At the end of the 15th century, Bavaria and Sarmatia (generally speaking), were linked by close economic and artistic ties. The most important evidence of these links in Dürer's oeuvre is the drawing in the British Museum, dated 1509 (ink on paper, 26 x 42.2 cm, inv. SL,5218.190). It depicts the Fall of the Rebel Angels, with the kneeling figure of the donor Jost Schilling and his coat of arms. It is a preparatory study for a painting commissioned by Schilling for his chapel in Wissembourg.

Friedrich Schilling, a lay judge in Wissembourg around 1450, is the ancestor of the Schilling family who immigrated to Poland. Four, or perhaps five, of his sons settled in Kraków, including Friedrich (d. 1508) and the youngest, Jost (Just, Jodok, Jodocus) Schilling (after "Geschichte der Deutschen in den Karpathenländern" by Raimund Friedrich Kaind, Part 1, p. 105). Jost received the city rights of Kraków only in 1513, being already of advanced age (homo iam grandevus) and died in the same year. Friedrich, through his connections with relatives and other merchants in the Holy Roman Empire, as well as his marriage to Agnes, daughter of the Kraków merchant and banker Paul Behr, amassed a fortune and acquired a high position among Kraków's burghers. He conducted most of his business in partnership with his brothers: Nicolaus (in 1498, 1502, and 1505) and Jost (in 1505). They invested in lead mining and engaged in a significant trade in this metal, papermaking, and the trade of oxhides, Polish cochineal, and textiles, primarily with the German states. In 1499, Schillings supplied substantial quantities of lead to the royal court. They maintained particularly active trade relations with Nuremberg (in 1491, the Nuremberg merchant Sixtus Wagner owed Friedrich 300 Hungarian guilders) and with the cities of Silesia. 

In 1507, the brothers were ennobled by Emperor Maximilian I (after "Polski słownik biograficzny" Volume 35, p.  477), patron of Albrecht Dürer. In the same year, Jost had an altar erected in the Church of Saint John in Wissembourg, dedicated to Saint Stanislaus, a highly venerated patron saint of Poland. This altar has since disappeared, as the church became Protestant over time. Consequently, an effigy of Jost very similar to the one in the drawing, bearing his coat of arms, the inscription IOST SCHILLING and the date A° 1507, can be attributed to the circle of Dürer (oil on panel, 41.5 x 28.6 cm, Lempertz in Cologne, November 17, 2007, Auction 909, lot 1143 and Lost Art-ID573856). However, the depiction of the hands suggests more the circle of Lucas Cranach the Elder, as in the case of the portrait of the wife of Erazm Schilling (d. 1561), copied by Franz Wolfgang Rohrich (Galeria Staszica in Poznań, December 15, 2022, lot 3).

In 1536, a painter from Bavaria, Andreas Jungholz, accepted the Kraków municipal law (Andris Jungholcz ex Bauaria de Monte-sancto [Heiligenberg bei Schönau?], pictor, after "Skarbniczka naszej archeologji ..." by Ambroży Grabowski, p. 42). He worked on the decoration of Wawel Castle and is considered to be perhaps the same painter as Andreas, who received 30 florins on December 3, 1546, for a portrait of King Sigismund I.

In addition to economic and artistic connections, political connections also became important during Dürer's youth in Nuremberg. On November 14, 1475, Hedwig Jagiellon (1457-1502), the eldest daughter of King Casimir IV Jagiellon and Elizabeth of Austria, married Duke George the Rich in Landshut (near the Free Imperial City of Nuremberg). Several works of art commemorate the Duchess of Bavaria-Landshut. Among the most important is the large tapestry housed in the Bavarian National Museum in Munich (wool and silk, 442 x 588 cm, inv. T 3861). Made in 1540, as evidenced by the date inscribed at the bottom, this tapestry depicts Sophia's family tree. It comes from Neuburg Castle and belongs to a series of tapestries commissioned by Otto Henry (1502-1559), Count Palatine of Neuburg, Hedwig's grandson. The design is attributed to the Neuburg court painter, Peter Gertner, and the tapestry was woven in Otto Henry's workshop in Neuburg under the direction of the Flemish weaver Christian de Roy. The lower part of the tapestry depicts Sophia with her coat of arms (the White Eagle), an image likely based on pictures made during her lifetime, more than fifty years earlier. In 1536, Otto Henry traveled to Kraków to claim his grandmother's dowry, and the view of the Polish capital painted after this visit is attributed to his other court painter, Matthias Gerung.

Around 1535, shortly before Otto Henry's visit to Kraków, Barthel Beham (1502-1540), a Nuremberg painter whose work shows strong influences from Dürer, created the "small Wittelsbach series", which included, in addition to members of the family, several portraits of contemporary monarchs. This series is considered a gift from Duke William IV of Bavaria (1493-1550), for whom Beham had worked as court painter since 1527, to his cousin Otto Henry, and was later kept at Neuburg Castle, the latter's residence. The series includes two portraits of Emperor Charles V (Bavarian State Painting Collections, inv. 2611 and inv. 2558), a portrait of his brother Ferdinand I (Bavarian National Museum, inv. R44), a portrait of William IV (Berchtesgaden Castle, inv. BI a52), Otto Henry, dated top right: 1535 (Alte Pinakothek, inv. 5316), as well as William IV's brother - Louis X of Bavaria (1495-1545), dated top left: 1535 (Sotheby's London, July 6, 2016, lot 27), for whom another series was probably made. Also part of the "small Wittelsbach series" is a portrait of the young Louis II Jagiellon (1506-1526), ​​King of Hungary, Croatia, and Bohemia from 1516, nephew of Sigismund I (oil on panel, 42.5 x 33.5 cm, Lempertz in Cologne, sale 1266, May 17, 2025, lot 1004). Like the portraits of Charles V and Ferdinand I, it was probably modeled on other images of the monarch. The portrait comes from the collection of the Royal Bavarian Order of Knights of the House of Saint George, and the barely visible inscription at the top confirms the identity of the portrayed ([...] ANNONIAE LVDVIGVS / REXQVE PATER:QVI / PRO PATRIA PVGNANS / FORTITER OPPERVIT / LVDW / IG).

After the death of Louis II, Duke Louis X of Bavaria, who reigned in Landshut, claimed the Bohemian crown and opposed the Habsburgs until 1534, when the two dukes of Bavaria concluded an agreement with Ferdinand I in Linz. Since the portrait of the Jagiellonian monarch was painted after this agreement, it should not be linked to these claims, but rather to the family ties of Otto Henry (and his cousin, the ruler of Landshut).

This suggests that portraits of other members of the Jagiellonian family, including that of Otto Hery's grandmother's brother, Sigismund I, whom he visited shortly after the completion of the "small Wittelsbach series", were also executed. In this context, the series of portraits painted in the 1660s by the Swedish painter David Frumerie (1641-1677) is particularly interesting. He copied the paintings from a Swedish royal collection, likely looted by Swedish troops in the 17th century, or painted by Jakob Binck (d. 1569) and subsequently lost. Binck is considered a pupil of Dürer and frequently copied the works of Barthel Beham and his brother Hans Sebald Beham. Furthermore, he worked for Duke Albert of Prussia (1490-1568), son of Sophia Jagiellon (1464-1512), and his Sarmatian relatives.

The series by Frumerie includes portraits of male rulers from various European countries around 1540 and earlier. While the portraits of the Dukes of Saxony were originally inspired by the works of Cranach the Elder, those of Emperors Charles V and Ferdinand I resemble Beham's works from the Wittelsbach series (Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, inv. NMGrh 599, NMGrh 598). The portrait of William IV of Bavaria (inv. NMGrh 585) is also based on corresponding works by Beham (Alte Pinakothek, inv. 2456). The series also includes the portrait of Louis II Jagiellon (oil on canvas, 197 x 119 cm, inv. NMGrh 596, inscription: LVDOVICVS REX HVNGARIÆ / ET BOHEMIÆ. ÆTATIS.20. / ANNO.1525.), similar to that from the "small Wittelsbach series" and to the full-length portrait from Neuburg Castle (Alte Pinakothek, inv. 6946).

Among the paintings copied by Frumerie is also the portrait of Louis's uncle, Sigismund I (oil on canvas, 194 x 98 cm, inv. NMGrh 570, inscription: SİGİSMVND, D. G. REX / POLONİÆ MAGN, DVX / LITVAVIA.RUSSIÆ PRVS/SIÆ DOMIN, ...). The colors and style of this work are reminiscent of the paintings of Beham, whose workshop also produced full-length portraits, such as those of Otto Henry and his wife Susanna, both from Neuburg Castle (Alte Pinakothek, inv. 4229 and inv. 6724). The King of Poland holds an apple, a symbol of original sin, as does Cunigunde of Austria (1465-1520) in her posthumous portrait painted by Beham in 1531 (Alte Pinakothek, inv. 2445, signed and dated upper left: 1531. / .BB). 

Like the portrait of Cunigunde, which has a counterpart in that of her husband Albert IV of Bavaria-Munich (1447-1508), painted in 1535, many years after the duke's death (Neuburg State Gallery, inv. 2444, signed and dated upper left: .1535. / .BB), the portrait of Sigismund I, created by Beham, was undoubtedly created together with the portrait of his wife, Bona Maria Sforza d'Aragona. No such portrait of the latter is known, however, the image of a lady in Italian costume from Beham's painting is interesting in this respect. This horizontal composition was painted in 1530, as evidenced by the inscription in the lower left part of the painting: 1530 / BARTHOLOME BEHEM and depicts the religious scene of the Finding of the Cross by Saint Helena (Alte Pinakothek, oil on panel, 101.1 x 149.8 cm, inv. 684). The painting comes from the Ducal Art Chamber in Munich and is part of the Historical Cycle (Historienzyklus), a series of paintings commissioned by William IV of Bavaria and his wife, Maria Jakobaea of Baden-Sponheim (1507-1580), depicting famous ancient battles and the virtuous deeds of legendary women. The compositions in the cycle feature the coats of arms of the Duke and Duchess, including the scene of the Finding of the Cross - inscription next to the Baden coat of arms: CRVX CHRISTI AB HELENA REPERITVR / A MACARIO MORTVA SVSCITATA ADPROBATVR AN CCXLIII. Several of these scenes depict recent events disguised as ancient ones. The Siege of Alesia by Julius Caesar and the Battle against Vercingetorix, for example, painted by Melchior Feselen in 1533 (Alte Pinakothek, inv. 686), feature the German imperial double-headed eagle on the standards of the assembled Roman troops, while the French fleur-de-lis appears on the flags of the defeated Gauls, among whom are also Ottomans.

