Portrait of Prince Ladislaus Sigismund Vasa by Giovanni Antonio Galli
After World War II, which was the culmination of horrific invasions and partitions of Poland by its neighbors, very few effigies of Polish-Lithuanian Vasas were preserved in the former territories of the Commonwealth. What is very meaningful is that many of them were acquired abroad in the 19th century by aristocrats wishing to preserve the memory of the most tolerant country in Renaissance Europe. One of these paintings is a full-length portrait of Prince Ladislaus Sigismund Vasa, future King Ladislaus IV, painted by an Italian painter during his peregrination in the Italian peninsula in 1624-1625, now at Kórnik Castle near Poznań (oil on canvas, 234 x 116 cm, inventory number MK 03369).
It was purchased in 1850 in Paris by Count Tytus Działyński (1796-1861). According to the inscription at the bottom, the effigy was commissioned by the Gundulić family (known in Italian as Gondola), patricians from Dubrovnik (Republic of Ragusa), who settled in Ancona in the Papal States. It was intended as a souvenir of the prince's stay at their house on December 13 and 14, 1624. Ivan Gundulič (1589-1638), a relative of the hosts, an outstanding Croatian poet and patrician from Dubrovnik, probably met the Polish-Lithuanian prince there and dedicated the poem "Osman" to him. He was probably also the author of the inscription on the portrait (VLADISLAO SIGISMUNDI POLONORum REGIS FILIO / SCYTHAR, TVRCARVMQ: TIVMPHATORI INVICTo / GVNDVLA FAMILIA HOSPITI SVO / VT CVIVS HVMANSmam MAEST SEVELIN HIS ÆDIBVs ASPEXIt / SEMPER IN IMAGINE SVSPICIAT.). In the 19th century, the image hung in Casa Gunduli in Ancona (after "„Królewska” galeria obrazów ..." by Barbara Dolczewska, p. 250). The balding prince, who later frequently wore wigs, was depicted in a fashionable black Spanish-Italian costume with the Order of the Golden Fleece hanging on his chest and a rapier at his side. During his peregrination, Ladislaus Sigismund was considered a connoisseur, which is confirmed by the fact that Duke William V of Bavaria asked the prince to evaluate the copy of the painting of Saint Veronica, made according to the Roman original. Already in 1612, Queen Constance praised her stepson's artistic interests in a letter to Duke William. Ladislaus Sigismund's letter of September 18, 1624, sent from Brussels to Urszula Meyerin, and indirectly to his father, contains an important mention of his collector's awareness: "I bought several original paintings. There are many real masterpieces [capolavori] here". In Milan he admired the "crystal crafts". He probably visited van Dyck's studio in Genoa and looked at the paintings in the local Neri palace and the frescoes by Agostino Carracci in the summer palace in Parma. He admired the works of Domenico Ghirlandaio in Florence and visited Guido Reni's studio in Bologna (after "Świat polskich Wazów: eseje", p. 311-312). The prince's aunt, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, in a conversation with the Mantua envoy, Ferrante Agnelli Soardo, said that he "likes to be well received, appreciates music, likes paintings" (according to a letter of Soardo to Ferdinand I Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, Florence, February 4, 1625). In a letter sent on February 26, 1625 from Bologna, Ladislaus Sigismund mentions hiring a "good organist" (possibly Angelo Simonelli) and a "eunuch" (possibly famous castrato Baldassare Ferri) into the royal service, also expressing hope for employing a skilled alto player. In Naples, he could admire the representative attire of the viceroy Antonio Álvarez de Toledo y Beaumont, 5th Duke of Alba, who had "a diamond jewel on him and a cynturyn [belt - cinturón, citrine?] in his hat, which was estimated at several hundred thousand" and that at the age of seventy (septuagenario) he dyed his hair and beard (after "Obraz dworów Europejskich ..." by Stefan Pac, p. 134). In the late afternoon of January 12, 1625, he listened to "Adriana [Basile-Baroni] singing with her son and daughters". In Venice, which in his opinion "is probably the truest wonder of the world" (letter to Urszula Meyerin, March 5, 1625), he visited the house of a merchant selling diamonds. On March 7, he went to Murano "to listen to a nun who was famous here for her wonderful voice". Two days later he appeared incognito "at the Council of Venice" and on March 20, 1625, from Palmanova, the prince sent a letter of thanks to the Republic of Venice for a lavish reception. He brought numerous gifts to the country - sculptures, caskets, jewels and "paintings by old, famous masters", received from the Duke of Mantua, Carlo Magalotti, Cardinal Francesco Barberini and a painting in a precious frame from Pope Urban VIII. He also made numerous purchases and, like in Venice, they were exempt from customs duties and additional fees (after "Listy Władysława Wazy ..." by Jacek Żukowski, p. 63, 66, 71, 73, 76, 78). Italians also received many gifts and effigies of the prince and members of the royal family. In the Durazzo-Pallavicini Palace in Genoa there is a good workshop copy of Ladislaus Sigismund's portrait by Rubens. Cardinal Francesco Maria del Monte (1549-1627), patron of Caravaggio, had in his Roman Palazzo Madama "a portrait of the Prince, son of the King of Poland in a black frame" (un ritratto del Principe figlio del Re di Polonia con cornice nere) and Cardinal Francesco Peretti di Montalto (1597-1655), had in 1655 "a painting with a portrait of the Prince of Bologna [Poland] in Polish dress, holding a jewel [most likely bulava mace] in his hand" (quadro uno con ritratto del Principe di Bologna [Polonia] in habito Polacco, che tiene in mano un gioielo). These were probably copies of portrait of Ladislaus Sigismund in Polish