by Bernhard Strigel, ca. 1520, lost. © Marcin Latka

​​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Queen Bona Maria Sforza d'Aragona (1494-1557) with a view of Wawel Castle by Bernhard Strigel, ca. 1520, lost. © Marcin Latka

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

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

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

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

​​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Anna Szydłowiecka née Tęczyńska as Saint Anne by Bernhard Strigel, 1520s, lost. © Marcin Latka

​​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Barbara Tarnowska née Szydłowiecka as Saint Barbara by Bernhard Strigel, 1520s, lost. © Marcin Latka

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

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

At that time it become fashionable at the court of her sister-in-law Barbara Jagiellon in nearby Saxony to be depicted in the guise of Judith. The biblical heroine, clever and cunning, who having seduced and then beheaded Assyrian general who besieged her city with his own sword, was a perfect prefiguration of a typical Sforza. The subject, well known to Italian art, was not so explored in the Northern art before Cranach, so was Bona the first to introduce it to the German painter? The painting is in Imperial collection since at least 1610 (Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, ​panel, 87.7 x 58.1 cm, inv. GG 858), so does she personally sent it to the Habsburgs as a sign of her victory?

Cranach and his studio painted several copies of this Judith. One, very accurate copy, is in the Forchtenstein Castle in Austria (oil on canvas, 113 x 79 cm, inv. B 481), which was owned the House of Habsburg in the 16th century and in 1622 Nikolaus Esterházy, founder of the western Hungarian Esterházy line, received the castle from Emperor Ferdinand II. In the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart there is a different version of the painting (panel, 86.5 x 58.5 cm, inv. 643), acquired in 1847 from the collection of Friedrich Freiherr von Salmuth in Heidelberg. It is possible that it comes from the collection of Louis V (1478-1544), Count Palatine of the Rhine (Heidelberg Castle), who in 1519 voted for Charles V in the imperial election, after receiving large bribes from the Habsburgs. Two other copies of the painting in Vienna are in private collection, one was sold in Berlin (panel, 94 x 59 cm, Rudolph Lepke, May 5, 1925, lot 130), the other in Munich (panel, 85 x 52.8 cm, Neumeister, December 3, 2008, lot 576). 
​
A very interesting version of the Viennese painting was offered for sale in December 2025 as "Portrait of a Young Girl" by Cranach the Elder, dating from around 1535 (oil on panel, 21.6 x 16.5 cm, Our New England Treasures 4 u, eBay item number: 316081329338). The painting comes from a French private collection near Besançon, and was exhibited at the Snite Museum of Art from March 8 to May 28, 1980. Although inspired by a work by Cranach, its pictorial style is more Flemish and reminiscent of that of the 17th-century Antwerp painter Gonzales Coques (1615/18-1684). Stylistically similar is also a miniature in silver riza, now in the Czartoryski Museum in Kraków, representing Queen Constance of Austria (1588-1631), second wife of King Sigismund III Vasa (oil on copper, 22.3 x 18.8 cm, inv. DMK Cz 196/1), probably created by Coques or his circle in the 1660s. The artist painted the gold-cloth section of the model's gown green and the white plumes of her hat pink, indicating that he only had a pen-and-ink study, similar to those in the Pomeranian "Book of Effigies". This painting could therefore be, like the mentioned miniature of Queen Constance, which is of similar dimensions, a commission made in Antwerp after 1660, to recreate some royal effigies destroyed during the Deluge. The same auctioneer also offered for sale a portrait of the Venetian painter Titian, from a German private collection and painted in the style of Cranach (oil on panel, 43.8 x 34.3 cm, eBay item number:405468216215). Although this oval painting has been presented as an autograph painting by the German master dating from around 1552, it is more likely a copy made by Cranach's workshop of a self-portrait by Titian. 

Another artist, most probably Joseph Heinz the Elder (1564-1609), court painter to Emperor Rudolf II, to whom the painting is attributed, painted around 1600-1605 a reinterpretation of Judith as Salome with the head of Saint John the Baptist, most probably a copy of a lost version by Cranach (Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, oil on panel, 94 x 71 cm, inv. GG 862). Around that time Heinz created portraits of Bona's grandson King Sigismund III Vasa (ca. 1604, Alte Pinakothek in Munich) and of his future wife Constance of Austria, granddaughter of Anna Jagellonica (1503-1547), whom he married in 1605 in Kraków (1604, Clark Art Institute and Kunsthistorisches Museum). It is possible that aroung 1604 Heinz or one of his pupils went to Warsaw or Kraków to create the portrait of the King of Poland, taking with him the portrait of a bride (most probably the painting in the Clark Art Institute), and he created a copy of the likeness of the famous grandmother of the King, Queen Bona. Salome by Heinz is identifiable in the inventories of the imperial collection in Vienna between 1610-1619.

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

​Portrait of Queen Bona Sforza d'Aragona (1494-1557) as Judith with the Head of Holofernes by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1530 or after, Private collection (sold in Munich).

Portrait of Queen Bona Sforza d'Aragona (1494-1557) as Judith with the Head of Holofernes by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1530 or after, Forchtenstein Castle.

​Portrait of Queen Bona Sforza d'Aragona (1494-1557) as Judith with the Head of Holofernes by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1530 or after, Private collection (sold in Berlin).

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

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the ​portrait of Queen Bona Sforza d'Aragona (1494-1557) by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1530, lost. © Marcin Latka

​Portrait of Queen Bona Sforza d'Aragona (1494-1557) by Gonzales Coques or circle after the lost original by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1660, Private collection.

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

​Portrait of Titian (ca. 1488/90-1576) by Lucas Cranach the Elder or workshop, 1550s, Private collection.

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

The same effigy as in the Judith by Cranach in Vienna, almost like a template, was used in a painting of Madonna and Child in front of a curtain held up by angels, today in the Städel Museum in Frankfurt (panel, 82.2 x 56.4 cm, inv. 847). The painting is signed by Lucas Cranach the Elder with artist's insignia on the left (winged serpent) and dated to about 1527-1530. It was acquired in 1833 from the art dealer Metzler in Mainz. In the 16th century the Elector-Archbishop of Mainz had the right to elect the emperor. From 1514 to 1545, this position was held by Cardinal Albert of Brandenburg (1490-1545), the same whom the king Sigismund I asked in a letter of July 9, 1536 to intervene at the Berlin court with his daughter's marital problems.

Cardinal Albert was a renowned patron of the arts and he was frequenly painted by Cranach and depicted in guise of different saints. In 1525 Cranach painted a portrait of the cardinal as Saint Jerome in his study (Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt, inv. GK 71) and a year later (1526), he created a similar effigy (John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, inv. SN308) in which, however, an hourglass on the wall near window was replaced with a picture of Madonna. The cardinal undeniably owned many paintings of the Virgin by Cranach.

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

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

The likeness of Bona in this painting resembles her disguised portraits in the illuminated prayer book created for her between 1527 and 1528 by Stanisław Samostrzelnik. Dressed in a gold gown, the queen is depicted in the Annunciation scene, dated at the bottom of the miniature painting "1527" (MDXXVII), and in the Visitation scene, also in a gold dress, this time lined with ermine, accompanied by her ladies-in-waiting and a lapdog (the portrait of the lady-in-waiting in a green dress is considered to be a cryptoportrait of Bona). Both scenes bear her coat of arms within a border of the page (Bodleian Library, MS. Douce 40; 36v, 48v). ​The belt placed above her rounded belly in the Visitation scene indicates that the queen was depicted pregnant. It is highly probable that Samostrzelnik copied or reproduced another image by Bona, possibly also commissioned from Wittenberg or produced by a painter from the Cranach circle. ​

​The Visitation refers to the biblical event (Luke 1:39-56) where the Virgin Mary, pregnant with Jesus, visits her elderly, pregnant cousin Saint Elizabeth (mother of Saint John the Baptist). The date of creation of this miniature, the disguised portrait of the queen in the scene and the historical and biblical context allow us to identify the other protagonists as Katarzyna Telniczanka (ca. 1480-1528), mistress of King Sigismund, as Saint Elizabeth, and Telniczanka's daughter, Beata Kościelecka (1515-1576), as a lady in a green dress standing behind Saint Elizabeth.

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

​Annunciation from the Book of Hours of Queen Bona Maria Sforza d'Aragona (1494-1557) with her disguised portrait by Stanisław Samostrzelnik, 1527, Bodleian Library.

​Visitation from the Book of Hours of Queen Bona Maria Sforza d'Aragona (1494-1557) with her disguised portrait by Stanisław Samostrzelnik, ca. 1527, Bodleian Library.

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the ​portrait of pregnant Queen Bona Maria Sforza d'Aragona (1494-1557) by workshop or circle of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1526-1527, lost. © Marcin Latka

In the years 1530-1531, the royal court purchased larger quantities of fabrics, on the occasion of the coronation of Sigismund Augustus and the sending of gifts to Christian and Muslim rulers on this occasion. The expenses related to the coronation of the "young" king and the purchase of fabrics later presented to the khans of the Crimean, Trans-Volga (Thartaris Zauolhensibus) and Astrakhan hordes, as well as to imperial envoys and other dignitaries, amounted to slightly more than 3,400 zlotys over the course of a year and a half (from February 7, 1530 to June 10, 1531). The fabrics purchased by the royal treasury included English (luńskie), Flemish (pannus purpurianus), Zwickau (ćwikawskie, from the city of Zwickau in Saxony) and Kościan cloth from Greater Poland, as well as damask, fustian and flannel. The main suppliers of these fabrics were the Kraków merchants Walter, Lady Wondzonowa, Piotr Andrasz, Jan Zatorski, Hanus Eichler, Ludwik Priner and the Poznań merchants Klauzjusz and Stanisław Helt (after "Dostawcy dworów królewskich w Polsce i na Litwie ..." by Maurycy Horn, Part II, p. 8-9).
​
The 19th-century Polish painter Jan Matejko (1838-1893), studying the surviving sources and iconography, including undoubtedly a woodcut with the portrait of Prince Sigismund Augustus with a parrot from De vetustatibus Polonorum ..., published in Kraków in 1521, depicted the young prince in two important historical paintings - The Hanging of the Sigismund Bell at the Cathedral Tower in 1521 in Kraków, painted in 1874 (National Museum in Warsaw, inv. MP 441) and the monumental The Prussian Homage, painted between 1879 and 1882 (National Museum in Kraków, inv. Il-a 561). In the first painting, the young prince with blond hair falling to his ears and in a red tunic stands next to his father Sigismund and holds his hand on the knee of his mother Bona. In the second painting, Sigismund Augustus has his hair covered with a golden cap and wears a crimson tunic. Such a Renaissance tunic can be found in a splendid portrait by an Italian artist representing the prince's cousin, King Louis II Jagiellon (1506-1526), ​​from the imperial collection in Vienna, now in Budapest (Museum of Fine Arts, inv. 6783).

In the Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Cologne there is a half-length portrait of a boy in a costume of red damask with a wreath in his hair (panel, 36.9 x 28.6 cm, inv. WRM 0874), which recalls the imaginative effigies of the young Sigismund Augustus by Matejko. The same boy in a similar costume was depicted in a painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder in the National Gallery of Art in Washington (inv. 1947.6.1), which according to my identification is another effigy of the young Jagiellon. In the Cologne painting he wears a pendant with the Christogram IHS on a chain, which has been interpreted as: Jesus Hominum Salvator - Jesus the Savior of Mankind. The earliest confirmed provenance of this painting is the collection of the American violinist Leonora Speyer (1872-1956), who came from the Silesian noble family von Stosch. Her family owned a palace in Mańczyce (Schloss Manze).

The painting is inscribed lower left with a snake facing right with upright wings and dated "1529". Sigismund Augustus was elevated to the throne of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania on October 18, 1529 and on December 18, 1529 the Diet in Piotrków proclaimed him the king of Poland. He was crowned the next year in the similar garments to these visible in the portrait. The inventory of the State Treasury from 1555 mentions: "tibalia (stockings), dalmatics, gloves and a small sword" and the inventory of 1599 mentions: "a velvet dress with gold stripes, in which the late King Augustus was crowned" (after "Od narodzin do wieku dojrzałego ..." by Maria Dąbrowska, ‎Andrzej Klonder, p. 71). Only his shoes on a platform covered with red velvet preserved, today at the Wawel Castle (deposit of the National Museum in Kraków, inv. MNK XIII-2487). 

The difference in style and quality with other paintings by the German painter leads to the conclusion that the possible author of the 1529 painting in Cologne was Cranach's young son - Hans, born around 1513, he was therefore about 16 years old at that time (catalogue of an exhibition held at the Kunstmuseum Basel in 1974).

The boy wears a jewelled wreath with a feather, which traditionally marks betrothal. In 1527, Sigismund I agreed to marry his son to his eight-month-old cousin, Elizabeth of Austria (1526-1545), and proposed betrothal after the archduchess turned seven. The marriage treaty of the four-year-old princess with her ten-year-old relative Sigismund II Augustus was signed on November 10-11, 1530 in Poznań. In the same year, Jacob Seisenegger created portraits of the children of Anna Jagellonica and her husband Ferdinand I, now preserved in the Mauritshuis Museum in The Hague. All three were in the collection of Victor de Rainer in Brussels before 1821 and represent Elizabeth at the age of four (inv. 269), her brother Maximilian, the future emperor, at the age of three (inv. 271) and her sister Anna, future Duchess of Bavaria, at the age of two (inv. 270). With great probability, it can be assumed that they are copies of portraits made for the Jagellons on the occasion of the engagement of 1530 in Poznań. The young Maximilian wears a costume similar to that of his relative Sigismund Augustus in his portrait by Cranach in Cologne. ​

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

​The large painting depicting the Battle of Orsha in the National Museum in Warsaw (tempera and oil on panel, 165 x 262 cm, inv. MP 2475) is one of the oldest and best-painted group scenes containing portraits of prominent figures from the former Poland-Lithuania-Ruthenia.

The painting is generally considered to have been painted between 1525 and 1535. However, it depicts an event that took place on September 8, 1514: a battle near the medieval Orsha Castle between the allied forces of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, under the command of Constantine (ca. 1460-1530), Prince of Ostroh, Grand Hetman of Lithuania, and the army of the Grand Duchy of Moscow, commanded by Equerry Ivan Chelyadnin (died after 1521) and Prince Mikhail Ivanovich Bulgakov (ca. 1466 - ca. 1558), nicknamed Golitsa. Due to the great attention to detail and faithful depiction of the weapons, costumes, and participants in the battle, as well as the course of the battle itself, it is assumed that the painter himself took part in it. The man sitting under a tree trunk on the banks of the Dnieper, watching the troops' maneuvers, is considered to be his self-portrait.

The scene was originally even bigger, as evidenced by the numerous cropped figures in the upper part, and the lost part represented either a landscape or a religious scene and in this respect it is compared to the painting The Battle of Alexander at Issus by Albrecht Altdorfer, painted in 1529 (Alte Pinakothek in Munich, inv. 688). Its original height could therefore even approach 350 cm. 

The painting was transferred to the National Museum in Warsaw after World War II from Silesia and was previously part of the collection of the Silesian Museum of Fine Arts in Wrocław. According to the German historian Jacob Caro (1835-1904), "it was acquired in a monastery in Poland and came into the possession of Councillor Oelsner [Johann Wilhelm Oelsner (1766-1848)], from whose estate the Antiquarian Society received it" (after "Die Schlacht bei Orsza 1514. (Nach dem großen Bilde im Museum schles. Alterthümer, Nr. 6451.1)" in Schlesiens Vorzeit in Bild und Schrift, Volume 3, p. 345). It may also have come to Silesia through the collection of Princess Louise Charlotte Radziwill (1667-1695), who died in Brzeg near Wrocław in 1695 (after "Śląskie losy kolekcji dzieł sztuki księżnej Ludwiki Karoliny Radziwiłłówny ..." by Piotr Oszczanowski, p. 204-215). The 1671 inventory of the princess's paintings lists in drawer No. 20 "a very large painting, on wood, subtly painted. A need [battle] with Moscow of the Shusha [Sozh River]" (obraz barzo wielki, na drzewie robotą subtelną. Potrzeba z Moskwą nad Szuszą) and perhaps the same painting was mentioned in the inventory of the Radziwill collection from 1657 as: "The Great Moscow War, blackened [or tarred] and nailed in a drawer [to protect the painting from moisture]" (Wielki woyny Moskiewskiey w szufladzie zabity i zasmolony, item 79). In December 1620, the painting, probably depicting the Battle of Orsha (obraz nad służbą bitwy na Kropiwnej), was mentioned in the dining room of the Radziwill Palace in Vilnius, along with portraits of Janusz Radziwill (1579-1620) and his wife Elizabeth Sophia of Brandenburg (1589-1629), as well as 18 other battle paintings (after "Obraz Bitwa pod Orszą ..." by Marek A. Janicki, p. 175, 183-186, 188-189, 200-201, 206-207). The preserved documents of the Radziwill collection mention numerous military paintings, such as the seven paintings of "The War of Alexander the Macedonian King" (woyny Alexandra króla Macedońskiego), which were in the Starawieś Palace near Węgrów in 1620. The register of paintings of Boguslaus Radziwill (1620-1669) from 1657 (AGAD 1/354/0/26/84) confirm that the Radziwills owned numerous paintings by Cranach, his workshop or followers.

The fact that Louise Charlotte's ancestor, George I "Hercules" Radziwill (1480-1541), took part in the battle and is depicted in the painting with his coat of arms on the banner is another indication that the painting listed in 1671 depicted most probably the Battle of Orsha. However, it is difficult to determine today whether this is indeed the same painting, supposedly acquired from a monastery in Poland. Louise Charlotte could have owned a later version or a copy of this painting or even representing another battle such as the capture of Gomel on the Sozh River by George Radziwill in 1535. The inclusion of Sigismund I's coat of arms, the white eagle with monogram S on the chest, suggests that the Battle of Orsha may have been a royal commission. However, the depiction of the main leader of this campaign, Prince Constantine, shown three times with his coat of arms on two banners, suggests that he was the initiator of this painting. If Prince Ostroh had indeed commissioned this work, he could have ordered other copies, one for himself, and others for the king and the Radziwills.

It is worth noting that foreigners also participated in the Battle of Orsha on the Sarmatian side. The artillery, for example, was commanded by Hans Wejs (Weiss) and probably by Hans Behem (d. 1533), both from Nuremberg. Both are likely depicted in German costumes in the painting, like the man in the yellow tunic commanding the position of a large cannon.

The Battle of Orsha shows strong stylistic influences from Lucas Cranach the Elder. However, since the 19th century, it has been attributed to various German painters. Initially, it was considered the work of Jörg Breu the Elder (1475-1537), who created a somewhat similar composition depicting the Battle of Zama around 1530 (Alte Pinakothek in Munich, inv. 8). Michael Lancz von Kitzingen, active in Kraków between 1507 and 1523, has also been proposed as the author, as well as Hans Heffener (Hefener), brother-in-law of Crispin Herrant, employed by Jan Dantyszek, and Hans Dürer, brother of Albrecht, who worked for King Sigismund I. The painting has also been considered the work of an anonymous Polish artist influenced by Lucas Cranach the Elder, and is currently attributed to Hans Krell, active mainly in Leipzig. No similar depictions of a battle or group scene, signed or certainly painted by Krell, are known. The closest painting in style is The Passion Triptych, now in the State Gallery in Johannisburg Palace (inv. 13254), attributed to a follower of Lucas Cranach the Elder. Also comparable, especially when it comes to the way the armors were painted, is the painting The Massacre of the Innocents, attributed to the workshop of Cranach the Elder, now in the National Museum in Warsaw (tempera and oil on panel, 123 x 85 cm, inv. M.Ob.587 MNW). The Massacre of the Innocents is dated around 1515 and comes from the collection of Tomasz Zieliński (1802-1858) in Kielce. 

It is interesting to note that a painting of the Battle of Orsha was possibly in the cloisters of the Franciscan Monastery in Kraków as early as 1515. So was this Cranach's lost original? Sources, such as Bartosz Paprocki's "Heraldic Arms of the Polish Knighthood", published in Kraków in 1584, confirm that in the cloisters of the Franciscan Monastery there was a painting depicting the victory over the Tatars at Vyshnivets in 1512, founded by Krzysztof Szydłowiecki (1466-1532). Stanisław Sarnicki, in his "Hetman Books" (Xiegi hetmanskie z dzieiow ryczerskich wsitkich wiekow zebrane ...), reports that the Kraków arsenal, built by Sigismund I - as the foundation inscription indicates - to house the cannons captured at Obertyn and cast on the king's orders, included depictions of this battle, and that another painting of the Obertyn triumph hung at the tomb of St. Stanislaus in Kraków Cathedral. The latter work was founded by Jan Amor Tarnowski (1488-1561), probably as a votive offering to the patron saint of the Kingdom of Poland, and it was still in the cathedral in the first half of the 17th century. According to the inspection of the cathedral in 1602, in the Chapel of St. Mary, in addition to the portraits of Stephen Bathory and Anna Jagiellon, the king's tombstone was accompanied by representations of his victories hanging on the walls. All of these paintings were most likely looted or destroyed during the Deluge (1655-1660). 

The painting of the Battle of Vyshnivets, founded by Szydłowiecki, must have been a masterpiece because even Paolo Giovio (Paulus Jovius, 1483-1552), a famous art collector and historian, had heard about it. However, Sarnicki had to correct his erroneous information about the subject of this painting in the "Hetman Books": "Jovius writes that this battle [i.e., the one at Obertyn] was painted at St. Francis's in Kraków, but he received erroneous information, because the battle against the Tatars at Vyshnivets is depicted there". According to my findings regarding Szydłowiecki's portraits, it is possible that this painting was commissioned in Venice, perhaps even created by Titian. One of the most important battles of the following century, the Battle of Kircholm in 1605, probably commissioned by King Sigismund III Vasa, was painted by the prominent Flemish painter Peter Snayers (Sassenage Castle), probably in Antwerp or Brussels, where he was active. Many battle scenes commissioned by the Sarmatians before the Deluge were masterpieces, but very few have survived to the present day. Like Snayers's painting and the one founded by Szydłowiecki, it is possible that the Battle of Orsha was painted abroad, in Wittenberg or Leipzig, as part of a larger commission, although the stay of its author in Sarmatia cannot be ruled out.

In the second half of the 19th century, Silesia and Saxony were part of the German Empire. The known and assumed provenance of the painting depicting the Battle of Orsha perfectly illustrates how many paintings commissioned by the Sarmatians returned to their "place of origin" after the Deluge.

​Massacre of the Innocents by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1515, National Museum in Warsaw.

​Battle of Orsha (1514) by workshop or follower of Lucas Cranach the Elder (Hans Krell?), ca. 1525-1535, National Museum in Warsaw. 

​Polish hussar troop with banner bearing the emblem of King Sigismund I, fragment of the Battle of Orsha (1514), by workshop or follower of Lucas Cranach the Elder (Hans Krell?), ca. 1525-1535, National Museum in Warsaw. 

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

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

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

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

The groom arrived to Kraków with a retinue of 1000 courtiers and 856 horses and Sigismund's nephew Albert, Duke of Prussia with his wife Dorothea of Denmark and 400 people. Apart from 32,000 red zlotys in cash Hedwig also received from her father robes, silverware, "other indispensable utensils", money for personal use, as well as a rich bed with canopy (canopia alias namiothy), which she took with her to Berlin (compare "Dzieje wnętrz wawelskich" by Tadeusz Mańkowski, p. 23). The manuscript of Seweryn Boner's expenses from 1535, containing the list of Princess Hedwig's trousseau, was unfortunately burned during the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 (after "Królewna Jadwiga i jej książeczka do spowiedzi" by Urszula Borkowska, p. 88).  
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A large painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder from about 1530 in the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin (oil on panel, 166.9 x 61.4 cm, inv. 594), which was transferred from the Royal Prussian Castles in 1829/1830, shows Hedwig as Venus and Cupid. The sitter's resemblance to the princess from her earlier portraits by Cranach, which I have identified, is undeniable - paintings in Veste Coburg (M.163) and Prague Castle (HS 242). This erotic painting was undeniably part of her dowry.

A portrait from the same collection, which depicts Hedwig as Judith with the Head of Holofernes and dated 1531, was acquired from Suermondt collection in Aachen (oil on panel, 72 x 56 cm, inv. 636A). As the portraits of her stepmother, it most probably also has a political meaning, or the Princess just wanted to be depicted as her beautiful stepmother. 

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

A similar painting to that of Hedwig's, depicting Venus with Cupid stealing honey by Lucas Cranach the Elder and dated 1531, is in the Borghese Gallery in Rome (oil on panel, 169 x 67 cm, inv. 326). It was aquired in 1611 and bears the same inscription as effigy of Katarzyna Telniczanka as Venus. The woman has features of Hedwig's cousin Anna Jagellonica (1503-1547), Queen of Germany, Bohemia, and Hungary. Anna was a daughter of Vladislaus II, King of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia, elder brother of Sigismund I, and his third wife, Anne of Foix-Candale. On 26 May 1521 she married Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, grandson of Emperor Maximilan I, who was elevated to the title King of the Romans by his brother Emperor Charles V in 1531. 

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

A portrait of Anna's husband, painted by Cranach in 1548, so after her death, is in Güstrow Palace (G 2486). The register of paintings of Boguslaus Radziwill (1620-1669) from 1657 (AGAD 1/354/0/26/84), which included several paintings by Cranach, lists: "Image of the Three Cupids", "Image of the Three Goddesses", "A picture of the Emperor's face on one side and Adam and Eve on the other by Lucas Cranach", "Judith" and "Lucas Cranach's art with Venus and Cupid". 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In 1519, when his second daughter Krystyna Katarzyna, future duchess of Ziębice-Oleśnica was born, Krzysztof Szydłowiecki commissioned a votive painting, most likely, for the Collegiate Church of St. Martin in Opatów, where he also offered a portrait of Beatrice of Naples as Madonna and Child by Lucas Cranach the Elder. This painting, attributed to Master Georgius, a painter apparently of Bohemian origin, was later in the collection of count Zdzisław Tarnowski in Kraków, now in the National Museum in Kraków (tempera and gold on wood, 60.5 x 50 cm, inv. MNK I-986). It shows the Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and the founder kneeling and looking at the Virgin. His effigy, armour and attire are very similar to these visible in the miniature from the Liber geneseos illustris familiae Schidloviciae (The genealogical book of the Szydłowieckis) in the Kórnik Library, created by Stanisław Samostrzelnik in 1532. The effigy of Saint Anne, mother of the Virgin Mary, the protector of pregnant women and patron saint of families and children, on the right is very similar to the portrait of Zofia Szydłowiecka née Goździkowska of Łabędź (Swan) coat of arms, mother of Krzysztof, in the same Liber geneseos illustris familiae Schidloviciae. Also face features of Saint Anne are very similar to effigies of sons of Zofia Goździkowska - from the bronze tomb monument of Krzysztof Szydłowiecki in the Collegiate Church in Opatów, attributed to Bernardino Zanobi de Gianotis and marble tombstone of Mikołaj Stanisław Szydłowiecki (1480-1532) in Szydłowiec, created by Bartolommeo Berrecci or workshop, both from about 1532. Consequently the woman depicted as the Virgin must be Zofia Targowicka, wife of Krzysztof Szydłowiecki. 

​It is surely no coincidence that the Virgin and Child with a bunch of grapes in the parish church of Żębocin, near Proszowice, depict the same type of feminine beauty (tempera and gold on panel, 38.2 x 27 cm). Her high forehead, brown hair, and the very similar shape of her lips and nose indicate that she is the same model as in the painting by Master Georgius. This small painting was probably produced by a local workshop, most likely in Kraków. Although the forms are Renaissance in style and inspired by Venetian painting (technique with bold brushstrokes) and German painting (composition and pose reminiscent of the works of Dürer and Cranach), the gold background refers to the tradition of medieval guilds. The Madonna of Żębocin dates from the 1520s and is among the oldest objects preserved in the church. The characteristics of the painting and the type of frame indicate that it was intended for private devotion. From around 1464, the village was part of the dowry of Krzysztof Szydłowiecki's mother, Zofia Goździkowska. In 1532, Krzysztof secured part of the dowry of his wife Zofia Targowicka on this village, and later it was inherited by their daughter Krystyna Katarzyna (after "Najstarsze fazy kościoła parafialnego pod wezwaniem św. Małgorzaty i św. Stanisława w Żębocinie", p. 9). On March 5, 1548, Jan Amor Tarnowski, castellan of Kraków and husband of Zofia Szydłowiecka, bought Żębocin and other estates from Krystyna for 13,000 zloty (after "Hetman hetmanów ..." by Łukasz Winczura, p. 296-297). The Madonna of Żębocin should therefore be considered a disguised portrait of Zofia Targowicka, mother of Zofia and Krystyna.

A similar woman to the effigy of the Virgin from Szydłowiecki's votive painting was depicted as Madonna and as Venus in two small paintings, both by Lucas Cranach, his son or workshop. The image of Venus, today in private collection (panel, 42 x 27 cm), had been in the collection of Munich art dealer A.S. Drey, before being acquired by the Mogmar Art Foundation in New York in 1936. It is similar to effigies of Beata Kościelecka and Margaret of Brandenburg (1511-1577), Duchess of Pomerania as Venus, therefore should be dated to around 1530, when Zofia Szydłowiecka, the eldest daughter of Krzysztof was about to get married. The Madonna with similar face was purchased from Monsignor J. Shine on April 1954 by the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin (transferred to linen, attached to plywood, 72.3 x 49.5 cm, inv. NGI.1278). 

​A miniature tondo from the collection of Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon de Fabregoules (1746-1836), offered to the Musée Granet in Aix-en-Provence by his sons in 1860 (wood, 14 cm, inv. 343), shows her in a dress and pose similar to that of Queen Bona in a miniature sold at Hôtel Drouot in Paris on October 30, 1942. This miniature was stolen in 1963, while according to the 1900 guide her hat and dress were red ("Musée d'Aix, Bouches-du-Rhône: le musée Granet" by Henri Pontier, p. 109), a typical colour of the Polish nobility. 

The same woman was also depicted as Judith with the head of Holofernes in a painting by workshop Lucas Cranach the Elder, similar to the portrait of Queen Bona in Vienna and in Stuttgart. This painting was acquired by William Delafield in 1857 and was sold in London in 1870 (wood, 39.7 x 26.7 cm). Her face is very similar to the portrait of Krzysztof Szydłowiecki in the Liber geneseos illustris familiae Schidloviciae. If the portrait as Judith was a political statement of support of the Queen's policies and not a whim of a young girl willing to emulate the Queen, this will add a further explanation to a series of caricature portraits of this girl in the arms of an ugly, old man.

One of the best of these caricature portraits is in the Museum Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf (wood, 38.8 x 25.7, inv. ​M 2248). Before 1860 it was in the collection of Count August von Spee (1813-1882) from an old Rhenish noble family from the Archdiocese of Cologne, while the Archbishop of Cologne was one of the Electors of the Holy Roman Empire. On 5 January 1531 Ferdinand of Austria had been elected the King of the Romans and so the legitimate successor of the reigning Emperor, Charles V, who was crowned as Holy Roman Emperor in 1530. A workshop copy of this painting from the collection of Baron Samuel von Brukenthal (1721-1803), a personal advisor of Empress Maria Theresa, is in the Brukenthal National Museum in Sibiu, Transylvania (wood, 37.4 x 27.6 cm, inv. 218). Brukenthal came from Transylvanian Saxon lesser nobility, while the Saxons were partisans of Ferdinand of Austria and supported the House of Habsburg against John Zapolya. Several other copies of this composition exist. The girl was also depicted in another version of the scene, kissing the old man, in the National Gallery in Prague (wood, 38.1 x 25.1 cm, inv. ​O 455). It was bequeathed by Dr. Jan Kanka in 1866 and its earlier history is unknown. This work of fairly high standard, may have been produced by the master himself. On 24 October 1526 the Bohemian Diet elected Ferdinand King of Bohemia under conditions of confirming traditional privileges of the estates and also moving the Habsburg court to Prague. 

We can assume with high probability that the paintings were commissioned by partisans of Ferdinand I or even by himself, dissatisfied that the eldest daughter of Szydłowiecki joined the camp of his opponent, "a great enemy of the king of Rome" Queen Bona (as later reported an anonymous Habsburg agent at the Polish court in an encrypted message). It is possible that the painting "A woman courted by the old man", mentioned in the register of paintings of Boguslaus Radziwill (1620-1669) from 1657 (AGAD 1/354/0/26/84), where there were several paintings by Cranach, was another version or a copy of one of these two compositions.

She was also depicted in another painting by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder from the early 1530s, in guise of Lucretia, legendary heroine of ancient Rome, just before she commits suicide, now in the Historical Museum in Regensburg (wood, 62 x 41 cm, inv. ​LG 14). The painting was purchased from the Swiss art market by Hermann Göring in 1942. Seized by the Allies after the World War II, it was acquired by the Federal Republic of Germany.

