The successors of the Jagiellons, the Vasas, shifted the focus of artistic patronage north, supporting Flemish and Dutch painters and acquiring luxury goods and art in the Netherlands, but Italian influences were still strong. "The Italian nation, from which we received the religion, literature, good arts, and the equipment of the more elegant life of the Sarmatians, is the most deserved" (Natio Jtalica optime de nobis merita est, a qua religionem, literas, bonas artes, ac elegatioris vitae apparatum Sarmatae accepimus), wrote in a letter of 1601 the Grand Chancellor Jan Sariusz Zamoyski (1542-1605) to Pope Clement VIII.
The great influences of Italians and Italian culture in Poland-Lithuania have led to increased interest in the Polish-Lithuanian royal elections on the Italian peninsula, which is now largely forgotten. In 1573, Alfonso II d'Este, Duke of Ferrara dispatched the celebrated poet Giovanni Battista Guarini to Poland-Lithuania, to perorate his cause before the Diet (Sejm). Guarini failed in his mission and on his return to Ferrara was criticized for diplomatic ineptitude (after "Politics and Diplomacy in Early Modern Italy ..." by Daniela Frigo, p. 167). Other important Italian candidates in the first free election of 1573 also included Alessandro Farnese, Duke of Parma and Piacenza and Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. The latter was also considered in the third free election of 1587, when son of Catherine Jagiellon Sigismund Vasa was elected, and he had strong support. Simone Gengi of Urbino, an architect and military engineer in the service of the late King Stephen Bathory, believed that among the many candidates put forward, he had a good chance of success (...et quanto ella per parere de più principali potessi più d'ogn'altro aspirare a questa corona), as he states in a letter dated January 7, 1587 from Riga (dal nuovo forte di fiume Dvina), addressed to the Grand Duke and his ambassador to the imperial court in Prague Orazio Urbani. He asked to the director of the royal post of Poland-Lithuania Sebastiano Montelupi to spare no effort and money so that the courier with letters to the Grand Duke would reach Vienna as soon as possible. It was Montelupi, who in a letter of December 18, 1586 informed the court in Ferrara about the death of Bathory. He recommended hiring a special messenger dressed in German clothes and fluent in German. From Vienna, through the Tuscan ambassador, the letters were to be sent to Florence. The candidature of the Florentine ruler was supported, among others, by Stanisław Karnkowski, Archbishop of Gniezno, Olbracht Łaski, voivode of Sieradz and by Chancellor Jan Zamoyski. At the beginning of February 1587, they sent an embassy to Florence, which included, among others, the brother-in-law of the voivode of Sieradz, Wincenty de Seve, provost of Łask, who was ordered to invite the Grand Duke to take part in the upcoming election. His candidature was supposedly presented in the Sandomierz voivodship by Chancellor Zamoyski himself, who, according to Urbani, sincerely favored Francesco. According to the Tuscan diplomat, the Dukes of Ferrara and Parma had little chance in the upcoming election as petty and insignificant rulers. The fact that the Florentine milieu in Kraków was also keenly interested in the upcoming election is evidenced by a letter of January 7, 1587, from Filippo Talducci, addressed to Marco Argimoni in Florence, in which, listing the candidates for the Polish Crown, he mentioned the Grand Duke of Tuscany, who, if he wanted to mobilize appropriate financial resources, would have a chance to be elected (il figliuolo del Re di Svetia, il Cardinale Batori, il Duca di Ferrara et il nostro Serenissimo Gran Duca, il quale se volessi attendere con li mezzi sapete, sarebbe cosa riuscibile. Dio lasci seguire il meglio). The aspirations to the Polish crown of the Dukes of Ferrara, Parma and even Savoy are mentioned in the correspondence of the Tuscan ambassadors in Madrid, Bongianni Gianfighacci and Vincenzo Alamanni (letters of February 21, March 27 and April 4, 1587) (after "Dwór medycejski i Habsburgowie ..." by Danuta Quirini-Popławska, pp. 123-126). The portrait of the Grand Duke, today kept in Wilanów Palace (Wil.1494), could refer to this candidacy. It most likely comes from a series of similar small portraits from Ros near Grodno in Belarus, attributed to the 18th century Italian school. This "portrait of a man" is considered a copy of Angelo Bronzino, but it closely resembles the portraits of Francesco made by his court painter Alessandro Allori (1535-1607). Triumphal arches for King Sigismund III Vasa's entry ceremonies into Kraków in 1587 were to be dressed in images of the Jagiellons as the ancestors of the new king. As their faces were almost totally unknown because of their antiquity (Effigies enim eorum, cum plerisque fere vetustate ignotae essent), the aforementioned Chancellor Zamoyski had them extracted from the oldest monuments (ex antiquissimis quibuscumque monumentis eruerat) and provided with them appropriate inscriptions. These inscriptions were printed separately and some are quoted by David Chytraeus in his Chronicon Saxoniae ..., published in Leipzig in 1593 (after "Listy Annibala z Kapui ..." by Aleksander Przezdziecki, p. 107). It is thanks to the efforts of later generations that the identity of many important personalities has been preserved. They added inscriptions to the paintings, created copies or published them as engravings. In the former territories of the Commonwealth, this continuity has been dramatically interrupted by wars and invasions. Italian costumes, food, gardens, music, language and books, paintings, crafts and dances were most