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

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Portraits of Isabella Jagiellon and John Sigismund Zapolya by Jacopino del Conte and Tintoretto

Just few months after her arrival to Hungary, on July 7, 1540 in Buda Isabella Jagiellon gave birth to her only son John Sigismund Zapolya. 15 days after his birth, his father died suddenly on July 22, 1540 and the infant John Sigismund was elected king by a Hungarian noble assembly in Buda and Isabella as his regent. The bishop of Oradea, George Martinuzzi (Frater Georgius), took over the guardianship. John Sigismund claim to the throne was challenged by Ferdinand I of Austria. Under the pretext of wanting to protect John's interests, Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent had his troops invade central Hungary in 1541 and occupy Buda. 

After the Hungarian royal court had to leave Buda, Queen Isabella settled in Lipova and then from the spring of 1542 to the summer of 1551 in the former episcopal palace in Alba Iulia in Transylvania. Isabella was young, noted for her beauty, and scolded for her expensive tastes. She began reconstruction of the former bishop's palace in Alba Iulia in the Renaissance style. This decade was a period of unceasing hostilities and fierce disputes with Martinuzzi. Isabella kept a regular correspondence with her Italian relatives including her third cousin, Ercole II d'Este, Duke of Ferrara and her close advisor was Giovanni Battista Castaldo, an Italian mercenary leader (condottiere), First Marquis of Cassano, Imperial general and commander in the service of Emperor Charles V and his younger brother, Archduke Ferdinand I. Castaldo was a patron of arts and his preserved effigies were created by the best artists connected with the Spanish court - Titian (portrait in private collection), Antonis Mor (portrait in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum) and Leone Leoni (bust in the Church of San Bartolomeo in Nocera Inferiore and a medal in the Wallace Collection). A portrait of Castaldo, made after Titian's original between 1545 and 1560, is in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Kassel (oil on panel, 45.6 x 35.1 cm, inv. SM 1.1.939), where several portraits of the Jagiellons, identified by me, are located. Like the portraits of the Jagiellons, the painting comes from the old landgravial collections. This portrait of Castaldo is close to the style of the Flemish painter Gillis Claeissens (1526-1605) and the inscription in the upper right corner confirms the identity of the model (le seigneür • Joan • Bapt). Among the closest stylistically, we can mention two portraits of nobles in armor, one from the collection of Mentmore Towers (The Weiss Gallery in 2018), the other sold to the Groeningemuseum in Bruges in 2021.

In July 1551, facing superior forces, Isabella surrendered and she agreed to give up Transylvania in exchange for Silesian duchies (Opole, Racibórz, Ziębice, Ząbkowice Śląskie) and other territories offered by Ferdinand. The Silesian duchies turned out to be ruined after the earlier rule of the Hohenzollerns, to whom Ferdinand handed them over for 20 years in exchange for a loan. There was not even a residence that could accommodate Isabella's court. She departed towards Poland where she lived with her family for the next five years. To provide her with income, her brother granted her Krzepice and Sanok, while her mother gave her Wieluń. She returned to Transylvania in 1556 with her son. 

Isabella surrounded herself with foreigners - primarily Italians and Poles. Her secretary was Paolo Savorgnano of Cividale del Friuli and personal physician Giorgio Biandrata, who specialized in gynecology. In 1539 Biandrata published a medical treatise on gynecology entitled Gynaeceorum ex Aristotele et Bonaciolo a Georgio Blandrata medico Subalpino noviter excerpta de fecundatione, gravitate, partu et puerperio, a compilation taken from the writings of Aristotle and from Enneas muliebris by Ludovico Bonaccioli, dedicated to Queen Bona Sforza and her daughter, Isabella Jagiellon. In 1563 John Sigismund Zapolya made him his personal physician and councilor. Biandrata was a Unitarian and one of the co-founders of the Unitarian Churches in Poland and Transylvania.

Besides Castaldo and Biandrata, several other Italians played a role in strengthening the cultural and economic ties between the peninsula and Transylvania. Among them was Captain Giovanni Andrea Gromo (1518 - after 1570) from Bergamo, who arrived on May 1, 1564 and resided there until April 6, 1565. The Jesuit Massimo Milanesi (1529-1588), secretary to Bishop Piotr Myszkowski (ca. 1505-1591), was among Biandrata's collaborators in the 1580s. He was sent to Transylvania from Poland in 1582, to build Jesuit colleges there. Marcello Squarcialupi (ca. 1538-1599), originally from Piombino, an Italian physician, astronomer and Protestant, settled in 1578 in Wrocław in Silesia and then in Transylvania, becoming Stephen Bathory's physician between 1571-1586 (compare "I rapporti tra il Granducato di Toscana e il Principato di Transilvania ..." by Gianluca Masi, p. 28-31, 33-34). In 1549, Antonio da Venezia transported various goods from Braşov in Transylvania to Wallachia for a sum of 240 florins and in 1563 John Sigismund Zapolya granted safe conduct to Pietro Francesco Perusini from Milan. Many Italian architects were active at that time in Transylvania. The sources mention Martino di Spazio, active in Timişoara in 1552 and Alessandro da Urbino, called to Transylvania in 1552, Andrea di Trevisano in 1554, Francesco da Pozzo from Milan, also in 1554, Antonio da Spazio and Alessandro Cavallini, Cesare Baldigara in Satu Mare in 1559, Filippo Pigafetta, Domenico da Bologna in Gherla, Antonio di Bufalo and Paolo da Mirandola in Alba Iulia in 1561 (after "Italici in Transilvania tra XIV e XVI secolo" by Andrea Fara, p. 347-350). The lack of painters indicates that the majority of the paintings were imported, since the hypothesis that the Italians present in Transylvania forgot this important part of the activity of their compatriots would be unfounded.

According to "The Art of Love: an Imitation of Ovid, De Arte Amandi" by William King, published in London in 1709 (page XXI), "Isabella Queen of Hungary, about the year 1540, shewed to Petrus Angelus Barcæus [Pier Angelio Bargeo], when he was at Belgrade, a silver pen with this inscription, Ovidii Nasonis Calamus; denoting that it had belonged to Ovid. This had not long before been found amongst some old ruins, and the esteemed it as a venerable piece of antiquity" (also in: "The Original Works of William King", published in 1776, p. 114). This fragment give some impression of the quality of patronage and collection of Isabella. 

Portrait of Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia in the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest was painted in the style of Andrea Mantegna, an Italian painter and a student of Roman archeology born in Isola di Carturo in the Venetian Republic, who probably never visited Hungary. A portrait of Matthias' son, John Corvinus, in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich is attributed to Baldassare Estense, a painter who worked at the court of the Dukes of Este in Ferrara from 1471 to 1504 and who probably also never visited Hungary. Similar is the case of medal with bust of Queen Beatrice d'Aragona of Naples, Matthias's third wife in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, created in the style of Giovanni Cristoforo Romano, a sculptor born in Rome who later worked as medallist for the courts of Ferrara and Mantua.

After Isabella's death on September 15, 1559 John Sigismund took control of the country. He spoke and wrote in eight languages: Hungarian, Polish, Italian, Latin, Greek, Romanian, German and Turkish. He was a passionate lover of books, as well as music and dance and could play a number of musical instruments. Despite his slim build he adored hunting and made use of the spear on such occasions. He converted from Catholicism to Lutheranism in 1562 and from Lutheranism to Calvinism in 1564. Around five years later, he became the only Unitarian monarch in history and in 1568 he proclaimed freedom of religion in Turda.

In the Treaty of Speyer of 1570 between John Sigismund and the Emperor, Transylvania was recognized as an independent Principality under vassalage to the Ottomans and John Sigismund renounced his royal title. After John Sigismund's death on March 14, 1571, his uncle Sigismund II Augustus, King of Poland, and his aunts inherited a portion of his treasures. 

Papal nuncio Vincenzo dal Portico reported from Warsaw to Rome on August 15, 1571 about the enormous value of the inheritance valued by some at 500,000 thalers, which the king denied, claiming that it was worth only 80,000 thalers. Polish legation returning from Alba Iulia at the beginning of August 1571 brought only some of the valuables to Warsaw, including a great number of gold and silver objects and jewellery, including "1 crown with which the queen was crowned; 1 golden scepter; 1 golden apple" (1 corona, qua regina coronata est; 1 sceptrum aureum; 1 pomum aureum), "4 large, ancient and old-fashioned vases" (4 magnae, antiquae et vetustae amphorae), but also some paintings like "the golden altar, in which is the image of the Blessed Mary, valued at one hundred and forty-eight Hungarian florins" (altare aureum, in quo effigies Beatae Mariae, aestimatum centum quadraginta octo item Ungaricorum) or "portrait of Gastaldi - 4 fl. in the currency" (item Gastaldi effigies - 4 fl. in moneta), perhaps the effigy of Giacomo Gastaldi (ca. 1500-1566), an Italian astronomer and cartographer, who created maps of Poland and Hungary or Giovanni Battista Castaldo. "The image of Castaldi in gilt silver frame" (Imago Castaldi ex argento inaurato fuso), possibly even the same effigy by Titian sold by the Dickinson Gallery, was included in the list of items inherited by the king and his sisters. Among the inheritance, there was also an effigy of Queen Bona, mentioned in the letter of Queen of Sweden Catherine Jagiellon to her sister Sophia, dated August 22, 1572 in Stegeborg. 

"The remains of the legacy of the infanta, which will soon be here, is worth 70 to 80 thousand thalers" (vi resta il legato, della infanta, che sara presto qua che e di valore di 70 in 80 millia tallari) added dal Portico in his message about the inheritance of Intanta Anna Jagiellon (after Katarzyna Gołąbek, "Spadek po Janie Zygmuncie Zápolyi w skarbcu Zygmunta Augusta").

The painting of Madonna and Child with Saint John and angels in the National Museum in Warsaw, attributed to Jacopino del Conte, was purchased in 1939 from F. Godebski (oil on panel, 145 x 101 cm, inv. M.Ob.639 MNW). The effigy of the Virgin is identical with portrait of Isabella Jagiellon in the Samek Art Museum. The painting was therefore commissioned shortly after the birth of Isabella's son in 1540. Both paintings were painted on wood panel and are stylistically very close to Florentine Mannerist painters Pontormo, Bronzino or Francesco Salviati. In 1909 in the Przeworsk collection of Prince Andrzej Lubomirski, who also owned Marco Basaiti's Portrait of Nicolaus Copernicus, there was a painting (oil on wood, 53.5 x 39 cm) attributed to 16th century Florentine school, "maybe Jacopo Carrucci called Jacopo da Pontormo (1494-1557)", depicting Madonna and Child (after "Katalog wystawy obrazów malarzy dawnych i współczesnych urządzonej staraniem Andrzejowej Księżny Lubomirskiej" by Mieczysław Treter, item 34, p. 11).

​Among the few depictions of the Queen of Hungary and Croatia known before this article, the most interesting are probably those included in the Süleymanname ("Book of Suleiman"), an illustration of the life and achievements of Sultan Suleiman I the Magnificent (1494-1566), now preserved in the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul and probably made around 1555. One of the miniatures decorated with gold depicts Isabella with her son John Sigismund before the Sultan in Buda on August 29, 1541. In the miniature, the members of the young John Sigismund's entourage are identical in number to that of Isabella's advisors, also mentioned by name in other historical sources. The miniature is unique in Ottoman art, as there is no other example of a female sovereign in conversation with the Sultan. Some interpreters consider the possibility that such an honour for Isabella was intended as a tribute to Suleiman's wife, Roxelana, claimed to be "a sister of King Sigismund". Another exceptional element of this representation is that the queen and her son are depicted in the usual manner of the Virgin Mary and the infant Jesus (after "A magyar történelem oszmán-török ábrázolásokban" by Géza Fehér, p. 86).

In the National Gallery in London there is a portrait of approximately ten years old boy (oil on panel, 129 x 61 cm, NG649), also attributed to Jacopino del Conte, in a rich princely costume similar to that visible in a portrait of 19 years old Archduke Ferdinand (1529-1595), governor of Bohemia, son of Anna Jagellonica and Ferdinand I, in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, painted by Jakob Seisenegger in 1548. It was also painted on wooden panel. According to Gallery's description, "although full-length portraits were common in Venice and its states, where pictures were normally painted on canvas, they were rare in Florence where painting on wooden panels persisted longer", it is therefore possible that it was created by a Florentine painter active or trained in Venice, like Salviati who created a portrait of Isabella's brother king Sigismund II Augustus (Mint Museum of Art in Charlotte). The portrait of a boy in London was initially attributed to Pontormo, Bronzino or Salviati and was purchased in Paris in 1860 from Edmond Beaucousin. It was formerly in the collection of the Duke of Brunswick, while in 1556 when Isabella returned with her son to Transylvania, her mother Bona departed through Venice to Bari in southern Italy, Isabella's younger sister Sophia Jagiellon, married Duke Henry V and departed to Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, taking a large dowry and undoubtedly portraits of the members of the royal family. 

A copy of this painting, very Venetian in style, probably dating from the 19th century is in a private collection in the United States (oil on canvas, 134.6 x 59.7 cm, Thomaston Place Auction Galleries in Thomaston, Maine, August 24, 2024, lot 2330).

The same boy, albeit a little older, was also depicted in a painting which was before 1917 in Wojciech Kolasiński's collection in Warsaw, included in the catalogue of his collection sold in Berlin (oil on canvas (?), 76 x 55 cm, "Sammlung des verstorbenen herrn A. von Kolasinski - Warschau", Volume 2, item 102). It was painted against a green background and attributed to Jacopo Pontormo. The boy has an order on his chest, similar to the cross of the Knights Hospitaller (Knights of Malta), enemies of the Ottomans, like the cross visible on the coat of the 12-year-old Ranuccio Farnese (1530-1565), who was created prior titular of the Venice Priory of the Order in 1540, in his portrait by Titian, or to the cross of the Order of the Golden Spur, which was frequently awarded by Hungarian monarchs, like in 1522, when István Bárdi was made a knight of the golden spur by king Louis II in presence of several high ranked noble gentlemen. 

​The style is also close to that of Jacopino del Conte, as in the Portrait of a man, three-quarter length, before a green curtain from the Palazzo Capponi in Florence (Dorotheum in Vienna, June 9, 2020, lot 21), although blurred brushstrokes visible in an old photo may suggest that it was a copy by the Venetian painter.

​The same boy can be identified in another painting by del Conte, which is probably in a private collection (canvas, 18 x 13.5 cm). This small painting was attributed to Jacopino by Federico Zeri (1921-1998) in April 1980 (Fototeca Zeri, Numero scheda 15689).
​
He was finally depicted as a grown-up man in a painting by Jacopo Tintoretto, which was later in the collection of the Spanish Ambassador in Rome and later Viceroy of Naples, Don Gaspar Méndez de Haro, 7th Marquis of Carpio, as his initials D.G.H. are inscribed on the reverse of the canvas with a ducal crown (oil on canvas, 108 x 77 cm, Sotheby's London, July 6, 2011, lot 58). The painting was later in the collection of Prince Brancaccio in Rome and was sold at an auction in London in 2011. According to Catalogue Note (Sotheby's): "The unusual hat with its ornate brooch was not commonly seen on Venetian sitters of this period and has led some to suggest that the sitter was a visitor to Venice rather than a native of the city". If John Sigismund's uncle Sigismund Augustus, commissioned his effigies in Tintoretto's workshop in Venice, the same could John Sigismund. Another contender for the Hungarian crown, Ferdinand of Austria, also commissioned his effigies abroad, like a portrait by Lucas Cranach the Elder in Güstrow Palace, dated '1548' or a portrait by Titian from Spanish royal collection, created in mid-16th century, both most probably basing on some preparatory, study drawings and not seeing the model.   

In all three portraits the boy/man bears great resemblance to effigies of John Sigismund's paternal aunt, Barbara Zapolya, Queen of Poland, and his mother by Cranach and his workshop.

Portrait of Isabella Jagiellon (1519-1559), Queen of Hungary as Madonna and Child with Saint John and angels by Jacopino del Conte, ca. 1540, National Museum in Warsaw.

​Portrait of Giovanni Battista Castaldo (1493-1563) by Gillis Claeissens after Titian, ca. 1545-1560, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Kassel.

Portrait of John Sigismund Zapolya (1540-1571), King of Hungary as a child by Jacopino del Conte, ca. 1550, National Gallery in London.

​Portrait of John Sigismund Zapolya (1540-1571), King of Hungary as a child by unknown painter after Jacopino del Conte, 19th century (?) after original from about 1550, Private collection.

Portrait of John Sigismund Zapolya (1540-1571), King of Hungary, as a boy, from the Kolasiński collection by Jacopino del Conte or follower, ca. 1556, Private collection. Virtual reconstruction, © Marcin Latka

​Portrait of John Sigismund Zapolya (1540-1571), King of Hungary, as a boy by Jacopino del Conte, ca. 1556, Private collection. Virtual reconstruction, © Marcin Latka

Portrait of John Sigismund Zapolya (1540-1571), King of Hungary by Tintoretto, 1560s, Private collection.

Portraits of Hurrem Sultan and her daughter Mihrimah by Titian and workshop

"May Allah grant Your Royal Majesty long life and make one day a thousand days. The humbled one conveys: When I received your letter filled with love, I was so happy and glad that it is difficult to express it in words. [...] Along with this letter of sympathy, so as not to be empty words, we send two pairs of shirts and trousers with belts, six handkerchiefs and hand and face towels. We ask you to accept and enjoy them, even though the clothes sent are not worthy of you. God willing, next time I'll make them more ornate. In conclusion: may your God grant you long life, and may your state endure forever. Haseki Sultan", is a letter of 1549 (956) from Hurrem Sultan (ca. 1504-1558), the chief consort and legal wife of the Ottoman sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, to elected monarch of Poland-Lithuania Sigismund II Augustus (Central Archives of Historical Records in Warsaw, regest KDT, nr 103). A gift in the form of underwear is an expression of special intimacy between the sultana and the king, who wore shirts made by his sisters (according to documents from 1545 and September 1547).

Hurrem, "the joyful one" in Persian, is known to Europeans as Roxelana - from Roxolania, Ptolemy's name for Ruthenia (especially Ukraine), then part of Poland-Lithuania. According to Samuel Twardowski's "Important legation" (Przeważna legacya iaśnie oświeconego książęcia Krzysztopha Zbaraskiego ...), published in 1633 in Kraków, she was a daughter of Ukrainian Orthodox priest from Rohatyn and she was taken prisoner by the Tatars (z Rochatyna popa była córa, / Oddana niewolnicą do szaraju). She conquered the heart of the sultan, who in 1526 conquered Buda, the capital of Hungary, ending the rule of the Jagiellons in this part of Europe. Twardowski claim that the captive reportedly resorted to witchcraft: "And thus he will make her free / And allow her to his private rooms and his bed; But it was not enough for cunning Ruthenian girl / Using an old Karaite woman for this, / Through stealth toss and hot spells / She put the venom in Soliman's bones, / That the old man's love revived". Breaking the Ottoman tradition, he married Roxelana around 1533, making her his legal wife, and she was the first imperial consort to receive the title Haseki Sultan. In response to the criticism of Suleiman's subjects that he took "a sordid slave" (niewolnice podłej) as his wife, according to Twardowski, her husband claimed that she was "from the Polish country, from the royal blood comes and genus" and that she was a sister of king Sigismund (Że ją siostrą Soliman królewską nazywa [...] Ztąd Zygmunta naszego szwagrem swym mianował). It is tempting to believe that Queen Bona, who was managing Rohatyn from 1534/1535 as part of the royal domain, was behind all this and that these two women prevented further invasion of Central Europe by the Ottoman Empire.

"War not to the detriment of the kingdom, but rather for defense" (Woyna nie ku skazie królestwa, ale raczey ku obronie) was the official state doctrine of "The Realm of Venus, goddess of love" - Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth under the rule of elected Queen Anna Jagiellon, daughter of Bona Sforza, though within the Kingdom itself there were men desirous of breaking it. It was published in 1594 in Kraków in Stanisław Sarnicki's "Statutes and records of Crown privileges" (Statuta y metrika przywileiow Koronnych) under an effigy of Jan Zamoyski, Great Hetman of the Crown.

Hurrem Sultan had four sons named Mehmed (1521), Selim (1524), Bayezid (1525) and Cihangir (1531) and a daughter Mihrimah Sultan (1522). There was also a son Abdullah, but he died at the age of 3. As a sultana (Italian word for wife or female relative of a sultan), Roxelana exerted a very strong influence on the state policy and she supported peaceful relations with Poland-Lithuania. Apart from Sigismund Augustus (letters of 1548 and 1549), she also corresponded with his sister Isabella, Queen of Hungary (1543) and his mother Queen Bona. Jan Kierdej alias Said Beg, who was captured by the Turks during the siege of his family castle in Pomoriany in Red Ruthenia in 1498, when he was eight, traveled to Poland three times as an Ottoman envoy (1531, 1538 and 1543). When in January 1543, Kierdej came with the embassy from the sultan to Sigismund the Old, he also brought the sultana's words to Queen Bona. Both women wanted to postpone or prevent the marriage of Sigismund Augustus with archduchess Elizabeth of Austria.

The Queen of Poland, known for her outstanding artistic taste, acquired works of art and jewels in many places, including Turkey (after "Klejnoty w Polsce ..." by Ewa Letkiewicz, p. 57). The direct contacts of Roxelana with the rulers of the Venetian republic are not documented, but it is in Venice that most of her fictitious or faithful liknesses were created. It can be assumed that a large part of this "production" of portraits was intended for the Polish-Lithuanian market. Many Venetians lived in Poland-Lithuania and in Turkey and many Poles were undoubtedly interested in the life of the "Ruthenian Sultana". Roxelana's son Sultan Selim II (1524-1574), known as Selim "the blond" due to his fair complexion and blond hair, took as concubine Nurbanu Sultan (Cecilia Venier Baffo), a member of a well-known Venetian patrician family, and legally married her in about 1571. Ten letters written by Nurbanu between 1578 and 1583 to several ambassadors and to the Doge preserved in Venice. 

According to Vasari the Venetian painter Titian, although he never visited Istanbul, was commissioned by Suleiman the Magnificent to paint his wife Roxelana (Sultana Rossa) and their daughter Mihrimah (Cameria) (after "Images on the Page ..." by Sanda Miller, p. 84). Titian's portrait of Cameria and her mother was also recorded by Ridolfi. He and his famous workshop also painted the sultan and copies of these effigies are in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna and in private collection. To create the paintings, Titian had to use drawings or miniatures sent from Turkey. 

After World War II, only one known painted image of Queen Bona Sforza, created during her lifetime or close to it, has survived in the former territories of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. It is a miniature from a cycle depicting the Jagiellon family (today in the Czartoryski Museum), made by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Younger (1515-1586) in Wittenberg, Germany in about 1553 basing on a drawing or another miniature sent from Poland-Lithuania. Interestingly, also two effigies of Ottoman Sultanas survived, one is a portrait traditionally identified as Roxelana in the Lviv Historical Museum in Ukraine and the other is a likeness of her daughter Mihrimah in the Masovian Museum in Płock in Poland (inscription: CAMARIA · SOLIMA / · IMP · / · TVR · FILIA / · ROSTANIS · BASSAE · / · VXOR · 1541, upper left). Both were created in the 16th century and come from historical collections of the former Commonwealth. The portrait in Lviv is small painting on wood (38 x 26 cm) and comes from the collection of the Ossolineum, which received it in 1837 from Stanisław Wronowski. The effigy of Mihrimah in Płock was also painted on wood (93 x 69.7 cm) and comes from the collection of the Ślizień family deposited by them with the Radziwills in Zegrze near Warsaw during World War I. Before World War II in the Red Salon of the Zamoyski Palace in Warsaw there was a portrait of the "Turkish Sultana", burnt in 1939 along with all the furnishings of the palace (after "Ars Auro Prior" by Juliusz Chrościcki, p. 285). Such portraits are also documented in Poland-Lithuania much earlier. The 1633 inventory of Radziwill Castle in Lubcha in Belarus (Central Archives of Historical Records in Warsaw, 1/354/0/26/45) lists "A painting of a lady with the inscription Favorita del gran turcho" (36). The inscription in Italian indicates that the painting was most likely made in Italy. The inventory of paintings from the collection of princess Louise Charlotte Radziwill (1667-1695), drawn up in 1671, lists the following depictions of Turkish women, some of which may be by Titian: "Turkini in a turban plays the viola" (295), "A young Turkish woman with a feather" (315), "A young woman from Turkey" (316), "Turkini in a turban and in sables, a woman by her side" (418) (after "Inwentarz galerii obrazów Radziwiłłów z XVII w." by Teresa Sulerzyska).

Some effigies previously considered to represent Catherine Cornaro are now identified as portraits of Roxelana, like the painting in Florence with attributes of Saint Catherine of Alexandria - breaking wheel and halo (Uffizi Gallery, oil on canvas, 102.5 x 72 cm, inv. 1890, 909). It entered the Gallery in 1773 with the attribution to Veronese, but later the Latin inscription Titiani opus - 1542 was found on the back. A very similar portrait inscribed in French ROSSA FEMME DE SOLIMAN EMPEREUR DES TURCS ("Rosa, Consort of Suleiman, Emperor of the Turks") is in the Royal Collection at Kensington Palace (inv. RCIN 406152). Her costume is also distinctly Ottoman. Another version of this painting was before 1866 in the Manfrin collection in Venice and Samuelle Levi Pollaco created an etching of the painting with inscription: CATTERINA CORNARO REGINA DI CIPRO. This painting is considered to represent "A young Turkish woman" (Giovane turca, compare "Caterina Cornaro: Last Queen of Cyprus and Daughter of Venice", ed. Candida Syndikus, Sabine Rogge, p. 54). Her outfit is slightly different, and we can see three pyramids in the background, most probably the three main pyramids at Giza in Egypt, at that time a province of the Ottoman Empire (Egypt was conquered by the Ottoman Turks in 1517). Eastern Orthodox Monastery of Saint Catherine of Alexandria, built by order of Byzantine emperor Justinian I at the site where Moses is supposed to have seen the burning bush, sacred to Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, is also in Egypt (Sinai Peninsula). Roxelana was a daughter of an Orthodox priest, hence this monastery was undoubtedly of particular importance to her throughout the Ottoman Empire. A reduced copy of this effigy attributed to studio of Titian was sold as "Portrait of Caterina Cornaro" (oil on paper, laid down on canvas, laid down on panel, 41.9 x 28.8 cm, Christie's London, July 9, 2021, lot 214). Other bust-length version of this portrait by follower of Titian is in Knole House, Kent (oil on panel, 55.4 x 42.6 cm, inv. NT 129882). Although the Knole painting is probably based on an original by Titian and is described as "in the manner of Titian", its style is closer to the French school, particularly that of François Clouet (ca. 1510-1572), so it is possible that Clouet and his workshop copied a lost painting by Titian from a French royal or aristocratic collection.

The painter used the same face in his famous Venus with a mirror, today in the National Gallery of Art in Washington (oil on canvas, 124.5 x 105.5 cm, inv. 1937.1.34). This painting remained in the possession of the artist until his death, where it might have inspired visitors to commission similar paintings for themselves, or it might have served as a model for members of the workshop to reproduce. It is also possible that he wanted to have an effigy of this beautiful woman, one of his best clients. 

The painting is usually dated to about 1555, however, it it possible that it was painted much earlier, because "Titian's style and pictorial technique were never uniform and could vary from one work to another, as well as from one decade to another", as noted by Peter Humfrey in the Gallery's Entry for the painting (March 21, 2019). The 1971 X-ray reveals that Titian reused a canvas that once depicted two three-quarter figures standing side by side, possibly work not accepted by a client, and he rotated the canvas 90 degrees. Fern Rusk Shapley compared the double portrait with the so-called Allegory of Alfonso d'Avalos from around 1532 (Louvre in Paris). The portrait of Alfonso d'Avalos with a page, once owned by King John III Sobieski and King Stanislaus Augustus Poniatowski (J. Paul Getty Museum, inventory number 2003.486), is dated to about 1533. Giorgio Tagliaferro suggested that the double portrait was started by the young Paris Bordone while he was an assistant in Titian's studio (probably around 1516 for two years). 

In the mirror held by a cupid, she doesn't seem to see herself, but someone who is looking at her, most likely a man, her husband. Another cupid crowns her head with a wreath. This work is considered the finest surviving version of a composition executed in many variants by Titian and his workshop, some of the best of which are in the State Hermitage Museum, acquired in 1814 from the collection of Empress Josephine in Malmaison near Paris (oil on canvas, 130 x 105 cm, inv. ГЭ-1524), and in the Gemäldegalerie in Dresden (oil on canvas, 115 x 100 cm, inv. Gal.-Nr. 178). The way the fabric in the background was painted brings the copy in the Hermitage closer to Paris Bordone and his workshop. There is also a good copy in the Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Cologne (oil on canvas, 117.5 x 101 cm, inv. Dep. 0332), which probably comes from the collection of Basil Feilding (ca. 1608-1675), 2nd Earl of Denbigh, who owned such a painting between 1643-1649. The Habsburgs of Prague and Vienna also owned a copy of this painting, as it was listed in the Theatrum Pictorium (number 93). A version which was owned by the king of Spain (lost) was copied by Peter Paul Rubens (Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum, oil on canvas, 137 x 111 cm, inv. 350 (1957.5)). A good version of this painting, probably from the 19th century, is also in the National Museum in Warsaw, which houses many paintings from the old Sarmatian collections (oil on panel, 120 x 99 cm, inv. M.Ob.1940 MNW). Although this painting is considered a much later copy, it bears strong similarities to works attributed to Lambert Sustris, a Dutch painter active in Rome (around 1530-1535) and Venice (1535-1548), such as his "Venus" in the Louvre (INV 1978; MR 1129).

The same woman, in similar pose and costume to the work in Florence was depicted in a painting attributed to workshop of Titian, today in the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Florida (oil on canvas, 99.5 x 77.5 cm, inv. SN58). It comes from the Riccardi collection in Florence, sold to Lucien Bonaparte (1775-1840), younger brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, exactly like the "Portrait of the Duchess Sforza" (Portrait of Queen Bona Sforza) by Titian. Therfore both portraits - of the Queen of Poland and the Sultana of the Ottoman Empire were most probably created at the same time in Venice and sent to Florence. She is holding a little pet, most probably a mink or a weasel, a talisman for fertility. The flower in her décolletage might indicate, that she is a bride or newly wed woman. Another version of this painting, depicting the woman in a pink-purple dress, was in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna before 1907 (oil on canvas, 90.5 x 55.9 cm). It came from the collection of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria and was listed in the Theatrum Pictorium (number 94), just after the copy of Titian's "Venus with a Mirror".

She was also depicted in another portrait by Titian (National Gallery of Art, Washington, oil on canvas, 97.8 x 73.8 cm, 1939.1.292), wearing a similar green dress, a color being symbolic of fertility. She cradles an apple in her hands, which in art often connotes female sexuality. This painting was probably owned by Michel Particelli d'Hémery (1596-1650) in Paris, France. The Franco-Ottoman Alliance, one of the longest-lasting and most important foreign alliances of France, was formed in 1536 between the King of France Francis I and the Sultan Suleiman I. Beyond doubt, the French king had likenesses of the sultan and his influential wife. In the painting held at the Centre of Visual Arts and Research (CVAR) in Nicosia, Cyprus (oil on canvas, 107 x 86.3 cm, inv. PNT-00501), the hairstyle and the colour of the costume have been changed, as if to show the woman's beautiful clothes. This portrait was sold in 1996 under the title "Portrait of a lady (Caterina Cornaro, Queen of Cyprus?)" and "After Titian". The style of this painting is close to that of Lambert Sustris. 

Numerous variants and copies of this portrait exist. In a similar portrait from private collection in Veneto (oil on canvas, 101 x 82 cm, Dorotheum in Vienna, October 17, 2017, lot 233) her Ottoman dress is pink, a symbol of marriage, and she is preparing her bridal wreath (similar to that visible on her head in the Washington version). The style of this painting is particularly close to Giovanni Cariani. As Cariani died in 1547, the original portraits must have been painted before that year. It would be rather unusual if a Christian noblewoman from Venice would be dressed in Ottoman attire for her wedding. Therefore, through these portraits, the "Ruthenian girl" wanted to announce to the world that she is not a concubine, but the legal wife of the Sultan. A good signed version of this portrait by Titian (TITANVS / FECIT, upper right), showing the sitter in an even more expensive gold-embroidered dress, is at Apsley House in London. Together with the so-called "Titian's Mistress" (inv. WM.1620-1948), it was originally in the Spanish royal collection (recorded as being on display in the Alcázar Palace in Madrid in 1666). It is possible that a copy of "Titian's Mistress", described as "A naked person in a red coat", was in the Radziwill collection in 1671 (item 863/43, compare "Inwentarz galerii obrazów Radziwiłłów z XVII w." by Teresa Sulerzyska). Probably a preparatory drawing (modello) for the Apsley portrait, or a ricordo (a small copy after completion of the work), made by a member of Titian's workshop, probably sent to Istanbul, is in the Louvre in Paris (INV 4712, Recto, considered a work by a follower of Paolo Veronese). After 1543 a follower of Titian, most probably Alessandro Varotari (1588-1649), known as Il Padovanino, copied other version of this painting with model holding a vase (Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden, oil on canvas, 99.5 x 87 cm, inv. Gal.-Nr. 173). This painting is also attributed to Bernardino Licinio.

The portrait identified as Roxelana from the collection of Sir Richard Worsley in Appuldurcumbe House, Isle of Wight (1804, as by "Gentile Bellino") by follower of Titian depicts her holding a vase (oil on canvas, 110.5 x 92 cm, Sotheby's London, October 26, 2022, lot 82). Together with Latin inscription on the column "all is vanity" (OMNIA VANITAS) it might symbolize a great loss. On November 7, 1543 the eldest son of Hurrem Sultan, Prince Mehmed, died in Manisa, probably of smallpox. The sultana most probably knew Latin, as the Roman Catholic community was present in Rohatyn since the Middle Ages. Her large turban and face resemble the Lviv portrait. The style of this painting is also close to Giovanni Cariani. Another version of this composition, borrowing the pose from bridal portraits, is in the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo (oil on canvas, 111 x 94 cm, inv. 58AC00827). It is attributed to the school of Giovanni Antonio de' Sacchis (ca. 1484-1539), Il Pordenone, and dated between 1540 and 1560. The page holds a tray on which there are jewels and a crown, while on the mirror, instead of a reflection, there is an inscription: OM / NIA / VANI / TAS. Smoke emerges from the vase, like a soul flying to the sky. 

Similar to the Lviv likeness, also the effigy of Mihrimah (Cameria) in Płock has a counterpart made by workshop of Titian, today in the Courtauld Gallery in London, a copy of a lost original by Titian (oil on canvas, 99.3 x 71.5 cm, inv. P.1978.PG.463). It comes from the collection of Count Antoine Seilern (1901-1978), an Anglo-Austrian art collector and art historian. Like her mother, she was depicted with a spiked wheel, used to identify Saint Catherine of Alexandria. A study for this portrait by Titian or his workshop is in the Albertina in Vienna (paper, 38.5 x 23.5 cm, inv. 1492). The portrait of Cameria in the Musée Fabre in Montpellier (oil on canvas, 72 x 59 cm, inv. 65.2.1) was created by Sofonisba Anguissola (signature: PINXIT SOPHONISBE ANGUSSOLA VIRGO CRE. XIII SUCC). 

Like Queen Bona, who successfully ruled in the world dominated by men, the "Ruthenian girl" was well aware of the power of the image and conveyed the splendor of her reign through paintings created by the Venetian workshop of Titian. 

Portrait of Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana, ca. 1504-1558) as a bride by workshop of Titian, ca. 1533 or after, John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota. 

Portrait of Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana, ca. 1504-1558) as a bride by Titian or workshop, ca. 1533 or after, Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, lost. Virtual reconstruction, © Marcin Latka

​Portrait of Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana, ca. 1504-1558) as a bride from the Theatrum Pictorium (94) by Lucas Vorsterman the Younger after Titian, 1660, Princely Court Library in Waldeck.

Portrait of Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana, ca. 1504-1558) as a bride holding an apple by Titian, ca. 1533 or after, National Gallery of Art in Washington. 

​Portrait of Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana, ca. 1504-1558) holding an apple by Lambert Sustris, ca. 1533 or after, Centre of Visual Arts and Research in Nicosia. 

Portrait of Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana, ca. 1504-1558) as a bride holding her bridal wreath by Giovanni Cariani, ca. 1533, Private collection.

​Study drawing for portrait of Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana, ca. 1504-1558) as a bride holding her bridal wreath by follower of Titian, ca. 1533 or after, Louvre Museum in Paris.

​Portrait of Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana, ca. 1504-1558) as a bride holding her bridal wreath by Titian, ca. 1533 or after, Apsley House in London.

Portrait of Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana, ca. 1504-1558) holding a vase by follower of Titian, probably Alessandro Varotari or Bernardino Licinio, after 1543, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden.

Portrait of Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana, ca. 1504-1558) as Venus with a mirror by Titian, ca. 1533 or after, National Gallery of Art in Washington. 

Portrait of Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana, ca. 1504-1558) as Venus with a mirror by workshop of Paris Bordone, ca. 1533 or after, The State Hermitage Museum. 

Portrait of Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana, ca. 1504-1558) as Venus with a mirror by workshop of Titian, ca. 1533 or after, Gemäldegalerie in Dresden. 

​Portrait of Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana, ca. 1504-1558) as Venus with a mirror by Lambert Sustris or follower, after 1533 (19th century?), National Museum in Warsaw.

​Portrait of Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana, ca. 1504-1558) as Venus with a mirror by Peter Paul Rubens after Titian, ca. 1606-1611, Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid. 

Portrait of Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana, ca. 1504-1558) as Venus with a mirror from the Theatrum Pictorium (93) by Lucas Vorsterman the Younger after Titian, 1660, Princely Court Library in Waldeck.

Portrait of Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana, ca. 1504-1558) with pyramids by Titian or workshop, ca. 1542, Private collection. Virtual reconstruction, © Marcin Latka

Portrait of Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana, ca. 1504-1558) as Saint Catherine of Alexandria by workshop of Titian, 1542, Uffizi Gallery. 

Portrait of Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana, ca. 1504-1558) by workshop of Titian, ca. 1542, Private collection.

Portrait of Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana, ca. 1504-1558) by circle of François Clouet, ca. 1542, Knole House.

Portrait of Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana, ca. 1504-1558) holding a vase by follower of Titian or Giovanni Cariani, ca. 1543, Private collection. 

​Portrait of Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana, ca. 1504-1558) with a page and a mirror by the school of Il Pordenone, ca. 1543, Accademia Carrara in Bergamo.