Her splendid gown, open at the front and revealing her naked chest, is similar to those visible in the miniatures of Barbara Tarnowska née Szydłowiecka and Anna Szydłowiecka née Tęczyńska from the mentioned Liber geneseos. The castle behind on a fantastic rock is undoubtedly one of the Tarnowski mansions in mythical disguise, possibly the favorite residence of Jan Amor Tarnowski in Wiewiórka near Dębica, who died there in 1561. This cannot be confirmed with certainty because the opulent residence in Wiewiórka was almost completely destroyed and no confirmed view of the castle preserved. This defensive manor on a hill surrounded by a moat, had at least one tower and a drawbridge, as well as barrel vaulted cellars, which preserved.

Many important political and cultural figures of 16th-century Poland visited the court in Wiewiórka, and in 1556 a meeting of the hetman's supporters was held there, during which postulates of religious reforms for the next Sejm were drafted, including, among others, the marriage of priests. 

​Very little is known about Tarnowski's artistic patronage in the field of painting, as well as his painted effigies created during his lifetime. He was undoubtedly represented in the painting depicting the Battle of Orsha (1514), now in the National Museum in Warsaw (inv. MP 2475), in which he participated. According to Zdzisław Żygulski (1921-2015), he was probably depicted among the officers of the heavy armoured cavalry reaching dry land - the knight on the left, wearing a purple toque over a red bonnet (after "The Battle of Orsha: An Explication of the Arms ...", p. 120). This painting is currently attributed to Hans Krell and shows strong influences from Cranach's style. It is considered to have been painted at least ten years after the event, so the painter must have based the effigy of Tarnowski on his earlier portraits, probably also created by Cranach, his workshop or a follower.

​​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Jan Amor Tarnowski (1488-1561) with a view of Tarnów Castle by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1514, lost. © Marcin Latka

​​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Jan Amor Tarnowski (1488-1561) with a view of Tarnów Castle by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1514, lost. © Marcin Latka

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

​Portrait of Zofia Szydłowiecka née Targowicka (ca. 1490-1556) as Madonna and Child with a bunch of grapes by the Kraków school, 1520s, Parish church of Żębocin. 

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

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

Miniature portrait of Zofia Szydłowiecka (1514-1551) by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1530, Musée Granet in Aix-en-Provence​, stolen. Virtual reconstruction, © Marcin Latka

​​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Zofia Szydłowiecka (1514-1551) by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1530, lost. © Marcin Latka

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

​​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Zofia Szydłowiecka (1514-1551) by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1530, lost. © Marcin Latka

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

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

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

​Portrait of Zofia Szydłowiecka (1514-1551) as Lucretia by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1532, Historical Museum in Regensburg.

​Jan Amor Tarnowski (1488-1561) among the officers of the heavy armoured cavalry reaching dry land, fragment of the Battle of Orsha (1514), by workshop or follower of Lucas Cranach the Elder (Hans Krell?), ca. 1525-1535, National Museum in Warsaw. 

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

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

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

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

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

In 1511, one of Poland's finest Renaissance painters and miniaturists, Stanisław Samostrzelnik, who also worked for the royal court, became his court painter (pictori nostro) and chaplain, and in this capacity he accompanied Szydłowiecki on his travels. Stanisław probably stayed with his patron in 1514 in Buda, where he became familiar with the Italian Renaissance. He decorated documents issued by the chancellor, such as the privilege of Opatów of August 26, 1519, with the portrait of the chancellor as a kneeling donor, wearing a fine gold-engraved armor and a crimson tunic. Shortly before the chancellor's death, he began working on a series of miniature portraits of members of the Szydłowiecki family, known as Liber geneseos illustris familiae Schidloviciae (1531-1532, Kórnik Library), including the effigy of the chancellor in another beautiful armour decorated with gold and crimson tunic. This image of the chancellor is undoubtedly based on earlier portraits, created around 1515 or later. The likely author of the original could be Hans von Kulmbach, a pupil of Jacopo de' Barbari and Albrecht Dürer, active in Kraków between 1514 and 1518. Both miniatures depict the Order of the Dragon received by Szydłowiecki in 1515 from Emperor Maximilian I during his visit to Vienna; it is therefore quite possible that the original portrait was painted by the imperial court portraitist, such as Bernhard Strigel. The mountainous landscape in the background of Szydłowiecki's portrait in the aforementioned privilege suggests that the original portrait could be by Strigel, as he frequently introduced it in several of his works.

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

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

In the same Ambrosiana in Milan there is also a portrait of an old man in armour by Titian (oil on canvas, 65 x 58 cm, inv. 204). It is dated around 1530, the time when Chancellor Szydłowiecki received a portrait of the Spanish conquistador, most likely by Titian. The work arrives in Ambrosiana together with the nucleus donated in 1618 by Cardinal Federico Borromeo who in the Musaeum reports that "Titian would have liked to paint his father like this, in armour, to jokingly celebrate the nobility he said he had achieved with such an offspring" (Tiziano avrebbe voluto dipingere suo padre così corazzato, per celebrare scherzosamente la nobiltà che egli diceva di aver conseguito con una tale prole). "Jokingly", because the old man's truly lordly attire and pose do not suit the simple clerk that was Titian's father, Gregorio Vecellio. He held various minor posts in Cadore from 1495 to 1527, including that of an officer in the local militia and, from 1525, superintendent of mines. We should doubt that anyone really wanted to joke around with their father like that, especially a respected painter such as Titian, thus this suggestion has not convinced art historians of the identity of the model.

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

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

One of the few paintings by Titian and his workshop that have survived in the former territories of Renaissance Sarmatia is today in Wawel Castle in Kraków, the former royal residence (oil on canvas, 74 x 115 cm, inv. ZKnW-PZS 7). It comes from the collection of Count Leon Jan Piniński (1857-1938) in Lviv, donated in 1931 and represents the Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist and Saint Cecilia. Its earlier history is unknown, but Piniński, who, in addition to paintings of the Italian and especially Venetian school, also collected polonica, such as portraits of the Jagiellons now in Wawel, probably acquired them in Lviv, where many paintings from the historical collections of former Poland-Lithuania-Ruthenia have survived the turbulent history. This painting is considered to be a workshop copy of a lost original, another version of which is in the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana in Milan (inv. 200). Like the portrait of the "Titian's father", the Milanese copy comes from the collection of Cardinal Federico Borromeo and was acquired before 1607. The Milanese painting is dated between 1540 and 1560 and Titian (and eventually his workshop) borrowed elements from an earlier composition preserved in the Louvre (INV 742; MR 514), namely the Madonna and the pose of Saint John the Baptist. The Louvre painting is dated between around 1510 and 1525 and belonged before 1598 to the Dukes d'Este in Ferrara, relatives of Queen Bona Sforza.

"In the very year of the liberation of Wawel, in 1905, Professor L. Count Piniński came up with the idea of ​​creating a 'treasury of works of art and a reliquary of historical memorabilia, in an ancient castle, which was, in the most glorious times of our culture, the heart of all Poland'", wrote Stanisław Świerz (1886-1951), curator of Wawel, in a 1935 publication on the collections of Wawel Castle. The author adds that Piniński donated to Wawel the collection that was "the result of the lifelong efforts and sacrifices of the great donor, a collection gathered since his youth with the intention of decorating the renovated interiors of Wawel" (after "Zbiory zamku królewskiego na Wawelu w Krakowie", p. 5-6, 8). 

The funerary monument of Anna (1522-1536), daughter of the chancellor, in the collegiate church of Opatów, is also very interesting in this context. Attributed to the Italian sculptor Bernardino Zanobi de Gianotis and likely created in his Kraków workshop, it was commissioned by Anna's mother, Zofia Targowicka, and carved from a precious red limestone, perhaps of Hungarian origin. According to the inscription above the sculpture, the monument was founded in 1536 (ZOPHIA · A · TARGOVISKO · CASTELLANA · CRA/COVI · MR · CHARISS · FILIOLE · ANNE · EX · PIET/ATE · POSVIT · AÑO · DO · M · D · XXXVI), probably shortly after the death of a young girl. Anna was the chancellor's third child and third daughter. A lady-in-waiting to Queen Bona, she was betrothed in 1529, at the age of seven, to Nicolaus "the Black" Radziwill (1515-1565); the wedding was planned for 1536. It is highly unlikely that, shortly after the probably sudden death of her daughter, even before the funeral, Zofia had already made arrangements for the gravestone. The sculpture would therefore probably have been based on an effigy of the young woman made during her lifetime. In this relief, the young woman, with her hair loose, wears a Sarmatian dress inspired by German and Italian fashions, as well as a balzo headdress. Her hands are crossed, as in the portrait of Anna Szydłowiecka née Tęczyńska from the Liber geneseos .... It is interesting to note that a similar costume appears in the portrait of a lady wearing a turban, attributed to Titian's studio and dated to around 1536 (oil on canvas, 108.6 x 85.1 cm, Bonhams London, July 8, 2020, lot 353). This woman, aged in her thirties or forties, which corresponds to Zofia Targowicka's age, wears a black dress, a sign of her widowhood. Her headdress, similar to a balzo, is draped like a turban, a common fashion in Sarmatia in the first half of the 16th century.

Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Krzysztof Szydłowiecki (1466-1532), Great Chancellor of the Crown by Bernhard Strigel, ca. 1515, lost. © Marcin Latka

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Krzysztof Szydłowiecki (1466-1532), Great Chancellor of the Crown by Hans von Kulmbach, ca. 1515-1518, lost. © Marcin Latka

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

Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist and Saint Cecilia by workshop of Titian, after 1525, Wawel Royal Castle. 

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Anna Szydłowiecka (1522-1536) by Titian, ca. 1534, lost. © Marcin Latka

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Anna Szydłowiecka (1522-1536) by workshop of Titian, ca. 1534, lost. © Marcin Latka

​Portrait of a lady in a black dress, probably Zofia Targowicka (ca. 1490-1556) by workshop of Titian, ca. 1534, Private collection.

Soon after death of Constantine, Prince of Ostroh king Sigismund had to deal with the quarrel between his son and his stepmother over the fabulous inheritance. Prince Ilia took the body of his father to Kiev, where he was buried in the Chapel of Saint Stephen of the Pechersk Lavra with great splendor. Already in 1522 his father assured him the succession to the starost of Bratslav and Vinnytsia, confirmed by the privilege of the king Sigismund issued at Grodno Sejm, "on Friday before Laetare Sunday 1522".

Then Prince Ilia sent from Kiev one hundred horsemen to the Turov Castle, on which a dower of his stepmother was secured. They took the castle by force, they sealed all things in the treasury, as well as privileges and even the testament of the deceased prince, handing them over to Turov governor. Alexandra's brother, Prince Yuri Olelkovich-Slutsky (ca. 1492-1542), intervened with the king, who sent his courtier to Prince Ilia, ordering him to return the castle and to pay a dowry of his sister Sophia: "As for Princess Alexandra's daughter, she [mother] is not to give her the third part of the dowry or the trousseau; but her brothers, Prince Ilia and the son of Princess Alexandra, Prince Vasily, her daughter, and their sister to equip and pay her dowry" (royal decree issued on August 5, 1531 in Kraków).

In 1523, when he was twelve years of age, Ilia's father enaged him to a five-year-old daughter of his friend George Hercules Radziwill, Anna Elizabeth (1518-1558). George Hercules obtained a dispensation from Pope Clement VII as the groom was baptized and brought up in the "Greek rite".

After death of his father the young prince lived in Kraków at the royal court, where he studied Latin and Polish. In 1530, 1531 and 1533 he fought with the Tatars and between 1534-1536 he took part in the Muscovite-Lithuanian war where he commanded his own armed forces.
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In 1536 Radziwill demanded that Ilia fulfill the contract, he however refused to marry Anna Elizabeth or her sister Barbara, citing the lack of his own consent and because he fell in love with Beata Kościelecka, a daughter of king's mistress. In a document issued on December 20, 1537 in Kraków king Sigismund released him from this obligation. 

"Prince Ilia falls from one mud to another", wrote to Albert of Prussia, royal courtier Mikołaj Nipszyc (Nikolaus Nibschitz), who also very negatively characterized liberated daughters of George Hercules Radziwill, about the planned marriage of Ilia with Kościelecka.

The engagement with Beata was sealed with the royal blessing on January 1, 1539, and the wedding, on February 3 of the same year, was held at the Wawel Castle, one day after the wedding of Isabella Jagiellon and John Zapolya, King of Hungary. After the wedding ceremony, a jousting tournament was organized, in which Ilia took part. The prince wore silver armor lined with black velvet, a Tatar belt and leather shoes with spurs and silver sheets. During a duel with young king Sigismund Augustus, Ilia fell from his horse and suffered severe injuries. On August 16, 1539 in Ostroh, he signed his last will in which he left his possessions to the unborn child of Beata, a daughter born three months later.

By virtue of the judgment of August 1531 Princess Alexandra was granted the towns of Turov and Tarasovo in today's Belarus and Slovensko, near Vilnius. As a wealthy widow in her late 20s, she most probably lived with her stepson in Kraków and in Turov. 

A painting by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder dated '1531' below inscription in Latin, most probably the first approach to this subject by Cranach, shows a courtly scene of Hercules and Omphale. A young man in guise of mythical hero is flanked by two noblewomen as Omphale's ladies. Partridges, a symbol of sexual desire hangs over the heads of the women. In the myths Omphale and Hercules became lovers and they had a son. The painting is known from several versions, all by Cranach's workshop as original, likely to be by the master's hand, is considered lost. 

One copy was reported before 1891 in the Wiederau Castle, built between 1697 and 1705 in a village south of Leipzig by David von Fletscher, a merchant of Scotish origin, royal Polish and electoral-Saxon privy and commercial councilor. The other was owned by the Minnesota Museum of Art until 1976 (panel, 78 x 118 cm, Sotheby's New York, June 16, 1976, lot 99), and another was sold in Cologne in 1966 (panel, 80 x 119 cm, Lempertz, November, 1966, lot 27). There is also a version which was sold in June 1917 in Berlin together with a large collection of Wojciech Kolasiński (1852-1916), a minor Polish painter better known as an art restorer, collector, and antiquarian of Warsaw (Sammlung des verstorbenen herrn A. von Kolasinski - Warschau, Volume 2, item 25, pic. 31, panel, 81.3 x 118.1 cm, Sotheby's New York, January 24, 2008, lot 29​). 

The audacious woman on the left has just put a woman's cap on the head of a god of strength dressed in a lion's skin. Her bold pose is very similar to that visible in a portrait of Beata Kościelecka, created by Bernardino Licinio just a year later. Also her face features resemble greatly other effigies of Beata. The woman on the right bears the features of Princess Alexandra Olelkovich-Slutska, the young man is therefore Prince Ilia, who just returned from a glorious expedition against Tatars.

Princess Alexandra, a beautiful young woman, like Queen Bona and Beata Kościelecka, also deserved to be represented in "guise" of the goddess of love - Venus. A small painting of a nude woman by Lucas Cranach the Elder, acquired by Liechtenstein collection in 2013, and sometimes considered a fake, is dated "1531" (oil on panel, 38.7 x 24.5 cm, inv. GE 2497) and the woman resemble greatly Princess Alexandra. This work predates by one year a very similar Venus in the Städel Museum in Frankfurt (panel, 37.7 x 24.5 m, inv. 1125), which was donated in 1878 by the businessman and art collector Moritz von Gontard (1826-1886) and was previously probably in the Schleinitz collection in Dresden.

​Hercules at the court of Omphale with portrait of Beata Kościelecka, Ilia, Prince of Ostroh and Alexandra Olelkovich-Slutska, ​from the Kolasiński collection, by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1531, Private collection.

​Hercules at the court of Omphale with portrait of Beata Kościelecka, Ilia, Prince of Ostroh and Alexandra Olelkovich-Slutska, from Cologne, by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1531, Private collection. ​Virtual reconstruction, © Marcin Latka 

​Hercules at the court of Omphale with portrait of Beata Kościelecka, Ilia, Prince of Ostroh and Alexandra Olelkovich-Slutska, from Minnesota Museum of Art, by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1531, Private collection.

Portrait of Alexandra Olelkovich-Slutska, Princess of Ostroh nude (Venus) by Lucas Cranach the Elder or workshop, 1531, Liechtenstein Museum in Vienna.

Portrait of Alexandra Olelkovich-Slutska, Princess of Ostroh nude (Venus) by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1532, Städel Museum in Frankfurt.

The number of portraits by Licinio that can be associated with Poland and Lithuania allows us to conclude that he became the favorite painter of the Polish-Lithuanian royal court in Venice in the 1530s, especially of Queen Bona, Duchess of Bari and Rossano by her own right. It seems also that portraits were commissioned in Licinio's and Cranach's workshops at the same time as some of them bear the same date (like the effigies of Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski). Fashion in the 16th century was an instrument of politics, so in portraits for German "allies" the model was depicted dressed more in German style and for Italian "allies" in Italian style, with exceptions like the portrait of Queen Bona by Cranach in Florence (Villa di Poggio Imperiale) or her portrait by Giovanni Cariani in Vienna (Kunsthistorisches Museum).
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After death of his father in 1530 Prince of Ostroh, Constantine Vasily (1526-1608), the younger son of Grand Hetman of Lithuania, was brought up in Turov by his mother Princess Alexandra Olelkovich-Slutska, who administered the lands on behalf of her minor son. On January 15, 1532, the king ordered Fyodor Sangushko (d. 1547), starost of Volodymyr and Ivan Mykhailovych Khorevitch, starost of Queen Bona in Pinsk, to be commissioners for the implementation of the agreements reached between Ilia, Constantine Vasily's elder brother, and Alexandra. In 1537 a royal privilege to trade in Tarasov was issued in her name. Unlike other children of wealthy magnates Constantine Vasily did not travel to Europe and did not study in European universities. It is believed that his education was entirely at home. In particular, Constantine Vasily was taught by a tutor well versed in Latin and his home education was quite thorough, as evidenced by his subsequent great cultural and educational activity and knowledge of other languages (apart from Ruthenian, he knew Polish and Latin). At that time, it was much more important for the sons of magnates to acquire military knowledge and skills than to master languages and arts of discourse, especially this concerned the families of border officials, whose possessions constantly suffered from Tatar attacks. As important landowners Alexandra and her son were undoubtedly frequent guests at the multicultural, itinerant royal court in Lviv, Kraków, Grodno or Vilnius, where they could also meet many Italians, like the royal architect and sculptor Bernardo Zanobi de Gianottis, called Romanus. In a letter written in Belarusian on August 25, 1539, to a trusted servant in Vilnius, Szymek Mackiewicz (Mackevičius), Queen Bona commented on the alterations in the palace's loggia to be made by master Bernardo (after "Spółka architektoniczno-rzeźbiarska Bernardina de Gianotis i Jana Cini" by Helena Kozakiewiczowa, p. 161). This would explain later contacts of Constantine Vasily with Venice. Also the ancestral nest of the family - Ostroh was a multicultural city, where, apart from orthodox Ruthenians, many Jews, Catholics and Muslim Tatars also lived (after "Konstanty Wasyl Ostrogski wobec katolicyzmu i wyznań protestanckich" by Tomasz Kempa, p. 18). 

In 1539, the struggle for the inheritance gained a new intensity after the death of Ilia and his wife Beata Kościelecka's entry into management of all estates. The protegee of Sigismund and Bona once accused Alexandra and her son of intending to seize all estates by force and she obtained from Sigismund a relevant decree to prevent it. In 1548 Princess Alexandra was mentioned in a letter regarding the appointment of the Kobryn archimandrite. Seven year later, in 1555, "Duchess Constantinova Ivanovitch Ostrozka, Voivodess of Trakai, Hetmaness Supreme of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Princess Alexandra Semenovna" had a case with Prince Semyon Yurievich Olshanski about mutual wrongs in the neighboring estates of Turov and Ryczowice and in 1556 she was granted the privilege to found a town on her estate of Sliedy. From February to June 1562, she conducted her own property and court affairs. She was still living in 1563 as on August 30, Duke Albert of Prussia addressed a letter to her, but on June 3, 1564, she was mentioned in the royal letter as deceased. Some researchers tend to think that it was Alexandra that was buried in Pechersk Lavra in Kiev next to her husband (after "Prince Vasyl-Kostyantyn Ostrozki ..." by Vasiliy Ulianovsky).

The proud and fabulously rich Ruthenian princess, a descendant of Grand Princes of Kiev and Grand Dukes of Lithuania, could afford the splendor worthy of the Italian queen Bona and to be painted by the same painter as the queen. 

The young woman from a portrait by Bernardino Licinio in the Philadelphia Museum of Art (oil on panel, 69.5 x 55.9 cm, inv. Cat. 203) bear a striking resemblance to effigies of Alexandra by Lucas Cranach the Elder and workshop, indentified by me, especially her portrait as Venus (Liechtenstein Museum in Vienna) and in the scene of Hercules and Omphale from the Kolasiński collection, both dated "1531". This portrait is dated to about 1530 and comes from the collection of an American corporate lawyer and art collector John Graver Johnson (1841-1917). The lady in a brown dress and an expensive necklace with a cross in Italian style around her neck, holds gloves in her right hand, accessories of a rich noblewoman.

Portrait of Alexandra Olelkovich-Slutska, Princess of Ostroh holding gloves by Bernardino Licinio, ca. 1531, Philadelphia Museum of Art.

"O Beata, adorned so rich in rare charms, You have a virtuous and honest speech, The worthy and unworthy of you still adore you, The gray-haired, though prudent, they go crazy for you" (O Beata decorata rara forma, moribus / O honesta ac modesta vultu, verbis, gestibus! / Digni simul et indigni te semper suspiciunt / Et grandaevi ac prudentes propter te desipiunt), wrote in his panegyric modeled on the hymn in honor of the Virgin Mary, entitled Prosa de Beata Kościelecka virgine in gynaeceo Bonae reginae Poloniae (On Beata Kościelecka a maiden in the household of Bona, Queen of Poland, II, XLVII), Andrzej Krzycki (1482-1537), Bishop of Płock and secretary of Queen Bona. 

In 1509 when king Sigismund I was obliged to marry by the Piotrków Diet, his mistress Katarzyna Telniczanka was married to his associate Andrzej Kościelecki. The king secured her in the form of an annual salary and made Kościelecki Grand Treasurer of the Crown and starost of Oświęcim. Kościelecki, who was Polish-Lithuanian envoy in Buda between 1501-1503, was a talented and dedicated manager of royal treasury. When in 1510 a huge fire broke out in royal salt mines in Wieliczka, he and Seweryn Bethman descent into the shaft to put out the fire. 

Marriage with king's mistress caused a great indignation of Kościelecki's relatives, who were leaving the Senate when the treasurer appeared there.

Kościelecki died in Kraków on September 6, 1515 and on October 2, 1515, after a long illness, died Queen Barbara Zapolya, first wife of Sigismund. When just few weeks after Kościelecki's death Telniczanka gave birth to her daughter Beata, meaning "blessed" (between September 6 and October 20), everybody at the court gossiped that her real father was Sigismund.

Beata was raised in the royal court together with other children of the king. In 1528 when Beata was 13, Anna, Zuzanna and Katarzyna three daughters of Regina Szafraniec, eldest daughter of Telniczanka, brought a claim against Beata before the royal court concerning a house in Kraków bought by Telniczanka after 1509, a carriage, four horses and a toque embroidered with large pearls valued at 600 zlotys (after "Jagiellonki polskie w XVI. wieku: Obrazy rodziny i dworu Zygmunta ..." by Aleksander Przezdziecki, Volume 1, p. 6). Two years later Kościelecki's testament was brought before the royal court by Andrzej Tęczyński, voivode of Kraków in a dispute with Kościelecka. 

Most likely, Beata and her mother were depicted in the Visitation scene from the Book of Hours of Queen Bona Sforza (Bodleian Library, MS. Douce 40; 48v), a miniature painted by Stanisław Samostrzelnik around 1527-1528, therefore before Telniczanka's death (she died between August 25 and September 10, 1528, in Vilnius). In this scene, the pregnant queen is portrayed as the Virgin Mary in a golden robe, and the king's mistress as Saint Elizabeth in a Sarmatian red robe. The lady in a green dress and matching hat adorned with white feathers can most likely be considered an effigy of Beata. Samostrzelnik probably based this effigy on other images of the king's illegitimate daughter. The possible author could be Hans Krell, an itinerant portraitist, who painted the portraits of Sigismund I's nephews - Louis II Jagiellon (1506-1526), George of Brandenburg-Ansbach (1484-1543) and Albert of Prussia (1490-1568).

The painting of Venus with Cupid stealing honey by Lucas Cranach the Elder from the National Gallery of Denmark (panel, 58 x 38 cm, inv. KMSsp719, transferred in 1759 to the Danish royal collection from the Gottorp Castle) is very similar in composition to the portrait of Katarzyna Telniczanka as Venus from the Branicki Palace in Warsaw, lost during World War II. Also the woman depicted is very much alike. It bears the date 1530 on a stone in lower right corner of the painting. As Telniczanka died in 1528, it cannot be her. The same woman is also in the two other paintings by Cranach. One similar to other portraits of Telniczanka's daughters from the 1520s is in the Finnish National Gallery in Helsinki (panel, 41 x 27 cm, inv. A I 316, acquired in 1851 from the collection of future Tsar Alexander II). According to sources it is dated 1525, however the date is today almost invisible and could be also 1527 when Beata reached her legal age of 12 and could be married. The other, in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium (oil on canvas, 176 x 80 cm, inv. 4759, donated in 1928 by Leon Cassel), also as Venus and Cupid, is dated 1531 on the tree trunk. It is very similar to portrait of Princess Hedwig Jagiellon (1513-1573) and Queen Anna Jagellonica (1503-1547) as Venus from the same period.

Multiple copies of this painting exist, several of which were created by Cranach's workshop, such as the painting from the Bayreuth Castle, transferred in 1812 to the Alte Pinakothek in Munich (oil on panel, 174 x 74 cm, inv. 5466). George Frederick of Brandenburg-Ansbach (1539-1603), grandson of Sophia Jagiellon (1464-1512), who resided in Kulmbach, built the first castle in Bayreuth. The other comes from the Granitz hunting lodge on Rügen, built between 1837 and 1846 for Wilhelm Malte von Putbus, Governor-general of Swedish Pomerania (transferred from wood to canvas, 170.5 x 68 cm). Another copy in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich was painted on canvas, possibly by Polish or Italian copist in the first quarter of the 17th century (176.9 x 70.5 cm, inv. 13261). The picture was secured after the World War II in Hermann Göring's collection and transferred to the Bavarian State Painting Collections in 1961. Version in the Museum of Art and History in Geneva (oil on panel, 68 x 57 cm, inv. 1874-0012), acquired in 1874 from unknown collection was cut from larger painting, which was probably damaged, as well as the painting from private collection in Vienna, sold in Prague in 2022 (oil on panel, 45 x 47.5 cm, Fine Antiques Prague, October 8, 2022, lot 4).

Fragments with Cupid are in the Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe (dated "1531", oil on panel, 76.5 x 27.6 cm, inv. 811), from the collection of the Margraves of Baden in Rastatt Castle, and in private collection (oil on panel, 80 x 33 cm), confiscated by the Nazis from Jacques Goudstikker in Amsterdam in 1940. Different version of this Venus with Beata's face, dated "1533", is in private collection (oil on panel, 170.8 x 69.9 cm, Christie's New York, April 19, 2007, lot 21). It also comes from Goudstikker's collection, earlier in Charles Albert de Burlet's collection in Basel. In this respect, Beata was like a 16th-century celebrity spreading her effigy throughout Renaissance Europe. Today, Photoshop and Instagram, then "mythological disguise" and Cranach's workshop, times change, but people are quite similar.

The same woman is also depiced in the portrait by Bernardino Licinio from 1532 in private collection (oil on canvas, 98.1 x 82.5 cm, Christie's London, Auction 5823, July 4, 1997, lot 86), signed and dated by the artist on a postument (M·DXXXII B·LVCINII· OPVS). She is holding gloves and keeping her hand on a postument. This portrait is very similar to the effigy of royal mistress Diana di Cordona by Licinio in Dresden (Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, inv. Gal.-Nr. 200). It is almost like a pendant, their poses and costumes are identical. The woman's headdress or a toque, called balzo, embroidered with gold is adorned with flowers very similar to clematis Beata. The painting comes from the Brandegee Collection in Boston (by 1918). 

From the 1530s noble ladies throughout Poland, Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine wanted to be depicted in the pose of a Roman lady or a courtesan from the Flavian period in their tomb monuments (e.g. monument to Barbara Tarnowska née Tęczyńska by Giovanni Maria Padovano from about 1536 in the Tarnów Cathedral), a pose similar to that known from the Venus of Urbino (portrait of Princess Isabella Jagiellon). In their portrait paintings, all wanted to be a goddess of love. 

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the ​portrait of Beata Kościelecka (1515-1576) by Hans Krell, ca. 1527, lost. © Marcin Latka

Portrait of Beata Kościelecka (1515-1576) by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1527, Finnish National Gallery in Helsinki. 

Portrait of Beata Kościelecka (1515-1576) as Venus with Cupid stealing honey by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1530, National Gallery of Denmark. 

Portrait of Beata Kościelecka (1515-1576) as Venus with Cupid stealing honey by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1531, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium. 

​Portrait of Beata Kościelecka (1515-1576), fragment of Venus with Cupid stealing honey by follower of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1531, Museum of Art and History in Geneva.

​Portrait of Beata Kościelecka (1515-1576), fragment of Venus with Cupid stealing honey by follower of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1531, Private collection.

​Cupid, fragment of portrait of Beata Kościelecka (1515-1576) as Venus with Cupid stealing honey by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1531, Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe.

​Portrait of Beata Kościelecka (1515-1576) as Venus with Cupid stealing honey by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1533, Private collection.

Portrait of Beata Kościelecka (1515-1576) by Bernardino Licinio, 1532, Private collection. 

"From you Poles learned elegant clothes, noble courtesy and respect for politeness, and above all, your example of sobriety freed them from drunkenness", wrote in a letter of 1539 to Queen Bona Sforza an Italian poet Pietro Aretino (1492-1556), who in 1527 settled permanently in Venice, "the seat of all vices", as he noted. His correspondence with Bona dates back at least to April 9, 1537, when the poet sent his book to the queen, commending himself to the monarch's gracious favor (after "Caraglio w Polsce" by Jerzy Wojciechowski, p. 26). The portrait of Aretino, considered to be the original by Giorgione, was purchased in December 1793 by King Stanislaus Augustus Poniatowski from Stanisław Kostka Potocki for his collection in the Palace on the Isle (inventory number 402, lost). It cannot be excluded that it was sent to Poland already in the 16th century. This portrait, or another, later became part of the Potocki collection, evacuated from Poland at the beginning of World War II and exhibited in 1940 by the European Art Galleries, Inc. in New York ("For Peace and Freedom. Old masters: a collection of Polish-owned works of art ...", item 19, National Library of Poland, DŻS XIXA 3a). The painting evacuated to New York was considered a work by Titian and was a copy of Aretino's best-known portrait, now in the Pitti Palace in Florence (inv. 1912, Palatina 54). It was Aretino himself who sent the painting from Venice as a gift to Duke Cosimo I in Florence. He described it in detail in a letter addressed to Paolo Giovio (the original of the letter was sold at Sotheby's on March 16, 1971, lot 549) and in others addressed to the same duke. Was the painting from the Potocki collection a gift to Bona or to a Sarmatian educated in Venice? We will probably never know.

In 2016, a portrait of a lady holding a book attributed to Bernardino Licinio was put up for sale in Munich, where many objects from the historical royal collections of Poland-Lithuania are kept in the Ducal Residence (oil on canvas, 107 x 90 cm, Hampel Fine Art Auctions, December 7, 2016, lot 1242). According to the catalog note, the "painting is similar to many other female portraits by Licinio that he painted between 1530 and 1540". The lady holds her book in a way indicating that she is a well-educated woman and the book is clearly not a prayer book but rather a volume of poetry. Her rich costume and jewelry indicate that she is a very wealthy woman, undoubtedly a member of the ruling class.

A copy, or rather another version of this painting, because the woman has positioned her head differently, is in the British Government Art Collection (oil on canvas, 108 x 91 cm, inv. 2280). The portrait was offered in 1953 by Helen Vincent (1866-1954), Viscountess d'Abernon, who probably bought it in Venice during an extended visit in 1904. The Polish provenance of the painting is also possible since the husband of the viscountess was part of the Interallied Mission to Poland in July 1920, during the Polish-Soviet War. The different color of the eyes of the model than in the Munich painting (brown in the d'Abernon painting) also indicates that it is a copy, because cheaper dyes were used to create them, as in the case of the portraits of the Emperor Charles V or portraits of Bona's daughter, Anna Jagiellon (1523-1596) by the workshop of Cranach and Martin Kober.