popular in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, even the hours were still counted in Italian style under the reign of the elected monarch Sigismund III Vasa - 24 hours from sunset one day to sunset the next day. In two letters, probably from 1614 and 1615, Sigismund III expressed his gratitude to the nuncio Claudio Rangoni for the paintings he sent from Italy. Two years later, in 1617 and the following year, Rangoni again sent two paintings and "some [other] paintings" (alcuni quadri) to the king, then to the queen. According to the nuncio, the king loved paintings and willingly purchased the works of the best masters and demonstrated a passion for expensive jewelry and tapestries. The king was not only an art lover, but also an amateur artist. What is very meaningful is that during the Zebrzydowski rebellion in 1606, he was mocked by his opponents as a "Venecist/Venetian" (wenecysta), who prefers to "ride with the Italians in a gondola, paying richly for their folly, instead of mounting a horse in armor" (after "Odrodzenie w Polsce ...", Volume 5, ed. Bogusław Leśnodorski, p. 358). In his "Sejm Sermons" (Kazania sejmowe), published in 1597 in Kraków, Piotr Skarga, the court preacher of Sigismund III, metaphorically appealed to parliament not to further restrict the king's power in favor of a more Habsburg absolutism: "Good Lords! Do not make the kingdom of Poland a [free] city of the German Reich, do not make a painted king as in Venice. Because you don't have Venetian mindset and you don't live in one city" (Sermon 6). He also scolded the great wealth and luxurious life of the nobility, their expensive clothes of velvet and silk, cellars full of wine, gilded carriages: "See what abundance and riches and joyful life this mother has brought you, and how she has gilded you and granted so much that you have enough money, plenty of food, clothes so expensive, such crowds of servants, horses, carts; so much money and income multiplied everywhere" (Sermon 2), and neglecting the defence of the Commonwealth: "No one living in abundance like this watches the castles and city walls" (Sermon 8). As in the previous epoch, in the 17th century, foreign costumes were still very popular among the nobility. Franciszek Siarczyński in his "Image of the reign of Sigismund III ...", published in Poznań in 1843, claims that he "saw paintings in Kraków in which Zebrzydowski looked like a Sultan, Zborowski like a Roman knight, in Krosno Stanisław Oświęcim, has all the clothes of a Swede, Tarnowski of an armed Greek, etc. Niesiecki described the portrait in Topolno of Krzysztof Konarski, from 1589, in guise of a German knight". A nobleman in Spanish parade outfit, who took part in Prince Ladislaus Vasa's expedition to Moscow in 1612, was ridiculed by other soldiers: "[go back] to Salamanca, to Compostela, Mr. Spaniard" (after "Obraz wieku panowania Zygmunta III ...", p. 73-74). Members of different ethnic groups of Sarmatia traveled to different Western European countries, primarily for doing business, as the country was a major supplier of many important goods, but also to pursue their studies, for a better climate or for health, to make a pilgrimage or simply to visit other countries. After completing studies at the Kraków or Vilnius Academy or other important schools of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, it was customary to continue studies abroad, in Padua, Bologna, Leuven, Leiden or Ingolstadt, among others. Abroad, Sarmatians frequently adopted local costumes, which is confirmed by numerous sources, but some, decided to travel in their traditional costumes - usually a crimson żupan, delia coat and kolpak hat. These costumes were frequently captured by different artists from Italy, Flanders, the Netherlands and France in their works. Some foreigners were also depicted in Sarmatian costumes, such as the painter Martin Ryckaert in his magnificent portrait painted around 1631 by Anthony van Dyck (Prado Museum in Madrid). Nicolas Lagneau (National Library of France), Stefano della Bella, Guercino (Nationalmuseum in Stockholm) and Rembrandt left numerous drawings and engravings representing characters dressed in typical Sarmatian costumes. Such costumes can also be seen in the paintings by Mattia Preti (Capitoline Museums in Rome), Giuseppe Maria Galeppini (private collection in Sweden) and David Teniers the Younger (Louvre and Neuburg State Gallery). Johann Heinrich Schönfeld painted around 1653 his "Sarmatians at the tomb of Ovid" (Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest and Royal Collection), which could be an illustration of one of the many Renaissance accounts of tomb-finding expeditions, such as that described by Stanisław Sarnicki in 1587 (Annales, sive de origine et rebus gestis Polonorum et Lituanorum, p. 73), and Philips Wouwerman produced between 1656 and 1668 a painting representing the Polish-Lithuanian cavalry fighting the army of the "Brigand of Europe" during the Deluge (National Gallery, London). The preserved poetry, created before the Deluge, confirms the image of a wealthy Commonwealth, concerned with various social problems, and not a country ravaged by constant wars and invasions of neighbors, fighting for its independence. The collection of manuscripts by Polish poets, mainly members of the community of Polish Brethren, compiled in 1675 by Jakub Teodor Trembecki (1643-1719/1720), published in 1910-1911 by Aleksander Brückner ("Jakuba Teodora Trembeckiego wirydarz poetycki", volume I), includes the following poems by unknown poets: 27. On an Italian feast, 28. Polish prosperity, 29. Polish playfulness, 165. On foreign costumes in Poland ("Nowadays, you can barely recognize Poles, there are