The Discovery of the Cross, undoubtedly inspired by the Duchess of Bavaria-Munich, is universally regarded as containing the portrait of Maria Jakobaea in the guise of Saint Helena, who discovered in Jerusalem the cross on which Christ was crucified (after "Senfls Liedsätze ..." by Sonja Tröster, p. 251). It is also considered a reflection of the Wittelsbach family's Pietas Bavariae, particularly through a veneration of the True Cross (after "Engendering Pietas Austriaca ..." by Ilaria Hoppe, p.  195). The other figures in this scene are also portraits of important figures of the period.

Saint Macarius, Bishop of Jerusalem, bears a striking resemblance to depictions of Cardinal Albert of Brandenburg (1490-1545), Archbishop of Mainz and Archbishop of Magdeburg, such as Dürer's 1523 engraving or the portrait as Saint Martin painted by Simon Franck in 1543 (Cathedral and Diocesan Museum in Mainz, inv. M06065). The first lady in the group of women behind Saint Helena (Maria Jakobaea), wearing headdresses characteristic of the late Middle Ages, is undoubtedly Cunigunde of Austria, resembling her portrait dating from around 1485 (Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, inv. 8 (1964.15)). The lady holding a book, dressed in English attire, is Catherine of Aragon (1485-1536), the Catholic Queen of England, depicted in similar dress in the portrait held at Lambeth Palace (inv. NPG L246). The lady in the green dress on the left is probably Eleonora of Austria (1498-1558), Queen of Portugal between 1518 and 1521 and Queen of France from 1530 to 1547, while the lady with a large headdress on her head and a gold necklace around her neck is probably Anna Jagellonica (1503-1547), Queen of Germany, Bohemia and Hungary.

The woman in the pink dress and with the Italian-style hairstyle is very reminiscent of the images of Queen Bona Sforza by Giovanni Cariani and Bernardino Licinio, which I have identified. The Queen of Poland, Grand Duchess of Lithuania, Lady of Ruthenia, and Duchess of Bari, is kneeling beside her distant relative, Catherine of Aragon. They are united by their shared, now largely forgotten, Hispano-Aragonese heritage and by their veneration of the True Cross.

Already a princess in the Kingdom of Naples, Bona became the main character in an anonymous sentimental novel in Spanish, printed in Valencia in 1513 under the title "Question of Love" (Cuestión de amor). The story recounts the chivalrous love of Flamiano (Jeroni de Fenollet i de Centelles), a Valencian nobleman living in Naples, with Belisana (Bona) (after "Cuestion de amor ..." by Françoise Vigier, p. 25-26, 132). She was also praised in poems in Spanish, such as the one published in Toledo in 1527 in the Cancionero general (after "Bona Sforza" by Adam Darowski, p. 18, 45-46, 50). Bona's daughters adopted the traditional Spanish title of Infanta. Probably as early as the 1520s, Antonio Niccolò Carmignano addressed the poem Alla Serenissima Infante di Polonia to Bona's eldest daughter, Isabella Jagiellon (1519-1559), and in another poem compares her to Queen Isabella I of Castile. He also uses the Spanish title of Infante to refer to Bona's son Sigismund Augustus in the poem entitled Allo infante serenissimo re jovene, written around 1530.

Although the scene itself is clearly inspired by Italian compositions, such as those of the Venetian painter Vittore Carpaccio (e.g. the Sermon of Saint Stephen, dating from around 1514 and preserved in the Louvre), the technique and colors are close to those of Dürer. The origin of these inspirations remains uncertain, as, according to confirmed information, the artist visited Italy in 1540, where he died in Bologna. In 1529, he painted a full-length portrait of the two-year-old son of Anna Jagiellonica, Archduke Maximilian of Austria (1527-1576). It is therefore probable that he visited Vienna or Prague, or that he was inspired by other effigies (Liechtenstein Collections, inv. GE 950). In 1534 he had made a copy of a version of Titian's composition - Young lady at her toilet, considered a portrait of Laura Dianti or Isabella Boschetti (Kunstsammlungen und Museen Augsburg, inv. L 841).

It is also worth mentioning here a "Portrait of a princely lady" (Bildnis einer fürstlichen Dame) by Beham, which I had already considered in 2016 as a possible likeness of Bona. This painting, presumably belonging to the "small Wittelsbach series", was in the Bavarian National Museum before the Second World War, alongside a similar portrait of Susanna of Bavaria, probably from the same series. It likely comes from Schleissheim Palace, near Munich (Marburg Photographic Archive, image no. 110.586). Although comparable to Beham's portraits of Maria Jakobaea, which are of a similar size, the facial features and costume differ from known portraits of the Duchess of Bavaria-Munich, as well as from those of Susanna. The facial features, however, correspond to those of the Queen of Poland, as seen in her later portraits.

At least one important work by Dürer was also located in Pomerania in the 16th century. The 1560 inventory of Wolgast Castle lists the portrait of Amalia of the Palatinate (1490-1524), painted by Dürer (Freulein Amalia, Pfalzgrevin am Rein, Herzog Georgens Gemhal, Dureri Contrafen und arbeit, item 3, after "Neue Beitrage zur Geschichte der Kunst und ihrer Denkmäler in Pommern" by Julius Mueller, p. 31). The castle was the residence of Philip I of Pomerania (1515-1560), Duke of Pomerania-Wolgast, grandson of Anna Jagiellon (1476-1503), sister of Sigismund I, on his father's side. Amalia was the mother of the duke and her portrait was probably made shortly before her marriage to George I of Pomerania (1493-1531) on May 22, 1513 in Szczecin. The inventory description suggests it might be an engagement portrait, as Amalia is referred to as Freulein, a traditional German title of respect for a young girl or unmarried woman. Consequently, the drawing of her holding a flower, taken from the Pomeranian "Book of Effigies" (Visierungsbuch), lost during World War II, was considered to be the work after Dürer (after "Die Bildnisse des pommerschen Herzogshauses" by Hellmuth Bethe, p. 6, image 3). However, it should also be noted that many other drawings in this collection were likely preparatory studies returned with the finished portrait. It is therefore probable that it was executed after Amalia's marriage by a member of Dürer's workshop sent to Pomerania. Dürer's original painting was likely destroyed in the 17th century.

These two images were certainly not the only representations of the Duchess of Pomerania. Dürer and his workshop likely also produced copies for Amalia's relatives. This is evidenced by the version of her portrait based on the aforementioned drawing, now housed at Gripsholm Castle in Sweden (oil on canvas, 56 x 46 cm, inv. NMGrh 1112). The painting was probably executed by David Frumerie. It is believed to be an image of Beatrice of Baden (1492-1535), Countess Palatine of Simmern, while the actual portrait of Beatrice copied by Frumerie is believed to depict Anne of Foix (1484-1506), Queen of Bohemia, Croatia and Hungary, and third wife of King Vladislaus II Jagiellon (Nationalmuseum Stockholm, inv. NMGrh 303).

Duchess Amalia was the daughter of Margaret of Bavaria-Landshut (1456-1501) and it is likely that family ties had an impact on the choice of painter. Although the Wittelsbachs are not generally considered major patrons of Dürer, Nuremberg's proximity to their estates suggests that their interactions were more frequent than the surviving works and documents indicate. The most valuable remnant of these contracts is a drawing with a portrait of Susanna of Bavaria (1502-1543), daughter of Albert IV and Cunigunde of Austria, and wife of Otto Henry. This drawing, dated 1525 (in the upper right), is probably a preparatory study for a painted portrait (Harvard Art Museums, chalk on paper, 40.3 x 29.4 cm, inv. 1949.1). Before marrying Otto Henry in 1529, Susanna was the wife of Casimir (1481-1527), Margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach, nephew of King Sigismund I and son of Sophia Jagiellon. Casimir's portrait was painted by Hans von Kulmbach, Dürer's pupil, in 1511 (Alte Pinakothek, inv. 9482).

​Portrait of Jost Schilling (d. 1513) by circle of Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1507 or after, Private collection. 

​The Fall of the Rebel Angels with portrait of Jost Schilling (d. 1513) as donor by Albrecht Dürer, 1509, British Museum. 

​Tapestry depicting the family tree of Hedwig Jagiellon (1457-1502), Duchess of Bavaria-Landshut by Christian de Roy after design by Peter Gertner, 1540, Bavarian National Museum in Munich. 

​Portrait of ​​King Louis II Jagiellon (1506-1526) by workshop of Barthel Beham, ca. 1535, Private collection.

​Portrait of ​​King Louis II Jagiellon (1506-1526) by David Frumerie, 1660s, Nationalmuseum in Stockholm.

​Portrait of ​​King Sigismund I (1467-1548) by David Frumerie, 1660s, Nationalmuseum in Stockholm.

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of ​​King Sigismund I (1467-1548) by Barthel Beham, ca. 1530, lost. © Marcin Latka

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of ​​Queen Bona Maria Sforza d'Aragona (1494-1557) by Barthel Beham, ca. 1530, lost. © Marcin Latka

​Finding of the Cross with portraits of Queen Bona Maria Sforza d'Aragona (1494-1557), Queen Catherine of Aragon (1485-1536), Duchess Cunigunde of Austria (1465-1520), Duchess Maria Jakobaea of Baden-Sponheim (1507-1580) as Saint Helena and Cardinal Albert of Brandenburg (1490-1545) as Saint Macarius by Barthel Beham, 1530, Alte Pinakothek in Munich.

​Portrait of a lady, perhaps ​​Queen Bona Maria Sforza d'Aragona (1494-1557) by Barthel Beham, ca. 1535, Bavarian National Museum in Munich, lost.  

​​Study drawing for portrait of Amalia of the Palatinate (1490-1524), Duchess of Pomerania, from the "Book of Effigies" by circle of Albrecht Dürer, ca. 1513, Pomeranian State Museum in Szczecin, lost during World War II. Virtual reconstruction, © Marcin Latka

​Portrait of Amalia of the Palatinate (1490-1524), Duchess of Pomerania by David Frumerie (?), 1660s, Nationalmuseum in Stockholm.

​​Study drawing for portrait of Susanna of Bavaria (1502-1543) by Albrecht Dürer, 1525, Harvard Art Museums.

Albrecht Dürer trained and influenced several major Renaissance artists, particularly in Nuremberg.