​Bona's tutor Crisostomo Colonna (1460-1528), a member of the Pontano Academy, a poet from the Petrarch school, taught her Latin, history, theology, law, geography, botany, philosophy and mathematics. She in turn, who was considered a lover of Virgil and Petrarch, was the first teacher of her son Sigismund Augustus, born in 1520, hence the book. 

Two leopards on her bodice, denoted as symbols of strength, intelligence, bravery, justice, and valor, holding stylized S, are clearly an allusion to her family name: Sforza (from sforzare, to force), a nickname given to Muzio Attendolo in the 1380s for his strength and determination and his abilities to suddenly reverse the fortunes of battles. The whole pattern can be compared with that visible on a fountain in the Dukes' Courtyard of Castello Sforzesco in Milan, dating from the end of the 15th century. 

Although this costume appears to be more typical of the 1520s in Italian fashion and somewhat similar, we can see in the central female figure of the family portrait by Licinio in the British Royal Collection (inv. RCIN 402586), dated "1524" in the upper left corner (M.D.XXIII), two bands of gold fabric on her bodice and the embroidered central part are clearly inspired by German fashion of the period and recall the costume of Queen Bona in two paintings from Cranach's workshop (Villa del Poggio Imperiale and Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck), identified by me. Salome's green dress in the centre of Cranach's painting "The Banquet of Herod", dated "1533" in the upper right corner (Städel Museum, inv. 1193), as well as the portrait of a lady in a green dress and a large balzo by Bartolomeo Veneto, dated "1530" in the upper left corner (Timken Museum of Art, inv. 1979:003), prove that such a fashion was still very much in vogue in the early 1530s.

Queen Bona's ties to the Republic of Venice are so manifold on many levels, from art, music, architecture, commerce to finance, that it would be difficult to list them in a single paragraph. Notables of the Republic must have received several portraits of such an important ruler, who also visited Venice in 1556. However, today no portrait of Bona Sforza can be found in Venice. All have probably been long forgotten, sold or perhaps even destroyed.

Besides the great resemblance to the well-known effigies of the queen from her later life, in particular the famous miniature from the workshop of Lucas Cranach the Younger made in Wittenberg (Czartoryski Museum, inv. XII-537), also the family resemblance with the effigies of notable duchesses of Milan, ancestors of the queen, like Bianca Maria Visconti (1425-1468) from her marble profile by circle of Gian Cristoforo Romano and Bona Maria of Savoy (1449-1503) from her portrait of the Lombard painter (both at the Sforzesco Castle in Milan), should be noted.

Portrait of a seated old woman, which was before 1917 in the collection of Wojciech Kolasiński in Warsaw, was attributed to Lorenzo Lotto (oil on canvas, 107 x 82 cm, sold in June 1917 in Berlin, "Sammlung des verstorbenen herrn A. von Kolasinski - Warschau", Volume 2, item 185). The style of this painting is nevertheless very similar to the effigy of Stanisław Oleśnicki (York Art Gallery, inv. ​YORAG : 738), identified by me, and portrait of a woman in a black dress (Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice, inv. 303), both by Bernardino Licinio. Prior history of this painting is unfortunately unknown. If Kolasiński acquired the painting in Poland, which is very likely, the old woman holding a book was most probably a member of the court of Queen Bona.

It is also worth mentioning that two splendid portraits of two Italian poets, considered the founders of Italian literature: Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) and Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374), are now in Kraków. The oldest confirmed provenance of these two paintings is the Temple of the Sibyl in Puławy, also known as the Temple of Memory, opened in 1801, a museum created by Izabela Czartoryska (1746-1835). They are mentioned in the 1828 catalogue of the Czartoryski collection (Poczet pamiątek zachowanych w Domu Gotyckim w Puławach), under the numbers 424 and 426.

The portrait of Dante is close to the style of Andrea del Sarto, a Florentine painter, as is the portrait of a lady in French costume, perhaps Madeleine de La Tour d'Auvergne (1498-1519), Duchess of Urbino, painted around 1518 (Cleveland Museum of Art, inv. 1944.92) or the Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist in the Wilanów Palace in Warsaw (Wil.1537). It also resembles the portrait of a halberdier (Francesco Guardi?) by Pontormo, Andrea's pupil, who initially followed his style (Getty Center, 89.PA.49). The National Art Gallery in Lviv houses a portrait of a lady with a book of verses by Petrarch (petrarchino), which probably comes from the Potocki collection (oil on canvas, 52.5 x 39.3, inv. Ж-118). It is perhaps a studio copy of a painting currently in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence (inv. 1890 / 783), painted around 1528 by Andrea del Sarto. Even if the lady in the portrait attributed to Andrea del Sarto's circle had no connection to Sarmatia, her costume, very similar to that of a 16th-century Sarmatian matron, testifies to the great similarities in fashion between Italy and Poland-Lithuania-Ruthenia (oil on panel, 49.9 x 41 cm, Freeman's in Philadelphia, December 5, 2010, lot 12). The same is true for the mysterious portrait of a young man by del Sarto, probably lost during the Second World War and known thanks to an old photograph held at the National Museum in Warsaw (inv. DDWneg.17159 MNW). These paintings, along with several others preserved in former territories of Sarmatia and mentioned in historical inventories, such as Judith from the Tyzenhauz collection, indicate that the painter could also work for the Polish-Lithuanian-Ruthenian market.

The original of the portrait of Petrarch was probably also created in Florence and a similar portrait was sold with attribution to the 16th-century Florentine school (Sotheby's New York, June 11, 2020, lot 21), however the style more closely resembles that of Bernardino Licinio, in particular the portrait of Elisabeth (1539-1582), Princess of Ostroh (Halszka Ostrogska) and her suitor, identified by me (Belgravia Auction Gallery in Mosta, December 9, 2023, lot 512), also thought to be the work of a 17th-century copyist.

Both paintings of Italian poets do not have original frames and were framed in the late 18th or early 19th century, indicating that the original frames were removed at some point, for example to facilitate transportation. This indicates that the paintings were probably evacuated from their original location to preserve them from destruction and looting during the Deluge or the Great Northern War, or that more valuable frames (concerning the material, usually gilded wood) were looted or sold, while the paintings were preserved.

​They testify to the admiration for Italian poetry, even when Sarmatia ceased to exist. Since Czartoryskis acquired many valuable souvenirs from destroyed Poland-Lithuania, it is quite possible that the portraits originally belonged to a magnate or even to the royal collection and were commissioned in Italy and transported to Poland-Lithuania already in the 16th century.

Portrait of a seated old woman from the Kolasiński collection by Bernardino Licinio, second quarter of the 16th century, Private collection, lost. ​Virtual reconstruction, © Marcin Latka 

​Portrait of Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) by Andrea del Sarto, Pontormo or circle, 1520s, Czartoryski Museum. 

​Portrait of Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374) by workshop or follower of Bernardino Licinio, second quarter of the 16th century, Czartoryski Museum. 

​Portrait of a lady with a book of Petrarch's rhyme by circle or follower of Andrea del Sarto, ca. 1528, Lviv National Art Gallery. 

​Portrait of a matron in a veil by circle of Andrea del Sarto, 1520s, Private collection. 

​Portrait of a young man by Andrea del Sarto, 1520s, lost during World War II (?). Virtual reconstruction, © Marcin Latka

​Portrait of Pietro Aretino (1492-1556) from the Potocki collection by Titian or workshop, ca. 1545, Private collection. Virtual reconstruction, © Marcin Latka 

"The Queen had a special affinity for music, jewelry and textiles. To satisfy her tastes, she brought artists from Italy. The possibilities of Bona's patronage are well illustrated by the example of her boys' choir, which was regularly renewed with boys from Italy not affected by the mutation" (after "Caraglio w Polsce" by Jerzy Wojciechowski, p. 26). She also sent boys from Poland-Lithuania-Ruthenia to train in Italy. In February 1541, the Polish ambassador Jan Ocieski (1501-1563), visiting the castle in Bari, noted the progress made by some "Polish boys" who had been sent by Queen Bona to her duchy to learn to sing and play the lute (Pueri Poloni videntur musicae operam dare, nam et cantu et cithararum pulsatione bene profecisse indicantur, after "A Companion to the Renaissance in Southern Italy (1350-1600)", edited by Bianca de Divitiis, p. 631).

​From 1524, after death of her mother, Bona was also Duchess of Bari and Rossano by her own right. Throughout her life she dressed in Italian style and purchased in Italy pearl embroidered velvets, thin Florentine cloths, intricate Venetian chains and ornaments. She also received garments from Italian Princes, like in 1523, when Isabella d'Este (1474-1539), Marchioness of Mantua and a leader of fashion at that time, sent to Bona silk and golden caps in return for sable skins. Two years later, the Marchioness also sent six caps and four pairs of fashionable stockings. In a letter from Kraków of July 20, 1527 Bona expressed her gratitude to Isabella's daughter Eleonora Gonzaga, Duchess of Urbino for beautiful caps she has sent her. Jewish merchant from Kraków, Aleksander Levi sold sable skins to Federico II Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, in return for which he collected gold cloth, fabrics woven with silver and silk from Venice. The queen received some of these expensive materials as a gift from the duke. Valuable beaver skins, horses, falcons and hunting dogs, sought after abroad, were delivered to Italy from Poland, and once even two camels from the royal zoo were sent as a gift to Cardinal Ippolito I d'Este (after "Królowa Bona ..." by Władysław Pociecha, p. 294).

In the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna there is a portrait of a woman in a striped dress holding a fan, dated around 1530-1535 and attributed to Giovanni Cariani (oil on canvas, 96 x 77 cm, GG 355). The painting was added to the gallery in 1864 from the storage in the Upper Belvedere, where it was considered a work by Palma Vecchio (E. 322). The Imperial Picture Gallery was transferred from the Imperial Stables to the Belvedere in 1776, so the painting most likely comes from the old collections of the Habsburgs, relatives of Sigismund I, who received and collected the effigies of notable contemporary and former rulers of Europe.

Another version of this painting, also attributed to Cariani, is in the Musée Jacquemart-André in Paris (oil on canvas, 73 x 57 cm, inv. 670). The damaged lower part of this painting was repaired by adding a piece from another painting depicting a cushion on a carpet. Around that time (i.e. early 1530s) Cariani also created a series of portraits of another important Italian, but not Venetian, Renaissance woman - Catherine de' Medici (1519-1589), the so-called Violante portraits with letter V, including two at the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest (inv. 84 and 109), all identified by me. The Queen of France undoubtedly received effigies of her Polish-Lithuanian-Ruthenian counterpart of Italian origin. Probably a 19th century copy of the Vienna painting was offered for sale in New York (oil on canvas, 114.3 x 96.5 cm, Newel, SKU 013551). 

Although the style of the costume is generally Italian, the lower part of her dress reveals Spanish inspiration - late 15th century verdugado, a hoop skirt depicted in Herod's Banquet by Pedro García de Benabarre and his workshop (National Museum of Art of Catalonia, 064060-000). Queen Bona was proud of her Aragonese origins, which were highlighted on many objects linked to the queen bearing her name, such as woodcuts, medals or an antependium (veste d'altare) of green and gold silk, which was in the St. Nicholas Basilica in Bari, on the front of which was written in large silver letters: Bona Sfortia Aragonia Regina Poloniae (after "Della storia di Bari dagli antichi tempi sino all'anno 1856" by Giulio Petroni, Volume I, p. 621).

In May 1543 during entry to Kraków for coronation of Elizabeth of Austria (1526-1545), the lords and knights of the Kingdom were dressed in all sorts of costumes: Polish, German, Italian, French, Hungarian, Turkish, Tatar, Spanish, Muscovy, Cossack and Venetian. The young king Sigismund Augustus was dressed in German style, probably as a courtesy for Elizabeth. Bona started to wear her distinctive outfit of a widowed elder lady most probably around 1548, after death of Sigismund I, a medal from 1546 shows her with a large décolletage.

Before 1862 in the Sibyl's Temple at Puławy, which memorialized Polish history and culture, there was a "fan of Queen Bona" and inventory of Bona's belongings in Bari includes a wonderful chronometer hidden inside a fan made of bird feathers and set with jewels.

The resemblance of the woman in the portraits to the Queen of Poland from her portrait by Francesco Bissolo (National Gallery in London, NG631), identified by me, from the cameo with her bust by Giovanni Jacopo Caraglio (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 17.190.869), as well as a miniature with a portrait of the queen at an older age, perhaps from the series of Anton Boys in Vienna (Czartoryski Museum in Kraków, XII-141), is undeniable.
​
Although in the 19th century no reliable painted effigy of Queen Bona made before her widowhood (1548) was known, painters of historical scenes studied texts and other effigies, as well as preserved objects from the period. In 1874, Jan Matejko created his large composition showing the Hanging of the Sigismund bell at the Cathedral Tower in 1521 in Kraków (National Museum in Warsaw, MP 441). For the queen's costume he took inspiration from a 1524 woodcut with her portrait, the blond hair and dark eyebrows were based on the description of Bona's features. The queen holds her hand on the arm of her eldest daughter Isabella, who is holding her fan, most likely the Puławy fan, which resembles the one in the portrait by Cariani. 

Portrait of Bona Sforza d'Aragona (1494-1557), Queen of Poland in a striped dress by Giovanni Cariani, 1530s, Musée Jacquemart-André. Virtual reconstruction, © Marcin Latka​

"For Peace and Freedom. Old masters: a collection of Polish-owned works of art, arranged by the European Art Galleries, Inc., to help to maintain the exhibit of Poland at the World's Fair, New York, 1940" (National Library of Poland, DŻS XIXA 3a). This is the title of official catalogue of 77 paintings, mostly from the Łańcut Castle, displayed in the Polish Pavilion during the New York World's Fair opened on April 30, 1939. On September 1 and September 17, 1939, the Second Polish Republic was again invaded and partitioned by its neighbours. World War II begun and paintings never returned to Łańcut.

Among them were a portrait of a green-eyed nobleman attributed to Lorenzo Lotto and a portrait of a lady attributed to Paris Bordone, both holding gloves (items 20 and 23). The portraits, now in private collections, have similar dimensions and compostion, they are almost like pendants. The woman is now holding a little dog (not visible on older reproductions of the painting and probably discovered during conservation). The effigy of a man bears inscription DOMINICHO / RADISE, which was not visible before. It was most probably added after 1940 to make him close to the Radise family living in New York since about 1920, as no Dominicho or Domenico Radise is reported in sources. At the 2019 auction in New York, the portrait of the nobleman was sold with an attribution to Giovanni Cariani, also known as Giovanni Busi or Il Cariani (oil on canvas, 99.4 x 74.9 cm, Sotheby's, May 29, 2019, lot 224), while at the 2017 auction in Vienna, the painting was offered for sale with an attribution to the School of Verona (Dorotheum, December 17, 2017, lot 31). The portrait of a lady was also attributed to the School of Palma Vecchio (oil on canvas, 88 x 74.5 cm, Christie's New York, Auction 8215, June 16, 1999, lot 51) and now again to Bordone. 

The woman was also depicted in two other paintings from the same period, one attributed to Palma Vecchio in Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden and the other, most probably a modello or a ricordo to previous, attributed to circle of Bernardino Licinio in private collection (oil on canvas, 32.3 x 25.4 cm, Christie's London, Auction 9441, October 1, 2013, lot 516). The painting in Dresden, entitled Resting Venus, was most probably acquired for the collection of Augustus II, King of Poland (oil on canvas, 112 x 186 cm, inv. Gal.-Nr. 190). 

According to a bill of the picture, it was bought through the dealers Lorenzo Rossi and Andreas Philipp Kindermann in 1728 in Venice for 2000 Taleri, however since the painting is also described in inventory from 1722 it could be that it was confused with another painting of Venus attributed to Sassoferrato. The frame is adorned with king's monogram AR (Augustus Rex) and the Eagle of Poland. It cannot be excluded that it was offered to the king during his visit to the Łańcut castle in 1704 or later by members of the Lubomirski family. The version attributed to Licinio comes from the Heinemann Gallery in Munich. 

Renaissance-baroque Łańcut Castle was built between 1629-1641 as palazzo in fortezza (fortress palace) for Stanisław Lubomirski (1583-1649), voivode of Kraków by Italian architect Matteo Trapola on the site of previous, most probably wooden castle of the Pilecki family. Stanisław's grandfather was another Stanisław (d. 1585), son of Feliks Lubomirski, owner of the Sławkowice and Zabłocie estates.

In May 1537 he married a Queen's lady-in-waiting Laura Effrem (Laura de Effremis), coming from an old family noble from Bari, related to the Carducci, Dottula, Alifio, Piscicelli and Arcamone families, belonging to the immediate circle of Isabella of Aragon, Duchess of Milan and her daughter Bona. Laura received from the queen a dowry of 1,200 zlotys and jewels worth 350 zlotys, as well as twenty cubits of damask.

According to letter of Queen's secretary Stanisław Górski to a poet Klemens Janicki dated 10 June 1538 in Kraków "Italian Laura, who had married [Stanisław] Lubomirski a year ago, having come here at the Queen's request after Easter, in the house where the maids and matrons are staying, gave birth to a son" (after "Królowa Bona ..." by Władysław Pociecha, p. 89). The son died in infancy, Laura most probably died four years later in 1542 and Stanisław married Barbara Hruszowska with whom he had three children. 

​A copy of the Dresden painting, from the ducal collection of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha at Friedenstein Castle (handwritten inventory number: 155) and Callenberg Castle, was put up for auction in 2025 with the attribution of the follower of Palma Vecchio (oil on canvas, 119 x 220 cm, Neumeister in Munich, Auction 418, September 24, 2025, lot no. 53). According to Gregor J. M. Weber, the painting from the Friedenstein collection reproduces the original background of the Dresden painting, the latter being considered to have been repainted in the 17th century, particularly with regard to the background (after "Venus - Bilder einer Göttin", p. 128). Although the painting depicts the same woman in a pose similar to that of the Dresden version, its style, especially in the landscape, is more typically Netherlandish. In this respect, it resembles the works of Jan Steven van Calcar, a pupil of Titian, active in Venice between 1536 and 1537 and in Naples around 1545-1546, such as the portraits of Melchior von Brauweiler, made in several copies (for example, paintings in the Louvre, INV 134; MR 497 and in the Glasgow Museums Resource Centre, inv. 621), and especially the portrait of Lorenzo Onofrio Colonna (1356-1423), Count of Alba and Marsi and Grand Chamberlain of the Kingdom of Naples (Palazzo Colonna in Rome, inv. 65), considered to be a work from the painter's workshop, made around 1540. It is interesting to note that the portrait of Lorenzo Onofrio, brother of Pope Martin V (1369-1431), was made several years after his death, probably after original effigies from the beginning of the 15th century, and was previously considered a work by Hans Holbein. Calcar is the author of the portrait of Barbara Radziwill from the Sapieha collection, sold in Paris.

Portrait of Laura Effrem with pearls in her hair by Bernardino Licinio, 1530s, Private collection.

Portrait of Laura Effrem as Resting Venus by Bernardino Licinio, 1530s, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden.

​Portrait of Laura Effrem as Venus and Cupid by workshop of Jan Steven van Calcar, 1530s, Private collection.

Portrait of Laura Effrem from the Potocki collection​ by Paris Bordone, 1530s, The Schorr Collection.

Portrait of Stanisław Lubomirski (d. 1585) from the Potocki collection​ by Giovanni Cariani, 1530s, Private collection.

Hereditary and absolute monarchs of Europe had no interest whatever in preserving the memory of elective rulers of Poland-Lithuania, especially after decline of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth as a leading European power following the destructive Deluge (1655-1660) and its dissolution following the partitions in the late 18th century. That is why the identity of the Jagiellons, Vasas and even of king Wiśniowiecki or members of the Sobieski family in their portraits sent to European courts was lost in oblivion. 
​
In 1529, through the intercession of queen Bona, a courtier with a stormy and dissolute life, Giovanni Silvio de Mathio (Joannes Silvius Amatus) from Palermo, called Siculus was appointed the tutor of nine years old Sigismund Augustus. He also obtained the Vitebsk parish and the Vilnius canon with Bona's support. Siculus was a doctor of both laws and lecturer of Greek at the Kraków Academy. He died at 90 years of age in about 1537. 

Siculus left Padua, under the rule of the Republic of Venice, for Vienna in 1497 and Kraków in about 1500. When in Poland, he frequently ordered copies of Greek texts from Aldo Manuzio (Aldus Manutius) in Venice. The first edition of the controversial work by Philostratus "Life of Apollonius of Tyana", printed in Venice between 1501 and 1504 by Manuzio, was in a private library of king Sigismund Augustus, now in Saint Petersburg (after Alodia Kawecka-Gryczowa, Biblioteka ostatniego Jagiellona, 1988, pp. 291-292). It tells the story of the first century philosopher and magician and concerns pagan magic and secret sciences.

As an ardent follower of Neoplatonic ideas at the Sigismund's court and opponent of Erasmus of Rotterdam, Siculus spread rumors in Kraków that Erasmus had been put under a church curse. 

Platonism affirms the existence of abstract objects that the physical world is not as real or true as timeless, absolute, unchangeable ideas, as in a quote from Plato's Timaeus, which reads "this world is indeed a living being endowed with soul and intelligence." For Plato, the term ''Anima Mundi'' meant ''the animating principle of matter.''

The painting from the collection of Cardinal Mazarin, possibly originally from the French royal collection, recorded in the inventory of 1661 as a work of Titian (no. 912), shows a little boy and his tutor holding hands on a globe with figures which looks like floating souls and similar to the print Integra naturae speculum artisque imago, published in Robert Fludd's Utriusque cosmi maioris scilicet ... from 1617-1618. The painting, now in the Louvre (oil on canvas, 115 x 83.3 cm, INV 127; MR 75), was seized during the Revolution from the collection of Duke Louis Hercule Timoléon de Cossé-Brissac (1734-1792).

The portrait of a boy in costume and, more northern, hairstyle, typical for 1530s is mentioned for the first time in 1646 by Balthasar de Monconys as placed in the Tribuna of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence (oil on panel, 58 x 44 cm, Inv. 1890, 896), where the most important antiquities and paintings from the Medici collection were displayed, and with attribution to Titian. the boy's features are very similar to those on a series of portraits from about 1521 showing Sigismund Augustus as a child, while the costume to the medal by Giovanni Padovano from 1532.

​Both paintings were undoubtedly commissioned by queen Bona to be sent to major European courts. 

​The young king received a humanist education, influenced by his mother, many aspects of which were sharply criticized by the queen's opponents and the conservatives at court. They complained about the softness in directing his youth and, in addition to Amatus, attacked the young king's court chamberlain Piotr Opaliński (ca. 1480-1551), a diplomat educated in Bologna, who taught German to Sigismund Augustus and his sister Isabella. Opaliński, who, according to Giovanni Marsupino's letter to Ferdinand I dated July 29, 1543 from Kraków, was "the worst of all", restrained the young king from hunting, because it could awaken in him a tendency to cruelty, so widespread in many European countries at that time, and harden his heart. Another Habsburg supporter, priest Stanisław Górski, added in a letter to Dantyszek in 1544: "Our young king, raised by women and Italians more fearful than women themselves, does not like camps" (after "Z dworu Zygmunta Starego. (Dokończenie)" by Kazimierz Morawski, p. 547).

Portrait of Sigismund Augustus as a boy with his tutor Giovanni Silvio de Mathio by circle of Titian, ca. 1529, Louvre Museum. 

Portrait of Sigismund Augustus as a boy by circle of Titian, ca. 1532, Uffizi Gallery.

In 1808 Lucien Bonaparte (1775-1840), younger brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, acquired the "Portrait of the Duchess Sforza" along with 26 other paintings from the Riccardi collection in Florence (oil on canvas, 88.9 x 75.5 cm, Sotheby's New York, January 25, 2017, lot 34). This painting was sold in London on May 1816. Also the inventory of the collection in Palazzo Medici-Riccardi in Florence from the end of the 17th century lists the painting as Titian in the quarta stanza (fourth room) and as Ritratto d'una Duchessa Sforza (Portrait of a Duchess Sforza, Carte Riccardi, Archivio di Stato, Florence, fil. 267, c. 256 r.). The 15th century Palazzo Medici-Riccardi remained the principal residence of the Medici family until 1540 when Cosimo I moved his principal residence to the Palazzo Vecchio.

The woman is dressed in a fashionable, damask, fur-lined gown and green cap, called a balzo embroidered with gold, typical for the 1530s fashion in Italy. She wears the heavy gold paternoster girdle and a long string of pearls, which were very costly. 

This cannot be Christina of Denmark, who in 1534 at the age of 12 became Duchess of Milan as a wife Francesco II Sforza, as her face features do not match the painting by Titian, the sitter is older and Christina was not a Sforza. The sitter's face is very similar to other known effigies of Bona Sforza, Queen of Poland, Grand Duchess of Lithuania and also Duchess of Bari and Rossano by her own right, Duchess Sforza. She particularly resembles Queen Bona from her portrait in a pink dress, probably by Francesco Bissolo (National Gallery, London, inv. NG631), identified by me.

A portrait of an old man in a dark tunic by Titian in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna has identical dimensions as portrait of Duchess Sforza (oil on canvas, 88 x 75 cm, inv. GG 94) and similar composition, just as later portraits of Sigismund II Augustus and his third wife Catherine of Austria. Both are painted on canvas.

The man holds his left hand on a band of the coat, showing two rings that certify the high social status. The portrait was in the collection of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria in Brussels and was included in the Theatrum pictorium (Theatre of Painting), a catalog of 243 Italian paintings in the Archduke's collection, under number 57, one number after portrait of Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski by Bernardino Licinio (56). Both portraits entered therefore the Archduke's collection at the same time. 

In reference to the description of a portrait painted by Titian, published in 1648 by Carlo Ridolfi, the likeness is identified as representing the physician Gian Giacomo Bartolotti da Parma (ca. 1465-1530). Ridolfi recalls that Titian "made another [portrait] of his physician, called 'the Parma', clean-shaven in the face, with gray hair reaching half an ear" (Altrone fece del Medico suo detto il Parma, di faccia rasa, con chioma canuta à mezza orecchia, "Le maraviglie dell'arte ...", p. 152), but in the Viennese portrait the man has longer hair covering his ears. Probably in the 18th century, the painting was enlarged by adding strips of canvas on the sides and bottom, which are visible in old photographs of the painting. These changes were removed after 1888. 

Titian's Portrait of an Old Man in the Lviv National Art Gallery, Ukraine (oil on canvas, 94.4 x 79.8, inv. Ж-756), is stylistically very similar to the Vienna portrait, so both were probably made at the same time. This portrait fits Ridolfi's description even better because the man in the portrait has shorter hair. The Lviv portrait was donated by Professor Florian Singer in 1858 and was signed in the upper right corner: Titianus P[inxit] (after Edward Chwalewik's "Zbiory polskie ...", p. 403), which is no longer visible today. The painting is identified as an effigy of Antonio Grimani (1434-1523), Doge of Venice from 1521 to 1523, who previously served as commander of the Venetian navy. The man in the portrait does indeed resemble Grimani from his posthumous portraits by Venetian painters (compare the portrait in Attingham Park, Shropshire, inv. NT 608980 or the tondo in Palazzo Grimani di Santa Maria Formosa in Venice), however, as in the Vienna portrait, the costume does not indicate the status of the sitter - leader of the Venetian Republic, in this case. If the elected ruler of Venice could be represented in such a modest costume, the same could apply to the elected monarch of Poland-Lithuania, which in many ways resembled the Venetian Serenissima. 

The earliest provenance of the Lviv painting is not known, so it cannot be excluded that it came from the royal collection of Sigismund I and was a gift to the king or that he commissioned this portrait of the Venetian doge (this painting has similar dimensions and composition to the portrait of the "Duchess Sforza" and the Vienna painting).

David Teniers the Younger copied the portrait in the 1650s. This miniature, painted on panel, is in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (oil on panel, 17.1 x 12.1 cm, inv. 66.266). The painting is one of a group of oil copies made by Teniers after paintings in the collection of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm. John Churchill (1650-1722), 1st Duke of Marlborough, who began collecting for Blenheim Palace in the first decade of the 18th century, purchased 120 of these copies, which remained together at Blenheim until 1886. The sitter's face is very similar to other known effigies of King Sigismund I the Old from the 1530s, ​such as his funerary statue by Bartolomeo Berrecci, made between 1529-1531, or his portrait on the silver altarpiece, made in Nuremberg between 1531-1538 (Sigismund's Chapel of Wawel Cathedral).

Although no originals by Titian are preserved in Poland, several old inventories mention his works. The catalogue of the Wilanów Gallery from 1834 mentions two paintings by the Venetian master: "Roman Emperor in armor, a painting of very beautiful colors. Titian" (Cesarz Rzymski w zbroi, obraz bardzo pięknego kolorytu. Tycyan) and "Portrait of the Duke of Florence in black attire and Spanish beret, small round picture. Titian" (Portret Xięcia Florenckiego w czarnym stroiu i berecie Hiszpańskim, mały okrągły obrazek. Tycyan, compare "Spis obrazów znaidujących się w galeryi i pokojach Pałacu Willanowskiego ...", p. 7, 31, items 60, 344). In 1835, Michał Hieronim Radziwiłł (1744-1831) owned in Nieborów a copy of Titian's Venus of Urbino (Portrait of Princess Isabella Jagiellon nude), two landscapes with figures and a portrait of a lady in a dark green dress (compare "Katalog galerii obrazów sławnych mistrzów z różnych szkół zebranych ..." by Antoni Blank, p. 13, 64, 83, 123, items 33, 213, 273, 439).

Many of these paintings were lost in the wars and evacuations, so it is difficult to determine whether they were actually painted by Titian, but the descriptions and attributions were generally more or less accurate, as in the case of Leonardo da Vinci's Salvator Mundi mentioned in the 1834 catalogue of the Wilanów Gallery (item 91, p. 11), which is today considered to be a copy by Cesare da Sesto (1477-1523), a painter from Leonardo's circle in Milan (inv. Wil.1016). 

Very interesting is the mention of the portrait of the "Duke of Florence" in Spanish costume, which indicates that Titian probably painted in Venice the effigy of Cosimo I de' Medici (1519-1574), the second and last Duke of Florence from 1537 to 1569.

Bishop Paolo Giovio (1483-1552), an art collector and historian who owned several portraits painted by Titian and who had lived at the court of Cosimo since 1549, praised the monarch of Poland-Lithuania-Ruthenia in the following words: "we will have great help not only from all the cavalry and infantry of France, but also from King Sigismund of Poland, because of his religion and virtue, for he is accustomed to fighting successfully against the infidels, and he will lead his very strong armies into the field without any delay; so that there is no reason to doubt that victory is now almost certain" (... hauremo grandissimi aiuti non pure di tutta la caualleria & fanteria di Francia, ma anchora Gismondo re di Polonia per conto di religione & di virtu, essendo egli auezzo a combattere felicemente cótra glinfedeli, senza alcuna dimora menerà in campo i suoi fortifsimi esserciti; talche non s'ha da dubitar punto della vittoria gia quasi che certa, after "La seconda parte dell'historie del suo tempo ...", published in Florence in 1553, p. 756). 

"[The King of Poland] considers himself very old, but every night he sleeps with his wife. He is too robust for his age", a Venetian diplomat wrote to his superiors in 1532 (after "Sypialnia królowej Bony na Wawelu ..." by Kamil Janicki). 

Portrait of King Sigismund I the Old (1467-1548) by Titian, 1532-1538, Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

Portrait of Queen Bona Sforza (1494-1557) by Titian, 1532-1538, Private collection.

Portrait of King Sigismund I the Old (1467-1548) by David Teniers the Younger after Titian, 1650s, Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

Portrait of King Sigismund I the Old (1467-1548) from the Theatrum Pictorium (57) by Jan van Troyen after Titian, 1660, Princely Court Library in Waldeck.

​Portrait of Antonio Grimani (1434-1523), Doge of Venice by Titian, after 1521, Lviv National Art Gallery.

"In Poland there are mountains in which the salt goes down very deep, particularly at Wieliczka and Bochnia. Here on the fifth of January, 1528, I climbed down fifty ladders in order to see for myself and there in the depths observed workers, naked because of the heat, using iron tools to dig out a most valuable hoard of salt from these inexhaustible mines, as if it had been gold and silver. I also saw, and talked with, the very beautiful, wise maiden, Hedwig, daughter of the good King Sigismund the First. She was finer than all the riches I have just mentioned, and worthy of a glorious realm", wrote in his work Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus (A Description of the Northern Peoples), printed in Rome 1555, the Swedish scholar and prelate, Olaus Magnus (1490-1557), last Catholic archbishop of Uppsala, who lived the latter half of his life in exile.