Italians, French, in great number at the courts"); by Jan Gawiński of Wielomowic (ca. 1622 - ca. 1684): 215. On Venus ("Displeased Venus makes no one rich; She has a naked son; pleased, when you pay her"), 262. A girl without shame ("And your beautiful nature and wonderful senses, my Lady, have been spoiled by these oddities of your costumes"), 263. Today's wives ("Among the pagans, wives died for their husbands, and today they would dance on his grave"), 325. The concept of a Ruthenian painter under the painting of Judith beheading Holofernes; by Hieronim Morsztyn (ca. 1581 - ca. 1622): 368. Court disease ("Syphilis, ulcers, buboes, were brought from France and they were accommodated in a brothel"), by Jan Andrzej Morsztyn (1621-1693): 471. To the Italian ("You, Italian, sell Venetian products and you profit greatly from it") and by Daniel Naborowski (1573-1640): 617. To one hermaphrodite ("You have a female form but you have a prick, so you are both [woman and man]"), 643. On nude images in the bathhouse ("It's decent to wash naked in the bathhouse"). For his obscene epigram about female breasts, Hieronim Morsztyn most likely took inspiration from an Italian model: "Cazzo [an Italian vulgarism for phallus], stuck in the crotch, couldn't do its job" (Cazzo w kroku pojmane nie mogło się sprawić) (after "Poeta i piersi" by Radosław Grześkowiak, p. 18). The French-born queen Marie Louise Gonzaga is generally considered to have introduced more daring, not to say inappropriate, female costumes to Poland, mainly due to the marked contrast between effigies of the queen and portraits of her predecessors from the Habsburg dynasty - Cecilia Renata of Austria, Constance of Austria and Anna of Austria. However, many authors seem to forget that these queens preferred the fashion of the imperial or Spanish court which did not allow bare breasts described by Wacław Potocki (1621-1696). The popularity of daring French, Venetian and Florentine costumes was confirmed much earlier by Piotr Zbylitowski in his "Reprimand of Women's Extravagant Attire" (Przygana wymyślnym strojom białogłowskim), published in Kraków in 1600, and Italian fashion dominated at the court of the Jagiellons. Although in fact the fashion introduced by Marie Louise "revealed" more to the public gaze. In a letter from Gdańsk dated February 15, 1646 addressed to Cardinal Jules Mazarin (1602-1661), the queen wrote that "the Polish ladies are dressed how people dressed in France fifteen years ago: hastily sewn dresses, with very short waists and very wide sleeves. They all rush as fast as they can to imitate our clothes. Their materials are extremely expensive and covered with precious stones. The daughter-in-law of Great Crown Chancellor [Katarzyna Ossolińska née Działyńska] changes her outfit every day". The French courtier Jean Le Laboureur (1621-1675) also reports that many members of the nobility dressed in French style for the queen's reception. Szymon Starowolski (1588-1656) in his "Reform of Polish Habits" (Reformacya Obyczaiow Polskich), published before 1653, laments that "almost all of Poland became French, and probably all stricken with the French disease [syphilis]" (wszytka już prawie Polska sfrancuziała, a podobno sfrancowaciała) and Krzysztof Opaliński (1609-1655) could not refrain from ridiculing exaggerated costumes and excessive use of cosmetics by the ladies in his Liryki (donkey milk to brighten the complexion, roasted almonds to darken the eyebrows, crushed corals with sea foam-sepiolite as a powder for the cheeks). "The rich ladies here are very fond of sumptuous clothes, so they order various delicate works from the nuns and pay them well", wrote one of the French nuns of the Visitation of the Virgin Mary, who visited Poland in 1654. She also adds that she saw in several monasteries wonderful silver, gold and silk embroideries, most perfectly finished, decorated with jewels with great splendor, sometimes even luxury. Queen Marie Louise, who had just left Paris, wrote in the mentioned letter to Cardinal Mazarin that: "The splendor is extraordinary [...] In short, I had no idea, despite the best thoughts that I had created to take courage during the journey. Everything exceeded my expectations, so you will have no doubt that I am very satisfied" (after "Studya historyczne" by Wiktor Czermak, p. 75-76, 98-99, 101-102, 123-125, 127). Sometimes foreign ladies also adopted something from Polish fashion. A Frenchwoman and lady-in-waiting to the queen, Marie Casimire de La Grange d'Arquien, confided in one of her letters to Jan Sobieski that she used Polish caps instead of French hairstyles and that she was already tired of the bra she had been wearing so far, and she ordered a new one to be made: "it is more Crimean style, fastened to the side" (il est un peu z krymska zapięty na bakier) with Polish words in a French letter. Although her new garment was not purely Polish, because the word "Crimean style" also indicates the original Tatar pattern. Ladislaus IV purchased and ordered many luxury fabrics from Italian merchants for himself and the queen. In 1637, the sum of 11,281 zlotys was paid to the Kraków merchant Wincenty Barsotti for silk and bed linen intended for the king's wedding and a year later, in September 1638, Ladislaus purchased, through Hieronim Pinocci in Italy, "five pieces of gold cloth" for an amount of 7,265 zlotys, and a few years later, in November 1645, he again owed 4,000 thalers to Pinocci for fabrics brought from Venice and Vienna. According to the king's letter to his treasurer dated December 7, 1634, when the envoy of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth went to Moscow, there was in his entourage a courtier with a royal commission