costume by Rubens, as the Flemish painter most likely created two versions of his effigy, one commissioned by the Infanta "with a hat on his head" (con el sombrero en la caveza), and the other - alla polacca, i.e. in Polish costume. Two such copies, identified by me in 2012, were offered to the Medicis (Pitti Palace in Florence, Inv. 1890, 5178 and 5673). They were believed to be images of King Michael Korybut Wiśniowiecki, and one of them even has an inscription in Italian: MICHELE VIESNOVISKI RE DI / POLONIA. While Poles often preferred Italian, French, or Flemish fashion, foreign aristocrats wanted Polish-style clothing. The Grand Duchess of Tuscany received such outfits from her sister Queen Constance of Austria in 1622. In 1631, Archduke Leopold V (1586-1632) also wanted Polish clothes for his three-year-old son Ferdinand Charles (1628-1662), which were made and sent by the queen. Leopold liked the clothes and wanted to pay for them, but Constance said that a portrait of "young dear Pollack" (deß jungen lieben Pollacken conterfet) would be sufficient (according to Urszula Meyerin's letter to the Archduke, April 4, 1631). The portraits of the young Dukes of Tuscany in Polish clothing existed in several versions and copies, some of which were undoubtedly also sent to Poland-Lithuania. This is why the portrait of a prince, made in a style close to Justus Sustermans and resembling the effigies of the sons of Ladislaus Sigismund's aunt, Maria Magdalena of Austria, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, is considered the effigy of one of Ladislaus Sigismond's brothers (Academy of Saint Luke in Rome, inventory number 298). The effigy of the young Vasa in his sumptuous costume was undoubtedly also created in several copies for the prince, his family and his friends. Unfortunately, this is the only version known to date, which also indicates the extent of the destruction of art in Poland. Similar to other exquisite effigies created during his journey, this one is also finely painted. The closest is the Penitent Mary Magdalene from the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore (37.651), dated circa 1625-1635. This canvas is attributed to a painter active in Rome Giovanni Antonio Galli, called lo Spadarino (1585-1652), member of the Caravaggisti (followers of Caravaggio). Another work painted in the same way can be found in Ancona, where the portrait of the prince was initially kept. It is also attributed to Spadarino and shows a full-length effigy of Saint Thomas of Villanova giving alms. The painting, now at the Pinacoteca Civica di Ancona (oil on canvas, 192 x 112 cm, inv. 51), is dated to about 1618-1620 (in 1618 the Spanish saint was beatified by Pope Paul V). It comes from the sacristy of the medieval Sant'Agostino church in Ancona, mentioned by Marcello Oretti, who visited Ancona in 1777. Two pendant effigies of Ladislaus and his second wife Marie Louise Gonzaga, created in the style of Spadarino or his workshop, were sold in Rome in 2022. No signed portraits by Spadarino are known, so perhaps all were destroyed in Poland-Lithuania or are awaiting discovery.
Portrait of Crown Prince Ladislaus Sigismund Vasa (1595-1648) in Spanish-Italian costume by Giovanni Antonio Galli, called lo Spadarino, ca. 1624-1625, Kórnik Castle.
Portraits of Ladislaus Vasa in national and Spanish costume by Gaspar de Crayer and Pieter Claesz. Soutman
In 1633, the newly elected king Ladislaus IV Vasa decided to amaze the Western European powers with the wealth, diversity and oriental charm of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The "Lord of the Three Crowns", because in addition to being elected monarch of the Commonwealth, he was also titular hereditary King of Sweden and titular elected Grand Duke of Moscow (Rè di Polonia, e Suetia eletto gran Duca di Moscovia) (apart from the emblem of Sweden), sent his ambassador Jerzy Ossoliński to Pope Urban VIII, with official announcement of the coronation and confirmation of his loyalty to the pope. The ambassador's grand retinue with 20 carriages, 10 camels and a large number of horses, oxen and mules, passing through Vienna, Treviso, Padua and Bologna arrived at the borders of Rome on November 20, 1633. On November 27, 1633, the envoy made a magnificent entry into the Eternal City.
This splendid entry was immortalized in several paintings as well as in engravings by the Florentine draughtsman and printmaker Stefano della Bella (1610-1664), as well as in Relatione della solenne entrata ... by Virginio Parisi, Urban VIII's chamber attendant, published in two editions (in 1633 and 1634), including one with a dedication to the ambassador. According to Parisi's account and the descriptions in della Bella's prints, the suite included richly dressed camels led by Persians and Armenians, twenty pages dressed in satin, horses with rich harnesses including five beautiful Turkish horses led by Tartars and Armenians, with very superb saddles covered with pure gold, diamonds, rubies and turquoises. The majority of the members of the retinue were dressed in national costumes. Mr. Kociszewski (Chociszewski or Cochiszewsky), senior chamblain of the envoy, most likely of Armenian origin, was dressed in a rich Persian costume (alla Persiana) and rode a richly dressed horse with golden horseshoes and Jakub Zieliński, marshal of the court of the envoy, was holding in his hand a mace of silver (mazza d'Argento in mano). Parisi adds that "each of the horses had large bunches of heron's feathers on their heads, and on their legs horseshoes of solid gold, two of which broke into several pieces as they walked, which were for the most part prey of the people [of Rome]" (Haveva ciascuno de' Cavalli grossi mazzi d'Aironi in testa, et alle gambe, e piedi grosse maniglie, e