On the Wawel Hill, Princess Hedwig and her court, which was almost unchanged until her departure in 1535, lived in a house, which does not exist today, built opposite the southern entrance to the cathedral, in front of the gate leading to the castle courtyard. The chamberlian of her court was Mikołaj Piotrowski, brother of Jan, the Abbot of Tyniec, the superintendent of the kitchen (praefectus culinae) was Jan Guth, called Grot, of Radwan coat of arms from Pliszczyn, the stewards were Orlik, Żegota Morski, Hincza Borowski, Andrzejek and Szczęsny and the Princess' ladies-in-waiting were: Ożarowska and Ossolińska, Anna Zopska, Morawianka, who came to Poland with Hedwig's mother, Elżbieta Długojowska, Stadnicka and Lasocka, female dwarf Dorota and Dorota the laundress and the priest, Father Aleksy. According to Jan Boner's accounts, the Princess' court cost from about 3 to 5 thousand florins annually.

Hedwig, "much loved by the king of Hungary" (molto amata dal re d'Ungharia), as wrote Ercole Daissoli in 1535, frequently received gifts from her uncle John Zapolya, like in February 1527, when his envoy Joannes Statilius, brought her a cross set with diamonds, emeralds, rubies and pearls and wonderful cups for the king and the queen. 

When on November 1526, Zapolya was proclaimed king of Hungary, she took part in the thanksgiving Te Deum laudamus service in the Wawel cathedral. When she passed the news of the victory of her uncle over the Archduke Ferdinand of Austria to the Kraków nuns, "overcome with the frenzy of joy, they laughed and danced", reported the envoy of the Viennese court, Georg Logschau, clearly embittered. Earlier in the year, on October 10, 1526, dressed in mourning clothes, she sat in the choir stalls of Wawel Cathedral, covered with black cloth, during the exequies for the soul of the late King Louis Jagiellon, who had died in Mohacs, and in June 1532, she participated, alongside Bona and her half-sisters, in a votive mass of thanksgiving celebrated at Wawel after Sigismund I had recovered from an illness that had been plaguing him for some time (after "Królewna Jadwiga i jej książeczka do spowiedzi" by Urszula Borkowska, p. 87). At that time, the princess undoubtedly also dressed in the Italian style. Her stepmother's Italian tailor Pietro Patriarcha (Patriarca) from Bari, active at the Polish-Lithuanian court from around 1524, also worked for Hedwig (after "Działalność Włochów w Polsce ..." by Danuta Quirini-Popławska, p. 58-59).

In April 1533, when Sigismund and Bona, with the young king Sigismund Augustus and their daughter Isabella Jagiellon left for Lithuania, Hedwig remained in Kraków with younger sisters Sophia, Anna and Catherine under the custody of a bishop Piotr Tomicki.

During this time the new marriage projects related to the eldest daughter of the king, in which Queen Bona, the Habsburgs, her uncle king of Hungary and Duke Albert of Prussia participated vividly, grew more intense. Among the candidates were Frederick of the Palatinate (1482-1556) and Louis of Bavaria (1495-1545), supported by the Habsburgs. Both Johannes Dantiscus and Piotr Tomicki, who were engaged in marriage negotiations, thought about the latter with reluctance, believing that it is not right to wed a beautiful and healthy girl to a sick man and Frederick was ready to marry the Polish princess only for her dowry. The princess did not learn German, which indicate that her stepmother was planning for her more distant, most probably Italian marriage. 

In 1525, the Polish-Lithuanian-Ruthenian court considered the Gonzaga family's proposal to marry Hedwig to Margrave Federico II of Mantua. The Holy See participated in the negotiations, first through the legate Antonio Giovanni del Burgio, and then, in November 1525, through Niccolò Fabri. The latter initiated preliminary discussions with the queen, who received him warmly, pointed out the secular and ecclesiastical dignitaries with whom he should negotiate, and gave him a letter of recommendation for the king. She herself was very favorable to this union (after "Działalność Włochów w Polsce ..." by Danuta Quirini-Popławska, p. 94). Federico, whose magnificent portrait painted by Titian is in the Prado Museum in Madrid (inv. P000408), must have received the portraits of the potential future wife.

On June 13, 1533 Hedwig's mother, Queen Barbara Zapolya, the first wife of Sigismund was reburied in the recently completed Sigismund Chapel built by Italian architects and sculptors. The king, who earlier commissioned a silver altarpiece for the chapel from the best artists in Nuremberg, also commissioned a jewelled casket for his daughter (Hermitage Museum).

A portrait attributed to Giovanni Cariani or Bernardino Licinio in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice (oil on canvas, 83 x 76 cm, inv. 0304/ E16), shows a young woman in a black, most probably mourning dress, from the 1530s (dated to 1533 by Federico Zeri). The woman's face is astonishingly similar to effigies of Hedwig Jagiellon, especially her portrais by Lucas Cranach the Elder as Madonna (Detroit Institute of Arts) and as Venus (Gemäldegalerie in Berlin). It was therefore a modello for a series of paintings that remained in Venice, a gift for a potential suitor in Italy or a painting that returned to the place of its origin with one of the notable Polish-Lithuanian royal guests in Venice - Queen Bona Sforza in 1556, Queen Marie Casimire in 1699 or her daughter Teresa Kunegunda Sobieska, Electress of Bavaria, who spent ten years in exile in Venice between 1705 and 1715.

The painting is considered a probable counterpart to the portrait of a man in a fur from the same museum (inv. 0300/ E15, compare Codice di catalogo nazionale: 0500440177), which according to my identification represents Jan Janusz Kościelecki (1490-1545), castellan of Łęczyca. Both paintings have similar dimensions, however the composition does not match because the woman stands closer and fills almost the entire canvas. Moreover, Kościelecki's portrait is dated "1526", while the woman's black dress and hairstyle indicate the early 1530s.

The same woman, in the same, although more disarranged attire, is depicted in the painting which was attributed to Palma Vecchio, then to Giovanni Cariani and now to Titian, in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (oil on panel, 59.5 x 44.5 cm, inv. GG 68). It is verifiable in the Imperial gallery Vienna as far as 1720, thus it was a gift for the Habsburgs, so engaged in Princess' marriage projects. ​In another version, attributed to Titian, she has a pose and dress similar to those in Cariani's painting, but a brighter brown dress. ​This painting is also attributed to Bernardino Licinio (compare Fototeca Zeri, Numero scheda 39425). ​A closer look at the style of this painting indicates that the author was not Italian, as the painting closely resemble the works of the Flemish painter Gonzales Coques (1614/18-1684), who probably copied the original by Titian or Cariani. According to my identifications, Coques often worked for the Polish-Lithuanian monarchs.

Portrait of Crown Princess Hedwig Jagiellon (1513-1573) in a black dress by Giovanni Cariani, ca. 1533, Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice.

Portrait of Crown Princess Hedwig Jagiellon (1513-1573) in a black dress by Titian, ca. 1533, Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

Portrait of Crown Princess Hedwig Jagiellon (1513-1573) in a brown dress by Gonzales Coques, second half of the 17th century after the original from about 1533, Private collection. Virtual reconstruction, © Marcin Latka

The portrait of an Italian lady in crimson robe by Bernardino Licinio was first recorded in the inventory of Dresden collection in 1722 (Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, oil on canvas, 99 x 83 cm, inv. Gal.-Nr. 200). It is highly probable, that just as other paintings from the royal collection it was taken from Warsaw in 1720 by Augustus II the Strong. It shows a woman in her thirties wearing an elaborate costume of a noble. Her bonnet is embroidered with gold thread and adorned with flowers of gold and enamel or precious stones. The pattern on the bonnet is very much like a gentian, called Diana (Gentiana Diana), which owes its name to Roman goddess of the hunt, the wilderness, childbirth and the Moon. Diana was also one of the goddesses of night, therefore dark blue was her color. The pattern with some violet flowers and three main plants is also very similar to flowering cardoon (cardo in Italian and Spanish), exactly as in the coat of arms of the Sicilian noble family of Spanish-Catalan origin, Cardona. The motif is threfore a reference to sitter's name Diana de Cardona, better known under Italianized version of her name Diana di Cordona.

The portrait is signed and dated (M.DXXXIII / B. LYCINII. P) on the niche behind the figure and in an underlying layer of paint (P [or B]. LICINI. F [or P] / MDXXX [?]), both partly obliterated. 

In 1533 Sigismund I ordered his banker, Seweryn Boner, to order in Bruges for himself and his wife Bona 60 tapestries with the coats of arms of Poland, Milan and Lithuania, 26 pieces without coats of arms and 6 very expensive "figural" tapestries. It is highly possible that around that time some paintings and portraits were also commissioned. 

Also in the same year Queen Bona wanted to change her hereditary Rossano principality into the estate of Pietro Antonio Sanseverino, Prince of Bisignano. As a daughter of Gian Galeazzo Sforza, Duke of Milan her Italian inheritance was very important to Bona. After an accident in 1527 she could not have more children, so she put all her faith in her only son, Sigismund Augustus, who rechaed legal age of 14 years old in 1534, for continuation of the dynasty. To facilitate his entry into adulthood, she agreed or possibly even arranged his affair with her lady-in-waiting Diana di Cordona, who was just five years younger than Bona (born in 1494). 

Raised by Countess Ribaldi in Rome, Diana had an abundant life and allegedly infected Sigismund Augustus with syphilis. When the young king married in 1543, she most probably left for her native Sicily. 

The same woman as in the Dresden portrait by Licinio was also depicted in the painting from the same pariod by Lucas Cranach the Elder in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid (oil on panel, 75 x 120 cm, inv. 115 (1986.13)). It was acquired in Berlin in 1918 from the collection of the painter Wilhelm Trübner. It's earlier history is unknown. It is possible that it was taken from Poland during the Deluge - "the elector [of Brandenburg] himself took to Prussia as a spoil, the most valuable paintings and silverware of the royal table", wrote Wawrzyniec Jan Rudawski about the looting of royal residencies in Warsaw in 1656.

The painting shows Diana the Huntress as the nymph of the Sacred Spring, whose posture recalls Giorgione's and Titian's Venuses, a clear inspiration by Venetian painting. The inscription in Latin, which reads: FONTIS NYMPHA SACRI SOM: / NVM NE RVMPE QVIESCO (I am the Nymph of the Sacred Spring: Do not disturb my sleep. I am resting.), indicate that the client who ordered the painting was not speaking German, therefore could be either Queen Bona or Diana herself.

Egeria, the nymph of a sacred spring, celebrated at sacred groves close to Rome, was a form of Diana. In the grove at Nemi, near Rome there was a spring, sacred to Diana. She was believed to bless men and women with offspring and to assist mothers in childbirth. Two partridges in the painting are a symbol of sexual desire as according to Aelian (Claudius Aelianus) partridges have no control over it (after Steven D. Smith's "Man and Animal in Severan Rome: The Literary Imagination of Claudius Aelianus", p. 183).

Portrait of Diana di Cordona, mistress of king Sigismund Augustus by Bernardino Licinio, 1530s, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden.

Diana di Cordona, mistress of king Sigismund Augustus as Diana the Huntress-Egeria by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1530s, Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum in Madrid.

After the ceremonies of the so-called Prussian Homage of Duke Albert of Prussia (1490-1568), nephew of King Sigismund I, in Kraków (April 10, 1525), several couples from the court of the King and Queen Bona got married. In May and June, at Wawel Castle, Beatrice Roselli married Gabriel Morawiec, Porzia Arcamone married Jan Trzciński, and Urszula Maciejowska married Jan Leżeński. A similar ceremony took place in September, when Katarzyna Mokrska married Jan Wrzesiński and Anna Zopska married Żegota Mokrski. During the wedding ceremonies, tournaments and knightly games were held in the courtyard, and the court presented the brides with expensive imported Italian fabrics and sweets (compare "Kim jest nieznana dama herbu Ciołek?" by Helena Kozakiewiczowa, p. 141). 
​
The marriage of Italian women from Bona's entourage with Poles aroused great interest in court circles. Jan Zambocki reported this to his friend Jan Dantyszek, the Polish ambassador to Spain, in a letter from Kraków on September 12, 1525: "The court follows its own course, they get married and are married. Two Apulian maidens were now married: one to the son of the voivode of Rawa, the other to the glutton Morawiec" (Curia cursum suum tenet. Nubunt et nubuntur. Duae puellae Appulae traditae sunt maritis: alteram palatinides Ravensis, alteram vorax ille Morawyecz duxit).

Beatrice Roselli (or de Rosellis), a noblewoman from Naples, who married the royal courtier Gabriel Morawiec of Mysłów, a great tournament player, received from the queen as a wedding gift 22 ells of yellow damask and 20 ells of grey Florentine damask, as well as a dowry of 200 zlotys (florins). The gifts for Urszula Maciejowska were similar: on May 17 of that year, Boner noted expenses for 20 ells of white damask and 18 ells of grey damask and 6 ells of black velvet edged with gold, and on June 30 for sweets. Likewise Porzia Arcamone, of the powerful and very branched Arcamone family of Greek origin, who received from the queen 20 ells of golden damask and the same amount of grey Florentine damask. Morawiec assured his wife a dower of 800 zlotys (or 400 florins) on his estates located in the Lublin province. A branch of the Rosellis lived in Bari at the beginning of the 16th century, including Raguzio, canon of Bari Cathedral, and his brother Loysio with his sons Raguzio, Niccolo and Cesare. Niccolo, probably Beatrice's brother, married Isabella de Charis, sister of the court cook of Bona. On the occasion of Beatrice's wedding, a tournament was held at the castle, in which the Tęczyński brothers took part. 

Beatrice's married life did not last long. In 1531, Morawiec died without an heir, having squandered his wife's dowry, and Beatrice was forced to give part of her property to Mikołaj, her husband's brother, with the consent of the king and queen. However, Bona obtained appropriate compensation (Mikołaj Morawiec promised to pay Beatrice 1,200 florins in two installments) and, adding her own money, she acquired an estate for her (after "Działalność Włochów w Polsce ..." by Danuta Quirini-Popławska, p. 30, 99).

Shortly afterwards, for unknown reasons, and without prior notice to the queen, Beatrice left Poland for Ferrara, where she joined the daughters of the last King of Naples, Giulia (1492-1542) and Isabella d'Aragona (1496-1550). After the death of the princesses' mother, the Dowager Queen Isabella del Balzo in 1533, they all went to Spain to the court of Germaine of Foix (d. 1536), Vicereine of Valencia, who was married to Ferdinand of Aragon (1488-1550), Duke of Calabria, son of Isabella del Balzo. Roselli's sudden departure from Poland led to the confiscation of her property in Poland, as well as in Bari. Her estate in Poland was given by Bona, touched by Beatrice's ingratitude, to one of her distinguished courtiers.

Taking advantage of her connections at the Spanish court and at the court of Ferrara, Beatrice obtained in 1538 letters of recommendation from the Emperor Charles V and from Duke Ercole II d'Este to Queen Bona, to restore her to grace and return her estates in Poland and Italy. The mediation of Doctor Valentino, who had great influence over the queen, was even resorted to. However, this was to no avail and Beatrice remained in Spain at the mercy of the princesses of Aragon (after "Królowa Bona ..." by Władysław Pociecha, p. 87, 88, 276). 

Was Roselli spying for the Spanish court or did she reveal secrets of Queen Bona? It is quite possible.

At the same time, the situation became difficult for another of Bona's courtiers, Ludovico Masati de Alifio (Aliphia or Aliphius, 1499-1543). On 28 August 1530, Sigismund I and Bona appointed him governor of the principalities of Bari and Rossano. The governor was in conflict with the inhabitants of the principalities and in 1533 he was even prosecuted before the pontifical tribunal because of the imprisonment in Bari of the bishop of Saida in Syria - Cyprian. The open conflict with the treasurer of the Duchy of Bari, Gian Giacomo Affaitati (Giovanni Giacomo de Affatatis), provoked a strong reaction from his subordinates. In addition, Alifio lost the queen's favor and was forced to leave Italy at the end of 1534. In Poland, as he wrote to Jan Dantyszek, the court had moved to Vilnius and the mood towards him was not friendly. He believed that the envy of his enemies and false accusations had caused a change in the court's attitude towards him. He expressed hope that Dantyszek's intercession with the queen would allow him to regain the lost royal favor (after "Działalność Włochów w Polsce ..." by Danuta Quirini-Popławska, p. 98). 

Bona's letter to Duke Ercole II confirms that he had indeed lost her favour and had already intervened on his behalf in Ferrara, explaining the situation in the opposite way to what Bona had written. He did not exonerate himself before the queen's envoy in Italy, but came to Poland counting on the support of his friends and the lack of witnesses. In the meantime, the treasurer Affaitati, exiled by Alifio, despite his advanced age, personally went to Bona's court at the end of 1534 with his entire retinue. Arriving in Kraków, he learned that the royal couple was staying in Vilnius, where he went escorted by royal courtiers. In Vilnius, he was very kindly received by the queen and she not only approved him in his position, but also gave him generous gifts. Despite this, on his way back, Affaitati was arrested and imprisoned in the queen's castle in Pinsk (Belarus). It is possible that Alifio managed to convince the queen of the truth of his claims and make her change her mind, or perhaps a clique of Alifio's confidants acted independently. The affair of Affaitati's imprisonment was widely discussed in court circles and reflected in the correspondence of the period. The Spanish cardinal Esteban Gabriel Merino (Stefano Gabriele Merino, d. 1535), archbishop of Bari and bishop of Jaén, and five other cardinals also wrote on the subject. Even Pope Paul III Farnese intervened in defense of Affaitati with the Bishop of Kraków and Vice-Chancellor Piotr Tomicki on February 26, 1535. The Pope was informed that Affaitati had been maliciously and deceptively imprisoned by Bona, and the letter was not addressed directly to the queen, but to Tomicki.

The death of the old treasurer, shortly afterwards, in mysterious circumstances, in prison in Pinsk Castle, is attributed to the machinations of Alifio, who soon left Poland permanently, first for Vienna, then for Venice, where until his death in 1543, he carried out certain diplomatic and financial tasks for Bona (after "Tryumfy i porażki ..." by Maria Bogucka, p. 103). 

Since both Beatrice and Ludovico fell out of favor with the queen around the same time and both sought mediation in Ferrara, the two cases were probably connected.

In the Prado Museum in Madrid there is a portrait of a woman holding a book, attributed to Bernardino Licinio (oil on canvas, 98 x 70 cm, inv. P000289). The painting comes from the Spanish Royal Collection (Royal Alcázar of Madrid, 1734) and was previously considered to be the work of Paris Bordone (museum inventory of 1857, no. 693). The woman is identified as the painter's sister-in-law, Agnese, because of her resemblance to the central female figure in the portrait of Arrigo Licinio and his family, a work signed by Bernardino (Galleria Borghese in Rome, inv. 115). The resemblance is very general and the woman in the Prado painting has a darker southern complexion and hair, more typical of Naples than of the Veneto. The costume, on the other hand, is very similar and typical for Italian fashion of the 1530s. The family portrait of Arrigo Licinio is dated around 1535 and similar costumes can be seen in Licinio's portrait of Diana di Cordona (Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden, inv. Gal.-Nr. 200), identified by me, as well as in Parmigianino's so-called "Turkish Slave" (Galleria nazionale di Parma, inv. GN1147) or Bartolomeo Veneto's Portrait of a lady in a green dress (Timken Museum of Art, inv. 1979:003, dated "1530").

The book the woman is holding appears to be a petrarchino, a book of Petrarchan verses, similar to the one seen in the portraits of Queen Bona by Licinio, identified by me. She was therefore most likely a court lady, while her gray dress indicates that she was most likely one of the ladies of Queen Bona's court, who received gray damask as a wedding gift. The ring on the woman's finger is probably the wedding ring, so the portrait would usually be accompanied by a portrait of her husband. No such pendant is known, so the woman was probably a widow for some time before the portrait was executed. All these facts speak strongly in favor of identifying the sitter as Beatrice Roselli, who undoubtedly traveled through Venice from Kraków and then further to Spain.

In the British Royal Collection there is another interesting painting by Licinio from the same period (oil on canvas, 94.7 x 79.1 cm, inv. RCIN 402790). This painting is considered a possible disguised portrait and depicts a man as the apostle Saint Paul and was first recorded in the Closet near the Chapel at Hampton Court in 1861. The cartellino in the upper left corner bears the painter's signature and the date "1534" (M.D.XXX-IIII / Bernardinj Lycinij / Opus:-). The man holds a sword in his hand, the instrument of Saint Paul's martyrdom, however this highly decorative weapon looks more like a sword of justice (gladius iustitiae), a ceremonial sword that is used to signify the supreme judicial power of a monarch. It could be compared to the sword of Sigismund the Old decorated with engraved Renaissance ornaments (Wawel Castle), originally used as a sword of justice and later for the ennoblement of knights. The man shows the passage from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Ephesians, in an open book placed on a parapet: "Therefore, putting away lying, speak the truth, each one to his neighbor, because we are members of one another". Like Alifio, the man demanded truth and justice in 1534.

​Portrait of Beatrice Roselli, lady-in-waiting of Queen Bona Sforza, holding a book by Bernardino Licinio, ca. 1533, Prado Museum in Madrid. 

​Portrait of Ludovico Masati de Alifio (1499-1543) as Saint Paul the Apostle by Bernardino Licinio, 1534, Royal Collection. 

In the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg there is an interesting painting from the workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder (oil on panel, 75.5 x 117.4 cm, inv. Gm1108). It is an illustration of the medieval story of the adulterous wife - The Fable of the Mouth of Truth (Wiles of Women). The story most likely has its source in a legend according to which the Bocca della Verità (Mouth of Truth) in the Basilica di Santa Maria in Cosmedin in Rome, an ancient Roman fountain or drain cover in the form of a marble mask, perhaps from the Temple of Hercules Victorious, would bite off the hand of any liar who puts his hand in its mouth. In the 11th century, the mask was attributed the power to pronounce oracles in the Mirabilia urbis Romae (a medieval guide for pilgrims). The German Imperial Chronicle (Kaiserchronik) of the 12th century refers to a fable according to which a statuette of Mercury (found in the waters of the Tiber) bit the hand of the dishonorable emperor Julian, known as Julian the Apostate in Christian tradition. The same statue later convinced him to renounce the Christian faith. The American folklorist Alexander Haggerty Krappe (1894-1947) has indicated possible sources from the East that use the topos of the hand-biting statue (after "La Bocca della Verità" by Christopher S. Wood, p. 69).

According to the legend depicted in the painting, a woman accused of adultery had to undergo the ordeal of the Bocca della Verità in front of her husband and a judge. She convinced her lover to come with her disguised as a jester and, at the crucial moment, he mischievously embraced her. By placing her hand in the lion's mouth, she was then able to swear that no man, except her husband and this jester, had ever touched her. Because she told the truth, the lion did not bite her hand. The fool, her disguised lover, was not taken seriously by the witnesses and remained unrecognized.

The painting is considered to be a workshop work, painted by the master and his assistants or his son Hans Cranach, which indicates that there probably existed a painting painted by Cranach himself and that this one was only a copy. The painter also created another version of this composition, which comes from the collection of Countess Hardenberg, Schloss Neuhardenberg and is considered to be an earlier version painted by Cranach himself (Sotheby's London, July 8, 2015, lot 8). Unlike the Neuhardenberg painting, where the three main characters in the scene are clearly identifiable - the wife, her lover and her husband - in the Nuremberg painting, the main characters are the wife, her lover and two other women on the right, accomplices of the wife. The figure of the woman's husband is missing (although it is possible that the husband is the bearded old man on the right, behind the women). The painter changed the scene and all the characters. None of the people depicted in the two paintings are identical. He also changed the poses, costumes, and composition. The women in the Nuremberg painting wear more jewelry, as if to indicate their wealth and superior position. It seems that the person who commissioned the painting wanted to indicate the duplicity and perfidy of these three women. 

If the scene was a general moralistic painting, why did the painter and his workshop not borrow elements from the previous scene, especially since it was painted with the assistants? Such a practice was common and would have allowed them to complete the work more quickly. All these factors indicate that the Nuremberg painting is full of disguised portraits and that in addition to the meaning referring to the medieval legend, it also has an additional hidden meaning understandable to the people to whom this meaning was addressed.

The commissioner of the painting must have been a wealthy person, because Cranach's workshop was one of the most renowned in Germany and, by referring to the Italian legend, he wanted to emphasize the duplicity of an Italian woman who dominates the scene and and looks at the viewer in a meaningful way. This is Queen Bona Sforza d'Aragona and, according to the date inscribed in the lower left corner of the painting, it was made in 1534, the year in which the imprisonment of the treasurer of the duchy of Bari Gian Giacomo Affaitati and his mysterious death in the Bona's castle in Pinsk (Belarus), upset many people in Europe. The effigy of the queen is very reminiscent of other portraits by Cranach, which I have identified, including the portrait from the Medici collection in the Villa del Poggio Imperiale in Florence (inv. 558 / 1860) or the portrait as the roman heroine Lucretia (Weiss Gallery, London in 2014). The queen's expression can be compared to that of another Lucretia by Cranach or workshop in the former royal palace in Wilanów in Warsaw (inv. Wil.1749). The German painter must have painted Bona's effigies frequently, so he had a lot of study drawings that he could draw on to create this political allegory. The use of Cranach's studio is also not accidental.

The painting comes from the Picture Gallery of Mannheim Palace, where it was inventoried in 1799 under the number 570. The palace was until 1777 the main residence of the prince-electors of the Electorate of the Palatinate. When the painting was created in 1534, the prince-elector of the Palatinate was the Catholic Louis V (1478-1544), who voted in 1519 for Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, and married Sibylla of Bavaria (1489-1519), daughter of Cunegonde of Austria (1465-1520), Duchess of Bavaria by her marriage to Albert IV. The Elector's brother and successor, Frederick II of the Palatinate (1482-1556), served as a general in the service of Ferdinand I of Austria, King of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia, maintained friendly relations with Emperor Charles V and performed various diplomatic duties in Rome, Madrid and Paris. Those familiar with the story of Queen Bona and her struggle with the Habsburgs, who longed for the crown of Poland (the crown they would never obtain in the male line) and her duchies in southern Italy, will immediately consider the two main candidates who could inspire such a painting - Charles V or his brother Ferdinand I, both of whom were painted by Cranach (for example the portraits of Charles V in the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid and in the Wartburg-Stiftung in Eisenach or the portrait of Ferdinand I in Güstrow Castle) or their supporters like Frederick II of the Palatinate.

The wife of the elected monarch, Queen of Poland, Grand Duchess of Lithuania, Lady of Ruthenia and Duchess of Bari, challenged not only the Habsburg Empire, one of the largest in history, but also male dominance, as evidenced by her effigies in the guise of female heroines such as Judith and Lucretia. She was supported in this task by her court ladies, who represented the queen's interests in the main regions of the country. They are depicted on the right side of the painting. 

The letter of the Habsburg envoy to the Polish-Lithuanian court Giovanni Marsupino, allows us to identify one of them, the most influential in the Crown (Poland). Although it can be considered exaggerated, it also provides a valuable insight into the court of Queen Bona: "The old king forbids her to do so, but what if this poor old king has no will of his own and cannot be relied upon: for as soon as Bona weeps before His Royal Majesty and begins to scratch her face and eyes and tear her hair, the king immediately says: Do what you want, go and order as you like! She is the king. There is no one at court. Mr. Tarnowski is in his domains; Mr. Boner is in his castles. Only one bishop of Płock [Samuel Maciejowski (1499-1550)] is staying here, as vice-chancellor. The archbishop [Piotr Gamrat (1487-1545)] and his wife are in Mazovia. Mrs. Bona rules everything. One is queen, the other pope; thus secular and spiritual interests are in good hands. Wrantz [the envoy of John Sigismund Zapolya, King of Hungary] had several secret consultations with Mrs. Bona: all of them were working towards the Turk tearing Hungary out of the hands of Your Royal Majesty, giving it to her grandson [John Sigismund Zapolya] and destroy Austria. There are honest people here who, of their own free will and without Your Royal Majesty knowing, insist that the king send to the Turk to persuade him to make peace; but Mrs. Bona prevented everything, to the great horror of the entire Senate and all the honorable people. And yet who does not know that after conquering Hungary, the Turk will also think of neighboring Poland, which he would easily conquer; this is what everyone here fears. And on this subject I could tell Your Royal Majesty strange things, what Mrs. Bona has done and what she still does in favor of the Turks and the French, against Your Royal Majesty: the Bishop of Płock says that she is a demon that cannot be driven out by fasting and prayer. Your Royal Majesty writes, she answers, and everything ends with words", reports Marsupino to Ferdinand I on August 19, 1543. He also advised the Emperor, brother of Ferdinand I, to take the Duchy of Bari and thus force Queen Bona into submission (after "Jagiellonki polskie w XVI wieku" by Alexander Przezdziecki, Volume 1, p. 139-140). The Italian agent of the Habsburgs calls Her Majesty the Queen of Poland in the mentioned letter "Mrs. Bona", as if she were a simple townswoman, which also perfectly illustrates their attitude towards her.

The "archbishop's wife" is Dorota Dzierzgowska née Sobocka, wife of Jan Dzierzgowski (d. 1548), voivode of Mazovia, starost of Warsaw and Łowicz, mistress of Piotr Gamrat, archbishop of Gniezno and primate of Poland. The sources confirm that Queen Bona owned a portrait of Dorota and that she "placed this portrait next to a similar woman, the voivodess of Vilnius, and other portraits of the most distinguished persons" (after "Zbiór pamiętników historycznych o dawnej Polszcze ..." by Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, Volume 4, p. 36). This voivodess of Vilnius should be identified as the widowed princess Sophia Vereyska, wife of Albertas Gostautas (died 1539), the wealthiest woman of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania to whom Queen Bona sent a letter addressed on June 4, 1543. So Sophia is the woman standing next to Dorota in the Nuremberg painting. The "archbishop's wife", like Queen Bona, looks at the viewer meaningfully and holds her hand on her protruding belly. The author of the concept of this painting probably wanted to suggest that she had given a child to Archbishop Gamrat. She is depicted in the same way in two other paintings: the portrait from the collection of the last elected king of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Stanislaus Augustus Poniatowski (Czartoryski Museum, inv. MNK XII-238) and the court scene Hercules at the court of Omphale by Lucas Cranach the Elder (Fondation Bemberg, inv. 1098). The jester/lover is therefore Dorota's husband, Jan Dzierzgowski, or her brother Tomasz Sobocki (d. 1547), tribune of Łęczyca, educated in Wittenberg, who thanks to her support became the Crown Cupbearer in 1539. The man in the red velvet costume lined with fur who stands behind Queen Bona should be identified as another of her favourites, Mikołaj Dzierzgowski (ca. 1490-1559), canon of Warsaw, Płock and Gniezno, Count of Dzierzgowo, educated in Padua. If the bearded old man on the right is the husband of an adulterous wife, he can be considered as King Sigismund - his age and appearance are generally similar to known effigies of the king, including the protruding lower lip.

Since the queen used allegory and disguise in her struggle against male domination, the Nuremberg painting should be seen as a reaction to her actions - the virtuous heroines of biblical and Roman antiquity were confronted with the image of female duplicity.

Another weapon of Queen Bona, epigrams and the pasquinade (pasquillo in Italian), was also used against her on several occasions. When Bona inspired the campaign of insults against her son's mistress Barbara Radziwill, some authors from Sigismund Augustus' circle began to attack the queen and the female influences at court. Spanish poet and lawyer Pedro Ruiz de Moros (Petrus Roysius, d. 1571), who initially praised Bona, the highness and nobility of her family and that she introduced social refinement to Poland, as well as that she is humane and charitable (although she has a snake in her coat of arms), in one malicious epigram compares the kingdom to a game of chess: Sigismund I plays the role of a too calm chess king and Bona of a lively queen. There are several other epigrams written by Roysius under fictitious names about powerful and influential women. Roysius maintains that one should not take into account the opinion of a woman, a creature less perfect than a man and that public affairs and politics definitely belong to men, not to women: "For whoever shares my opinion will not approve of your behavior; public affairs do not belong to women". The poet says that he writes about them under a fictitious name because by mentioning the real one, he would risk his life (after "Royzyusz : jego żywot i pisma" by Bronisław Kruczkiewicz, Rozprawy Wydziału Filologicznego, p. 22/62-23/63). The majority of the epigrams undoubtedly concern the queen, In Chlorim probably refers to Dzierzgowska, while another woman, whom the poet calls Maevia, was probably Sophia Vereyska. It is also worth noting that in an epigram on Queen Bona and her predecessor Queen Barbara Zapolya Roysius states that he does not understand the Sarmatian magnates, who were also not happy with Barbara, much less involved in politics than Bona (Ad Sarmatam de reginis Bona et Barbara: Barbara non placuit, placuit minus ante Latina; Nescio quid mirae, Sarmata, mentis habes?). So perhaps this has more to do with Poles complaining about everything and anything than with the dire reality of events. Some of these pasquinades were undoubtedly also financed by the Habsburgs, who eagerly granted the titles of hereditary imperial princes or counts to the Sarmatian magnates.