to purchase "various and fine furs" for 20,000 zlotys. According to the registers of 1652-1653, John Casimir purchased satin, velvet, fine silk, gold lace, ribbons, etc., as well as lynx, ermine, sable and dormouse fur, mainly from Jews. In 1667, Miss Ruffini, apparently Italian or of Italian descent as her surname indicates, was paid between 2,318 and 2,528 zlotys per month for the needs of the queen's kitchen. While according to the list of debts of Ladislaus IV, he owed 39,412 zlotys for Italian, French and Hungarian wines imported from Vienna in the years 1636-1639, and 90,000 zlotys to a jeweler and John Casimir paid to the watchmaker approximately 17,500 zlotys between 1652-1653, approximately 13,000 zlotys for his clothes and 74,726 zlotys in total for the beautiful clothes for his servants, the purchase and the execution of several paintings (to Salomon Schindler for the paintings, to Father Karwat for the paintings painted in Rome, to a painter from Elbląg) resulted in an expenditure of only 2,026 zlotys between 1652 and 1653. This lower value does not mean that they were not splendid paintings. We should remember that "Old Masters" became such much later and eminent painters for whose works some are today willing to pay a fortune, sometimes found it difficult to sell their works during their lifetime or their paintings were undervalued, as in the case of El Greco, an eminent Greek-Spanish painter trained in Venice. El Greco received only 350 ducats for the Disrobing of Christ (El Expolio), completed in the spring of 1579 for the high altar of the sacristy of the cathedral of Toledo, although his own expert had valued it at 950 and the Martyrdom of Saint Maurice, painted for El Escorial in 1580 did not satisfy King Philip II. El Greco's only masterpiece in Poland, probably from the Lubomirski collection, was discovered by chance in 1964 in the parish church of Kosów Lacki, east of Warsaw, and was therefore forgotten for several centuries. It cannot be excluded that its "Venetian" style was recognized by the young Jerzy Sebastian Lubomirski (1616-1667) and that it was purchased during his visit to Spain in 1634. Nuncio Mario Filonardi (1594-1644) in a letter dated July 11, 1637 to Cardinal Bartolini mentions that to decorate his palace in Ujazdów, Ladislaus IV imported from Florence a large number of bronze statues, marble tables and statuettes. These sculptures were to cost 7,000 thalers, and their installation was carried out by the architect Agostino Locci, trained in Rome. The name of the author is not mentioned, but the main sculptor active at that time in Florence was Pietro Tacca (1577-1640), who worked for Ladislaus' cousins from the Medici family and created equestrian bronze statues of king's uncle King Philip III of Spain and his son of Philip IV, both in Madrid. In 1625, during his visit to Florence or Livorno, from where the prince was to embark for Genoa, Ladislaus also had the opportunity to personally meet the sculptor. There is no trace of these statues anywhere, indicating that they were probably melted down by the invaders to make cannons. Besides the well-known large brick residences of Warsaw, Kraków, Vilnius and other major cities, the Polish-Lithuanian Vasas owned several large wooden palaces of which nothing survives today. The most important was Nieporęt, near Warsaw. The palace was built by Sigismund III and later belonged to John Casimir. It had a large courtyard, a beautiful garden and a magnificent chapel. Le Laboureur praises the splendid carpentry work of the building and writes that it had a large number of comfortable rooms, all very beautiful and that it leaves nothing to be desired except that it was made of a more durable material. There were also several wooden mansions built in Warsaw and other cities for different family members and several hunting palaces, such as the one in Białowieża Forest, built before 1639 to the design by Giovanni Battista Gisleni. Baroque poetry also referred to the position of women in society and the value of paintings. "If there were more such [women] in Poland, much more would be achieved!" (O gdyby takich w Polszcze było siła, Daleko by się więcej dokazało!), comments Wacław Potocki in his poem "Judith" (Judyta) after the defeat of the Commonwealth forces at the Battle of Pyliavtsi in September 1648, praising the wisdom, strength and courage of women and criticizing the ineptitude of male leaders. "Why do you refuse such a trivial thing?" (Czemuż mi rzeczy tak lichej żałujesz?), asks the poet, most likely Jan Andrzej Morsztyn (1621-1693) in his "On the Refused Image" (Na obraz odmowiony), commenting on his beloved's refusal to offer him her portrait. This passage confirms that painted effigies were popular and inexpensive. An anecdote from the beginning of the 17th century from an inn in Gdańsk refers to painted effigies commissioned by nobles - a certain nobleman sent a painter to his friend's house to make a portrait of his wife, famous for her beauty, but the husband chased away the painter saying that if the noble liked the portrait, he would also want to see the original every day (after "Mówią wieki", Volume 19, 1976, p. 13). The inventories of the royal collections of the Jagiellons and the Vasas of Poland-Lithuania have not been preserved in their entirety, but information preserved in the townspeople's wills, as well as in the inventories of their property, and the patronage of their successors gives an impression of quality of their collections, when the country was one of the leading countries of Europe during the Renaissance and the beginning of the Baroque. Poland-Lithuania was also one of the richest on the continent. Even the lower strata of the