Preparatory drawing for a portrait of Mihrimah Sultan (Cameria, 1522-1578) by Titian or workshop, after 1541, Albertina in Vienna.

Portrait of Mihrimah Sultan (Cameria, 1522-1578) as Saint Catherine of Alexandria by workshop of Titian, after 1541, Courtauld Gallery in London.

Portrait of Mihrimah Sultan (Cameria, 1522-1578) by unknown painter after Titian, after 1541, Masovian Museum in Płock.

​Portrait of Mihrimah Sultan (Cameria, 1522-1578) by Sofonisba Anguissola, second half of the 16th century, Musée Fabre in Montpellier. 

Portrait of royal courtier Jan Krzysztoporski by Bernardino Licinio

The interpretation of classical architecture by Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508-1580), known as Palladianism, revived by early 18th century British architects, become the dominant architectural style until the end of the century. The work of the architect and his effigies become highly demanded goods. 

That is why an owner of a portrait of an unkown nobleman by Bernardino Licinio, possibly a painter, decided to turn it into a portrait of the famous architect. He added an inscription in Latin (ANDREAS. PALADIO. A.) and a set-square and a compass in sitter's right hand to make his "forgery" even more probable. The portrait, today in Kensington Palace, was acquired in 1762 by king George III from Joseph Smith, British Consul in Venice (oil on canvas, 100.5 x 82.5 cm, inv. RCIN 402789).

Wooden attributes of a simple architect contrast sharply with opulent costume of the sitter, crimson doublet of Venetian silk, gold rings with precious stones and a coat lined with expensive Eastern fur. Also the man depicted is more Eastern type than an Italian. Such expensive, usually metal instrument, as compass is clearly exposed in the portraits of architects by Lorenzo Lotto, while in Licinio's portrait is barely visible. The little finger is a proof that the attributes were added later, as its appearance is anatomically impossible to hold a set-square and a compass. 

According to original inscription (ANNOR. XXIII. M.DXLI) the sitter was 23 in 1541, exactly as Jan Krzysztoporski (1518-1585), a nobleman of Nowina coat of arms from central Poland.

Between 1537-1539 he studied in Lutheran Wittenberg, under the direction of Philip Melanchthon, recommended to him by "the father of Polish democracy" Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski. Then he went for further studies to Padua (entred as loannes Christophorinus), where on May 4, 1540, he was elected a counselor of the Polish nation. In January 1541, he welcomed in Treviso, close to Venice, the Chancellor Jan Ocieski (1501-1563) on his way to Rome. After returning to Poland, he was admitted to the royal court on 2 July 1545 and in 1551 he was made the royal secretary. He was an envoy of king Sigismund Augustus to Pope Julius III in 1551, to Joachim II Hector, Elector of Brandenburg in 1552 and to Isabella Jagiellon, Queen of Hungary in 1553.

As a follower of Calvinism, he founded a congregation of this religion in his estate in Bogdanów, near Piotrków Trybunalski. He also had a large library in his brick fortified manor in Wola Krzysztoporska, which he built, destroyed during subsequent wars.

Portrait of royal courtier Jan Krzysztoporski (1518-1585) by Bernardino Licinio, 1541, Kensington Palace.

Portraits of Jan Krzysztoporski, Jan Turobińczyk and Wandula von Schaumberg by Hans Mielich

Around 1536, a German painter Hans Mielich (also Milich, Muelich or Müelich), born in Munich, went to Regensburg, where he worked under the influence of Albrecht Altdorfer and the Danube School. He stayed there till 1540, when he returned to Munich. At that time, from 1539 to 1541, Regensburg was a place of meetings between representatives of the various Christian communities and debates between Catholics and Protestants, climaxing in the Regensburg Colloquy, also known as Diet of Regensburg (1541). Among the people vividly interested in the debates were Jan Łaski (Johannes a Lasco, 1499-1560), a Polish Calvinist reformer, later involved in translation project of the Radziwill Bible, who studied in Mainz in the winter of 1539/40, and Wandula von Schaumberg (1482-1545), the Princess-abbess of the Imperial Obermünster Abbey in Regensburg from 1536, who had a seat and vote in the Imperial Diet. In 1536 Mielich created a painting of Crucifixion of Christ with his monogram, date and coat of arms of the von Schaumberg family, today in the Landesmuseum in Hannover, most probably commissioned by Wandula.

A portrait of a wealthy old woman in a black dress, white cap and a wimple by Hans Mielich in the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya in Barcelona, deposit of the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection, comes from the collection of a mysterious Count J. S. Tryszkiewicz in his French castle of Birre (oil on panel, 71 x 53.5 cm, inv. 295 (1957.1)). No such person and castle are confirmed in sources, however Count Jan Tyszkiewicz, who died in Paris on June 9, 1901, was owner of the Birzai Castle in Lithuania and a son of renowned art collector, Michał Tyszkiewicz. Both the family as well as the castle were known differently in different languages of the multicultural nation, hence the mistake is justified. Before the Tyszkiewicz family, Birzai Castle was the main seat of the Calvinist branch of the Radziwill family. According to inscription in German, the woman in the painting was 57 in 1539 (MEINES ALTERS IM . 57 . IAR . / 1539 / HM), exactly as Wandula von Schaumberg, who like the Radziwills was the Imperial Princess.
 
In 1541 the artist went to Rome, probably at the instigation of Duke William IV of Bavaria. He remained in Italy till at least 1543 and after his return, on 11 July 1543 he was admitted to the Munich painters' guild. Hans was a court painter of the next Duke, Albert V of Bavaria and his wife Anna of Austria (1528-1590), daughter of Anna Jagellonica (1503-1547) and younger sister of Elizabeth of Austria (1526-1545), first wife of Sigismund II Augustus. Albert and Anna were married on July 4, 1546 in Regensburg. 

On his way to Rome, Mielich most probably stopped in Padua, where in 1541 Andreas Hertwig (1513-1575), a member of patrician family from Wrocław, obtained the degree of doctor of both laws at the age of 28. Hertwig brought from Italy an impressive collection of law books and an Italian wife - Polixena de Corona from Padua (also Faustina in some sources). He definitely also bought from Italy his portrait painted in 1541, today in the National Museum in Wrocław, attributed to Mielich or a follower (oil and tempera on panel, 87 x 62 cm, inv. MNWr VIII-3157, inscription: ANDREAS HERTWIGK · I · V · DOCTOR / ÆTATIS SVÆ XXVIII ANNO MDXLI). Blurred lines in this painting, in comparison with other paintings by Mielich, could be the influence of Venetian painting or the effect of the interference of an assistant, perhaps Italian. After the death of his first wife, Andreas married Lukretia Boner, née Huber, owner of the splendid Wojnowice Castle near Raciborz, which was rebuilt by her first husband Jakob Boner, brother of the royal banker of Sigismund I and Bona Sforza.

On December 10, 1540 Jan Ocieski of the Jastrzębiec coat of arms (1501-1563), secretary of king Sigismund I set off on a diplomatic mission from Kraków. It is possible that he was accompanied by Jan Turobińczyk (Joannes Turobinus, 1511-1575), an expert on Cicero and Ovid, who after studies in Kraków in 1538 became the secretary of the bishop of Płock and other secretary of the king, Jakub Buczacki, and for two years he moved to the bishop's court in Pułtusk. When Buczacki died on May 6, 1541, he lost his protector and moved to Kraków, where he decided to continue his studies. Jan was later ordained a priest in about 1545, he lectured on Roman law and he was elected rector of the Kraków Academy in 1561.

A portrait of a man holding gloves in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg is very similar to the portrait of Andreas Hertwig in Wrocław (oil on panel, 67.2 x 49.5 cm, inv. Gm1945). According to inscription on the back, the man depicted is also Andreas Hertwig, hence the portrait is attributed to so-called Master of the Andreas Hertwig Portrait. Facial features, however, do not match and according to original inscription in Latin the man was 30 on May 8, 1541 (M D XXXXI / D VIII MAI / AETATIS XXX), exactly as Jan Turobińczyk when the news of the death of his protector could reach him in Italy and when he could decide to change his life and return to studies.

Another similar portrait to the effigy of Andreas Hertwig in Wrocław is in private collection (oil on panel, 70 x 50.8 cm, Christie's New York, Auction 2135, January 28, 2009, lot 49). The young man in a rich costume was depicted against a green background. According to inscription in Latin he was 25 on November 22, 1543 (M. D. XLIII. DE. XX. NOVEMBE / .AETATIS. XXV), exactly as Jan Krzysztoporski, who around that time was still in Italy. His facial features are similar to the portrait by Bernardino Licinio created just two years earlier, in 1541 (Kensington Palace). The difference in eye color is probably due to technique and style of painting. Rings on his finger are almost identical on both paintings and coat of arms on the signet ring visible on the portrait from 1543 is very similar to Nowina coat of arms as shown in the 15th century Armorial de l'Europe et de la Toison d'or (Bibliothèque nationale de France). The letters on the signet can be read as IK (Ioannes Krzysztoporski).

Also notable is the physical resemblance of the men in these three portraits, as well as their poses, which probably results from a particular way of representing the models, fashionable appearance. However, the dates on the original inscriptions indicate that they were different people.

It was in Munich, between 1552 and 1555, that Mielich created one of his most important works, the Jewel Book (Kleinodienbuch) of Anna of Austria, Duchess of Bavaria, now in the Bavarian State Library (BSB-Hss Cod.icon. 429). This picture inventory contains original-size images of 71 pieces of jewellery belonging to the Duchess and other members of the family. One of the few jewels described in this inventory is the gold pendant with Nereus and Doris (symbolizing the fertility of the ocean), two rubies, two sapphires, an emerald and a pearl, as well as birds and a squirrel on the reverse painted in enamel, donated by the younger sister of Duchess Anna - Catherine of Austria (1533-1572), Queen of Poland in 1553, probably shortly after her coronation (15 Das Kleinat 53 / Der Königin Katarina von poln auf die ..., p. 33r, 33v). In 1556 Mielich made magnificent full-length portraits of Duchess Anna and her husband Albert V, which were sent to her family, now preserved in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (inv. GG 3847, GG 3846). Similar portraits were probably also sent to Sarmatia. At that time, artists from friendly courts in Europe travelled to different places, such as a Polish singer who was paid 4 florins for a performance in 1570 at the court of Albert V in Munich, so it is possible that Mielich also travelled to Poland-Lithuania-Ruthenia or at least accepted commissions from Munich after 1553.

At the beginning of the 17th century, the court painter of the Polish-Lithuanian Vasas was Christian Melich, who, according to some sources, came from Antwerp. This, however, does not exclude the possibility that he was a relative of Hans Mielich. He created one of the oldest views of Warsaw, now in Munich, most probably from the dowry of Anna Catherine Constance Vasa. 

Portrait of Princess-abbess Wandula von Schaumberg (1482-1545), aged 57, from the Radziwill Castle in Birzai by Hans Mielich, 1539, Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya.

​Portrait of Andreas Hertwig (1513-1575), aged 28 by Hans Mielich or circle, 1541, National Museum in Wrocław.

Portrait of Jan Turobińczyk (1511-1575), aged 30 by Hans Mielich, 1541, Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg.

Portrait of Jan Krzysztoporski (1518-1585), aged 25 by Hans Mielich, 1543, Private collection.

​Gold pendant with Nereus and Doris from the Jewel Book of the Anna of Austria (1528-1590), Duchess of Bavaria, offered by Catherine of Austria (1533-1572), Queen of Poland in 1553 by Hans Mielich, 1553-1555, Bavarian State Library in Munich. 

​Reverse of gold pendant with Nereus and Doris from the Jewel Book of the Anna of Austria (1528-1590), Duchess of Bavaria, offered by Catherine of Austria (1533-1572), Queen of Poland in 1553 by Hans Mielich, 1553-1555, Bavarian State Library in Munich. 

Portrait of Sigismund Augustus in armour by Giovanni Cariani 

"Come poor people with joy and drink without charge the water that Bona, Queen of Poland provided" (Pauperes sitientes venite cum laetitia et sine argento. Bibite aquas, quas Bona regina Poloniae preparavit) is the Latin inscription on one of the two cisterns which is still near the Bari Cathedral, the other, of which there are no traces today, was located in the area of the Church of San Domenico and only the inscription is known (Bona regina Poloniae preparavit piscinas. Pauperes sitientes venite cum laetitia et sine argento). The queen was a great benefactress to this archiepiscopal city and, among other timely gifts, increased the number of public fountains. From Poland she directed many interventions in her duchy to improve the life and the prosperity of the inhabitants, building canals, wells, aided churches with donations. 

Bona also tried to expand her possessions in Italy. In 1536 she bought the city of Capurso and in 1542 she also bought the county of Noia and Triggiano. To reach the amount necessary for the purchase of the county (68,000 ducats) she imposed new taxes, and on this occasion the municipality of Bari complained that Modugno near Bari is "praised and loved more than this city (Bari) from Y.M. (Your Majesty)" (laudata e amata più di questa città (Bari) dalla M.V. (maestà vostra)). The queen cared very much about her hereditary principalities of Bari and Rossano and wanted her son to inherit them.

Among the many Italians at the Polish-Lithuanian royal court, many came from Bari. In the 1530s and 1540s, there were two physicians from Bari at the court - Giacomo Zofo (Jacobus Zophus Bariensis), who was called Sacrae Mtis phisicus in 1537, and Giacomo Ferdinando da Bari (Jacobus Ferdinandus Bariensis), who published two treatises in Kraków (De foelici connubio serenissimi Ungariae regis Joannis et S. Isabellae Poloniae regis filiae, 1539 and De regimine a peste praeservativo tractatus, 1543). In 1537 there were also Scipio Scholaris Barensis Italus, royal secretary and provost of Sandomierz, Cleofa, sub-cantor of the Cathedral of St. Nicholas in Bari (Cleophas Succantor Ecclac S. Nicolai, Barensis) who was the brother of Sigismondo, the royal chef, Teodoro de Capittelis and Sabino de Saracenis. On Bona's recommendation, in 1545, the lawyer Vincenzo Massilla (or Massilio, 1499-1580) developed the Bari code of customary law (Commentarii super consuetudinibus praeclarae civitatis Bari) written in Kraków during the years of residence at the Polish court and completed in Padua, first published in 1550 by Giacomo Fabriano and then by Bernardino Basa in Venice in 1596. Massilla was a well-known jurist and become advisor of the queen. In 1538 he held the position of governor of Rossano and moved to Kraków as auditor general for the feudal states held by Bona Sforza in southern Italy. She also sought permission to appoint the bishops of Bari and Rossano, but the pope refused. In 1543 Queen Bona returned to her plan of the sale of the Duchy of Rossano and for this purpose the representative of the city of Rossano - Felice Brillo (Britio) came to Poland. Few years later, on August 30, 1549, Luigi Zifando from Bari (Siphandus Loisius hortulanus Italus Barensis) was admitted as the royal gardener. Several people from Modugno near Bari were in service of the queen and later of her son Sigismund Augustus, like Girolamo Cornale, who died in Warsaw, and priests Vito Pascale and mentioned Scipione Scolaro or Scolare (Scholaris). When in Poland, in 1550, Pascale built himself a palace in Modugno (Palazzo Pascale-Scarli), the architecture of which is attributed to the influence of the Florentine architect Bartolomeo Berecci working in Poland.

The court of Bona's son Sigismund Augustus in Vilnius was also dominated by Italians, like two singers of the queen, Erasmo and Silvester, incisor gemmarum Jacopo Caraglio, pharmacist Floro Carbosto, locksmith - Domenico, builders - Gasparus and Martinus, sculptor Bartholomeo, musician Sebaldus, harper Franciscus, caretaker of the Italian royal stallions Marino, goldsmiths: Antonio, Vincentino, Christoforus and Bartholomeo, tailor Pietro and the bricklayer Benedictus. The king favored the Italian style in his attire, and he usually wear a short Italian caftan of black silk or a German one of black cloth from Vicenza over the shirt. The most expensive part of his outfit was a sable cap, a germak coat made of black damask, lined with dormouse fur, and an Italian, gilded, sword, "a gift from Bari". Among the expensive furnishings of his three-room apartment in the new Vilnius Castle were Venetian mirrors - one of them in precious frames decorated with pearls and silver. Venetian glass was delivered to the court by Vilnius merchants, Morsztyn and Łojek (after "Zygmunt August: Wielki Książę Litwy do roku 1548" by Ludwik Kolankowski, p. 329, 332).

In the Parmeggiani Gallery in Reggio Emilia (Musei Civici) there is a "Portrait of a warrior", attributed to Giovanni Cariani, who died in Venice in 1547 (oil on canvas, 95 x 77 cm, inventory number 76). It comes from the collection of Luigi Francesco Giovanni Parmeggiani (1860-1945), an Italian anarchist, forger, art dealer and collector, who before inaugurating his gallery in 1928 in his hometown, lived mainly in Brussels, London and Paris. The young man is holding his hand on a helmet. His expensive suit of armour indicates that he is a member of the aristocracy, a knight, and the landscape behind him undoubtedly represents his castle. Only one tower is visible and a church to the right. This layout and shape of the towers correspond with the Bari Castle (Castello Normanno-Svevo, Ciastello) and Bari Cathedral (Arciuescouato) as seen from the "Royal Gate" (Porta Reale) and depicted in an early 18th century print by Michele Luigi Muzio (structures C, A and H). The man's face is very reminiscent of the images of the young Sigismund Augustus, who at that time was considered as a successor of his mother in the Duchy of Bari. 

The paintings of the Venetian school are among the most valuable linked to Bari or the region - Saint Peter the Martyr from the Santa Maria la Nova Church in Monopoli by Giovanni Bellini, Throning Madonna and Child with Saint Henry of Uppsala and Saint Anthony of Padua by Paris Bordone or the Virgin and Child with Saint Catherine of Alexandria and Saint Ursula with a donor from Ardizzone family from the Bari Cathedral by Paolo Veronese (Pinacoteca metropolitana di Bari).

Portrait of Sigismund II Augustus in armour against the view of the castle in Bari by Giovanni Cariani, ca. 1543, Parmeggiani Gallery in Reggio Emilia.

Portrait of Barbara Radziwill, Elizabeth of Austria and Sigismund Augustus as Flora, Juno and Jupiter by Paris Bordone

Ovid in Fasti V relates the story of Juno, queen of the gods, who annoyed with her husband Jupiter for producing Minerva from his own head by the stroke of Vulcan's axe, complained to Flora, goddess of fertility and blossoming plants. Flora, gave her secretly a flower, by only touching which women immediately became mothers. It was by this means that Juno gave birth to the god Mars. The Renaissance represented Flora under two aspects, Flora Primavera, embodiment of genuine marital love, and Flora Meretrix, prostitute and courtesan whom Hercules won for a night in a wager.

Because Hercules' mother was mortal, Jupiter put him to the breast of his wife, knowing that Hercules would acquire immortality through her milk and according to the myth the droplets of milk crystallized to form the Milky Way. As Juno Lucina (Juno the light-bringer) she watched over pregnancy, childbirth, and mothers and as Juno Regina (Juno the Queen) she was the patron goddess of Rome and the Roman Empire.

The great popularity of Ovid's works in Poland-Lithuania-Ruthenia, poetically called Sarmatia, left its mark on the character of the decorations of many buildings across the country, including royal residences, which were undoubtedly filled with many Ovidian motifs. Those created after the Deluge, in the 1680s, preserved in the Wilanów Palace and the Lubomirski bathing pavilion in Warsaw (based on the engravings by Abraham van Diepenbeeck). "In the 16th century, Ovid's links with Sarmatia gave rise to the legend that he had lived in Poland, had learned to speak the Polish language, and had died and been buried near the Black Sea, that is, within the borders of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. It was claimed that Ovid was the first Polish poet, and his 'naturalisation' and the 'discovery of his grave' shaped the consciousness of the ruling classes and the elites of the Commonwealth" (after "Ovidius inter Sarmatas" by Barbara Hryszko, p. 453, 455). 
​
His famous "Metamorphoses" dealt with the transformation of human beings into other entities and the deification of the descendants of Venus, goddess of love. Latin works of Andrzej Krzycki (Andreas Cricius, 1482-1537), secretary to Queen Bona, were openly inspired by the Ovid's oeuvre and Piotr Wężyk Widawski in his paraphrase of a fragment of "Metamorphoses" entitled "Philomela [...] Under the image of the goddess Venus" (Philomela. Morale. To iest S. Ksiąg rozmáitych Autorow wykład obycżáyny. Pod Obraz Boginiey Wenery), published in Kraków in 1586, "wrote not only that Ovid was very popular and widely known in Poland but also expressed his belief that Ovid had come to Poland, where he had learned the Polish language and had become a Pole". 

In the painting by Paris Bordone in the Hermitage Museum (oil on canvas, 108 x 129 cm, inventory number ГЭ-163), Flora receives flowers and herbs from Cupid, the god of desire and erotic love and son of Mars and Venus. Cupid is also crowning the head of Juno with a wreath. The queen of the gods is taking the herbs from the hand of Flora, hoping she was unnoticed by her husband Jupiter Dolichenus, the "oriental" king of the gods holding an axe, who stands behind her. The painting comes from the collection of Sir Robert Walpole at Houghton Hall, sold to Empress Catherine II of Russia in 1779.

"The daughter of the King of Rome is approaching, your bride" (propinquat Romani Regis filia, sponsa tibi), praised Elizabeth of Austria (1526-1545) in a poem "To Sigismund the Second Augustus, King of Poland" (AD SIGISMVNDVM SECVNDVM AVGVSTVM POLONORVM REGEM) the poet Klemens Janicki (1516-1543), included in his Epitalamii serenissimo regi Poloniae Domino Sigismundo Augusto ... and published in 1543 in Kraków in the printing house of Helena Unglerowa (Cracouiae, apud viduam Floriani. An. 1543.). He also adds ambiguous words: "Let virtue be rewarded and evil punished. Let there be no disorder, born only to destroy the glory of Venus, the love of the womb" (Sint sua virtvti præmia pæna malis. Sit nullo tibi turba loco, quæ perdere tantum Nata merum est: Veneris gloria: ventris amor). Janicki, the "poet laureate" (poeta laureato), during his stay in Venice in the years 1538-1540, found himself among the humanists grouped around Cardinal Bembo and where he became friends with two future eminent theorists of the art, Daniele Barbaro and Lodovico Dolce, to whom he later dedicated some epigrams (compare "Sebastiano Serlio a sztuka polska ..." by Jerzy Kowalczyk, p. 288). King Sigismund Augustus' courtier, the Spanish poet Pedro Ruiz de Moros (d. 1571), further praised the royal couple in his De apparatu nuptiarum ..., published in Kraków in 1543: "Queen of the Austrian nation, of the noble royal blood, ethereal Jupiter of favorable winds, affirms joy, and a chamber to enjoy through the years, a royal chamber of the royal husband Sigismund" (Regina, Austriacum genus, alto a sanguine Regu, Iuppiter etherea quam longum vescier aura, Annuat, & thalamo multos gaudere per annos, Regali thalamo, SISMVNDO Rege marito).

The message of the painting is clear, thanks to the mistress the queen is fertile. The protagonists are therfore "oriental" king Sigismund Augustus as Jupiter, his first wife queen Elizabeth of Austria, daughter of King of the Romans as Juno, and Sigismund Augustus' mistress Barbara Radziwill as Flora.

Portrait of Barbara Radziwill, Elizabeth of Austria and Sigismund Augustus as Flora, Juno and Jupiter by Paris Bordone, 1543-1551, The State Hermitage Museum.

Portraits of Barbara Radziwill and her mother as Venus Pudica by Vincent Sellaer and circle of Michiel Coxie

Before 1550, King Sigismund Augustus ordered fabrics from the best weaving workshops in Brussels. The preserved tapestries of this rich collection, now housed in the Wawel Royal Castle and other museums, depict biblical stories, a lush world of exotic plants and animals, the monogram of the king SA in a rich Renaissance setting and the coats of arms of Poland and Lithuania. The designs for the figurative tapestries were created by the Flemish painter Michiel Coxie (1499-1592), "much celebrated among the Flemish craftsmen" (molto fra gli artefici fiamminghi celebrato), according to Giorgio Vasari. Nicknamed the Flemish Raphael, Coxie was the court painter to Emperor Charles V and his son King Philip II of Spain, although he probably never visited Spain. He frequently drew inspiration or copied Italian masters such as Raphael, Michelangelo, Titian or Sebastiano del Piombo, but also from classical Antiquity. His Moral Fall of Humanity (Abduction of human wives by the sons of the gods) with a naked woman in the center of the composition, produced by the workshop of Jan de Kempeneer between 1548 and 1553 (Royal Castle in Warsaw, ZKW/511), is the best example.

Coxie was also a renowned portrait painter. He created the effigy of Christina of Denmark (Allen Memorial Art Museum, inventory number 1953.270) and his self-portrait as Saint George, wearing the same armor as Emperor Charles V during the Battle of Mühlberg in 1548 in a painting by Titian (Prado Museum, P00410, noticed by Roel Renmans, Flickr, February 23, 2015), in the left wing of the triptych of Saint George (Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp, 373). He probably also created a copy of the mentioned equestrian portrait of the Emperor by Titian.

In the National Museum in Warsaw there is an intriguing painting of a naked woman, created by Michiel Coxie's entourage, perhaps his workshop (oil on panel, 60 x 49 cm, M.Ob.2158 MNW, formerly 2007 Tc/71). It was purchased in 1971 from Stanisława Kozłowska ("Acquisitions du départment d'art étranger 1970-1981" by Jan Białostocki, p. 101, item 93). The style of this work is the same as the portrait of Queen Barbara Radziwill as Madonna with sleeping Child sold in 2020 (oil on panel, 95 x 76 cm, Sotheby's London, September 23, 2020, lot 33). The face is also the same, as if the painter used the same set of study drawings to create both works. It is said to represent the penitent Saint Mary Magdalene, because in some copies the woman was depicted with the typical attribute of this saint - an alabaster box of ointment (Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art). The painting was aquired before 1979. Some copies are attributed to Bernaert de Ryckere (private collection, 70 x 50 cm) or, more idealized, to Florentine school (private collection, 62 x 52 cm). The version in the Louvre, acquired from unknown collection in Nice in 1946 (oil on panel, 73 x 55 cm, RF 1946 9), is attributed to Flemish painter. The female figure in paintings is interpreted differently as Mary Magdalene, Bathsheba, Lucretia or Cleopatra. In some cases this is supported by the corresponding attributes, but in other cases the figure appears without other explanatory objects. Researchers generally attribute the works to Frans Floris, Michiel Coxie or Vincent Sellaer and their workshops. It is possible that the original was made by an Italian or more precisely Venetian painter, because Flemish painters copied or were inspired by their works. A copy of the Allegory of Love (Naked woman and a man with mirrors) by workshop of Titian (original in National Gallery of Art, Washington), identified as disguised portraits of Alfonso I d'Este and Laura Dianti or Federico Gonzaga and Isabella Boschetti, sold in 1992, is attributed to Michiel Coxie (Dorotheum Vienna, March 18, 1992, lot 64).

A very similar mirror composition was sold in Berlin in 2020 (oil on panel, 45.5 x 32 cm, Galerie Bassenge, November 26, 2020, lot 6003). But the woman's face is different. She is also much older than the woman in the Warsaw painting. There are no attributes, which is why the image is interpreted as a representation of Venus - an aging Venus in the posture of the chaste Venus Pudica. This would ultimately mean that the work could be interpreted as a hidden allegory of vanity. It is difficult to determine today which version might be original, but assuming that both painters created copies of the same composition, we would have to conclude that the paintings depict mother and daughter. The younger woman in the Warsaw painting looks at her mother, who in turn looks at the viewer. Therefore, the older woman is the mother of Queen Barbara and the she resembles the effigies of Barbara Kolanka (d. 1550) by Lucas Cranach the Elder. Such depictions were popular in the mid-16th century and frequently a general resemblance and context are enough to determine the model, as in the case of the portrait of Diane de Poitiers (1499-1566), favorite of King Henry II of France as half-naked Pax, goddess of peace (Allegory of Peace), by School of Fontainebleau (Museo Nazionale del Bargello in Florence). Other examples include several "disguised" nude portraits by Agnolo Bronzino, such as the portrait of Cosimo I de' Medici (1519-1574), Grand Duke of Tuscany as Orpheus (Philadelphia Museum of Art), portrait of Andrea Doria (1466-1560) as Neptune (Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan), Descent of Christ into Limbo with several contemporary portraits (Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence) and portrait of sixteen-year-old cardinal Giovanni de' Medici the Younger (1543-1562) as Saint John the Baptist (Galleria Borghese in Rome).

Since the 17th century, many paintings from the Radziwill collection have been transferred to Berlin by different means. The inventory of paintings from the collection of Princess Louise Charlotte Radziwill (1667-1695), who lived in Berlin, Königsberg and Heidelberg, drawn up in 1671, lists numerous representations of this type, such as a large panel with a naked woman (794) and several effigies of Saint Mary Magdalene (357, 369, 531, 792, 855, 867) (after "Inwentarz galerii obrazów Radziwiłłów z XVII w." by Teresa Sulerzyska).

In the context of known comments about Barbara Radziwill and her mother, while likely exaggerated, these effigies also appear accurate. Stanisław Orzechowski, wrote that Sigismund Augustus "wants to seek his strength and courage from his wife in the service of Venus" and stated, among other things, that Barbara "had a mother about whom people always said bad things because of her lechery, her immodesty, poisoning and witchcraft" and the royal courtier Stanisław Bojanowski added that Barbara "continued to rouging her face to deceive us until [her] last breath", even when it was clear that the illness could not be cured (after "Nieprzyzwoite małżeństwo" by Anna Odrzywolska, p. 69).

​Portrait of Barbara Kolanka as Venus Pudica by Vincent Sellaer, ca. 1545-1550, Private collection.

​Portrait of Barbara Radziwill as Venus Pudica by circle of Michiel Coxie, ca. 1545-1550, National Museum in Warsaw.

Judgment of Paris with portraits of Hedwig Jagiellon and members of her family by workshop Lucas Cranach the Elder or Lucas Cranach the Younger

On February 15, 1545 the double wedding was celebrated with great splendor in Berlin. Princess Sophie of Legnica (1525-1546), the daughter of Frederick II (1480-1547), Duke of Legnica, Brzeg, and Wołów, and his second wife, Sophia of Brandenburg-Ansbach (1485-1537), married John George of Brandenburg (1525-1598), son of Magdalena of Saxony (1507-1534) and Joachim II Hector (1505-1571), Elector of Brandenburg, while the sister of John George, Barbara (1527-1595), married George (1523-1586), brother of Sophie of Legnica. The marriage cemented the alliance of the Silesian Piasts and the Hohenzollerns concluded on October 18, 1537 in Legnica with the betrothal of the princely children. 

The two brides, Sophie (granddaughter of Sophia Jagiellon, Margravine of Brandenburg-Ansbach) and Barbara (granddaughter of Barbara Jagiellon, Duchess of Saxony), and the incumbent Electress of Brandenburg - Hedwig Jagiellon (1513-1573) were related. Hedwig was the second wife of Joachim II Hector and they had six children - their first son, Sigismund (1538-1566), future Bishop of Magdeburg and Halberstadt, was named after Hedwig's father. After Joachim II introduced the evangelical faith in the electorate, the electress continued to be Catholic. 

At the beginning of 1551 (according to other sources in autumn of 1549), Joachim II and Hedwig traveled to the forest of Schorfheide near Berlin for a boar hunt. The electoral couple lived at Grimnitz hunting lodge. On January 7, 1551, when they went for a walk on the upper floor in the morning, the rotten floor collapsed beneath them and Hedwig fell into the room below. She allegedly refused medical treatment out of modesty. Although the electress recovered, her pelvis, feet and hips were so badly injured that she had to use crutches for the rest of her life. 

Joachim, who hung between two beams, on which he leaned with his hands and arms, was saved from falling by a servant. He became disgusted with his crippled wife, and he took concubines. The electress reconciled with her husband nine years later, in 1560, when the celebration of the silver wedding coincided with the marriage of their second daughter, Hedwig (1540-1602), to Julius of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1528-1589), stepson of Sophia Jagiellon (1522-1575), Duchess of Brunswick.

Instead of Christian compassion, mean people were spreading rumors about God's punishment, because the electress was Catholic and foreigner, not speaking German (at least at the beginning). The elector's younger brother, Margrave Hans von Küstrin (1513-1571), a staunch Lutheran, even claimed that this terrible accident happened after two images of the Virgin Mary made of gold or silver from the Treasury of Berlin Cathedral (possibly Ruthenian or Byzantine icons of the Virgin Hodegetria) were brought to Hedwig and she and her court ladies fell down with the images. He described the accident in a letter to Andrzej I Górka (1500-1551), castellan of Poznań, which was in the Archives of the Prussian Royal Family in Berlin (after "Jagiellonki polskie w XVI wieku", Volume 3, p. 282). He also added that "the floor was not rotten or damaged anywhere, not even where it had collapsed" and that "two or three days before the accident, a great light appeared in the sky above the Grimnitz house" (Es ist aber sonsten der Boden an diesem gebew an keinem ort verstockt, verfault und schadhafft gewesen, auch an den enden nicht do er eingangen. Item ein zwen oder drey tage zuvor, ehe denn diese Ding gescheen, bey der nacht, hatt sich ueber dem hause Grimnitz, so weit sich allein desselben Vmbkreiss erstreckt, ein grosser luchter glanz um Himmell erhoben). 

According to other legend, it was not an accident but an attempt on the life of the elector prepared by Hedwig's lover, a Polish nobleman, guest of the princely couple. He had maliciously sawed the floorboards in order to eliminate his rival. Seized with remorse after an unexpected result of his action, he becomes a hermit (after "Allgemeine Encyklopädie der Wissenschaften und Künste" from 1871, Volume 1, Issue 91, p. 352). 

In Grimnitz, Joachim II met the beautiful wife of the gun and bell foundry master, who was therefore known as the "beautiful foundrywoman" (Die Schöne Gießerin), Anna Dieterich née Sydow, and made her his mistress. Her husband, Michael Dieterich, who died in 1561, was the last manager of the electoral foundry in Grimnitz. Anna Sydow lived for many years in the Grunewald hunting lodge, which Joachim built in 1542-1543, and bore him two children. The affair with her allegedly started after the accident, although there is no clear evidence for this, so they could meet much earlier.

Very little is known about Hedwig's life. As a Polish-Lithuanian, woman and Catholic she was not highly esteemed in Brandenburg's historiography. She accompanied her husband to the Imperial Diets - in 1541 in Regensburg, and in 1547 in Augsburg. She corresponded with her half-sister Isabella, Queen of Hungary and her half-brother Sigismund Augustus. In a letter dated Warsaw, September 17, 1571 (today at the Wawel Royal Castle), written in ink with particles of gold, Sigismund Augustus called her the "Infanta of the Kingdom of Poland, Marchioness of Brandenburg" (Illvstrissimæ Principi dominæ Heduigi, Dei gratia Infanti Regni Poloniæ Marchionisæ Brandemburgensi ...). In her last known portrait she is very obese, little more than her husband, probably because of the difficulty in walking. It was created in 1562 by Italian painter Giovanni Battista Perini (Parine) as a counterpart to the portrait of Joachim II (Berlin City Museum, VII 60/642x), however, it is known from a later copy made in 1620 by Heinrich Bollandt (Berlin Palace, Berliner Schloss, oil on panel, 103 x 76 cm, inv. GK I 1088, inscription: V G G / Hedewig aus Königklichen Stamb Polen ...), which was lost during World War II.

As for the brides of the 1545 double wedding, Sophie of Legnica died a few days after the birth of her son Joachim Frederick (1546-1608), his father's successor as Elector of Brandenburg. Barbara become the Duchess of Brzeg in 1547. She bore her husband seven children, five daughters ad two sons, and when George II died in 1586, after forty-one years of marriage, he left the Duchy of Brzeg to his wife as her dower with the full sovereignty over this land until her own death. 

George II's fascination with the Italianate court of the Jagiellons is reflected in the architecture of the "Silesian Wawel" - the Piast Castle in Brzeg. Arcaded courtyard of the castle was built between 1547 and 1560 by Giovanni Battista de Pario and his son Francesco, while the main gate was adorned with effigies of Silesian Piasts. Sculptors Andreas Walther and Jakob Warter created busts of George II's ancestors and the coat of arms of the Kingdom of Poland that crown the gate - although George II was a vassal of the Habsburgs, he opposed their absolutist policy in Silesia. They also carved the full-length effigies of the Duke and his wife above the portal (1551-1553). The tapestries that George and Barbara commissioned between 1567 and 1586 resemble the famous Jagiellonian tapestries (Wawel Arrases) and indicate that in the field of arts and patronage almost everything in Brzeg was like in Kraków.

In the Grunewald hunting lodge in Berlin there is a large painting by workshop Lucas Cranach the Elder or Lucas Cranach the Younger, depicting the Judgment of Paris (oil on panel, 209.5 x 107.2 cm, GK I 1185). It is similar to allegorical portraits of Dukes of Legnica-Brzeg, Ziębice-Oleśnica and Lubin in the scene of the Judgement of Paris from the 1520s, identified by me, however, it was created much later - dated variably between 1540-1545. The painting is one of four panels, which belonged to Elector Joachim II and were in 1793 in the Berlin Palace. 

The woman in the center of the composition is the goddess Venus, the most beautiful of the goddesses that Paris will judge. She looks at the viewer. This is undoubtedly a "disguised portrait" of a woman, who, most likely, commissioned this painting. She knows perfectly well who will win this contest, however, she puts her hand on the armour of a man portrayed as Paris as if to say stop, you should follow your heart and choose someone else. The old man behind her represents Mercury, a messenger of the gods. He raises his staff with which he strikes Paris on the chest, warning him of female seduction with a loud cry and urging him to make a careful decision. Cupid, god of affection and desire, points his arrow at the young woman near Mercury. Venus in this painting has the features of Electress Hedwig Jagiellon, as in the painting by Hans Krell in the same collection or in many paintings by Lucas Cranach the Elder and his workshop. Consequently Mercury is Duke Frederick II of Legnica-Brzeg, who in earlier painings was depicted as Paris, the second goddess is his daughter Sophie of Legnica and Paris is her husband John George of Brandenburg - his features match his effigy by Lucas Cranach the Younger in Dresden (Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, inventory number 1949). The third goddess is Barbara of Brandenburg, John George's sister and future Duchess of Brzeg. This painting is therefore a commemoration of the double marriage and alliance with the Piasts of Silesia.