The appointment of Jan Latalski (1463-1540), called "Bacchus" by the people because of his penchant for strong drinks, with the support of Bona as Archbishop of Poznań (1525), as well as the ever-increasing influence of the queen, irritated her secretary Andrzej Krzycki (1482-1537), who in a poem referred to the legend of the Wawel dragon and Bona's coat of arms: "When the dragon sat under Wawel, only Kraków perished, When he sat at Wawel, the homeland perishes".

These voices of discontent, which are more often cited than the positive aspects of Bona's reign, should not obscure the fact that this period was one of the most prosperous in the history of Poland-Lithuania-Ruthenia and we must "emphasize her great merits for the civilization of Poland, for having increased prosperity, if only on her own domains, which she administered excellently, thus increasing the resources of the Jagiellonian dynasty" (after "Z dworu Zygmunta Starego" by Kazimierz Morawski, Przegląd polski, p. 221, 535). This prosperity was undoubtedly reflected in many magnificent works of art, especially portraits, although due to numerous wars, very few of them remain in the countries once ruled by Queen Bona. 

Since the 19th century, Cranach has been one of the icons of German culture and for many people it is completely unimaginable that his paintings could depict anyone other than ethnic Germans or representatives of German culture. It is therefore a laugh of history that one of the most despised nations of 19th century Germany, which they wanted to annihilate on several occasions (Deluge, Partitions and Germanization, World War I, World War II), contributed to the development of their culture. Many of Cranach's works were destroyed during these invasions.

​The Fable of the Mouth of Truth (Duplicity of Women) with disguised portraits of Queen Bona Sforza d'Aragona (1494-1557) and her courtiers by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1534, Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg.

On 10-11 November 1530 a marriage treaty on behalf of ten-year-old king Sigismund II Augustus and his four-year-old cousin Elizabeth of Austria (1526-1545), eldest daughter of Anna Jagellonica, Queen of Bohemia and Hungary, was signed in Poznań. On this occasion Elizabeth's father Ferdinand I, commissioned a series of portraits of his daughter and her three-year-old brother Maximilian from his court painter Jacob Seisenegger (Mauritshuis, Bayerisches Nationalmuseum). Everybody in Europe should know who will be the future Queen of Poland and Grand Duchess of Lithuania and who will be the future King of Bohemia and Hungary, despite the fact that the crowns of these countries were elective. Around 1533, when Sigismund Augustus was approaching the legal age of marriage (14), and his mother Bona wanted to break off the engagement or postpone the marriage, he most probably ordered an armour for the young king of Poland, created by Jörg Seusenhofer (Wawel Royal Castle). Its breastplate and sleeves proudly display the monogram formed by interweaving capital letters "E" and "S" (Elisabetha et Sigismundus). In 1537 Seisenegger created another portrait of eleven-year-old Archduchess Elizabeth and of her brother Maximilian. 

The king of Poland undeniably received a portrait of his fiancée, and she received his portrait. The portrait attributed to Christoph Amberger in the Liechtenstein Museum in Vienna was acquired in the 18th century by Joseph Wenzel I, Prince of Liechtenstein (oil on panel, 68 x 51 cm, GE 1075). It shows a young man in a costume and hairstyle from the 1530s, similar to that visible in portraits of Archduke Maximilian by Seisenegger, bronze medal with a bust of Sigismund Augustus by Giovanni Maria Mosca, created in 1532, and anonymous print from 1569 after original effigy from about 1540. The collar of his shirt is embroidered with gold thread with depiction of the dextrarum iunctio (hand in hand), highly popular in Roman art. In the Roman world marriage was considered a dextrarum iunctio, a joining of hands and "the right hand was sacred to Fides, the deity of fidelity. The clasping of the right hand was a solemn gesture of mutual fidelity and loyalty" (after Stephen D. Ricks "Dexiosis and Dextrarum Iunctio: The Sacred Handclasp in the Classical and Early Christian World", 2006, p. 432). It was a popular motif in engagement rings. Some gold rings with this symbol preserved in Poland (Wawel - third quarter of the 16th century, Konin - 1604).

Face features of the young man bears strong resemblance to other portraits of Sigismund Augustus, especially his portrait by Jan van Calcar in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. 

"He is of medium height, gaunt, with black hair and a stringy beard, dark - complexioned and and does not seem to be very strong, but rather feeble, and therefore he could not stand great hardships and exertion and often suffers from podagra. [...] In his youth he liked to dress richly, he wore Hungarian and Italian robes of various colors, today he always wears a long robe and does not use any other color except black", described the aging king few years before his death the Papal Nuncio Giulio Ruggieri in 1568. Being involved in many affairs and holding a large number of mistresses, historians agree that the king contracted the "Italian disease", as the French called syphilis.

Two years earlier, in 1565, another Ruggieri, Flavio from Bologna, reported about Polish women that "adding charms by artificial means or dyeing their hair is a great disgrace to them". Sigismund's mother Bona Sforza was described as a lovely bright blonde with black eyelashes and eyebrows. Her court as Duchess of Bari and Rossano by her own right was on the other hand full of peoples of dark complexion and of Mediterranean descent. The word for a woman in Old Polish is białogłowa, literally meaning "white head", which most probably refers to fair hair of young women (after "Lud polski, jego zwyczaje, zabobony" by Łukasz Gołębiowski, published in 1830, p. 112) or a white cap. 

It is possible that later in his life Sigismund was darkening his hair to look more masculine and less "feeble", while his mother and sisters were lightening the hair to look more like a "white head", his hair darkened with age, he inherited a hair anomaly from his mother, painters used cheaper dark pigments to create copies, portraits and sitters' appearance was intentionally adapted to recipients - more northern look and costume for northern Princes, more southern look and costume for southern Princes, as a part of diplomacy, or painters received just a general drawing with sitter's appearance and adjusted the details (eye and hair color) to how they imagined the sitter.  

Christoph Amberger, primarily a portrait painter, was active in Augsburg, a Free Imperial City. A portrait of Emperor Charles V, brother of Ferdinand I, from 1532 in the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin is attributed to Amberger. ​Around 1548, he repaired the damaged equestrian portrait of Emperor Charles V in the presence of Titian, as the Venetian was about to leave, and with the sovereign's consent, he copied Titian's portraits of the emperor. It is believed that the idealized image of the emperor in the National Museum in Wrocław (oil on panel, 31 cm, inv. MNWr VIII-1458) was created from earlier effigies. It depicts Charles at the age of 44 (ÆTATIS. S. XXXXIIII.), so it was painted around 1544, and this portrait was previously attributed to Holbein, as confirmed by the inscription on the back (Holbein / pinxit). The Warsaw University Library preserves a splendid and large chiaroscuro drawing "Hercules carrying the columns of Gades" by Amberger (paper, 62 x 44 cm, signed with the monogram CA in the lower right corner), while these two columns (Pillars of Hercules) were adopted by Charles as his symbol. The portrait of Otto Henry of the Palatinate (1502-1559), grandson of Hedwig Jagiellon (1457-1502), Duchess of Bavaria, who visited Kraków at the turn of 1536 and 1537, was attributed to Amberger (State Gallery of the New Palace of Schleissheim before World War II).

Before World War II in the royal Wilanów Palace in Warsaw, there was a portrait attributed to Amberger (oil on panel, 65 x 51 cm, inv. 15). It was identified as effigy of Charles the Bold (1433-1477), Duke of Burgundy due to some resemblance to his portraits and the collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece, that was established in 1430 by his father Philip the Good. The man's costume however does not match the fashion of the second half of the 15th century, it is more similar to that visible in portrait by Amberger in the Liechtenstein Museum in Vienna, described above. 

On March 7, 1519 in Barcelona, ​​at the chapter of the Order of the Golden Fleece, Emperor Charles V granted the order to Sigismund I and the man resembles certain effigies of the king, however, the model in Wilanów's painting bears a striking resemblance to Sigismund's nephew John of Brandenburg-Ansbach (1493-1525), son of Sophia Jagiellon (1464-1512), based on his portrait by Lucas Cranach the Elder (Wartburg-Stiftung in Eisenach, inv. M0013), also shown wearing the Order of the Golden Fleece, which he received in 1515. Since the mid-19th century, the Wilanów painting has been considered the work of Hans Holbein the Younger or Amberger (after "Straty wojenne w zbiorach malarstwa w Wilanowie" by Irena Voisé, p. 75, item 41).

In 1520, John returned to Germany for Charles's coronation. Cranach and Amberger therefore had the opportunity to meet him in person, yet, this is not confirmed in the documents, so both paintings may be based on other effigies.

At Wawel Castle in Kraków there is another interesting painting attributed to Christoph Amberger (oil on panel, 38.5 x 27.5 cm, ZKnW-PZS 1117). It comes from the collection of Count Leon Jan Piniński (1857-1938) in Lviv, donated in 1931. The portrait, generally dated between 1541 and 1560, shows an old man in his study, and in this respect it resembles the portrait of the Gdańsk merchant Georg Gisze, painted by Holbein (Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, inv. 586). Interestingly, the man's pose was also most likely copied from Holbein's paintings, namely the portrait of a 28-year-old man, painted in 1530 (ANNO DNI / MDXXX / ÆTATIS / SVÆ 28), which was in the collection of Leopold Hirsch in London in 1912, a portrait of another 28-year-old man, painted in 1541 (ANNO · DÑI · 1541 · / · ETATIS · SVÆ · 28 ·), preserved in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (inv. GG 905) and a copy in the Galleria Regionale della Sicilia in Palermo (inv. C004263). It was also used in the portrait of a bearded man, considered to depict Antoine the Good (1489-1544), Duke of Lorraine, which in 1912 was in the John G. Johnson collection in Philadelphia.

This use of a ready-made template indicates that Wawel portrait was a pure studio invention, a collage in which the painter had just inserted the face of an old man. The old man closely resembles Seweryn Boner (1486-1549), banker to King Sigismund I, from his bronze funerary sculpture made between 1532-1538 in Nuremberg by Hans Vischer (Saint Mary's Basilica in Kraków).

​The portrait of Charles V in Wrocław mentioned above has a form and composition similar to a medal. Amberger is the author of a watercolor tondo depicting Georg Hörmann (1491-1552), a patrician and merchant in the service of the Fugger family, executed around 1530 and considered a preparatory sketch for a medal (Clark Art Institute, inv. 1955.1841). Earlier portraits also served as models for medals and sculpted effigies of monarchs. The magnificently carved relief backgammon board, probably commissioned by Hörmann as a gift for Emperor Ferdinand I and created in 1537 by Hans Kels the Elder, contains portraits of the emperor's ancestors and relatives, including those of Charles the Bold (1433-1477), Duke of Burgundy, and King Louis II Jagiellon (1506-1526), ​​based on other effigies. The effigy of Queen Bona reproduced on a medal bearing the date "1546" (obverse) and in Roman characters M · D · XLVI (reverse) was very likely inspired by a painted portrait of her (National Museum in Kraków, inv. MNK VII-Md-68). The medal is attributed to Caraglio and the original portrait was painted around 1540, since it depicts the queen at the age of 46 (ETA · ANNO XLVI). If the original was painted in 1546, then the age on the medal is incorrectly indicated, or perhaps Bona wished to appear younger, as she was 52 in 1546. The artist of the painted portrait reproducing this "look" could be Amberger, a painter associated with the court of Charles V, in whose dominions the Duchy of Bari was located. The same applies to the medal bearing the effigy of Sigismund I the Old, attributed to Steven Cornelisz. van Herwijck, created between 1561 and 1562 (Brussels Coin Cabinet and engraved version held at the Austrian National Library), a few years after the king's death, reproduces the effigy similar to that copied by Cranach the Younger in the miniature of the king kept in the Czartoryski Museum (inv. MNK XII-536).

Portrait of king Sigismund II Augustus (1520-1572) by Christoph Amberger, ca. 1534, Liechtenstein Museum in Vienna.

Portrait of John of Brandenburg-Ansbach (1493-1525) by Christoph Amberger (?), ca. 1525 or after, Wilanów Palace in Warsaw, lost during World War II. Virtual reconstruction, © Marcin Latka

​Portrait of an old man, most probably Seweryn Boner (1486-1549), banker of King Sigismund I, by Christoph Amberger, ca. 1541-1549, Wawel Royal Castle. 

​Portrait of Emperor Charles V (1500-1558), aged 44 by Christoph Amberger, ca. 1544, National Museum in Wrocław.

​Hercules carrying the columns of Gades by Christoph Amberger, 1540s, Warsaw University Library.

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the ​portrait of Queen Bona Maria Sforza d'Aragona (1494-1557) by Christoph Amberger, ca. 1540-1546, lost. © Marcin Latka

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the ​portrait of King Sigismund I the Old (1467-1548) by Christoph Amberger, ca. 1546-1548, lost. © Marcin Latka

Gold medal bearing the image of King Sigismund I the Old (1467-1548) by Steven Cornelisz. van Herwijck, ca. 1561-1562, lost. Virtual reconstruction, © Marcin Latka

"And under that king there were so many excellent craftsmen and artists that it seemed that those ancient Phidias, Polykleitos and Apelles were revived in Poland, masters who in the art of painting, sculpture in clay and marble were equal in glory to the ancient artists" (Itaque tanta copia optimorum opificum, atque artificum hoc rege fuit, ut Phidiæ illi ueteres, atque Policleti, et Apelles reuixiffe in Polonia uideretur qui pingendi, fingendi, ac dolandi arte, illorum ueterum artificum gloriam adæquarent), praise the king Sigismund I in his "Ornate and copious oration at the funeral of Sigismund Jagellon, King of Poland" (Stanilai Orichouii Rhuteni Ornata et copiosa oratio habita in funere Sigismundi Iagellonis Poloniae Regis), published in Venice in 1548, the Catholic priest Stanisław Orzechowski (1513-1566) from Ruthenia (partially after "Ksiądz Stanisław Orzechowski i swawolne dziewczęta" by Marcin Fabiański, p. 44).

The portrait of an old man in a fur coat by Jan van Calcar (compare Fototeca Zeri, Numero scheda: 38836) from private collection is very similar to the effigies of king Sigismund I the Old published in Marcin Kromer's De origine et rebus gestis Polonorum from 1555 and Marcin Bielski's "Chronicle of Poland" from 1597. It bears a mysterious and ambiguous inscription in Latin: ANNO SALVTIS 1534 27 / ANNA AETATIS VERO MEAE / 40 (year of salvation 1534 27 / in the actual year of my age / 40) which, however, fit perfectly the events in Sigismund's life around the year of 1534. That year Sigismund was celebrating 27th anniversary of his coronation (24 January 1507) and his wife Bona Sforza her 40th birthday (2 February 1494), so the portrait could be a gift from her to please 67 years old Sigismund.

The portrait of a 70 years old man (inscription: ANNO ATAT. SVAE * LXX * on the base of the column) with a dog attributed to Venetian school (oil on canvas, 108.6 x 91.4 cm), stylistically is very similar to the previous one. Also the depicted man is undeniably the same, just much older, or more realistic. The difference in details, like eye color might be beacuse the portraits were not taken from nature or the one with darker eyes is a copy of some other effigy. Hedwig Jagiellon, Sigismund's eldest daughter, has bright eyes in her portrait by Hans Krell from about 1537 and dark in other. The compostion is close to known portraits by Calcar, who entered Titian's Venetian studio in 1536. The painting was sold in 2009 with attribution to the circle of Leandro Bassano (1557-1622) (Christie's New York, Auction 2175, June 4, 2009, lot 83), Venetian painter who, according to my research, worked for Sigismund's daughter, Anna Jagiellon (1523-1596), and the way the dog was painted could indicate that this might be correct, however there is no similar painting of a pet attributed to Calcar, which would confirm or exclude his authorship. The columns are typical for many Calcar portraits and the old man's hat and the shape of the beard indicate the second quarter of the 16th century more than the late 16th century. They also closely resemble those in the Portrait of a gentleman with a letter by Moretto da Brescia kept at the Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo in Brescia (inv. 151), generally dated around 1538. It is also possible that Bassano copied an earlier painting by Calcar. Interestingly, this portrait was also previously attributed to Moretto da Brescia (auction November 7, 1990, artnet).

The king's particular liking for little doggies is confirmed by sources. When he was over thirty years old and staying at the Hungarian court of his brother in Buda from 3 October 1498 until the end of 1501, together with his courtiers, armed post, servants and his then life companion, Katarzyna Telniczanka, his favorite animal was a lap dog called "Whitey" (Bielik). The dog was the subject of his special care and he liked him so much that Whitey accompanied the prince during his stays in the bathhouse, and was even washed with soaps bought especially for him.

Portrait of king Sigismund I the Old (1467-1548) in a fur coat by Jan van Calcar, 1534, Private collection. ​Virtual reconstruction, © Marcin Latka 

Portrait of king Sigismund I the Old (1467-1548) aged 70 with his dog by Leandro Bassano after Jan van Calcar, late 16th century after original from 1537, Private collection.

"When this Lady was devoted to such a house and to a country whose language and customs are foreign to her, and therefore must experience great longing when no person is with her, who would share with her the commonness of speech; His Majesty pleads with Your Grace to instruct his nephew so that his spouse could keep people of both sexes from her countrymen who speak her language, until she learns the German language herself, and that her husband will treat her with due honor and marital love", wrote in a letter of July 9, 1536 the king Sigismund I to Cardinal Albert of Brandenburg (1490-1545), Archbishop of Mainz and Magdeburg asking him to intervene at the Berlin court with his daughter's marital problems. 
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Relations of Hedwig Jagiellon with her husband were not going well. The marriage with a Catholic did not satisfy Hedwig's mother-in-law, Elizabeth of Denmark, a devout Protestant, who converted in 1527 against the will of her husband. In July 1536, almost a year after the wedding in Kraków, Sigismund was forced to send his envoy Achacy Czema (Achaz Cema von Zehmen), castellan of Gdańsk to the cardinal. 

Albert of Brandenburg, prince of the Roman Church and renowned patron of the arts, was famous for his lavish lifestyle, which displeased many Protestants. In his portraits by the best German painters he and his concubines Elisabeth "Leys" Schütz from Mainz and Agnes Pless, née Strauss from Frankfurt were frequently depicted in guise of different Christian Saints. Several paintings by Lucas Cranach shows Albert as Saint Jerome. He was depicted as Saint Erasmus in a painting by Matthias Grünewald and as Saint Martin in a painting by Simon Franck. 

The cardinal collected more than 8,100 relics and 42 holy skeletons and wanted to repress the growing influence of the Reformation by holding far grander masses and services. For this purpose he decided to demolish two old churches and built a new representative church in a central location of his residential city of Halle, dedicated solely to the Blessed Virgin Mary (Marienkirche).

The face features of Saint Erasmus from the so-called Pfirtscher Altar, which was until 1541 in the collegiate church in Halle, today in the Staatsgalerie Aschaffenburg (panel, 93.1 x 40.6 cm, inv. 6272), are identical with the portrait of cardinal Albert of Brandenburg as Saint Jerome in his study, created by Cranach in 1525, today in the Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt (inv. GK 71). Among the female saints in the Pfirtscher Altar there is a counterpart panel with Saint Ursula (panel, 92.5 x 40.8 cm, inv. 6268), while two similar depictions of this saint are identified as disguised portraits of cardinal's concubine Elisabeth (Leys) Schütz (d. 1527) - one in the Grunewald hunting lodge (inv. GK I 9370), a companion painting to Saint Erasmus, which has the features of Cardinal Albert of Brandenburg in the same collection, and the other in the Stiftsmuseum Aschaffenburg (inv. 170/55), a companion to the portrait of the cardinal as Saint Martin (inv. 169/55). The letters O.M.V.I.A on Elisabeth's necklace in Grunewald painting refer to Omnia vincit amor ("Love vanquishes all)" in Virgil's tenth eclogue (cf. "Die Renaissance in Berlin ..." by Elke Anna Werner, p. 208-209). In another painting from Cranach's studio in the Staatsgalerie in Aschaffenburg, the cardinal and his concubine are depicted as Christ and the adulterous woman (inv. 6246). They can also be identified in the scene of the Lamentation of Christ from Halle Cathedral, also from the circle of Cranach and also in the Staatsgalerie in Aschaffenburg (inv. 5362), depicted as Saint Mary Magdalene and Saint Nicodemus, holding a container with ointments to embalm the body (also a traditional attribute of Saint Mary Magdalene).

Cranach also worked for the electoral court in Berlin, although his visit to Berlin is not firmly confirmed in the sources. He created several portraits of electors, including effigies of Hedwig's husband and a portrait of his first wife, Magdalena of Saxony (Art Institute of Chicago, inv. 1938.310). The Lamentation of Christ in the Protestant St. Mary's Church in Berlin from the 1520s, by the workshop or circle of Lucas Cranach the Elder, contains disguised portraits of Joachim II of Brandenburg, his mother, and his sisters, according to my identification.

Like earlier her mother Barbara Zapolya (Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid, inv. 114 (1936.1)) and her stepmother Bona Sforza (The State Hermitage Museum, inv. ГЭ-684), Hedwig was also depicted as the Virgin in old Medieval custom. In the painting as the Nursing Madonna (Madonna lactans) in the collection of the Museum der bildenden Künste in Leipzig (panel, 49 x 33 cm, inv. 42), her features are very similar to these visible in her portrait as Judith dated 1531 in the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin (inv. 636A). In the painting from the Friedenstein Palace in Gotha (panel, 105.8 x 78.2 cm, inv. SG 678, recorded since 1721), the main seat of the Dukes of Saxe-Gotha, one of the Saxon duchies held by the Ernestine branch of the Wettin dynasty, her features are very similar to the portrait in Veste Coburg (inv. M.163). It is dated 1534, when the Princess was still unmarried, threfore it was most probably sent to a potential suitor in Saxony. In the paintings from the Georg Schäfer collection in Obbach near Schweinfurt (panel, 82.5 x 56.5 cm, Sotheby's London, December 11, 1996, lot 53), from Eltz Castle (panel, 77.6 x 57.6 cm) and from Zwettl Abbey (panel, 75 x 56 cm, SZ25.416(129)), between Vienna and Prague, the features and pose of the Virgin are very similar to the Gotha painting.

In the painting in the Detroit Institute of Arts (panel, 116.8 x 80.3 cm, inv. 23.31), acquired from the collection of Arthur Sulley (1921-1923) in London, Hedwig pose and features are very similar to the painting in Gotha. It was created in 1536, threfore after her marriage to Joachim II Hector, Elector of Brandenburg. Similar to this painting is the effigy in the Prado Museum in Madrid (panel, 121.3 x 83.4 cm, inv. P007440), acquired in 1988 from the collection of Duquesa de Valencia, also created in 1536. Derived from the latter are the Virgins from the Bode Museum in Berlin (panel, 77 x 57 cm, inv. 559 A), acquired in 1890 from Carl Lampe in Leipzig, possibly from the collection of cardinal Albert of Brandenburg and lost during World War II and in the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest (panel, 74.3 x 55.8 cm, inv. 140), which was at the beginning of the 19th century in the Court collection (Hofsammlungen) in Vienna.

​The Madonna and Child by Lucas Cranach the Elder and workshop, also attributed to Lucas Cranach the Younger, from the Swedish royal collection, today in the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm (panel, 85 x 57 cm, inv. NM 299), is very similar to the painting in Detroit, while the Child is almost identical as in the portrait of Hedwig's stepmother as the Virgin in the Hermitage. Its provenance in Sweden is unknown, therefore it cannot be excluded that it was taken from Poland during the Deluge (1655-1660) or it was part of dowry of Hedwig's sister Catherine Jagiellon (1526-1583), future Queen of Sweden. Two copies of the Stockholm painting, probably made in the second half of the 16th century, are now in the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest (inv. 904, originally in the imperial collection in Vienna) and in the Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum in Innsbruck (inv. Gem. 118), both of which may have originally come from the collections of Hedwig's distant relatives - the Habsburgs.

Treated kindly by Bona from her arrival in 1518, Hedwig, together with the queen and her father, took part in a pilgrimage to Jasna Góra on April 20-27, 1523. She was then given a certain sum of money "for the journey to Częstochowa", to the sanctuary of the Black Madonna, so that she could give alms herself, following her father's example. The devotion of the Princess to Virgin Mary is evidenced by the fact that a rosary was made for her by the famous goldsmith from Kraków, Andreas Mastella or Marstella (d. 1568), at the request of Sigismund I (ab inauracione legibulorum alias paczyerzi, paid on May 9, 1526). From the inventory of valuables left after Jadwiga’s death, it is known that the Margravine of Brandenburg had several such precious rosaries: gold, amber and coral.

Ercole Daissoli, secretary of Hieronim Łaski (1496-1541), writing about the envoys of John Zapolya who arrived in Kraków and the gifts that were given to the princess in 1535, confuses her name and calls her Lodovica, but adds that she is "much loved by the King of Hungary and rightly so, because in addition to being born of his sister, the goodness and valor of the Infanta are such, as you know, that she deserves to be loved not only by her own people but also by foreigners" (questa s - ra Lodovica e molto amata dal re d'Ungharia et meritamente, perchè oltra che nascesse de la sorella, la bontà et valuta de l'infanta e tal come vi e noto, che non solo da li suoi ma ancho da li extranei merita esser' amata, after "Królowa Bona ..." by Władysław Pociecha, p. 565). The use of the Spanish title Infanta indicates that it was probably used already in the 1530s in connection with the daughters of Sigismund I. In his letter of September 17, 1571 to his stepsister (today at the Wawel Royal Castle), Sigismund Augustus also calls Hedwig "Infanta of the Kingdom of Poland" (Dei gratia Infanti Regni Poloniæ), which also indicates some links with Spain.

A letter from Stanisław Hozjusz (1504-1579), Prince-Bishop of Warmia, to Charles Borromeo (1538-1584), administrator of the Archdiocese of Milan (part of the Spanish Empire), written in 1560 (July 31), confirms the interest in Rome for the Catholic Electress of Brandenburg. In a letter written on September 2, 1564, by Charles Borromeo to the papal legate Delfino, who was then in Germany, Borromeo expresses the hope that Hedwig's husband would visit Rome to meet the Pope and believes that it will happen "through the merits and prayers of this holy lady" (per li meriti et orationi di questa santa donna), as he calls Hedwig. Nuncio Deifino also calls her in his letter the "Holy Old Woman of Brandenburg" (santa vecchia di Brandenburg, after "Królewna Jadwiga i jej książeczka do spowiedzi" by Urszula Borkowska, p. 86, 89-91). 

Sigismund was aware of the Lutheran sympathies of his son-in-law, and already in 1535 when the Brandenburg envoys came to Vilnius to sign the pacta matrimonialia (March 21, 1535) the Polish-Lithuanian side was guaranteed that the wedding would take place in the Catholic rite. Joachim II converted to Lutheranism in 1539. Concerned that his daughter will be forced to abandon Catholicism, which he expressed in his letter to Joahim of 26 September 1539 (Illud autem ante omnia Illm vestram rogamus: ne filiam nostram dulcissimam adigat ad eeclesiae unitatem deserendam), the king decided to send another priest from Poland and to pay him a salary from his own treasury so as not to burden his son-in-law reluctant to Catholicism. Łukasz Górka, bishop of Kuyavia, envoy in Berlin helped the king to choose the priest Jerzy, who was paid an annual salary of 100 florins.

Good relations between the spouses are evidenced by letters written by Hedwig to her husband in 1542, when Joachim II was in Hungary as the leader of an anti-Ottoman expedition. Despite religious differences Hedwig was an exemplary mother for three of her step-children (two sons and a daughter of her cousin Magdalena of Saxony). 

Interestingly, in 1534 and 1535 Cranach also created three other very portrait-like effigies of the Madonna depicting another woman in the guise of the Virgin. One of these paintings, dated "1534", on the window, is today in the Staatsgalerie in Aschaffenburg (panel, 120.8 x 82.6 cm, inv. 5566) and before 1811 it was in the collection of the episcopal residence of the Catholic prince-bishops of Bamberg - the New Residence. Another very similar one and dated "1535" is in the Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart (canvas, transferred from the wood, 119.5 x 83 cm, inv. 2385). Before 1916, this painting belonged to Nikolai Pavlovich Riabushinskii (1876-1951) in Moscow. The same woman can also be identified in a beautiful painting by Cranach from around 1535, now in the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (panel, 120.3 x 72.7 cm, inv. 46.4), which belonged before 1896 to the Orsini collection in Rome, so it was probably originally a gift for a pope or a cardinal or a member of this noble Italian family. The woman depicted as the Virgin bears a striking resemblance to the lady looking at the viewer in the painting from Cranach's studio - Hercules at the court of Omphale in the National Gallery of Denmark in Copenhagen (inv. KMSsp727), which, according to my identification, represent Agnes Pless née Strauss (1502-1547). After Leys' death, she became the concubine of Cardinal Albert of Brandenburg. The Copenhagen painting bears the cardinal's coat of arms and, like the Bamberg and Rome Madonnas, was panted in 1535.

Around 1525-1530, the Flemish miniaturist Simon Bening (ca. 1483-1561), who created illuminated manuscripts for Emperor Charles V and Infante Ferdinand, Duke of Guarda, son of King Manuel I of Portugal, also created the Prayer Book for Cardinal Albert with his coat of arms and splendid Scenes from the Creation, now in the J. Paul Getty Museum (Ms. Ludwig IX 19 (83.ML.115)), which testify to the international aspect of his patronage and his following of European trends. However, until the end of his life, like the Jagiellons and the Electors of Brandenburg, the cardinal favoured the style and workshop of Cranach based in Lutheran Wittenberg, as evidenced by his somewhat extravagant portrait with 21 rings, painted in 1543 (Mainz State Museum, inv. 304).

Portrait of cardinal Albert of Brandenburg (1490-1545) as Saint Erasmus and his concubine Elisabeth (Leys) Schütz (d. 1527) as Saint Ursula from the so-called Pfirtscher Altar by circle or workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1526, Staatsgalerie in Aschaffenburg. 

Portrait of Crown Princess Hedwig Jagiellon (1513-1573) as Madonna lactans by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1531, Museum der bildenden Künste in Leipzig.

Portrait of Crown Princess Hedwig Jagiellon (1513-1573) as Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John and angels by Lucas Cranach the Younger, 1534, Friedenstein Palace in Gotha.

Portrait of Crown Princess Hedwig Jagiellon (1513-1573) as Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John by Lucas Cranach the Younger and workshop, ca. ​1534 or after, Private collection.

Portrait of Crown Princess Hedwig Jagiellon (1513-1573) as Madonna with Child nibbling grapes by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1534 or after, Eltz Castle.

Portrait of Crown Princess Hedwig Jagiellon (1513-1573) as Madonna and Child with grapes by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1534 or after, Zwettl Abbey.

Portrait of Crown Princess Hedwig Jagiellon (1513-1573) as Madonna and Child by Lucas Cranach the Elder and workshop, ca. 1534-1536, Nationalmuseum in Stockholm. ​Virtual reconstruction, © Marcin Latka

Portrait of Electress Hedwig Jagiellon (1513-1573) as Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John and angels by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1536, Detroit Institute of Arts.

Portrait of Electress Hedwig Jagiellon (1513-1573) as Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John and angels by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1536, Prado Museum in Madrid.

Portrait of Electress Hedwig Jagiellon (1513-1573) as Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1536 or after, Bode Museum in Berlin, lost. ​Virtual reconstruction, © Marcin Latka

Portrait of Electress Hedwig Jagiellon (1513-1573) as Madonna and Child with grapes by workshop Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1536 or after, Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest.

​Portrait of Agnes Pless née Strauss (1502-1547), concubine of Cardinal Albert of Brandenburg (1490-1545), as Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist and angels by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1534, Staatsgalerie in Aschaffenburg. 

​Portrait of Agnes Pless née Strauss (1502-1547), concubine of Cardinal Albert of Brandenburg (1490-1545), as Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist and angels by workshop Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1535, Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart. 

​Portrait of Agnes Pless née Strauss (1502-1547), concubine of Cardinal Albert of Brandenburg (1490-1545), as Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist and angels by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1535, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. 

Princess Sophia Vasilievna Vereyska, wife of Albertas Gostautas, together with Barbara Kolanka, wife of George "Hercules" Radziwill, Katarzyna Tomicka, wife Nicolaus "the Red" Radziwill and Elżbieta Szydłowiecka, wife Nicolaus "the Black" Radziwill, was one of the wealthiest and the most influential woman of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, during the reign of Sigismund I and Bona Sforza. As the wife of Grand Chancellor of Lithuania and Voivode of Vilnius, the positions held by her husband from 1522, she was the most important woman in the Grand Duchy after the Queen. Furthermore, in 1529 Pope Clement VII Medici granted Albertas the title of count and in 1530 Emperor Charles V included him among the counts of the empire. Sophia's husband was also the richest man in Lithuania. His estates included hundreds of villages and towns. In 1528 he had 466 cavalrymen and 3,728 servants.