ferri d'oro massiccio, doi de' quali nel camminare si ruppero in diversi pezzi, che per lo più furono preda del popolo). Several Spanish (Diversi Signori Spagnoli), French (altri Cavalieri franzesi) and Italian aristocrats as well as courtiers from the cardinals' courts joined the procession. Since Rome was the capital of the Christian world for Catholics, this propaganda entry was dedicated not only to Italians but also to monarchs of Spain and France. In addition to prestige and the strengthening of alliances against the enemies of the Commonwealth, the aim was probably also to encourage the arrival of specialists because the Republic of nobles constantly needed engineers, architects, craftsmen, artists and even skilled soldiers to protect the borders. Fabulously wealthy aristocrats and dignitaries of the Commonwealth ordered luxury items from the best workshops abroad, not only in Europe, but also in Persia and Turkey. In 1603, Jan Zamoyski (d. 1614), Catholic archbishop of Lviv, ordered twenty large carpets decorated with his coat of arms from Istanbul and donated them to the Lviv Cathedral (after "Sztuka Islamu w Polsce ..." by Tadeusz Mańkowski, p. 20). The country became very rich thanks to trade (grain, wood, cattle, animal pelts, horses, amber, Polish cochineal, mead, honey, wax and luxury items imported from east), salt, lead, sulfur and copper mining. Persian rugs, killims and saddles, Turkish horse tacks, harnesses, fabrics and weapons are frequently mentioned in inventories before 1655, as well as Venetian glass, Italian, Dutch and Flemish paintings and tapestries, Augsburg silver and Ruthenian and Russian icons. Thanks to this activity, they considerably supported foreign economies, crafts and trade. To meet the demand for oriental-style items, Armenian workshops in the Commonwealth also produced such products. For example, the 1633 inventory of Radziwill Castle in Lubcha in Belarus (Central Archives of Historical Records in Warsaw, 1/354/0/26/45) lists 16 different rich saddles, some in velvet, embroidered with gold, decorated with silver, rubies, turquoises and nacre, mainly made locally (domowey Roboty) and Persian (Adziamskie), as well as 7 Cossack saddles and 2 German, 19 horse tacks, made locally or in Turkey (Rząd srebrny złocisty suty Turecki, five items - 2, 3, 6, 7, 9) and numerous Persian carpets. The diversity of the country is also reflected in various coins. In the first quarter of the 17th century, Pyotr of Ossa Ozhga (Piotr Ożga, d. 1622), crown referendary and starost of Terebovlia, kept in his chest 8,000 ducats, 270 Portuguese (or Portuguese-style) 20 ducat coins, 700 Spanish (or Spanish-style) doubloons, 1,000 Moscow gold coins and 2,000 thalers. One-off commercial transaction (sales of oxen) carried out by the starost of Sniatyn, Piotr Potocki (d. 1648), brought him 55,000 in gold and the dowries of rich noblewomen could range from 25,000 to 400,000 in gold (after "Obieg pieniężny ..." by Andrzej Mikołajczyk, p.129). The wealth of the Republic of nobles brought a huge tragedy - Deluge (1655-1660) during which neighboring countries invaded the Commonwealth (from the north, south, east and west) with superior force and engaged in a looting and destruction that lasted five years. The treasures of Skrwilno (discovered in 1961), Nieszawa (1963), Bydgoszcz (2018), Kiekrz in Poznań (1890) or Nasvytaliai (1926) recall these horrible events. The invasion left the majority of the country in ruins and significantly impoverished, so many structures were never rebuilt and were abandoned. While in many European countries visitors can admire magnificent castles and palaces, in Poland the castle ruins of Tenczyn, Krzyżtopór, Ogrodzieniec, Janowiec, Kazimierz Dolny, Tarnów, Pińczów, Siewierz, Bodzentyn, Kamieniec, Drzewica, Chęciny and other places are just memories of their past glory. Some rich casles and palaces disappeard completly like the Palace in Łowicz, Royal Castles and Palaces in Knyszyn, Radom and Kalisz. The destruction of heritage was so considerable that many significant objects linked to the monarchs of Poland-Lithuania had to be acquired abroad, such as a series of miniatures of the Jagiellon family by the workshop of Lucas Cranach the Younger purchased in London in the mid-19th century by Adolf Cichowski (Czartoryski Museum). In 1648, the Dutch painter Pieter Claesz. Soutman (died 1657) created an interesting painting for the so-called Orange Hall (Dutch: Oranjezaal) of the Huis ten Bosch palace in The Hague (signed: P. Soutman. F. 1648.). It comes from a series of paintings created by different Dutch and Flemish painters glorifying Frederick Henry (1584-1647), Prince of Orange and his wife Amalia of Solms-Braunfels (1602-1675). Soutman's painting depicts a triumphal procession with spoils of war, including prizes in gold and silver. A similar painting by Salomon de Bray, produced two years later (signed: SDBray - 1650) represents a triumphal procession with captured weapons. It is unclear whether the triumph refers to a particular event. In some paintings of the cycle there is a reference to the Spanish Empire - banner in the procession with the standard bearers by Pieter de Grebber (signed: P. DGrebber Ao 1648) and to the Holy Roman Empire - imperial banner in the procession with musicians and captured banners by Salomon de Bray (signed: SD:Bray. - 1649). They could refer to the Battle of Prague, which occurred between July 25 and November 1, 1648, following which part of the fabulous art collection of the relatives of Ladislaus IV, collected at Prague Castle by the emperor Rudolf II (1552-1612), was plundered and shipped to Sweden. In de Bray's painting from 1650, we can see German mercenaries (Landsknecht) carrying spoils consisting of Italian-style armors and