Hans von Kulmbach (ca. 1480-1522), a close pupil and assistant to the painter, is believed to have been active in Kraków during the periods 1509-1511 and 1514-1515; there, he produced numerous works for Sarmatian patrons - most notably Johann Boner (1462-1523), banker to King Sigismund I, as well as for the King himself. He is considered the author of the paintings on the reverse sides of the wings of the Pławno triptych, depicting Christus Rex and Maria Regina, now held at the National Museum in Warsaw (panels, 145.2 x 46.5 cm, inv. Śr.18/4; Śr.18/5). This triptych likely served as the model for the silver altarpiece commissioned by the king and crafted in Albrecht Glim's workshop in Nuremberg. The state of preservation of these two panels is poor; moreover, they were likely intended to serve merely as initial "sketches" for the monarch's approval, yet their style also allows for their attribution to Dürer's workshop. The altarpiece created by Glim was destroyed by Swedish forces during the Deluge (1655-1660); we will therefore likely never know whether the wings were painted by Dürer.

It was most likely Hans, or his workshop, who created the bust-length portrait of Margravine Sophia Jagiellon (1464-1512), sister of Sigismund I, in the early 16th century. This painting, now in a private collection (oil on panel, 37.2 x 28.9 cm), forms a pair with the portrait of Sophia's husband, Margrave Frederick I of Brandenburg-Ansbach (1460-1536); furthermore, in the early 19th century, Franz Wolfgang Röhrich (1787-1834) copied similar three-quarter-length portraits of the Margravine and her husband (Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv. 07.245.2 and 07.245.1). Kulmbach is also the artist behind the splendid portrait of the Margravine's son, Casimir (1481-1527), painted in 1511 (Alte Pinakothek in Munich, inv. 9482).

Kulmbach's stay in Poland is no longer a matter of dispute today; however, at the end of the 19th century, Leonard Lepszy struggled to convince public opinion of it, as he explained in his article (after "Kultura epoki jagiellońskiej w świetle wystawy zabytków w 500 letnią rocznicę odnowienia Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego", p. 58-62). Many of his works were lost during the country's turbulent history, including during the Second World War, when several were looted by German occupation forces. One such work was a double-sided panel from the collection of Katarzyna Potocka, née Branicka (1825-1907), which had been housed at the "Pod Baranami" Palace in Kraków (panel, 75 x 50 cm, inv. 274). One side depicted the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, while the other showed Saint Barbara. Like the Saint Catherine of Alexandria held by the Czartoryski Museum (panel, 56 x 38.2 cm, inv. MNK XII-328), this piece was a fragment of a side wing from a triptych originating in the Pauline church at Skałka in Kraków. The triptych's central panel, depicting the Adoration of the Magi, is now in the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin (panel, 158.9 x 112.8 cm, inv. 596A; signed and dated center-left: 1511 / HK in ligature). Only one fragment of this triptych remains at the Skałka monastery; it depicts the Flight into Egypt and, on the reverse, the lower part of the figure of Saint Barbara.

Given that the Dormition of the Virgin panel, featuring a donor bearing the Rawicz family coat of arms, held at the Czartoryski Museum (inv. MNK XII-341) was previously thought to be part of this triptych, it was assumed that the patron was Stanisław Jarocki (d. 1515), castellan of Zawichost (after "Hans Suess z Kulmbachu" by Józef Muczkowski and Józef Zdanowski, p. 26). However, as that this panel is now attributed to Michael Lancz von Kitzingen (a work painted in 1522 for the Ożarowski Chapel in Wawel Cathedral) and is significantly larger than the other panels, the hypothesis that the Skałka triptych was commissioned by Jarocki appears less likely.

Lepszy described the panel depicting Saint Barbara as a work "reminiscent of the harmony and coloring of the Venetian masters". She is shown wearing a crown and a low-cut gown, characteristic of the Sarmatian fashion of the first quarter of the 16th century. Similar costumes appear in the scene of the Self-burial of Saint John the Evangelist, painted by Kulmbach in 1516 for the altarpiece commissioned by Johann Boner (St. Mary's Basilica in Kraków). As this scene is believed to include a portrait of the patron on the left, the ladies depicted on the right are likely Queen Barbara Zapolya (d. 1515) and Johann's wife, Szczęsna Morsztynówna.

The composition of the Skałka triptych draws heavily on the Paumgartner Altarpiece, painted by Dürer around 1500 (Alte Pinakothek in Munich, inv. 701-706), in which the figures of saints depicted on the panels are disguised portraits of the donors: the brothers Stephan Paumgartner (1480-1525), shown on the left as Saint George, and Lukas Paumgartner (d. 1515), on the right as Saint Eustace (compare "The Cult of Saint Katherine of Alexandria in Late-Medieval Nuremberg" by Anne Simon, p. 273). Consequently, the depictions of Saint Catherine and Saint Barbara on the Skałka triptych were likely also portraits of real individuals connected to the altarpiece's patron. Furthermore, probably during the 1520s, an unknown follower of Hans von Kulmbach created a similar triptych for Sandomierz Cathedral (now housed in the Diocesan Museum). This follower of Kulmbach altered several elements, notably the figure of the Virgin Mary on the central panel. The left panel, which has survived, is believed to depict Jogaila of Lithuania.

Georg Pencz (ca. 1500-1550) is another prominent pupil of Dürer whose ties to Poland are well documented in scholarly literature. In July 1535, he received payment for fourteen paintings depicting the Passion cycle, intended for the reverse side of the wings of the silver altar for the Sigismund Chapel at Wawel Castle (Sic Georgio Pinczenstain pictori, qui laborem extrinsecus pictori[s] ornat, dati ad laborem et rationem monetae fl 290). He executed this major, prestigious commission for the royal mausoleum's high altar, likely basing his work on drawings by Hans Dürer. Just like the main altar, created by Melchior Baier the Elder, the panels were produced in Nuremberg.

Pencz stayed in Italy from 1526 to 1528/1529, and again around 1539. After the death of Crispin Herrant in 1549, he accepted the position of court painter to Duke Albert of Prussia, a cousin of Sigismund II Augustus (appointed on September 6, 1550). While traveling to Królewiec, the painter and his son Egidius died unexpectedly in Wrocław in October 1550 (after "Georg Pencz: Between Nuremberg, Cracow and Königsberg" by Katrin Dyballa, p. 3, 5, 7). Both were likely buried in the cemetery of the Church of St. Mary Magdalene (van mayster gorge bentze eyn maler van nurbergk; van egydiuss dess oben geschriben mayster gorge son, after "Georg Pencz ..." by Adam Morawiec, p. 132-133).

The painting by Pencz from the Dominican Monastery in Kraków was likely created around the same time as the panels of the silver altar. It depicts the Coronation of the Virgin (panel, 66.8 x 91.5 cm). According to the convent's archives, the work came from private donations and formed the upper section of a larger composition. It appears to be inspired by a 1510 engraving by Dürer, similar to the one featured in the Wedelicki Trilogy (Archdiocesan Museum in Warsaw).

Two other important paintings by Pencz held in Polish museums exhibit a more Italianate style and draw heavily on Venetian painting (notably inviting comparison with the works of Bernardino Licinio, a contemporary of Pencz). These are Caritas Romana of 1538 in the National Museum in Warsaw, acquired from the Jan Popławski collection in 1935 (oil on canvas, 76 x 53.5 cm, inv. M.Ob.823 MNW, earlier 77082, signed and dated lower left: 15 PG 38), and Lot and his daughters of 1544, held at Wawel Castle (oil on panel, 93 x 124 cm, inv. ZKnW-PZS 7055, dated and signed lower right: 1544 / GP). A drawing based on this latter composition, signed by Pencz, is held at the Albertina in Vienna (inv. 20699, with the monogram GP in the lower right corner). This work is identified as the one inventoried in 1718 in the Imperial Treasury and Art Chamber in Prague; it likely served as a preparatory sketch (or ricordo) and bears the artist's handwritten annotations regarding the color palette.

That same year, 1544, the painter produced two other significant compositions inspired by Italian art. One of them, held at the National Museum in Wrocław, depicts Christ crowned with thorns (oil and tempera on panel, 47 x 37 cm, inv. MNWr VIII-2301, signed and dated upper left: 15 GP 44). This work draws inspiration from the art of Andrea Solario (ca. 1465-1524), a painter of the Milanese school, and originated in the collection of Johann Sigismund Haunold (1634-1711), a patrician and collector from Wrocław. It is possible that the painting arrived in Wrocław as early as 1544, as the city's Archdiocesan Museum also holds a painting on a convex panel depicting Christ as the Man of Sorrows (Ecce Homo); likely dating from the same period, it is executed in Pencz's style, possibly by a Silesian painter trained in Pencz's workshop. Another work is the portrait of a young man wearing a prominent codpiece, housed in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence and inspired by the portraits of Agnolo Bronzino (inv. 1890, n. 1891). Interestingly, the sitter in this latter portrait is, according to my identification, Ulrich III Fugger (1526-1584), the son of Catherine Thurzo de Bethlenfalva (ca. 1488-1535) from Kraków; he was painted by Pencz shortly before beginning his studies in Bologna in 1544. Likely around 1550, shortly before his arrival in Wrocław, Pencz also created a beautiful portrait of Otto Henry, Count Palatine of Neuburg and a relative of King Sigismund II Augustus (Hermitage Museum, inv. ГЭ-4766).

The "Song on the Death of His Grace King Sigismund I the Old" (Piesn o smierci krola iego miłosci Starego Sigmunda pierwssego), for four voices, published in Kraków around 1548, features a woodcut on the verso of the title page, signed with the monogram CS (National Library of Poland, SD XVI.O.140). Its author was most likely Crispin Scharffenberg (ca. 1519-1576), originally from Lubań in Upper Lusatia, trained in Kraków but active in Silesia. The woodcut is a copy of an earlier work by Hans Springinklee, a pupil and collaborator of Albrecht Dürer, created around 1518 for an edition of Koberger's Hortulus Animae (British Museum, inv. 1895,0122.423). A few years earlier, in 1522, several woodcuts by another of Dürer's pupils, Hans Leonard Schäufelein, were published in Kraków in Baltazar Opec's work Żywot wssechmocnego syna bożego, pana Jezu Krysta ..., dedicated to Sigismund I's sister Princess Elizabeth Jagiellon (1482-1517) (Jagiellonian Library, BJ St. Dr. Cim. 8032). Schäufelein is also considered the artist behind a finely painted Portrait of a man in a yellow jacket, now held at the National Museum in Warsaw (oil on panel, 41 x 32 cm, inv. M.Ob.297 MNW). For a long time, this work was thought to be by Dürer, not only because of the "AD" monogram in the upper-left corner, but also due to the painting's style. It was likely created around 1507, shortly after the painter left Dürer's studio. The painting comes from the collection of Cyprian Lachnicki (1824-1906) in Warsaw.