Similar Judgement of Paris by follower of Lucas Cranach the Elder was also in Berlin (oil on panel, 50.5 x 34 cm, private collection before 2009), however, only Hedwig is identifiable on the right. Other people are different. Paris looks at Venus-Hedwig and another woman holds her hand on his arm and points to his heart, while Cupid points his arrow to her heart. So this is most likely Hedwig's husband Elector Joachim II and his new mistress and the painting was commissioned to sanction this new relationship. The third woman in the scene is most likely Sophie of Legnica, as a very similar effigy can be seen in another large panel from the mentioned series from the Berlin Palace. She is holding the shoes of Bathsheba in the scene of Bathsheba at the bath (oil on panel, 208 x 106 cm, GK I 1186), similar to the painting by Cranach from 1526, most likely from Hedwig's dowry, depicting her father Sigismund I, his wife Bona and mistress Katarzyna Telniczanka in the same scene (Gemäldegalerie in Berlin). Bathsheba could be therefore a portrait of Joachim's mistress - Anna Sydow, while he was portrayed as the biblical King David. 

Barbara of Brandenburg was also depicted in other painting by Cranach. Lucretia from the collection of Hans Grisebach in Berlin, attributed to Lucas Cranach the Elder or his son Cranach the Younger, has her features, similar to the painting from the Berlin Palace and her statue from the Brzeg Castle. It was inspired by the iconic image of Bona Sforza, Queen of Poland created a decade earlier, which was praised by Andrzej Krzycki (1482-1537), Archbishop of Gniezno in his epigram "On Lucretia depicted more lasciviously" (In Lucretiam lascivius depictam). Also in the field of portraiture, the dukes of Legnica-Brzeg inspired strongly by the Polish royal court. Protestantism opposed such "lasciviousness", so most likely in the second half of the 16th century, as the style indicates, she was dressed. This overpaint (dress) was removed after 1974.

​Judgment of Paris with portraits of Hedwig Jagiellon (1513-1573), Sophie of Legnica (1525-1546), Barbara of Brandenburg (1527-1595), Frederick II of Legnica-Brzeg (1480-1547) and John George of Brandenburg (1525-1598) by workshop Lucas Cranach the Elder or Lucas Cranach the Younger, ca. 1545, Grunewald hunting lodge. 

​Judgment of Paris with portraits of Hedwig Jagiellon (1513-1573) and members of her family by follower of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1545-1550, Private collection. 

​Bathsheba at the bath with portraits of Sophie of Legnica (1525-1546), Joachim II Hector (1505-1571) and, most probably, Anna Sydow by workshop Lucas Cranach the Elder or Lucas Cranach the Younger, ca. 1545-1550, Grunewald hunting lodge. 

​Portrait of Barbara of Brandenburg (1527-1595), Duchess of Brzeg as Lucretia by workshop Lucas Cranach the Elder or Lucas Cranach the Younger, ca. 1545-1550, Private collection.

​Portrait of Electress Hedwig Jagiellon (1513-1573) by Heinrich Bollandt after Giovanni Battista Perini, 1620 after original from 1562, Berlin Palace, lost during World War II. Virtual reconstruction, © Marcin Latka

Portrait of Stanisław Orzechowski by Giovanni Cariani

"My homeland is Ruthenia, located on the Tyras River, which the inhabitants of the coastal area call the Dniester, at the foot of the Carpathian Mountains, the range of which separates Sarmatia from Hungary", begins his autobiography Stanisław Orzechowski or Stanislaus Orichovius (1513-1566), a nobleman of Oksza coat of arms. He wrote these words in 1564 at the request of Giovanni Francesco Commendone (1523-1584), Venetian bishop and papal legate to Poland (letter of December 10, 1564 from Radymno). In a letter of August 15, 1549 from Przemyśl (Datae Premisliae, oppido Russiae, die Assumptionis beatae Virginis, anno Christi Dei nostri 1549) to Paolo Ramusio (Paulus Rhamnusius), secretary of the Council of Ten in Venice, he adds that "my country, harsh and uncouth, which has always worshiped Mars, but has only recently begun to worship Minerva. For Ruthenia previously did not differ much in lineage and customs from the Scythians with whom it borders, however, having relations with the Greeks, from whom it adopted the confession and faith, it abandoned its Scythian harshness and savagery, and now it is gentle, calm and fertile, it is very fond of Latin and Greek literature" (after "Orichoviana ..." by Józef Korzeniowski, Volume 1, pp. 281, 587).

Educated at the universities of Kraków (1526), Vienna (1527), Wittenberg (1529), Padua (1532), Bologna (1540) and continuing his studies in Rome and Venice, Orzechowski was a typical representative of Polish-Lithuanian diversity. He was born on November 11, 1513, in Przemyśl or nearby Orzechowce. Stanisław was very proud of his Ruthenian origins and described himself as gente Roxolani, natione vero Poloni (of Ruthenian/Roxolanian origin, Polish nationality), however, he wrote mainly in Latin. On July 5, 1525, at the age of 12, he was ordained a Catholic priest and became a canon of Przemyśl.

In 1543, shortly after return to Poland, he was excommunicated by Bishop Stanisław Tarło for having many incompatible benefices and for his absence at the diocesan synod. A few years later, in 1547, the new bishop of Przemyśl, Jan Dziaduski, accused Orzechowski, who had offspring with his concubine Anna Zaparcianka (Anuchna z Brzozowa), of maintaining a scandalous life. In 1550 Stanisław arranged a wedding for a Catholic priest Marcin Krowicki and Magdalena Pobiedzińska in Urzejowice. A year later, in 1551, he himself married in Lścin with a 16-year-old noblewoman, Magdalena Chełmska, for which Bishop Dziaduski excommunicated Orzechowski. 

He corresponded frequently with King Sigismund Augusus, Nicolaus "the Black" Radziwill, Jan Amor Tarnowski and his son Jan Krzysztof, Piotr Kmita, Jakub Uchański and wrote letters to Cardinal Alessandro Farnese (letters dated May 1, 1549 and January 15, 1566 from Przemyśl), Pope Julius III (letter dated May 11, 1551 from Przemyśl) and King Ferdinand (letter dated September 7, 1553 from Kraków).

Orzechowski's speech at the funeral of King Sigismund I was published in Kraków in 1548 (Funebris oratio: habita a Stanislao Orichovio ...) and then in the same year in Venice with coat of arms of Queen Bona Sforza on the title page (Stanilai Orichouii Rhuteni Ornata et copiosa oratio ...), printed by Paolo Ramusio and republished in 1559 also in Venice, in the collection Orationes clarorum virorum. In a letter from Venice of 1548, Ramusio asked Orzechowski to send him his other works through Bona's secretary, Vitto Paschalis (Reverendi Domini Vitti Paschalis Serenissimae Reginae Bonae a secretis).

No effigy of Orzechowski made during his lifetime is known. The portrait published in Starożytności Galicyjskie in Lviv in 1840 (lithography by Teofil Żychowicz) depicts a man in mid-17th century costume, thus almost a century after his death (1566).

In 2022 a portrait of a bearded man holding his right hand on a helmet and left hand on a sword, attributed to circle of Titian, was sold in Paris (oil on canvas, 94 x 75 cm, Hotel Drouot, June 17, 2022, lot 18). The painting comes from the collection of Achille Chiesa in Milan (sold at American Art Galleries in New York, 22-23 November 1927, lot 117, as Portrait of a Warrior) and already in 1927 it was not in a very good state of preservation. At the top right-hand corner is the name of the personage the portrait represents, but unfortunately no longer legible. His face was slightly altered during the restoration, however, the style of the portrait, particularly the way the hands were painted, allows the painting to be attributed to Giovanni Cariani (d. 1547), also known as Giovanni Busi or Il Cariani, active in Venice and Bergamo near Milan. According to the Latin dates visible on some old reproductions, the man was 32 years old in 1545 (ÆTAT SVÆ ANNO / XXXII / MD.XLV), exactly like Stanisław Orzechowski, who a year earlier, in 1544, published in Kraków his two important works - the "Baptism of the Ruthenians. Bull on not rebaptizing Ruthenians" (Baptismus Ruthenorum. Bulla de non rebaptisandis Ruthenis) and Ad Sigismundum Poloniae Regem Turcica Secunda calling for solidarity from Christian Europe against the Ottoman Empire.

In 1545, Orzechowski was accused of beating to death a subject of bishop Dziaduski from Przysieczna and the nobleman in the painting has a pose as if ready to defend himself by any means. His helmet, although generally resembling some Renaissance burgonets, is very unusual, and the closest analogy can be found with the helmets discovered in Scythian burial mounds (compare "The Scythians 700–300 BC" by E.V. Cernenko). The man holds it because it was probably found near his place of origin, it is therefore a precious memento of the ancient inhabitants of this land and an important symbol.

​Portrait of Stanisław Orzechowski (1513-1566), aged 32 by Giovanni Cariani, 1545, Private collection.

Portrait of Stanisław Karnkowski by Jacopo Tintoretto

Stanisław Karnkowski of Junosza coat of arms was born on May 10, 1520 in Karnkowo near Włocławek, as a son of Tadeusz vel Dadźbog, heir of Karnków and Elżbieta Olszewska from Kanigów. As a young man, he left his family home and went to his uncle, the bishop of Włocławek, Jan Karnkowski (1472-1537). It was him who owes Karnkowski his early education. 

In 1539 he began studies at the Kraków Academy. After graduating, in 1545, he went to Italy for further education - first to Perugia, and then to Padua, where he completed his studies with a doctorate utriusque iuris. He also studied in Wittenberg, where he became acquainted with the teachings of Luther. After returning from studies in 1550, he became the secretary of the bishop of Chełmno and then of Jan Drohojowski, bishop of Włocławek. In 1555 he became the secretary of King Sigismund Augustus, from 1558 he was the Grand Referendary of the Crown and in 1563 he became the Grand Secretary, and later Bishop of Kuyavia from 1567, Archbishop of Gniezno and Primate of Poland from 1581. He served as regent of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (Interrex) in 1586-1587, after death of king Stephen Bathory.

Karnkowski amassed one of the wealthiest Polish libraries in the late 16th and early 17th century, comprising according to some estimates 322 books, some of which he acquired during his studies abroad, like Consilia Ludouici Romani by Lodovico Pontano, published in 1545 (Archdiocese Archives in Gniezno). 

The portrait of young man in a black costume buttoned to a high collar and holding his right forearm on a column-base, was first recorded in the Great Cabinet at Kensington Palace in 1720 as Titian. It is now thought to be Tintoretto's earliest dated work. According to inscription in Latin on a column-base the man was 25 years old in 1545 (AN XXV / 1545), exactly as Stanisław Karnkowski, when he began his studies in Italy. He resemble greatly Karnkowski from his portrait when bishop of Włocławek, created between 1567-1570 by unknown painter (Higher Seminary in Włocławek), and as Primate of Poland in green cassock (Archbishop's Palace in Gniezno), painted in 1600 by Monogrammist I.S.

​In private collection in Switzerland, there is reduced copy of this effigy also attributed to Jacopo Tintoretto.

Portrait of Stanisław Karnkowski (1520-1603), aged 25 by Jacopo Tintoretto, 1545, Kensington Palace.

Portrait of Stanisław Karnkowski (1520-1603), aged 25 by Jacopo Tintoretto, ca. 1545, Private collection.

Portraits of Stanisław Spytek Tarnowski by Tintoretto

"Stanislaus Count of Tarnów, a man of the most perfect gifts of mind, body and fortune, born in the first noble family, having traveled through Hungary, Moesia, Macedonia, Greece, Syria, Judea, Arabia, Egypt, Italy, and Germany as a youth, and having received the insignia of the holy service from the Pontiff and the Emperor and the excellent honors from Christian and Turkish princes, he returned home and he was decorated with the highest honors by King Sigismund" (Stanislao Comiti a Tarnow viri animi corporis et fortunae dotibus absolutissimo, qui primaria ortus familia, adolescens Hungaria, Moesia, Macedonia, Graecia, Syria, Judaea, Arabia, Aegypto, Italia, Germania peragratis, ac utriusque sanctae militiae insignis a Pontifice et Imperatore acceptis praeclarisque honorariis Principibus tam Christianis quam Turcicis onustus domum rediens, a rego Sigismundo summis honoribus est exornatus) is a fragment of a Latin inscription, which was in the upper part of the tomb monument of Stanisław Spytek Tarnowski (1514-1568), voivode of Sandomierz in the church in Chroberz between Kraków and Kielce. 

This magnificent monument, considered one of the best in Poland, was founded in 1569 by Stanisław's wife, Barbara Drzewicka (Barbara de Drzewicza), niece of primate Maciej Drzewicki (1467-1535). The inscription in lower part commemorates the foundation and informs that Stanisław lived 53 years and nearly seven months and died in the castle in Krzeszów nad Sanem on April 6, 1568, third hour of the following night (Vixit annos LIII menses fere septem obyt in arce Krzessow [...] MDLXVIII sexta aprilis hora tertia noctis seqventis). The deceased was portrayed in the fashionable "Sansovino pose", sleeping above the sarcophagus in richly decorated renaissance armour. 

Behind the figure of the voivode, the center of the arcade is filled with a cartouche with his coats of arms including the cross of the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre and the attributes of Saint Catherine of Alexandria, commemorating his pilgrimage to the Holy Land and Saint Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai. On both sides of the arcade there are panoplies (armours, breatplates, helmets, pistols, lances, kettledrums), and above them niches with sculptures of St. Michael the Archangel and Samson tearing the lion's mouth. The latter statue is the most unusual among many sculptures in this monument and it is also identified with Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, captain of King David's guard, who supported Solomon and became commander of his army (after "Nagrobki w Chrobrzu ..." by Witold Kieszkowski, p. 123). His Roman costume with anatomical armour (lorica musculata) of a centurion, also make him close to Hercules slaying the Nemean lion. The monument is attributed to the most eminent sculptor of the Polish Renaissance - Jan Michałowicz of Urzędów or his workshop.

Stanisław was a son of Jan Spytek Tarnowski and Barbara Szydłowiecka, niece of Krzysztof, Great Chancellor of the Crown. In the 1530s, perhaps together with his father, he undertook a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. In 1537, he was appointed the Sword-bearer of the Crown, starost of Sieradz and the castellan of Zawichost in 1547. He became the Great Treasurer of the Crown in 1555 and in 1561 voivode of Sandomierz. Before 1538 he married Barbara and they have seven children - six daughters and one son. 

Around 1552, he bought Chroberz and Kozubów for 70,000 florins from the Tęczyński family and founded the church in Chroberz. The rich medieval castles of Chroberz and Krzeszów, which he undoubtedly rebuilt in Renaissance style, like all similar magnates of the time, were both destroyed.

In 2017, during the 7th Beijing International Art Biennale at the National Art Museum of China, a "Commander in ancient armour" by Jacopo Tintoretto (oil on canvas, 220 x 120 cm) from a private collection was exhibited. Earlier, in 2015, it was also part of the "Images of a Genius. The Face of Leonardo" exhibition at Huashan Creative Park in Taipei, Taiwan. At that time the arrangement of his left foot was modified by the restorers. The man wears rich Roman-style armour, the heroic anatomical cuirass, designed to mimic an idealized male human physique, and caligae sandals. His golden cassis helmet is decorated with rich reliefs. His sword however is not a typical gladius of a Roman soldier, it is more of an oriental saber, so he is more of an Eastern warrior, like the Sarmatians, the legendary invaders of Slavic lands in antiquity and the alleged ancestors of nobles of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. This portrait is dated 1545 in the catalogues and according to the Latin inscription the model was 31 years old when it was painted (ÆTATIS SVÆ / AÑ XXXI), exactly like Stanisław Spytek Tarnowski, who according to some sources was born in October 1514 (after "Hetman Jan Tarnowski ..." by Włodzimierz Dworzaczek, p. 375). As a pilgrim to the Holy Land, like many other pilgrims from Poland-Lithuania, he undoubtedly embarked on a ship in Venice. It is possible that he visited the city in 1545, but it is more likely that he commissioned his portrait in the Republic of Venice based on study drawings sent from Poland. 

The same man was also depicted in another portrait by Tintoretto, bust-length, in a black coat lined with fur (oil on canvas, 50.2 x 35 cm). It was sold in 2002 (Christie's New York, January 25, 2002, lot 27) and comes from the collection of Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski (1770-1861) in Paris. The collections of the Czartoryski family, dispersed after the insurrection of 1830, were secretly taken to Paris, where Adam's wife, Zofia Anna Sapieha, purchased the Hôtel Lambert in 1843. 

​He also figures in another portrait by Tintoretto, now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (oil on canvas, 73 x 65 cm, GG 11). This painting is dated around 1547/1548 and is identifiable in the Imperial collection in Vienna in 1816. After the Partitions of Poland (1772-1795), when Vienna became the new capital for nobles in southern Poland, many moved their art collections there. It is also possible that the portrait was sent to Vienna already in the 16th century - in 1547 Stanisław Spytek become the castellan of Zawichost near Sandomierz and his relative, Jan Amor Tarnowski (1488-1561), obtained from the emperor the title of count related to the possession in southern Poland.

Despite huge losses to Polish art collections due to wars, invasions and the subsequent impoverishment of the country, some works by Venetian painters, including Tintoretto, survived destruction, confiscations and evacuations. One such painting is Narcissus by Tintoretto from around 1560, acquired in 2017 by the National Museum in Wrocław from a private collector. In the 19th century it was a property of Otto Hausner (1827-1890) in Lviv. Although the Galician art collector could acquire this painting during his travels in Western Europe and especially in Italy, he more likely bought it in Poland or Ukraine. Lviv, capital of the Ruthenian Voivodeship, was an important economic center of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, with significant Italian influences and community, and wealthy nobles and patricians frequently commissioned and purchased such paintings from abroad.

When it comes to portraiture, secular art and European Old Masters, many art historians want to see pre-19th century Poland as an artistic desert, but surviving inventories and other documents from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries prove that this was not the case.

​Portrait of Stanisław Spytek Tarnowski (1514-1568), aged 31, in ancient armour by Tintoretto, 1545, Private collection.

​Portrait of Stanisław Spytek Tarnowski (1514-1568) from the Czartoryski collection by Tintoretto, ca. 1545, Private collection.

​Portrait of Stanisław Spytek Tarnowski (1514-1568) by Tintoretto, 1547/1548, Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

​Narcissus from Hausner collection in Lviv by Tintoretto, ca. 1560, National Museum in Wrocław.

Portraits of Erazm Kretkowski by Lucas Cranach the Younger and Giovanni Cariani 

"Here lies Kretkowski, where fate has led you, When you explored all the lands and all the seas around you, Without tiring your limbs with toil, You traversed the swift Ganges and the icy waves of Borysthenes [Dniester River], The Tagus and the Rhine, the two-armed Istria And the seven twin gates of the Nile. Now you will see the great Olympus And the ethereal houses, where, mingled with the gods, you laugh At the cares and hopes and lamentations of men" (HIC TE CRETCOVI MORS ET TVA FATA MANEBANT / CVM TERRAS OMNES ET CVM MARIA OMNIA CIRCVM / LVSTRARES NVLLO DEFESSVS MEMBRA LABORE / TE RAPIDVS GANGES GELIDÆQ. BORISTENSIS VNDÆ / TE TAGVS ET RHÆNVS TE RIPA BINOMINIS ISTRI / ET SEPTAGEMINI NOVERVNT OSTIA NILI / NVNC CONCESSISTI MAGNVM VISVRVS OLYMPVM / ÆTHEREASQ. DOMOS VBI DIIS IMMISTVS INANES / ET CVRAS ET SPES HOMINVM LAMENTAQ. RIDES.), reads the so-called Epitaphium Cretcovii in the Basilica of St. Anthony in Padua - Latin epitaph written by poet Jan Kochanowski and dedicated to Erazm Kretkowski (1508-1558). It is one of the first known poetic texts of the poet who, in the spring of 1558, traveled for the third time to Italy.

Kretkowski, castellan of Gniezno, died in Padua in the Republic of Venice on May 16, 1558 at the age of 50, according to the first part of the inscription on his epitaph (ANN. ÆTAT. SVÆ QVINQVAG. OBIIT PATAV. DIE MAII XVI M D L VIII), at the beginning of another longer journey. His beautiful epitaph with bronze bust was probably made by Francesco Segala (ca. 1535-1592), a sculptor active in Venice and Padua, who served the court of Guglielmo Gonzaga in Mantua, or Agostino Zoppo (d. 1572), active in Padua and Venice. It was created before 1560 and probably founded by his cousin, Jerzy Rokitnicki. His bust depicts a relatively young man, around 30 or 40 years old, so it was based on an earlier effigy, miniature, drawing, portrait or less likely a statue also by a Venetian artist, for in 1538, at the age 30 years old, Kretkowski was a Polish-Lithuanian envoy to the Ottoman Empire and he undoubtedly visited Venice. In 1538 he also became castellan of Brześć Kujawski and his hairstyle is typical of the late 1530s - e.g. portrait of a young groom from the Rava family by Lucas Cranach the Elder, dated '1539' (Museu de Arte de São Paulo).

Besides being a traveler and an explorer, as mentioned in his epitaph, Erazm, son of Mikołaj Kretkowski, voivode of Inowrocław, and Anna Pampowska, daughter of Ambroży, voivode of Sieradz, was like his father a courtier at the royal court of Sigismund I and Bona Sforza. In 1534 he was engaged to Queen Bona's lady-in-waiting, Zuzanna Myszkowska, daughter of Marcin, castellan of Wieluń. However, the prenuptial agreement was broken by the bride's parents and Kretkowski remained unmarried until the end of his life. Thanks to the support of Queen Bona, Kretkowski received lucrative offices and dignities from the king. In 1545 he was nominated for the voivode of Brześć Kujawski, however, this nomination was annulled, and from 1546 he was the starost of Pyzdry. He was the superior of Greater Poland customs (1547) and from 1551 he held the office of castellan of Gniezno. Soon, however, Kretkowski found himself in opposition to Queen Bona, because with a group of magnates he supported the marriage of the young king Sigismund Augustus with his mistress Barbara Radziwill (after "Pomnik Erazma Kretkowskiego ..." by Jerzy Kowalczyk, p. 56). In 1551 he was one of the commissioners for the Congress of Głogów to meet the commissioners of King Ferdinand of Austria and in 1555, together with Jan Drohojowski, Bishop of Włocławek, he was sent to Henry V, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, regarding his marriage to Princess Sophia Jagiellon. He therefore had good relations and connections in Germany. It is not known exactly when he visited India, Egypt or Istria in the Venetian Republic, however, he must have started his journey by boarding a ship in Venice.

In the National Museum in Warsaw there is a portrait of a bearded man in a grey-black coat, attributed to Lucas Cranach the Younger (oil on panel, 64.5 x 49 cm, M.Ob.836). It comes from the collection of Carl Daniel Friedrich Bach (1756-1829), a German painter, draftsman and art teacher, who bequeathed the painting to the Silesian Society for Patriotic Culture in Wrocław. After 1945 the painting was moved to Warsaw from the Nazi German Art Repository in Kamenz (Kamieniec Ząbkowicki) and earlier it was in the Silesian Museum of Fine Arts in Wrocław (inventory number 1284). It is not known where and how Bach acquired the painting, but from 1780 he was a painter in the service of Count Józef Maksymilian Ossoliński, a wealthy landowner, politician and historian, in Warsaw. In 1784 he accompanied Count Jan Potocki, an explorer, historian, novelist and diplomat, on his journey to the Netherlands, France and Italy and between 1786-1792, at Potocki's expense, he studied, initially in Rome and later in Portici. He stayed in Paris, Venice, Vienna and Berlin. 

According to the Latin inscription in the upper left corner of the painting, the man in the portrait was 38 years old in 1546, when the painting was created (1546 / ANNO ÆTATIS SVÆ. XXXVIII), exactly like Kretkowski when he became the starost of Pyzdry. He celebrated important events in his life with portraiture, as evidenced by the prototype of his bronze bust. However, in such a portrait for private use or for his family or close friends, he does not need to recall that he was a nobleman of the Dołęga coat of arms and starost of Pyzdry, as in the epitaph for the general public. The reminder of the date of creation and his age was sufficient. The man in the portrait closely resembles the features depicted in his bust. A study drawing to this or another portrait of the starost of Pyzdry is in the Museum of Fine Arts in Reims (distemper on paper, 36.5 x 24.7 cm, 795.1.276). It was acquired in 1752 by the City of Reims, together with a set of other study drawings by Cranach and his studio, including the effigy of Philip I, Duke of Pomerania from around 1541 (795.1.266). The man has the same expression on his lips, although his beard is shorter. 

The same man, with a longer beard and wearing a black cap was depicted in another painting, which was sold in 2012 in Boston (oil on canvas, 75.5 x 63.5 cm, sold at Bonhams Skinner, May 18, 2012, lot 202), as by Italian school. The painting was purchased from Harris & Holt Antiques, West Yorkshire in England and was previously attributed to Titian or his circle. The style of the painting is closest to that of Giovanni Busi il Cariani, who died in Venice in 1547.

The man wears a similar grey-black coat, as in painting by Cranach, but in this version it is lined with expensive fur. Although it is likely that Kretkowski visited both workshops, in Wittenberg and Venice, it is more likely that, like Queen Bona, he was painted by a member of the workshop sent to Poland to prepare study drawings.

​Preparatory drawing for a portrait of Erazm Kretkowski (1508-1558), starost of Pyzdry by Lucas Cranach the Younger or workshop, ca. 1546, Museum of Fine Arts in Reims.

​Portrait of Erazm Kretkowski (1508-1558), starost of Pyzdry, aged 38 by Lucas Cranach the Younger, 1546, National Museum in Warsaw.

​Portrait of Erazm Kretkowski (1508-1558), starost of Pyzdry by Giovanni Cariani, ca. 1546, Private collection.

​Bronze bust of Erazm Kretkowski (1508-1558), castellan of Gniezno by Francesco Segala, before 1560, Basilica of Saint Anthony of Padua.

The Crucifixion from the high altar of Wawel Cathedral by Pietro degli Ingannati

​Based on a thorough analysis of the style, historical and cultural context, researcher Paweł Pencakowski attributed the painting on the main altar of Wawel Cathedral, now in Bodzentyn (oil on panel, 520 x 270 cm), to the Venetian painter Pietro degli Ingannati, who was active from the early 1520s and whose last known dated work was created in 1548. However, Ingannati's presence in Sarmatia is not confirmed in the sources, as are all the other works he created for clients from Poland-Lithuania-Ruthenia. The painting was believed to have been created by a Venetian painter active at the court of Kraków, but the royal accounts mention the payments sent to Venice for its creation.

The initiator of the new altar in Wawel Cathedral, replacing the old one with medieval forms, was probably Samuel Maciejowski (1499-1550), who became Bishop of Kraków in April 1546. In 1547 he also received the great seal of the Chancellor of the Crown. Maciejowski, who began his career in 1518 as a notary to King Sigismund I and studied between 1522 and 1530 in Padua and Bologna, probably suggested this new foundation to the almost eighty-year-old king. The new bishop was a humanist, well-versed in Latin and Greek. On his initiative, a residence was built in Prądnik Biały (now part of Kraków) in 1547, where he gathered scientists and poets. Considered an opponent of Queen Bona and her courtiers, he gathered around him prominent figures of the time such as Stanisław Orzechowski, Benedykt Koźmińczyk, Łukasz Górnicki, the Spaniard Pedro Ruiz de Moros, and the Englishman Philip. Bishop Maciejowski spoke out in favor of the validity of the secret marriage of Sigismund Augustus, Bona's son, with his mistress Barbara Radziwill.

The high altar (12.3 x 6.15 m) was probably designed by Giovanni Cini (d. 1565), a Sienese sculptor, who is also most likely the author of the structure's intricate floral decorations. The authorship of the sculptures, including two statues of Saints Stanislaus the Bishop and Wenceslaus (150 cm high), is attributed to the workshop of the Venetian sculptor Giovanni Maria Mosca, known as Padovano. The statues could also have been imported from abroad or executed by a sculptor trained in Germany (compare "Renesansowy ołtarz główny Bodzentynie", p. 108-109, 112-118, 139-141, 149). In the upper part, the coat of arms of King Sigismund I - a white eagle with the monogram S on its chest - was placed (on the left) accompanied by the coat of arms of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (on the right), later replaced by the coat of arms of Nałęcz of Bishop Piotr Gembicki (1585-1657).

In July 1546, Stanisław Świątnicki, servant of the chapter dean Stanisław Borek, received 200 florins from the king for the construction of the cathedral altar, a sum he was to transfer to his lord. Shortly thereafter, a painting for the altar was also commissioned. Sigismund I asked his wife, Queen Bona Sforza, to commission a suitable painting for the new altarpiece through her agents in Venice. On August 9, Queen Bona received from the royal court treasury the sum of 159 florins, previously transferred to Venice by her agent, for paintings for the cathedral (In manus S. Reginalis Mtis pro imaginibus ad eccl. Cathedralem Crac. fl. 159/7, quos factor S. M. Reginalis Veneciis exposuit). The surviving accounts also mention other payments for the altar, mainly to Stanisław Borek (1474-1556), dean of the Kraków chapter from 1540 and supervisor of the work. Borek studied in Kraków, Bologna, and Rome. He was secretary to King Sigismund I the Old, a diplomat, and an envoy in the service of Bona (he traveled several times to Italy, as well as to Emperor Charles V, in the matter of the Duchy of Bari). On December 17, 1546, 200 florins were transferred to the queen as payment for the painter Peter the Italian, who was not in Poland, as it was necessary to act through such high-ranking intermediaries (Petro Italo pictori in manus S. Reginalis Mtis a labore et pictura imaginum ad altare maius in eccl. cathedrali Crac. fl. 200). 

The painting representing "The Crucifixion" is signed and dated: PETRVS VENETVS 1547, which confirms that Peter the Venetian (the Latin Petrus Venetus can be considered a translation of the name: Pietro Veneziano or Pietro da Venezia) executed it in 1547. It was probably delivered to Kraków in the spring of 1547. The altar, however, probably remained unfinished before the coronation of Queen Barbara Radziwill (December 7, 1550). The composition of the painting is consistent with the Venetian school, with a vibrant and rich use of colors (blue, orange, green and pink). However, the scene, rather dense, does not strictly adhere to the canons of classical Italian painting. Although well painted, the painting cannot be considered a masterpiece. Ingannati, whose works were inspired by those of Giovanni Bellini, Francesco Bissolo, and Palma il Vecchio, was a painter of much smaller, finely painted compositions. The painter, probably aged nearly 60, was undoubtedly helped by assistants. It is not known why he was chosen as the author of the painting. Given my findings regarding the portraits of Queen Bona, it is particularly interesting why Titian, Giovanni Cariani or Bernardino Licinio, who were authors of large altarpieces, did not receive the commission. Bishop Maciejowski's hostile attitude toward the queen may shed light on this point. The queen likely chose less experienced and less eminent painter for this commission, so the bishop, in constant conflict with her and the chapter, was not credited with the splendid artwork commissioned for his main temple. Moreover, the painters may have been commissioned to work for other clients, such as Titian, summoned by the emperor to Augsburg in 1547.

This magnificent altar, crafted by Italian masters, served for nearly 100 years in Wawel Cathedral. In 1649, on the orders of Bishop Piotr Gembicki, it was dismantled and transported to the collegiate church in Kielce. Between 1726 and 1728, it was transferred to the church of St. Stanislaus in Bodzentyn, where it remains today. The painting by Pietro degli Ingannati is one of the oldest, largest and most important works of art commissioned in Venice that preserved in Poland.

​The Crucifixion from the high altar of Wawel Cathedral (between 1550 and 1649) by workshop of Pietro degli Ingannati, 1547, Church of St. Stanislaus in Bodzentyn.  

Portrait of Barbara Radziwill in a blue dress, known as La Bella by Titian

In May 1543 22-year-old king Sigismund Augustus married his 16-year-old cousin Elizabeth of Austria. During the entry into Kraków for her coronation, the lords and knights of the Kingdom were dressed in all sorts of costumes including Italian, French and Venetian. The young Queen died just two years later failing to produce an heir to the throne. Sigismund Augustus commissioned for her a magnificent marble tomb monument from Paduan sculptor trainded in Venice, Giovanni Maria Mosca called Padovano. The king was hoping that his mistress, Barbara Radziwill, whom he intended to marry, would give him a child. 

Portrait of a lady in a blue dress by Titian, known as La Bella is very similar to effigies of Barbara Radziwill, especially her portrait in Washington (National Gallery of Art, inv. 1939.1.230). The painting, now kept in the Pitti Palace, came to Florence in 1631 as part of the inheritance of Vittoria della Rovere (oil on canvas, 89 x 75.5 cm, inv. Palatina 18 / 1912). It is first mentioned in the della Rovere collection in the inventory of the Ducal Palace of Pesaro in 1623/24, where the painting appears without a frame. The gold buckles on her dress in the form of decorative bows, although painted less diligently, are almost identical. Her garments are epitome of the 16th century luxury - a dress of Venetian velvet dyed with costly indigo blue, embroidered with gold thread and lined with sables, of which Poland-Lithuania was one of the leading exporters at that time. She holds her thick gold chain and pointing at weasel pelt, a zibellino, also known as flea-fur or fur tippet, on her hand, a popular accessory for brides as a talisman for fertility. 

Contemporary bestiaries indicate that the female weasel conceived through the ear and gave birth through the mouth. "This 'miraculous' method of conception was thought to parallel the Annunciation of Christ, who was conceived when God's angel whispered into the ear of the Virgin Mary" (after "Sexy weasels in Renaissance art" by Chelsea Nichols). Inclusion of the zibellino represents the hope that the woman would be blessed with good fertility and bore many healthy children to her husband. This symbolism excludes the possibility that the portrait represents a Venetian courtesan ("woman wearing the blue dress"), secretly painted by Titian for Francesco Maria I della Rovere, Duke of Urbino, who was already married and had three daughters and two sons, in about 1535. 

As early as 1545 Pope Paul III wanted to marry his granddaughter Vittoria Farnese to widowed Sigismund Augustus, whom however wed in secret his mistress sometime between 1545 and 1547 (according to some sources they were married since 25 November 1545). Vittoria finally married on 29 June 1547, Guidobaldo II della Rovere, Duke of Urbino (son of Francesco Maria), who at this time was in the service of the Republic of Venice. It is highly probable that the Duke or Vittoria received a portrait of the royal mistress, which was later transferred to Florence. 

A copy of the portrait by Titan's workshop, most probably by Lambert Sustris, painted with cheaper pigments without highly expensive ultramarine, is a proof that as in case of portraits of Empress Isabella of Portugal the sitter was not in the painter's atelier and the portrait was one of a series. The painting come from a private collection in the United States (oil on canvas, laid on panel, 99 x 75 cm, Christie's in New York, Auction 19994, October 14, 2021, lot 73). There were also mistakes and inadequacies, her gold buckles were repleaced with simple red ribbons. Comparison with portraits of Empress Isabella confirms that Titian loved proportions and classical beauty. Just by making the eyes slightly bigger and more visible and harmonizing their features, he achieved what his clients expected of him, to be beautiful in their portraits, close to the gods from their Greek and Roman statues, it was renaissance. 

One of the oldest copies of "La Bella" comes from a German collection, stamped Staatliches Lindenau MUSEUM Altenburg on the back (oil on paper mounted on canvas, 37 x 29 cm, Le Floc'h in Paris, October 8, 2023, lot 8). This painting was sold with attribution to the "Venetian school circa 1600" and as by a "follower of Titian", however its style indicates a Flemish painter and it is close to the works of Gortzius Geldorp (1553-1618), who copied Titian's "Violante" (or "La Bella Gatta", Dorotheum in Vienna, April 19, 2016, lot 122, monogrammed top left: GG. F.), the original of which is now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (inv. GG 65). Geldorp also created portraits of Queen Constance of Austria (1588-1631) as Berenice (1605) and a portrait of Sigismund Charles Radziwill (1591-1642) in 1619, according to my identification. Since his stay in Pesaro is not confirmed, it can be assumed that he probably copied a painting from Titian's workshop from the collection of his patron Carlo d'Aragona Tagliavia (1530-1599), governor of Milan between 1583 and 1592, or a copy of this painting was commissioned from him from Poland-Lithuania around 1605.

The miniature by unknown miniaturist Krause, probably an amateur, from the late 18th or early 19th century in the Royal Castle in Warsaw, indicate that a version of the painting was also in Poland, possibly in the collection of king Stanislaus Augustus Poniatowski. 

The style of the model's costume and hairstyle is also very intriguing. It is difficult to find close similarities. The closest is the dress and hairstyle of a lady from a portrait attributed to Paris Bordone in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (inv. GG 16). The cut of the outfit is very similar as is the hairstyle inspired by ancient Roman and Greek statues. The Vienna painting is considered to belong to a later phase of Venetian painting and dated to around 1550. It is also worth noting great similarities with the costume and hairstyle of Lucrezia Panciatichi from her portrait by Bronzino (Uffizi Gallery in Florence, inv. 1890 n. 736), which is dated to around 1541-1545. Also comparable is the hairstyle of Barbara Radziwill from her portrait in the guise of the Roman goddess Flora by Bordone, now in the Hermitage Museum (inv. ГЭ-163), also identified by me.

Another striking fact about this costume and hairstyle is that a similar one can be seen in a painting by a German painter. It is attributed to a follower of Lucas Cranach the Elder and comes from a private collection in Germany (panel, 76 x 54 cm, Van Ham Art Auctions in Cologne, April 19-21, 2007, lot 1725). This "Italian woman" was depicted as the biblical heroine Saint Jael with her attributes, which is also confirmed by the inscription on the wall at the bottom right: IAEL. According to the Bible (Book of Judges), Jael, the wife of the Kenite Heber, killed an enemy of the people of Israel, the Canaanite general Sisera, with a tent peg and a hammer. Cranach's workshop copied the paintings of Italian painters, as evidenced by the portrait of the Venetian scholar and poet Pietro Bembo (1470-1547). The portrait of Bembo, wearing the habit of a Knight of Malta, was probably made before 1537 (he was made a cardinal in 1538). The resemblance of the poet to his other effigies is great, moreover the identity is confirmed by the inscription in the upper edge: PETRI BEMBI, the style is also clearly that of Cranach and confirmed by the artist's insignia above the model's left shoulder. Since the visit of the future cardinal to Cranach's workshop in Lutheran Wittenberg is very unlikely, the painter must have been inspired by other effigies of Bembo.

While Jael's costume is clearly Italian in style, the landscape behind her with its tall medieval towers is more northerly, typical not only for Germany, but also for Poland and Lithuania (although due to wartime destruction this is no longer so evident today) and generally for Central Europe.