helmets, quivers of arrows and leading oriental horses, as in reference to the print by della Bella showing the pages of the Commonwealth's envoy in 1633 (letter I). The original title of Soutman's painting is "Triumphal procession of the conquered weapons, silver bowls, basins and large cup, a wreathed woman with a silver candlestick in front" (Triomftocht van de veroverde wapens, zilveren schalen, bekkens en grote beker, een bekranste vrouw met zilveren kandelaar voorop). It was made in the painter's studio in Haarlem before December 1648 and he was paid 500 guilders. Among the weapons in the painting we can see the sign SPQR - "The Senate and People of Rome" (Senatus Populusque Romanus), although continued to be used under the Roman Empire, this abbreviated expression generally refers to the ancient Roman Republic. The sweaty man on the right could be Hercules and the gold statues the children are holding probably refer to Roman customs of worshiping various gods in the form of small statues (after "Oranjezaal" by Charles Julien, p. 26). The composition could therefore be interpreted as a triumph over ancient paganism or old-fashioned pluralism. The most intriguing element of this painting, however, is the helmet crowning the composition together with a gilded vase. Almost identical helmet was depicted in two portraits painted by Soutman and his workshop a few years earlier. Both depict Ladislaus IV Vasa when he was crown prince and wearing national costume - one in the Wilanów Palace (oil on canvas, 206 x 127.5 cm, Wil.1134) and the other in the Lviv Historical Museum - Korniakt Palace, both probably from the late 1620s or early 1630s. Such portraits were usually produced in series as gifts for different courts in Europe. The inventories of the Coudenberg collections in Brussels from 1643, 1659 and 1692 mention several portraits of the Prince in Polish or Hungarian costume or in armor (compare "Rubens w Polsce" by Juliusz Chrościcki, p. 214-215). In Henry Metcalfe's collection in the mid-19th century there was probably a similar portrait of Ladislaus in red national costume. It is possible that such a painting by Soutman was also in The Hague. The prince's costume probably inspired a painter who created the biblical scene of Ruth in the field of Boaz, now housed in the National Gallery of Denmark (oil on canvas, 124 x 163.5 cm, KMSsp356). This painting is attributed to Adam Camerarius, active in Groningen and Amsterdam in the 1640s (also attributed to Pieter de Grebber and Soutman). The biblical story about King David's grandfather and the barley harvest seems perfectly suited to the scenery of the Commonwealth, the country once called the "Paradise of the Jews" (Paradisus Judæorum) and the "Granary of Europe" (Granarium Europæ) (sometimes narrowed to Gdańsk, which was the country's main port). The helmet, inspired by the Persian kulah khuds, was typical of Polish-Lithuanian winged hussars and was depicted in the Gołuchów table, frontispiece to Florus Polonicus by Joachim Pastorius, published in Leiden in 1641, and in the so-called "Stockholm Roll" dating from around 1605. It was included in the portrait of the prince because it was an important symbol, a symbol of the military strength of the Commonwealth. The inclusion of such an object in the painting in the Huis ten Bosch was also symbolic, as were other elements of the composition. On May 20, 1648, Ladislaus IV died and on November 17 of the same year, his half-brother John Casimir Vasa was elected new king. Among the important paintings in the Orange Hall is a portrait of Frederick Henry's son-in-law, Frederick William (1620-1688), Elector of Brandenburg, painted with his wife by Gerard van Honthorst (signed: GHonthorst 1649). Today, however, we can only assume that the elector, vassal of the Commonwealth, who knew perfectly the weaknesses of the country and who, during the Deluge (in 1656), according to Wawrzyniec Jan Rudawski, "took to Prussia as a spoil, the most valuable paintings and silverware of the royal table", was already in 1648 planning or anticipating the great pillage by the "northern conquerors" after 1655 (including himself) and suggested it to his Dutch allies. Soutman, who "should also be recognized as a royal painter in Poland" (Petrus Soutman co nomine celebrandus quoque, quod regius Pictor in Polonia fuerit), according to Theodori Schreveli Harlemum, sive vrbis Harlemensis incunabula, published in Leiden in 1647 (p. 290) is generally considered to be the court painter of Sigismund III Vasa between 1624 and 1628. Perhaps the painter Peter, mentioned in accounts of the court of Sigismund III, who was paid 315 florins apparently for preparing the paintings (made from November 1, 1626 to November 30, 1627), was Soutman. Returning to his hometown of Haarlem on October 20, 1628, he asked the administrative authorities in the Spanish Netherlands for permission to bring a box containing paintings from Poland for the Infanta Isabella. These were most likely portraits of the family of Sigismund III, mentioned in the Coudenberg inventories, which were hung in the most important rooms of the Brussels residence, mainly in the Grand Gallery built by the regent of the Netherlands, Mary of Hungary (after "Świat polskich Wazów: eseje", p. 48, 287). Although the majority of paintings from the Vasa period made in Flanders or in the Flemish style are attributed to Soutman and Rubens or their workshops, because their contacts with the monarchs of Poland-Lithuania are confirmed in the sources, the portrait of Prince Ladislaus Sigismund in national costume, preserved in the Czartoryski Museum (oil on canvas, 198 x 118 cm, MNK XII-353), recalls the works of another eminent painter of the Spanish Netherlands - Gaspar de Crayer. Its style is particularly