The connection between another prominent pupil of Dürer, Hans Baldung Grien (1484/1485-1545), and Poland has fallen into oblivion, as has the major work he created for patrons from Sarmatia: the depiction of Saint Stanislaus and Saint Florian, accompanied by the coats of arms of Bishop Jan Konarski (1447-1525) in the Kraków Missal, published in Strasbourg in 1510 (Kórnik Library, sygn.Cim.Qu.2857). He also created several other woodcuts for this volume, as well as the print depicting ​elected Queen Wanda from the Sarmatiae Europae descriptio, published in 1578 (National Library of Poland, SD XVI.F.604). 

Several other stylistically related woodcuts appear in a work titled Christophori Kobilienski, eqvitis Poloni, Variorvm epigrammatvm ad Stanislavm Rozimontanvm libellvs (Jagiellonian Library, BJ St. Dr. Cim. 4417), written by the nobleman Krzysztof Kobylieński (ca. 1520-1565), probably a courtier to the Hetman Jan Amor Tarnowski (1488-1561). Published in Kraków in 1558, this book contains, in addition to engravings depicting Jagiellonian monarchs, a medallion portrait of Erasmus of Rotterdam (likely by Hans Lützelburger; reproduced twice) and a copy of Hans Springinklee's David and Bathsheba (British Museum, inv. E,7.239) - four magnificent woodcuts in the style of Baldung. 

The first depicts Saint Stanislaus raising the knight from the dead (IN IMAGINEM STANISLAI, p. 15); it is stylistically close to Baldung's Saint Valentine (British Museum, inv. 1900,1019.23).

The second is a profile portrait of "a certain Italian heroine" (IN IMAGINEM CVIVSDAM HEROINÆ ITALA DONO DATAM, p. 35). According to the poem, this woodcut reproduces a portrait given as a gift - presumably to the Hetman Jan Amor Tarnowski. The poet praises the painter's talent, describing him as "greater than the great Apelles", while the woman - possessing "noble beauty", a "gentle face", and "radiating majesty" - surpasses the "holy spouse of Jove" (i.e., Juno, queen of the gods) and the "Cyprian goddess" (Venus). This context strongly suggests that the image is a portrait of Queen Bona Sforza, who is mentioned in another poem within the volume. Other elements support this identification: a profile portrait consistent with the old Milanese tradition, Central European attire from the 1530s, a turban-style headdress indicating marital status (matron with covered hair), and the sitter's resemblance to a cameo bearing Bona's likeness held by the Metropolitan Museum (inv. 17.190.869). The image also recalls portraits of the queen by Cranach the Elder (identified by me) as well as an anonymous 19th-century drawing based on a lost portrait of the queen from 1540 (Jagiellonian Library, BJ Graf. I.R. 2326). The costume is similar in these works, and in both images, the sitter holds a plant: an olive branch in the 1540 portrait and a flower in the woodcut.

The musical symbols appearing to the right of the woodcut depicting Queen Bona are also of great interest. The Queen was a well-known patron of music and these symbols may well involve the technique of soggetto cavato - that is, a subject carved out of the vowels, much like the Missa Hercules dux Ferrariae composed by Josquin des Prez. That work was dedicated to Ercole I d'Este (1431-1505), Duke of Ferrara and husband of Eleonora of Aragon (1450-1493), a relative of Bona. The poem devoted to the portrait of the "Italian heroine" is preceded by the one titled "On the Pleasure of Venus" (DE VENERIS VOLVPTATE), which warns against excessive or ruinous carnal desire.

The third woodcut depicts a voivode's daughter named Sophia (AD VIRGINEM QUANDAM PALATINI FILIAM SERTA DONATA, p. 38). It shows an unmarried young woman with loose hair wearing a wreath of flowers, while the accompanying poem speaks of the fleeting nature of beauty and the enduring nature of the spirit. The subject may be Zofia Tęczyńska (d. 1588), daughter of the Voivode of Sandomierz, Jan Tęczyński (1492-1541). She was a Catholic and married the Protestant Stanisław Ostroróg (1519-1568) in 1544.

The last print depicts a personification of death in the form of a skeleton wielding a scythe (p. 59). A copy of this print, executed by a woodcutter from the circle of Maciej Scharffenberg, was published in Kraków in 1542 on the title page of Śmierci z Mistrzem dwojakie gadania ...; the original prints were therefore produced prior to that date, likely in the 1530s or around 1540, and the woodblocks presumably originate from the Kobylieński collection.

The probable connection to Poland, and, more broadly, to the Jagiellonian monarchies of Central Europe during Dürer's time - is also his first name and his patron saint. The painter's father recorded in the family chronicle that he had given his own first name to his famous son. Although it is not known which Saint Adalbert (or Albert) was the patron of Albrecht Dürer the Elder, a goldsmith from Ajtós near Gyula in Hungary, one of them - Saint Adalbert of Prague (ca. 956-997), Bishop of Prague, born Vojtěch Slavníkovec, was particularly venerated in Hungary. Saint Adalbert baptized the first King of Hungary, Stephen I, and is also the patron saint of the Archdiocese of Esztergom, the primatial see of the Roman Catholic Church in Hungary. 

No depiction of Saint Adalbert by Albrecht Dürer is known; however, around 1530, his brother Hans painted the wings of a triptych featuring Saint Stanislaus and Saint Adalbert, the patron saints of Poland, a work I attributed to this artist in 2012 (National Museum in Warsaw, tempera and oil on panel, dimensions of each wing: 155 x 62 cm). It is also worth noting that the woodcut depicting Saint Adalbert, found in Jakub Wujek's Postille Catholiczney część trzecia ..., published in Kraków in 1575 (National Library of Poland, SD XVI.F.23), likely draws inspiration from a lost original by Dürer depicting either Saint Adalbert or Saint Willibald, much like the illustration in the Eichstätt Missal, published in Nuremberg in 1517 (LACMA, inv. M.61.19a-b). This same model was adopted around the same time by Hans Springinklee (British Museum, inv. 1927,0614.94) and subsequently by Georg Erlinger, who transformed the figure of Saint Willibald into that of Saint Erasmus (British Museum, inv. E,7.188). For his part, Stanisław Samostrzelnik drew inspiration from one of these depictions when creating the portrait of Bishop Piotr Tomicki (1464-1535), painted around 1530 (Franciscan Monastery in Kraków).

All these facts allow us to conclude that it is very likely that Dürer stayed in Poland during his years of wandering and that he produced works for Sarmatian clients later in his career. Unfortunately, all of these paintings were destroyed during the country's turbulent history, or sold, like the portraits of a "Venetian" woman from the collection of Witold Klemens Wańkowicz (1888-1948) in Warsaw, now housed in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (inv. GG 6440). 

To conclude, it is also worth mentioning Dürer's self-portraits in disguise, such as the self-portrait as Christ as the Man of Sorrows (Vir Dolorum), a drawing from 1522, half-naked and holding the instruments of the Passion, such as the whip and fasces (Kunsthalle Bremen, inv. B 36, lost during the Second World War). It was a study for a painting, known from a copy in Weissenstein Castle in Pommersfelden (inv. 248), probably by Hans Hoffmann (ca. 1530-1591/1592), one of the earliest copyists of Dürer. In his best-known self-portrait, at the age of 28, in a fur coat, dated 1500 (Alte Pinakothek in Munich, inv. 537), the artist depicted himself in a pose similar to that used for depictions of Christ. For Dürer, this could be an interpretation of the doctrine of the Imitatio Christi and Renaissance topos of the "divine artist" (divino artista), through which the artist is likened to God by his parallel ability to create at will. The effigy in a fur coat was used in another composition from around 1520: Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery, known from a copy by Georg Vischer from 1637 (Alte Pinakothek in Munich, inv. 1411). The artist also lent his features to Saint Caspar, one of the biblical Magi, in a painting created in 1504, probably for the Saxon Elector Frederick the Wise (1463-1525) for the chapel of Wittenberg Castle (today at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, inv. 1890 n. 1434). 

​Portrait of a man in a yellow jacket by Hans Leonard Schäufelein, ca. 1507, National Museum in Warsaw.

Christus Rex and Maria Regina, reverses of the wings of the Pławno triptych, by Hans von Kulmbach or workshop of Albrecht Dürer, ca. 1514-1518, National Museum in Warsaw.

​Visualization of the Skałka triptych by Hans von Kulmbach, 1511.

​Saint Catherine of Alexandria, from the Skałka triptych by Hans von Kulmbach, 1511, Czartoryski Museum.

​Saint Barbara in Sarmatian costume, from the Skałka triptych by Hans von Kulmbach, 1511, Potocki Palace in Kraków, lost. Virtual reconstruction, © Marcin Latka 

​Portrait of Sophia Jagiellon (1464-1512), Margravine of Brandenburg-Ansbach and Brandenburg-Kulmbach, by Hans von Kulmbach or workshop, ca. 1511, Private collection. 

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of a lady, perhaps Queen Barbara Zapolya (d. 1515), by Hans von Kulmbach, ca. 1516, lost. © Marcin Latka 

Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of a lady, perhaps Szczęsna Morsztynówna, by Hans von Kulmbach, ca. 1516, lost. © Marcin Latka 

​Visualization of the Sandomierz triptych by circle of Hans von Kulmbach, 1520s.

​Saint Stanislaus and Saint Adalbert, patron saints of Poland, wings of a triptych by Hans Dürer, ca. 1530, National Museum in Warsaw. 

​Coronation of the Virgin by Georg Pencz, 1530s, Dominican Monastery in Kraków.

​Caritas Romana by Georg Pencz, 1538, National Museum in Warsaw.

​Lot and his daughters by Georg Pencz, 1544, Wawel Royal Castle.

​Christ crowned with thorns by Georg Pencz, 1544, National Museum in Wrocław.

​Woodcut with Saint Stanislaus by Hans Baldung Grien, ca. 1540, Jagiellonian Library. 

​Woodcut with the portrait of Queen Bona Maria Sforza d'Aragona (1494-1557) by Hans Baldung Grien, ca. 1540, Jagiellonian Library. 

​Woodcut with the portrait of a voivode's daughter named Sophia, perhaps Zofia Tęczyńska (d. 1588), by Hans Baldung Grien, ca. 1540, Jagiellonian Library. 

​Woodcut with the personification of death by Hans Baldung Grien, ca. 1540, Jagiellonian Library.

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of Queen Bona Maria Sforza d'Aragona (1494-1557) by Hans Baldung Grien, ca. 1540, lost. © Marcin Latka

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the portrait of a voivode's daughter named Sophia, perhaps Zofia Tęczyńska (d. 1588), by Hans Baldung Grien, ca. 1540, lost. © Marcin Latka

In 1558, in Kraków, the nobleman Krzysztof Kobylieński (Kobylański, Kobyleński, Kobyliński, ca. 1520-1565), published a work titled Christophori Kobilienski, eqvitis Poloni, Variorvm epigrammatvm ad Stanislavm Rozimontanvm libellvs (Jagiellonian Library, BJ St. Dr. Cim. 4417). Beyond its literary merit, this collection of Latin epigrams also contains an invaluable assemblage of period woodcuts and offers a precious glimpse into the artistic culture of 16th-century Sarmatia.