One of the oldest and most beautiful representations of the biblical Jael in European painting is the portrait of the Jewish lady with the attributes of Jael, created around 1502 by the Venetian painter Bartolomeo Veneto, today in a private collection in Milan (cf. "Bartolomeo Veneto: l'opera completa" by Laura Pagnotta, p. 216). This painting was signed by the author on a small cartellino, while the inscription on the woman's gold bracelet reads SFO[R]ZA DE LA EBRA, that is, "Strength of the Jews". In this context, the portrait by a follower of Cranach could also portray an Italian Jewish woman, however this diversity - Italian costume, German painter and Jewish heroine - speaks more in favor of multicultural Poland-Lithuania-Ruthenia, as to the origin of the concept of this painting. Similar to Bartolomeo Veneto's work, this painting also has an important additional meaning, but unlike the work by the Venetian master, it lacks individuality and appears rather to be a copy of a lost original by Cranach. Considering all these facts, it is more likely that this painting was also part of the Jagiellonian propaganda, in this case intended to convince the Jewish community of Poland-Lithuania-Ruthenia and Europe, that Sigismund Augustus' beloved is a virtuous and courageous woman.

From 1545 the young king Sigismund Augustus spared no money for his mistress. Jewish and Florentine merchants Abraham Czech, Simone Lippi and Gaspare Gucci (or Guzzi) were delivering to the royal court enormous quantities of expensive fabrics and furs. Between 1544-1546, the young king emloyed many new jewelers at his court in Kraków and Vilnius, like Antonio Gatti from Venice, Vincenzo Palumbo (Vincentius Palumba), Bartolo Battista, Italian Christophorus, Giovanni Evangelista from Florence, Hannus (Hans) Gunthe, German Erazm Prettner and Hannus Czigan, Franciszek and Stanisław Merlicz, Stanisław Wojt - Gostyński, Marcin Sibenburg from Transilvania, etc. Not to mention Giovanni Jacopo Caraglio, who in about 1550 created a cameo with Barbara's divinely beautiful profile. In just one year, 1545, the king bought as many as 15 gold rings with precious stones from Vilnius and Kraków goldsmiths. The sovereign literally scattered gold among the members of the Radziwill family and financed, among other things, the modernization of the "manor of Mr. Nicolaus Radzywil of Vilnius" (dworu pana Mikolaya Radzywila wilnowczika), Barbara's brother, which is documented in the Grand Ducal accounts (after "Obraz Bitwa pod Orszą ..." by Marek A. Janicki, p. 205). 

Barbara's gifts to Sigismund Augustus were also splendid. A letter from around 1547, preserved in the Central Archives of the Historical Archives in Warsaw (AGAD 1/354/0/3/29), confirms that she gave him a unique piece of jewelry, a ring with an integrated watch (Poszylam v. k. m. svemu m. panu pyersczyenczyne snacz phygure zegarowe), probably created in Vilnius. Similar valuable objects began to appear in Western Europe more than a decade later. 

The king threw lavish balls and feasts, so much so that the priest Stanisław Górski, a staunch Habsburg supporter, complained in a letter to Jan Dantyszek dated March 15, 1544 from Piotrków, that "the young King lives the most extravagantly in Lithuania, spending 1000 florins per week" (after "Zbiór pamiętników historycznych o dawnej Polszcze ..." by Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, Volume 4, p. 30). 

In 1547 Girolamo Mazzola Bedoli, a painter from Lombardy, created a painting of Adoration of the Magi for the Certosa Sancta Maria Schola Dei in Parma, today in the Galleria nazionale di Parma (inventory number GN145). A man depicted as one of the Magi has a costume clearly inspired by the costume of a Polish-Lithuanian nobleman. His oriental sabre and colors - crimson and white, the national colors of Poland, also indicate that it is a man from Poland-Lithuania, most likely inspired by the increased presence of their envoys in artistic circles in Italy at that time. 

According to sources Barbara was a beauty, hence the title in Italian, La Bella, is fully deserved. "The composition of her body and face made her so beautiful that people out of jealousy disparaged her innocence", she was "gloriously wonderful, like a second Helen [Helen of Troy]" as was written in a panegyric, she had white alabaster skin, "sweet eyes, gentleness of speech, slowness of movements".

Portrait of Barbara Radziwill (1520/23-1551) in a blue dress, known as La Bella by Titian, ca. 1545-1547, Pitti Palace in Florence.

Portrait of Barbara Radziwill (1520/23-1551), known as La Bella by workshop of Titian, most probably by Lambert Sustris, ca. 1545-1547, Private collection.

​Portrait of Barbara Radziwill (1520/23-1551), known as La Bella, by Gortzius Geldorp after Titian, ca. 1605, Private collection.

​Portrait of a lady in Italian costume, probably Barbara Radziwill (1520/23-1551), as Jael by follower of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1545-1547, Private collection.

Portrait of Barbara Radziwill as Venus by Titian or workshop

​"Love is at odds at the beginning and the end: the beginning is sweet, but the end is bitter. Venus comes with sweetness but leaves with sadness" (Principio et fine amor dissidet: Principium dulce est, at finis amoris amarus. Lacta venire Venus, tristis abire solet), says an anonymous Latin poem about the loves and marriage of King Sigismund Augustus (after "Dzieje starożytne Narodu Litewskiego" by Teodor Narbutt, Volume 9, p. 22-23, 233), written at the time and quoting Ovid, the national poet of the 16th century Sarmatia. In the same source, we find a beautiful description of the charming garden in Vilnius, adorned with fragrant trees, flowers and a stream, "almost a corner of paradise" (prope Paradisi acmulus), belonging to Barbara Kolanka (d. 1550), mother of Barbara Radziwill (1520/23-1551). This wealthy woman lived in a magnificent palace, right next to the Lower Castle, located on the Neris (Vilija) River, above which stood the medieval Upper Castle on Gediminas' Hill.

In his poem about the portrait of the king (In Sigismundi Augusti regis effigiem) and the unification of the Lithuanian nation with the Polish nation (Gens vis iungatur genti lituana polonae), the Spanish poet Pedro Ruiz de Moros also refers to the goddess of love. Venus and Thetis went to see the splendid portrait of the king and compared the ruler to their sons Aeneas and Achilles (Hanc Venus atque Thetis pictam ut videre tabellam, Illa suum Aenean, haec putat Aeaciden), but ultimately concluded that he was superior to them: "O pious king, forgive the goddesses; You are greater than Aeneas, you are greater than Achilles" (o rex pie, parce deabus; Maior es Aenea, maior es Aeacide). The poet also commemorated in a poem the one who was dearer to the king than anything on earth (Cui fuit in terris carius ante nihil), his second wife Barbara, Queen of the Sarmatians (Barbara, Sauromatum regina), born into the powerful Lithuanian house of Radvila/Radziwill (potenti De Radivilorum nobilis orta domo), the one who pleased Augustus and was worthy to touch the sacred bed (Augusto placui; sacrum tetigisse cubile) - Barbarae Reginae Epitaphia (compare "Petri Rozyii Maurei Alcagnicensis Carmina ...", ed. Bronisław Kruczkiewicz, part II, p. 18, 34, poems XXIV, 11).

The magnificent jewels with representation of the goddess of love, including a diamond clasp with Venus and Vulcan, as well as a jewel: Mars cum Venere et cupidine (Mars with Venus and Cupid), mentioned in the 1599 inventory of the state treasury, most likely come from the collection of King Sigismund Augustus (after "Klejnoty w Polsce: czasy ostatnich Jagiellonów i Wazów" by Ewa Letkiewicz, p. 240). 

Before World War II, the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden housed a magnificent painting attributed to a follower of Titian, depicting Venus and a lute player (oil on canvas, 142 x 208 cm, inv. Gal.-Nr. 177). In 1939, the painting was listed in the Reich Chancellery, formerly the Radziwill Palace, in Berlin. It was therefore probably destroyed during the bombing of this building during the war. It was considered a school replica of Titian's painting in Madrid ("Catalogue of the pictures in the Royal Gallery at Dresden", p. 28, item 177), however the composition most closely resembles the painting in New York (Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv. 36.29), which, according to my identification, is a portrait of Queen Catherine of Austria (1533-1572), Barbara Radziwill's successor as Queen of Poland. The New York painting is considered a work by Titian and his workshop, dating from the end of his artistic career. The author of the concept for this and other royal nudes from this period was most likely the king's jeweler Giovanni Jacopo Caraglio, creator of numerous erotic engravings and prints depicting naked Olympian gods. Caraglio, born in Verona in the Republic of Venice, is notably the author of Venus and Cupid (Di Venere e amore), signed: · CARALIVS · / · FE ·, Jupiter surprises the nymph Antiope (Giove in Satiro), signed with the monogram IC, Venus and Adonis (Parla Venere sopra Adoni morto), Jupiter as a Satyr and Diana (la Dea Diana col Dio Pan) and homoerotic scene of Apollo and Hyacinth (Apollo di Hyacintho), as recounted by Ovid in his Metamorphoses, as well as the ambiguous scene of Jupiter transformed into a shepherd (Giove in pastore), also inscribed as depicting Apollo and Hyacinth (Jupiter and Mnemosyne?), some of which were based on original drawings by Perino del Vaga and Rosso Fiorentino. Interestingly, the print Jupiter surprising the nymph Antiope (Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest, copper engraving on paper, 21.1 x 13.5 cm, inv. 6749) probably inspired Gustave Courbet's famous painting The Origin of the World (Musée d'Orsay, inv. RF 1995 10). The medal from about 1539 or 1543 depicting the Veronese musician and canon of Vilnius, Alessandro Pesenti, musician and organist in the service of Bona Sforza, is attributed to Caraglio.

The Dresden painting was not an exact copy; on the contrary, its style indicated that it had been created before the New York version. More importantly, the Dresden and New York paintings do not depict the same woman. It appears that the painter borrowed an earlier composition for the New York painting but depicted a different model. The shape of the body is different, as well as the face. While in the New York painting, the model is blond and her face is reminiscent of that of Catherine of Austria, according to her portrait at Voigtsberg Castle, also considered a work of Titian, the woman in the Dresden painting has a slightly longer nose and darker hair, as shown in old color reproductions of the painting. She bears a strong resemblance to Barbara Radziwill, particularly close when it comes to facial features is her portrait by Lambert Sustris in Chatsworth House (inv. PA 725), identified and attributed by me. Assuming that Barbara served as the model for the Dresden Venus and Catherine for the one in New York, we can easily understand why two such similar paintings were created and using different models. While Barbara was considered the monarch's great love, Catherine was abandoned by her husband soon after the wedding and tried to reconcile with him. Barbara Giżanka (ca. 1550-1589), mistress of Sigismund Augustus, considered one of his most important favourites, is said to have greatly resembled Barbara Radziwill. Thus, by making herself look like Barbara, Catherine tried to get closer to her husband.

The 1912 English-language catalogue of the Dresden Gallery states that the Venus was "acquired in 1731 through Leplat", that is, a French Huguenot baron Raymond Leplat or Le Plat (1664-1742), who acted as agent for Augustus II the Strong (1670-1733), King of Poland and Elector of Saxony, in Paris and Rome, also traveling to the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, and Bohemia. According to the German catalogue of 1859 ("Die Königliche Gemälde-Gallerie zu Dresden" by Wilhelm Schäfer, p. 44), the painting was one of the oldest art treasures of the Dresden court, as it was originally housed in the Kunstkammer, and from there, at the request of the gallery's first director, Leplat, came to the Gallery in 1731. In the inventory of 1722, the painting was mentioned as "Copy of Titian. Philip II, King of Spain, and Signora Laura" (Tizian Cop. Phillippus II., König von Spanien, und Signora Laura), so it was considered a portrait of the King of Spain as a lute player and his mistress Laura as Venus. This old tradition, according to which the woman depicted, the goddess of love, was a royal mistress, perfectly fits the figure of Barbara Radziwill. One of the oldest and most beautiful copies of the Dresden Venus, now preserved at the Museum of Fine Arts in Bordeaux, is also known under the title of The Mistress of Philip II (oil on canvas, 140 x 200 cm, inv. Bx E 550). It is considered a 17th century copy and was donated to the museum by Lodi-Martin Duffour-Dubergier (1797-1860). The identification as mistress of the Catholic King of Spain had already been rejected in the mentioned catalogue of 1859 and no such mistress of Philip, i.e. Lady Laura, is known.

Another old copy, in miniature, is in the Polish Museum in Rapperswil (watercolor and gouache on ivory, 10.7 x 17.3 cm). This small painting was created by the Polish painter Wincenty de Lesseur (1745-1813) in Dresden in 1793 (signed left in the center: W. Lesseur / à Dresde 1793). It comes from the Tarnowski collection in Dzików, evacuated to Canada during the Second World War. It is not known why the painter copied this painting, as the owners of the miniature, Waleria Tarnowska née Stroynowska (1782-1849) and her husband Jan Feliks Tarnowski (1777-1842), were not particularly fond of Titian and preferred Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and Correggio (after "Zbiory sztuki Jana Feliksa i Walerii Tarnowskich ..." by Kazimiera Grottowa, p. 50). In 1797, Lesseur also copied for the Tarnowskis the portrait of Henryk Lubomirski (1777-1850) as Genius of Fame, painted in Paris by Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun around 1787. The original of the portrait by Vigée Le Brun was in the Lubomirski Palace in Warsaw until 1816 and later in the Przeworsk Palace from where it was evacuated to France during the Second World War (purchased by Gemäldegalerie in Berlin from the Galerie Heim in Paris in 1974, inv. 74.4). 

Venus, crowned by Cupid, holds a flute. The music at the court of Sigismund Augustus was of a very high standard and accompanied many ceremonies and events, such as the entry into Kraków of the king's first wife, Elizabeth of Austria, on May 4, 1543, accompanied, among others, by sixty-two trumpeters and four brass instruments. The information on the nationalities of the instrumentalists in the Polish suites, especially the trumpeters, is interesting. The suite of Sigismund Augustus' chamberlain included two Muscovites, that of the Bishop of Płock, Samuel Maciejowski, six Tatars, and that of Hetman Jan Tarnowski, two Hungarian trumpeters. Opaliński had in his retinue a musician dressed in Turkish style and in the retinue of Voivode Kościelecki, three musicians "were dressed like Prussian women" (after "O muzykach, muzyce i jej funkcji ..." by Renata Król-Mazur, p. 41). 

Finally, a castle is depicted on the hill to the left of the Dresden painting. Although its shape is general and the painter has depicted the mountains of the "Far North" in the background, it evokes the castle depicted in the portrait of Barbara Kolanka as Saint Barbara, painted by Lucas Cranach the Elder around 1530 (Sammlung Würth). This castle is reminiscent of the Upper Castle in Vilnius; the entire scene therefore takes place in a garden near the Lithuanian capital.

​Portrait of Barbara Radziwill (1520/23-1551) as Venus with the lute player by Titian or workshop, ca. 1545-1551, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden, lost during World War II. Virtual reconstruction, © Marcin Latka

​Portrait of Barbara Radziwill (1520/23-1551) as Venus with the lute player by follower of Titian, after 1545 (17th century?), Museum of Fine Arts in Bordeaux.

​Miniature portrait of Barbara Radziwill (1520/23-1551) as Venus with the lute player by Wincenty de Lesseur, 1793, Polish Museum in Rapperswil.

​Erotic print with Jupiter surprising the nymph Antiope by Giovanni Jacopo Caraglio, second quarter of the 16th century, Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest.

Portrait of Barbara Radziwill in French costume and portrait of Anna d'Este by Niccolò dell'Abbate​

On June 15, 1545, Elisabeth of Austria, first wife of Sigismund II Augustus, died. The king, however, continued his affair with his mistress Barbara Radziwill, whom he had met in 1543. Already in September 1546 rumors were circulating in Kraków that Sigismund Augustus was going to marry "a private woman of the worst opinion". To prevent this and to strengthen the pro-Turkish alliance (the eldest daughter of Bona, Isabella Jagiellon, was established by Sultan Suleiman as a regent of Hungary on behalf of her infant son), it was decided to marry Sigismund Augustus to Anna d'Este (1531-1607), daughter of the Duke of Ferrara and related to the French ruling house. The plan to marry Princess of Ferrara received the support of the powerful Farnese family. The French King Henry II also supported this idea. It was probably at this time that the young monarch received the French Order of Saint Michael, because his coat of arms and the inscription SIGISMVNDVS / AVG. REX.POLONIAE are included in the book of knights of this order made in Italy between 1550-1555 (Insignia ... XV. Insignia equitum Gallici ordinis Sancti Michaelis, Bavarian State Library in Munich, BSB Cod.icon. 280, p. 16r (0039)), together with those of the Duke of Ferrara (p. 114r (0235)). 

Sigismund Augustus sent his courtier Stanisław Lasota (died 1561) to inquire about the possibilities of a possible marriage with one of the foreign princesses. Lasota went to England, where he began to negotiate the hand of Mary Tudor (1516-1558), daughter of Henry VIII. In France, he suggested to the royal court the idea of ​​Sigismund Augustus marrying Princess Margaret of Valois (1523-1574). In October 1547, the marriage of the King of Poland to Princess Christina of Denmark (1521-1590), regent of Lorraine, was considered almost certain in Paris. The Habsburgs attempted to marry Sigismund Augustus to Anne of Lorraine (1522-1568), widow of René of Chalon (1519-1544), Prince of Orange, and Albert of Prussia to his daughter Anna Sophia (1527-1591). The marriage with the Lutheran princess of Prussia was also favoured by Queen Bona and on January 2, 1547, her courtier Tomasz Sobocki (ca. 1508-1547) sent a letter to the Duke in which he informed him of this fact. He stressed, however, that the matter was shrouded in secrecy and that is why the queen "used his hand to write the letter" (after "Polski słownik biograficzny ...", Volume 39, p. 559). 

Many portraits of brides and their families were sent to Poland-Lithuania at that time. The brides in turn and their families were undoubtedly interested in the young Polish king, his family and his famous mistress. Special envoys carried correspondence and effigies. The Ferrara envoy asked the secretary of Duke Ferrara to send less important letters for the queen by royal mail, while confidential correspondence was to continue to go privately through Carlo Foresta, who was also responsible for bringing the portrait of Princess Anna d'Este from Venice. From Kraków it was transported to Vilnius by the Grand Marshal of Lithuania, Nicolaus "the Black" Radziwill, who was sent by Sigismund Augustus with Jan Domanowski, provost of Vilnius, on an embassy to king's father Sigismund I. He was asked to do so by Giovanni Andrea Valentino, court physician to Queen Bona (after "Odrodzenie i reformacja w Polsce", Volumes 5-8, p. 81).

Sigismund Augustus delayed and found excuses, for example, while the portrait of Anna of Ferrara had already been made and sent to Vilnius, he wanted to see the portraits of all the members of the d'Este family. This evasive answer of Sigismund Augustus, brought to Kraków on February 8, 1546 by Valentino's envoy, caused some consternation, of which the court physician informed the secretary of the Duke Bartolomeo Prospero on February 9. A few days later, on February 13, an envoy of the Duke of Ferrara arrived in Kraków with a portrait of Anna and letters from Duke Ercole. The Duke was concerned about the news received from Rome that the Pope was negotiating with the Polish-Lithuanian court about the marriage of his granddaughter. It is not known through whose efforts Sigismund Augustus also received a portrait of Charles V's daughter, Infanta Maria of Spain (1528-1603), possibly made by Antonis Mor, which worried the Ferrarese ambassador. It is not known whether this was at the king's request or whether someone from the king's entourage, probably a Habsburg supporter, had done it on his own initiative.

Nothing more is known about the portrait of Lucrezia Borgia's granddaughter - Princess Anna d'Este, and most people would probably imagine it to be similar to her effigies, when she was Duchess of Guise and Duchess of Nemours, painted by French painters.

In the Louvre Museum in Paris there is a painting of a nude woman (oil on canvas, 92 x 70 cm, RF 2016 4), identified as Queen Artemisia II of Caria preparing to drink the ashes of her husband Mausolus (also identified as Sophonisba or Pandora), attributed to a Modenese painter Niccolò dell'Abbate (died 1571), who moved to France in 1552. Probably before settling in France, Niccolò painted the portrait of the Duke of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio Ercole II d'Este, Anna's father, wearing the collar of the Order of Saint Michael (Christie's Paris, Auction 5601, June 23, 2010, lot 36). The order was sent to him by King Francis I of France (1494-1547). 

The woman looks at the viewer in a meaningful way, preparing to open the container. In this context, it can be seen as a portrait of a potential bride, who, through this "disguise", wanted to emphasize that she would be a loyal and devoted wife and a good queen like Artemisia. The woman bears a striking resemblance to later effigies of Anna d'Este, such as the portraits by circle of François Clouet from about 1563 (Palace of Versailles, inv. MV 3212 and Ashmolean Museum, inv. 16048) or a portrait by Léonard Limousin (British Museum, WB.24). The plaque with the portrait of Margaret of Valois (1523-1574), considered as the potential wife of Sigismund Augustus, made by Jean de Court in 1555 (The Wallace Collection, inv. C589), depicts the daughter of King Francis I of France as the Roman goddess Minerva. Disguised portraits were still popular in France at that time as well. The painting comes from the collection of Count Bassi, sold in Milan in 1898, so it is possible that it is a copy of a painting sent to Vilnius in 1546 or that it returned to the country of origin in the 18th or 19th century after the destruction of the Realm of Venus in central Europe.

In the end, the young Polish king had to withdraw from all offers because of his marriage to Barbara Radziwill. The copyist of the letter to the Duke of Ferrara commented on the royal response with the note: "I have already married, I have married a pious whore" (jużem ci się ożenił, pojąłem ci nabożną kurwę, after "Zygmunt August" by Stanisław Cynarski, p. 49).

In order not to lose such valuable allies as the King of France and the Duke of Ferrara, Sigismund Augustus had to convince them, as well as public opinion, to his wife. The miniature of a lady in a pink Italian dress from the 1540s, said to be Bona Sforza d'Aragona (gouache on paper, 15.6 x 11.7, inv. VI. 55), which was in the Czartoryski collection before World War II, cannot represent Bona because the woman is much younger and the features are different. It is however very similar to the effigies of Barbara Radziwill, in particular her portrait in a white dress (National Gallery of Art in Washington, inv. 1939.1.230), which I have identified. The traditional identification of the miniature with Queen Bona has already been challenged in the 1929 catalogue of the Czartoryski Museum ("Muzeum Książąt Czartoryskich w Krakowie ..." by Stefan Saturnin Komornicki, p. 32, item 156), although this does not mean that it is entirely erroneous. In the National Museum in Warsaw there is a copy of this miniature made around 1830 (Min.517 MNW), where the original is considered to be the work of a Flemish painter. The author who brought together the influences of these two schools of European painting (Italian and Flemish) was Jan Steven van Calcar (Giovanni da Calcar in Italian or Ioannes Stephanus Calcarensis in Latin), who died in 1546 or 1547. Born in the district of Cleves, and therefore considered a Flemish or Dutch painter, he probably received his initial training in his hometown, but worked almost all his life in Italy, including Venice (according to known sources).

As in the case of the portrait of Anna d'Este mentioned above, several elements of this miniature have a symbolic meaning, such as the pink color generally associated with betrothal, the veil on the head and the pearls, a symbol of chastity. The woman holds her right hand on her womb.

The style of this miniature, as well as the style of the woman's costume, recall another miniature from the same period depicting a lady with a pearl necklace, now in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence (watercolour on parchment, 8.6 cm, inv. 1890, 9005). This "older" woman bears a striking resemblance to Queen Bona, Duchess of Bari and Rossano by her own right, based on her well-known effigies - a cameo by Giovanni Jacopo Caraglio (Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv. 17.190.869), a full-length portrait (Royal Castle in Warsaw, ZKW 60) or a miniature with the Latin inscription: BONA SFORTIA ARAGONIA REGINA / POLLONIAE (Czartoryski Museum, MNK XII-141). In the 1890 inventory of the Uffizi Gallery, the miniature is listed after a miniature of a lady (inv. 1890, 9004), painted by Lavinia Fontana, active in Bologna and Rome, which may represent Isabella Ruini or Clelia Farnese (died 1613), mistress of Cardinal Ferdinando de' Medici (1549-1609), or another Roman lady. Both miniatures undoubtedly come from the Medici collection, and Cardinal Ferdinando had many effigies of Polish-Lithuanian monarchs in his famous Roman villa (Villa Medici, according to Maciej Rywocki).

The features of the lady in the Czartoryski miniature, on the other hand, are very similar to those seen in a portrait of a lady holding a chalice and a book, now in the National Museum in Warsaw (oil on panel, 68.5 x 55.5 cm, M.Ob.1264). Before 1942 the painting was in the collection of the art dealer Victor Modrzewski in Amsterdam, and therefore most likely comes from a collection of Polish-Lithuanian magnates.

The latter painting is attributed to circle of Master of the Female Half-Lengths, a Flemish or French court master painter who frequently depicted ladies in guise of their patron saints and who also worked for other European courts (e.g. portrait of Isabella of Portugal in Lisbon - Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, inv. 2172 Pint). The woman is dressed according to French fashion, very similar to the outfit in the portrait of Catherine de' Medici, Queen of France from about 1547 in the Uffizi (Inv. 1890 / 2448). She is holding a prayer book and a chalice, an attribute of Saint Barbara, who was considered to provide protection against sudden and violent death (the scene on the chalice shows a man killing other man) and patron saint of pregnant women (together with Saint Margaret of Antioch). 

Even before she became the king's mistress, Barbara Radziwill was a very wealthy woman. Before her marriage to Stanislovas Gostautas (died 1542), she received from her father as a dowry a large amount of silverware such as sixteen large silver bowls with smaller dishes and bowls, spoons, cups, goblets and candlesticks, jewelry, including "ten pearl collars" or "three pearl caps", dresses of golden cloth, two beige dresses, one of satin and one of velvet, three dresses of red damask and one of white damask and others, eight golden caps, "a golden chomlija, a red beret with gold, made of Venetian velvet", a golden cloth duvet, ten carpets (or tapestries), carriages and coaches, including a golden carriage, and twenty-four horses (compare "Pisma historyczne" by Michał Baliński, Volumes 1-4, p. 10-21). 

The painting is generally identified as depicting Saint Mary Magdalene, however, Saint Barbara on the title page of "Inscription on the tomb of the noble Queen Barbara Radziwill" (Napis nad grobem zacney Krolowey Barbary Radziwiłowny), published in Kraków in 1558, also more closely resembles the effigies traditionally identified as Saint Mary Magdalene.

At that time, the king used Flemish and French merchants and artists for his famous commission for tapestries in Flanders. It is confirmed that in the 1550s and 1560s, the king's confidant Jan Kostka (1529-1581), castellan of Gdańsk, acted as an intermediary between the royal court and artists active in Flanders. For example, in May 1564, the king ordered him to send the Flemish weaver Roderigo Dermoyen to Flanders for tapestries. Before 1561, tapestries were made in Gdańsk for Kostka by Remigius Delator (de Latour in French), who also supplied tapestries to the Swedish court. They could also act as intermediaries with Flemish painters.

All the mentioned paintings of Barbara and her mother-in-law, Queen Bona, are most likely workshop copies of a larger commission for state portraits.

Portrait of Barbara Radziwill (1520/23-1551) in French costume by circle of Master of the Female Half-Lengths, ca. 1546-1547, National Museum in Warsaw.​

Miniature portrait of Barbara Radziwill (1520/23-1551) by circle of Jan van Calcar, ca. 1546-1547, Czartoryski Museum, lost. Virtual reconstruction, © Marcin Latka​​

Miniature portrait of Bona Sforza d'Aragona (1494-1557) by Jan van Calcar, ca. 1546, Uffizi Gallery in Florence.​​

Portrait of Anna d'Este (1531-1607) as Artemisia by Niccolò dell'Abbate, ca. 1546, Louvre Museum in Paris.

Portrait of Zofia Firlejowa as Venus by workshop of Giovanni Cariani

In 1546 or at the beginning of 1547, Jan Firlej (1521-1574) of Lewart coat of arms, later Grand Marshal of the Crown, voivode of Kraków and the head of the Calvinist camp, married the incredibly wealthy Zofia Bonerówna, daughter of royal banker Seweryn Boner (1486-1549), receiving a huge dowry of 47,000 florins and the Boner property near Ogrodzieniec Castle. Jan was the eldest son of Piotr Firlej (d. 1553), voivode of Ruthenia from 1545 and a trusted adviser of Queen Bona Sforza and King Sigismund Augustus, and Katarzyna Tęczyńska. Concluded on the initiative of his father, who used the money from Jan's wife's dowry to pay off his debts, this marriage turned out to be very beneficial from the point of view of the family's interests.

Piotr was a patron of arts, he extended his Janowiec Castle and built a Renaissance palace in Lubartów. At his expense a beautiful tombstone was created in about 1553 by Giovanni Maria Mosca, called il Padovano in the Dominican church in Lublin. In his great estates in Dąbrowica, a village a mile from Lublin, he had a magnificent palace, whose stairs carved in marble were admired by poet Jan Kochanowski.

Zofia's parents were also renowned patrons of arts. Bronze tomb sculpture of Seweryn and his wife Zofia née Bethman was created between 1532-1538 by Hans Vischer in Nuremberg and transported to Kraków. Between 1530-1547 Seweryn rebuilt and extended Ogrodzieniec Castle, transforming the medieval stronghold into a Renaissance castle - it was called "little Wawel". The Boners furnished it with beautiful furniture, tapestries and other most valuable items imported from abroad. In 1655, the castle was partially burnt down by the Swedish army, which was stationed there for almost two years, ruining a large part of the buildings.

Similar to the royal court, many such items were also commissioned or acquired in Venice. In 1546 a Venetian Aloisio received a fur coat and several dozen thalers for the total amount of 78 zlotys 10 groszy for various instruments which he brought from Venice to Kraków on the king's order. As the Governor of the royal estates Zofia's father Seweryn, who kept the books of accounts for the court, brokered many such purchases. In 1553 two Jews from Kazimierz, Jonasz, the elder of the Kazimierz community, and Izak, the son of the second senior of this community and royal supplier Izrael Niger, took part in a trade mission sent by the king to Vienna and Venice to purchase goods for the royal court, receiving an advance payment of 840 Hungarian florins in gold. A few months later (April 11, 1553) Izak Izraelowicz Niger (Schwarz) was sent back to Venice in order to purchase wedding gifts for the third wife of Sigismund Augustus, Catherine of Austria, receiving 400 Hungarian florins in gold (after "Biuletyn Żydowskiego Instytutu Historycznego", Issues 153-160, p. 7).

Inhabitants of the royal city of Kraków were connoisseurs of art and had important collections of paintings and portraits. In 1540 Katarzyna, widow of Paul Kaufman, a merchant of Kraków, residing in the convent of St. Andrew, left her portraits in her last will to the convent (Omes imagines suas dat, donat se defuncta, Conventui huic s. Andrere, ad Ecclesiam et etiam sororibus monialibus) and in 1542 in the list of paintings of the late Melchior Czyżowski, Vice-Procurator of the Kraków Castle (Viceprocuratori Castri Cracoviensis), there were two of his portraits (Duæ imagines Dni Melchioris C ...), a painting of Herodias (Tabula pieta, Herodiadis), possibly by workshop of Cranach, the woman taken in adultery (Figura de muliere deprehensa in adulterio), possibly by Venetian painter, the twelve labors of Hercules (Duodecem labores Herculis), a view of Venice (Cortena in qua depicta est Venetia), a painting of Judith and Herodias, painted on both sides (Tabula Judith et Herodiadis, ex utraque parte depicta), painting of Thisbe and another of Judith (Figura Thisbe, Fig. Judith), Nativity of Christ (Nativitatis Christi) and Mary Magdalene (Mariæ Magdalenæ), most likely by Venetian school, and other religious paintings. Over half a century later, in about 1607, other representative of the family, Hieronim Czyżowski, recorded in books of the Polish Nation 15 years earlier, in 1592, ordered a painting by the Venetian painter Pietro Malombra with his portrait as donor (Resurrection of Knight Piotrawin by Saint Stanislaus) for the altar of the Polish Nation in the Basilica of Saint Anthony in Padua. In the Scottish National Gallery there is a preparatory study for this painting (inventory number RSA 221), in which however the donor is not present in the composition, indicating that his portrait was added later, possibly based on a drawing sent from Poland.

Bonerówna married Jan Firlej shortly before or after his return from diplomatic mission at the court of Ferdinand I of Austria and most likely to the court of Ferrara. She bore him two daughters Jadwiga and Zofia and four sons Mikołaj, Andrzej, Jan and Piotr. Zofia died in or after 1563 and Jan married secondly Zofia Dzikówna (died after 1566) and later Barbara Mniszech (died 1580).

The couple probably had another daughter, Elżbieta, however, she died at the young age in 1580. Her tombstone behind the main altar of the church in Bejsce near Kraków was founded by her brother Mikołaj Firlej (d. 1600), voivode of Kraków, who has a magnificent burial chapel in the same church, modeled on the Sigismund Chapel. This monument to the Polish virgin, according to Latin inscription (ELIZABETHAE / IOAN(NIS) FIRLEII A DAMBROWICA PALAT(INI) ET CAPIT(ANEI) CRACOVIEN(SIS) / ATQVE MARSALCI REGNI F(ILIAE) / VIRGINI NATALIB(VS) ILLVSTRI. FORMA INSIGNI AETATE FLORE(N)TI / VITA PVDICISSIMAE [...] NICOL(AVS) FIRLEIVS A DAMBROWICA IO(ANNES) F(IRLEIVS) - CASTELL(ANVS) BIECEN(SIS) / SORORI INCOMPARABILI E DOLORIS ET AMORIS FRATERNI / MOERENS POS(VIT) / OBIIT AN(N)O D(OMI)NI : M.D.LXXX), is considered a rarity and attributed to workshop of Girolamo Canavesi. She was depicted sleeping, half-recumbent, in a pose reminiscent of the Birth of Venus, a Roman fresco from the House of Venus in Pompeii, created in the 1st century AD, or Venus from cassone with scenes of the Battle of Greeks and Amazons before the walls of Troy by workshop of Paolo Uccello, painted in about 1460 (Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven). Elżbieta's tombstone is crowned with coat of arms of the Firlejs - Lewart, a rampant leopard.

In 2014 an unframed painting of recumbent Venus and Cupid by workshop of Giovanni Cariani (d. 1547) was sold in London (oil on canvas, 102 x 172.2 cm, Bonhams, 9 July 2014, lot 35). Cupid points his arrow at the heart of the lying woman, symbolizing love. In the right corner of the canvas, on the tree, there is a shield with coat of arms showing a rampant leopard on red background, very similar to the one visible in the monument to Elżbieta Firlejówna in Bejsce, as well as many other depictions of coat of arms of the Firlej family. In the background, there is a gothic cathedral, very similar to view of St. Stephen's Cathedral in the Panorama of Vienna (Vienna, Citta Capitale dell' Austria), created by Italian engraver in about 1618 (Wien Museum, inventory number 34786). 

The painting recall the erotic plaques from cupboard-cabinet by Peter Flötner or Wenzel Jamnitzer from the Zamoyski Estate in Warsaw (lost during World War II). The cabinet was adorned with 26 bronze plaques with nude lying female figures. It was most probably created in Augsburg or in Nuremberg and could come from a royal or a magnate commission. Flötner created several exquisite items for Sigismund I in the 1530s, including silver altar for the Sigismund Chapel and casket of Hedwig Jagiellon (Saint Petersburg). 

If this painting of Jan Firlej's wife as Venus was painted by Cariani's workshop shortly before the artist's death, this would explain why Firlej decided to order his portrait from young Jacopo Tintoretto in 1547 (Kröller-Müller Museum).

A manuscript in the Ossolineum (number 2232) from the 1650s, lists a great number of jewels, furniture, paintings, books, clothes, fabrics with Lewart coat of arms and relics from Firlej estates in Dąbrowica, Ogrodzieniec and Bejsce. It also includes many imported goods and portraits, like "foreign fans", "pictures of deceased ancestors and many various arts, very expensive and elaborate", "great Persian and home-made rugs", "two paintings: one in French costume, the other in Polish, and the third started, in French style", "many old pictures from Ogrodziniec and Dąbrowica, one with a dwarf with a great son; costly, pious pictures on copper, many on canvas", "costly glass, buried in a cellar in Dąbrowica from the enemy, Jarosz Kossowski dug it", most likely Venetian glass saved during the Deluge (1655-1660), "the Bonarowski chalice, three gold stamps, folded into one, by elaborate work", most probably from dowry of Zofia Bonerówna, "various foreign spectacles of copper, foreign jetons" and other items. 

Portrait of Zofia Firlejowa née Bonerówna (d. 1563) as Venus and Cupid with Lewart coat of arms by workshop of Giovanni Cariani, 1546-1547, Private collection.

Portrait of Jan Firlej by Jacopo Tintoretto

Thanks to his father's efforts, Jan Firlej (1521-1574) received an education at the highest level. He studied at the University of Leipzig for two years, then continued his education at the University of Padua for the next two years. From there with his relative count Stanisław Gabriel Tęczyński (1514-1561), chamberlain of Sandomierz, and Stanisław Czerny, starost of Dobczyce, he went to the Holy Land, visited Egypt and Palestine. They set off on a journey from Venice in the second half of 1541 - on June 16 that year he participated in the solemn procession in Venice, as the Lord of Dąbrowica (dominus de Dambrouicza) among the group of pilgrims of Jerusalem (peregrinorum Hierosolimitanorum). He also traveled to Rome. Around 1543, he returned to Poland, and in 1545, he entered the service of King Sigismund I. In the same year, he was sent on a mission to Emperor Charles V at the Diet of the Holy Roman Empire in Worms. According to Stanisław Hozjusz (Hosius, Op. I, 459) in 1547, as an envoy, he participated in diplomatic activities at the court of Ferdinand I of Austria, possibly concernig the king's marriage with Barbara Radziwill or the plans to marry him to Anna d'Este (1531-1607), daughter of the Duke of Ferrara.

In January 1546, Giovanni Andrea Valentino (de Valentinis) the court physician of Sigismund the Old and Queen Bona, was sent from Kraków with a confidential mission to Sigismund Augustus residing in Lithuania, concerning the marriage with Anna d'Este. Around that time, a separate letter was sent by the envoy of Duke of Ferrara, Antonio Valentino, staying in Poland from August 30, 1545 to September 1546, to Bartolomeo Prospero, the secretary of Duke Ercole II, to speed up the delivery of the bride's portrait. "He recommended that the parcel be exported to Venice not by royal mail, but by a private route in the hands of Carlo Foresta, one of the agents of Gaspare Gucci from Florence, a merchant in Kraków" (after "Działalność Włochów w Polsce w I połowie XVI wieku" by Danuta Quirini-Popławska, p.  87). It possible that the portrait mentioned in the letter was created in Venice, as Dukes of Ferrara also commissioned ther effigies there, e.g. portrait of Alfonso II d'Este (1533-1597) by Titian or workshop in Arolsen Castle, identified by me.