reminiscent of several effigies of Ladislaus' cousin, King Philip IV of Spain, such as the portrait in parade armor from the Metropolitan Museum of Art (45.128.14), portrait with a dwarf from the Palacio de Viana in Madrid or the equestrian portrait in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich (2529), perhaps from the dowry of Ladislaus' half-sister. Effigies of family members were frequently exchanged with Spain and commissioned from the same painters. For the baptism of Anna Catherine Constance in 1619, her mother, Queen Constance of Austria, managed to obtain portraits of children from the court of Madrid and in 1624, in order to update the family gallery, the queen launched another major campaign and ordered the paintings in Vienna. Two other portraits of Ladislaus Sigismond in national costume, also close to de Crayer and his workshop, are today in the Pitti Palace in Florence (oil on canvas, 135 x 98, Inv. 1890, 5178 and oil on canvas, 131.5 x 90, Inv. 1890, 5673). Both are considered effigies of King Michael I Korybut Wiśniowiecki (1640-1673) and were correctly identified by me in 2012. The paintings were probably gifts to Prince's aunt Maria Magdalena of Austria (1589-1631), Grand Duchess of Tuscany or other Italian dukes. Another similar portrait from the collection of Izydor Czosnowski (1857-1934) was before 1961 at the Embassy of the Republic of Poland to the Holy See (reproduced in "Elementa ad Fontium Editiones", Volume III, Tab. I-III), with two other paintings from the same collection - portrait of Queen Marie Louise Gonzaga (1611-1667) dating from around 1650 and portrait of a prince in profile (a copy of the painting now in the Academy of San Luca in Rome, 298), identified as portrait of John Casimir Vasa, but most likely representing the cousin of Ladislaus IV and John Casimir - Giancarlo de' Medici (1611-1663), frequently depicted in Polish-Lithuanian costumes in childhood. In 1976, Izydor's son Leon donated several paintings from his father's collection to the Polish Hospice in Rome, including the portrait of the prince (oil on canvas, 133 x 95 cm, after "Kościół polski w Rzymie ..." by Józef Skrabski, p. 294, 296). The greater contrast of shades and colors in the portrait of the prince from the Czosnowski collection and the greater resemblance to Soutman's painting in Wilanów, indicate that he or more likely his workshop were the authors. Numerous magnates of the Commonwealth also owned royal effigies, arguably created by the finest painters. The inventory of paintings from the collection of Princess Louise Charlotte Radziwill (1667-1695), drawn up in 1671, lists two portraits of young Ladislaus, which could be paintings by Soutman or de Crayer, however the names of the painters are not not mentioned - "King Ladislaus in Polish style, when young" (157/8) and "Prince Ladislaus in Polish style with a mace" (191/17) (after "Inwentarz galerii obrazów Radziwiłłów z XVII w." by Teresa Sulerzyska). The relatively small number of preserved paintings also illustrates the extent of the destruction of the Commonwealth's heritage. In the Wilanów Palace there is also another intriguing portrait of Ladislaus, attributed to the Dutch School of the 19th century (oil on canvas, 65.6 x 54 cm, Wil.1394). It is also very close to the style of Soutman (especially how the hair of his mustache was painted and the contrast of colors and shades), comparable to the paintings signed by this painter, such as the mentioned triumphal procession in The Hague or A young man holding a staff in the National Gallery of Art in Washington (2010.19.1, signed: P. Soutman / F.A. 1640) and attributed works, such as Portrait of a woman holding a glove in the Mauritshuis in The Hague (inventory number 755). Ladislaus is older in this portrait than in the other effigies mentioned. He wears a Spanish costume and this image closely resembles the portraits of Ladislaus' cousin, King Philip IV of Spain, painted by the workshop of Diego Velázquez around 1656 (Hermitage Museum, ГЭ-297 and Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid, 0634) or an earlier portrait, painted around 1632 (Kunsthistorisches Museum, GG 314). The likeness of the Polish king should be dated to around 1634, when he intensified his contacts with Spain and sent Jerzy Sebastian Lubomirski (1616-1667) as ambassador. The inventory of the property of Queen Marie Louise Gonzaga, drawn up three months after her death, on September 27, 1667, lists a "portrait of the King of Poland on horseback in the Spanish style" (le portraict du Roy de Pologne à cheval à l'Espagnole). It was probably an effigy of her first (Ladislaus IV) or her second husband (John Casimir) in Spanish costume.
Portrait of Crown Prince Ladislaus Sigismund Vasa (1595-1648) in national costume by Gaspar de Crayer, 1624-1632, Czartoryski Museum.
Portrait of Crown Prince Ladislaus Sigismund Vasa (1595-1648) in national costume by Gaspar de Crayer or workshop, 1624-1632, Pitti Palace in Florence.
Portrait of Crown Prince Ladislaus Sigismund Vasa (1595-1648) in national costume by workshop of Gaspar de Crayer, 1624-1632, Pitti Palace in Florence.
Portrait of Crown Prince Ladislaus Sigismund Vasa (1595-1648) in national costume by workshop of Pieter Claesz. Soutman, 1624-1632, Polish Hospice in Rome.
Portrait of Crown Prince Ladislaus Sigismund Vasa (1595-1648) in national costume by Pieter Claesz. Soutman, 1624-1632, Wilanów Palace in Warsaw.
Portrait of King Ladislaus IV Vasa (1595-1648) in Spanish costume by Pieter Claesz. Soutman, ca. 1634, Wilanów Palace in Warsaw.
Ruth in the field of Boaz by Adam Camerarius or Pieter Claesz. Soutman, 1640s, National Gallery of Denmark.
Triumphal procession with spoils of war by Pieter Claesz. Soutman, 1648, Huis ten Bosch Palace in The Hague.