Sophia, known in Polish sources as Zofia Wasilówna z Wierejskich Gasztołdowa, was the daughter of the Russian prince Vasily Mikhailovich Vereysky, a relative of the Grand Prince of Moscow Ivan III, and Maria Palaiologina (d. 1505), who, according to Russian sources, was the daughter of the titular emperor of Constantinople and Despot of the Morea Andreas Palaiologos (1453-1502). Andreas was a courtier of Pope Alexander VI Borgia in Rome and married a Roman prostitute Caterina (after "The Papacy and the Levant, 1204-1571" by Kenneth Meyer Setton, Volume 2, p. 462). He lived on a papal pension and was buried with honor in St. Peter's Basilica at the expense of Pope Alexander VI.

In 1483, Vasily and Maria went into exile in Lithuania because of an incident involving the jewels of Maria of Tver (1442-1467). On October 2, 1484, they received the estates of Lubcha, Koydanava, Radashkovichy and Valozhyn (Belarus) from King Casimir IV Jagiellon. Sophia was born around 1490 and married Albertas in 1505 or 1506, for whom this marriage was a significant elevation since his wife was related to Byzantine emperors and the rulers of Moscow. As Vasily's only daughter, she inherited all his property, granted by King Casimir IV. In 1522, King Sigismund I granted Sophia, her husband and her descendants the right to seal letters with red wax, which was reserved for persons of royal blood. The king emphasized in the privilege that "having special respect for the nobility of the Vereysky princely family and the personal virtues of Sophia, the wife of Albertas, grants the above privilege to her, her husband and her offspring forever" (after "Ateneum wileńskie", Volume 14, 1939, p. 120). Around 1507 the only son of Sophia and Albertas, Stanislovas (Stanislaus), was born in Vilnius. He was the first husband of Barbara Radziwill (1520/23-1551).

It is possible that as the presumed granddaughter of a Roman prostitute, whose mother was probably raised at the Borgia court in Rome, Sophia knew Italian, making her even closer to Queen Bona. Two letters from the queen to the voivodess of Vilnius are known, both in Polish - dated January 21, 1537 and June 4, 1543. The letter of 1537 is evidence that communication through envoys to whom the oral message was transmitted was valued more highly than a letter (compare "Kobieca korespondencja w Wielkim Księstwie Litewskim ..." by Raimonda Ragauskienė, Biuletyn historii pogranicza, p.  9, 11). This is one of the reasons why we have so little information about portraits of women from Poland-Lithuania-Ruthenia, which were undoubtedly numerous. However, one source confirms that Queen Bona owned a portrait of the voivodess of Vilnius, most likely Sophia, which she kept with a portrait of her favourite Dorota Dzierzgowska née Sobocka "and other portraits of the most distinguished persons" (after "Zbiór pamiętników historycznych o dawnej Polszcze ..." by Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, Volume 4, p. 36). 

Albertas died in December 1539 and his estates passed to his son. By virtue of a privilege granted by Sigismund on June 13, 1542, Sophia purchased a house in Vilnius. After Stanislovas died without an heir in December 1542, all the Gostautas estates passed, in accordance with the law of the time, into the possession of King Sigismund the Old, who gave them to his son, Sigismund Augustus, on June 15, 1543. The rights to the estates of the Gostautas family were expressed by the widows: Sophia after Albertas and Barbara Radziwill after Stanislovas. The young king returned to Albertas' widow her patrimonial estates, which had been bequeathed to her by her husband and son for life.

It is very likely that this action was inspired by Bona, because a woman became the administrator of the Gostautas' fortune. As the richest woman in the Grand Duchy, close to Queen Bona, Sophia is probably also among the women criticized in epigrams by the Spanish poet and lawyer Pedro Ruiz de Moros (Petrus Roysius, died 1571), perhaps written between 1545 and 1549, when Bona inspired a similar campaign against a mistress of his son Barbara Radziwill. When Stanisław Orzechowski (1513-1566), in conflict and polemic with Roysius, attacked Barbara, the Spaniard who on October 1, 1549 had been appointed by Sigismund Augustus as a courtier and royal advisor with a salary of 200 złotys per year, wrote a malicious poem "To Maevia" (Ad Maeviam). This pseudonym means "the one who is great" or "mighty" and this woman, although she refers to the chaste Lucretia of Rome, is more like Helen of Troy, who does not care about her husband's fame (Quod decet, illud ama, plenis fuge, Maevia, velis Dedecus et sanctae damna pudicitiae. Hoc sibi proposuit Lucretia casta sequendum, Hoc Helena prae se non tulit argolica. Illius idcirco laus nullo intercidet aevo, Perpetuum terris dedecus huius erit. Illius haud oberunt saeclorum oblivia famae, Non Helenes sordes abluet oceanus). The selection of Roman and Greek heroines could be a reference to Sophia's origins.

The Imperial Countess died in August 1549, although according to some sources she was still alive in 1553, because in that year she concluded an agreement with Barbara Holszańska and acquired Migowo from Czaplica (after "Poczet rodów w Wielkiem Księstwie Litewskiem ..." by Adam Boniecki, p. 60). There are some letters about the funeral and the inventory of Sophia's belongings (letters from Sigismund Augustus to Nicolaus "the Red" Radziwill, from Kraków, August 25 and December 13, 1549), as well as the fact that after her death Bishop Zmorski brought a box to Warsaw to Queen Bona, which was carried by 10 men (after "Język polski w kancelarii królewskiej ..." by Beata Kaczmarczyk, p. 67). Three members of the Council of Lords were sent to Valozhyn to prepare a register. In Vilnius, the king's treasurer Stefan Wełkowicz received sealed chests from the manors in Valozhyn, Koydanava and Vilnius (after "The earliest registers of the private archives of the nobility ..." by Raimonda Ragauskienė, p. 127-128).

Of the immense fortune of the Gostautas family, almost nothing remains. In the Munich University Library there is a prayer book created in 1528 in Kraków by the splendid illuminator Stanisław Samostrzelnik for Albertas. This prayer book is partly inspired by German graphics and shows Albertas on one page as a donor kneeling before the Vir Dolorum. On the other page, King Sigismund I is depicted as one of the Magi in the scene of the Adoration. This is undoubtedly a portrait of the king, not only because of its resemblance to his other effigies, but also because of the context of such representations of monarchs (the disguised portrait of Jogaila in the Adoration of the Magi), and the fact that the servant behind the king holds a crown above his head. The experts, however, fail to mention that the king was actually depicted as Saint Caspar, venerated in both the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches. Another miniature in this prayer book, which undoubtedly contains disguised portraits, is the scene of the Visitation (Cim. 89, 254/124r, 329/161v). This is due to the Gostautas coat of arms in the lower part and the strong resemblance to a similar scene in Queen Bona's prayer book, which, according to my identification, includes portraits of the queen, Katarzyna Telniczanka, and her daughter Beata. Since Mary's costume is very similar to that in Bona's prayer book, it is possible that this is a portrait of the queen, while the founder's wife is depicted as Saint Elizabeth. Bona's prayer book was created in 1527, and Gostautas's the following year. As Mary's facial features differ from those in Bona's prayer book, it is also possible that it was not the queen, but Princess Vereyska, who lent her facial features to Madonna.

​Beautiful funerary sculpture of Albertas in precious red marble, created around 1540, preserved in the Vilnius Cathedral, although it was seriously damaged during the Deluge (the face was smashed during the Russian and Cossack occupation of the city). The sculpture is attributed to the Florentine sculptor Bernardino Zanobi de Gianotis, also called Romanus (the Roman).

There are no known painted portraits of Albertas (apart from mentioned miniature by Samostrzelnik), but he had good relations with Sigismund I's nephew, Duke Albert of Prussia (1490-1568), who was painted by Lucas Cranach the Elder and Hans Krell. He corresponded with the duke about the Ruthenian printer and pedagogue Francis Skaryna, active in Vilnius in Prague, who published several books in Ruthenian decorated with magnificent engravings by an engraver from the circle of Hans Springinklee. As a count of the Holy Roman Empire, to increase his prestige, Gostautas probably used the painters working for the emperor, including Titian, but also Cranach, who painted several portraits of Charles V and his brother Ferdinand I.

Albertas' wife, following the example of Queen Bona, probably also commissioned several of her portraits. Nothing is known about her burial place, but since she was probably Orthodox, she was not buried with her husband in the Catholic Cathedral in Vilnius.

In the State Art Museum in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, there is a painting of Lucretia, painted by Lucas Cranach the Elder and his workshop in 1535 (panel, 77 x 52 cm, inv. 966). The same woman in a similar pose was depicted standing next to Queen Bona's favourite Dorota Dzierzgowska née Sobocka in the 1534 painting in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg (inv. Gm1108). The face is almost identical, as if the painter had used the same study drawing to create both effigies. The Nizhny Novgorod painting comes from the collection of Mikhail Platonovich Fabricius (1847-1915), a military engineer, who participated in the reconstruction of a number of Kremlin buildings in Moscow. Fabricius collected materials and wrote a book on the history of the Kremlin. He began collecting in Moscow and continued in St. Petersburg. If we assume that the painting depicts the wife of Albertas Gostautas, it could have come to Russia as a gift to her family there (in 1493, the Grand Princess of Moscow Sophia Palaiologina obtained pardon and permission for Prince Vereysky and his wife to return to their homeland, but for some reason the exiles did not take advantage of this). As the property of an aristocratic family outside Moscow, it could survive iconoclasm of 1654-1655. It could also have been acquired in the former territories of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth during the Partitions or come from the collection of many Polish-Lithuanian and Ruthenian aristocrats who settled in St. Petersburg in the 19th century.

At least two copies of the Nizhny Novgorod painting are known, both made by the painter's workshop more than ten years later, in 1548, when Roysius probably wrote his malicious poem. Both are signed with the artist's winged serpent and dated. One of these copies, now in a private collection (panel, 77.5 x 52.4 cm, Christie's London, Auction 5013, April 26, 2006, lot 124), comes from the Electoral Collection in Dresden (inventory from 1722 to 1728, number 351 inscribed on the painting), the possible earlier provenance being the royal residences in Warsaw from where Augustus II the Strong moved many paintings and objects during the Great Northern War. The other is also in a private collection (oil on panel, 80 x 53 cm, Dorotheum in Vienna, October 17, 2017, lot 210) and was sold in 1966 in Lucerne, Switzerland.

In the 1530s, Cranach and his workshop depicted the same woman in two other paintings depicting the virtuous Roman Lucretia. One of them, dated "1535", like the Nizhny Novgorod painting, is in the Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum in Hanover (panel, 51.7 x 34.8 cm, inv. PAM 775), and comes from the collections of the Electors of Brunswick-Lüneburg, mentioned in the collection of the Hanover Palace in 1802 (no. 83). This provenance also indicates that the woman depicted as Lucretia was a member of the European high aristocracy. This painting is frequently compared to Cranach's later Lucretia in Wilanów Palace (Wil. 1749), which is similar in pose and depicts Queen Bona, according to my identification. The other, undated, is in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem (panel, 63 x 50 cm, inv. B89-0059) and was in New York before 1931. The similarity of the costume with the Nizhny Novgorod painting is notable and the painting is also compared to that in the Wilanów Palace. The expensive furs worn by the woman were typical of Lithuania and Ruthenia at that time.

We can identify the same woman in a portrait attributed to the workshop of Bernardino Licinio, now kept at the Galleria Sabauda in Turin (oil on canvas, 74 x 67 cm, inv. 466). The painting came at the gallery following the donation of Riccardo Gualino (1879-1964) in 1930 and its previous history is unknown. This likeness is very similar to two portraits of Queen Bona by Licinio that I have identified (British Embassy in Rome and private collection). The costume is very much alike and as in the portrait of the queen, the ribbon that ties the bodice of the model's dress is inspired by German fashion of the time. Unlike Cranach's portraits, her forehead is not shaved according to the Nordic fashion. She holds a dog, a symbol of fidelity, and directs her gaze to the left as if she were looking at the man, her husband, in the counterpart painting, which probably accompanied this effigy. The Madonna by Lucas Cranach the Elder, made around 1525, now in a private collection (panel, 56.5 x 39.9 cm), has the same facial features. This painting comes from the collection of the Barons of Mecklenburg, a noble family originally from Mecklenburg, who owned estates in Sweden, Prussia and Pomerania.
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The effigies of the "disguised" Princess Sophia most likely inspired the Augsburg painter Jörg Breu the Elder (ca. 1475-1537) to create the effigy of the Roman heroine in his composition depicting the Story of Lucretia, now in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich (inv. 7969). Breu travelled to Italy twice (about 1508 and 1514), but this painting was painted more than ten years later, in 1528 (dated top left). It also bears the coat of arms of William IV (1493-1550), Duke of Bavaria, and his wife Maria Jakobaea of ​​Baden-Sponheim (1507-1580), as it was part of the cycle commissioned by the Duke for the decoration of his residence. The Story of Lucretia was acquired in 1895 from the collection of Carl Edvard Ekman at Finspang Castle in Sweden, built between 1668 and 1685. Breu's study drawing, held at the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest (inv. 62), indicates that the main character's face was originally different and that patrons probably requested for it to be changed. Although the Gostautas prayer book in Munich is believed to have come from the dowry of Princess Anna Catherine Constance Vasa (1619-1651), the earliest confirmed provenance of this book is the collection of the Jesuit Ferdinand Orban (1655-1732) in Ingolstadt. Like Breu's painting, the prayer book was also created in 1528 (dated on one of the pages).

The face of a lady in another painting by Bernardino Licinio is very similar to that in Cranach's Madonna from the collection of the Barons of Mecklenburg. The work is now in a private collection (oil on canvas, 71 x 59 cm, Asta Finarte in Milan, 29 November 1995, lot 131). This portrait, known as "Portrait of a Lady with a Fan" (Ritratto di gentildonna con ventaglio), comes from the Contini Bonacossi collection in Florence, from which also come several portraits of the Jagiellons, identified by me. Like the portraits of the Jagiellons, it was probably sent to the Medici or other important ruling families in Italy. The sitter's costume indicates the early 1530s and is entirely black (or dark grey). The woman's black veil, like a Roman matron, indicates mourning, hence mourning after the death of Pope Clement VII Medici, who died in September 1534 (he granted the title of count to Gostautas). This gesture by the probably Orthodox princess and papal and imperial countess undoubtedly had a special meaning for her and for the Medici.

In the 16th century, Italian and German influences, as well as Netherlandish influences (in the northern regions), mixed in artistic patronage from Poland, Lithuania and Ruthenia. The works of art preserved in the Cathedral and the Archdiocesan Museum in Przemyśl are the best illustration of this.

It was sometimes associated with the education of the patrons of these works of art, as in the case of the splendid funerary monument of Jan Dziaduski (1496-1559), bishop of Przemyśl, educated in Padua and Rome (between 1519 and 1524), sculpted by the Venetian sculptor Giovanni Maria Mosca known as Padovano (1493-1574) around 1559 (IOANI DZIADVSKI ‣ I ‣ V ‣DOCTO/RI ‣ EPICOPO PREMISLIEÑ ‣ [...] ‣ANNO ‣ ÆTATIS SVÆ / L XIII ‣ SALVTIS VERO M D LIX DIE XXIX / I VLII VITA FVNCTO AMICI MERENTES PO/SVERE ‣). 

Another source of foreign influences was the presence of a local community from a specific country or cultural cycle, as in the case of the so-called Master of the Klimkówka Triptych, active in Krosno and the surrounding area in the first quarter of the 16th century. Since the Middle Ages, this area was inhabited by the community of Saxon settlers called "Deaf Germans" (Głuchoniemcy in Polish or Taubdeutsche in German). As his style indicates, the Master of the Klimkówka Triptych was probably trained in Kraków, however, either there or in Krosno he had the opportunity to see the imports of painting and graphics from southern Germany.

The Farewell of Saint Peter and Paul from Osiek Jasielski, painted in 1527 (inv. MAPrz I/110), reveals the inspiration of the works of the Master of Messkirch, active between 1515 and 1540, probably a student of Hans Leonhard Schäufelein. The Klimkówka Lamentation of Christ from 1529 is based on Schäufelein's woodcut from the Speculum Passionis Domini Nostri Jhesu Christi, published in Nuremberg in 1507 (inv. MAPrz I/337). These images, however, are not direct transpositions of works by German masters. In the Lamentation from Klimkówka, the painter gave the figures the effigies of members of the local community, perhaps members of the noble Sienieński family, who owned the village at that time. He also dressed them according to the fashion in vogue in the region, thus Saint Joseph of Arimathea, possibly Wiktoryn Sienieński (ca. 1463-1530), castellan of Małogoszcz, wears a hat lined with grey fur and his costume and beard are typical for Western European fashion of the time. In turn, Saint Mary Magdalene, perhaps the daughter of a man represented as Saint Joseph (possibly Agnieszka or Katarzyna Sienieńska), wears a costume more typical of Ruthenia. The men behind Saint Peter in the painting from Osiek Jasielski are dressed according to the Western European fashion, while the sermon of Saint Paul in Athens on the right wing of this triptych probably takes place in one of the churches in Kraków or Krosno.

The same is true for a painting of Jew whipping the statue of Saint Nicholas of Bari from Rzepiennik Biskupi (Czartoryski Museum, inv. MNK XII-242), painted by the same master or his workshop, where the Jew is dressed in a costume typical of this community from the first quarter of the 16th century. This Mimesis, which consists of placing religious scenes in authentic places and involving members of the local community in the religious scene, had a great moralizing significance.

Wealthy patrons like Sophia could afford greater diversity in their patronage and commission their effigies from the most important centres of pictorial production in Europe.

​Visitation from the prayer book of Albertas Gostautas with disguised portrait of Princess Sophia Vasilievna Vereyska (?) by Stanisław Samostrzelnik, ca. 1528, Munich University Library.

​Adoration of the Magi from the prayer book of Albertas Gostautas with disguised portrait of King Sigismund I as Saint Caspar by Stanisław Samostrzelnik, ca. 1528, Munich University Library.

​Portrait of Princess Sophia Vasilievna Vereyska (ca. 1490-1549) holding a dog by workshop of Bernardino Licinio, ca. 1524-1534, Galleria Sabauda in Turin. 

​​Portrait of Princess Sophia Vasilievna Vereyska (ca. 1490-1549) as Madonna and Child by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1525, Private collection. 

​Portrait of Princess Sophia Vasilievna Vereyska (ca. 1490-1549) in mourning by Bernardino Licinio, ca. 1534, Private collection. Virtual reconstruction, © Marcin Latka 

​Portrait of Princess Sophia Vasilievna Vereyska (ca. 1490-1549) as Lucretia by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1535, Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum in Hanover. 

​Portrait of Princess Sophia Vasilievna Vereyska (ca. 1490-1549) as Lucretia by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1535, Israel Museum in Jerusalem. 

​Portrait of Princess Sophia Vasilievna Vereyska (ca. 1490-1549) as Lucretia by Lucas Cranach the Elder and workshop, 1535, State Art Museum in Nizhny Novgorod. 

​Portrait of Princess Sophia Vasilievna Vereyska (ca. 1490-1549) as Lucretia by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1548, Private collection. 

​Portrait of Princess Sophia Vasilievna Vereyska (ca. 1490-1549) as Lucretia by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1548, Private collection. 

In 1536 Jan (1516-1562) and Stanisław (1517-1560), sons of Seweryn Boner (1486-1549), royal banker of Bona Sforza and Sigismund I, burgrave of Kraków and starost of Biecz, went on a scientific trip around Italy. They traveled to Naples and to Rome, where their tutor Anselmus Ephorinus (d. 1566) was ennobled by Emperor Charles V. They returned to Kraków in autumn 1537. Few years earlier, in September 1531, at the instigation of the Łaskis, Ephorinus and his disciples Jan Boner and Stanisław Aichler found themselves in Basel benefiting from teachings of a Netherlandish philosopher and theologian Erasmus of Rotterdam for almost 6 months. The philosopher dedicated his P. Terentii Comoediae sex to Jan and Stanisław (Ioanni et Stanislao Boneris fratribus, Polonis) and he refers to their father (Seuerinum Bonerum) in this work. During a seven-year peregrination they also visited France and Germany, where in Erfurt and Nuremberg they made acquaintance with a number of eminent humanists.

Erasmus, who corresponded with Seweryn and other Poles, died in Basel on July 12, 1536. In his will he bequeathed to Bonifacius Amerbach, his friend in Basel, two gold medals of King Sigismund and Seweryn Boner, both from 1533 and both works by Matthias Schilling from Toruń or an Italian medallist, such as Padovano, Caraglio, Pomadello, perhaps created in Venice or Verona. The reverse side of the medal with a portrait of King Sigismund had the inscription: "To Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus Seweryn Boner as a souvenir" (after "Wiek złoty i czasy romantyzmu w Polsce" by Stanisław Łempicki, ‎Jerzy Starnawski, p. 354). The Poles also acquired Erasmus' library - in 1536, Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski stayed in Nuremberg in the house of his friend Daniel Schilling, a merchant from Kraków, and in November this year, at the request of Jan Łaski, he goes to Basel in order to bring the library to Poland. The books were sent first to Nuremberg, where the library was deposited in the apartment of Schilling, staying there with his brother on commercial business, either his own, or perhaps for the Boners or Justus Ludwik Decjusz. 

Seweryn Boner (or Bonar) was the son of Jakob Andreas (1454-1517), a banker in Nuremberg and in Wrocław, and the nephew of Johann (Hans) Boner (1462-1523), royal banker, born in Landau in Palatinate, from whom he inherited all the property along with the offices held by his uncle. On October 23, 1515, he married Zofia Bethmanówna - the heiress of Balice, which became the suburban residence of the Boners. From 1532 he was a city councilor in Kraków and from Emperor Ferdinand he received the title of baron in Ogrodzieniec and Kamieniec.

Boner acted as an intermediary in international monetary transactions. Through Fuggers' bank, he transfers money to Venice using promissory notes, the basis of trade between cities.

Even before his coronation, Sigismund owed him 7,000 florins. In 1512, the debt amounted to 65,058 florins, which is 4,000 more than all the annual revenues of the treasury. When he was elected king, in 1506 Boner become his exclusive supplier of all goods from glass panes imported from Venice for the windows in the Wawel Castle, to cloth and pepper (after "Przemysł polski w dawnych wiekach" by Aleksander Bocheński, ‎Stefan Bratkowski, p. 131).

Banking and commercial relations with Nuremberg of Johann and Seweryn Boner, closely associated with the artistic patronage of Sigismund the Old, also influenced the importation of outstanding works of artistic craftsmanship from there to Kraków. Silver and gold products were purchased by Boner in Nuremberg, and above all in Italy. His wagons loaded with pomades, soaps, perfumes, silk, Venetian glass, costly goblets and rings of pure gold were coming from Italy and Venice. Through Lviv merchants, he purchased Turkish goods, and very sought after pepper and spices (after "Kraków i ziemia krakowska" by Roman Grodecki, p. 125). Seweryn also organized his own post office from Kraków to Germany, which was often used by the court. In December 1527 a shipment of costly fabrics for the queen, together with a letter to Bona from the Margrave of Mantua, was to be sent by her Venetian agent Gian Giacomo de Dugnano to Seweryn Boner, however, the transport was detained by the Viennese customs chamber (allegedly due to the violation of customs regulations).

In 1536, foreign orders increased due to planned marriage of the eldest daughter of Bona and Sigismund - Isabella, as well as the fire of the newly built Wawel Castle (October 17) and costly repair works. The king and queen were in Lithuania at the time. Upon learning of the fire, the monarch ordered the governor, Seweryn Boner, to secure the roofs and make preparations for immediate reconstruction. A fire broke out in the apartments of Sigismund Augustus, in the new part of Wawel. The fire consumed the paintings purchased in Flanders and the golden throne covered with scarlet. A contract was signed with Bartolommeo Berrecci as the main works manager. When he was murdered a few months later, his duties were entrusted to another Italian, Niccolo Castiglione.

Queen Bona frequently used Venetian banking services and deposited large sums there before returning to Italy in 1556. Sigismund I and Bona financed the activities of their envoy Jan Dantyszek by sending money and buying his bills of exchange at the banks of the Fuggers and Welsers. In 1536 a seller of Venetian goods (rerum venetiarum venditor) Paul was recommended by the council of Poznań to Vilnius city council and envoys sent from Kraków to Venice that year all took 20 florins from the royal treasury - Marcin in June, Andreas (Andrzeich) and an unknown Italian in August. In 1536 Melchior Baier and Peter Flötner in Nuremberg created silver candlesticks for the Sigismund Chapel, soon they accomplished the silver altar for the chapel (1538) and a sword of Sigismund Augustus with Hercules vanquishing the Lernaean Hydra (1540). Many exquisite works of art were commissioned through Seweryn Boner, like tapestries in Flanders in 1526 and in 1533 or pendants for daughters of the royal couple in Nuremberg in 1546. Bronze tombstone for himself and his wife Seweryn also ordered in Nuremberg - created by Hans Vischer between 1532-1538.

In the Picture Gallery of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, there is a "Portrait of a Nuremberg patrician", a work signed by Giovanni Busi, called Cariani (oil on canvas, 98.5 x 89 cm, inventory number 6434, inscribed left above the parapet: Joannes Cariani -p-). The painting is verifiable in the gallery in 1772, could therefore come from old collections of the Habsburgs, having been sent to them as a gift. The old man from the portrait holds a letter in his hands which in the upper part mentions in Latin: "Including Nuremberg 1470 was issued on Tuesday on the 17th, while he brought this form to Venice in 1536 in the same year" (Inclyta nurimberga protulit 1470 Mensis Martis die 17 / Usq. dum attulit formam hanc Venetiis 1536 eodem lustro), most likely referring to the transfer of money from Nuremberg to Venice, a promissory note. Below there is another inscription: "What nature produced more slowly, the painter quickly represented" (Natura produxit tardius / Pictor figuravit extemplo), which together with a second piece of paper, at the right, which says: "Death destroys nature, time art" (Mors Naturam / destruit / Tempus Artem) and the objects of the vanitas, a skull and an hourglass, set on the parapet, reminds that nature transforms man and that the painter did not age the model, contrary to nature. The features of the old man correspond to known effigies of royal banker and supplier Seweryn Boner from silver medal with his bust, created in 1533 (National Museum in Kraków, MNK VII-MdP-263), and his bronze tombstone, cast in Nuremberg (St. Mary's Basilica in Kraków).

A copy of this portrait by Cariani's workshop from anonymous sale (oil on canvas, 91 x 71 cm, Sotheby's London, April 18, 2000, lot 367) was sold in Paris (Artcurial, November 9, 2022, lot 165). Cariani and his workshop also painted the effigies of Seweryn's sister Magdalena Bonerówna (1505-1530), lady-in-waiting of Queen Bona, and his daughter Zofia Firlejowa née Bonerówna (d. 1563).

The Governor's salon at the Wawel Castle, a representative interior in which guests were received, is one of 3 rooms of the so-called Governor's apartment. German furniture and paintings are presented there to emphasize the fact that the most eminent governors from the times of King Sigismund I - Hans and Seweryn Boner - came from Germany. The furniture and paintings were acquired from different collections after the reconstruction of the castle in the 1930s, because nothing has been preserved of the original furnishings and paintings of the royal residence.

Portrait of royal banker Seweryn Boner (1486-1549) by Giovanni Cariani, after 1536, Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

Portrait of royal banker Seweryn Boner (1486-1549) by workshop of Giovanni Cariani, after 1536, Private collection.

"Queen Bona persuades the king to convene the Sejm [Diet] in Warsaw. This idea came to her from the archbishop [Piotr Gamrat (1487-1545)], not for reasons of public interest, but because he has his mistress here [ubi Archiepiscopus habet amationes suas sabbatorias, i.e. Dorota Dzierzgowska née Sobocka (died after 1548), chatelaine of Czersk]. He tells everyone that the burghers of Warsaw, once assured that the Sejm will be held here, will not fail to build new houses and repair those that have burned down in a short time.

Your Lordship, having already mentioned so many trivial things, I must add another: the special grace and attachment of our lady for the blood and family of the Sobodzki [Sobocki]. She praises them, raises them to heaven, calls happy the womb that gave birth to such sons. She strives by all means to make the chatelaine of Czersk the voivodess of Mazovia, not so that her foolish husband is worthy of this dignity, but so that his wife holds the first place here. To achieve this, Bona constantly explains to the king that there are many quarrels, affairs, appeals that fall within the discretion of the voivode. To settle them, the voivode must always be present here, while the current voivode Gamrat [Jan Gamrat (1502-1544), younger brother of the primate] is weak and often unconscious, and moreover he has few assets in this country. So, after the first vacancy, Gamrat will receive higher voivodeships; and Dorota, who is the wife of two, will become voivode of Mazovia, for certainly not her husband Dzierzgoski [Jan Dzierzgowski (1502-1558)], who can't tell a fly from a mosquito. And so our Mazovia is at the mercy of either fools, or drunkards, or harlots, not through the fault of the nation, but through the incompetence of those in power. This shameless woman lives in the greatest intimacy with the queen, and she is very much loved by her. The queen ordered a portrait of her to be made, she constantly looks at it with the greatest joy, she placed this portrait, next to a similar woman, the voivodess of Vilnius [most likely Princess Sophia Vasilievna Vereyska (ca. 1490-1549)], and other portraits of the most distinguished people. She often says to her: Oh! How happy you are that you were able to please such a prelate [Piotr Gamrat]. Everyone laughs at this madness. I would not like to know about these shamelessnesses, but they are constantly making themselves known. I will keep silent about the rest: it is a shame to speak any longer about these fornications", wrote to a friend in a letter given in Warsaw on May 26, 1544 Stanisław Górski (1497/99-1572), canon of Płock and Kraków (after "Zbiór pamiętników historycznych o dawnej Polszcze ..." by Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, Volume 4, p. 28-29, 34-36, 48). 

Father Górski was the queen's secretary between 1535 and 1548 and thanks to her he received the canonry of Kraków in 1539 and the parish of Wiskitki in Mazovia in 1546. He frequently criticized the queen, accusing her of greed, of concealing her wealth and of influencing parliamentary decisions in her favor and to the detriment of the kingdom. This letter, however, seems very reliable and there is no reason to believe that it is a product of overflowing imagination of a clergyman, educated in Padua and hostile to Bona. In the cited fragment, he explicitly accuses the queen of having intimate lesbian relations with Sobocka.

The 1540s were very difficult for Bona. In 1544 she reached the age of 50, while her husband Sigismund was 77 and often ill. For the first time in many years she was not the most important woman in the kingdom, because in May 1543 her son married Elizabeth of Austria (1526-1545) and Bona became from then on "the old queen". In addition, Elizabeth was the daughter of her great enemy Ferdinand I of Austria, her son Sigismund Augustus wanted to free himself from his mother's influence and many people attacked Bona. It was also a time of great cultural changes brought about by the Reformation and the rejection of many old customs. It is therefore possible that the queen was bisexual and that at this time in her life she became more open to the charms of Lady Sobocka.

According to Bronisław Kruczkiewicz (1849-1918), it is likely that the Latin epigram of the Spanish poet Pedro Ruiz de Moros (Petrus Roysius, d. 1571) under the title In Chlorim ("To Chloris") is a direct reference to Sobocka (after "Royzyusz : jego żywot i pisma", Rozprawy Wydziału Filologicznego, p. 62). The poet states: "Night and day you frequent the roofs of the very old, this is not luxury, O Chloris! it is greed" (Nocte dieque senum nimium quod tecta frequentas, Haec non luxuria, a Chloris! avaritia est). According to Ovid's Fasti V, the nymph Chloris was partly responsible for the conception of Mars, the god of war. With the help of a flower, Chloris made Juno, queen of the gods, pregnant. At that time, the Queen's apartments were located on the second floor of the west wing of Wawel Castle, called the piano nobile, while the courtiers' rooms were on the first floor. In the next poem under the meaningful title Ad Lesbiam ("To Lesbia"), Ruiz de Moros writes that he should neither condemn nor judge her because "it has been said: an imperfect animal is a woman" (Cur te non venerer, cur te non, Lesbia, curem Contemnamsque tuum, Lesbia, iudicium. Non longe repetam causas; breve, Lesbia, dictum est: Imperfectum animal, parce mihi, est mulier). 

In the poem Ad Maeviam ("To Maevia"), which probably refers to Princess Sophia Vereyska, he adds that "the ocean does not wash away Helen's filth" (Non Helenes sordes abluet oceanus, compare "Petri Rozyii Maurei Alcagnicensis Carmina ...", ed. Bronisław Kruczkiewicz, part II, pp. 465-466, poems V-VI, IX). There are 13 poems of this kind addressed to influential women from the court of Queen Bona, and most likely to the queen herself. Roysius, a simple professor at the Kraków Academy, was undoubtedly paid by someone very influential to slander them. The letter of March 15, 1544 from Piotrków to Jan Dantyszek is a clear confirmation that Górski was a staunch supporter of the Habsburgs, praising the "Most Serene" King of Rome and his daughter and slandering Queen Bona and her son "raised by women and Italians more fearful than women themselves".