Commonwealth's nobility owned the finest items produced in the best local and foreign workshops - such as the silver lavabo with the Rogala coat of arms of Jan Loka, starost of Borzechowo, created in Augsburg by Balthasar Grill, hidden in the ground during the Deluge (1655-1660). The attitude towards art in Brandenburg, which was one of the invaders during the Deluge, and at the royal court of Poland-Lithuania is best illustrated by the report of Andrzej Köhne-Jaski, a Calvinist amber merchant from Gdańsk, also active in diplomacy as envoy of Sigismund III and the electors of Brandenburg. Around 1616, Jaski commented on the destruction of paintings in Brandenburg: "I didn't pay much attention to it this summer, but I remember the magnificent paintings by Albrecht Dürer and Lucas [Cranach] hanging in churches. I wish HM [His Majesty] had such [paintings]" (Ich habe dießen sommer so genaue achtung nicht darauf gegeben, aber erinnere mich, das noch schöne bilder von Albrecht Dührer und Lucas vorhanden und in der kirchen hengen. Wolte wünschen, das EM solche hätten) (after "Das Leben am Hof ..." by Walter Leitsch, p. 2358). At that time, Italian and Flemish art, not German, dominated the royal court. Patricians of the royal city of Kraków, many of whom were of Italian descent as their names suggest, owned many paintings, sometimes by excellent foreign masters, as evidenced by the extract from the will of Jan Paviola (Joannes Benedictus Savioly, d. 1653), councilor of Kraków. The list and estimate of paintings, appraised by the elders of the painters guild Marcin Klossowski and Marcin Blechowski, painters from Kraków, include many portraits and paintings which could be from Italian, Venetian, Flemish, Dutch and German schools, but the author and the origin was not indicated. The word landscape - lanczaft in Old Polish, was used in a very similar form to Landschaft in German and landschap in Netherlandish, which could indicate that these paintings were Dutch/Flemish or German. "Picture of late King Ladislaus IV; Queen Her Highness Louise Marie; Image of the imperial son; his sister; the late Lord of Kraków Koniecpolski; [Picture] in which a crowned woman gives a mug to a soldier; Four pictures, representing the four parts of the world with people; four, depicting day and night, one damaged; three representing a part of the world; Landscape with fishing; Image of Bethsheba: bathing; [Picture] depicting the destruction of the city, with the army below fighting; Four pictures of Joseph's story, very demaged, among them one is whole; Landscape with highwaymen; Judith's painting, broken; female cook with venison; 12 images of Roman Emperors; two on which fish are painted, without frames; Image of King Ladislaus IV in elk skin; Judicium Parisis [Judgement of Paris] with three goddesses; Four images representing the parts of the year with maidens; Portrait of His Majesty King Ladislaus IV in a red coat; Queen Her Highness Cecilia [Renata]; King His Highness Sigismund III; Frederick Henry, Prince of Auraniae [Orange]; King Christian of Denmark; Duke of Saxony; Emperor His Highness Ferdinand III; His wife the empress; Leopold; the old empress; An image of a man with a mug and a scull; cavaliers playing cards with a lady; Orpheus with animals; Landscape with people eating in summer; robbers, on copper, in frame; on copper, without figures, with a column or pillar; Painting on copper, three Kings [Adoration of the Magi]; washing the feet of the apostles; Picture of a garden, on copper; Judith, on copper; Esther, on copper; on copper, Melchisedech offering bread and wine to Daniel; Saint Peter leaving the prison with the angel; the Samaritan on copper; Saint Francis; Five pictures with sea foam on gumi, made with paints on parchment; Picture on panel, a scull". This long and rich list of paintings was made on February 15, 1655. A few months later, in July 1655, two Swedish armies entered Greater Poland, one of the wealthiest and most developed provinces of the Commonwealth, which for centuries had been unaffected by any military conflict. They were soon followed by other countries and the invaders were not as sensitive to art as the patricians of the Commonwealth, precious materials, copper, silver and especially gold were the most important. Paul Würtz (1612-1676), governor of Kraków during Swedish-Transilvanian occupation of the city between 1655-1657 ordered wrought iron bars, marbles, precious wainscoting and floors to be ripped out, and silver sarcophagus of Saint Stanislaus, created in Augsburg in 1630 (founded by Sigismund III), silver altar of Saint Stanislaus, created in Nuremberg in 1512 (founded by Sigismund I), as well as statues and candlesticks from the Wawel Cathedral to be melted (after "Elity polityczne Rzeczypospolitej ..." by Marceli Kosman, p. 323). The true origin of looted items was often concealed or erased like coat of arms on the marble lions in front of Drottningholm Palace near Stockholm. "The day before yesterday, news came to us that they had sacked all the churches of Kraków, and that only one chalice had been saved from which some monks were saying mass in secret", reported in a letter of December 4, 1655 from Głogów 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. 