In 1909 in the collection of Prince Andrzej Lubomirski in Przeworsk there was a small painting (oil on tin plate, 26 x 35 cm) attributed to 16th century Venetian school depicting "Madonna and Child surrounded by people who, according to tradition, represent the family of princes d'Este; the golden-haired woman depicts probably the famous Eleonora d'Este" (after "Katalog wystawy obrazów malarzy dawnych i współczesnych urządzonej staraniem Andrzejowej Księżny Lubomirskiej" by Mieczysław Treter, item 36, p. 11).

In 1547 a painter Pietro Veneziano (Petrus Venetus), created a painting to the main altar of the Wawel Cathedral and Titian was summoned to paint Charles V and others in Augsburg.

The painting in the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo attributed to Jacopo Tintoretto, shows a wealty nobleman in a black coat lined with tremendously expensive lynx fur. His proud pose and gloves also indicate his position. This painting was acquired by Helene Kröller-Müller in 1921 and earlier it was in the collection of Count of Balbi in Venice and possibly in the Giustinian-Lolin collection in Venice. According to inscription in lower left corner, the man was 26 years of age in 1547 (ANN·XXVI·MEN·VI·/·MD·XL·VII·), exactly as Jan Firlej, when he was sent on a mission to Austria and possibly to Venice and Ferrara.

Portrait of Jan Firlej (1521-1574) aged 26 by Jacopo Tintoretto, 1547, Kröller-Müller Museum. 

Portrait of Nicolaus "the Red" Radziwill by workshop of Giovanni Cariani

In 1547 Nicolaus III Radziwill (1512-1584), Great Royal Deputy Cup-bearer of Lithuania, the son of Grand Hetman of Lithuania George "Hercules" Radziwill and Barbara Kolanka, received the title of Prince of the Roman Empire in Birzai and Dubingiai from the Emperor Charles V. He received it together with his cousin Nicolaus (1515-1565), then the Grand Marshal of Lithuania, who become the Prince in Nesvizh and Olyka. In order not to confuse him with his namesake, the cousins ​​​​were given the nicknames on account of the color of their hair. Nicolaus III is best known as "the Red" and his cousin as "the Black". 

About the same year king Sigismund II Augustus married secretly Nicolaus' younger sister Barbara, thinking she was pregnant. Nicolaus "the Red" was henceforth brother-in-law and confidant of the king. Sigismund Augustus, famous for his lavish lifestyle and generous spending on gifts for his mistress and future wife, also financially supported her brother. The Grand Ducal accounts confirm the amount spent on the modernization of Nicholaus's residence in Vilnius (Anno Domini 1546, die XXIIII decembris Vilnae [...] ex tesauro maiestatis suae et in aedificia Vilnensia aularum muratorum, domus Radziwilonis, testudinis subterranei seu porticus et aliorum testudinum circa arcem reformatorum et restauratorum ac noviter edificatorum). Before November 13, 1546, the sums were paid for the construction of three gilded balls for the roof of Radziwill Palace, which means that construction was almost complete by then (after "Obraz Bitwa pod Orszą ..." by Marek A. Janicki, p. 205). Thanks to the king's protection he became a Lithuanian Master of the Hunt in 1545 and from 1550 he was a voivode of Trakai. Nicolaus was a famous military leader, he participated in the war with Muscovy between 1534-1537, including in the siege of Starodub in 1535. 

The portrait of a member of the Radziwill family, said to be John Radziwill (d. 1522), nicknamed "the Bearded", father of Nicolaus "the Black", in the National Art Museum of Belarus in Minsk, comes from the gallery of portraits in the Radziwill castle in Nesvizh. Due to the style of the costume and technique, this work is generally dated to the beginning of the 17th century. It is, however, stylistically very close to another portrait from the same collection, the portrait of of Prince Nicolaus II Radziwill (1470-1521) by Giovanni Cariani, created in about 1520. The sitter's face was created in Cariani's style, most probably by the master himself, the rest, less elaborate, was undoubtedly completed by painter's pupil. Cariani, though he worked often in Bergamo near Milan, died in Venice. The date of the artist's death is not known, his last presence is documented on November 26, 1547 in the will of his daughter Pierina, making his death coincide in the following year.

The man's pose and sash is very similar to the effigy of Nicolaus III Radziwill in the Hermitage Museum (ОР-45840) signed in Polish/Latin: "Nicolaus Prince in Birzai, Voivode of Vilnius, Chancellor and Hetman / Evangelical, called the Red" (Mikołay Xże na Birżach, Wda Wilenski, Kanclerz y Hetman / Evangelik, cognomento Rufus), from the first half of the 17th century. The man is holding a military baton. His black armor is almost identical with the black armor of Nicolaus III Radziwill in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. This armor, created by an Italian workshop in about 1545, was offered to Ferdinand II (1529-1595), Archduke of Further Austria, son of Anna Jagellonica, in 1580 by Nicolaus himself. The sword swinging from his belt is similar to golden rapier of Archduke Maximilian, the eldest son of Anna Jagellonica, created by Antonio Piccinino in Milan and by Spanish workshop in about 1550 (Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna). The man bears finally a resemblance to the effigy of Nicolaus' mother Barbara Kolanka by Cranach (Wartburg-Stiftung in Eisenach) and his sister Barbara-La Bella by Titian (Pitti Palace in Florence). 

Portrait of Nicolaus "the Red" Radziwill (1512-1584) by workshop of Giovanni Cariani, ca. 1547, National Art Museum of Belarus in Minsk.

Portraits of members of the Radziwill family by Giampietro Silvio and Paris Bordone

John Radziwill (1516-1551), together with his elder brother Nicolaus "the Black" Radziwill (1515-1565), grew up at the court of King Sigismund the Old. As a royal courtier, equipped with letters of recommendation from King Sigismund I and Queen Bona, he traveled to Italy in 1542 - he certainly visited Ferrara, Padua and Venice. Both during the trip to Italy and on the way back, he stopped in Vienna at the court of Ferdinand, king of Bohemia and Hungary. He returned to Kraków in September 1542. It was probably during this trip that John became acquainted with the Reformation and returned to the country as a Lutheran (after "Archiva temporum testes ..." by Grzegorz Bujak, Tomasz Nowicki, Piotr Siwicki, p. 218). 

He was the first Radziwill to die in the Evangelical faith, as evidenced by the funeral speeches by Wenceslaus Agrippa and Philip Melanchthon - Oratio Fvnebris de Illvstrissimi Principis et Domini Domini Iohannis Radzivili ..., published in Wittenberg in 1553. In 1544, he became a the Great Carver of Lithuania (krajczy, incisor Lithuaniae). He was also the starost of Tykocin. He corresponded with Duke Albert of Prussia, as several letters from the Duke to John dating from 1546 have preserved. On December 24, 1547, thanks to the efforts of his elder brother, he received the title of Prince of the Holy Roman Empire and that year he probably married Elżbieta Herburt from Felsztyn. He died childless on September 27, 1551.

It was most likely John, Barbara's cousin and confidant of the young king, who facilitated their meeting (after "Przeglad polski ..." by  Stanisław Koźmian, Volumes 9-12, p. 7). He participated in splendid feasts and masquerades in Vilnius, during which "only sluts or widows known of prostitution and philandering, before all other respectable women, are welcomed. Each one, because riches are only valued in our country, considers herself quite honest when she travels in a magnificent carriage drawn by many horses, or when she is decked out in gold, scarlet [fabrics] and pearls, and presents herself to people's eyes in all the market squares and crossroads", lamented Calvinist theologian Andrzej Wolan (Andreas Volanus), royal secretary (text published in 1569). During one of these parties, John Radziwill became obsessed with a woman and left his wife (after "Najsłynniejsze miłości królów polskich" by Jerzy Besala, p. 111-114).

"Augustus fell in love with Barbara Radziwill, a woman of a famous family in Lithuania [...] who always paid more attention to other matters than fame [i.e. good opinion]. Having lost her virginity with many, the king, deceived by them, glorifying form and body and easy debauchery, was first led to her" - wrote the secretary of the papal nuncio, Antonio Maria Graziani (Gratiani). They probably knew each other since childhood, as Sigismund Augustus often spent time in Lithuania with his parents and the Radziwill manor was adjacent to the Grand Ducal Castle in Vilnius. Perhaps the next meeting took place in Hieraniony (Gieranony) in Belarus in October 1543. Shortly after the death of Sigismund Augustus' first wife, many people were talking about a possible marriage.

Soon, very unpleasant comments began to circulate about the king's favorite. Canon Stanisław Górski (d. 1572), secretary of Queen Bona between 1535-1548, counted thirty-eight of her lovers, called her "a great whore" (wiborna kurwa) or magna meretrix and claimed that she did not show any grief over the loss of her first husband, nor did she wear widow's mourning. Stanisław Orzechowski (1513-1566), canon of Przemyśl, an opponent of celibacy, wrote in 1548 that: "When she grew up and was given to her previous husband, she conducted herself in such a way that she either equaled or surpassed her mother in disgrace, and was marked by many blemishes of lust and immodesty". He also wrote that "There are people here and there who were rolling around lasciviously with this Thaïs [a repentant courtesan]". Later, even her cousin Nicolaus "the Black" spoke unfavorably about her: "After all, she was married to Gostautas, and in this house ex usu et natura crescebat illa diabolica symulatio [diabolical simulation grew out of practice and nature]," and that she "indulged in devilish practices out of necessity and nature."

Such rumors were likely fueled by Queen Bona, as marrying a subject was not favored in the majority of highly hierarchical countries of the Western Europe, including her native Italy (in Poland-Lithuania the monarch was elected and there were no hereditary titles apart from those granted by the emperor thus seeking supporters). She expressed her concerns in a letter to the mayor of Gdańsk, Johann von Werden (1495-1554). Many renowned authors were involved in this campaign to disgrace the king's mistress, it is therefore difficult today to determine to what extent this was true.

Barbara's brother, Nicolaus "the Red", and her cousin Nicolaus "the Black", after consulting her mother Barbara Kolanka, asked the king to stop visiting their house because his relations with Barbara brought shame to the entire family. Shortly after, the king secretly married his mistress.

When Barbara became queen, her brother Nicolaus "the Red" was the superior of the guard surrounding the queen in Lithuania. The king sent him numerous letters (kept in the Imperial Library in St. Petersburg). Sigismund Augustus was afraid of Barbara being poisoned. There are detailed warnings about how the queen should drink and who should prepare her drink and he prefers that men, not women, give her a drink. The queen would also like to comply in everything with her husband's wishes. Once she asks what clothes to wear to greet him. The king replies that she should wear "a black dress of Italian fabric" (after "Biblioteka warszawska", Volume 4, p. 631). 

In the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, there is a portrait of a man holding a letter (oil on canvas, 82 x 66 cm, GG 1537). The painting comes from the the collection of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria and was recorded in the Theatrum Pictorium (number 54), before two paintings depicting Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski and King Sigismund I (numbers 56, 57), identified by me. According to an inscription in the Theatrum Pictorium, the original painting was painted by Titian (I. Titian p.), while the canvas in Vienna is signed by another Venetian painter Giampietro Silvio (1495-1552), indicating that the signature was probably not known before. 

The portrait is clearly inspired by some effigies of Martin Luther and Philipp Melanchthon by Lucas Cranach and studio and the man resembles a Protestant preacher. However, his black coat of shiny silk and rich ring on his finger indicate that he is more of an aristocrat. According to the mentioned signature of the painter on the right above his shoulder, the painting was made in 1542 (Jo.pe.S. 1542), when John Radziwill visited the Republic of Venice and Vienna.

The same man was depicted in another painting by Silvio, today in the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin (oil on canvas, 102 x 144 cm, inventory number 196). The painting was purchased in 1815 in Paris from the Giustiniani collection by Frederick William III (1770-1840), King of Prussia, with nearly 160 other works and transferred to Berlin. The collection was transferred to Paris in 1807 from Rome, where it was kept in the Giustiniani Palace built at the beginning of the 17th century and probably corresponds to the painting mentioned in the inventory of the collection of 1638 with attribution to Giorgione. The man wears a red coat of a starost or similar to the crimson żupan of the Polish-Lithuanian nobility, it was thus created after 1544. The scene depicts Christ and the Adulteress (The Adulteress Brought before Christ), illustrating the passage from the New Testament in which a group of scribes and Pharisees confront Jesus, interrupting his teaching. They bring in a woman, accusing her of committing adultery. They tell Jesus that the punishment for someone like her should be stoning, as prescribed by the Mosaic law. He declares that the one who is without sin is the one who should cast the first stone at her.

The effigy of the adulteress is believed to be a disguised portrait of a famous and "magnificent courtesan" (somtuosa meretrize) Julia Lombardo, who owned such a painting before her death in 1542 in Venice. It is not known how the painting arrived in Rome in the collection of the Genoese banker Vincenzo Giustiniani (1564-1637). Most likely, it was sent to the Eternal City shortly after its creation.

The woman resembles the effigy of Queen Barbara by the workshop of Paris Bordone at Knole House, Kent (NT 129951) and other portraits of the queen, while the face of Christ closely resembles the effigy of the brother of Barbara, Nicolaus "the Red", by workshop of Giovanni Cariani at the National Art Museum of Belarus in Minsk. He has dark hair because Christ could not have red hair, according to the known iconography.

Another version of this painting can be found in Vilnius. It comes from the collection of Dr Pranas Kiznis exhibited at the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania (oil on canvas, 118 x 163). The collection includes the portrait of Pope Leo X by Jacopino del Conte and Susanna and the Elders by Palma il Giovane. The precise provenance is not specified, however, even if the painting was acquired in Italy, where it was most likely also created, this does not exclude the identification of the same protagonists as disguised portraits of Barbara Radziwill and her brother. This painting had important political significance and therefore may have been intended for family or friends in Italy. Very little is known about Silvio, who died in Venice in 1551, probably born on Venetian territory around 1495 and who signed some of his works Joannes Petrus Silvius Venetus, thus defining himself as a Venetian. Perhaps his stay in Poland-Lithuania is yet to be discovered.

​A reduced version of the composition, closer to the Berlin painting, was in a private collection in England (oil on canvas, 43 x 75.5 cm, Sotheby's London, April 24, 2007, lot 216). It has been attributed to a follower of Rocco Marconi (d. 1529), a Venetian painter who frequently painted similar scenes. The number of copies (versions) of this painting also indicates that it is a religious scene with disguised portraits and additional meaning

Such representations in the scene of Christ and the Adulteress were popular in 16th-century Europe, especially in this context of well known "adultery". Georg Vischer's painting from the Electoral Gallery in Munich (Alte Pinakothek, inventory number 1411), dated 1637, is most likely a copy of a lost original by Albrecht Dürer from around 1520. Dürer represented himself as Christ and the adulterous woman bears the features of a mistress of Alfonso d'Este (1476-1534), Duke of Ferrara (a relative of Queen Bona Sforza) - Laura Dianti (d. 1573), called Eustochia. Laura was frequently depicted in many biblical disguises, like Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist (Uffizi Gallery in Florence and Musée Fesch in Ajaccio), Saint Mary Magdalene (private collection), Salome (private collection), all by Titian and followers and also in the scene of Jesus preaching to Laura Dianti and her great-grandson Alfonso III d'Este, Duke of Modena and Reggio by circle of Sante Peranda (Château de Chenonceau). Similar to the Berlin painting where John Radziwill was depicted in the upper left corner as a donor, such effigy is also in the painting by Vischer (a man in a green cap looking at the viewer).

In 1642, in a dispute with the d'Este family, lawyers of the Holy See even referred to the way Duke Francesco I's grandmother was depicted in a portrait from many years ago (a painting of Laura depicted like an exotic courtesan by Titian). The lack of regalia and the free convention of an "indecent" woman were, in their opinion, proof that the ruler was born out of wedlock (after "Prawna ochrona królewskich wizerunków" by Jacek Żukowski). This is why many "indecent" effigies were destroyed during the Counter-Reformation, including very probably the original by Dürer.

Another similar scene with portraits is in the Schloss Johannisburg in Aschaffenburg (inventory number 6246). It comes from the Zweibrücken gallery and may have once been in Halle Cathedral, remodeled around 1520 by Cardinal Albert of Brandenburg (1490-1545). In this painting, attributed to workshop or circle of Lucas Cranach the Elder (possibly Hans Abel), Albert was depicted in the guise of Christ and his concubine Elisabeth (Leys) Schütz (d. 1527) as the adulteress. The cardinal was also frequently depicted in other religious disguises, such as Saint Jerome, Saint Erasmus and Saint Martin and his concubine as Saint Ursula.

The same woman and man were also depicted together in another painting. This portrait is attributed to Paris Bordone, but its style reveals great similarities with certain works of Giovanni Cariani, such as the mentioned effigy of Nicolaus "the Red" in Minsk. Bordone probably copied a painting by Cariani and was inspired by his style. The painting is now in the Nivaagaard Museum in Nivå, Denmark (oil on canvas, 84.5 x 71 cm, 0009NMK) and was purchased on September 11, 1906 from Lesser, London by Danish businessman Johannes Hage (1842-1923). The dress of a young woman is very similar to that seen in a Portrait of a Young Woman by Bordone in the National Gallery, London, dated around 1545 (NG674), in a Portrait of a Lady from the Pitti Palace in Florence, dated between 1545 and 1555 (Palatina 109, 1912) or Women at their Toilet from around 1545 in the National Galleries Scotland (NG 10). The woman holds her hand on her womb as if to say that she remains chaste and the rumors are false. The man standing behind her resemble her and he is holding his hands on her arms in supportive gesture, he is obviously her brother.

The same man is depicted in another painting by Bordone in which his pose and features also resemble those of his cousin John Radziwill from a painting by Silvio in Berlin. He is holding a letter and the painting can be compared to the portrait of the royal jeweler Giovanni Jacopo Caraglio at the Wawel Royal Castle dating between 1547 and 1553. This painting comes from the collection of Graf von Galen at Haus Assen in Lippborg in northern Germany. Since the early 17th century, the Radziwill family had significant connections and properties in Germany. It was sold in 2004 in London (oil on canvas, 92.4 x 74 cm, Sotheby's, July 08, 2004, lot 300).

Among the paintings belonging to the "Victorious King" John III Sobieski (1629-1696), which could come from earlier royal collections and mentioned in the inventory of the Wilanów Palace from 1696, we find "A painting of mulieris in adulterio a Iudaeis deprehensae [a woman caught in adultery by the Jews] in gilded and carved frames" (Obraz mulieris in adulterio a Iudaeis deprehensae wramach złocistych rzniętych, No. 70). In addition to an expensive frame, this painting hung in a representative interior of the King's Antechamber, next to "A painting of Christ the Lord with the Pharisees [Christ among the doctors] in a gilded frame by Raphael" (Obraz Chrystusa Pana z Farazeuszami wramach złocistych Rafaela, No. ​69).

The inventory of paintings from the collection of Princess Louise Charlotte Radziwill (1667-1695), that survived the Deluge (1655-1660), drawn up in 1671, in addition to portraits of Queen Barbara and her husband, lists the following portraits of members of the family: Nicolaus Radziwił Dux in Ołyka et Nieśwież Palatinus Vilnen. (10), Joanes Radziwil Dux in Muszniki Archicamer. M.D.L. (15), Joanes Radziwił Dux in Olika et Nieśwież Etatis Sue 35 (17), Nicolaus Radziwił Dux Birzarum et Dubincorum, Palaitinus Vilnen. Gnalis Dux Exercitum M.D.L. (21) and many other unspecified portraits like "A person in black costume in German style, yellow hair" (271). The inventory also includes paintings such as "Lucifer with devils, painting on a sheet metal" (579/12) and "Devils [in different] postures on a panel" (584/17).

​Portrait of John Radziwill (1516-1551) holding a letter by Giampietro Silvio, 1542, Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

​Portrait of John Radziwill (1516-1551) from the Theatrum Pictorium (54) by Jan van Troyen, 1660, Princely Court Library in Waldeck.

​Christ and the Adulteress with portraits of Barbara Radziwill (1520/23-1551), her brother Nicolaus "the Red" Radziwill (1512-1584) and cousin John Radziwill (1516-1551) by Giampietro Silvio, ca. 1545-1547, Gemäldegalerie in Berlin.

​Christ and the Adulteress with portraits of Barbara Radziwill (1520/23-1551) and her brother Nicolaus "the Red" Radziwill (1512-1584) by Giampietro Silvio, ca. 1545-1547, Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania in Vilnius.

​Christ and the Adulteress with portraits of Barbara Radziwill (1520/23-1551) and her brother Nicolaus "the Red" Radziwill (1512-1584) by Giampietro Silvio, ca. 1545-1547, Private collection.

​Portrait of Barbara Radziwill (1520/23-1551) and her brother Nicolaus "the Red" Radziwill (1512-1584) by Paris Bordone, ca. 1545-1547, Nivaagaard Museum in Nivå.

​Portrait of Nicolaus "the Red" Radziwill (1512-1584) holding a letter by Paris Bordone, ca. 1550, Private collection.

Portraits of pregnant Barbara Radziwill ​

In a letter of November 26, 1547, Stanisław Andrejewicz Dowojno (d. 1566) reported to king Sigismund Augustus about miscarriage of Barbara Radziwill, whom he wed secretly sometime in 1547. Having a large number of mistresses before, during and after being married, the king remained childless. At some time the parliament was willing to legitimize and acknowledge as his successor any male heir who might be born to him. The king's mistress was undoubtedly assisted by the best Italian doctors as well as local midwives and most likely by old Lithuanian ladies "well versed in the art of magic". 
​
In a letter dated March 5, 1551 (or 1550, Dat w Krakowie V. Martii Anno Domini M. D. L. Regni numeri XXII.) to Barbara's brother Nicolaus "the Red" Radziwill, King Sigismund Augustus mentions "so that your Lordship may find a woman who would be in arte incantamentorum bene versata et perita [well versed and skilled in the art of spells], and therefore in this regard we accept with the greatest gratitude your Lordship's help, but we already have such a woman here, so there is no need for you to send her here" (Yakosz nam Twa M. pyszal, ysz za naszym do T. M. pyssanyem, y baczącz tesz tego bycz nyemalą potrzebę, wielkąsz pilnoscz Twa M. do tego przylozycz raczil, abysz W. M. mogl dostacz iakiey baby, ctoraby in arte incantamentorum bene versata et perita bela: a tak takową Twey M. w tey mierze pilnoscz barzo wdzięcznye od Twey M. przymuiemy. Alie yusz tesz thu takową babę mamy: przeto yusz nyeiesth potrzeba, abysz thu Twa M. babę iaką szlacz myal; y ieszlysz yą T. M. yusz poszlal, tedi tę babę T. M. roskasz nazad wroczycz, bo iey yusz nyepotrzeba, after "Jagiellonki polskie w XVI. wieku ..." by Aleksander Przezdziecki, Volume 1, p. 382). Such old ladies (baba in Polish) are mentioned in other letters from 1551 and one of them was also imprisoned by order of the king in Sieradz Castle, and later in Brest, because she had close relations with Queen Bona and was suspected of poisoning Barbara (after "Encyklopedia powszechna", 1860, Volume 2, p. 869).

The portrait of a lady with a servant by Jan van Calcar from the collection of Prince Leon Sapieha, sold in 1904 in Paris (panel, 97 x 72 cm, "Catalogue des tableaux anciens [...] composant la collection de M. le prince Sapieha", June 25, 1904, National Library of France, FRBNF36523528, item 17), was said to depict pregnant Barbara Radziwill (possibly lost during World War II). It shows a woman in red dress in Italian style with emerald pendant on her chest, accompanied by a midwife. The bill of a royal embroiderer, who charged the treasury for "a robe of red velvet" that he embroidered in 1549 for Queen Barbara with pearls and gold thread for 100 florins, confirms that similar dresses were in her possesion. A somewhat similar composition with a servant or midwife, showing a nobleman, his wife and son and a dog, painted by Giovanni Antonio Fasolo and dated "1558", is in the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (inv. 1937.9).

Besides the woman's resemblance to other effigies of Barbara, particularly the famous miniature by Lucas Cranach the Younger or workshop (Czartoryski Museum, inv. MNK XII-540), the title of the painting also indicates that it is chronologically correct: "Portrait of the young princess Barbara Radziwill" (Portrait de la jeune princesse Barbe Radziwill), thus created before her coronation in 1550, as well as other elements such as "her red hair" (not apparent in the black and white photo of the portrait), "decorated with a pearl tiara" (la chevelure rousse nattée, ornée d'un diadème de perles), which also correspond to known descriptions of the king's mistress and her status. The painter Jan Stephan van Calcar is considered to have died around 1546 or 1547, so the painting must have been created shortly before his death, probably in Naples.

Calacar's painting was sold with two other splendid portraits of the period. One of them, now kept in the National Museum in Warsaw (inv. 128165), is the portrait of Henry VIII of England, attributed to Hans Holbein the Younger in the catalog (item 54). The other is a portrait identified to represent Vittoria Colonna (1492-1547), Marchioness of Pescara, painted by the Venetian painter active in Rome Sebastiano del Piombo (item 77), now in the National Art Museum of Catalonia in Barcelona (oil on panel, 96 x 72.5 cm, inv. 064984-000). The collection also included a painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder and workshop - The Infant Christ as Redeemer (oil on panel, 39.1 x 25.4 cm, Christie's London, Auction 10391, December 8, 2015, lot 7), attributed to Lucas Cranach the Younger in the catalog (item 26), signed with the artist's insignia and dated 15[.]3 or 15[.]5 (poorly preserved). Other paintings sold at auction and the names of the painters are typical of Polish-Lithuanian art collections: Man and Woman Bathing by Francesco Albani (item 3), Maternity and Abraham's stop by Jacopo Bassano (items 4 and 5), The Virgin and Child with Saint John from the school of Giovanni Bellini (9), Portrait of a man in a black velvet doublet holding a letter from the school of Bronzino (16), Portrait of a man in black velvet costume lined with fur, attributed to Gonzales Coques (22), Portrait of a gentleman by Gonzales Coques (23), "Let this cup be taken away from me ..." (Matthew 26:39), Venetian school, 17th century (48), Young man wearing a fur cap, his hand resting on an armchair, school of Rembrandt (82), Cupid sitting on the golden bowl, school of Peter Paul Rubens (89), Sleeping Venus, after Titian (106).

The owner of the paintings, Prince Leon Kazimierz Sapieha (1851-1904), is not mentioned in the sources as a collector, who acquired them in different collections or auctions abroad, which indicates that the majority of the paintings were family heirlooms, evacuated from Partitioned Poland-Lithuania during the January Uprising (1863-1864). They probably come from the Sapieha Palace in Vysokaye, Belarus (Wysokie Litewskie in Polish), built between 1816-1820 by Leon Kazimierz's grandmother, Pelagia Róza Sapieżyna née Potocka (1775-1846), a renowned patron, several portraits of whom were made by Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun. The last lord of Vysokaye from the Sapieha family was Pelagia's son, Franciszek Ksawery Sapieha (1807-1882), who left permanently for Biarritz in 1863.

The portrait by Calcar is very similar in comosition to the portrait known as effigy of Sidonia von Borcke (Sidonia the Sorceress, 1548-1620), attributed to workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder. This portrait was before World War II in the Von Borcke Palace in Starogard (panel, 65 x 42 cm, destroyed), owned by a wealthy Pomeranian family of Slavic origin, along the effigy of Sophia Jagiellon (1522-1575) and her husband. According to Heinrich Gustav Schwalenberg (d. 1719), the painting came from the collection of the Dukes of Pomerania, donated by Boguslaus XIV (1580-1637), the last Duke of Pomerania.

The model's costume is German in style and similar to the costume of a wife of Barnim XI of Pomerania (relative of King Sigismund Augustus) - Anna of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1502-1568) from about 1545 (drawing from the so-called "Book of effigies" of Duke Philip II of Pomerania) or a costume of Agnes von Hayn from her 1543 portrait, both by Cranach or his workshop, the person depicted cannot therefore be Sidonia, born in 1548. Similar costumes can also be seen in several paintings by Master H.B. with Griffin Head, an artist who was probably trained in the studio of Lucas Cranach the Elder and was certainly active in the elder master's ambit in the 1540s and 1550s.

In the National Museum in Szczecin (inv. MNS/Szt/1167) there is a copy of Starogard painting. It was painted at the end of the 18th century and was located in the Strzmiele Palace, seat of the von Borcke family. According to legend, the portrait depicts the most famous member of the family in her youth and old age, hence the inscription in German (Sidonia von Borcken gestalt in ihrer Jugend wie ihrem Alter, lower right).

The woman in the painting is holding a chalice, an allusion to her patron saint, Barbara, as in a triptych by Cranach from 1506 in Dresden (Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Gal.-Nr. 1906 B, the hand is almost identical). In this portrait the family resemblance to the portraits of Barbara's mother - Barbara Kolanka (died 1550) by Cranach and his workshop, in particular her portrait as Lucretia (Alte Pinakothek in Munich, inv. 691), identified by me, is clearly visible. Title page of "Inscription on the tomb of the noble Queen Barbara Radziwill" (Napis nad grobem zacney Krolowey Barbary Radziwiłowny), a dirge (song of mourning) praising the king's beloved wife, published in Kraków in 1558, is decorated with a beautiful woodcut depicting Saint Barbara with the towers of the castle in the background. Both paintings, by Calcar and by workshop of Cranach, were undoubtedly then a part of Jagiellonian propaganda to legitimize the royal mistress as the Queen of Poland. 

Portrait of pregnant Barbara Radziwill (1520/23-1551) with a midwife by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, ca. 1546-1547, Von Borcke Palace in Starogard, most probably destroyed during World War II. Virtual reconstruction, © Marcin Latka ​

Portrait of pregnant Barbara Radziwill (1520/23-1551) with a midwife by Jan van Calcar or circle, ca. 1546-1547, collection of Prince Leon Sapieha, sold in 1904 in Paris, possibly lost during World War II. Virtual reconstruction, © Marcin Latka ​

​Portrait of Vittoria Colonna (1492-1547), Marchioness of Pescara from the Sapieha collection by Sebastiano del Piombo, ca. 1520-1525, National Art Museum of Catalonia in Barcelona.

​The Infant Christ as Redeemer from the Sapieha collection by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder or Lucas Cranach the Younger, 1530s or 1550s, Private collection.

Portrait of Barbara Radziwill by Moretto da Brescia or Jan van Calcar ​

The portrait of unkown lady in white in the National Gallery of Art in Washington (oil on canvas, 106.4 x 87.6 cm, 1939.1.230), attributed to Moretto da Brescia, a painter from the Republic of Venice who may have apprenticed with Titian, can be compared with a portrait by Jan Stephan van Calcar, a pupil of Titian, from the Sapieha collection in Paris. The latter painting, most probably lost during World War II, was said to depict pregnant second wife of Sigismund Augustus, Barbara Radziwill. Both face features as well as costume style and details are very much alike. The sitter's dress in Moretto's painting is also very similar to that visible in a miniature of a lady with a pearl necklace, wich can be identified as effigy of Bona Sforza d'Aragona, Queen of Poland, from the second half of the 1540s (Uffizi, Inv. 1890, 9005)​. This painting was originally attributed to Moretto's assistant, Luca Mombello.

The biographies of both painters are not well documented, but there are notable influences from Titian in their work. Their workplace is frequently reconstructed from the location of the surviving signed paintings. Alessandro Bonvicino (ca. 1498-1554), better known as Moretto da Brescia, may have been Titian's apprentice in Venice and modelled his early portraits on the Venetian style, while the work of Jan Steven van Calcar (ca. 1499-1546/7) in Venice is confirmed by Vasari (he entered Titian's school in 1536). It cannot be ruled out that they received their commissions from the same source. The famous tapestries of Sigismund Augustus, part of which are preserved in Wawel Castle in Kraków, are a perfect example of the fact that such large commissions from the King of Poland could not have been carried out by a single workshop. Although the initial design (cartoon) for the fabrics created in Flanders was usually made by one or two artists, such as the central scenes by Michiel Coxie (1499-1592) and Cornelis Floris de Vriendt (1514-1575), the work was executed by different workshops. It is assumed that the tapestries were created by eight workshops (six identifiable masters and two anonymous), who left their signatures on some of the fabrics (cf. "Ze studiów nad znakami tkackimi w kolekcji arrasów Zygmunta Augusta" by Magdalena Piwocka, p. 141). The portrait of Sigismund Augustus in the Prado (inv. P000262), attributed to Giovanni Battista Moroni, who trained with Moretto in Brescia, where he was the principal assistant in the workshop in the 1540s, was listed in the 1794 inventory of the Buen Retiro Palace in Madrid as a pendant to the portrait of the king's third wife, Catherine of Austria (inv. P000487), attributed to Titian, both identified by me. However, in the mentioned inventory of the Buen Retiro, both paintings were considered works by Titian (Otra [pintura] de Tiziano, numbers 383, 402).

The bill of a royal embroiderer of Sigismund Augustus, who charged the treasury for "a robe of white tabinet" that he embroidered in 1549 for Queen Barbara "with a wide row of goldcloth and green velvet" for 15 florins, confirms that similar dresses were in her possesion. The Queen's taylor was an Italian Francesco, who was admitted to her service in Vilnius on 2 May 1548 with annual salary of gr. 30 fl. 30. In May 1543 during entry to Kraków for coronation of Elizabeth of Austria, the lords and knights of the Kingdom were dressed in all sorts of costumes, including Italian, French and Spanish, while the young king Sigismund Augustus was dressed in German style, probably as a courtesy for Elizabeth. The inventory of dowry of Sigismund Augustus' sister Catherine Jagiellon from 1562 includes 13 French and Spanish robes.

The painting in Washington comes from the collection of Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi (1878-1955) in Rome and Florence, who also owned the portrait of Sigismund Augustus by Francesco Salviati (Mint Museum of Art, 39.1) and portraits of the king and his third wife by Tintoretto or Titian (Uffizi Gallery and National Museum of Serbia), sold in 1936 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. Earlier, the portrait was in the Rocca collection in Como near Milan (after "Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools: XV-XVI century" by Fern Rusk Shapley, p. 92). Nothing more is known about this provenance, but in Como there was the famous Museo Gioviano with an important collection of portraits of many contemporary personalities, assembled by Paolo Giovio (Paulus Jovius, 1483-1552), bishop of Nocera de' Pagani. The bishop received and commissioned many reliable effigies of European monarchs and since in his writings he praised Sarmatia, the city of Kraków, King Sigismund I, his daughter Isabella, Hieronim Łaski and Jan Amor Tarnowski (comapre "L'immagine della Polonia in Italia ..." by Andrea Ceccherelli, p. 329, 331), he must have had many portraits related to Poland-Lithuania-Ruthenia.

In 2024, on the occasion of the temporary exhibition at the Santa Giulia Museum in Brescia, it was suggested that Washington portrait depicts Eleonora Gonzaga di Sabbioneta (d. 1545), who married Count Girolamo Martinengo di Padernello (1519-1570), captain of the Serenissima, in a sumptuous ceremony at the Doge's Palace in Venice on February 4, 1543. In January 1543, the Martinengo family summoned Moretto to their palace and entrusted him with the task of depicting Gerolamo. They wanted the painter to make two large canvases (approximately 120 x 87 cm) to be placed side by side. Portrait of a Man, previously attributed to Girolamo Romanino and now to Moretto, held at the Lechi Museum (oil on canvas, 83.8 x 67.8 cm, inv. MLM27) is identified as this particular portrait of Count Girolamo and is said to have been cut at a later date. The Washington portrait, although not of corresponding composition, is believed to be the counterpart depicting Eleonora. On the occasion of his marriage to Eleonora, Girolamo also commissioned a cycle of splendid frescoes in his Palazzo Martinengo di Padernello Salvadego in Brescia (La Sala delle Dame) depicting eight Martinengo ladies seated on a balustrade against a landscape background, painted by Moretto between 1543-1546 - the description given by the rector Girolamo Contarini on the occasion of the wedding speaks of six ladies - vi sono retrate dal naturale 6 gentildone bresane belle (letter of February 7, 1543). The painter undoubtedly depicted the Count's wife among the ladies, but none of them resemble the woman in Washington portrait, and their dresses are less sumptuous. If the new Countess Martinengo was indeed depicted in a dress fit for a queen, she would undoubtedly be depicted in the same way on the fresco in her palace.

A portrait of Queen Barbara (item 19) is mentioned among the Italian paintings in the collection of Prince Boguslaus Radziwill (1620-1669) in 1657 (Central Archives of Historical Records in Warsaw - AGAD, 1/354/0/26/79.2).​ The inventory of paintings in the Radziwill collection from 1671 lists two portraits of "Barbara Radziwill, Queen of Poland" (Barbara Radziwiłówna królowa polska, items 79/9 and 115/14) as well as a portrait of "A lady in a white dress, with jewels, a crown on her head" (Dama w szacie białej, w klejnociech, korona na głowie, item 71/1, after "Inwentarz galerii obrazów Radziwiłłów z XVII w." by Teresa Sulerzyska). 

Portrait of Barbara Radziwill (1520/23-1551) in white by Moretto da Brescia or Jan van Calcar, ca. 1546-1548, National Gallery of Art, Washington.

Portraits of Sigismund II Augustus by Jan van Calcar or Moretto da Brescia

Sometime in 1547, in spite of his mother's disapproval and nobility's animosity, Sigismund Augustus, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania secretly wed his mistress Barbara Radziwill, a Lithuanian noblewoman whom he met in 1543. 

The portrait attributed to Jan van Calcar (oil on canvas, 125.5 x 92 cm, sold at Dorotheum in Vienna, April 14, 2005, lot 12), shows a young man (Sigismund Augustus was 26 in 1546). He stands against ancient buildings similar to a reconstruction of the Mausoleum of Emperor Augustus in Rome published in 1575 (the king born on 1 August was named after the first Roman Emperor Gaius Octavius Augustus) and the king's castrum doloris in Rome in 1572 or obelisk visible in the portrait of royal jeweller Giovanni Jacopo Caraglio from about 1553. The painting comes from the collection of John Rushout, 2nd Baron Northwick (1770-1859), an avid collector of works of art, antiques and coins, most likely acquired in Italy in 1790. In the "Catalogue of the pictures, works of art, &c. at Northwick Park" from 1864, it was listed with attribution to Parmigianino as "Portrait of Cosmo de Medici" (No. 34).

The presumed author Jan van Calcar, a pupil of Titian in Venice, moved to Naples in about 1543, where he died before 1550. Sigismund's mother Bona Sforza was a granddaughter of Alfonso II, King of Naples and from 1524 she was a Duchess of nearby Bari and Rossano. 