Krzysztof was a descendant of Queen Elizabeth of Pilica (d. 1420), also known as Elżbieta Granowska, the third wife of Jogaila. He was likely a Calvinist and pursued his theological studies abroad - almost certainly in Wittenberg, given that he mentions Philipp Melanchthon in one of his poems (Dixerat hæc quôda doctus mihi forte Melacthon), as well as in Italy (after "Nieznane portrety Zygmunta Starego" by Józef Muczkowski, p. 129). He was probably the courtier at the court of Hetman Jan Amor Tarnowski (1488-1561), and the work contains several references to the latter.

It was likely during his studies abroad that he became acquainted with the works of Erasmus of Rotterdam (d. 1536) and acquired a woodblock depicting the philosopher in profile; this image is considered to be based on a portrait drawn from life by Hans Holbein and cut into wood, presumably by Hans Lützelburger (d. 1526). Erasmus's likeness appears twice in Kobylieński's work. The other woodcuts were likely acquired in Poland or commissioned by the author. Among them are four prints by Hans Baldung Grien (attributed by me), including one depicting Saint Stanislaus, a copy of Hans Springinklee's David and Bathsheba (the original was created around 1518), portraits of King Sigismund I and his son Sigismund II Augustus, as well as prints featuring the coats of arms of the author (Grzymała) and his mother (Leliwa), the arms of Hetman Tarnowski (dated 1557), and those of Andrzej Zebrzydowski (1496-1560), Bishop of Kraków. The epigram dedicated to Zebrzydowski praises the wisdom of this Catholic bishop. In two other poems, the Protestant author pays tribute to two further Catholic bishops: Samuel Maciejowski (1499-1550) and Jan Lubrański (1456-1520). He also devotes a poem to the Latin poet Klemens Janicki (1516-1543), whom Italy honored with a laurel (IN TVMVLVM CLEMENTIS IANICII QVEM ITALIA LAVREA HONORAVERAT).

In the poem AD HIERONYMVM MASAM VENETVM IN LIBELLVM ANDREÆ ZEBRIDOVII EPISCOPI CRACOVIEN., he addresses Girolamo Masa of Venice regarding the booklet of Bishop Andrzej Zebrzydowski. In AD QVENDAM ITALVM, he addresses a certain Italian man released from prison, and in DE CAEDIBVS EIVS TEMPESTATIS PRINCIPVM IN ANGLIA, he laments the death of the Protestant Lady Jane Grey (d. 1554), Queen of England - described as a "young woman distinguished by her birth, renown, and learning" - which suggests that he likely stayed in England around the time of her death, which occurred in February 1554.

In several other poems, the author refers to portraits and paintings. In the poem titled "On the deceptive portraits in a certain citadel" (DE FALSIS IMAGINIBVS IN ARCE QVADAM), he criticizes the inaccuracy of painters who produced flawed or reality-distorting portraits of King Sigismund I and Bona Sforza, of their children Sigismund Augustus and Isabella Jagiellon (Fallaci picta es tuque ISABELLA manu), and of Prince Louis Jagiellon. Kobylieński maintains that "since the face is considered a reflection of the spirit, a poor painting misrepresents its true nature", adding: "Yet, few are the faces whose portraits capture their true beauty with accuracy". Interestingly, on the next page, we see a full-size portrait of King Sigismund Augustus wearing the crown jewels, accompanied by the poem "On the likeness of Julius Caesar" (IN EFFIGIEM IVLII CÆSARIS), which reads: "Here you are truly depicted, bravest Julius Caesar" (Pingeris hicce mere Caesar fortissime Iuli). 

In the poem titled "On the portrait of Emperor Charles V, owned by Count Jan of Tarnów, Castellan of Kraków, rendered true to life" (IN IMAGINEM CAROLI V. CÆSARIS APVD IOANNEM COMITEM A TARNOW CASTEL: CRAC: Ad uiuum expressam), the poet describes the painting belonging to Hetman Tarnowski, most likely executed by Titian or Lambert Sustris "with the artistry of an Apelles". This text is followed by a poem dedicated to the portrait of Hetman Tarnowski (IN IMAGINEM IOANNIS COMITIS A TARNOW CASTELLANI CRACOVIENSIS). Two other paintings described by Kobylieński may also have belonged to the Hetman: one depicting the death of King Louis II Jagiellon (1506-1526) at the Battle of Mohács in 1526 (IN HISTORIAM LVDOVICI REGIS CÆSI DEPICTAM), and the other showing Saint Paul caught up to the third heaven (IN IMAGINEM RAPTI PAVLI). The author also praises the beauty of a silk tapestry from Tarnowski's collection depicting Orpheus playing the lyre, which was most likely produced in Brussels workshops (IN IMAGINEM ORPHOEI APVD IOANNEM A TARNOW Sericea tapeta intexti). 

The work also contains a fable (fabellam) titled METAMORPHOSEOS PVELLAE ET PARVVLI (Kobylieński's work)​, a tale about the metamorphoses of a girl and a boy, inspired by Ovid's Metamorphoses. The woodcut illustrating this tale, likely created in Kraków, depicts the naked girl in a river alongside a ram. A reference to Ovid also appears in the book's preface, where Kobylieński addresses his friend Stanislaus Rosimontanus - identified as Stanisław Różanka (ca. 1520-1572), a Calvinist and physician at the Tarnowski court, educated in Padua between 1553 and 1556, complaining about having received no news from him since his departure from Kraków for Ruthenia.

References to Ovid and his Metamorphoses shed light on why a woodcut, similar to the one illustrating the fable, was placed almost at the beginning of the book, right after the preface. It depicts the mythological musical contest between Apollo, god of music and poetry, and Pan, god of wild nature and rustic music (In Imaginem Apollinis cum Panisco decertantis). The figure of Apollo, shown on the right playing the lute with highly realistic features, serves in this context as a mythological "metamorphosis" of Kobylieński, while the satyrs on the left embody his critics, who are also the targets of the phrase inscribed to the right of the image: "Against incompetent critics" (Contra inoptos æstimatores). 

Given the Venetian works associated with Hetman Tarnowski (his funerary monument and the paintings I have identified), as well as the author's training in Italy, the painting containing his disguised portrait was likely executed in Venice. The composition of the woodcut evokes Titian's Jupiter and Antiope, also known as the Venus of Pardo (Louvre Museum in Paris; INV 752; MR 521), a work the master likely sent around 1552 to Prince Philip of Spain (the future Philip II). The upper section of the composition features a squirrel on the tree, echoing Titian's painting Venus and Cupid, known from a print made by Niccolò Boldrini in 1566. A squirrel also appears in portraits of Barbara Radziwill by Paris Bordone, identified by me, although, in the case of the Kobylieński portrait, it likely carries a different meaning, perhaps related to cunning. Krzysztof clearly sympathized with Sigismund Augustus's second wife, given that he included the epigram about her tombstone in the book (IN TVMVLVM REGINAE OLIM POLONIÆ BARBARÆ). 

Further, in this context, the tapestry from the Tarnowski collection undoubtedly held symbolic significance as well: art and intellect can tame primal, violent instincts and soothe human vices; through his patronage and actions, the hetman thus establishes balance and order - "soothing fierce bears with his melody and the power of love" (Mitis amore tenens saevos modulamine Vrfos), as Kobylieński wrote in his poem. This tapestry was undoubtedly inspired by the series commissioned in Brussels by King Sigismund II Augustus and may well have originated from the same workshops (the tapestry depicting the Paradise Bliss features nude depictions of the King and his third wife). In 1549, Emperor Charles V, who had conferred the imperial title upon Tarnowski in 1547, commissioned a bronze statue depicting himself in the guise of a nude ancient god. Created in Milan by the Italian sculptors Leone and Pompeo Leoni, the work was presented to the Emperor in Brussels in 1556 (Prado Museum, inv. E000273). Furthermore, one of the most significant depictions of Orpheus from the first half of the 16th century is that of Cosimo I de' Medici (1519-1574) in the guise of the Thracian bard: the Duke of Florence was painted nude by Agnolo Bronzino around 1537-1539, thereby symbolizing the establishment of peace and stability in Florence (Philadelphia Museum of Art, inv. 1950-86-1). The Tarnowski tapestry thus very likely served as a portrait of the hetman as well, and was presumably related to the composition found in a 1563 edition of Ovid's Metamorphoses, illustrated by Virgil Solis (1514-1562) and other artists.

Metamorphoses of a girl and a boy from Krzysztof Kobylieński's Variorvm epigrammatvm ... by circle of Łazarz Andrysowicz (Officina Lazari), 1558, Jagiellonian Library. 

Apollo contending with Pan from Krzysztof Kobylieński's Variorvm epigrammatvm ..., containing his disguised portrait, by circle of Łazarz Andrysowicz (Officina Lazari), 1558, Jagiellonian Library. 

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the painting depicting Apollo contending with Pan with disguised portrait of Krzysztof Kobylieński (ca. 1520-1565) by Titian, before 1558, lost. © Marcin Latka 

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the tapestry depicting Orpheus playing to the animals with disguised portrait of Hetman Jan Amor Tarnowski (1488-1561) by Willem de Pannemaker after desing by Michiel Coxie, ca. 1550, lost. © Marcin Latka 

On June 13, 1551, Duke Cosimo I de' Medici and his wife Eleanor of Toledo signed a contract with the Antwerp merchant Jan van der Walle for the purchase of the series of Creation Stories, composed of seven tapestries. This series was probably woven around 1547-1548 and offered for sale in the Augsburg market. According to a memorandum dated August 14, 1549, written in Prague on behalf of Catherine of Austria (1533-1572), daughter of Anna Jagellonica (1503-1547), who was to marry Francesco III Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, in October of the same year, the Archduchess was interested in acquiring these tapestries.

At least since 1553, Cosimo I kept the entire set, depicting numerous nude figures, in the secret Guardaroba in Florence (after "The Story of the Creation" by Lucia Meoni, p. 304, 311-313). This series, based on cartoons by Pieter Coecke van Aelst, was woven in Brussels by the most celebrated weavers of the time: Jan van Tieghem, Frans Ghieteels, and Jan de Kempeneer, whose fame is linked to the extraordinary tapestries made for King Sigismund II Augustus (1520-1572), still preserved at Wawel Castle in Kraków (almost all of these tapestries were delivered to Wawel Castle before 1553, before the king's marriage to the aforementioned Archduchess Catherine).