22). The situation was similar in other cities of the Commonwealth, particularly in Vilnius and Warsaw, where during the second occupation the royal residences were subjected to systematic looting by Swedish and Brandenburgian forces. "The Warsaw townspeople had to help in transporting the looted items to the Vistula bank, under pain of confiscation of their own goods. [...] On August 11, the commandant of the capital, General von Bülow [Barthold Hartwig von Bülow (1611-1667)], received an order to transport all valuables and works of art from the Castle. At that time, over 200 paintings were taken away, including plafonds from five castle rooms, royal silverware, furniture and 33 tapestries. The Swedes had already committed truly barbaric acts, scraping gold from the gilded paneling and ceilings, "of which they made at most three or four ducats, and the damage they caused exceeded 30,000 francs" [according to mentioned letter by des Noyers]. Everything of any value was transported by water towards Toruń and Königsberg, e.g. jasper columns from the royal garden" (after "Warszawa 1656" by Mirosław Nagielski, p. 262). "They generally killed everyone in Vilna [Vilnius], both men and women, except young people and children, whom they sent to Muscovy, and put Muscovites to live there. [...] In Vilna, the Muscovites have ruined the beautiful and sumptuous chapel of Saint Casimir, which cost more than three millions; and in the big church they put their horses; it serves them as a stable", adds des Noyers in letters of November 8 and December 28, 1655 (after "Lettres ...", p. 10, 40). The next significant inventory of paintings of a councilor of Kraków, Gerhard Priami, made on July 21, 1671, so few years after the destructive Deluge (1655-1660), is not that impressive: "Portraits of King Sigismund III with the Queen [...]; Image of flagellation [of Christ] [...]; Solomon, upwards [...]; St. Joseph on panel, old-fashioned [...]; Four landscapes [...]; Landscape with a fair [...]; Image of Lot [and his daughters] [...]; Two landscapes at elbow height; Picture of Judith [...]; Three pictures of the story of Tobias; Image of the Blessed Virgin in roses; Saint John the Baptist; Jesus falling [under the cross]; Image of the Blessed Virgin majoris; Two portraits of His Lordship Ossoliński, the second of His Lordship Lubomirski; coats of arms, imperial and royal; Two courtesans, one bigger the other smaller; Portrait of the late Priami, which stays with Mr. Jerzy Priami". According to testament of Jan Pernus, councilor of Kraków, from 1672 he had a large painting of Præsentationis (Presentation), allegedly by Rubens. He collaborated with the Swedes during the invasion in the years 1655-1657 and took part in the shameful looting of the royal palace in Łobzów and the Wawel Cathedral by the occupants. Pernus looted valuable marbles from the Łobzów palace, and it is possible that he took the paintings decorating the royal residence (after "Galeria rajcy Pernusa" by Michał Rożek). "Two paintings of Roman work on copper, which are in my room, one of the Nativity of Christ, the other of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary of equal size; I want my nephew (Franciszek Pernus, heir) to offer them to His Majesty the King, the merciful Lord, from me, the lowest subject [...] To Mr. Reyneker, councilor of Kraków, my son-in-law, [...] I mark him a picture of Saint John Cantius, painted on a metal plate, from the worthy Master Strobel [Bartholomeus Strobel], asking him to accept this tiny gift as a sign of my love and as a souvenir. [...] Living in great friendship with Priest Adam Sarnowski, Canon of Warsaw and Łowicz, private scribe of His Highness, as a souvenir, I give him a painting of the Virgin Mary, of a prominent Roman craftsman. This picture is in the room in the garden, with Saint Joseph and Saint John, plus four paintings on canvas, with flowers on them, about three quarters of a cubit large, with golden frames". Four paintings with flowers of Roman work he donated to the Bielany Monastery and portraits of himself and his wife to the Pernus Chapel at the St. Mary's Basilica in Kraków (after "Skarbniczka naszej archeologji ..." by Ambroży Grabowski, pp. 61-68). Mentioned Adam Sarnowski made provisions for his possessions and paintings in his will signed in Frombork on April 15, 1693, four months before his death. One painting he left to Queen Marie Casimire Sobieska (de La Grange d'Arquien): "To the Queen Her Majesty, My Lady, the original of Three Kings [Adoration of the Magi] by Rembrandt, in black frames, which is upstairs in the hall, and another beautiful that Mr. Locci will choose" (after "Testament Adama Sarnowskiego ..." by Irena Makarczyk, p. 167). Jadwiga Martini Kacki, later Popiołkowa, in her will of 1696 says: "To Fathers Carmelites na Piasku, please give two paintings painted in Greek style on canvas, and the third one by Salwator". The 1696 property list of Kazimierz Bonifacy Kantelli (Bonifacius Casimirus Cantelli) from Carpineti in Campania, apothecary and royal secretary, who came to Kraków from Krosno, and obtained the city rights in 1625, includes a large number of paintings, mostly religious; but there are also portraits of notable people, such as king John III Sobieski, Ladislaus IV Vasa, Queen Marie Louise Gonzaga, Queen Cecilia Renata of Austria, King John Casimir, King Michael Korybut, Chancellor Ossoliński and many others. Occasionally there are also other objects of art in inventories, like "Amber effigy of King Sigismund III", mentioned in the will of Wolfowicowa, wife of the Kraków councilor in 1679. In 1647 a widow Anna Zajdlicowa née Pernus, in her last will stated: "To Mr Filip Huttini, secretary and decree scribe of the King His Majesty, Kraków councilor, I give and bequest my golden leather upholstery [cordovan], with pictures of Polish kings". There were also many paintings with mythological themes. In the register of property of councilor Kasper Gutteter (1616) there were paintings depicting Venus, Hercules and the mythical Labyrinth. The image of Mercury with Venus was in the house of Wojciech Borowski (1652). Rozalia Sorgierowa (1663) had a painting of Andromeda