According to the accounts of Sigismund Augustus by a courtier Stanisław Wlossek from 1545 to 1548, the king had "robes lined with lynx, short Italian", robes of black velvet and stockings of "black ermestno silk", black suede shoes, etc. The register of his clothes from 1572 includes Italian, German and Persian robes valued at 5351 zlotys.

The portrait could be a pendant to a portrait of Barbara Radziwill in similar dimensions attributed to Moretto da Brescia (National Gallery of Art, 1939.1.230), which could also be attributed to Calcar, just as previously the portrait of the man described here was attributed to Moretto da Brescia, and inversely.

The man is holding in his right hand a red carnation flower, a symbol of passion, love, affection and betrothal.

The same sitter is also depicted in the portrait in Vienna (Kunsthistorisches Museum, oil on canvas, 86.5 x 59 cm, inventory number GG 79), signed by Calcar (. eapolis f. / Stephanus / Calcarius), and in the painting attributed to Francesco Salviati, who stayed for a brief time in Venice, in the Mint Museum (oil on panel, 109.2 x 82.9 cm, 39.1). According to the inscription, the Vienna painting was painted in Naples and was evidenced in the Imperial Gallery in 1772, so it was probably a gift to the Habsburgs. While the painting by Salviati comes from the collection of Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi (1878-1955) in Rome and Florence, who also owned the mentioned portrait of the king's second wife Barbara Radziwill and portraits of Sigismund Augustus and his third wife by Tintoretto or Titian (Uffizi Gallery and National Museum of Serbia), sold to Samuel Henry Kress on 1 Septemeber 1939.

Gold medal of Sigismund II Augustus on the occasion of birthday anniversary and coronation with bust and coat of arms of the young king was made by less known medalier Domenico Veneziano (Dominicus Venetus, Dominic of Venice) in 1548 - inscription "Sigismund Augustus, King of Poland, Grand Duke of Lithuania, aged 29" (SIGIS[mundus] AVG[ustus] REX POLO[niae] MG[magnus] DVX LIT[huaniae] AET[atis] S[uae] XXIX), today in the Ossolineum in Wrocław (inventory number G 1611). He signed his work on the reverse around the Polish Eagle: "Domenico Veneziano made [me] in the year of Our Lord 1548" (ANO D[omini] NRI[nostri] M.D.XLVIII. DOMINICVS VENETVS FECIT.). 

Portrait of Sigismund II Augustus (1520-1572) by Jan van Calcar or Moretto da Brescia, ca. 1546-1548, Private collection. ​

Portrait of Sigismund II Augustus (1520-1572) with gloves by Jan van Calcar, 1540s, Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

Portrait of Sigismund II Augustus (1520-1572) with gloves, attributed to Francesco Salviati, 1540s, Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte.

Disguised portraits of Barbara Radziwill and Tullia d'Aragona by Moretto da Brescia and workshop

​Barbara Radziwill (1520/23-1551), mistress and future wife of King Sigismund Augustus, owned one of the most beautiful clothes in Renaissance Europe. In addition to the national fashion, as confirmed by the miniatures of Lucas Cranach the Younger and his circle (Czartoryski Museum, inv. MNK XII-540 and MNK IV-V-1433), she undoubtedly dressed in the Italian style, preferred by her husband, in the French and Spanish styles like the sisters of Sigismund Augustus (such dressed are mentioned in the dowry of Catherine Jagiellon from 1562) and German style. In a letter written on August 25, 1548 to Barbara's brother Nicholaus "the Red" (1512-1584), Sigismund Augustus asks for Barbara to welcome him in Radom "in a black dress of Italian fabric" (Tedy niechaj Jej K. M. w szacie czarnej z sukna włoskiego i także też w płachtach nie miąższych jakoby rańtuchach jechać i nas witać tamże raczyła, after "Monografja historyczna miasta Radomia" by Jan Luboński, p. 18).

In addition to money, usually 100-200 florins, Barbara often presented valuable fabrics to her ladies-in-waiting who were getting married. Such gifts came to Katarzyna Komorowska (May 12, 1549), Anna Gnojeńska (June 18, 1549), Anna Podlodowska (April 20, 1550), Barbara Kobylińska and Anna Sienieńska (November 9, 1550). The latter received 200 florins in cash and various fabrics, including 20 ells of white damask, undoubtedly intended for a wedding outfit. After Barbara's death, no clothing or other items of the queen were distributed to her female court, as was the case after the death of the king's first wife, Elizabeth of Austria (1526-1545). Sigismund Augustus kept them for himself in his personal treasury until the end of his life. Some of Barbara's clothes remained in the custody of Stanisław Gzowski, who in 1550 was employed as a separate official (or servant) in the queen's treasury (in servicium thesauri Maiestatis Reginalis). 

The severance payments of Barbara's court were truly royal and covered by the royal treasury. The Lithuanian treasury paid 2,521 florins in cash for the female court (curia feminei sexus) and male servants (curia masculinum), in addition to various payments in kind. Several of her courtiers were included in the king's court after Barbara's death, such as the Queen's Ruthenian Notary (notarius Ruthenicus Maiestatis Reginalis) Yan Nikolayevich Hayka (Jan Mikołajewicz Hajko), the queen's physician Piotr from Poznań, and the queen's tailor, the Italian Francesco. The same happened to the late queen's pages (cubiculares minores) Marcin Chocimowski, Szczęsny (Feliks) Chodorowski, Łukasz Jaktorowski, Stanisław Jundziłło, Jan Karp (Carpio), Jan Przeczen, Jan Radzanowski, Jan Rupniowski and Prince Maksymilian Vyshnevetsky. Barbara's favourite, the dwarf Okuliński, also remained with the king. Her women's court turned out to be unnecessary, so the matrons and other ladies were dismissed from service. First, three matrons received their severance pay: Barbara Słupecka née Firlej, Katarzyna Chocimowska and Katarzyna Łagiewnicka. The chief lady-in-waiting, who was Słupecka, received 200 florins in cash and 20 ells of velvet and satin. The ladies of the court, whose group consisted of eight girls, were also richly endowed: Eufemia Chocimowska, Dorota Cybulska, Czarnocka, Katarzyna Czuryłówna, Katarzyna Łaganowska (Laganka), Zofia Łaska, Skotnicka and Zofia Świdzińska. Each of them received 200 florins and a large set of various fabrics for clothing, including 20 ells of velvet, 20 ells of damask, 10 ells of gold cloth, 81/2 ells of ermestno (armezyn) silk. In addition, each lady-in-waiting received a golden cap (peplum aureum) and a ring with a precious stone (anulum cum lapillo).

The Queen's personal maids (ancillae in servitio privato) each received 100 florins and 20 ells of damask, 2 ells of lace and 1 ell of Cologne linen, gold bonnets and rings with precious stones. Four maids (ancillae in conclavi) also received a generous severance pay. Eudocja, probably Barbara's most trusted maid, received 100 florins and 20 ells of damask. Miss Krzeczowska received 40 florins and 20 ells of damask and 2 ells of lace, Miss Rylska received 20 florins and 7 ells of stamet wool fabric and 2 ells of velvet. The same severance pay as Rylska was also paid to the dwarf Kaśka, who, of the queen's two female dwarves (the other was Zośka), remained in the court service until the end of the court's activity (after "Pogrzeb Barbary Radziwiłłówny i odprawa jej królewskiego dworu (1551)" by Agnieszka Marchwińska, p. 108-112). 

This gives an impression of the splendor and wealth of the court of the king's second wife, which, as in other European countries, must have found a suitable reflection in the portraits. Ladies gifted with rich fabrics, from which fashionable dresses were made, like the queen and ladies of other European courts, certainly took appropriate care to commemorate their appearance.

The Museum in Nysa houses a portrait of a lady in a black French-style dress and a velvet coat lined with expensive lynx fur, attributed to the Italian school (oil on canvas, 74 x 53.5 cm). Due to the richness of the woman's attire, the colour of her coat and the attribute of the palm branch, the image is considered to represent Saint Barbara. The pearls in her hair indicate her wealth and status and could refer to female suffering (compare "Mistrzowie sztuki Europejskiej. Sacrum Rzeczywistości - ze zbiorów Muzeum Powiatowego w Nysie" by Robert Kołakowski, p. 13, 16, 23). In addition to the palm branch, the woman also holds a fragment of breaking wheel in her hands. The saint is therefore not Barbara, but Catherine of Alexandria, a Christian virgin who was martyred around the age of 18. According to her hagiography, Saint Catherine was both a princess and a renowned scholar. She is the patron saint of unmarried women and venerated in the Orthodox and Catholic Churches. In this respect, the painting can be compared to the portrait of Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana, 1504-1558) in Ottoman costume, with a broken wheel and halo, painted by Titian's workshop in 1542 (Uffizi Gallery in Florence, inv. 1890, 909). Through the Mystical Marriage, Saint Catherine united herself spiritually and consecrated herself to Christ. Barbara's coronation celebrations, organized with the utmost discretion, were planned for "Saint Catherine's Day", that is, November 25, 1550. However, the sudden deterioration of her health delayed the coronation by two weeks (December 7, 1550). Before this date, the work of gilding and painting the new altar of Wawel Cathedral, with a central painting created in Venice in 1547 by Pietro degli Ingannati, had undoubtedly been completed (after "Renesansowy ołtarz główny Bodzentynie" by Paweł Pencakowski, p. 117).

The facial features of a woman, although less idealised, are very similar to the face of "The Lady in White" by Alessandro Bonvicino (d. 1554), better known as Moretto da Brescia in the National Art Gallery in Washington (inv. 1939.1.230), which according to my identification is a portrait of Barbara Radziwill. Her face and hairstyle also resemble the adulterous woman in Giampietro Silvio's painting in the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania in Vilnius and a copy in a private collection, which are also disguised portraits of Sigismund Augustus' second wife. The painting comes from the collection of Count Heinrich Pohl in Kałków near Otmuchów. The Pohl family owned the Kałków estate from around 1830. The collection was most likely created by Alfred Pohl and his sister Marie is also mentioned in pre-war literature as the owner of the paintings. The collection included more than twenty paintings by Silesian, Italian, Flemish and German artists. The earlier history of this painting is unknown, however, the nearby town of Otmuchów was the seat of Bishop Charles Ferdinand Vasa (1613-1655), great-grandson of Sigismund I and Bona Sforza, as well as Bishop Francis Louis of Palatinate-Neuburg (1664-1732), son of Philip William of Neuburg (1615-1690), who before marrying Francis Louis' mother had married the great-granddaughter of Sigismund I and Bona - Anna Catherine Constance Vasa (1619-1651).

The style of this portrait is very similar to that of a painting in a private collection in Switzerland, which depicts a woman as Saint Agnes. The pose and costume of the woman are also similar, as if the two paintings were counterparts. The painting in Switzerland is attributed to Moretto da Brescia. Two copies of "Saint Agnes" are known, one that was probably in the Maffei collection in Brescia in 1760, is attributed to Francesco Prata da Caravaggio (Wannenes in Genoa, Auction 282, March 3, 2016, lot 103). The other, attributed to the circle of Moretto da Brescia, but closer to the style of Paris Bordone, is also in a private collection (Christie's London, Auction 7822, December 5, 1997, lot 258). Saint Agnes of Rome, a fourth-century virgin martyr, is the patron saint of chastity and of virgins and victims of sexual abuse. Agnes, born into Roman nobility, as the young girl had taken a vow of chastity to Jesus. Her high-ranking suitors, scorned by her staunch devotion to religious purity, sought to persecute her for her beliefs. The prefect Sempronius sentenced Agnes to be dragged naked through the streets to a brothel. She was martyred on January 21, 304, at the age of 12 or 13. The pose of the woman depicted as Saint Agnes recalls another similar painting attributed to Moretto da Brescia - Salome, now preserved in the Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo in Brescia (inv. 81), which, like the paintings of Saint Agnes, is dated around 1540. In the painting of Salome, the model's face is more elongated, but in this work, the woman's lips are parted. It comes from the collection of Count Teodoro Lechi (1778-1866) in Brescia and depicts her dressed in expensive clothes and rich fur, holding a golden scepter in her left hand. The woman rests on a marble slab on which is inscribed QVAE SACRV[M] IOANIS / CAPVT SALTANDO / OBTINVIT, which means "She who obtained the head of Saint John by dancing". The background depicts laurels, symbol of poets and victory. Since the beginning of the 19th century, this painting has been considered a disguised portrait of Tullia d'Aragona (d. 1556), an Italian poet, writer and philosopher, born in Rome (around 1501, 1505 or 1510), who travelled through Venice, Ferrara, Siena and Florence. It was reproduced under the title Tullia d'Aragona / Dal quadro di Bonvicini detto il Moretto in the first volume of complete biographies published by Antonio Locatelli (1786-1848) in 1837 (Iconografia italiana degli uomini e delle donne celebri ..., Volume 1, p. 380). Tullia is considered a courtesan and one of the best writers, poets and philosophers of her time. She was the daughter of the Ferrarese courtesan Giulia Campana and, most likely, of Cardinal Luigi d'Aragona (1474-1519), grandson of Ferdinand I, King of Naples and as such a relative of Queen Bona Sforza. Around 1526, she became involved with Filippo Strozzi, a Florentine banking magnate and Penelope d'Aragona, born in 1535, is considered her daughter (or sister). In 1543, she married Silvestro Guicciardi in Siena and in October 1548, she returned to Rome.

The disguise as Saint Agnes of Rome is perfectly suited to the courtesan and poetess born in Rome. Moretto or his workshop depicted the same woman in a painting of a half-naked Venus with Cupid, now in a private collection in Milan, formerly in the Tempini collection in Brescia (oil on canvas, 118 x 210 cm, Fototeca Zeri, Numero scheda: 42311). This is most likely the same painting mentioned in 1820 in the Fenaroli collection in Brescia (Quadro per traverso rappresentante una Venere con Amorino al naturale del Moretto). The two columns with the curtains tied around them are thought to be a reference to the emblem and motto of Emperor Charles V - Plus oultre ("further beyond") in French, so the woman depicted in the painting was perhaps challenging the male domination and power of the emperor over Italy.

Perhaps another portrait by Moretto, evacuated to France after the November Uprising (1830-1831), inspired the image of Barbara Radziwill by Józef Szymon Kurowski (1809-1851), who was active in Paris since 1832. This highly idealized portrait resembles the Washington painting (notably the details of the costume, the ruff and the necklace) and was published in 1835-1836 in Paris in La Pologne historique, littéraire, monumentale et pittoresque ... by Leonard Chodźko (Barbe Radziwiłł, Branche sculp/t., Kurovski pinx/t., Volume 1, p. 92/93). Many portraits in this publication are based on authentic effigies, such as the image of Jan Amor Tarnowski (Jean Tarnowski, 1488-1561, Volume 2, p. 16/17). Bonvicino, who created realistic effigies of Saint Lawrence Justinian (Lorenzo Giustiniani, 1381-1456) almost a century after his death (paintings in the Provincial House of the Society of Jesus in Gallarate and in the Diocesan Museum in Brescia), probably drew inspiration from other effigies of Sigismund Augustus' beloved to create her portraits. Interestingly, the portrait of the king by Paris Bordone from the Château de Gourdon (Christie's Paris, auction 1000, March 31, 2011, lot 487), identified by me, was previously attributed to a follower of Moretto da Brescia, indicating that the two painters could cooperate or copy the portraits commissioned by the Polish-Lithuanian-Ruthenian court. 

One of the few paintings by Bonvicino, apart from the described portrait in Nysa, that has survived in Poland, is now in the National Museum in Warsaw (inv. 130253 MNW). It was purchased in 1948 from a private collection and depicts a woman in an allegorical disguise. The painting in Nysa was clearly painted by the same painter as Venus in Milan, which is particularly evident in the rendering of the fabrics in both paintings (especially the crimson coat and the green curtains).

​Very similar rendering of crimson velvet fabrics are found in the small horizontal painting, now in the National Museum in Warsaw. It comes from a private collection in Kraków and represents the Adoration of the Magi (oil on panel, 56 x 80 cm, inv. 186925 MNW). The work is attributed to Francesco Bassano the Younger (1549-1592), but its style is closer to works attributed to Moretto, such as The Holy Family in a Landscape, probably from the Lutomirski collection in Milan (Sotheby's New York, January 30, 2021, lot 513). The turbans were painted in a similar manner in Moretto's Entombment of 1554, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (inv. 12.61) or a painting from the Roman collection of the Swedish sculptor Johan Niclas Byström (1783-1848), now in Stockholm (Nationalmuseum, inv. NM 118). The central figure of Saint Caspar is almost identical to the effigy of a Polish nobleman (Ein Polnischer Adliger) in the Bavarian State Library in Munich (Kostüme der Männer und Frauen in Augsburg und Nürnberg, Deutschland, Europa, Orient und Afrika, p. 34r, BSB Cod.icon. 341). It is interesting to note that Ottoman costumes and turbans were also popular in Sarmatia at that time. In May 1543, Turkish and Tatar costumes were among the costumes in which the Sarmatian participants in the solemn entry of Elizabeth of Austria into Kraków were dressed. The members of the Radziwills' private army were dressed in Polish style, accompanied by six Tatars in yellow satin and four black men to lead the horses. To meet his wife after her arrival in Sarmatia, Sigismund Augustus rode on horseback, dressed in black Neapolitan clothes, accompanied by 100 gentlemen and courtiers dressed in the same way, among whom were his cousin Duke Albert of Prussia, the castellan of Kraków Jan Amor Tarnowski with his son, the castellan of Poznań Andrzej Górka, the Grand Chancellor of the Crown Paweł Wolski, the Radziwills and other dignitaries (after "Zygmunt August" by Stanisław Cynarski, p. 35, 53). 

​Portrait of Barbara Radziwill (1520/23-1551) as Saint Catherine of Alexandria by Moretto da Brescia and workshop, ca. 1545-1551, Museum in Nysa.

​Portrait of Tullia d'Aragona (d. 1556) as Saint Agnes of Rome by Moretto da Brescia, 1540s, Private collection.

​Portrait of Tullia d'Aragona (d. 1556) as Venus and Cupid by Moretto da Brescia and workshop, 1540s, Private collection.

​Adoration of the Magi with men in Sarmatian costumes by workshop of Moretto da Brescia, 1540s, National Museum in Warsaw. 

Portraits of Sigismund Augustus and royal jeweller Giovanni Jacopo Caraglio by Paris Bordone and workshop

In 1972 the portrait of royal jeweller Giovanni Jacopo Caraglio was offered to the Wawel Royal Castle in Kraków by Julian Godlewski (inv. ZKnW-PZS 5882). After 1795, when Poland lost its independence, the castle, which was consumed by destructive fire in 1702 and ransacked several times by different invaders, was converted into barracks and a military hospital and almost no traces of the former royal splendor have been preserved in it. Before 1664 the painting was probably in the Muselli collection in Verona.

Caraglio was born in Verona in the Venetian Republic around 1500 or 1505. He was active in his hometown, as well as in Rome and Venice. In Italy he was known mainly as a copper engraver and medalist. He came to Kraków around 1538 as a recognized artist. After arriving at the Jagiellonian court, he probably parted with graphic art and devoted himself exclusively to goldsmithing and jewellery, making mainly gems with images of members of the royal family. In recognition of his merits, Sigismund Augustus ennobled him in 1552. Caraglio was also a citizen of the capital city of Kraków, and together with his wife, Katarzyna, born there, he lived in a house he bought outside the city walls - in Czarna Wieś. He had a son Ludwik and a daughter Katarzyna. 

During his long stay in Poland, the artist certainly made many trips to Italy. This is evidenced, among other things, by Vasari's fairly good knowledge of his life and work. We learn about one of his trips to Italy - probably on business - from the accounts prepared by Justus Decius. The bill from April 1553, apart from listing the expenses for the ores by Caraglio, contains inter alia, the entry referring to him: pro viatico itineris in Italiam (provision for a journey to Italy) (after "Caraglio w Polsce" by Jerzy Wojciechowski, p. 29).

The portrait of Caraglio was in the 17th century attributed to Titian and later to Bordone, who lived in Venice from October 1552 and earlier in Milan between 1548-1552. Caraglio receives or humbly offers a medallion with king's effigy (probably made by himself) to the Polish Royal Eagle with monogram SA of Sigismund Augustus on his chest. The eagle is standing on a gold helmet among other works and utensils necessary to the goldsmith. In 1552 Caraglio went to Vilnius to make a gilded shield for the king encircled with golden roses with a cross in red enamel and three other silver shields decorated with an ornament of eagles' heads (Exposita pro ornandis scutis S.M.R. per Ioannem Iacobum Caralium Italum 1553), together with three other goldsmiths Gaspare da Castiglione, Grzegorz of Stradom and Łukasz Susski. In the background there is an obelisk and Roman amphitheatre, identified as symbol of Verona - Arena di Verona. According to the inscription in Latin on the base of the column, he was 47 years of age (ATATIS / SVAE / ANN[O] / ХХХХ / VII) at the time when the painting was created, however his face seems to be much younger. Based on this inscription, it is generally believed that the painting was painted between 1547-1553, possibly during his confirmed stay in Italy in 1553, however, it cannot be ruled out that it was based on a drawing or miniature sent from Poland. Caraglio probably gave this portrait to his sister Margherita, who lived in Verona.

In the vicinity of Parma, in the town of Sancti Buseti, the artist bought a house with land and vineyards. Caraglio intended to leave the court of Sigismund Augustus in his old age and return to Italy. However, he did not fulfill his intentions, he died in Kraków around August 26, 1565 and was buried in the Carmelite Church of the Visitation, which was largely destroyed during the Deluge (1655-1660). He bequeathed the house in Verona to Elisabetta, his sister's granddaughter. The artist's wife, Katarzyna, remarried to an Italian shoemaker, Scipio de Grandis.

The same man as in the Wawel painting was depicted in the work sold in Vienna in 2012 (oil on canvas, 61.5 x 53 cm, Dorotheum, December 13, 2012, lot 12). He wears similar costume, there is a similar column behind him and the fabric in the background and the style of whole painting is very close to Paris Bordone and his workshop, comparable to portrait of a man in the Louvre, identified as effigy of Thomas Stahel, which is dated "1540".

The portrait was sold in Austria, while Caraglio travelled to nearby Slovakia in 1557, where he stayed at the court of Olbracht Łaski (1536-1604), a Polish nobleman, alchemist and courtier, in Kežmarok. At the age of twelve, Łaski was sent to the court of Emperor Charles V, who recommended him to his brother Ferdinand of Austria. He returned to Poland in 1551 and in 1553 he went to Vienna, where he became the secretary of Catherine of Austria, who became the third wife of King Sigismund Augustus. In 1556 he visited Poland again, where he met the rich widow Katarzyna Seredy née Buczyńska. Their wedding took place in 1558 in Kežmarok. It is possible that either Łaski or the Habsburgs received a portrait of the famous jeweller of the Polish king.

Caraglio undoubtedly also acted as an intermediary in commissions for effigies of his patron king Sigismund Augustus. In 2011 a small portrait of a bearded man from the collection of Château de Gourdon near Nice in southern France was sold at auction in Paris (oil on canvas, 39.8 x 31.5 cm, Christie's, March 30, 2011, lot 487). It was initally attributed to follower of Moretto da Brescia, and later to Paris Bordone, and dated to the 1550s. Its previous provenance is not known. Collections of the medieval Gourdon Castle were spared during the French Revolution. Extanded by the Lombards in the 17th century, the castle was bequeathed by Jean Paul II de Lombard to his nephew the Marquis de Villeneuve-Bargemon, whose heirs sold the residence in 1918 to an American, Miss Noris, who opened a museum in 1938. Occupied during the Second World War by the Germans, then restored by Countess Zalewska, it was later acquired by French businessman Laurent Negro (1929-1996). It is therefore possible that the painting was sent from Venice to France already in the 16th century or brought from Poland by Countess Zalewska or her ancestors. 

Bordone painted a second, slightly larger version of this portrait (oil on canvas, 57.2 x 41.9 cm) which was in the collection of Marquess of Ailesbury in England and later with the Hallsborough Gallery in London.
​ 
"The dress of both figures is understated but clearly luxurious, and conveys the sitters' importance without the need for opulence" (after Sphinx Fine Art catalogue entry). The man's facial features, red beard and dark hair correspond perfectly with other other effigies of king Sigismund Augustus by Bordone, Moretto da Brescia or Jan van Calcar, Francesco Salviati and Tintoretto, identified by me.

Like in the case of portrait of Anna of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1502-1568), wife of Barnim XI of Pomerania by Lucas Cranach the Elder and portrait of John III Sobieski with the Order of the Holy Spirit by Prosper Henricus Lankrink, the artist may not have seen the model at all, but with detailed drawings with descriptions of colors and fabrics, he was able to produce a work with a great deal of craftsmanship and resemblance.

Portrait of Sigismund II Augustus (1520-1572), from the Château de Gourdon, by Paris Bordone, 1547-1553, Private collection.

Portrait of Sigismund II Augustus (1520-1572), from the Ailesbury collection, by Paris Bordone, 1547-1553, Private collection.

Portrait of royal jeweller Giovanni Jacopo Caraglio (1500/1505-1565) by workshop of Paris Bordone, 1547-1553, Private collection.

Portraits of Barbara Radziwill and Sigismund Augustus by Lambert Sustris and circle of Titian

"I saw, in a word, so many jewels that I had never expected to find gathered in one place, and with which the Venetian and papal jewels, which I also saw, cannot be compared", admiringly describes the enormous collection of jewels of King Sigismund Augustus in 1560, Berardo Bongiovanni (d. 1574), Bishop of Camerino (1537-1574) and Apostolic Nuncio to Poland (1560-1563).

The nuncio adds that the king was "extremely fond of jewels" and that "he has a table in his room from wall to wall, on which stand sixteen boxes, two spans long, one and a half wide, filled with jewels. Four of them, worth 200,000 scudos, were sent to him by his mother from Naples. The king himself bought four others for 550,000 gold scudi, among which is a ruby ​​of Charles V, worth 80,000 gold scudi, and his diamond medal the size of Agnus Dei, having on one side an eagle with the coat of arms of Spain, on the other two columns with the inscription plus ultra. Besides these, a multitude of rubies, sharp and square emeralds. The remaining eight contained ancient jewels, among others a cap full of rubies, emeralds and diamonds worth 300,000 gold scudi. [...] In addition to the silver used by the king and queen, there is in the treasury 15,000 pounds of gilded silver, which no one uses. There are clocks as big as a man with figures, organs and other instruments, a globe with all the heavenly signs, basins, vessels with all kinds of animals of the earth and the sea. Moreover, gilded bowls, which are given by bishops, voivodes, castellans, starosts and other officials when they are appointed by the king. [...] They then showed me the clothes for twenty pages, with gold chains, each worth 800 Hungarian ducats, and many other rare and valuable things, which would be too long to enumerate" (after "Relacye nuncyuszów apostolskich ..." by Erazm Rykaczewski, Volume 1, p. 99-100). 

This great wealth and splendor of jewelry and costumes, no doubt, as in Italy or Spain, was reflected in the portraits. The king presented many magnificent jewels to his beloved wife Barbara, who was depicted in costumes adorned with these jewels. Sigismund Augustus's second wife was particularly fond of pearls, as evidenced by portraits of her wearing a crown and a headdress (or rather a hood or a sort of balaclava) entirely embroidered with pearls, such as an 18th-century painting in the National Museum in Warsaw (inv. MP 4774 MNW). The king ordered his agents to acquire the most magnificent pearls, primarily on the Dutch market, where they were brought by ships from India. According to Marian Rosco-Bogdanowicz (1862-1955), chamberlain to Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria, between 1914 and 1916, one of the curators at the British Museum in London discovered correspondence from Queen Elizabeth I of England, in which she ordered her agents in Poland to purchase Barbara's pearls for her (after "Królewskie kariery warszawianek" by Stanisław Szenic, p. 42-43). Two portraits of Barbara Radziwill are mentioned in the 1671 inventory of Princess Louise Charlotte Radziwill (1667-1695) (items 79 and 115, after "Inwentarz galerii obrazów Radziwiłłów z XVII w." by Teresa Sulerzyska). The princess also owned the "Full-length marble statue of Queen Barbara" (after "Mitra i buława ..." by Tadeusz Bernatowicz, p. 137).

Barbara was a great elegant woman of her time. In her letter from Kraków to her mother, Barbara Kolanka (dated July 4, 1549), she demanded a delivery of bielidło (white face powder) from Lithuania. She spent a lot of time on her toilet. Therefore, her contemporaries criticized her "lazy dressing" and lamented the fact that the king and dignitaries waited hours for her to "dawdle" (according to a letter from Nicolaus "the Black" to Nicolaus "the Red" from Kraków, dated July 4, 1549 and a letter from Stanisław Koszucki to Radziwill "the Red", dated August 14, 1549 from Kraków). "The sister is worse in anger than the old one [Bona Sforza], only she is stupid, so she cannot fuss like Bona; we hear nothing else from her, only the fury and stubbornness of a woman, and her customs are almost peasant [or Italian, according to the interpretation of the ambiguous word]", Radziwill the Black wrote angrily. Barbara's unpleasant and explosive temper, her "feminine sulkiness", her excessive love of clothes, combined with her lack of sense of time, her inability to get along with people - all this contributed to her unpopularity (after "Życiorysy historyczne, literackie i legendarne" by Zofia Stefanowska, Janusz Tazbir, Volume 1, p. 69). Her contemporaries were astonished that she, who had not given offspring to her husband, the last Jagiellon, "benefit from this grace that no queen of the Polish crown has ever benefited from so much from her husband" (after "Kobieta w dawnej Polsce" by Łucja Charewiczowa, p. 24, 27).

In the 18th century, with the growing popularity of the story of Mary, Queen of Scots, the portrait of an unknown lady, so-called Carleton portrait in Chatsworth House (oil on canvas, 182.9 x 108 cm, inv. PA 725), was identified as her effigy due to similarity with a print by Hieronymus Cock from about 1556 and history of the Chatsworth House. Numerous prints and copies of this portrait were made. Today, however, researchers reject this identification. The painting has traditionally been attributed to Federico Zuccaro (or Zuccari), who was active in Venice between 1563 and 1565. It was formerly owned by Richard Boyle (1694-1753), Earl of Burlington, nephew of Lord Carleton, Secretary of State, who bequeathed the painting to his daughter, the Duchess of Devonshire (after "Concerning the Life and Portraiture of Mary Queen of Scots" by Pendleton Hogan, p. 6). 

Within the current attribution of the painting to the circle of the Spanish painter Alonso Sánchez Coello (ca. 1531-1588), it has been proposed that the sitter was Margaret of Parma (1522-1586), who left Italy in 1555 for the Habsburg Netherlands - temporary exhibition at the Oudenaarde Museum in 2024. Coello was active in Lisbon from 1552 to 1554, then in Valladolid in 1555, and later worked as court painter to Margaret's half-brother, King Philip II of Spain. Although the Duchess of Parma has been depicted in similar costumes, including a very similar red dress, it is difficult to establish a reliable facial resemblance. In her portrait in the British Royal Collection (inv. RCIN 404911), which was also on display at the Oudenaarde exhibition, we can clearly see the hallmark of the Habsburg dynasty – the protruding lower lip, indicating that Margaret was a daughter of Emperor Charles V. The model in the Chatsworth portrait does not have such a facial feature.

The miniature version of the Chatsworth portrait within a painted oval, attributed to a 16th-century English painter (oil on panel, 19 x 17 cm, Roseberys London, April 13,2019, lot 256), although closer to works attributed to the Flemish painter Gonzales Coques (1614/18 - 1684), even more closely resembles the facial features associated with the queen of Poland than with Mary Stuart or Margaret of Parma. Coques frequently worked for clients from Sarmatia, according to my identifications and the auction catalogues of some historical Polish-Lithuanian-Ruthenian collections. The same applies to a version of the portrait, probably from the 19th century, made by the British painter and coming from the collection of Henry Huth at Wykehurst Place (oil on canvas, 76.2 x 63.4 cm, Bonhams London, April 23-30, 2025, lot 91), in which the facial features are also closer to the known effigies of Barbara Radziwill.

Although Carleton portrait is frequently compared to Spanish portraits or, more generally, to paintings associated with Western Europe, the closest analogous image we can find not far from historical Sarmatia, in Czechia - the portrait of Bohunka of Rožmberk (1536-1557). This Czech noblewoman married the burgrave of the Kingdom of Bohemia, John IV Popel of Lobkowicz (1510-1570) in 1556, and most likely at that time or slightly before her portrait was painted (Lobkowicz Palace in Prague, inv. č. L 5185). Bohunka's portrait is similar not only in terms of the sitter's costume and pose, but also in that she is also holding a rose in her hand. The painting was probably created by the painter from the circle of Jakob Seisenegger (1505-1567). In another full-length portrait of Bohunka she is dressed in more German attire (Nelahozeves Castle, inv. č. L 4766), a costume well known from miniatures of Bona Sforza's daughters by Cranach the Younger. A dress similar to that in Carleton portrait can be seen in a portrait of Countess Palatine Helena of Simmern (1532-1579), painted in 1547 by Hans Besser (New Residence in Bamberg, inv. 3007, inscription: [...] IRES ALTERS 15 IAR ANNO 1547). 

The style of the painting is close to Titian's circle and Venetian portrait painting in general, as is the composition with a chair (Savonarola chair), a window and rich fabrics, Venetian velvet and gold cloth. The costume however, a mixture of French, Italian, Spanish and German patterns from the 1540s is not typical for Venice. Also the sitter is not a typical, a bit plump "Venetian beauty". 

In February 1548 a long battle begun to recognize Barbara as Sigismund Augustus' wife and crown her as Queen of Poland. Almost since her wedding in 1547 Barbara's health began to decline. Sigismund Augustus personally tended to his sick wife. He also possibly seek a help from the only possible ally - Edward VI of England, a boy king, who like Sigismund was crowned at the age of 10 and a son of Henry VIII, who broke with the Catholic Church to marry his mistress Anne Boleyn. In 1545 to cure his first wife Elizabeth of Austria from epilepsy, Sigismund wanted to obtain a coronation ring of the English king, that supposedly was to be an effective antidote. Four years later, in 1549, Jan Łaski (John à Lasco), a Polish Calvinist reformer, secretary to King Sigismund I and friend of the Radziwills (Barbara's brother converted to Calvinism in 1564) arrived in London to became Superintendent of the Strangers' Church​. He undoubtedly mediate with the king of England in personal affairs of Sigismund Augustus and possilby brought to England a portrait of his wife.

In 1572 the royal embroiderer charged the royal treasury for dresses he embroidered for Queen Barbara in 1549 including one, the most expensive, for which he charged 100 florins: "I embroidered a robe of red velvet, bodice, sleeves and three rows at the bottom with pearls and gold". Similar puffed sleeves at the shoulders are visible in portraits of Barbara by Moretto da Brescia (Washington), Jan van Calcar (Paris, lost) and by follower of Lucas Cranach the Younger (Czartoryski Museum, inv. MNK IV-V-1433). The octagonal tower in the portrait is very similar to the main landmark of the 16th century Vilnius, the medieval Cathedral Bell Tower, rebuilt in Renaissance style during the reign of Sigismund Augustus after 1544 (and later due to fires and invasions) and close to Barbara's residence, Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania. The woman is holding two roses, white and red - "white roses became symbols of purity, red roses of redeeming blood, and both colors, together with the green of their leaves, also represented the three cardinal virtues faith, hope, and love" (after "The Routledge Companion to Medieval Iconography" by Colum Hourihane, p. 459). 

The portrait and its copies were widespread in 16th-century Europe, and the sitter's elegance inspired several other portraits. The most notable is that of Queen Elizabeth I of England, depicted around 1580 in a similar costume and also holding two roses (Bonhams London, July 7, 2010, lot 53). Interestingly, the portrait of the queen of England was also repainted at an unknown date to make her resemble her adversary, Mary, Queen of Scots. Earlier, probably in the 1550s, Lucia Anguissola, Sofonisba's sister, had painted herself in an identical outfit (oil on copper, 20.5 x 16.5 cm, Wannenes Art Auctions in Genoa, Auction 235-236, November 29, 2017, lot 657). If not the style and the frame of this small effigy, it could be considered as another 18th century copy of Carleton portrait. It cannot be excluded that Lucia, like Sofonisba (self-portrait in costume of Catherine of Austria), created her own effigy in the costume of queen of Poland while working on a larger portrait of the queen. Probably around the same time, around 1550, another lady was also inspired by the costume in the Carleton portrait and its other 16th-century versions. Unlike the original, her dress is not red, but black (oil on panel, 27.9 x 24.8 cm, Hill Auction Gallery in Sunrise, Florida, August 31, 2022, LiveAuctioneers, lot 0215). The features of this blonde lady are reminiscent of Catherine of Austria, Barbara's successor as queen of Poland, the third wife of Sigismund Augustus, whom he married in 1553, especially the miniature portrait in the Kunsthistorisches Museum (inv. GG 4703). The former Duchess of Mantua was renowned for her patronage and Italian connections. Shortly after their marriage, the king separated from Catherine and continued to do so until her return to her native Austria, which greatly upset her. In this context, we can assume that by imitating Barbara, particularly in her clothing, Catherine wanted to convince her husband not to abandon her. The black color of her dress could be a sign of mourning after the death of Queen Bona in 1557 or of Catherine's father, Emperor Ferdinand I, in 1564. The style of the painting is reminiscent of works attributed to Giuseppe Arcimboldo and his workshop, such as the portrait of Catherine's younger sister, Joanna of Austria (1547-1578) preserved in the Kunsthistorisches Museum (inv. GG 4513), created between 1562 and 1565, or the double portrait of Catherine with her mother Anna Jagellonica (1503-1547), who died a few years earlier, painted between 1551 and 1553 (Kunsthistorisches Museum, inv. GG 8199). 

In the reduced versions of the portrait, the sitter wears a small diamond-set cross, while a very similar cross can be seen in the idealized portrait of Barbara by Józef Szymon Kurowski (1809-1851), published in 1835-1836 in Paris in La Pologne historique, littéraire, monumentale et pittoresque by Leonard Chodźko (Volume 1, p. 92/93). The most important necklace in Carleton portrait is a string of pearls around the sitter's neck, Queen Barbara's favorite gem.