This example illustrates the similarities in artistic patronage between the Jagiellonian and Medici families in the 1540s, while contacts between the ruling houses of Sarmatia and Tuscany date back to the consolidation of Medici power in Florence during the first half of the 16th century. Around 1537-1539, shortly after his accession to power in Florence, Agnolo Bronzino created a splendid allegorical portrait of Duke Cosimo, depicting him as the mythological musician and poet Orpheus (Philadelphia Museum of Art, oil on panel, 93.7 x 76.4 cm, inv. 1950-86-1). The Duke of Florence is shown nude, holding a lyre and calming Cerberus, the multi-headed dog, thus symbolizing the peace, harmony, and cultural restoration brought by Cosimo to Florence after years of political chaos.

The "Metamorphoses" of the Roman poet Ovid, which can be regarded as the national poem of 16th-century Sarmatia (compare "Ovidius inter Sarmatas" by Barbara Hryszko, p. 453, 455), contains a clue as to why disguised portraits (also known as portraits historié or crypto-portraits) were more popular there than in other parts of Europe.

Like Bronzino's nude portrait of Cosimo, the portrait historié by Paris Bordone, now in the Hermitage Museum (inv. ГЭ-163), is certainly not the only one commissioned by Sigismund Augustus to legitimize the status of his mistress, Barbara Radziwill (1520/23-1551). Bordone depicted the same model, dressed in a blue tunic, a white chemise, and with a similar hairstyle, in a painting now in the Louvre in Paris (oil on canvas, 105 x 85 cm, inv. RF 1474). The woman wears a necklace of long pearls intertwined between her breasts (Barbara was known for her love of pearls) and holds roses, which explains why this painting is known as another representation of the goddess Flora or as the portrait of a young woman with roses. The painting is generally dated to around 1540 or the second quarter of the 16th century and comes from the collection of Louis-Alfred Caroillon (1814-1904), Count of Vandeul in Paris.

Bordone and his workshop produced several copies of this painting. The finest was in Berlin before the Second World War. Formerly imperial property, housed in the Imperial Gallery, it was loaned in 1938-1939 to the Reich Chancellery in Berlin (oil on canvas, 102 x 84 cm, inv. GG 2833). This version was signed with the monogram P. B. on the stone pedestal in the lower left corner. Another very fine copy, known as "Portrait of a Courtesan", was recorded in 1964 in a private New York collection and had belonged, before 1916, to the collection of Elia Volpi (1858-1938) in Florence (oil on canvas, 104.7 x 86.3 cm, Fototeca Zeri, Numero scheda 38868). A fine copy, probably made by the painters' workshop, is in the Sabauda Gallery in Turin (oil on canvas, 118 x 91 cm, inv. 440 - Sabauda Gallery). The model is identical, but the roses on the pedestal have been replaced by white and red carnations in a glass vase (besides their amorous connotations, these two colors could also refer to the national colors of Sarmatia, in addition Queen Barbara is holding a red/pink and white rose in her portrait at Chatsworth House, inv. PA 725). The woman holds cherries, while above her, a squirrel on a leash devours them. The cherry was commonly seen as a symbol of the sweetness resulting from good deeds (after "Italian paintings from the sixteenth century in Dutch public collections", p. 124). A symbol of sin and carnal love (cupiditas), the squirrel appears as a companion of the goddess Venus, for example in an engraving by Niccolò Boldrini after Titian, dating from 1566 (after "Animals and Courts ...", ed. Mark Hengerer and Nadir Weber, p. 314). This version probably comes from the historical collection of the House of Savoy.

In another series of images, the painter transformed the same model into Venus, goddess of love, accompanied by her son Cupid, god of desire. The version attributed to Bordone, but more likely a workshop copy of a lost original, as evidenced by its style, is located in the Palazzo Montecitorio in Rome, the seat of the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of the Italian Parliament (oil on canvas, 107 x 93 cm). It is generally dated to the 1540s. Another workshop copy is in Hearst Castle in San Simeon, California (oil on canvas, 116 x 94 cm, inv. 6574, Fototeca Zeri, Numero scheda 38867). Before 1935, the work belonged to the Jewish art collectors Jakob and Rosa Oppenheimer, who were forced to sell it during the liquidation of their Berlin gallery. In the version from the collection of the last King of Württemberg, William II (1848-1921), the painter changed the model's hair color to blond, idealized the face, and added a mountain landscape in the background (oil on canvas, 98.5 x 84.5 cm, Hargesheimer Kunstauktionen Düsseldorf, September 13, 2025, lot 3440). A version or copy of one of these compositions was also in Rome, because in the 17th century a Roman painter reused the model in a painting known as The Temptation (Accademia Nazionale di San Luca in Rome, oil on canvas, 75 x 61 cm, inv. 695).
 
The same composition, though mirrored, was also reused by an unknown Flemish painter, probably in Antwerp, around the mid-16th century. The work is now in the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest (oil on panel, 80.5 x 65 cm, inv. 365). The sitter and details of her dress, however, are different. The painting depicts Salome, a biblical figure, while the distinctive features of her face and her dress suggest that it is a disguised portrait of a wealthy noblewoman. The sitter's characteristic right ear suggests that she is the same person as in many paintings by Lambert Sustris, namely Zofia Tarnowska (1534-1570), according to my identification. The painting comes from the collection of the Esterházy family, the largest landowners in the Kingdom of Hungary (after "Katalog der Galerie alter Meister" by Andor Pigler, Volume 1, p. 489).

If we consider the number of representations, their provenance and the oldest known locations, the woman depicted was not a simple and insignificant courtesan, as 19th-century authors wanted to see her, but the future wife of one of the most important monarchs of 16th-century Europe.

The same three protagonists as in the Hermitage painting reappear in another series of mythological compositions by Bordone depicting Venus and Cupid, Bacchus and Diana, also known as the Allegory of Spring and Autumn. The original by the Venetian master is lost, while a fine workshop copy was sold at auction in Prague in 2014 (oil on canvas, 97.5 x 142 cm, Arthouse Hejtmánek, May 22, 2014, lot 29). Another workshop copy comes from the collection of the Russian politician, courtier, and art collector Paul Viktorovich Delaroff (1852-1913), who lived in Saint Petersburg (oil on canvas, 107.9 x 160 cm, ACES Gallery in Stamford, September 29, 2024, lot 69).

There are also two reduced versions. One depicts Venus and Cupid only, the other Bacchus and Diana. The version with Venus was trimmed on the right side at an unknown date and is considered to be either the fragment of painting mentioned in 1570 in the collection of the Nuremberg merchant Willibald Imhoff (una grande tavola ... con Bacco, Diana e Venere, dipinta in Venezia da Paris Bordone) or the work mentioned in the auction of M. de Merval in Paris in May 1768, lot 5, under the title "The Seasons". Photographs of the painting before restoration still show the figure of Bacchus on the right (oil on canvas, 99.7 x 93.3 cm, Christie's New York, sale 1529, May 25, 2005, lot 21). Unlike the version with Venus, the version depicting Bacchus and Diana does not appear to have been cut from a larger painting. It is currently in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (oil on canvas, 45 x 61 cm, inv. GG 1969). This painting most likely comes from the former imperial collections and is listed in the 1868 inventory. It is known as "Nymph and Hunter". Its probable origin within the family collection of Elizabeth of Austria (1526-1545) justifies the identification of Diana as her disguised portrait. A virgin goddess, renowned for her purity, swiftness, and connection to nature, gazes at the viewer, while her half-brother Bacchus, god of wine, agriculture, and fertility, with the features of Sigismund Augustus, rests his hand on her shoulder (as the daughter of Anna Jagiellonica, Elizabeth was related to her husband). In larger versions, Bacchus offers Diana grapes, the principal sacred symbol of fertility and abundance. Like the painting in the Hermitage Museum, this mythological disguise also served to justify, in the public eye, the status of the king's favorite, Barbara, depicted as Venus.

Further in this context, the painter incorporated two female models from the Hermitage painting into another mythological composition, which was located before the Second World War in Dresden (Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, oil on canvas, 116 x 187 cm, inv. Gal.-Nr. 204). This painting is first mentioned in an inventory of the Royal Gallery of King Augustus III of Poland in Dresden in 1754. The blonde woman in the center, Elizabeth of Austria, is again depicted as the goddess Diana, while Barbara, standing on the right, is a nymph from her entourage. Another nymph offers a stag's head to the goddess, a reference to the death of Actaeon, who was transformed into a stag by Diana. This painting is considered one of six mythological works by Bordone that adorned the home of an Augsburg art dealer named Jerominus Staininger, mentioned in 1643 (two of them are now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, inv. GG 69 and GG 120). It was therefore probably painted for Cardinal Otto Truchsess von Waldburg (1514-1573), Prince-Bishop of Augsburg, as Vasari states that Bordone painted "another picture for a cabinet, which is in the possession of the Cardinal of Augsburg" (un altro quadro da camera, il quale è appresso il cardinale d'Augusta). Von Waldburg, who studied in Padua and Bologna, had connections in Venice and corresponded with Aretino (after "On Meaning and Function of the Painting Apparition of the Sibyl to Emperor Augustus by Paris Bordone", p. 630). Furthermore, the figure of Mars, the god of war, in allegorical composition with Victoria, is frequently considered a portrait, perhaps of the cardinal himself. Shortly before becoming Bishop of Augsburg (June 1543) and then Cardinal (December 1544), von Waldburg served as Apostolic Nuncio to Poland (from July 29 to November 8, 1542). He maintained a close friendship with Stanisław Hozjusz, whom he met during his studies in Padua and his mission to Poland. He corresponded with Hozjusz, congratulating him in particular on his appointment to the bishopric of Warmia in 1549 (after "Podstawy prawne objęcia biskupstwa warmińskiego przez Stanisława Hozjusza" by Tadeusz Pawluk, p. 284-283).

In his portrait of 1553, considered to be a work by Lambert Sustris, like Bordone, a pupil of Titian (Zeil Castle in Leutkirch im Allgäu, oil on canvas, 99.5 x 79 cm, inv. 784, dated: M D L III), the cardinal is depicted wearing a red coat with wide sleeves and lined with dark fur, very similar to the one seen in the portrait of King Sigismund I at Wawel Castle (inv. ZKnW-PZS 3239).

Finally, around 1553 or earlier, Bordone painted a splendid allegorical portrait of the court jeweller of King Sigismund Augustus - Giovanni Jacopo Caraglio (d. 1565) of Verona in the Republic of Venice (Wawel Castle, inv. ZKnW-PZS 5882), while before 1553 (date included on the copy signed by Enea Vico), Caraglio created a print - The Dispute between the Muses and the daughters of Pierus on Parnassus, an illustration for Ovid's Metamorphoses in which all the gods present "heroic nudity" in confrontation with half-naked mortals (British Museum, inv. 1874,0808.279).