Portraits of Sigismund III Vasa and Ladislaus Sigismund Vasa by Gaspar de Crayer
In 2009 a portrait of Mechteld Lintermans (d. 1641) and her two children was put on an auction in New York (oil on canvas, 231.1 x 130.8 cm, Sotheby's, June 4, 2009, lot 15). This painting is considered to be a counterpart to one of the two known full-length portraits of Mechteld's husband Jan Bierens (1591-1641), artistic agent of Ladislaus IV Vasa (1595-1648), elected monarch of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
One of these portraits of Bierens, in a breastplate, appeared with the portrait of his wife in the Sulley collection in London, until they were sold as separate lots in 1934. The other, now kept at the Arnot Art Museum in New York (oil on canvas, 235 x 135 cm), comes from the collection of Baron Maximilian van Erp in Rome. The effigies of Bierens and his wife have a very similar composition and dimensions. Mechteld's portrait has been attributed to various Flemish painters, such as Anthony van Dyck, circle of Pieter Claesz. Soutman and Cornelis de Vos. The companion piece, representing Bierens, is not as fine in quality as that of his wife, and has been attributed to another artist of lesser importance than de Vos. Erick Duverger, in his 1995 article on Bierens, suggests that Abraham van Diepenbeeck (1596-1675), the godfather of Maria Bierens, could be the likely author of Mechteld's portrait. "However, while Diepenbeeck was known to paint miniatures of the family, he was never known to have painted large format compositions such as the present canvas". The portrait of Bierens in New York is also attributed to Diepenbeeck, while the effigy of his wife was offered for sale with attribution to Gaspar de Crayer (1584-1669), due to his "ties to the Court, his patronage by the upper-class, and the predominance of formal full length portraits in his oeuvre" (after Catalogue Note by Amy Walsh). De Crayer was a prolific artist drawing inspiration from his various counterparts, including Rubens, van Dyck and Cornelis de Vos, as well as 16th-century Venetian masters, particularly Titian and Paolo Veronese. Like Rubens he also cooperated with painters specialized in certain fields, such as Peter Snayers, a painter known for his panoramic battle scenes (the landscape in portrait of Count-Duke of Olivares by de Crayer is attributed to Snayers). Although born in Antwerp, de Crayer lived and worked in Brussels for most of his life. From 1612 he was in the service of Archduke Albrecht VII of Austria and Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain and their successors - Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand of Austria (1609-1641) and Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria (1614-1662), relatives of Ladislaus IV. In 1641 he was appointed court painter to Ladislaus's cousin, King Philip IV of Spain. Furthermore, de Crayer created a large number of altarpieces for churches, monasteries and abbeys throughout his career. Similar to Jan Brueghel the Elder, de Crayer also engaged in activities of an artistic agent for his Habsburg patrons. In 1619 Brueghel, a painter of flower still lifes and cabinet pictures, was released from customs by Albert of Austria for paintings made for Sigismund III, including 9 portraits of European monarchs, which could be by de Crayer or Rubens. Between 1640 and 1645 Gaspar purchased works of art from the Rubens estate for Philip IV. He received many commissions and had a large studio, where he trained a large number of pupils, who retouched and partially completed de Crayer's works, including presumably Anselm van Hulle, Jan Boeckhorst, Nicolas de Liemaeckere, Antoon van den Heuvel, François Duchatel, Jacques d'Artois, Lodewijk de Vadder, Pieter Boel, Jan van Cleve (III), and François Monnaville. Although, according to known sources, he probably never left the Spanish Netherlands, a considerable number of effigies of people he probably never met in person are attributed to him. These include the portrait of Empress Anna of Tyrol (1585-1618), who was a candidate to marry King Sigismund III in 1603, painted around 1612 (Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, NM 408), King Philip IV with a dwarf, from about 1627-1632 (Palacio de Viana in Madrid) and in parade armor, from about 1628 (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 45.128.14) and mentioned portrait of Don Gaspar de Guzmán (1587-1645), Count-Duke of Olivares on horseback, painted between 1627-1628 (The Weiss Gallery in 2018). Olivares was a royal favourite (valido) of Philip IV. Equestrian portraits are frequent in his oeuvre and he and his studio produced numerous versions and copies of these effigies. Around 1635-1640, he produced several versions of the equestrian portrait of Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand. The portrait of King Philip IV on horseback from Neuburg Castle, painted around 1628, could come from the dowry of Ladislaus' sister, Anna Catherine Constance Vasa (Alte Pinakothek in Munich, 2529). At this time he also painted the equestrian portrait of Don Diego Felipez de Guzmán (1580-1655), 1st Marquess of Leganés (Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, GG 9112), while Cornelis de Vos made a portrait of Sigismund III on horseback (Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, NMGrh 2012), both inspired by Rubens's portrait of the Duke of Lerma, painted in 1603 and the portrait of Don Rodrigo Calderón, Count of Oliva from around 1612-1615. Very similar in style and composition to Olivares' equestrian portrait is the portrait of Crown Prince Ladislaus Sigismund Vasa (later Ladisalus IV) on horseback, which can be found today at Wawel Castle (oil on canvas, 262 x 188.5 cm, 6320). It was purchased in London by Julian Godlewski, residing in Lugano, and offered to the Wawel collections in 1977. From September 6 to October 14, 1624, the Prince, traveling incognito and accompanied by around forty people, stayed in Brussels, Antwerp, at the Breda camp and again in Brussels where he met Rubens. The preparatory drawings could be made during this visit, but they could also be borrowed from Rubens or sent from Poland-Lithuania. What is interesting about this portrait and the effigy of Prince's father by de Vos is that the painter also used the same set of study drawings as in the portrait of Archduke Albert VII of Austria with a view of Ostend. The original version, believed to be lost, is most likely the painting that Jan Brueghel the Elder documented in 1617 in an Allegory