and the list of movables of Oktawian Bestici from 1665 contained: "Satyr on canvas", "Venus lying naked" and "Three Dianas". In the collection of Andrzej Kortyn (Andrea Cortini) there were six mythological paintings, including Venus and Cupid (after "Mecenat artystyczny mieszczaństwa krakowskiego ..." by Michał Rożek, p. 177). According to the rich inventory of May 10, 1635, the municipal scribe of Poznań Wojciech Rochowicz owned a painting of Pallas Athena, Venus and Juno, as well as 5 small paintings in frames painted on oak boards depicting "Roman people". Several erotic paintings were mentioned in the very rich gallery of Poznań burgher Piotr Chudzic, who died in 1626, like a "naked picture for appetite", "3 paintings of courtesans" and "a very small round Venetian picture on tin of a courtesan" (after "Odzież i wne̜trza domów ..." by Magdalena Bartkiewicz, p. 68 and "Inwentarze mieszczańskie Poznania", p. 407). Rochowicz in Poznań had one image of a courtesan and one of a wenetka (Venetian courtesan), Krzysztof Głuszkiewicz in Lviv had six paintings of courtesans and in Kraków paintings of courtesans were owned by: Franciszek Delpacy (1630), Anna Telani (1647), Oktawian Bestici (1655), Andrzej Cieski (1659), Gerard Priami (1671) and Stanisław Kłosowicz (1673), who had four paintings of courtesans (after "Sztuka a erotyka", ed. Teresa Hrankowska, p. 197). Hieronim Morsztyn (1581-1623), author of the "Worldly Pleasure" (1606) and many erotic poems, in his work "Actaeon. (To Polish Courtesans)" wrote that they would gladly "run naked". Nude and erotic paintings, such as "A round painting in a gilded frame, which represents the 3 Graces with the portrait of His Highness the King" (62), "A painting in a gilded and sculpted frame, representing the 3 Graces, giving the Books of Eternity with the portrait of His Majesty the King" (63) and "A painting that depicts a naked woman with a man, embracing" (65), are mentioned in the inventory of the bathing pavilion of King John III Sobieski in Zhovkva in 1690 (Regestr opisania łaźni w zamku żółkiewskim po odjeździe Króla Jmci na sejm do Warszawy in anno 1690 die 5 Januarii). The Polish Vasas, descendants of the Jagiellons on the maternal side (through Catherine Jagiellon), were renowned patrons who commissioned many beautiful paintings and other objects locally and abroad in the best workshops, such as for example a series of 6 tapestries with the story of Diana, purchased around 1611-1615 by Sigismond III Vasa in the workshop of François Spierincx in Delft. In 1624, Peter Paul Rubens painted Prince Ladislaus Sigismund Vasa (future Ladislaus IV) during his visit to Brussels. According to available sources, Rubens and Ladislaus Sigismund's father, king Sigismund III, never met in person, but the beautiful portrait of the king is undoubtedly by his hand (attribution to Rubens by Ludwig Burchard, Heinz Collection Kisters in Kreuzlingen). Although not confirmed in surviving letters or inventories, this effigy of the king was beyond doubt created from some study drawings or miniatures sent from Warsaw. Elected king John III Sobieski (from 1674) consciously organized European opinion, commissioning appropriate works, paintings and engravings in Poland and abroad, in the Netherlands, Flanders, Paris and Italy (works by Romeyn de Hooghe, Reinier de la Haye, Caspar Netscher, Prosper Henricus Lankrink, Ferdinand van Kessel, Adam Frans van der Meulen, Jan Frans van Douven, workshops of Pierre Mignard and Henri Gascar, Jacques Blondeau, Simon Thomassin, Giovanni Giacomo de Rossi, Domenico Martinelli). Exquisite sculptures were also ordered abroad, like statues by Flemish sculptors Artus Quellinus II and his son Thomas II and Bartholomeus Eggers (Wilanów Palace and Summer Garden in Saint Petersburg, taken from Warsaw in 1707), jewellery in Paris (Sobieski diamond) and silverware in Augsburg (works by Abraham II Drentwett, Albrecht Biller, Lorenz Biller II and Christoph Schmidt). The construction of his suburban residence, inspired by the Villa Doria Pamphili in Rome, Sobieski entrusted to Augustyn Wincenty Locci, son of the Italian architect Agostino Locci. The best local and foreign artists, architects and scientists participated in the decoration of the residence and the glorification of the monarch, his wife and the Commonwealth. The inventory of the Picture Gallery of the Radziwill Palace in Biała Podlaska, called Radziwiłłowska (Alba Radziviliana), from November 18, 1760, provides an interesting insight into the quality and diversity of painting collections in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The palace was built by Alexander Louis Radziwill (1594-1654), Grand Marshal of Lithuania after 1622 on the site of old wooden mansions. The inventory lists 609 positions of mainly religious and mythological paintings of which nothing preserved in Biała: (52) Painting of Diana, painted on tin with two arrows without frames, (53) Picture of Adonis sleeping with the Goddess Hera [Venus and Adonis], painted on glass in gilded frames, (84) Painting of Diana's hunt, painted on a panel in a gilded frame, (113) Sleeping Venus lying on a bed, without frames, (117) Face of Pallas [Athena], painted on canvas without frame, (128) Venus standing in water [Birth of Venus], painted on copper in gilded frames, (157) Portrait of King Sigismund Jagiello and Grand Duke of Lithuania [Sigismund I] on tin without a frame, (158) Portrait of King Sigismund of Poland and Sweden [Sigismund III Vasa], [...], painted on tin, without frame, (165) Portrait of Henry Helesius [Henry of Valois], King of Gallia and Poland, Grand Duke of Lithuania, painted on copper in frames, (166) Portrait of King Stephen Bathory, painted on tin