A smaller and well-painted version of the Carleton portrait is in the Cooper Gallery in Barnsley, England (oil on canvas, 63 x 51 cm, inv. CP/TR 245). This painting has been attributed to the circle of the Flemish painter Paul van Somer (ca. 1577-1621), but as in the Carleton portrait, influences from Titian's style are also visible. The possible author is therefore Lambert Sustris, whose Venus in the Louvre (INV 1978; MR 1129) is painted in a similar style. The style of Carleton portrait also resembles works by Sustris, particularly the full-length portrait of Veronika Vöhlin in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich, painted in 1552 (inv. 9653). Also comparable is the portrait of Archduchess Anna of Austria (1549-1580), later Queen of Spain, painted around 1569-1570, both in terms of the style of the painting and the costume of the model (Dorotheum in Vienna, October 22, 2024, lot 32).

The portrait of a man sitting by a window with "a Northern town beyond" is very similar to other effigies of Sigismund Augustus, while the landscape behind him is almost identical with that visible in the Carleton portrait. It is almost like if the king was sitting in the same chair in the room at the Vilnius Castle beside his beloved wife. ​This portrait comes from a private collection in London and was sold in 1997 with attribution to Jacopo Robusti, called Tintoretto (oil on canvas, 103.5 x 86.5 cm, Christie's London, April 18, 1997, live auction 5778, lot 159). In this likeness the monarch's nose is more hooked than in other portraits by Venetian painters identified by me, however in two woodcuts with the portrait of Sigismund Augustus, published in Kraków in 1570 in the "Statutes and privileges of the Crown translated from Latin into Polish" (Statuta y przywileie koronne z łacińskiego ięzyka na polskie przełożone) by Jan Herburt, his nose is different on both of them. The strange, rather unnatural appearance of his finger also indicates that the portrait is most likely a copy of another effigy or based solely on study drawings.

The style of the portrait of a man with a long beard, now in Petworth House and Park (oil on canvas, 57 x 48 cm, inv. NT 485076), is very similar to that in the Cooper Gallery. It is attributed to Jacopo Tintoretto and was formerly called a self-portrait. Its dimensions are comparable, suggesting that the two paintings could potentially have originally been a pair. The portrait of the bearded man comes from the collection of the 3rd Earl of Egremont (1751-1837). The man bears a strong resemblance to the effigies of King Sigismund Augustus that I have identified, notably the portrait in armor by circle of Tintoretto (Sotheby's London, October 27, 2015, lot 419).

It is difficult to establish any facial resemblance between the sitter for Carleton portrait and the known portraits of Mary Stuart and Margaret of Parma, while the sitter bears a striking resemblance to the best-known portrait of Queen Barbara Radziwill, a miniature made in Wittenberg by Lucas Cranach the Younger (Czartoryski Museum, oil on copper, 19.5 x 17.5 cm, inv. MNK XII-540). As in Cranach's miniature, we find the same shape of nose and lips and the same proportions. The miniature, along with several others depicting the last Jagiellons, known as the Jagiellon family, was purchased in London by Adolf Cichowski (1794-1854).

​Portrait of Barbara Radziwill (1520/23-1551) by Lambert Sustris, ca. 1549, Chatsworth House.

​Portrait of Barbara Radziwill (1520/23-1551) by Lambert Sustris, ca. 1549, The Cooper Gallery in Barnsley.

Miniature portrait of Barbara Radziwill (1520/23-1551) by circle of Gonzales Coques, mid-17th century, Private collection.​

​Portrait of Barbara Radziwill (1520/23-1551) by British painter, early 19th century, Private collection.

Portrait of Sigismund II Augustus (1520-1572) by circle of Titian (Tintoretto?), ca. 1547-1549, Private collection.

Portrait of Sigismund II Augustus (1520-1572) by Lambert Sustris, ca. 1547-1549, Petworth House and Park.

​Portrait of Catherine of Austria (1533-1572) by workshop of Giuseppe Arcimboldo, ca. 1557-1564, Private collection.

​Self-portrait of Lucia Anguissola, 1550s, Private collection.

​Miniature portrait of Barbara Radziwill (1520/23-1551) by Lucas Cranach the Younger or workshop, ca. 1553-1565, Czartoryski Museum. 

Portraits of Barbara Radziwill by Flemish painters ​

"Catherine Mans [Karin Mansdotter] loved listening to Tęczyński's stories about the love of King Sigismund Augustus and the recently deceased Queen Barbara; during these stories, she often raised her tender gaze to King Eric. Tęczyński taught Princess Cecilia and the royal mistress several Spanish songs: their well-chosen voices, sometimes tender, sometimes lively, aroused joy and tenderness in their hearts," wrote Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz (1758-1841) in his semi-fictional novel "Jan z Tęczyna ...", published in Warsaw in 1825 (and again in Sanok in 1855, p. 192). It tells the love story of Jan Baptysta Tęczyński (1540-1563), a highly educated nobleman who travelled to many European countries, including France (1556-1560) and Spain (1559-1560), and Princess Cecilia of Sweden (1540-1627), half-sister of King Eric XIV of Sweden. This fragment shows that in the 16th century, educated Poles were propagators of foreign cultures, including Spanish, and that the person and story of Barbara Radziwill were a source of inspiration and interest for contemporaries.
​
The effigy, previously identified as Anne de Pisseleu, Duchesse d'Etampes (modern scholars today reject this identification), is very similar in facial features and costume style to the Carleton Portrait at Chatsworth and to the portrait of Barbara Radziwill by Moretto da Brescia in Washington (National Gallery of Art, inv. 1939.1.230), identified by me. It is known only through 19th century copies (mainly a lithograph from around 1830 by Zéphirin Félix Jean Marius Belliard, inscription at the bottom: Imp. Lith. de Delpech / LA DUCHESSE D'ETAMPE. / Tiré du Musée Royal de France., compare with the copy in the Biblioteca Nacional de España, IF/1339), as original from about 1550 (or 1549) from the French royal collection, most probably by a Flemish painter or François Clouet (d. 1572), is considered to be lost. In the Victoria and Albert Museum in London there is a copy from an engraving or an original painting, which imitates the style of the French official portraiture of the 16th century and was most likely also made in the 19th century (oil on panel, 23.5 x 17.8 cm, inv. 626-1882).

Anne de Pisseleu, was a chief mistress of Francis I, king of France and a staunch Calvinist, who counseled Francis on toleration for Huguenots. Even after her deposition, following Francis' death in March 1547, she was one of the most influential and wealthy Protestants in France. It cannot be excluded, that Sigismund Augustus and the Radziwills approached her with their cause - coronation of Barbara as a queen and her recognition internationally, and that the copy of effigy of Barbara offered to her was after the French Revolution mistaken for her portrait. 

Around the year of 1548 or 1549, Sigismund Augustus commissioned in the Spanish Netherlands (Flanders) the first set of new tapestries for his residences (known as Jagiellonian tapestries or Wawel Arrasses). It is highly probable that as earlier his father in 1536, he also ordered some paintings there.

Also the details of sitter's garments find its confirmation in the bill of the royal embroiderer who charged the royal treasury for garments he embroidered for Queen Barbara in 1549: "I embroidered a red velvet beret with pearls; I earned from it fl. 6" (after "Jagiellonki polskie w XVI wieku" by Alexander Przezdziecki, Volume 3, p. 327).

The portrait of a lady in Spanish style costume, said to be Anne Boleyn, in the Condé Museum at the Château de Chantilly, made around 1550 (oil on panel, 26.8 x 19.4 cm, PE 564), is strikingly similar to the series of portraits of Sigismund Augustus' sister Sophia Jagellon (for example the painting in the Czartoryski Museum, inv. MNK XII-296). It is almost a counterpart to the portrait of Sophia, the costume is very similar and the portraits were probably created in the same workshop. It comes from the collection of Armand-François-Marie de Biencourt (1773-1854), owner of the Château d'Azay-le-Rideau. The likeness is largely idealized, like some portraits of Margaret of Parma after the original by Antonio Moro/Anthonis Mor, for example, a portrait which is a copy of the Berlin painting (Gemäldegalerie, 585B) and was until 2022 considered to be a representation of a "Lady of the Court" by François Clouet, according to the inscription on the frame (Bonhams London, September 14, 2022, lot 4). Nevertheless, the resemblance to Barbara's appearance is strong. Through his mother, Bona Sforza d'Aragona, Barbara's husband had rights to the Kingdom of Naples and the Duchy of Milan, both part of the Spanish Empire.

The costume of a lady in the painting in the Condé Museum also resembles that of the Duchess of Parma, illegitimate daughter of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain, according to the portraits mentioned, a fashion typical for the countries of the Spanish sphere of influence in the 1550s and 1560s. A comparable costume is also visible in the portraits of Elisabeth of Valois (1546-1568), Queen of Spain, according to her splendid portrait by the workshop of Antonis Mor, most probably from the French royal collection (Louvre Museum, INV 1721 ; MR 929) and its idealized version (Dorotheum in Vienna, October 25, 2023, lot 23). Interestingly, a version of this portrait from the collection of Antoni Jan Strzałecki (1844-1934) was considered to be a portrait of Sigismund Augustus' sister, Infanta Catherine Jagiellon (1526-1583), Queen of Sweden (National Museum in Warsaw, inv. MP 5270 MNW, formerly 47106).

The painter (or workshop) for these idealized copies has not been established with certainty. Although most similar paintings are attributed to the circle of the French court painter François Clouet, the author often drew inspiration from originals by Anthonis Mor, a painter of the Spanish court active in Antwerp and Utrecht. The circle of the Master of the Female Half-Lengths, who painted idealized effigies of women in a similar style, is possible (Antwerp, Bruges, Ghent, Mechelen and the French court have been suggested as the location of his workshop).

The painter copied effigies of important European female rulers and, in addition to the mentioned portraits of the Duchess of Parma and the Queen of Spain, he also copied a portrait of Elizabeth I (1533-1603), Queen of England and Ireland (Christie's Paris, Auction 21747, November 28, 2022, lot 324), derived from the Clopton portrait type and similar to the painting in the Uffizi Gallery (inv. 1890 / 316).

The effigies of ladies in Spanish costume most similar to the Chantilly painting are the "Portrait of a Young Woman" in the Czartoryski Museum and the portrait identified as representing Sophia Jagiellon (1522-1575) at Wolfenbüttel Castle (deposit of the Lower Saxony State Museum in Hanover, inv. KM 105), which is another indication that the sitter was connected to 16th-century Poland-Lithuania.
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Likewise the previous portrait, black robes are also included in the same bill of the royal embroiderer for 1549: "a robe of black teletta, I embroidered a bodice and sleeves with pearls; I earned from this robe fl. 40." or "I embroidered a robe of black velvet, two pearl rows at the bottom; I earned from it fl. 60."

The portrait of a mysterious woman in the Picker Art Gallery in Hamilton (oil on panel, 32.4 x 24.8 cm, 2015.5.1), was undoubtedly painted by a Netherlandish master and is very close to the somewhat caricatured style of Joos van Cleve and his son Cornelis (e.g. the portraits of Henry VIII of England). The woman, however, is wearing an Italian costume from the 1540s, similar to that seen in the portrait of a woman with a book of music in the Getty Center, attributed to the Florentine painter Francesco Bacchiacca (inv. 78.PB.227). Besides the resemblance to other portraits of Barbara, whose husband was very fond of Italian fashion and whose tailor was Italian, this is another indicator that this is also her portrait.

The jewel on her necklace also has a fitting symbolic meaning, the ruby ​​is a symbol of both royalty and love, the sapphire a symbol of purity and the Kingdom of God and a pearl was a symbol of fidelity.

The painting comes from the collection of Max Oberlander (1898-1956), who was born into a Jewish family that owned several factories in the textile industry near Upice in the Czech Republic. In the early 1930s, Oberlander lived in Vienna with his wife Suzanne, née Poznianski (1913-1944), who was born in Warsaw.

Portrait of Barbara Radziwill (1520/23-1551) ​in a pearl beret, 1849 engraving after lost original by Flemish painter from about 1549, Private collection.

Portrait of Barbara Radziwill (1520/23-1551) ​in a pearl beret, 19th century after lost original by Flemish painter from about 1549, Victoria and Albert Museum.

Idealized portrait of Barbara Radziwill (1520/23-1551) in Spanish costume by circle of François Clouet or Flemish painter, ca. 1550, Musée Condé.​

​Idealized portrait of Barbara Radziwill (1520/23-1551) in Spanish costume by circle of François Clouet or Flemish painter, ca. 1550, Czartoryski Museum.

Portrait of Barbara Radziwill (1520/23-1551) in Italian costume by Flemish painter, possibly Cornelis van Cleve, 1545-1550, Picker Art Gallery in Hamilton.

​Idealized portrait of Elizabeth I (1533-1603), Queen of England and Ireland by circle of François Clouet or Flemish painter, after 1558, Private collection. 

Portrait of Queen Bona Sforza by Lucas Cranach the Younger

Before his accession to the throne as a sole ruler Sigismund Augustus, through his cousin Duke Albert of Prussia, tries to obtain portraits of German princes painted by Lucas Cranach the Elder (after "Malarstwo polskie: Gotyk, renesans, wczesny manieryzm" by Michał Walicki, p. 36). Paintings were sent in February 1547 trough Piotr Wojanowski, tenant of Grudziądz and were hung in the royal gallery that was being created in Vilnius (after "Zygmunt August : Wielki Książę Litwy do roku 1548" by Ludwik Kolankowski, p. 329).​ The painting of Madonna and Child with two angels against the landscape by follower of Lucas Cranach the Elder, was probably offered to the Corpus Christi Church in Kraków by king Sigismund II Augustus. The first mention of the painting dates back to 1571 and was later reported by the chronicler of the monastery, Stefan Ranotowicz (1617-1694) in his Casimiriae civitatis, urbi Cracoviensi confrontatae, origo. Ranotowicz states that "we have a German painting in the pallatium from the royal donation representing Beatae Mariae Virginis" (after "Madonna z Dzieciątkiem w krakowskim klasztorze kanoników regularnych ..." by Zbigniew Jakubowski, p. 130). Nicolaus "the Black" Radziwill, cousin of the king's second wife Barbara, had a German tapestry based on Cranach's painting and in 1535, a Pomeranian, Antoni Wida, probably a student of Cranach, resides in Kraków and in 1557 he is recorded as a court painter of Sigismund Augustus in Vilnius (partially after "Dwa nieznane obrazy Łukasza Cranacha Starszego" by Wanda Drecka, p. 625).

The woodcut by Lucas Cranach the Younger or his workshop with the portrait of King Sigismund II Augustus (Sigismundus Augustus II. von Gottes gnaden / König zu Polen / Grosfürste zu Littaw und Eblingen / zu Reuss. und Preuss etc., p. 19) was included in the "True Depictions of Several Most Honorable Princes and Lords ..." (Warhaffte Bildnis etlicher Hochlöblicher Fürsten vnd Herren ...) by Johannes Agricola (1494-1566), published by Gabriel Schnellboltz in Wittenberg in 1562, together with the portraits of Emperor Charles V (p. 11), Emperor Ferdinand I (p. 13), Mary of Hungary, governor of the Habsburg Netherlands (p. 15), King Christian II of Denmark (p. 17), Duke Philip I of Pomerania (p. 47) and his wife Mary of Saxony (p. 49), electors and dukes of Saxony and other German princes. Many of these woodcuts were based on paintings or study drawings by Cranach the Elder or his son and two of them, with portraits of Elector John Frederick I and his wife Sibylle of Cleves, are signed with the artist's mark - winged serpent (p. 25, 27, Saxon​ State and University Library in Dresden, Hist.Sax.A.233,misc.2). With great probability we can assume that there was also a similar portrait of Sigismund II Augustus, painted by Cranach.

​Like the Venetian painters, to meet the high demand for his works, Cranach developed a large workshop and "style of painting that depended on shortcut solutions and an extensive use of easily copied patterns and rote methods of producing decorative detail that could be successfully replicated by assistants". An epithet "the fastest painter" (pictor celerrimus), may still be read on his tomb in the city church in Weimar (after "German Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1350-1600", p. 77).

Despite tremendous losses during many wars and invasions Cranach's name or paintings in his style appear in many books and inventories concerning historical collections of paintings in Poland-Lithuania. The register of paintings of Boguslaus Radziwill (1620-1669) from 1657 (AGAD 1/354/0/26/84), which he evacuated to Królewiec (Königsberg), lists several paintings by Cranach and very probably from his workshop. The inventory also lists a portrait of King Sigismund Augustus (Zigmunt August Krol) and a portrait of "a German in cuirass" (w Kirysie Osoba niemiecka), as well as "The face of the Electress of Saxony, on a board" (Twarz Kurfirsztowey Saskiey, nadesce), "Frederick, Elector of Saxony" (Fridericus Kurferszt Saski) and "John I, Elector of Saxony" (Joannis I Kurferszt Saski), i.e. the portraits of Frederick the Wise (1463-1525) and his brother John the Constant (1468-1532), very probably by Lucas Cranach the Elder or his workshop, and "Small paintings of the Grand Master" (Obrazikow małych Wielkiego Mistrza), therefore very probably portraits of Albert of Prussia (1490-1568), son of Sophia Jagiellon, also very probably by Cranach.
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Several portraits of queens Barbara Radziwill, Constance of Austria and Cecilia Renata of Austria are mentioned. The absence of portraits of Queen Bona, Anna Jagiellon and Anna of Austria indicates that they were forgotten and listed as effigies of "unknown" ladies or that they were hidden under biblical or mythological disguise.

Portrait of an old woman by Lucas Cranach the Younger from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (oil on panel, 63.8 x 47 cm, inv. 11.3035) bears strong similarity with contemporary effigies of Sigismund Augustus' mother Queen Bona Sforza, especially the most famous miniature by Cranach the Younger (Czartoryski Museum, MNK XII-537). The Queen started to wear her distinctive outfit of a widowed elder lady in about 1548, after death of Sigismund I. 

The painting is signed with the artist's insignia (winged serpent, center right) and dated "1549" above. At the beginning of the 20th century it belonged to the collection of Adolph Thiem (1832-1923) in San Remo, Italy, so it cannot be ruled out that the German art collector acquired the painting by the German painter which he discovered in Italy. If the painting arrived in Italy around 1549, it was therefore sent there as a diplomatic gift, which makes the identification as Queen Bona even more accurate.

As for eye color and features the comparison with portraits of Emperor Charles V, her portraits by Bernardino Licinio and portraits her daughter, proofs that different workshops differently interpreted royal effigies and as natural ultramarine (deep blue color) was an expensive pigment in the 16th century, cheaper pigments were used to make a copy (eye color). In a letter of 31 August 1538, Bona Sforza says about two portraits of her daughter Isabella, and complain that her features in the portrait that she has are not very accurate. 

A year after the portrait of the queen, Cranach the Younger produced a magnificent Portrait of a young man, signed with the artist's insignia (upper left) and dated "1550", today at Wawel Castle (oil on panel, 65 x 49.5 cm, ZKnW-PZS 3940). The painting comes from the Sapieha collection. The identity of the sitter has not been established, but the man's splendid costume indicates that he was an aristocrat, while a Latin inscription confirming his age in 1550 (ÆTATIS, XIX.), indicates that the German was probably not his mother tongue.

Although the majority of art historians would probably opt to view the man as a German nobleman, such as Wolfgang of Brunswick-Grubenhagen (1531-1595), whose relatives were painted by Cranach and his followers, or Henry IX of Waldeck-Wildungen (1531-1577), both aged 19 in 1550, exactly like the model, however the provenance and language of inscription do not exclude a man from Poland-Lithuania.

Interestingly, between 1550 and 1560 many Poles came to Wittenberg, where Lucas Cranach the Elder and his son had their workshops. Only in 1550 there were 9 of them in Luther's city, and next to them is the name of Lelio Sozzini (1525-1562), an Italian from Siena, famous reformer, who visited Poland twice - in 1551 and 1559 (compare "Archiwum do dziejów literatury i oświaty w Polsce", Volume 5, p. 77). Philip Melanchthon's students in 1550 included the lexicographer Jan Mączyński (ca. 1520-1587) and the nobleman Stanisław Warszewicki of the Kuszaba coat of arms (ca. 1530 - 1591), who later served as secretary to Sigismund Augustus (from 1556) and in 1567 became a Jesuit. In 1550, 14 years before his service, Captain Marcin Czuryłło (Czuryło), nobleman of the Korczak coat of arms, studied in Wittenberg, however, the most likely model for Wawel's portrait among Sarmatian students in Wittenberg in 1550 is Jakub Niemojewski (d. 1586), nobleman of Szeliga coat of arms, theologian and writer born between 1528 and 1532, who, after his return to Kuyavia, abandoned Lutheranism in favor of Calvinism.

Portrait of Queen Bona Sforza (1494-1557)​ by Lucas Cranach the Younger, 1549, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

​Portrait of a man aged 19, probably Jakub Niemojewski (d. 1586), by Lucas Cranach the Younger, 1550, Wawel Royal Castle.

Miniatures of the Last Jagiellons by Lucas Cranach the Younger or workshop, ca. 1553-1565, Czartoryski Museum. More correct arrangement respecting the seniority of Sigismund I's daughters. 

​Woodcut with portrait of King Sigismund II Augustus (1520-1572) from the the "True Depictions of Several Most Honorable Princes and Lords ..." by Lucas Cranach the Younger or workshop, 1562, Saxon State and University Library in Dresden.

Portrait of Sigismund Augustus with a construction of a bridge in Warsaw by Tintoretto 

"Sigismund Augustus built a wooden bridge over the Vistula River, 1150 feet long, which was almost unmatched in terms of both length and magnificence in the whole of Europe, causing universal admiration", states Georg Braun, in his work Theatri praecipuarum totius mundi urbium (Review of major cities around the world) published in Cologne in 1617. 

In 1549, to facilitate communication with Grand Duchy of Lithuania, where Barbara resided, Sigismund Augustus decided to finance the construction of a permanent bridge in Warsaw. In 1549 he bought from Stanisław Jeżowski, a land writer from Warsaw, the hereditary privilege of transport across the Vistula River, giving him in return "two villages, a mill and a half of a second mill, 40 forest voloks and 200 florins."

The portrait of a man with a "Northern landscape" beyond showing a construction of a wooden bridge in The National Gallery of Art in Washington, created by Jacopo Tintoretto, is very similar to other effigies of Sigismund Augustus. It was purchased in 1839 in Bologna by William Buchanan (oil on canvas, 110.5 x 88 cm, inv. 1943.7.10). 

The city of Bologna was famous for its university, architects and engineers, like Giacomo da Vignola (1507-1573), who began his career as an architect there and where in 1548 he built three locks or Sebastiano Serlio (1475-1554), an outstanding architect and theoretician of architecture, born in Bologna. In 1547 Queen Bona, wanted to involve Serlio, married to her lady-in-waiting Francesca Palladia, at her court. Since Serlio had already a position in France, he offered Bona his students. In a letter to Ercole d'Este, Bona asked for a builder who could build anything and in 1549 the Queen settled in Warsaw.

From 1548 the court physician of the king was Piotr from Poznań, who received his doctorate in Bologna and in 1549, a Spaniard educated in Bologna, Pedro Ruiz de Moros (Piotr Roizjusz), became a courtier of Sigismund Augustus and a court legal advisor (iuris consultus), thanks to recommendation of his colleague from the studies in Bologna, royal secretary Marcin Kromer. 

From 4 June to 24 September 1547, master carpenter Maciej, called Mathias Molendinator, with his helpers, led the construction of a wooden bridge on brick supports covered with a shingle roof, which led through Vilnia River in Vilnius from the royal palace to the royal stables. 
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It is uncertain if the construction was actually started in 1549 or the portrait was only one of a series of materials intended for propaganda purposes, confirming the creativity and innovation of the Jagiellonian state. It is possible that due to the problems to find a suitable engeneer to help with the costruction of the largest bridge of the 16th century Europe, that the project was postponed. Only after 19 years, on 25 June 1568, ten years after the start of the regular Polish post (Kraków - Venice), the tapping of the first pile was initiated. The bridge was opened to public on 5 April 1573, a few months after the death of its founder, accomplished by his sister Anna Jagiellon, who also built the Bridge Tower in 1582 to protect the construction. 

The 500 meters long bridge was the first permanent crossing over the Vistula River in Warsaw, the longest wooden crossing in Europe at that time and a technical novelty. It was made of oak wood and iron and equipped with a suspension system. The bridge was costructed by "Erasmus Cziotko, fabrikator pontis Varszoviensis" (Erazm z Zakroczymia), who according to some researchers was an Italian and his real name was Giotto, a surname carried by a family of Florentine builders.

Portrait of Sigismund Augustus with a construction of a bridge in Warsaw by Tintoretto, ca. 1549, National Gallery of Art, Washington.

Portrait of Sigismund Augustus by Tintoretto or workshop, 1540s, Private collection.

Portraits of Sigismund Augustus in armour and in a black hat by Tintoretto

In early 1549, Barbara Radziwill arrived from Vilnius via the royal city of Radom (September 1548) to Nowy Korczyn near Kraków for her coronation and ceremonial entry into the city as the new queen. Eight times a year, large grain fairs were held in the city of Nowy Korczyn. The grain purchased there was floated down the Vistula to Gdańsk in large barges, similar to galleys, as visible in the View of Warsaw from about 1625 (Alte Pinakothek in Munich, inv. 10530).

​Sigismund II Augustus and the lords of the kingdom came to greet Barbara in Korczyn. Although during royal journeys, efforts were made to ensure that the court was as numerous as possible, in order to give the monarch's journey the appropriate splendor, during his journey to Korczyn, the king was accompanied by only a few courtiers, which was probably intended to speed up the march and make the greeting of the spouses more intimate. The passage of the royal procession was a serious organizational undertaking. It was managed by a court official, called a quartermaster (oboźny). On February 12, 1549, Barbara set off on a journey to the capital.

The river journey from or to Korczyn would be the easiest, however the sources does not confirm it. The accounts from 1535 inform nevertheless about boats owned by Sigismund I and his son Sigismund Augustus (after "Oswajanie śmierci pięknem" by Juliusz A. Chrościcki, p. 33). River transport, the fastest and often the safest, was very developed in Poland at that time. An important centre of river shipbuilding was the town of Jarosław in south-eastern Poland, where shipbuilding workshops were probably established in the 15th century. In some cities on the Vistula, especially in Mazovia, so-called "boat mills" were even built, placed on ships on the Vistula. For example, there were 7 such boat mills in the town of Wyszogród north of Warsaw in 1564 (after " Przemysł polski w XVI wieku" by Ignacy Baranowski p. 136). In 1420, the royal court of Jogaila of Lithuania crossed the Vistula near Niepołomice, where the Jagiellons' favourite hunting palace was located, on a ferry made of beams secured with iron clamps (after "Nie tylko szablą i piórem" by Bolesław Orłowski, p. 77).

In the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, where there is also a portrait of Anna Jagiellon (1523-1596) holding a zibellino, painted by Jacopo Tintoretto (inv. GG 48), identified by me, there is a "Portrait of a man in gold-decorated armor" (​Bildnis eines Mannes in goldverziertem Harnisch), also by Tintoretto (oil on canvas, 115 x 99 cm, inv. GG 24). This painting is considered to depict a commander of the Venetian marine infantry in armor dating from around 1540 and is dated around 1555/1556. It comes from the collection of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in Vienna (mentioned in 1659). In the background, through the window, we can see a galley and a small boat further away. The statue decorating the ship, visible in the painting, is clearly that of Saint Christopher, patron saint of travelers. So it is not a battleship, but a ship dedicated to the journey of an important person related to the man depicted in the painting who is waiting for this person's arrival.

The Austrian Habsburgs were related to Sigismund Augustus through Anna Jagellonica (1503-1547), two of his wives were her daughters, and portraits were often commissioned to be sent to relatives. One of the few effigies of Sigismund Augustus, depicted in similar armour, known before this article, and inscribed in the upper part SIGISMVNDVS. AVGVSTVS. REX. POLON., is also in the Kunsthistorisches Museum (inv. GG 4697).

Among the many precious objects that the Habsburgs collected in their Kunstkammer and Schatzkammer (chambers of art and curiosities), two were of exceptional importance: the 4th-century agate bowl (Achatschale), probably made in Constantinople, considered to be the legendary Holy Grail (inv. SK WS XIV 1), and the 243 cm long narwhal tusk (Ainkhürn), thought to be the horn of a unicorn (inv. SK WS XIV 2). They were first mentioned in a document from 1564, when the heirs of Emperor Ferdinand I declared these two pieces to be "inalienable heirlooms of the House of Austria". These pieces were considered so valuable that they were not to be personally owned by any member of the House of Habsburg. Interestingly, the narwhal tusk was a gift from King Sigismund II Augustus to his cousin's husband King Ferdinand I, given in 1540 (after "Schatzkammer: The Crown Jewels and the Ecclesiastical Treasure Chamber" by Hermann Fillitz, p. 22). Reinhold Heidenstein (1553-1620), secretary to King Stephen Bathory, in his Reinholdi Heidensteinii Secretarii Regii Rerum Polonicarum ..., published in Frankfurt am Main in 1672, mentions a series of "tapesties with unicorn" purchased by King Sigismund Auguste on credit from the Loitz family for the sum of one hundred thousand (Tapete quidem, cum unicornu quod a Laissis Augusto Regi in summam centum millium creditum ..., p. 62).

Sigismund Augustus' third wife, Catherine of Austria (1533-1572), daughter of Anna Jagellonica and Ferdinand I, also brought many valuable objects to Austria, which came into her possession after 1553 (coronation as Queen of Poland) and before 1565, when she returned to her homeland. Unfortunately, these objects are difficult to identify today and some have probably been destroyed, such as 10 tapestries with the Polish and Lithuanian coats of arms, perhaps a gift from Sigismund Augustus (compare "Arrasy Zygmunta Augusta" by Mieczysław Gębarowicz, Tadeusz Mańkowski, p. 8).

The portrait, which could be dated to 1550, although idealized, bears a resemblance to other effigies of the king by Tintoretto, identified by me, such as the portrait in a fur-trimmed coat (Hampel in Munich, April 11, 2013, lot 570). The painting bears an inscription ANOR XXX (year 30) on the base of the column, which indicates the age of the sitter. Sigismund Augustus has reached the age of 30 on August 1, 1550 and his beloved wife was crowned on December 7, 1550.

The man depicted in the Vienna portrait has dark hair and eyebrows, and a red beard and moustache. Sigismund Augustus' mother, Bona Sforza, was described as a lovely light blonde, "when her eyelashes and eyebrows are completely black", so could the hair colour anomaly have been inherited from her? It may also have been a particular fashion at the royal court at that time, because Jan Herburt of Felsztyn (Joannes Herborth de Fulstin, 1508-1577), castellan of Sanok and starost of Przemyśl, was depicted with a red beard and eyebrows and grey hair in his portrait, now in the National Museum in Kraków (tempera on panel, 126.5 x 84.5 cm, inv. MNK I-51, earlier 7295). Jan, who had studied in Leuven in Flanders and Germany, became secretary to Sigismund Augustus after his return home. The portrait, could be dated between 1568-1577, when Herburt was castellan of Sanok. A copy, most likely by the same painter, is in the Lviv Art Gallery (Olesko Castle, inv. Ж-620). This copy is attributed to the painter Jakub Leszczyński and comes from the Church of St. Martin in Skelivka (Felsztyn before 1946), Ukraine, where in 1904 there was another portrait of Jan (later inscription at the bottom: Joannes Herburt / Castellanus Sanocensis ...), showing him without a beard and in contemporary French costume, and a counterpart portrait of his wife Katarzyna Drohojowska (Catharina de Drohojow ...) wearing a national costume. In the same church there is also a magnificent funerary monument of Jan's son Krzysztof, who died as a child, made in 1558 (after "Herburtowie fulsztyńscy i kościół parafialny w Fulsztynie" by Józef Watulewicz, p. 18-19, 37, 39, pic. 2, 11), probably by an Italian sculptor. According to some interpretations, the inscriptions under the mentioned portraits from Skelivka may be incorrect and the sitters should be identified as Marcin Herburt and his wife Barbara. Another very interesting aspect of the portraits of lord of Fulstin is the colour of the eyes. The paintings were undoubtedly painted by the same painter or his workshop, however in the Kraków painting Jan has light grey eyes and in the Olesko painting he has brown eyes.

A reduced bust-length portrait version of the Vienna portrait, attributed to the circle of Tintoretto, was put at auction in London in 2015 (oil on canvas, 49.2 x 41.8 cm, Sotheby's, October 27, 2015, lot 419). The painting auctioned in 2017 in Florence appears to be another version of this portrait, painted by Tintoretto himself (oil on canvas, 49.5 x 41.5 cm, Pandolfini, Live Auction 203, May 16, 2017, lot 9).

​The same model is also depicted wearing a black hat in a portrait by Tintoretto from a private collection (oil on paper mounted on canvas, 30.8 x 27.3 cm, Christie's New York, January 28, 2009, lot 9), which was previously in the collection of William (1914-1998) and Eleanor (1911-2008) Wood Prince in Chicago. A copy of this painting, from the collection of Jean Baptiste Victor Loutrel (1821-1908), a French painter from Rouen, is in the Museum of Fine Arts of Rouen, France (oil on canvas, 48 ​​x 38 cm, inv. 1891.2.57). The Rouen painting, which was painted by another painter, who did not belong to Tintoretto's circle, perfectly illustrates how the practice of copying portraits distorts facial features. The model has larger eyes, nose and forehead and the painter has represented him in a more natural way (bags under the eyes) while Tintoretto has rejuvenated and idealized the model. The style of this painting corresponds to that of Bernardino Licinio, who probably died in Venice before December 26, 1565, the date of his brother Zuan Baptista's will, in which he is not mentioned. It can be compared, for example, to Licinio's Portrait of the royal courtier Jan Krzysztoporski (1518-1585), painted in 1541 (Kensington Palace, inv. RCIN 402789), identified by me.

Currently, most of the information we have about the court and patronage of the last male Jagiellon are fragmentary domestic sources and documents in foreign archives, mainly Italian. It was mainly the Deluge and other invasions that pushed Sarmatia back in many areas to the Middle Ages, so there is no reason to believe that the court of Sigismund Augustus and his patronage were in any way inferior to the courts in Paris, Madrid, London or Vienna.

Portrait of Sigismund II Augustus (1520-1572) with a royal galley by Tintoretto, ca. 1550, Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

Portrait of Sigismund II Augustus (1520-1572) in armor by Tintoretto, ca. 1550, Private collection (sold in Florence).

Portrait of Sigismund II Augustus (1520-1572) in armor by circle of Tintoretto, ca. 1550, Private collection (sold in London).

Portrait of Sigismund II Augustus (1520-1572) in a black hat by Tintoretto, ca. 1545-1550, Private collection. ​

Portrait of Sigismund II Augustus (1520-1572) ​in a black hat by Bernardino Licinio, ca. 1545-1550, Museum of Fine Arts of Rouen. Virtual reconstruction, © Marcin Latka

Portrait of Jan Herburt of Felsztyn (1508-1577), castellan of Sanok and starost of Przemyśl by Jakub Leszczyński (?), ca. 1568-1577, Natonal Museum in Kraków.

Sigismund Augustus and Barbara Radziwill as Jupiter and Io by Paris Bordone

In Ovid's "Metamorphoses" Jupiter, King of the Gods noticed Io, a mortal woman and a priestess of his wife Juno, Queen of the Gods. He lusted after her and seduced her. The painting by Paris Bordone in Gothenburg shows the moment when the god discovers that his jealous wife is approaching and he raises his green cloak to hide his mistress (Museum of Art, oil on canvas, 136 x 117.5 cm, inv. GKM 0715). The myth fits perfectly the story of romance of Sigismund Augustus and his mistress Barbara Radziwill, a Lithuanian noblewoman whom he met in 1543, when he was married to Elizabeth of Austria (1526-1545), and whom he secretly married despite the disapproval of his mother, the powerful Queen Bona. 

According to Vasari, Bordone created two versions of the composition. One for Cardinal Jean de Lorraine (1498-1550) in 1538, when he went to the court of Francis I of France at Fontainebleau, and the other "Jupiter and a nymph" for the King of Poland. Researchers pointed out that stylistically the canvas should be dated to the 1550s, therefore it cannot be the painting created for Cardinal de Lorraine. 

The painting was allegedly brought to Sweden by Louis Masreliez (1748-1810), a French painter, hence it cannot be excluded that it was taken to France by John Casimir Vasa, great-grandson of Bona, after his abdiction in 1668, that Masreliez acquired in Italy a copy of painting prepared for the Polish king, possibly a modello or a ricordo, or that it was captured by the Swedish army during the Deluge (1655-1660) and purchased by Masreliez in Sweden.

The effigy of Io is not so "statuesque" as other effigies of the goddesses by Bordone, could be a courtesan, but could also be the royal mistress and can be compared with effigies of Barbara, while Jupiter with these of Sigismund Augustus. The painting should be then considered as a part of Jagiellonian propaganda to legitimize the royal mistress as the Queen of Poland.

Sigismund Augustus and Barbara Radziwill as Jupiter and Io by Paris Bordone, 1550s, Gothenburg Museum of Art.

Sigismund Augustus in guise of Christ as The Light of the World by Paris Bordone

The particluar taste of queen Bona for paintings in guise of the Virgin Mary and her son as Jesus, biblical figures and saints is confirmed by her effigies by Francesco Bissolo and Lucas Cranach. Such portraits were popular throughout Europe since the Middle Ages. 

Examples include the effigy of Agnès Sorel, mistress of King Charles VII of France, as Madonna Lactans by Jean Fouquet from the 1450s, Giulia Farnese, mistress of Pope Alexander VI as the Virgin Mary (la signora Giulia Farnese nel volto d'una Nostra Donna, according to Vasari) and his daughter Lucrezia Borgia as Saint Catherine by Pinturicchio from the 1490s, Mary of Burgundy in the guise of Mary Magdalene created in about 1500, Francis I of France as Saint John the Baptist by Jean Clouet from about 1518, Catherine of Austria, Queen of Portugal as Saint Catherine by Domingo Carvalho from about 1530, Albrecht Dürer's self-portraits as the Saviour or Leonardo's Salvator Mundi, possibly a self-portrait or effigies of his lover Salaì as Saint John the Baptist and numerous other.

Marble tondos decorating Sigismund's Chapel at the Wawel Cathedral, created by Bartolommeo Berrecci between 1519-1533 as a funerary chapel for the last members of the Jagiellonian Dynasty, shows king Sigismund I the Old as biblical king Solomon and king David (or his banker Jan Boner). 

