Titian at the Kraków monastery?

​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.