Father Górski's views were frequently quoted by 19th-century authors, when large parts of Poland were part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire of Franz Joseph I, a member of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, but they probably did not know or forgot, like Górski himself, that the Habsburgs married and had children with their close relatives. In 1543, Charles V's son, Prince Philip married his close relative, the Infanta Maria Manuela of Portugal, who was also a close relative of Philip's father and mother. Both of Sigismund Augustus's Habsburg wives were granddaughters of his uncle. 

It seems, however, that apart from the "doctor Spaniard" and Górski, no one in Poland-Lithuania-Ruthenia felt concerned about Bona's sexual life, as no other comments are known. Since such homosexual acts were punishable by death at the time, it is quite possible that by making them public, the instigator(s) hoped to get rid of the "dragon who sat at the Wawel".

The event that took place in 1545, after the death of Elizabeth of Austria, was probably a response to this campaign. In that year, an order was placed in Vienna, the seat of Ferdinand I, for the queen's bed and the piece of furniture was to be modeled on a bed belonging to Elizabeth. The intensive use of the queen's bed is confirmed by the accounts. The first piece of furniture, brought from Italy, was repaired several times. Later, Bona acquired at least two more beds (including a large bed for the queen's bedroom and a smaller one for the king's bedroom, commissioned in 1543, after "Sypialnia królowej Bony na Wawelu ..." by Kamil Janicki). Also in 1545, Poland was threatened with war with Turkey and the pro-Habsburg party was ready to push the country into an armed conflict with the Ottoman Empire, but the queen, with the help of her supporters, adopted a resolution to pay compensation to Turkey, thus saving the peace (after "Słownik biograficzny arcybiskupów ..." by Kazimierz Śmigiel, p. 151). 

Dorota Sobocka, a noblewoman of the Doliwa coat of arms, met Piotr Gamrat, who, according to a contemporary source, came from the Italian school of cortegiano (courtiers), before 1528, because at that time this Pułtusk scholastic was defended by Andrzej Krzycki (1482-1537), Bishop of Płock, against the rumors that he had some affection for Dorota (malicious lampoons were circulating in the country). Krzycki wrote in a letter of October 23, 1528 to his uncle, Vice-Chancellor Piotr Tomicki (1464-1535) that there were no witnesses and the defense was easy (after "Z dworu Zygmunta Starego. (Dokończenie)" by Kazimierz Morawski, p. 535). Gamrat, a close associate of Bona, famous for his lavish and dissolute lifestyle, was administrator of the queen's estate in Mazovia between 1532 and 1538. He probably entered the queen's service shortly after her arrival in Poland-Lithuania in 1518. Thanks to Queen Bona, he was appointed Bishop of Kraków in July 1538, then Archbishop of Gniezno and Primate of Poland in January 1541.

Sobocka was the daughter of Tomasz (d. 1527), Lord of Sobota, and Elżbieta Bielawska (died after 1546). Her brother was Tomasz Sobocki (ca. 1508-1547), who in 1525, together with his brother Jakub, enrolled at the University of Wittenberg and was a student of Philipp Melanchthon. Probably thanks to Dorota, he became the royal courtier of Sigismund I before 1532. In the service of the king, he was ambassador to John Zapolya, King of Hungary (1535), to Prussia (March 1537) and to Pope Paul III (May 1537) and to the Ottoman Empire (1539). Her sister Anna was married to Piotr Okuń, court marshal of Queen Elizabeth of Austria, and she also had a brother Brykcy (d. 1549), cupbearer to Queen Elizabeth.

Before 1520 she married Jan Dzierzgowski (1502-1558) of the Jastrzębiec coat of arms, castellan of Ciechanów in 1532 and castellan of Czersk in 1542. They had two children, a daughter Dorota, who married Zygmunt Parzniewski, and a son Feliks Zbożny (Auctus, 1520-1571).

"Some think that Sobodzko will be Archbishop or Bishop of Kraków. It is only certain that a lot of gold for the [papal] bulls will go to Rome," comments Stanisław Górski after Gamrat's death in a letter from Kraków, dated October 9, 1545. This "Sobodzko" was Dorota's brother-in-law, Mikołaj Dzierzgowski (ca. 1490-1559), who thanks to her received the rich bishopric of Kuyavia in January 1543 and on October 20, 1545 he was actually elected Gamrat's successor as primate. Through Bona and her brother Tomasz, Dorota obtained the Mazovian Voivodeship for her husband in 1544. In the same year, she also wanted to secure for her brother the position of Grand Chancellor of the Crown, and Górski left another malicious comment on this (letter of 26 May 1544): "Many assume that the king will not give the chancellery to Soboczka, the cupbearer, because the Soboczka house is despised by the people because of his sister's licentious life and that the chancellery would be defiled as a result. When Soboczka, as cupbearer, served the king at the table, a cake was brought to the king from his sister. This one too, said the king, you will not defile this Soboczka with guilt. However, I think that the king, following the advice of the queen and the archbishop, will give Father Paweł [Dunin Wolski] the Bishopric of Poznań, and the seal to Mr. Sobeczko, because women and effeminates rule everything today". 

After Jan Dzierzgowski's death on August 22, 1548, Dorota erected a funeral monument for her husband in St. Anne's Church in Warsaw, in the main nave on the right side next to the altar of the Virgin Mary, carved in marble, but it was destroyed during the Deluge (1655-1660). It was probably made by Giovanni Cini or Giovanni Maria Padovano in their workshops in Kraków and transported to Warsaw.

There are no material traces of the influential and very wealthy Sobocka preserved in today's Poland, she is also largely forgotten and known thanks to the malicious comments of Stanisław Górski and the Habsburg agent Giovanni Marsupino, who in a letter to Ferdinand I of August 19, 1543, called her the wife of Archbishop Gamrat (after "Jagiellonki polskie w XVI wieku" by Alexander Przezdziecki, Volume 1, p. 139). There is also a Mazovian legend connected with Lady Sobocka and Queen Bona: during the queen's stay at the hunting palace of the Mazovian dukes at Lake Krusko (today Lake Serafin) near Łomża, the child of her favourite, left unattended, drowned in the marshy lake. Bona Sforza and her companion, in a fit of anger, cursed the lake and this place.

The Czartoryski Museum in Kraków houses a portrait of a woman, previously attributed to the German painter Conrad Faber von Kreuznach, active in Frankfurt am Main before 1553, and today to an unknown German painter from the circle of Lucas Cranach the Elder (oil on panel, 51.5 x 40 cm, inv. XII-238). The painting comes from the collection of the last elected king of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Stanislaus Augustus Poniatowski (1732-1798), where it was considered the work of Hans Holbein the Younger. In 1818 it was purchased by Princess Izabela Czartoryska, who placed it in the Gothic House in Puławy as a portrait of Katharina von Bora, a fugitive nun and wife of Martin Luther. Around 1818, an inscription in Polish was added to the upper left corner of the painting: Katarzyna Boore / żona Marcina Lutra. The costume is similar to that from the portrait of Bora by Cranach the Elder in the Coburg Fortress (inv. M.418), but the facial features are different, Bora has larger (Slavic?) cheekbones. Therefore, this identification, like many other inscriptions on the paintings from the Puławy collection, usually based on a general resemblance, is today rejected.

The inscription Anna de Boulen in the upper left corner of the portrait of Charles V's sister Isabella of Austria (1501-1526), ​​Queen of Denmark, Norway and Sweden (Czartoryski Museum, inv. XII-299) was removed in the early 2000s because it is obviously not the famous second wife of King Henry VIII of England, Anne Boleyn (d. 1536), although the costume is similar to that seen in the portrait of Anne in the National Portrait Gallery (inv. NPG 4980(15)). The portrait of Isabella comes from the Sułkowski collection in Rydzyna and could probably have come from the collection of Sigismund I. It was later acquired by Stanislaus Augustus.

By the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries, the rich and powerful Poland-Lithuania-Ruthenia of the Renaissance had long been forgotten, and Protestant Prussia, which together with Russia and Austria divided the country, was the dominant power in the region. The earlier history of the portrait by Cranach's entourage in the Czartoryski Museum is not known, so it either comes from earlier royal collections or was purchased by Poniatowski from a magnate collection. To make the identification with the famous Lutherin even more obvious, a coat of arms was added to the woman's ruby ​​ring, however the author probably did not know Katharina's coat of arms and based it on descriptions of Martin's coat of arms, since this emblem resembles that of the Luther family - two golden apples and a white rose.

The resemblance to Cranach's style in the painting described is obvious, so the most likely author seems to be Hans Döring (ca. 1490-1558), Cranach's chief assistant until the mid-1510s. His signed and dated portrait of Philipp (1468-1544), Count of Solms-Lich, is very similar (Sotheby's London, December 6, 2007, lot 135, HD.1520). His presence in Wetzlar north of Frankfurt in 1533 is confirmed, however his biography is not well known, so his stay in Poland-Lithuania is likely. If this were the case, it would also mean that the majority of his works were destroyed.

Copies of this portrait of Lady Sobocka, in a different format, undoubtedly also existed.

A stylistically very similar painting is preserved in the monastery of the Canons Regular of the Lateran at the Church of Corpus Christi in Kazimierz, now a district of Kraków (tempera on panel, 79.5 x 63 cm). The facial features of the sitter are also very similar. It is a Madonna and Child with two angels against a landscape background, strongly influenced by the style of Lucas Cranach the Elder, and therefore considered a work by his pupil. The painting dates from the 1530s. Before 1786, it was repainted, and in 1936, the Baroque layers, as well as the crowns and the robe covering Jesus, were removed.

The earliest mention of this painting dates back to 1571 and was later reported by the chronicler of the monastery, Stefan Ranotowicz (1617-1694) in his Casimiriae civitatis, urbi Cracoviensi confrontatae, origo. Ranotowicz states that "we have a German painting in the pallatium from the royal donation representing Beatae Mariae Virginis" (after "Madonna z Dzieciątkiem w krakowskim klasztorze kanoników regularnych ..." by Zbigniew Jakubowski, p. 130). It was therefore probably a gift from King Sigismund II Augustus. The landscape behind the Virgin appears fantastical, but some of the buildings are undoubtedly inspired by real structures, perhaps by the architecture of medieval Warsaw. In this context, the original portrait of King Sigismund Augustus, crowned and wearing a breastplate, holding a scepter before a fantastical landscape resembling Vilnius, was very likely the work of Döring. The portrait was reproduced in an anonymous woodcut, published in Kraków in 1554 in Marcin Bielski's Kronika wszytkyego swyata .... The original portrait was a pendant to that of the king's father and co-monarch, also reproduced in a woodcut in the same work, but with Wawel Cathedral in the background (Bydgoszcz Public Library, 1186.1957, p. 536/277; p. 558/288). The original portraits therefore date from around 1543 to 1548.

The same woman, dressed in a costume similar to the one in the painting at the Czartoryski Museum, is depicted in the painting from the workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, preserved in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg (inv. Gm1108). This painting tells the story of an adulterous wife - The Fable of the Mouth of Truth (Duplicity of Women) - and Queen Bona is depicted as the main character. Like Queen Bona, the woman in the black dress on the right looks at the viewer meaningfully, so she must be identified as the influential mistress of the queen - Sobocka. The same woman, dressed in a similar costume, can also be identified in another painting by Cranach. The work, now held at the Fondation Bemberg in Toulouse (oil on panel, 83.4 x 120.5 cm, inv. 1098), was sold in London in 2000. It is a courtly scene depicting Hercules at the court of Omphale, Queen of Lydia, where this mythological hero is dressed as a woman and the queen required him to do women's work. Two of Omphale's servants put a lady's bonnet on his head and two others hand him a distaff to spin. It was a popular motif at the Polish-Lithuanian court, as a similar scene depicting the family of Sigismund I is in the National Museum in Poznań (inv. Mo 109) and the oldest ones from 1531 depict the family of Bona's favourite Beata Kościelecka (private collection), all identified by me. The scene was painted in 1537 and signed with the artist's sign.

"The Lydian maidens entrust their daily tasks to Hercules, and he, though equal to the gods, submits to the will of his lady. Thus lust robs a man of his intelligence, and fickle love robs him of his strength" (HERCVLEIS MANIBVS DANT LYDÆ PENSA PUELLÆ / IMPERIVM DOMINÆ FERT DEVS ILLE SVÆ / SIC CAPIT INGENTIS ANIMOS DAMNOSA VOLVPTAS / FORTIAQVE ENERVAT PECTORA MOLLIS AMOR), reads the Latin inscription above the scene, a perfect illustration of the refined court of Queen Bona and that of Sobocka in Ciechanów, Czersk and Warsaw.

In this court scene in mythological disguise, Dorota wears an orange French-style dress with a large neckline in the back. Hercules is undoubtedly her husband Jan Dzierzgowski. The woman on the left, who looks like Sobocka, is probably her daughter Dorota, later Parzniewska, or less likely her sister Anna. The facial features of the two women behind Sobocka are different, so they are most likely her future daughter-in-law Anna Szreńska (Srzeńska) in the blue dress and her mother Barbara Kościelecka (died after 1550) in the green dress.

Barbara, daughter of Stanisław Kościelecki (1460-1534), voivode of Poznań, was officially Beata Kościelecka's cousin (her "father" Andrzej was Stanisław's brother) and, like Beata, was a member of Queen Bona's court. Before April 1526, she married a courtier, Feliks (Szczęsny) Szreński (Srzeński) Sokołowski (ca. 1498-1554), who on April 12, 1526 acknowledged receiving a considerable dowry of 3,000 florins. In 1532, at the age of 29, he took office as voivode of Płock and in 1537 he received the starosty of Malbork. Like other members of the queen's court, Barbara was a colourful character and subject to commentary by Górski.

On Barbara's orders, the noblewoman Pniewska, who was having an affair with her husband, was murdered. She also had a lover, probably Feliks Sieprski from Gulczewo, castellan of Rypin. Queen Bona, whose favor Szreńska enjoyed, tried to reconcile the spouses in 1533 through Bishop Krzycki, while Feliks denied all accusations of mistreating his wife at that time. Kościelecka soon began to manage the Płock starosty, which her husband had given her in 1531, on her own. Between 1537 and 1543, she bought small plots of land near Płock, creating "her own little farm". In 1540, following a complaint from the citizens of Płock that she was taking away the municipal benefits for this purpose, a royal commission investigated the matter on the spot, but it did not find any abuses on Szreńska's part. Later, she sold this farm with her husband's consent and made a profit from it. Barbara had good relations with Duke Albert of Prussia, who was painted by Cranach. In 1549, she asked him to send her a grey English puppy, and in 1550 - to sell 100 Silesian sheep. Szreńska had two daughters: Anna, mentioned above, wife of Zbożny Dzierzgowski, castellan of Sochaczew, and Barbara, who married Andrzej Firlej, castellan of Lublin (after "Polski słownik biograficzny: Sowiński Jan-Stanisław August ...", 1935, p. 253). 

The same woman in a green dress similar to the one in the Toulouse painting was depicted as the biblical heroine Judith holding the head of Holofernes in a painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder from around 1545 (oil on panel, 21 x 14.6 cm, Sotheby's New York, Auction 2282, January 27, 2010, lot 7). However, since the Toulouse painting is dated "1537", it could also be dated earlier. The painting was auctioned in London in 1963. Interestingly, the man's head resembles the features of Barbara's husband Feliks from his funerary monument in the parish church in Szreńsk. The monument was probably made in Kraków in a workshop influenced by Giovanni Maria Padovano in 1546 and shows him in splendid Renaissance armour that can also be seen in many of Cranach's paintings (compare "Funerary sculpture in sixteenth-century Mazovia" by Olga M. Hajduk, p. 69, 325-329). A short biography of Feliks and his daughters was included by Bartłomiej Paprocki in his Herby Rycerztwa Polskiego ..., published in Kraków in 1584 (p. 309). 

A stove tile with a male bust from the second quarter of the 16th century (District Museum in Toruń) and another tile with the biblical story of Joseph and Potiphar's wife from the first quarter of the 16th century (Klaipeda Castle Museum), as well as Martin Schoninck's The Story of Judith (The Siege of Bethulia) from 1536 (Artus Court in Gdańsk) prove that the fashion in Poland-Lithuania was very similar to that visible in Cranach's paintings.

The voivode of Płock, Feliks Szreński, one of the most trusted collaborators of King Sigismund Augustus, died in 1554. All his property was passed on to his daughters born from his marriage to Barbara Kościelecka. The funerary monument of Anna Szreńska in the parish church in Pawłowo Kościelne, sculpted by the royal sculptor Santi Gucci Fiorentino in the 1560s, is very interesting because it refers to the Venetian images of the sleeping Venus. Lady Dzierzgowska née Szreńska is pointing at her womb. 

Perhaps by today's standards, all these women were not role models in their private lives, but as administrators and guardians of peace they contributed enormously to the economic and cultural development of Poland-Lithuania-Ruthenia before the Deluge.

​Portrait of Dorota Dzierzgowska née Sobocka by Hans Döring, ca. 1534-1537, Czartoryski Museum in Kraków. 

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the ​portrait of Dorota Dzierzgowska née Sobocka by Hans Döring, ca. 1534-1537, lost. © Marcin Latka

​Portrait of Dorota Dzierzgowska née Sobocka as Madonna and Child with two angels against the landscape by Hans Döring, 1530s, Monastery of the Canons Regular of the Lateran in Kraków. 

​Hercules at the court of Omphale with portrait of Dorota Dzierzgowska née Sobocka and members of her family by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1537, Fondation Bemberg in Toulouse.

​Portrait of Barbara Szreńska née Kościelecka as Judith with the head of Holofernes (bearing the features of her husband Feliks) by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1537-1545, Private collection. 

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the ​portrait of King Sigismund II Augustus (1520-1572) against the idealized view of Vilnius by Hans Döring, ca. 1543-1548, lost. © Marcin Latka

King Sigismund I, his wife and his four daughters as Hercules and Omphale's maids by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder

"The Lydian maidens entrust their daily tasks to Hercules, and he, though equal to the gods, submits to the will of his lady. Thus lust robs a man of his intelligence, and fickle love robs him of his strength" (HERCVLEIS MANIBVS DANT LYDÆ PENSA PVELLÆ / IMPERIVM DOMINÆ FERT DEVS ILLE SVÆ / SIC CAPIT INGENTIS ANIMOS DAMNOSA VOLVPTAS / FORTIAQVE ENERVAT PECTORA MOLLIS AMOR), reads the Latin inscription above the scene of Hercules and Omphale in several paintings made by Lucas Cranach the Elder and his workshop in the late 1530s. The mythological hero, courageous and wise, was not afraid of powerful women, he succumbed to them and this obviously gave him great joy.

Depictions in the guise of Hercules were popular since antiquity, as evidenced by the magnificent marble bust of Emperor Commodus (161-192) as Hercules (Capitoline Museums in Rome, inv. MC1120) or the statue of a man in the guise of Hercules, from the Appian Way in Rome and dating from the mid-3rd century AD (Appia Antica Archaeological Park, inv. 23.M322-1.1). The portrait of King Henry IV of France (1553-1610) as Hercules slaying the Lernaean Hydra by Toussaint Dubreuil or his circle, painted around 1600 (Louvre Museum, inv. RF 1997 13), illustrates the use of this mythological disguise in the modern era. Less well known are the depictions in the guise of Omphale, such as the relief with a portrait of a man and a woman as Hercules and Omphale dating from around 140 AD (National Archaeological Museum of Naples, inv. 6683) and especially a large portrait statue of a woman as Omphale dating from the 2nd century AD (Vatican Museums, marble, 182 cm, inv. 4385).​

Sigismund I the Old was frequently compared to the mythological hero Hercules, it was a standard during renaissance. In 1537 the king was celebrating 20th anniversary of his coronation (January 24, 1507​) and 70th anniversary of his birth (January 1, 1467). 
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The composition of a painting from the Mielżyński collection, now in the National Museum in Poznań (oil on panel, 48 x 73 cm, inv. Mo 109), surprisingly correspond to the composition of the Jagiellon family around 1537. It is a workshop copy, most probably a copy of a copy, hence resemblance might be not so evident. Cranach workshop was famous for its "mass production" of quality paintings. The study for a portrait, a drawing with all details of the sitter's costume meticulously described, was prepared by some court painter or a Cranach's pupil sent to the patron. Just as in case of preparatory drawings to portraits of Margaret of Pomerania (1518-1569) and Anna of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1502-1568), Duchess of Pomerania, relatives of Sigismund through his sister Anna Jagiellon (1476-1503), Duchess of Pomerania, such drawings were sent from Poland to facilitate the work on commission.

In this courtly scene showing Hercules, who was sold to the court of Queen Omphale where he had to remain as a slave for three years, we could distinguish the 70 years old king Sigismund (1467-1548), his 43 years old second wife Bona Sforza (1494-1557), and his four daughters: 18 years old Isabella (1519-1559), 15 years old Sophia (1522-1575), 14 years old Anna (1523-1596) and 11 years old Catherine (1526-1583).

Cardinal Albert of Brandenburg (1490-1545), Bishop and Elector of Mainz, Archbishop of Magdeburg and Archchancellor of the Holy Roman Empire, was not afraid either and succumbed to ... the fashion for such disguised portraits, because the painting in the Danish National Gallery (Statens Museum for Kunst) bears his coat of arms and corresponds perfectly to the composition of the Cardinal's family in 1535, the year the painting was painted (panel, 82 x 118 cm, inv. KMSsp727). The work comes from the Danish royal collection, mentioned in the inventory of Christiansborg Palace in Copenhagen in 1784. In the centre, the prince-elector can be seen in secular costume as Hercules. Albert's daughter Anna Schütz von Holzhausen (ca. 1515-1599), the child from his previous affair with Elisabeth (Leys) Schütz von Holzhausen (d. 1527), places a woman's bonnet on his head. Agnes Pless née Strauss (1502-1547), mistress of the cardinal from around 1527 until his death in 1545, is depicted as another court lady of the mythological Omphale (or the queen herself). She gives the distaff to "Hercules" and looks at the viewer in a meaningful way. The older lady behind her is her mother Ottilia Strauss née Semer (d. 1543), the second wife of Agnes' father, the Frankfurt butcher Hans Strauss (d. 1519). In 1531/32, Agnes bought a house on the old market square in Halle an der Saale for over 2,000 guilders. She lived there with her mother and held court in great splendor. Her relationship with Albert was known to the public. She also received gifts from several nobles, such as a precious pearl necklace from Duke Henry of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (1489-1568), later husband of Sophia Jagiellon (1522-1575). In 1541, following the victory of the Reformation, she left Halle with her mother and Albert. A reduced copy of the painting from the Danish royal collection, which was in the Albert Langen collection in Munich before 1899, is now in the Stiftsmuseum in Aschaffenburg (inv. 12578). It is believed to be a fragment of a larger composition that was cut into pieces and the portrait of Ottilie, also from the Langen collection in Munich, is now in a private collection (Hampel in Munich, June 27, 2019, lot 674).

​Such a secular disguise in a court scene should not be considered unusual. In a drawing attributed to the German sculptor and medallist Hans Schwarz and earlier to Albrecht Dürer, Christopher of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (1487-1558), Bishop of Verden and Archbishop of Bremen, brother of Henry, is depicted in a completely secular costume - a fur coat and hat (Kupferstichkabinett in Berlin, inv. KdZ 6020).

​Cardinal Albert, a splendid patron of the arts and prince of the Renaissance, corresponded with King Sigismund I and imitated the fashion at the royal court of Poland-Lithuania-Ruthenia.

​Statue of a Roman woman as Omphale, 2nd century AD, Vatican Museums. 

​Hercules at the court of Omphale with portrait of King Sigismund I (1467-1548), his wife and his four daughters by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1537, National Museum in Poznań. ​

​​Hercules at the court of Omphale with portrait of Cardinal Albert of Brandenburg (1490-1545), his daughter Anna Schütz von Holzhausen (ca. 1515-1599), his concubine Agnes Pless née Strauss (1502-1547) and her mother Ottilia Strauss née Semer (d. 1543) by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1535, National Gallery of Denmark. 

In a letter of 29 June 1538 in response to accusations that his second wife Bona appropriated the robes of his first wife Barbara Zapolya, the king Sigismund I testified that the Queen arrived to Poland with so many garments, clothes and ornaments that it would be enough for a few queens.

The Queen's passion for fabrics revived crafts and trade. Under her patronage, attempts were made to establish Italian-style silk weaving mills, as evidenced by entries in the accounts of the royal court (after Ksawery Piwocki's "Tkanina polska", 1959, p. 14). In December 1527 Federico II Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua sent a large shipment of costly materials, including gold cloth, silk and satin fabrics commissioned by Bona, to her Venetian agent Gian Giacomo de Dugnano. Trade took Venetian merchants all over the Mediterranean and as far as China, a fact that affected not only the city's economic prosperity but its cultural identity, making 15th century Venice one of the most culturally diverse cities in Europe (after Carol M. Richardson's "Locating Renaissance Art", 2007, p. 211). So was "Guanyin look" of Bona and her step-daughter in some paintings by Cranach inspired by Chinese art?
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Bona's taste for German garments and embroideries is confirmed by employment at her court of German embroiderers. Jan Holfelder from Nuremberg became her court embroiderer in about 1525 and Sebald Linck from Nuremberg or Silesia was mentioned in the accounts in the years 1537-1579.

The "portrait of a woman" (ritratto di donna) produced by the workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, today kept in the Villa del Poggio Imperiale in Florence (oil on panel, 38 x 27 cm, inv. Poggio Imperiale 558 / 1860), most probably comes from the old collections of the Grand Dukes of Tuscany. Similar to the Habsburgs, the Medici also collected effigies of the rulers of Europe and today some of the most important effigies of the monarchs of Poland can be found in Florence, sent to them as diplomatic gifts or commissioned by the grand dukes, like the portraits of Sigismund I (Uffizi Gallery, inv. 1890, 412), Stephen Bathory (inv. 1890, 8855) and the young Sigismund Vasa (inv. 1890, 2436). Several portraits of Bona, who in addition to being Queen of Poland and Grand Duchess of Lithuania with enormous possessions in Ruthenia, was also reigning duchess and heiress to several Italian duchies, should also have been provided to them, so we should assume that all have been lost or forgotten.

The mentioned ​portrait is generally dated between 1525 and 1540 and the woman bears a striking resemblance to the queen in her portraits by Francesco Bissolo (National Gallery in London, inv. NG631) and by Cranach against the idealized view of Kraków (Hermitage Museum, inv. ​ГЭ-683), both identified by me. Given her more mature appearance, the portrait should be dated more to the 1530s than the 1520s. A similar portrait is now in the Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck in Remagen, Germany (oil on canvas, mounted on wood panel, 31.2 x 26.8 cm). As in Cranach's earlier painting at Wilanów Palace (inv. Wil.1518), the queen holds forget-me-nots, perhaps addressing her husband who, despite his old age, was still traveling across the vast country.

​When, in the second half of the 19th century, the Polish historical painter Jan Matejko (1838-1893) created his imaginative portraits of Bona Sforza, no reliable color portrait of the queen depicted her in her youth and before her widowhood. Furthermore, he could only rely on a few rare sources and black-and-white reproductions of artworks held in foreign museums  and collections. Although his depictions of Bona are strongly marked by his distinctive style, inspired by Titian and Rubens, he clearly strove to portray her as she truly was. Many of these portraits correspond remarkably well with my findings. In a watercolor from 1861 held at the National Museum in Kraków (inv. MNK IX-33), her bright blond hair corresponds to the portraits by Bissolo, Cariani and Licinio; her squinty eyes, to those by Cranach, Bissolo and Licinio; her dark eyebrows, to those by Bissolo and Titian. Her expression, to that in the portrait by Bissolo; her costume, with its part in gold cloth, to the portraits by Cranach; her puffed sleeves, to those in painting by Cariani and Licinio; and the hand gesture resembles that in Titian's portrait ("Duchess Sforza"). In a drawing from the 1870s, the painter depicts the Italian woman's face in a manner similar to that in a painting by Bissolo, while her costume is clearly inspired by German Renaissance fashion and the paintings by Cranach (Desa Unicum in Warsaw, May 19, 2022, lot 1, inscription lower right: Bona). Matejko probably did not know the paintings mentioned at all, not to mention that he probably did not expect them to depict Bona, but he studied written sources and relied on confirmed effigies of her.

Portrait of Bona Sforza d'Aragona (1494-1557), Queen of Poland holding a flower by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1530s, Arp Museum Rolandseck. ​

Around the year of 1537 three of four daughters of Sigismund I and Bona Sforza reached puberty age (twelve for brides) and their marriage become a principal concern for the queen. Two years earlier, in 1535, the princesses were accommodated in a separate building, the Domus Reginularum (House of the Princesses), at Wawel Castle. Their apartment was richly furnished. The royal court accounts record expenses such as the purchase and repair of various luxury items, such as frames for paintings, ivory crucifixes, golden icons, chests and coffers with ornamental fittings, chessboards, dice, checkers and chess imported from Italy and bird-cages etc. (after "The Court of Anna Jagiellon: Size, Structure and Functions" by Maria Bogucka, p. 93-94). 

All three, Isabella, Sophia, Anna, apart from the youngest 11 years old Catherine, were depicted with their hair covered with a snood in the painting from the Mielżyński collection showing the daughters and the wife of Sigismund I in 1537. 

The portraits of three unkown ladies from the late 1530s, created by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, surprisingly fit the Mielżyński painting and effigies of daughters of Bona by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Younger from the 1550s. They were probably part of a series of copies commissioned to be sent to relatives and potential suitors. 

​The woman in a green dress from a painting sold in London in 2004 (panel, 37.1 x 25.2 cm, Sotheby's, July 7, 2004, lot 32), perfectly matches the appearance and age of the eldest daughter of Sigismund and Bona. This painting was probably in the late 18th century in the collection of James Whatman in Maidstone, Kent. The lady in a crimson dress from a painting sold in New York in 2002 (panel, 56 x 38 cm, Sotheby's, January 24, 2002, lot 156), resemble the second daughter of the royal couple Sophia. The painting comes from the collection of Mrs. Rachel Makower (d. 1960), sold at auction in London on June 14, 1961. The woman in the painting held at the Winnipeg Art Gallery (panel, 76 x 56.5 cm, G-73-51), corresponds perfectly to the effigy of the third daughter - Anna in the Mielżyński painting. This painting was also acquired in London (Arcade Gallery).

The garments are more German in style, however Italian influences with low-cut bodices are visible. In 1537 the royal tailor was Francesco Nardocci (Nardozzi) from Naples. Also the fabrics are Italian, Venetian sumptuous silk satins and velvets. During the Prussian Homage in 1525 the royal family was dressed in clothes made of rich Venetian fabrics acquired by Jan Boner in Venice (Acta Tomiciana, vol. IV).

Before the advent of cheaper Mexican cochineal in the 1540s, Polish cochineal (Porphyrophora polonica) from which the natural dye carmine is derived, colloquially known as "Saint John's blood", and widely traded in Europe during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, was utilized in Venice to dye fabrics. Polish merchants were present in Venice since at least 1348 and the first permanent dipomatic agent of Poland-Lithuania in Venice between 1535-1543 was Lodovico Alifio, head of the chancellery of queen Bona.
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The royal embroiderer Sebald Linck from Nuremberg, active at the court from 1537, also worked for the Princesses, like in 1545 when he redo the collars offered by Primate Piotr Gamrat to Sophia, Anna and Catherine and embroidered their dresses with pearls. Splendid clothes and jewelry were made for the princesses by local craftsmen, but also ordered from abroad, such as necklaces ordered from Nicolaus Nonarth in Nuremberg in 1546 for Sophia, Anna and Catherine or expensive and fashionable berets, which the embroiderer Bartholomew had brought from Vienna; since he initially had only two, special care was taken to buy a third (after "Anna Jagiellonka" by Maria Bogucka, p. 10).

The painting featuring Herodias in the Speed Art Museum in Louisville (panel, 57 x 49.8 cm, 1968.26) is similar to portrait of princess Sophia Jagiellon. Also her face features match perfectly her portraits in Spanish costume. The inscription identifying the sitter as mother of Salome was most probably added in the 17th or 18th century. The portrait, originally displaying also the decapitated head of John the Baptist, was cut later and lower part was sold separately.

A radiograph of the portrait in the Winnipeg Art Gallery, depicting Anna, reveals that her right arm originally featured a decapitated head on an oval platter. The composition was altered during its production. All of Bona's daughters were therefore to be depicted in the popular guise of the legendary biblical and mythological femmes fatales such as Salome, Judith, Delilah or Lucretia. The painting by Lucas Cranach the Younger in the Güstrow Palace (Staatliches Museum Schwerin, panel, 89.5 x 70 cm, G 201), very similar to the Winnipeg portrait, shows Anna Jagiellon as Judith with the Head of Holofernes. A copy of this portrait from an old East Prussian aristocratic collection was sold in Munich in 2011 (panel, 92.7 x 82.5 cm, Hampel, June 30, 2011, lot 235). The painting is attributed to the circle of Lucas Cranach the Younger, but its style recalls works attributed to student of his father active in Lübeck, Hans Kemmer (ca. 1495-1561), such as the Adoration of the Magi (National Museum in Warsaw, M.Ob.2537 MNW) and Judith (National Museum in Wrocław, VIII-2670).