​The Challenge of the Pierides on Parnassus by Giovanni Jacopo Caraglio, ca. 1527-1553, British Museum.

​Portrait of Cosimo I de' Medici (1519-1574), Duke of Florence as Orpheus by Agnolo Bronzino, ca. 1537-1539, Philadelphia Museum of Art. 

Portrait of Barbara Radziwill (1520/23-1551) as Flora by Paris Bordone, ca. 1543-1545, Louvre Museum in Paris. 

​Portrait of Barbara Radziwill (1520/23-1551) as Flora by Paris Bordone, ca. 1543-1545, Reich Chancellery in Berlin, lost. Virtual reconstruction, © Marcin Latka

​Portrait of Barbara Radziwill (1520/23-1551) as Flora by Paris Bordone or workshop, ca. 1543-1545, Private collection. Virtual reconstruction, © Marcin Latka

​Portrait of Barbara Radziwill (1520/23-1551) as Venus (?) with a squirrel by workshop of Paris Bordone, ca. 1543-1550, Galleria Sabauda in Turin. 

​Portrait of Barbara Radziwill (1520/23-1551) as Venus by workshop of Paris Bordone, ca. 1543-1550, Palazzo Montecitorio in Rome. 

​Portrait of Barbara Radziwill (1520/23-1551) as Venus by workshop of Paris Bordone, ca. 1543-1550, Hearst Castle in San Simeon. 

​Portrait of Barbara Radziwill (1520/23-1551) as Venus by workshop of Paris Bordone, ca. 1543-1550, Private collection. 

​Portrait of a lady, most likely Zofia Tarnowska (1534-1570), as Salome with the head of Saint John the Baptist, by Flemish painter, mid-16th century, Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest. 

The Temptation by a Roman painter, mid-17th century, Accademia Nazionale di San Luca in Rome.

Hypothetical reconstruction of Venus and Cupid, Bacchus and Diana with disguised portraits of Barbara Radziwill (1520/23-1551), Sigismund Augustus (1520-1572) and Elizabeth of Austria (1526-1545) by Paris Bordone, ca. 1543-1551, lost. © Marcin Latka

​Hypothetical reconstruction of Venus and Cupid, Bacchus and Diana with disguised portraits of Barbara Radziwill (1520/23-1551), Sigismund Augustus (1520-1572) and Elizabeth of Austria (1526-1545) by Paris Bordone, ca. 1543-1551, lost. © Marcin Latka

Venus and Cupid, Bacchus and Diana with disguised portraits of Barbara Radziwill (1520/23-1551), Sigismund Augustus (1520-1572) and Elizabeth of Austria (1526-1545) by workshop of Paris Bordone, ca. 1543-1551, Private collection (sold in Prague). 

​Venus and Cupid, Bacchus and Diana with disguised portraits of Barbara Radziwill (1520/23-1551), Sigismund Augustus (1520-1572) and Elizabeth of Austria (1526-1545) by workshop of Paris Bordone, ca. 1543-1551, Private collection (sold in Stamford, Connecticut). 

Portrait of Barbara Radziwill (1520/23-1551) as Venus and Cupid by Paris Bordone, ca. 1543-1551, Private collection. 

​Portrait of Sigismund Augustus (1520-1572) and Elizabeth of Austria (1526-1545) as Bacchus and Diana by workshop of Paris Bordone, ca. 1543-1551, Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. 

​Diana and her nymphs with disguised portraits of Elizabeth of Austria (1526-1545) and Barbara Radziwill (1520/23-1551) by Paris Bordone, ca. 1543-1553, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden, lost. © Marcin Latka

​Portrait of Cardinal Otto Truchsess von Waldburg (1514-1573), Prince-Bishop of Augsburg, in Sarmatian coat lined with fur by Lambert Sustris, 1553, Zeil Castle in Leutkirch im Allgäu. 

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). Interestingly, this image resembles the portraits of Princess-Infanta Anna Vasa (1568-1625), the Lutheran sister of King Sigismund III Vasa, painted by Lavinia Fontana, identified and attributed by me.

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), perhaps Princess-Infanta Anna Vasa (1568-1625), 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. 

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)
​
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). 
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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. The miniature from the missal of King John I Albert (1459-1501), known as the "Jagiellonian Missal", depicting King David in prayer before his battle against Goliath, is considered a disguised portrait of the Jagiellon. The monarch, who was preparing for a crusade and fought against Ottoman forces in 1497, is shown wearing Renaissance armor, accompanied by a squire holding a sword and a saddled horse (after "Jasnogórska Bogurodzica: 1382-1982" by Jan Majdecki, p. 184). This missal was commissioned by John Albert during his lifetime for the Jasna Góra monastery, but completed after his death, during the reign of Sigismund I, between 1506 and 1507 (Archives, AJG III-1/589).

​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.

In his collection of epigrams Variorvm epigrammatvm ..., published in Kraków in 1558, the nobleman Krzysztof Kobylieński (ca. 1520-1565), considered a Calvinist, laments the death of the Protestant Lady Jane Grey (d. 1554), Queen of England, and pays tribute to three Catholic bishops: Jan Lubrański (1456-1520), Andrzej Zebrzydowski (1496-1560), and Samuel Maciejowski (1499-1550).

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.

A very interesting anecdote in this regard is the account of an audience granted by Muscovite envoys on January 5, 1657, in Florence to a member of the Bandinelli family and to Roberto Giraldi. The Russian ambassador, who had arrived in Livorno on December 4, 1656, was named Ivan Ivanovich Chemodanov. He was accompanied by his secretary, Alexei Posnikov, and a retinue of about thirty people. The mission was traveling to Venice, where it hoped to negotiate favorable trade terms and obtain a loan from the Republic to finance Russian military campaigns against Poland and Sweden (after "Knowledge and Reciprocal Diplomacy ..." by Mariia Golovina, p. 19, 24). The ambassadors had left Moscow on July 27 of the same year. Upon their arrival in Arkhangelsk, they boarded two Dutch ships bound for Livorno. Since none of them spoke Italian, they hired the Austrian Giovanni Sachs as an interpreter, at the suggestion of the governor of Livorno, Antonio Serristori.

Giraldi, who had been chamberlain to Prince Alexander Charles Vasa (1614-1634) around 1634 and had resided in Poland for a long time, attempted to communicate with them in Polish. However, the ambassadors, although they understood and spoke it perfectly, refused to use it "for the sake of grandeur" (per maggior grandezza). Negotiations with the Republic of Venice were unsuccessful. Leaving Venice on March 11, 1657, the ambassadors returned to Russia via Tyrol, Innsbruck, Cologne, and the Netherlands (after "Una finestra mediterranea sull'Europa ..." by Stefano Villani, p. 167-169, 175). The most important memento of this mission is a portrait of Chemodanov, painted in Florence by Justus Sustermans (Palazzo Pitti, inv. 1890, 2371).

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). ​

It is estimated that by 1569, about a third, or even half, of the Polish nobility had converted to Protestantism (compare "Chrześcijaństwo w Polsce ...", ed. Jerzy Kłoczowski, p. 201). This explains why a Polish nobleman wearing a turban (popular in Poland since the 15th century, and one of the "Twelve Voivodes" in Maciej Miechowita's Polish Chronicle wears one) and a Lithuanian/Ruthenian prince (many of whom were Orthodox or Calvinist) are depicted as unbelievers, alongside an Ottoman janissary in the background, in the Crucifixion scene executed by Aegidius Sadeler II (ca. 1570-1629) in 1590 (signed and dated lower left: Gilis Sadler sculpsit A · 1590). This engraving is based on a painting by the German painter Christoph Schwarz (ca. 1545-1592), painted in Munich (Christophorus Swartz monachim pinx; three copies of the original painting are kept at the Alte Pinakothek in Munich, inv. 10839, inv. 2604, inv. 3546). Around 1630, a Silesian painter, probably David Heidenreich (ca. 1573-1633), created a painting for St. Elizabeth's Church in Wrocław based on this engraving (National Museum in Wrocław, inv. MNWr VIII-2985). A somewhat similar figure of a nobleman in Western Renaissance costume, but holding a nadziak axe and wearing an Ottoman headdress in Schwarz's Elevation of the Cross, painted in 1587, was undoubtedly also inspired by Sarmatian nobles (National Museum in Warsaw, inv. M.Ob.1765 MNW, signed and dated lower left: Christoff Schwarz / an. 1587 fe, presented by the Consulate of the French Republic in 1949; a Crucifixion with the same man in the lower right corner, from the Franciscan monastery in Würzburg, is in the Bavarian State Painting Collections, inv. 2605). It is also worth noting here that, on the other hand, the other half, the Catholic Sarmatians, sometimes appear in Protestant paintings as unbelievers (for example, paintings from the circle of Lucas Cranach the Younger).

​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).

While female funerary monuments refer to Venus, those of men, often depicted in armor and with various weapons, could be interpreted as a reference to sleeping Mars, god of war, as in Sandro Botticelli's painting Venus and Mars, painted around 1485 (Venus bears the features of the famous beauty Simonetta Vespucci, while the work symbolizes the triumph of love over war, National Gallery London, inv. NG915). Furthermore, the effigies of deceased children from Sarmatia of this period frequently evoke ancient Roman representations of the sleeping Cupid, god of desire, son of Venus and Mars, such as the sculptures in Liverpool (National Museums, inv. 59.148.74), Izmir (Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography) and Tarragona (National Archaeological Museum, inv. 414), as well as the sculptures attributed to Tommaso della Porta (ca. 1546-1606), active in Rome. The earliest monument of this type is that of Ludwik Mikołaj (1524-1525), son of Chancellor Krzysztof Szydłowiecki, erected in 1525 and attributed to the workshop of Bartolommeo Berrecci, as well as that of his brother Zygmunt (d. 1526), ​​created in 1530 by Bernardino Zanobi de Gianotis or Giovanni Cini, which draws more inspiration from the Roman originals (Collegiate Church in Opatów). The image of Jan Aleksander, son of Jan Amor Tarnowski and Barbara Tęczyńska, who died in 1515 (Tarnów Cathedral), is closer to the type known from the sculptures of della Porta. This image was created around 1536, therefore at the same time as his mother's tomb which evokes Renaissance representations of Venus. In the epitaph of Rafał Maciej Ocieski (d. 1547), son of Jan Ocieski (1501-1563), who in his youth was a courtier of Krzysztof Szydłowiecki, in the same convention of a sleeping naked child, the sculptor added a symbol of Vanitas/Memento mori (skull and bones). This motif was modified in the epitaph of Katarzyna Pilecka, created by Jan Michałowicz of Urzędów around 1559 (Parish church in Pilica), where the image of the half-naked girl is more reminiscent of the sleeping Venus. In the epitaph of Nicolaus Radziwill (1587-1588), a work by Gaspare Fodiga, created after 1589 (Corpus Christi Church in Nesvizh), the sleeping child holds flowers. The epitaphs of Jan Czuryło from around 1560 (church in Niepołomice) and that of Sebastian Lubomirski from around 1594 (church in Dobczyce) are likely inspired by the epitaph of Rafał Maciej Ocieski.