in black frames, (181) Diana holding a trumpet, painted on canvas in old gilded frames, (192) Story of Vulcan and Venus, painted on canvas, without frames, (193) Second story, also of Venus, also with Venus and Vulcan, large painting on canvas, without frames, (206) Male portrait, painting by Rubens, on canvas in black frames, (210) Picture of Baceba [Bathsheba] at her bath, painted on canvas without frame, (213) Painting of Lucretia, expressive, with a dagger, a fine painting painted on canvas, no frame, (217) Picture of Herodianna [Herodias] with the head of Saint John, painted on canvas without frames, (224) Picture of Hercules, painted on canvas without frame, (233) Painting of Venus descending from the clouds, a large painting on canvas, without frames, (234) Picture of Lucretia pierced with a dagger, painted on canvas, without frames, (235) Painting of nude Venus reclining with Cupid, painted on canvas, no frame, (258) Story of Venus with Adonis, large painting on canvas, without frame, (259) Portrait of a knight, full-length, Rabefso [Rubens?], on canvas without frame, (283) Painting of Bacchus, painted on canvas without frame, (284) Painting of Judith, painted on canvas, without frame, (296) Picture of Lucretia, painted on panel, without frame, (302) Half-naked person, painted on canvas, without frame, (303) Meditating Lucretia, painted on canvas, without frame, (335) Landscape with dwarfs and fruits, painted on canvas, (336) Landscape with dying Diana and the nymphs, on canvas, (348) Painting of Venus sleeping naked, painted on canvas, without frame, (349) Painting of Adonis with Venus enjoying, painted on canvas, without frame, (376) Painting of Venus with Cupid and Zefiriusz with Hetka [most likely homoerotic Zephyrus and Hyacinth], two pieces of similar measure and N°, painted on canvas, without frames, (390) Story of Dyanna on which golden rain falls [Danaë and the shower of gold, possibly by Titian or workshop], painted on canvas without frames, (391) Sleeping Venus, painted on canvas, without frames, (535) Portraits of various Lords ... thirty-six of different sizes, painted on canvas, without frames, (536) Portraits of various Lords and Kings of unequal size, painted on canvas, (544) Different portraits under one No., nineteen pieces, painted on canvas, (577) Portrait of Stephen Bathory, King of Poland, painted on canvas in black frames, (596) Story of Judith with Holofernes, painted on canvas in black frames, (597) Venus asleep on the hunt, painted on canvas, (604) Story of Saint Susanna with two Elders, painted on panel in black gilded frames, (607) Kings of Poland, fifty and one on parchment and (608) A lady with a dog, painted on panel, without frame (after "Zamek w Białej Podlaskiej ..." by Euzebiusz Łopaciński, pp. 37-47). With such a large collection, it was difficult to fully describe the identity of each effigy. The chaos of war also contributed to the forgetting of the names of models and painters. Many valuable works of art in Poland-Lithuania were looted or destroyed during the invasions of the country in the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. The country became significantly impoverished due to the wars, so valuable and movable works of art, especially those whose history was lost, were sold. By the end of the 18th century, like the country itself, Poland-Lithuania had almost completely disappeared from the history of European art. Art collections were confiscated during the Partitions of Poland - after collapse of the Kościuszko Uprising in 1794 (especilly Polish crown jewels), November Uprising in 1830-1831 and January Uprising in 1863-1864. To secure their belongings, many aristocrats move their collections abroad, especially to France. When the Second World War broke out in 1939, the Jagiellonian tapestries commissioned in Flanders by king Sigismund II Augustus and recovered from the Soviet Union between 1922-1924, were transported through Romania, France and England to Canada and returned to Poland in 1961. The elective system of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth also favored the outflow of works of art from the country. Paintings and other valuables from the royal collection that survived the Deluge (1655-1660) were transported to France by king John II Casimir Vasa (1609-1672), who abdicated in 1668 and moved to Paris. Many valuables were inherited by Anna Gonzaga (1616-1684), Princess Palatine, who died in Paris. Queen Bona Sforza (1494-1557) moved her belongings to Bari in Italy, Queen Catherine of Austria (1533-1572) to Linz in Austria and Queen Eleonora Wiśniowiecka (1653-1697) to Vienna. French Queen Marie Casimire Sobieska and her sons transported their collections to Rome and France and elective monarchs from the Saxon dynasty in the 18th century moved many items to Dresden. The last monarch of the Commonwealth, Stanislaus II Augustus, abdicated in November 1795 and moved part of his collection to Saint Petersburg. It should also be noted that when the treasures of the Most Serene Republic (Serenissima Respublica Coronae Regni Poloniae Magnique Ducatus Lithuaniae) were plundered by different invaders, in 1683, the army of the Republic under the leadership of the elected monarch John III Sobieski saved the opulent imperial treasures from a similar fate at the gates of Vienna (Relief of Vienna or Battle of Vienna). A century later, between 1772 and 1795, Austria was one of the countries that divided the Republic (Partitions of Poland) and Poland disappeared from the maps of Europe for 123 years.
Art collection of Prince Ladislaus Sigismund Vasa, attributed to Étienne de La Hire, 1626, Royal Castle in Warsaw.
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