The portrait by Cranach's studio, similar to the Winnipeg and Güstrow paintings, depicting the same woman, was in 1934 in the collection of the Jewish art dealer Rudolf Heinemann (1901-1975), partner in the Galerie Fleischmann in Munich (oil on panel, 58.4 x 43.2 cm). It was acquired from a private collection in Italy. The resemblance of the young woman to Anna's mother, Queen Bona, from her portrait of 1526 by Cranach in the Hermitage Museum (inv. ГЭ-683), identified by me, is so obvious that Max Jakob Friedländer and Jakob Rosenberg in their "Die Gemälde von Lucas Cranach" (items 238, 238 d, pp. 73, 118), clearly considered it to be an effigy of the same woman (hence the catalog number and dating), despite the fact that the costume indicates that the painting from Heinemann's collection was created at least ten years later. The wide sleeves of her dress and her unusual hat indicate that Anna wished to combine elements of Italian and German fashion of the time.​

In 1538 also the youngest daughter of Bona, Catherine Jagiellon, reached the legal age of marriage. Her mother, as for the rest of her daughters preferred Italian match to strengthen her position and the rights to the principalities she owned (Bari and Rossano) as well to these that she claimed (Milan). 
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A small portrait of a girl as Saint Catherine by Lucas Cranach the Elder in Museo Civico Amedeo Lia in La Spezia (panel, 33 x 26 cm, inv. 249), between Florence and Genoa, in a costume from the late 1530s is very similar to effigy of the youngest daughter of Bona from the portrait of Sigsimund I's family from the Mielżyński collection and to other portraits of Catherine Jagiellon.

Portrait of Crown Princess of Poland-Lithuania Isabella Jagiellon (1519-1559) by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1537, Private collection.

Portrait of Crown Princess of Poland-Lithuania Sophia Jagiellon (1522-1575) by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1537, Private collection.

Portrait of Crown Princess of Poland-Lithuania Sophia Jagiellon (1522-1575) as Herodias by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, after 1537, Speed Art Museum in Louisville.

Portrait of Crown Princess of Poland-Lithuania Anna Jagiellon (1523-1596) by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1537, Winnipeg Art Gallery.

Portrait of Anna Jagiellon (1523-1596) as Judith with the Head of Holofernes by Lucas Cranach the Younger, after 1537, Güstrow Palace.

​Portrait of Anna Jagiellon (1523-1596) as Judith with the Head of Holofernes by Hans Kemmer, after 1537, Pivate collection.

​Portrait of Anna Jagiellon (1523-1596) by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, after 1537, Galerie Fleischmann in Munich, lost. Virtual reconstruction, © Marcin Latka

Portrait of Princess Catherine Jagiellon (1526-1583) as Saint Catherine by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1538, Museo Civico Amedeo Lia in La Spezia.

What better way to depict a potential bride then in a guise of virtuous biblical or historical heroine, the goddess of love or the Virgin? 

On January 11, 1537 died in Dresden John, Hereditary Prince of Saxony, the eldest son of Barbara Jagiellon. It was now his younger brother Frederick, born in 1504, second of only two sons of Barbara to survive to adulthood, who would inherit the title of the Duke of Saxony from his father George, nicknamed the Bearded. Despite being mentally handicapped he was declared a heir by his father. Frederick was 33 and was unmarried. 

Maintaining the alliance with Saxony was important to Poland-Lithuania and it was beneficial for Papacy and the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V if the Catholic and pro-Habsburg Albertine line (headed by George, a staunch opponent of Martin Luther), would stay in power. 

"The marriage of royal maidens, or what was called resolution, was in the spirit of the time a matter of very open diligence on the part of parents and family. They did not hesitate to use methods for this purpose that are not necessarily in keeping with today's sense of delicacy. Finding a husband for the princesses and daughters of the king was often one of the secret diplomatic orders, given not only to envoys, but also to merchants and agents of banking houses, etc.", comments the Polish historian Józef Szujski (1835-1883) about the marriages of the sisters of Sigismund Augustus (after "Ostatnie lata Zygmunta Augusta i Anna Jagiellonka", p. 298). 

The dowry of Jagiellonian women from the late 15th century was customarily 32,000 Hungarian florins payable in five or two installments. The eldest daughter of Sigismund and Bona, Isabella Jagiellon received 32,000 ducats in cash in 1539, and her bridal trousseau was worth 38,000 ducats, therefore her dowry amounted to 70,000 ducats. The wedding contract of the second in line Sophia, concluded in 1555, stipulated her dowry to 32,000 ducats (or 48,000 thalers) in cash and 100,000 thalers in jewels and other valuables, among which were huge amounts of table and church silver, about 60 precious garments, 5 tents, 34 tapestries, 32 carpets and lots of wonderful jewelry (12 berets set with precious stones, 9 gold necklaces set with precious stones, 34 pendants, 17 gold chains, two gold belts, 4 bracelets). She was accompanied by 8 carriages, including one gilded carriage and one chariot, valuable harnesses and 28 horses. Both princesses were unmarried in 1537, therefore their cousin Frederick of Saxony undeniably received their portraits. 

Two pendant paintings of Lucretia and Judith by Lucas Cranach the Elder, which were recorded in the inventory of the Ducal Kunstkammer (art cabinet) in Dresden as far as 1595, most likely destroyed in 1945, match perfectly effigies of two mentioned daughters of Sigismund I and Bona. Both paintings had identical dimensions (panel, 172 x 64 cm, inv. 1916), similar composition and were dated to around 1537. The resemblance of Isabella-Lucretia to the famous Venus of Urbino (Uffizi, 1890 no. 1437, mirror view) is striking, while the face of Sophia-Judith is almost identical to that of Herodias at the Speed Art Museum (1968.26). To describe Lucretia from these two panels, Max J. Friedländer and Jakob Rosenberg in their 1932 publication refer to a half-length Lucretia by Cranach from 153(9) which was in the Vilnius Museum (Wilna Museum, panel, 62 x 50 cm, compare "Die Gemälde von Lucas Cranach", p. 82, item 289). 

Bona Sforza favored her oldest daughter Isabella, who received a thorough education and she could speak and write four languages. Isabella was depicted as Lucretia, the epitomy of female virtue, chastity, fidelity and honour. 

The younger Sophia, considered the wisest and the most intelligent of all Bona's daughters and described as "an example and a mirror of virtue, piety, and dignity" (exemplum et speculum virtutis, pietatis et gravitatis) by Stanisław Sędziwój Czarnkowski in 1573, was shown as Judith, intelligent, strong, virtuous and devout woman who saved her people from destruction.

Opting for closer ties with Emperor Charles V, Frederick was eventually married on January 27, 1539 in Dresden to Elisabeth (ca. 1516-1541), from the Counts of Mansfeld, one of the oldest noble families in Germany and sister of Peter Ernst I von Mansfeld, who participated in Charles V's expedition against Tunis in 1535. The groom died childless just four weeks later on February 26, 1539 followed by his father, who died on April 17, 1539. Duke George was succeeded by his Lutheran brother Henry IV (1473-1541), married to Catherine of Mecklenburg (1487-1561). In April 1538 Isabella Jagiellon was engaged to the King of Hungary.

In 1539 John George of Brandenburg (1525-1598), the eldest son of Magdalena of Saxony, daughter of Barbara Jagiellon, reached the legal age of marriage (14). His father Joachim II Hector, Elector of Brandenburg and his stepmother Hedwig Jagiellon were concerned to find a good match for him. Exactly as in the case of Hedwig's portrait as Venus by Cranach from the early 1530s, there is a painting showing Venus from the late 1530s in Berlin. It was accquired by the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin from the Royal Castles' collection in 1830 (panel, 174 x 64.9 cm, inv. 1190). The woman depicted as Venus resemble greatly other effigies of Sophia Jagiellon. When on November 1, 1539 Joachim II openly introduced the Reformation into Brandenburg by receiving Communion according to the Lutheran rite, the marriage with a Catholic princess could not be considered and on 15 February 1545 his son married Protestant Princess Sophie of Legnica (1525-1546), great-granddaughter of King Casimir IV of Poland.

Exactly the same effigy of princess Sophia's face as in the Berlin Venus portrait, like a template, was used in the effigy of Madonna and Child with grapes by Lucas Cranach the Elder in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (panel, 57.1 x 34.6 cm, 68.41.4). She offeres the Child a bunch of grapes a Christian symbol of the redemptive sacrifice, but also a popular Renaissance symbol for fertility borrowed from the Roman god of the grape-harvest and fertility, Bacchus, similarly to the effigy of her father's first wife Barbara Zapolya (Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid). 

The same template was also used in the effigy of Madonna lactans in Vienna by workshop of Cranach, showing the Virgin breastfeeding the infant Jesus, a common motif in European art since the Middle Ages and a symbol of purity and humility. This motif was borrowed from the image of Isis lactans, a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world, nursing her son, Horus, the god of divine kingship. The painting, now in the Cathedral Museum (Dom Museum) in Vienna (panel, 84 x 57 cm, L/61), was deposited by the Weinhaus Parish in Vienna, a votive temple, built to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Vienna in which John III Sobieski, king of Poland led the army to a decisive victory over the Ottomans on September 12, 1683.
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In the spring of 1570, two years after death of her husband Henry V, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Sophia Jagiellon converted to Lutheranism.

Portraits of Isabella Jagiellon (1519-1559) as Lucretia and Sophia Jagiellon (1522-1575) as Judith by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1537, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden, lost. ​Virtual reconstruction, © Marcin Latka 

Portrait of Crown Princess Sophia Jagiellon (1522-1575) as Venus with Cupid as the honey thief by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1539, Gemäldegalerie in Berlin.

Portrait of Crown Princess Sophia Jagiellon (1522-1575) as Madonna and Child with grapes by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1539, Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

Portrait of Crown Princess Sophia Jagiellon (1522-1575) as Madonna lactans by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1538-1550, Dom Museum in Vienna.

The plan to wed Isabella Jagiellon (1519-1559), the eldest daughter of Sigismund I the Old and his second wife Bona Sforza, to John Zapolya (1487-1540), Voivode of Transylvania and King of Hungary emerged around 1531. Sigismund von Herberstein (1486-1566) in his 1531 report to King Ferdinand I of Austria (1503-1564) cites Hieronim Łaski (1496-1541) as a source of information: "The King of Poland will marry the eldest daughter of the current queen to Count John of Spis [the Habsburgs refused to give Zapolya the title of king]. Then Łaski told me that about the marriage of his master [John Zapolya] he had negotiated with the King of Poland and received a favorable answer". Perhaps Łaski himself, one of the most skillful politicians of the time, a close associate of Zapolya, or Bona, were the authors of this project. For many years the queen tried in vain to persuade her husband to take an anti-Habsburg position. The marriage of her daughter to Zapolya would mean a victory for the queen and a change in Polish policy (after "Jagiellonowie: leksykon biograficzny" by Małgorzata Duczmal, p. 60, 265, 413).

At that time, Zapolya again sought help from the West against the Habsburgs. The help for Zapolya was sought by Hieronim Łaski, who used the entire year of 1531 for diplomatic trips. From Kraków, he went to Bohemia, then to Vienna and Buda, then back to Kraków, but soon went to Innsbruck, then to France and Hesse, from there again to Kraków, then to Spis and finally to Transylvania, to Zapolya. However, he did not provide any concrete help to the Hungarian king. It was then that Łaski's idea was born, not entirely original, because Andrzej Krzycki, perhaps at the instigation of Bona, had already suggested such a solution in 1526, to marry Zapolya to a Polish princess. Łaski believed that in Europe only Poland could provide Zapolya with effective support against the Habsburgs (after "Izabela Jagiellonka, królowa Węgier" by Małgorzata Duczmal, p. 158). 

Accounts of royal expenses by royal banker Seweryn Boner (Severin Bonar, 1486-1549) confirm the expenditures made on Isabella's jewellery and clothing in 1536, such as the money allocated for her dress, a sapphire signet ring ordered for her to match her jewellery (Die 17 Decembris 1536. dedit pro Schaphiro pro signeto Sermae reginulae Isabellae monetae fl. 29 et a sculptura eiusdem signiti monetae fl. 8 facit in toto fl. 37/15), or a ruby ​​rose sent to Nuremberg to have a new stone set in place of the missing one. At the same time, Bona ordered jewelry for Isabella from the goldsmiths in Wrocław. In 1537, the four princesses received a gold chain from her, also ordered in Wrocław (after "Izabella királyné, 1519-1559" by Endre Veress, p. 22, 27-28, 45). The city was at that time the economic centre of Silesia and many of Cranach's paintings were imported there, as evidenced by some paintings kept in the National Museum and the Archdiocesan Museum in Wrocław. 

The marriage project, so important for Hungary, was first seriously discussed in November 1537, when Franjo Frankopan (Franciscus Frangepanus, d. 1543), Archbishop of Kalocsa and Bishop of Eger, received a letter from Hetman Jan Amor Tarnowski, who proposed Isabella as a bride to the King of Hungary. Although the old, sick King John did not really want to marry, he yielded to the persuasion of his advisors. Zapolya first communicated his agreement to Tarnowski privately. All these negotiations were kept secret, especially from the Habsburgs and their agents in Hungary, such as Johan Weze (1490-1548), Archbishop of Lund and later Bishop of Constance. Weze was secretary to King Christian II of Denmark and a diplomat in the service of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and at that time negotiated the Treaty of Oradea (Nagyvárad / Grosswardein), signed on February 24, 1538.

The King of Hungary planned to come to Buda on St. Martin's Day and to celebrate his marriage immediately after the New Year 1539, around the Epiphany. But this was impossible, because Isabella's wedding dress was not yet ready, and so it was agreed at the court in Kraków that the symbolic marriage would take place before King John's envoys at the end of January, and the religious ceremony in Hungary would take place in the first half of February, on the 9th, as the invitations had been sent out.

The wedding ceremony on January 31, 1539 in Kraków was followed by a sumptuous feast, at which court poets such as Stanisław Aichler (Glandinus), Stanisław Kleryka (Anserinus), Sebastian Marszewski (Sebastianus Marschevius) and Wacław Szamotulski (Wenceslaus Samotulinus) read their occasional poems and wedding songs praising Isabella. Some of them were also published in Kraków, such as two works by Marszewski (Kórnik Library, Sygn.Cim.Qu.2205, Sygn.Cim.Qu.2206) or Aichler's Epithalamium Isabellae ... (Czartoryski Library, 250 II Cim). Queen Bona's physician, Giacomo Ferdinando da Bari (Jacobus Ferdinandus Bariensis, Jakub Ferdynand z Bari), in his De foelici connubio serenissimi Ungariae regis Joannis et S. Isabellae Poloniae regis filiae ..., also published in Kraków in 1539 (Kórnik Library, Sygn.Cim.Qu.2379), wrote about her marriage that not a hundred languages ​​could adequately describe Isabella's physical and mental gifts and beauty and that her body is pretty, graceful, her face shows joy and modesty. Her limbs are beautiful and proportionate, and King John can rejoice in receiving such a bride, as can Hungary, which has suffered so much until now.

A portrait of a young woman by Lucas Cranach the Elder in the Danish National Gallery (panel, 41.5 x 25.5 cm, inv. DEP4), bears a strong resemblance to other effigies of Isabella, in particular the best-known effigy of the Jagiellonian princess made by the workshop of Lucas Cranach the Younger around 1553 or later (Czartoryski Museum, inv. MNK XII-542). It can therefore be dated to around 1532, as the medal with the bust of Isabella by Giovanni Maria Mosca (Gallerie Estensi, Palazzo Coccapani in Modena, inv. R.C.G.E. 9313). The painting comes from the collection of Abraham Oppenheim (1804-1878) in Cologne, and its earlier history is unknown. This work is generally dated before 1537 because of the raised wings of the dragon in Cranach's mark. Although this portrait is also considered to represent Emilia of Saxony (1516-1591), the resemblance to the best-known portrait of the Saxon princess in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (group portrait with her sisters, inv. GG 877) or to a portrait by Hans Krell in the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool (inv. WAG 1222), is barely visible.

The same woman can be identified in another painting by Cranach and his workshop, now in the Hallwyl Museum in Stockholm, considered to be an effigy of the Roman goddess Venus (panel, 94 x 59.5 cm, inv. XXXII:B.156. HWY). This is also evident not only from the resemblance of the facial features, but also from the general context of such effigies of Jagiellonian women, identified by me. The woman even wears the same necklace as that visible in the portrait of Isabella in a green dress by the workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder (Sotheby's London, January 24, 2002, lot 156). The painting is undated and is generally dated to 1526-1537. It was therefore most likely part of Isabella's dowry, which she took with her to Hungary and brought back to Poland on her return in September 1551. The painting was originally part of a larger composition depicting Venus and Cupid, similar to the portrait of Isabella's half-sister Hedwig Jagiellon, daughter of Barbara Zapolya, in the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin (inv. 594). It was most likely cut down by later, more prudish owners. Before its acquisition in 1915, the painting was located at Edsberg Castle, north of Stockholm, which once belonged to Gabriel Oxenstierna (1619-1673), much valued by the Brigand of Europe, as Stefan Czarniecki called him, King Charles X Gustav of Sweden.
 
Isabella died just three years after her return to Transylvania on September 15, 1559, at the age of 40, allegedly as a result of a poorly performed abortion, a child of her lover Stanisław Nieżowski (ca. 1520-1573).

The queen's funerary monument in Alba Iulia Cathedral, made of grayish-white marble, was created several years after her death, probably around 1571-1572, at the same time as a similar monument dedicated to her son. Both monuments were damaged, their faces broken, probably during the Ottoman-Tartar invasion of 1658. The most likely author of the work is "Master Castillio, an Italian stonemason" (magister Castillio Italus lapicida), mentioned as owning a house in the city in July 1569. He is also credited with rebuilding the former episcopal palace in Alba Iulia into a royal residence in the Lombard Renaissance style (after "The Architecture of Historic Hungary" by Pál Lővei, p. 79). Castillio was one of many Italian architects and stonemasons, such as Ioannes Fiorentinus, active in 1514, Lucas Italus Lapicida, Petrus Italus of Lugano, mentioned between 1560 and 1563, or Cristoforo della Stella, who, along with those from Germany, Austria, and Bohemia, shaped Renaissance architecture in Transylvania. Some of the reliefs adorning the sides of the two monuments, preserved almost intact, are thought to be inspired by engravings by German masters active in Nuremberg: Georg Pencz (ca. 1500-1550) and Jost Amman (1539-1591) (compare "János Zsigmond fejedelem síremléke" by András Kovács, p. 178, 180, 187). The statue of Isabella, however, was undoubtedly based on an effigy created between 1556 and 1559, probably commissioned shortly after the regaining of power in the Kingdom of Eastern Hungary in November 1556. Her wimple is broadly similar to the one seen in the miniature by Cranach the Younger in the Czartoryski Museum, and, as in that effigy, she also holds gloves. She also wears a crown, and an orb rests on the cushion beside her. Her costume is much richer than in the aforementioned miniature and draws inspiration from Central European and Italian fashion, with wide, puffed sleeves like those in Titian's La Bella (portrait of Barbara Radziwill). She holds a scepter in her other hand, and this image is reminiscent of engravings depicting her father, Sigismund I, such as the one by the monogrammist HS, probably Hans Sauerdumm, made in 1554. Therefore, the artist of the portrait that served as the model for her statue was most likely Cranach the Younger.

Like Isabella, very few confirmed effigies of her husband have survived and some are probably waiting to be rediscovered. John Zapolya, like his predecessor Louis II Jagiellon, whose portraits were painted by Bernhard Strigel, Hans Krell, Flemish and Italian painters, must have commissioned several of his painted effigies. The effigy which probably represents Zapolya most faithfully is a woodcut by the German engraver Erhard Schön (ca. 1491-1542) from Nuremberg, published by Hans Guldenmund (d. 1560), with the inscription in the upper part in German: Johans von Gottes gnaden König zu Hungern and Hans Guldenmundt below the effigy. Between 1532 and 1548 Guldenmund also created an engraving with the portrait of the Elector of Saxony John Frederick I (1503-1554), inscribed Gedruckt zu Nürnberg durch Hans Guldenmundt, bey den Fleisch pencken, which was undobtedly based on original by Cranach (British Museum, inv. 1850,0612.111). Considering the king's costume as well as Schön's dates of life, the original must have been made in the 1530s or in 1541 like the print depicting the siege of Buda by the Ottoman army, which is also attributed to him (University Library of Erlangen-Nuremberg, H62/DH 4). Woodcuts with portraits of Anna Jagiellonica (1503-1547), Mary of Hungary (1505-1558) and Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana, 1504-1558) are also attributed to Schön, who is considered to have spent his entire life and career in his hometown, where he died in 1542. Highly realistic depictions of the Siege of Buda, as well as the portraits mentioned, must be based on effigies by other artists, probably itinerant painters or draughtsmen or, in the case of the effigy of the Hungarian king, a drawing or portrait by his court painter or an artist who stayed temporarily at his court. 

It is interesting to note that the woodcut depicting the portrait of the Transylvanian humanist and Protestant reformer Johann Honter (Johannes Honterus, 1498-1549), who studied in Kraków, is very close to the style of Lucas Cranach, which is particularly visible in the part of the model's hands, shirt and beard (inscription: VIGILATE ET ORATE·JOHANES·HONT ...). Honter played a decisive role in the introduction of the Reformation in Transylvania and corresponded with Luther and Melanchthon. In the autumn of 1529 he stayed briefly in Nuremberg and in November he went to Kraków, where on March 1, 1530 he entered his name in the register of the Kraków Academy as Johannes Georgii de Corona. Honterus's first two works were published in Kraków - a description of the world Rudimentorum Cosmographiae libri duo (1530) and a Latin grammar De Grammatica Libri Duo (1532). In 1532 he printed in Basel his map of Transylvania, which he had already made in Kraków, and returned to his hometown of Brasov (Kronstadt in German) in January 1533, where he set up a printing press in 1539 to enable the distribution of his own works. The Protestant Reformers from Transylvania and Hungary Matthias Dévay (ca. 1500-1545), Valentin Wagner (ca. 1510-1557), János Sylvester (ca. 1504–1552) and István Szegedi Kiss (1505-1572), all studied in Kraków and Wittenberg.

In his work Geschichte des Kronstädter Gymnasiums, published in 1845 in Brasov, Joseph Dück, citing three Saxon writers from the 18th century, mentions that Honter was Isabella Jagiellon's teacher. He was supposed to have taught the princess Latin and probably also taught her German. He dedicated to Isabella Preface to the Sentences of Saint Augustine (SENTENTIAE EX OMNIBVS OPERIBVS DIVI AVGVSTINI DECERPTAE), published in Brasov in 1539 with a title page decorated with her coat of arms (AD SERENISSIMAM PRINCIPEM / ET DO. DOMINAM ISABELLAM / Dei gratia Reginam Vngariæ, Dalmatiæ, Cro/atie, etcæ. Io. Honteri C. in Sententias diui / Augustini Præfatio). Honter and other members of the German-speaking community in Sarmatia and Transylvania undoubtedly supported and facilitated contacts with artists established in Germany.

Portrait of a Bearded Man, formerly attributed to Lucas Cranach the Younger and now to the painter from Cranach's circle known as the Master of the Mass of Saint Gregory, shows a man in rich costume - a fur-trimmed cloak and a gold-embroidered collar set with pearls (oil on panel, 55.9 x 41.3 cm, Christie's London, July 8, 2008, lot 11). The painting was on private loan to the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg before 1930 and has appeared on the art market several times in recent decades. In 1910 it was reported as belonging to L. Hess in Wiesbaden in Hesse, where Łaski travelled in 1531. The signet ring on the sitter's right hand bears the mirrored letters HF, beneath which is a symbol possibly composed of other ligatured letters, interpreted as IH. Such symbols, usually coats of arms, were very important to the people who commissioned the paintings, so this ambiguity regarding the symbol could be the result of a copy, where the copyist misinterpreted or incorrectly painted the symbol, as in the similar painting in the Metropolitan Museum of Art by the circle of Lucas Cranach the Elder (inv. 32.100.61), which according to my identification is an effigy of King Sigismund I. The clearly visible letters HF are probably the monogram of the painter, which could be considered the work of Lucas the Elder's closest collaborator, his son Hans Cranach (ca. 1513-1537) - Hans Fecit, who probably produced his own works from 1527. If Hans copied a portrait made by his father or another German painter and the letters IH are monograms, it could originally be JHR in ligature, comparable to the signature of the Hungarian King John Zapolya: Joannes Rex Hungariæ. The painting is dated "1527" at the top left in Latin numerals (M·D·XX VII). The man in this portrait wears a floral diadem of a bridegroom, which means that he is either engaged or wants to find a wife. In 1526, in addition to the marriage with the Jagiellonian princess, Zapolya also considered marrying the widow of Louis Jagiellon - Mary of Hungary (Mary of Austria), sister of Emperor Charles V and King Ferdinand I, although she stated that she would rather go to a convent than betray her brother by marrying Zapolya. In early 1527, the Habsburgs still deceived Zapolya into believing that this marriage was not out of the question. In this way, they wanted to persuade John to yield. Mary also rejected other candidates, although they were not enemies of the Habsburgs like Zapolya. The 1527 portrait is very similar to Erhard Schön's woodcut with the portrait of the Hungarian king.

Portrait of Crown Princess Isabella Jagiellon (1519-1559) by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1532, Statens Museum for Kunst.

Portrait of Crown Princess Isabella Jagiellon (1519-1559) as Venus by Lucas Cranach the Elder and workshop, ca. 1537, Hallwyl Museum in Stockholm.

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the ​portrait of Isabella Jagiellon (1519-1559), Queen of Hungary by Lucas Cranach the Younger, ca. 1556, lost. © Marcin Latka

​Portrait of John Zapolya (1487-1540), King of Hungary and Croatia by workshop or circle of Lucas Cranach the Elder, probably Hans Cranach, 1527, Private collection.

​Woodcut with portrait of Johannes Honterus (1498-1549) by workshop or circle of Lucas Cranach the Younger, 1540s, Picture Collection of Archive and Library of the Evangelical Church A.B. Kronstadt in Brasov.

"Bona loved power and did not like to share it with anyone, not even her own son - as evidenced by her reluctance to handing over Lithuania to him. For this reason, even earlier, in 1538, she prevented the functioning of the institution of four resident senators alongside Sigismund Augustus, created during the Diet of that year" (after Maria Bogucka's "Bona Sforza", 1989, p. 224).

The 1537 anti-royalist and anti-absolutist rebellion (rokosz) of the Polish nobility, ridiculed by the nickname of the Chicken War, criticized the role of queen Bona, whom they accused for the "bad upbringing" of young Sigismund Augustus, centralizing policies and seeking to increase her power in the state. As a result the 1538 Diet declared elections vivente rege, that Bona forced, illegal in the Polish kingdom and insisted that all estates had the right to be present at such events in the future.

That same year it was also agreed that the only son of Bona will marry archduchess Elizabeth of Austria (1526-1545), which Bona "a great enemy of the king of Rome" Ferdinand I, her father, strongly oposed. 

So does she commissioned a painting to express her dissatisfaction?

The painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder, dated 1538, from the old collection of the Royal Wilanów Palace in Warsaw (oil on panel, 60.3 x 42.1 cm, Wil.1749, recorded in 1743) can be considered as such. It shows Lucretia, a noblewoman in ancient Rome, whose suicide led to the political rebellion against the established power.

Bona is credited with introducing many Italian "novelties" to Poland-Lithuania-Ruthenia and portraiture was very developed at that time in her native country. Numerous portraits of the queen's relatives of the House of Sforza, such as the portrait of her paternal grandfather Galeazzo Maria Sforza (1444-1476), Duke of Milan, by Piero del Pollaiuolo (Uffizi Gallery, inv. 1890, 1492) became a classic of European portrait. However, the effigies of the queen are not mentioned in the inventories of notable collections, such as those from the second half of the 17th century of the Lubomirskis or the Radziwill family, which indicates that they were probably forgotten or hidden in mythological or religious disguises (portrait historié). The 1661 inventory of the Lubomirski collection indicates that only the most recent effigies were saved and that the oldest were left at the "mercy" of the barbarians during the Deluge. Similarly Boguslaus Radziwill (1620-1669), who evacuated his possessions to Königsberg/Królewiec. The register of his paintings from 1657 (AGAD 1/354/0/26/84), however, lists a few paintings by Cranach (one of the rare names of painters mentioned in this inventory), including two or three paintings of Lucretia probably by him (the author's name is not mentioned) - "A painting on a board of a woman man who killed herself" (Obraz na desce białeygłowy ktora się zabiła, [...] obraz ktora się sama zabia), as well as several portraits whose identity has already been lost: "Two Italian Ladies", "Two unknown ladies", "Unknown cavalier", "Unknown Hetman", "Large paintings of women ... 3", "A Cardinal", "Moldavian Voivode", "Radziwill without a name", "A German person in a cuirass", "Foreign Duchess", "Face of a woman", "Holy head", "A girl with a dog" and "Image of Antichrists". 

Very similar Lucretia as a naked three-quarter length figure, covered only by a veil, is in the private collection (oil on panel, 75.5 x 57.7 cm, with the Weiss Gallery, London in 2014). Her facial features were modelled on other effigies of the Queen by Cranach and resemble greatly the effigy in Villa del Poggio Imperiale.​

​The same effigy, almost like a template, was used in the painting depicting the Virgin and Child with grapes in front of a curtain held by an angel in the National Gallery in Prague (oil on panel, 85 x 59 cm, O 9321). This painting is attributed to workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder and dated to about 1535-1540. It was previously in the collection of the Sternberg family (recorded since 1806), most probably in Prague. Mary is depicted here as a noble vine, whose fruit is Jesus. At the same time, the vine is the Redeemer himself and his branches are believers: "If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing" (John 15:5). Like the Virgin, Bona was the mother of the king, so she is equally important. This painting could be a gift for Bona's main opponent, Ferdinand of Austria (1503-1564), who resided in Prague. 

Similar Madonna is in Gdańsk, which was the main port of Poland in the 16th century (National Museum in Gdańsk, oil on panel, 55 x 36.5 cm, inventory number MNG/SD/268/M). However, the pose of the Virgin and the Child resemble more closely the portrait of Queen Bona Maria Sforza in guise of Mary in the Städel Museum in Frankfurt. The Child is offering an apple to his mother, a symbol of original sin (peccatum originale), as well as temptation, salvation and the royal power (royal orb or royal apple).

According to a Milanese manuscript, probably from the 17th century, Bona was criticized by her opponents, like probably all strong female leaders in history, for three things in Poland: monetae falsae, facies picta et vulva non stricta - allegedly fake coins mixed in with her dowry, excessive use of cosmetics and licentiousness (after "Isabella and Her Italian Connections" by Mónika F. Molnár, p. 165). The other version of this saying, attributed to King Sigismund I after he spent the first night with her and did not find her a virgin, reads as follows: "Queen Bona brought us three gifts: a painted face, a loose womb, and counterfeit money" (Regina Bona attulit nobis tria dona: Faciem pictam, vulvam non strictam et pecuniam fictam, after "Królowa Bona ..." by Władysław Pociecha, p. 305).

"If I seem a lecherous image to the viewer, what kind of shame do you have a greater ideal? You will marvel at my power and accomplishment in that form, so I will become religious to you" (Si videor lasciva tibi spectator imago, / Die maius specimen quale pudoris habes? / Virtutem factumque meum mireris in ista / Forma, sic fiam religiosa tibi), wrote in his Latin epigram entitled "On Lucretia depicted more lasciviously" (In Lucretiam lascivius depictam), secretary of Queen Bona Andrzej Krzycki (1482-1537), Archbishop of Gniezno.

​The image of Bona, dating from 1540, holding an olive branch, a traditional symbol of peace and reconciliation, can be interpreted as an attempt by the queen to reconcile with her adversaries. The original portrait, undoubtedly made in several copies, was reproduced in an anonymous drawing from the second quarter of the 19th century (Jagiellonian Library in Kraków, BJ Graf. I.R. 2326, inscription: BONA. 1540.). The composition of this portrait indicates that the author of the original painting could be Hans Baldung Grien (d. 1545), who had previously, around 1510, produced in Strasbourg the engravings for the Kraków Missal, as well as a woodcut representing the elected queen Wanda.

Portrait of Bona Sforza as Lucretia by Lucas Cranach the Elder or workshop, ca. 1535-1540, Private collection.

Portrait of Bona Sforza as Madonna and Child with grapes by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1535-1540, National Gallery in Prague.

Portrait of Bona Sforza as Madonna and Child with an apple by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1535-1540, National Museum in Gdańsk. 

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Queen Bona Sforza (1494-1557) holding an olive branch by Hans Baldung Grien, 1540, lost. © Marcin Latka