​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 ...", Volume 1, 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.

​The Missal of Bishop Erazm Ciołek (1474-1522), created in Kraków around 1515, probably by Stanisław Samostrzelnik, is another perfect example of the speed with which the art of other countries spread to Sarmatia at the beginning of the 16th century (National Library of Poland, Rps 3306 III). Although the decorations of the Missal are largely inspired by contemporary German art, such as Dürer's Small Passion, published in 1511, some elements, notably putti holding the bishop's coat of arms, could very likely be inspired by Italian art, such as Raphael's fresco The Triumph of Galatea at the Villa Farnesina in Rome, painted around 1512 and reproduced in an engraving by Marcantonio Raimondi around 1515.

The inventory of the movable property of Piotr Wedelicki (ca. 1483-1543) in the Ramoltowska tenement house on Bracka Street in Kraków (in domo seu lapidea vulgo nuncupata Ramoltowska in platea fratrum iacenti relictarum) mentions several paintings. This inventory was drawn up on March 26, 1544, in the presence of Erazm Schilling, a Kraków city councilor and executor of the will of Otylia Żytówna, Piotr's deceased wife. According to this list, the court physician of Sigismund I and Bona Sforza possessed 20 "pictures painted on canvas" (Imagines pictae in tela), 3 "pictures restored at Crosucza" (Imagines reformatae in Crosucza), 11 "painted images in frames" (imagines pictae wlystwach), 13 "pictures painted on canvas rolled together" (Imagines pictae in tela in unum convolutae), 4 "small pictures in frames decorated with floral motifs" (Imagines parvae w listvach florisowane), one picture of Saint Anne painted on a panel (Imago sancte Anne in tabula picta), 5 "larger, beautiful pictures" (Imagines maiores pulchrae), 6 "smaller pictures" (Imagines minores), 2 imagines pictae in sufflada opony antiquae (probably 2 sets of pictures in a box and 2 old tapestries), 4 "pictures in frames" (Imaginis vramyech) and 3 "larger images also in frames" (Imagines maiores etiam wramyech). Nothing is known about what these paintings depicted (except for the painting of St. Anne, probably of the German school, as it was painted on wood) or their origin. However, the same inventory mentions several objects made in Venice, such as 4.5 ells of "Venetian black damask" (adamasci nigri venetiani), Venetian ceramics (scultellae figuli venetianae), and "a basket containing Venetian glassware" (sportula cum vitris venetianis). Wedelicki, a passionate bibliophile, owned several books published in Venice, including the Plinii Secundi Historiarum Naturalium Libri XXXVII, published in Venice in 1472 by Nicolas Jenson (Poznań Seminary Library in 1908, after "Piotr Wedeliciusz z Obornik" by Kazimierz Miaskowski, p. 28-29, 35, 38-39, 42-43). The fourth page of this latter book was magnificently illuminated, with Wedelicki's coat of arms at the bottom. Piotr also owned an important work known as the Wedelicki Trilogy, which is a collection of engravings by Dürer, published in 1511 (Archdiocesan Museum in Warsaw, inv. 4276).

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.

Although stylistically the epitaph of Jan Borek of Trzcieniec (d. 1403), castellan of Wiślica, is very close to that of Jan Sakran (inspired by the work of Cranach), and both were created around the same time, Borek's epitaph is more reminiscent of the horizontal compositions typical of Venetian painting. Both epitaphs come from Wawel Cathedral and were probably painted by the same artist. The castellan of Wiślica's epitaph was likely commissioned by his descendant, Stanisław Borek (1474-1556), a canon of Kraków from 1523, secretary to Kings Sigismund the Old and Sigismund Augustus, diplomat, and confidant of Queen Bona, under whose patronage he oversaw the creation of a painting by the Venetian artist Pietro Veneziano for the high altar of Wawel Cathedral in 1546. The epitaph was originally located in a side aisle of Wawel Cathedral, near the reliquary of Saint Stanislaus; it is now kept at Kórnik Castle, near Poznań (oil on panel, 74 x 120.5 cm, inv. MK 03357, inscription around the frame: HIC IACET MAGCVS · DOMVS IOANES · BOREK · HAERES DE / THCZENYEC CASTELLANVS WISLICI / ENSIS QVI OBYT DIE S · VALENTINI ANO DOMINI / MCCCCIII ORETVR PRO EO, after "Wawel 1000-2000 ...", Volume 1, p. 82-83). While the color palette brings the painting closer to Central European or German painting, the composition and layout strongly resemble the works of Paris Bordone from the 1520s, such as the Virgin and Child with Saint Jerome and Saint Anthony the Abbot and a donor (Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum) or a similar work with a young donor (private collection), as well as the Holy Family and Saint Ambrose presenting a donor (Pinacoteca di Brera) or a very similar composition with Saint Jerome (private collection). This fact, along with Stanisław Borek's education in Italy and his connections with Queen Bona and the Venetian painting in the cathedral, indicates that Bordone's paintings were well known in Sarmatia in the 1520s. Another important element is that Jan Borek's epitaph was created more than a century after his death, suggesting that the artist was probably inspired by an earlier painted epitaph or other depictions of the deceased.

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.
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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.
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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, inv. 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, inv. 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 (inv. 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.
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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, inv. 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, inv. 17.190.869) and medal by Pastorino dei Pastorini (National Museum in Kraków, inv. ​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.

​Interestingly, Gerung is now considered to be the author of one of the oldest views of Kraków and Wawel Castle, a watercolor painted around 1537 by the court painter of Otto Henry of Neuburg-Palatinate (1502-1559), grandson of Hedwig Jagiellon (1457-1502), during his visit to the city (Würzburg University Library, Delin.VI,9,49, after "Views of Cracow from the Old Polish Times ..." by Waldemar Komorowski, p. 142-143). Although the watercolor is considered a representation from life, a surprising fact lies in the architectural difference of many of the buildings, particularly St. Mary's Church, which more closely resembles German buildings than the known architecture of this structure. Furthermore, one of the main towers of Wawel Cathedral was reproduced as the Sigismund Chapel. Therefore, if Gerung is indeed the author, he likely painted it after his return to Bavaria, based on his very general sketches or on drawings by other painters at the court of Otto Henry.

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 Filippo Mazzola or Matthias Gerung, ca. 1496-1503 or 1525, Czartoryski Museum (before restoration).

Portrait of Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) by Filippo Mazzola or Matthias Gerung, ca. 1496-1503 or 1525, Czartoryski Museum (after restoration). 

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

​View of Kraków and Wawel Castle by Matthias Gerung, ca. 1537, Würzburg University Library. 

"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.

​In the context described, the miniature depicting King David praying to God the Father before his battle against Goliath, considered a disguised portrait of Frederick's elder brother, King John I Albert (1459-1501), is of great interest. The magnificent mountain landscape, typical of German painting, as well as the composition, reminiscent, for example, of the Stigmatization of Saint Francis from the Szembek collection in Zawada (Belvedere in Vienna, panel, 86.5 x 47.5 cm, inv. 1273), suggest that the artist of the miniature may have been inspired by a lost original painted by Cranach. The miniature was included in the so-called "Jagellonian Missal", founded by John I Albert but completed around 1507, during the reign of Sigismund I (Jasna Góra Monastery, AJG III-1/589). It is attributed to the workshop of Maciej Ryczyński in Kraków, and if the original composition was created during the king's lifetime, the date around 1500 is very likely, as in the case of Cranach's Crucifixion from the Kraków Missal. Interestingly, the aforementioned painting from Szembek collection is believed to have been painted around 1500 and reveals Italian inspiration. Furthermore, it was likely present in the Kraków region since the 16th century (after "Polskie Cranachiana" by Wanda Drecka, p. 16, 19).

​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. 

​Hypothetical reconstruction of the painting depicting King John I Albert (1459-1501) as the biblical King David in prayer by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1500, lost. © Marcin Latka

​Stigmatization of Saint Francis from the Szembek collection in Zawada by Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1500, Belvedere in Vienna. 

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" (panel, 33 x 24.5, inv. GG 6440). 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 (panel, 52.5 x 41.3 cm, inv. 81LC00234). 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 (ca. 1483-1543) 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. 

​Furthermore, although the painter of the Resurrection scene in the Missal of Bishop Ciołek, produced in Kraków around 1515, perhaps Samostrzelnik, drew inspiration from Dürer's Small Passion, published in 1511, he modified several elements, notably the face of Christ (National Library of Poland, Rps 3306 III). This individualized, portrait-like representation is most likely an effigy of the founder, Bishop Ciołek, and refers to the image in the scene of the visitation of the church construction. The missal also includes a magnificently painted Crucifixion scene, which combines late Gothic expression with an Italianate sense of space.

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.

A drawing depicting the same woman, but with her head held slightly higher, was in the Kupferstich-Kabinett in Dresden before the Second World War (probably lost, Deutsche Fotothek, Datensatz 30100275). This chalk drawing has been attributed to Barthel Beham (1502-1540) because of traces of an inscription on the right, in the middle, above the woman's shoulder: BB / 15[...]. Around 1535, Beham produced several portraits for the so-called "small Wittelsbach series", including that of King Louis II Jagiellon (1506-1526), ​​based on other effigies of the monarch (Lempertz in Cologne, Auction 1266, May 17, 2025, lot 1004). A year earlier, in 1534, he had made a copy of a version of Titian's composition - Young lady at her toilet, considered to be a portrait of Laura Dianti or Isabella Boschetti (Kunstsammlungen und Museen Augsburg, inv. L 841, signed top left: 1534 / BB).

​Portrait of a young "Venetian" woman by Barthel Beham (?), 1530s or before, Kupferstich-Kabinett in Dresden, lost. Virtual reconstruction, © Marcin Latka 

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

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

​Miniature portrait of Bishop Erazm Ciołek (1474-1522) as the resurrected Christ from the Bisop's Missal by Stanisław Samostrzelnik (?), ca. 1515, National Library of Poland. 

​Crucifixion of Christ from the Missal of Bishop Erazm Ciołek by Stanisław Samostrzelnik (?), ca. 1515, National Library of Poland. 

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.