of Sight (Prado, P001394). While the original in Brueghel's painting appears rather proportionate, in the copies, probably made by the workshop of Gaspar de Crayer, the Archduke's head and hand have not been skillfully added and he has a grotesque appearance (sold at Dorotheum in Vienna, October 10, 2016, lot 87 and Collections of the Prince of Liechtenstein, GE 402). If all these paintings were originally created for the Coudenberg in Brussels, as some authors believe, the governors of the Spanish Netherlands had a rather peculiar collection of effigies of different monarchs where only a few details differed. Considering the enormous destruction of art in Poland during numerous wars and invasions, we cannot also exclude that an effigy of Sigismund III is the original and not that of Albert VII. The portrait of Bierens kept at the Arnot Art Museum is comparable in style to all the mentioned works of de Crayer. Its composition recalls another painting by him - portrait of the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand kept in the Prado Museum in Madrid, dated '1639' (P001472). A painting similar in style and composition (baroque twisted column, landscape, fabric) to the effigies of Bierens and his wife is the portrait of King Sigismund III Vasa from Neuburg Castle, now in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich (oil on canvas, 220.5 x 138.2 cm, 4576). It probably also comes from the dowry of Anna Catherine Constance, the king's daughter. Sigismund was depicted with Spanish-style ruff, armor and hose. Similar to the portrait of Sigismund, both in terms of technique and composition, is the portrait of Duke John II of Braganza (1604-1656), future John IV of Portugal, at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, deposited by the Ciechanowiecki Foundation (oil on canvas, 224 x 147 cm, ZKW-dep.FC/25). The portrait of the duke in turn closely resembles the style of Saint Benedict receiving Totila, King of the Ostrogoths in the church of Our Lady of St. Peter's in Ghent by Gaspar de Crayer. Ties between the Commonwealth and Spain at this time were strong, which was reflected in literature (e.g. La vida es sueño by Pedro Calderón de la Barca, premiered in 1635) and fashion. Poles in the royal court frequently wore Spanish clothing, while one of the popular types of hose in Spain during this era were the Polish-style hose (calzas a la polaca de rayas transversales) (after "Glosario de voces de armería" by Enrique de Leguina, p. 194). Even the "fashion" of court favorites (validos) was emulated, intentionally or not, in Poland-Lithuania. Philip III of Spain, brother-in-law of Sigismund III, had as valido the Duke of Lerma, who was succeeded by the Count-Duke of Olivares, under the reign of Philip IV. In the Commonwealth there was the "minister in skirt", influential mistress of Sigismund III, Urszula Mayerin, and later Adam Kazanowski under Ladislaus IV. It was the same for portraiture: if Rubens and de Crayer painted Spanish monarchs, they also worked for their relatives in Poland-Lithuania. A fact which may partly document de Crayer's contacts with the Commonwealth is that he included several figures in eastern costumes in some of his compositions. Among the canvases which could represent the nobles of Poland-Lithuania who visited his workshop, we can mention Saint Benedict receiving Totila, painted in 1633 (Art Gallery of Ontario, 95/140), with the central figure wearing a white-crimson cloak, the Beheading of John the Baptist, painted in 1658 (Saint Bavo Cathedral in Ghent), with the central figure wearing a crimson żupan kaftan and kolpak fur hat and the Martyrdom of Saint Dorothea (sold at Christie's London, auction 6708, April 9, 2003, lot 7), in which the figure of the pagan lawyer Theophilus on the right was most likely inspired by effigies of Emperor Matthias (1557-1619) in Hungarian-Bohemian costume or King Sigismund III Vasa in Polish-Lithuanian national costume. In all the Vasas' contacts with de Crayer and other painters, Bierens, "agent and servant of his Highness the Serene Prince Ladislaus Sigismund, Prince of Poland and Sweden" (agent et domesticque de son Alteze le Sérénissime Prince Wladislaus Sigismundus, Prince de Poloigne et de Suède), also called "agent of the Lord Prince of Poland" (agente del Signor Principe di Polonia), was undoubtedly an intermediary. This merchant-jeweller was the son of Lucas Bierens, a merchant from Eindhoven. He was probably born in 1591 because in 1637 he claimed to be 46 years old and died on July 25, 1641. Bierens owned a house in Antwerp in the Kerkhofstraat, and from the mid-1630s he occupied a spacious residence on the corner of Zwanestraat, made up of two previously separate houses (after "Annotations concernant ..." by Erik Duverger, p. 119-157). Between 1624 and 1627, he supervised the weaving of tapestries with the Story of Ulysses and verdure tapestries made in Brussels by Jacob Geubels the Younger for Ladislaus. In his collection he had "a large painting on canvas with the portrait of prince Ladislaus of Poland" (een groote schilderye op doeck wesende het conterfeytsel van prince Vladislaus van Polen), as well as two gold medals bearing the image of Ladislaus, when he was a prince and after his election as king of Poland.
Equestrian portrait of King Sigismund III Vasa (1566-1632) by Cornelis de Vos, ca. 1625-1630, Nationalmuseum in Stockholm.
Equestrian portrait of Crown Prince Ladislaus Sigismund Vasa (1595-1648) by Gaspar de Crayer, ca. 1625-1630, Wawel Royal Castle.
Portrait of King Sigismund III Vasa (1566-1632) by Gaspar de Crayer, ca. 1625-1630, Alte Pinakothek in Munich.
Portrait of Duke John II of Braganza (1604-1656) by Gaspar de Crayer, ca. 1630, Royal Castle in Warsaw.
Portrait of Jan Bierens (1591-1641), artistic agent of Ladislaus IV Vasa by Gaspar de Crayer, ca. 1625-1630, Arnot Art Museum.
Portraits of King Sigismund III Vasa by Peter Paul Rubens and workshop of Tommaso Dolabella
The portrait of King Sigismund III Vasa (1566-1632) from the Heinz Kisters collection in Kreuzlingen in Switzerland (oil on canvas, 121 x 91 cm) is considered by experts to be the work of Peter Paul Rubens himself (attributed by Ludwig Burchard), but they also agree that the painter never visited the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (compare "Rubens w Polsce" by Juliusz A. Chrościcki, p. 135, 176). Any attempt to determine how the painter and the king met would be futile, as Sigismund did not leave the borders of the Commonwealth after his deposition in Sweden (1599).