Scenes from the life of Christ and his likeness greatly fascinated contemporaries. Between 1558 and 1564, the Venetian painter Titian and his workshop created the large painting of the Last Supper for the Spanish King Philip II, now housed in El Escorial, near Madrid. The painting arrived in Spain in December 1565, but was not officially delivered to the monastery until 1574, where it was installed in the refectory. The second apostle from the right is believed to be a self-portrait of the elderly Titian (after "El marco de la Última Cena de Tiziano en El Escorial" by Jesús Jiménez-Peces, pp. 202-203), however, the apostle with his raised hands, sitting directly next to Christ, more closely resembles the painter's known effigies. This is even more evident in another version of this composition, from the collection of the Dukes of Alba, housed in the Liria Palace in Madrid (purchased in Italy in 1818). At one end of the table, we also see Emperor Charles V, Philip's father, and at the other, the famous painter Leonardo da Vinci. In the Escorial version, Federico II Gonzaga (1500-1540), Duke of Mantua, can also be identified as the apostle James the Great, on the left.

The print published in Nicolas Gueudeville's "Le grand theatre historique, ou nouvelle histoire universelle" in Leiden in 1703 (Volume 4, p. 295/296, National Library of Poland, SD XVIII 3.12527 IV), after original from 1548, depict king Sigismund I the Old on his deathbed giving a blessing to his sucessor Sigismund Augustus having long hair. The original source of inspiration for this engraving is unknown. However, the faithfully reproduced costumes and the famous Jagiellonian tapestries indicate that the artist was familiar with the realities of the time and the country. Who knows, perhaps he was inspired by a painting made in Venice or elsewhere.

In February 1556, Bona departed Poland to her native Italy trough Venice with treasures she had accumulated over 38 years loaded on 12 wagons, drawn by six horses. She udoubtedly took with her some religious paintings, portraits of members of the royal family and of her beloved son Augustus. She settled in Bari near Naples, inherited from her mother, where she arrived on 13 May 1556. 

Bona died just one year later on 19 November 1557, at the age of 63. She was poisoned by her courtier Gian Lorenzo Pappacoda, who falsified her last will and stole her treasures.

The paining showing Christ as The Light of the World  (Lux Mundi) in the the National Gallery in London (oil on canvas, 90.7 x 74.7 cm, inv. NG1845), bears a strong resemblance to known effigies of Sigismund Augustus in particular the best-known miniature by Cranach the Younger, made in Wittenberg after 1553 (Czartoryski Museum, inv. MNK XII-538). It was given to the National Gallery in 1901 by the heirs of the surgeon, who in turn was offered the painting by a member of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, formed when the Kingdom of Sicily merged with the Kingdom of Naples in 1816, in thanks for his kindness to a Sicilian lady in 1819. 
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According to museum description "paintings of this type were kept in houses, especially in bedrooms", so has Bona had it at her deathbed in Bari? He holds a scroll inscribed: EGO. SVM. LVX. MŪD. meaning "I am the light of the world" (John 8:12, "I am the light of the world. Anyone who follows me will never walk in the darkness but will have the light of life"), which, in the context of the disguised portrait of a monarch, could be interpreted as having an additional important political significance.

This convention of historié portrait was undoubtedly well known to the Queen through portraits of Lorenzo de' Medici (1492-1519), Duke of Urbino by Venetian painters, depicted as Christ the Redeemer of the World (Salvator Mundi). The portrait of Federico II Gonzaga, probably by Titian, brought to Vilnius in June 1529, most likely also depicted the Duke of Mantua as the Saviour, since the queen ordered the court barber to kneel before it with hands folded in prayer (after "Królowa Bona ..." by Władysław Pociecha, Volume 3, p. 187).

Some sacred images of Poland-Lithuania are also considered as effigies of the monarchs, like Our Lady of the Gate of Dawn in Vilnius, allegedly depicting Barbara Radziwill, mistress and later wife of Sigismund Augustus, or portrait of Queen Marie Casimire Sobieska (1641-1716) as Saint Barbara in the Bydgoszcz Cathedral. It is believed that the painting in Vilnius was commissioned as one of two paintings, one depicting Christ the Saviour (Salvator Mundi), and the other the Virgin Mary.

Other versions and workshop copies of the painting in London are today in the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo, offered in 1908, legacy of Countess Maria Ricotti Caleppio, widow of the Ancona patrician Raimondo Ricotti who died in his villa in Rome (oil on canvas, 88 x 70 cm, inv. 58AC00074), in the Abbey of San Benedetto in Polirone near Mantua, possibly from the Gonzaga collection (oil on canvas, 98.5 x 80 cm), and in the Musée Rolin in Autun in France, transferred from the Louvre, most probably from the French royal collection (inv. H.V.34). Another reduced variant from a private collection was sold in New York (oil on canvas, 61 x 50.5 cm, Sotheby's, November 2, 2000, lot 68). It is therefore highly probable that effigies of the king of Poland in guise of the Saviour were sent to different royal and princely courts in Europe shortly after creation in Venetian workshop of Paris Bordone, to Rome, Mantua and France, among others.

A good copy is also preserved in Venice, in the Gallerie dell'Accademia (oil on canvas, 97 x 75 cm, inv. 307). This painting, previously attributed to Rocco Marconi (d. 1529), comes from the Contarini collection in Venice. It is interesting to note that in the library of King Sigismund Augustus there was a book on the history of Venice, De magistratibus, et repub. Venetorum libri quinq., published in Basel in 1547. It was the work of the Venetian cardinal Gasparo Contarini (1483-1542), well known in Poland (after "Bibljoteka Zygmunta Augusta" by Kazimierz Hartleb, p. 113, 152), whose relative Ambrogio (1429-1499) visited Sarmatia in 1474 and 1477. 

A relatively similar composition, evidently depicting the same man, but with a different inscription on the scroll - PAX. VOBIS. ("Peace be with you"), painted by Bordone, belonged to Count Heinrich von Brühl (1700-1763), a statesman at the court of Saxony and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, as confirmed by engravings by Philipp Andreas Kilian (1714-1759), made around 1754 (Kupferstich-Kabinett in Dresden, inv. B 101,4/39 and Museum of Art and History in Geneva, inv. E 2015-1192). The painter also used the same facial features in another Lux Mundi, now in the Ravenna Art Museum (oil on canvas, 85 x 57 cm, inv. QA0007). This painting comes from the Rasi collection in Ravenna and was probably previously in the Classe Abbey in Ravenna, where a painting by Paris Bordone depicting the Saviour is noted in 1798 (after "Di due quadri attribuiti a Paris Bordon" by Andrea Moschetti, L'arte, Volume 4, p. 281).

In one of the side altars of the Church of the Assumption in Kraśnik there is painting of Salvator Mundi by workshop of Paris Bordone from the mid-16th century (oil on panel, 110 x 60 cm). It is possible that it was offered to the temple by Stanisław Gabriel Tęczyński (1514-1561) or his son Jan Baptysta Tęczyński (1540-1563), owners of Kraśnik, and that it was originally given to one of them by the king. The facial features of this Christ are also very characteristic and resemble those of another contemporary sovereign, King Francis I of France (1494-1547), in particular his portrait at the age of 24 in guise of Saint John the Baptist, with fair hair, dating from around 1518 (Louvre, inv. RF 2005 12, inscription: FRANCOYS. R. DE. FRANCE. / PREMIER. DE. CE. NOM. A. AGE. / DE. XXIIII. ANS.), the best-known portrait of this monarch by Jean Clouet (Louvre, INV 3256; B 1964) or the portrait by Titian (Louvre, INV 753; MR 505), with dark hair. The French monarch was frequently painted by Italian artists inspired by other effigies, such as Raphael, who, between 1516 and 1517, depicted Francis I as Charles the Great (748-814) and Pope Leo X (1475-1521) as Leo III (died 816) in the scene of the Coronation of Charlemagne (Raphael Rooms in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican). In 1538, according to Vasari, or in 1559, according to Federici, Bordone was invited to France by Francis II. After painting for the court, then in Augsburg for the Fugger family, he returned to Italy, where he settled permanently in Venice, where he died in 1571 (after "History of Painting" by Alfred Woltmann and Karl Woermann, Volume II, p. 626). Jan Baptysta Tęczyński also stayed in France between 1556 and 1560. In the former territories of Sarmatia, two other splendid portraits of Francis I have been preserved, both attributed to the workshop and circle of Joos van Cleve - one purchased in 1793 from Stanisław Kostka Potocki by King Stanislaus Augustus Poniatowski (Royal Castle in Warsaw, inv. ZKW/2124/ab) and the other from the collection of Leon Piniński (Lviv National Art Gallery, inv. Ж-418).

Portrait of King Sigismund II Augustus (1520-1572)​ in guise of Christ as The Light of the World by Paris Bordone, ca. 1548-1550, National Gallery, London.

Portrait of King Sigismund II Augustus (1520-1572) in guise of Christ as The Light of the World by Paris Bordone, ca. ​1548-1550, Accademia Carrara in Bergamo.

Portrait of King Sigismund II Augustus (1520-1572) in guise of Christ as The Light of the World by workshop of Paris Bordone, ca. 1548-1550, Abbey of San Benedetto in Polirone.

​Portrait of King Sigismund II Augustus (1520-1572) in guise of Christ as The Light of the World by workshop of Paris Bordone, ca. 1548-1550, Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice. Virtual reconstruction, © Marcin Latka

Portrait of King Sigismund II Augustus (1520-1572) in guise of Christ the Saviour (Salvator Mundi) by workshop of Paris Bordone, ca. 1548-1550, Private collection.

​Portrait of King Sigismund II Augustus (1520-1572) in guise of Christ as The Light of the World by Paris Bordone, ca. 1548-1550, Ravenna Art Museum.

​Portrait of King Sigismund II Augustus (1520-1572) as the Saviour by Philipp Andreas Kilian after original by Paris Bordone, ca. 1754, Museum of Art and History in Geneva.

​King Sigismund I the Old (1467-1548) on his deathbed from Nicolas Gueudeville's "Le grand theatre historique ...", 1703, National Library of Poland.

Portrait of King Francis I of France (1494-1547) as the Redeemer of the World (Salvator Mundi) by workshop of Paris Bordone, after 1538, Church of the Assumption in Kraśnik.

Portraits of Queen Barbara Radziwill by Cornelis van Cleve

In interwar Poland, attention was drawn to the similarity of the face of the Madonna of the Gate of Dawn, the prominent Christian icon of the Virgin Mary venerated in Vilnius, Lithuania, with the effigies of the noble Lithuanian lady Barbara Radziwill, who became Queen of Poland. This hypothesis was presented by Zbigniew Kuchowicz in his book "Images of unusual women of Old Poland in the 16th to 18th century" (Wizerunki niepospolitych niewiast staropolskich XVI-XVIII wieku), where he claimed that the fact of the similarity of the Madonna of Vilnius with the queen was noticed by Polish historians in Catholic circles. Juliusz Kłos, a professor at Vilnius University, wrote in a Vilnius guidebook that this painting could be classified as belonging to the Italian school of the mid-16th century, and he also saw a striking similarity of the face of the Virgin Mary with the portraits of Barbara Radziwill. The resemblance was also pointed out by priest Piotr Śledziewski, according to whom "the type of the Madonna of the Gate of Dawn is strikingly similar to the portrait of Queen Barbara Radziwill [...] The same nose, the same chin and mouth, the same eyes and eye edges, the same body structure". Ultimately, it was established that the painting was created not in the times when Barbara lived, but much later. However, this does not rule out the fact that its creator could have used one of the queen's portraits as an inspiration (after "Duchy Kresów Wschodnich" by Alicja Łukawska, p. 35). 

The painting of Our Lady of the Gate of Dawn was probably painted in Vilnius in the 1620s by an unknown painter. Before the appearance of the chapel in 1671, this large painting (200 x 165 cm), painted on oak boards, hung in a small niche on the inside of the city gate. In the niche of the exterior wall of the gate, as a pair to the image of the Madonna, hung an image of Christ the Redeemer (Salvator Mundi), also painted on oak boards, now in the Church Heritage Museum in Vilnius (repainted in the 18th and late 19th centuries). The cult of the image of the Our Lady began after the disastrous Deluge, after 1655. According to some authors, the originals were works of the Flemish painter Maerten de Vos from the end of the 16th century, however, given the identification of the features of the Virgin, the original painting used to paint her face was made around the middle of the 16th century.

The same face was used in another painting of the Madonna, now kept in the the convent of the Poor Clares in Kraków. This small painting was founded by Father Adam Opatowiusz (Opatowczyk or Opatovius, 1574-1647), canon of Kraków and seven times rector of the Academy of Kraków, doctor of philosophy (1598) and theology (1619), educated in Padua and Rome. He is depicted as a donor holding the Child's foot in the lower part of the painting, with Saint Francis of Assisi on the left, whose effigy, according to Michał Walicki, was inspired by the works of 13th-century Italian painters Margaritone d'Arezzo or Bonaventura Berlinghieri (after "Zloty widnokrąg", p. 107). The portrait of Opatowiusz with a Crucifix is also found in the same convent, so the effigy of Saint Francis was probably modeled on an imported medieval Italian painting.

The image of the Virgin and sleeping Child of Opatowiusz is directly inspired by a painting now kept at the Royal château of Blois (oil on panel, 81.2 x 64.8 cm, inventory number 869.2.20, earlier IP 57). This painting, dated by experts to around 1550, comes from the collection of Pauline Fourès, née Marguerite-Pauline Bellisle, Madame de Ranchoup - the Countess of Ranchoup, as she liked to call her, lover of Napoleon Bonaparte, offered in 1869. It was originally attributed to Lambert Lombard and now to Cornelis van Cleve, who most likely painted the portrait of Queen Barbara in a red dress (Picker Art Gallery in Hamilton). 

Many copies of this painting exist. Good quality versions can be found at the Musée Magnin in Dijon (oil on panel, 81.5 x 66.6 cm, 1938E183) and at the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin (oil on panel, 80 x 65 cm, 653). The copy preserved in the church of Saint Elisabeth in Haren, near Brussels, was probably donated by the archdukes Albert (1559-1621) and Isabella (1566-1633), who financed the restoration of the church after the fire of 1600 (oil on panel, 82 x 69 cm). Two other versions from private collections were sold in 2012 (oil on panel, 84 x 70 cm, Bonhams London, December 5, 2012, lot 86) and in 2020 (oil on panel, 95 x 76 cm, Sotheby's London, September 23, 2020, lot 33). In the latter painting, attributed to follower of Cornelis van Cleve, a marble column was added to the background. The style of this painting is closest to the nude portrait of Queen Barbara kept in the National Museum in Warsaw (M.Ob.2158 MNW), attributed to circle of Michiel Coxie. 

The face of the Madonna surprisingly resembles the effigies of Barbara Radziwill by Paris Bordone (Nivaagaard Museum in Nivå) and Giampietro Silvio (Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania in Vilnius), identified by me. The Madonna of Opatowiusz also has a crown, just to underline her royal status.

A similar Madonna can also be seen in a composition depicting the Adoration of the Magi by Cornelis van Cleve. Many such compositions were created by the painter and his workshop, but one of them, kept in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (oil on panel, 125.1 x 96.1 cm, GG 1703), is very specific. It was painted in the manner of Cornelis van Cleve and signed with monogram CAVB. Very young age of Saint Joseph, who was usually depicted as an old man, and great similarity of the effigy of the kneeling Saint Melchior, the oldest of the Magi, with the effigy of King Sigismund I in a similar scene by Joos van Cleve (Gemäldegalerie Berlin), as well as others portraits of the king, notably as a donor by workshop of Michel Sittow (private collection) and attributed to Hans von Kulmbach (Gołuchów Castle), indicate that it is more of a political allegory than a religious scene. Although the old king, who died in 1548, before Barbara's coronation, condemned in a few letters the marriage of his son to his mistress, it is generally considered that he treated his daughter-in-law well, which is why Queen Bona, who later claimed that the scandal contributed to her husband's death, may have been the instigator of the mentioned letters.

The three men surrounding Madonna-Barbara should therefore be identified as her brother Nicolaus "the Red" as Saint Joseph and her cousin Nicolaus "the Black" as Saint Caspar and King Sigismund I, wearing the Order of the Golden Fleece, as Saint Melchior and it is comparable to the similar scene with the disguised portrait of Emperor Frederick III by Joos van Cleve (National Museum in Poznań and Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden). The painting was evidenced in the gallery in 1783, so it could be a gift from the Radziwills to the emperor to sanction the marriage of Sigismund Augustus.

​Portrait of Queen Barbara Radziwill as Madonna with sleeping Child by Cornelis van Cleve, ca. 1550, Royal château of Blois.

​Portrait of Queen Barbara Radziwill as Madonna with sleeping Child by Cornelis van Cleve, ca. 1550, Musée Magnin in Dijon.

​Portrait of Queen Barbara Radziwill as Madonna with sleeping Child by Cornelis van Cleve, ca. 1550, Private collection.

​Portrait of Queen Barbara Radziwill as Madonna with sleeping Child by Cornelis van Cleve, ca. 1550, Gemäldegalerie in Berlin.

​Portrait of Queen Barbara Radziwill as Madonna with sleeping Child by Cornelis van Cleve, ca. 1550, Church of Saint Elisabeth in Haren.

​Portrait of Queen Barbara Radziwill as Madonna with sleeping Child by circle of Michiel Coxie, ca. 1550, Private collection.

Madonna with sleeping Child with Saint Francis of Assisi and Father Adam Opatowiusz by unknown painter, second quarter of the 17th century, Convent of the Poor Clares in Kraków. 

​Adoration of the Magi with portraits of Sigismund I, Barbara Radziwill, Nicolaus "the Black" and Nicolaus "the Red" Radziwill by Cornelis van Cleve, ca. 1550, Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

Portrait of Anna Elizabeth Radziwill by Hans Krell

In 1550, Pyotr Petrovich Kishka (Piotr Piotrowicz Kiszka in Polish), starost of Lutsk and marshal of Volhynia, died, and after about a year of marriage, Anna Elizabeth Radziwill (1518-1558), the eldest daughter of George "Hercules" Radziwill (1480-1541), became a widow. This marriage was arranged by her brother Nicolaus "the Red" Radziwill (1512-1584). It was postponed several times for various reasons, but finally took place in February 1549. Anna Elizabeth's famous sister Barbara (1520/23-1551) did not attend the wedding herself, but sent her courtier Gabriel Tarło (died 1565). The marriage remained childless. In the same year (1550), Anna Elizabeth's mother, Barbara Kolanka (Kołówna) of Dalejów, probably also died, and on 7 December, her sister was crowned Queen of Poland at Wawel Cathedral. 

The widow soon remarried for the second time, to the Ruthenian prince Semyon Olshansky (Holshansky), pantler of Lithuania. Like the first, the second marriage also remained childless. Prince Semyon died in 1556, as the last male member of the family, and the large fortune of the Olshansky princes was inherited by his six sisters. Anna Elizabeth died two years later.

No contemporary effigy of Lady Kiszczyna, also known as Anna Alzbeta Yurievna Radzivil in Ruthenian, Ona Elžbieta Radvilaitė in Lithuanian or Anna (Hanna) Elżbieta Jurjewna Radziwiłłówna in Polish sources, is known. The effigy reproduced in 1758 in Icones familiae ducalis Radivilianae (ANNA ELISABETH PRINCEPS RADIVILIA / GEORGII. I. cognito VICTORIS Et BARBARÆ KOLANSKA De Daleow [...] Nata Anno Domini 1518. ✝ 1558., Vilnius University Library, LeyH IC-2), could not be a reliable portrait of Barbara Radziwill's sister, because the lady is dressed in a costume from the early 17th century.

In 2023, a portrait of a lady by a follower of Lucas Cranach was sold in Paris (oil on panel, 45.5 x 38.5 cm, Artcurial, December 13, 2023, lot 14). The painting comes from private collections in France and Belgium (since the 1970s) and shows a red-haired lady in a black dress and hat, indicating that she is most likely a widow. Her rich jewellery indicates that she is probably a noble lady, while a large gold pendant decorated with pearls, which has a shape similar to that seen in the presumed portrait of Anna Elizabeth from the Icones familiae ducalis Radivilianae, shows an indistinct figure resembling Cupid bending his bow, so the lady probaly hopes for another marriage. 

According to the Latin inscription in the upper part of the painting, the woman was 32 years old in 1550 (AИИO DOM 1550 / SVE ETATIS 32), exactly as Anna Elizabeth, when she became a widow. It is interesting to note that the letter N in the Latin word anno (year) is written like the letter I in the classical Cyrillic alphabet, so the author of the inscription could be a Ruthenian who knew Latin. The woman in the painting bears a striking family resemblance to Anna Elizabeth's sister Barbara, according to her portrait miniatures in the Czartoryski Museum by Lucas Cranach the Younger or workshop and the court painter (MNK XII-540 and MNK IV-V-1433), as well as to the portrait of Anna Elizabeth's brother Nicolaus "the Red" by the workshop of Giovanni Cariani (National Art Museum of Belarus in Minsk).

The effigy of Barbara, created by the court painter, is also close in its composition and its green background. It is probably the most faithful effigy of the queen, as it was created as part of a diptych depicting the two wives of King Sigismund II Augustus - the first Elizabeth of Austria and the second Barbara, for the king's personal use (oil on copper, 17,3 x 12 cm, each), probably shortly after her death (May 8, 1551). Unlike the other Jagiellonian effigies, including Cranach the Younger's miniature of Barbara, it was probably created by a painter active at the royal court at the time, rather than being ordered from abroad. Although here too the influences of Cranach's style are noticeable, the miniatures were not signed by his workshop and his hand is not so apparent. The most likely author of the two miniatures seems to be Antoni Wida (also Antonius de Wida, Anton Weide, Wied or Wide), considered a pupil of Cranach, who worked for the king (he was in Kraków in 1534 and 1535 and in Vilnius in 1553 and 1557). He probably came from a region near the Rhine in Germany, Weida in Thuringia or Kołobrzeg. Unfortunately no signed or confirmed work by this painter has been preserved. 

​The painter was remunerated in royal manner. In 1545 he received 105 złoty for a painting depicting a bison hunt, the following year for a painting depicting a tournament, he received 16 kopa of Lithuanian groszy (1 kopa = 60 pieces), and shortly afterwards for another painting 55 złoty (after "Zygmunt August: Wielki Książę Litwy do roku 1548" by Ludwik Kolankowski, p. 329). 

Wida also worked for relatives of Sigismund Augustus in Pomerania, notably Duke Philip I of Pomerania (1515-1560), grandson of Anna Jagiellon (1476-1503). In the inventory of Philip's possessions, drawn up after his death in February 1560, there is a picture of his wife, Duchess Mary of Saxony (1515-1583), made by Antoni de Wida (after "Monatsblätter", Gesellschaft für Pommersche Geschichte und Alterthumskunde, Volumes 22-25, p. 44). He also made portraits of Barnim IX (1501-1573), Philip, Philip's sister Margaret (1511-1577) and Georgia of Pomerania (1531-1574). In 1542, Antoni is said to have made a large map of Moscow and in October 1553 he sent from Vilnius four portraits to Duke Albert of Prussia (1490-1568), cousin of Sigismund Augustus, for his gallery in Königsberg/Królewiec (he was paid 72 marks). It is confirmed in the documents that in August 1557 in Vilnius he painted two portraits of Polish-Lithuanian princesses Anna and Catherine Jagiellon, sisters of Sigismund II Augustus, for Duke Albert. He died in Gdańsk on January 21, 1558 (compare "Zespół pomorskich płyt kamiennych ..." by Maria Glińska, p. 346 and "Archiv für medaillen- und plaketten-kunde ...", 1921, Volumes 3-5, p. 3). 

The Paris portrait of Anna Elizabeth Radziwill is different in style from the mentioned miniature of Barbara and the closest analogies we can find in works attributed to another itinerant court artist, Hans Krell (died in Leipzig circa 1586), who created several portraits of Bohemian-Hungarian Jagiellons and to whom a large painting depicting the Battle of Orsha on September 8, 1514 (National Museum in Warsaw, MP 2475), is attributed.

Krell also created portraits based on other effigies, without seeing the living model at the precise moment, as the full-length portrait of Emperor Ferdinand I (1503-1564), husband of Anna Jagellonica (1503-1547), from the Lobkowicz collection at Prague Castle is attributed to him. He created this portrait of the emperor around 1570 together with a similar portrait of Ladislav III Popel z Lobkowicz (1537-1609) from the same collection (inscription: ÆTAT. SVÆ XXXIII. ANNO M.D. LXX.), most likely as part of a series, six years after the emperor's death. Like Lord Lobkowicz, Ferdinand also has very slender and long legs, which was probably fashionable at the Prague court at that time. In 1567 Krell painted a similar portrait, identified as representing another Czech lord, Jaroslav z Pernštejna (1528-1560), signed and dated lower left: HK / 1567, thus created seven years after his death.

Particularly comparable to the Paris portrait are the portrait of Mary of Austria (1505-1558), Queen of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia, wife of Louis II Jagiellon (1506-1526), ​​painted in 1524 (State Gallery of the New Residence in Bamberg, inv. 3564) and the portrait of Anna Sophia of Prussia (1527-1591), daughter of Albert of Prussia, painted between 1550 and 1555 (Königsberg Castle, oil on canvas , 73 x 53 cm, inv. GK I 8041, lost during the Second World War). In the portrait of Anna Sophia, who probably received her second name in honour of her grandmother Sophia Jagiellon (1464-1512), Margravine of Brandenburg-Ansbach, a very similar pose and costume can be seen. It was also painted on the green background (compare "Die Kunst am Hofe der Herzöge von Preußen" by Hermann Ehrenberg, p. 23). The Prussian princess, who became Duchess of Mecklenburg in 1555, named her youngest son Sigismund Augustus (1560-1600), in honour of the Polish king. It is therefore quite possible that around 1550 or later Krell travelled from Vilnius to Königsberg to paint Sigismund Augustus' relatives.

​Portrait of Anna Elizabeth Radziwill (1518-1558), aged 32, as a widow, by Hans Krell, 1550, Private collection.

​Miniature portrait of Queen Barbara Radziwill (1520/23-1551) by Antoni Wida (?), ca. 1551, Czartoryski Museum. 

​Miniature portrait of Queen Elizabeth of Austria (1526-1545) by Antoni Wida (?), ca. 1551, Czartoryski Museum. 

​Portrait of Anna Sophia of Prussia (1527-1591) by Hans Krell, ca. 1550-1555, Königsberg Castle, lost during World War II. Virtual reconstruction, © Marcin Latka

Portraits of Franciszek Krasiński and Piotr Dunin-Wolski by Lambert Sustris or workshop

Franciszek Krasiński, a nobleman of Ślepowron coat of arms, was born on April 10, 1525, probably in the village of Krasne in Masovia, north of Warsaw, in the family of Jan Andrzej Krasiński, Pantler of Ciechanów, and Katarzyna Mrokowska. He received his primary education at the Protestant gymnasium in Zgorzelec in Silesia (part of Bohemia), then studied under Philip Melanchthon at the University of Wittenberg, from where, on the advice of Bishop Mikołaj Dzierzgowski, he resigned. In 1541, he entered the University of Kraków, later went to Italy, where he studied at the University of Bologna, and on June 4, 1551, at the University of Rome, he became a doctor of both laws. After returning to Poland, he was most probaly ordained a priest and became a secretary of his distant relative, Primate Mikołaj Dzieżgowski, who helped him obtain several church benefits: the Kalisz archdeaconry and the canon of Łuck, Łowicz and Kraków. In 1560, Franciszek became the secretary of king Sigismund Augustus under the patronage of Primate Jan Przerębski. He performed diplomatic functions, in particular in Vienna, where he was an ambassador at the Imperial court between 1565-1568. He was later crown vice - chancellor between 1569-1574 and bishop of Kraków between 1572-1577. Being sick with tuberculosis, he often stayed in the castle of the Kraków Bishops in Bodzentyn. He died there on March 16, 1577 and according to his will, he was buried in the local church, where his marble tomb monument was created by Girolamo Canavesi's workshop in Kraków. 

Facial features of a man wearing an elaborately embroidered doublet and a fur-trimmed black cape in a portrait attributed to Lambert Sustris are very similar to known effigies of Franciszek Krasiński, especially to his portrait by anonymous painter which was before World War II in the collection of Ludwika Czartoryska née Krasińska in Krasne, lost. Also the pose is very similar. The painting in Krasne was dated in upper right corner Ao 1576, however, it might possibly be a later addition as on this portrait he is much younger then on other known effigies (e.g. portrait in the Franciscan Monastery in Kraków from about 1572). The painting attributed to Sustris was sold in New York in 1989 and was painted on panel (oil on panel, 115.6 x 89.7 cm). According to inscription in Latin in lower right corner, the man was 25 years old in 1550 (.ET TATIS SVE../.ANNVS./.XXV./.P./MDL), exactly as Franciszek Krasiński, when he studied in Bologna and Rome.

At the Colonna Gallery in Rome there is a portrait of a man holding gloves (oil on canvas, 88 x 65 cm, inventory number Fid. n. 1477), who also resemble greatly Franciszek Krasiński from the portrait in Krasne and described effigy attributed to Sustris. It was earlier attributed to Lorenzo Lotto, Nicolas Neufchatel or Dirck Barendsz (rejected attributions) and now to anonymous painter from the Southern Netherlands. Previous attributions and style of this painting match perfectly paintings by Sustris, a Dutch painter who worked in Titian's studio and incorporated Italian Renaissance elements in his work. The costume of the man and the style is also very similar to the painting dated 1550. 

The date when Krasiński was ordained a priest is unknown. He was a canon of Gniezno from 1556, however, like Copernicus or Jan Dantyszek, he might not have been ordained a priest. The sitter's costume and pose can be compared with effigies of Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle (1517-1586), a leading minister of the Spanish Habsburgs, who become a canon of Besançon and prothonotary Apostolic in 1529, when he was only 12 years old, later, in November 1538, aged only twenty-one, he was appointed bishop of Arras and took holy orders two years later (after "Les Granvelle et les anciens Pays-Bas" by Krista de Jonge, Gustaaf Janssens, p. 20). Granvelle also became the archbishop of Malines (1560) and a cardinal (1561), yet in majority of his portraits, like the one created by Frans Floris in about 1541, with blue eyes, by Titian in 1548, by Antonis Mor in 1549 and in about 1560, by Lambertus Suavius in 1556, all with dark eyes, there is no explicit reference to his priesthood. A number of preserved portraits of Polish-Lithuanian "princes of the Church" are official effigies dedicated to churches, where the patron was depicted in pontifical vestments. In private images, they could allow themselves, like Granvelle, to be depicted in less formal attire, more typical of a nobleman than a priest. According to Latin inscription at upper left, the man was 37 years old in 1562 (A° 1562 / AETATIS. 37), exacly as royal secretary Franciszek Krasiński. He could have ordered this likeness in Venice and then send it to Rome, although it is also possible that in 1562 he was in Italy.

​Another portrait attributed to Lambert Sustris or his workshop shows a bearded man in black costume with a black hat, holiding a book and seated in a chair. This painting was sold in London in 2005 (oil on canvas, 98.3 x 78 cm, Bonhams, July 6, 2005, lot 90). It bears inscription and date Roma Ano 1564 Etatis Mae 33 (Rome Year 1564 of My Age 33) above the man's head, as well as three other inscriptions in Greek (or Armenian), Hebrew and Italian. The inscription in Italian Non ognuno che mi dice signor / Signore entrata nel regno de cieli: / ma colui che fa la volunta del / padre mio che e ne' cieli (Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven) are verses of the seventh chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament, part of the Sermon on the Mount, on True and False Disciples. 

The age of a man match perfectly the age of Piotr Dunin-Wolski (1531-1590), the son of Paweł Dunin-Wolski, Great Crown Chancellor, and Dorota Wiewiecka of Jastrzębiec coat of arms, who after his initial studies at the Lubrański Academy in Poznań went to Bologna and Padua to complete his studies. In Bologna in 1554 he is mentioned as a student of Sebastiano Corrado (Sebastianus Corradus), professor of Greek and Latin, who translated Plato into Latin. He was a canon of Poznań since 1545 and after returning from Italy, he stayed at the court of king Sigismund Augustus, where he proved to be a man especially gifted in foreign languages and in diplomacy. He was threfore sent to Madrid in Spain in 1560 where he stayed for more than 10 years, trying to regain the so-called Neapolitan sums for the king. 

His stay in Rome in 1564 is not mentioned in the sources, however his letters from Barcelona of March 4 to cardinal Stanisław Hozjusz and from Madrid of September 23 to bishop Marcin Kromer might indicate such journey. He returned to Poland in 1573. He was a collector of antiquities and collected a large library, which he donated to the Kraków Academy (approx. 1000 volumes) and the library of the Płock Chapter (130 books). 

Dunin-Wolski died in Płock on August 20, 1590 and was buried in the cathedral church, where his tombstone has been preserved to this day as well as a portrait. This effigy, created after his death in the 17th or 18th century by a local painter, was undeniably copied from another effigy of the Bishop of Płock (since 1577), and it is astonishingly similar to the described painting by Sustris or his workshop.

Portrait of Franciszek Krasiński (1525-1577), aged 25, in embroidered doublet by Lambert Sustris, 1550, Private collection.

Portrait of royal secretary Franciszek Krasiński (1525-1577), aged 37, holding gloves by Lambert Sustris, 1562, Colonna Gallery in Rome.

Portrait of canon Piotr Dunin-Wolski (1531-1590), aged 33 by Lambert Sustris or workshop, 1564, Private collection.

Portraits of Queen Barbara Radziwill and her father by workshop of Paris Bordone

"They say that Queen Bona, who previously cared little about divine things, is beginning to be attracted to innovations in religion. Because she is reading Italian books by a certain Bernardino Ochino, once a monk in Italy and the founder of the new Capuchin Congregation, but who changed his faith and now teaches in England. They assure that she would like to bring in a similar type of teachers, i.e. preachers. A strange change in this woman's mind! She was also reconciled with Queen Barbara. Through her envoy and her confessor, Franciszek Lismaninus of Corcyra [Francesco Lismanini of Corfu], Bona called Barbara her most beloved daughter-in-law, recommended herself and her daughters to her in the most flattering terms and sent small gifts. Many claim that she did it deceitfully, not for Barbara's sake, but to enslave the king her son, who is so attached to his wife that he hates those who persecute her with hatred, and that it was all the easier for her because she knew that Queen Barbara will not live long. Queen Bona's confessor himself, whom I mentioned above, solemnly assured me that this consent was real and a divine decree. And that is a noteworthy mind shift", reported in a letter of March 9, 1551, Doctor Johannes Lang, envoy of King Ferdinand I of Austria.

This letter illustrates not only the family relationships within the Jagiellonian dynasty around the mid-16th century, but also the popularity of Italian culture and new ideas and trends at the royal court.

In an earlier letter dated January 4, 1551 from Świdnica (Swidniciae) to the king, Doctor Lang adds about religious reforms in Poland-Lithuania: "I have already written to Your Royal Majesty about a marriage concluded by a priest in Pinczów, a town fourteen miles away from Kraków. Now they tell me that a new liturgy has been introduced there after the expulsion of the monks; they sing the mass in Polish and condemn communion under one species in the Eucharist. Strange crowds of nobility come there, brazenly trampling on old church rites. As far as I can predict, I see that, despite the opposition of some men, Poland will forcibly obtain priestly marriage and communion under both kinds. There will be a strange change in church things there" (after "Jagiellonki polskie ..." by Aleksander Przezdziecki, Volume 5, pp. LXVIII-LXX). 

At Knole House, Kent, England, there is another portrait of an unknown lady, called Mary, Queen of Scots, three-quarter length (oil on canvas, 107 x 89 cm, NT 129951), similar to the so-called Carleton portrait at Chatsworth House. The young woman wears an ivory dress embroidered in gold with blue undersleeves. Her hair is decorated with pearls and red carnation flowers, symbols of love and passion. Due to earlier identification, the portrait is attributed to the French or Flemish school. In the 18th and 19th centuries the romantic legend and tragic death of the Queen of Scots contributed to this phenomenon and even the daughter of Mary's adversary - Sir Francis Walsingham (died 1590), Frances Walsingham (1567-1633), Lady Sidney became Mary, Queen of Scots. Possibly in the 19th century the inscription on the small trompe l'oeil label, or cartellino, visible in the upper left corner, in a fine portrait of Frances attributed to Robert Peake (Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 1954.75), was changed to Latin: MARIA REGINA SCOTIAE. Using new technology, restorers discovered the original lettering: "The Ladie Sidney daughter to Secretarye Walsingham" (after "Who's That Lady? ..." by Elise Effmann Clifford). 

Similar was the case with the portrait of Princess Sophia Jagiellon (1522-1575) in Spanish costume (Czartoryski Museum, MNK XII-296) or portrait of Cardinal John Albert Vasa (1612-1634) by Venetian school (most probably Tommaso Dolabella, Wilanów Palace in Warsaw, Wil.1240), which, according to a later inscription depict Cardinal Andrew Bathory (1562-1599). 

The lady's features resemble those in the Carleton portrait and miniature of Queen Barbara by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Younger (Czartoryski Museum, MNK IV-V-1433), as well as other portraits of the queen. 

The style of this painting resembles the full-length effigy of Queen Barbara's father - George Radziwill (1480-1541), nicknamed "Hercules" in the National Art Museum of Belarus in Minsk (oil on canvas, 210 x 122 cm, inv. ЗЖ-140). It can be compared to the portraits of Sigismund Augustus in the guise of Christ as Light of the World produced by the workshop of Paris Bordone (Accademia Carrara in Bergamo and Abbey of San Benedetto in Polirone) as well as to the double portrait, attributed to Bordone (Nivaagaard Museum, 0009NMK) and portrait of a man in Paris (Louvre, INV 126; MR 74).

According to the Latin inscription in the upper left corner, George Radziwill was painted in 1541 at the age of 55 (GEORGIVS RADZIWIL CASTELLANVS VILENSIS [...] AÑO DNI. M.D.XXXXI. ÆTATIS VERO SVÆ LV.). 

The inventory of paintings from the collection of Princess Louise Charlotte Radziwill (1667-1695), drawn up in 1671, lists some of the effigies that survived the Deluge (1655-1660). Among these portraits, many were made in 1550, such as Nicolaus Radziwil Cognomento, 2dus Dux in Gonidz Palatinus Vilne[n]sis Cancelarius M.D.L. (1), Georius Radziwił Castelanus Vilnens. Gnalis dux Exercitum M.D.L. (9), Joanes Radziwił Dux in Muszniki Archicamer. M.D.L. (15) and Nicolaus Radziwił Dux Birzarum et Dubincorum, Palaitinus Vilnen. Gnalis Dux Exercitum M.D.L. (21). The creation of such a gallery of ancestors and other family members was probably linked to the coronation of Queen Barbara on December 7, 1550.

​Portrait of Queen Barbara Radziwill by workshop of Paris Bordone, ca. 1549-1551, Knole House. 

​Portrait of George "Hercules" Radziwill, castellan of Vilnius by workshop of Paris Bordone, ca. 1549-1551, National Art Museum of Belarus in Minsk.