The portrait must therefore have been made from another effigy of the king or from study drawings sent from Poland. The old age of the king makes it possible to date the work towards the end of his life, it is therefore possible that the author of the initial study was Pieter Claesz. Soutman who stayed in Poland-Lithuania between 1624 and 1628 and who in numerous letters sent from Haarlem between 1629 and 1645 calls himself in Italian: "Painter of His Majesty of Poland" (Pittore di Sua Maesta de Polonia) - for example letters dated December 19, 1644 and February 8, 1645 to Matthijs Musson (1593-1678) (in "Na Peter Pauwel Rubens" by Jean Denucé, p. 26-28). The painting of the Crucifixion with the similar signature of this painter at the foot of the cross (P. P. Soutman Pittore de sua de Polonia f.) is in the Franciscan convent in Seville (Convento de los Terceros Franciscanos) (after "Archivo hispalense ...", Volume 3, p. 385-386). What is also interesting about this painting is that it has long been considered the effigy of the doctor Théodore Turquet de Mayerne (1573-1655), who treated the kings of France and England, due to a certain resemblance to his portraits by Rubens. It was in 1953 that the portrait was reproduced by Horace Shipp in "The Flemish Masters" as an effigy of Sigismund III (after "Un Portrait de Sigismond III ..." by Karolina Lanckorońska, p. 175). If Rubens took drawings or a painting by Soutman as a model, they were sent to him from Brussels or Haarlem. It is also possible that they were made by other painters of the king's court, because a very similar full-length portrait of Sigismund at Wilanów Palace (oil on canvas, 207 x 127 cm, Wil.1164, earlier 572) is definitely not a work of Soutman, nor of Rubens or their workshops. This painting is first mentioned in the Wilanów collection in a catalog of paintings from the mid-19th century. Although the portrait of the king at Wilanów is not as well painted, the most comparable in style seems to be the famous portrait of Stanisław Tęczyński, a masterpiece attributed to the Venetian painter Tommaso Dolabella, active in the Commonwealth, created between 1633 and 1634 (National Museum in Warsaw, 128850, deposited at Wawel Castle). Works painted in the same way include Hetman Stanisław Żółkiewski's presentation of the Shuysky brothers at the Warsaw Diet in 1611 at the Lviv Historical Museum and the Judgment of the Arians in 1638 from the Venetian-style ceiling in the Palace of the Kraków Bishops in Kielce, attributed to the workshop of Tommaso Dolabella. As we can see from the preserved photograph, the portrait of hetman Stanisław Żółkiewski from the Zamoyski Palace in Warsaw (lost during World War II), painted around 1606, was similar in style. When it comes to composition (pose, fabric, table), the most similar is the full-length portrait of Prince Ladislaus Sigismund Vasa in the Lviv Historical Museum, most likely created by the workshop of Pieter Claesz. Soutman. Artists from the Dutch Republic and the Spanish Netherlands were considered among the best in Europe in the first half of the 17th century. Painting and printing workshops developed there significantly and provided high quality, so that when in the 16th century customers from Poland-Lithuania preferred Venice, in the following century many books were published in the Netherlands and Flanders. As an example, we can cite Respublica Siue Status Regni Poloniæ, Lituaniæ, Prussiæ, Livoniæ, etc. diuersorum Autorum, published in Leiden in 1627 with a title page showing the coat of arms of Sigismund III Vasa, created by Pieter Serwouters, who had previously created the engraved effigy of the king's son. In 1632, Peter Paul Rubens designed the frontispiece of Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski's Lyricorvm libri IV (Plantin-Moretus Museum in Antwerp, MPM.V.IV.058), engraved by Cornelis Galle the Elder and published in Antwerp in 1632 (Pet. Paul. Rubens pinxit, Corn. Galle sculpsit., National Library of Poland, SD W.2.1241). An artist close to Peter Paul Rubens probably made the portrait of Sarbiewski, court preacher of King Ladislaus IV Vasa, considered the most eminent Latin poet of the 17th century (a drawing in the Plantin-Moretus Museum). So, despite the distance, regarding the works of Rubens, the artistic collections of Poland-Lithuania were undoubtedly comparable to those of Madrid or Munich, but today almost nothing is preserved in the former territories of the Commonwealth. In addition to the portrait of Sigismund III in Switzerland, among the works of the master himself (and not of the workshop or the followers) which were probably commissioned by the Polish-Lithuanian Vasas, we can cite the Madonna in a wreath of flowers by Rubens and Jan Brueghel the Elder (Alte Pinakothek in Munich, 331). This painting comes from the Düsseldorf gallery, like the portraits of Sigismund III and his wife in coronation robes (Neuburg State Gallery, 984 and 985). The letter from Juan de Arrazola Oñate, secretary of the Infanta Isabella of September 18, 1619, in which he addressed the general treasurer Monsieur Monfort to release from customs the paintings sent by Jan Brueghel the Elder to Poland, confirms the first known order of Sigismund III (6 landscapes, 9 portraits including portraits of Archduke Albert and the Infanta Isabella and other European monarchs, 3 large battalistic paintings). On October 29, 1621 Jan Brueghel the Elder wrote to his agent, the Milanese nobleman Ercole Bianchi, about sending a lot of paintings to the King Sigismund III Vasa (molti pitture al Re) and in a letter to cardinal Federico Borromeo, dated August 22, 1625 his son refers to a large garland with the image of Mary by Brueghel the Elder sold for 400 escudi to the prince of Poland, "who bought almost all of his works" (... la Madonna, ma è ordinato tutto in un altra maniera che quello delli fiori che tiene v. s. Ill.mo in la biblioteca, e larga tre palmi et alto qualro e medso incirca. El paro di questo fu venduto al sig. Prencipe di Pollonia, il quale compraua quasi tutti li sue opre, lo fu pagato 400 escudi, in "Giovanni Brueghel pittor fiammingo ..." by Giovanni Crivelli, p. 340). This painting could be a gift for the Electors of Bavaria, like the portrait of young Ladislaus Sigismund in a ruff by Rubens or workshop (Neuburg State Gallery, 342), identified by me, or the image of the Polish saint Stanislaus Kostka by circle of Rubens (Alte Pinakothek, 7520). In a letter dated June 8, 1632 from Antwerp to the art dealer Crisostomo van Immerseel, Jan Brueghel the Younger (1632, Amberes 8 Junio Juan Bruegel) refers to Garland of fruits with figures by Rubens, the most important work made by his father, which was sold to Ladislaus Sigismund Vasa for 1,600 florins (te weten den grooten Girlande van vruchten, de beelden van Rubens, het fraijste ent meeste werc dat vader syn leven gedaen heeft gelyc UI can considereren aen den prys twelc het verkocht is, te weten voor 1600 gul. aen den prins van Polen). This painting is sometimes considered as Nature and her followers in the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow, dating from around 1615 (oil on panel, 106.7 x 72.4 cm, inv. 609, compare "Rubens & Brueghel", edited by Anne T. Woollett, Ariane van Suchtelen, p. 157, 164-165). The March of Silenus depicted in the Art collection of Prince Ladislaus Sigismund, painted in Warsaw in 1626 (Royal Castle in Warsaw, ZKW 2123), was undoubtedly the work of Rubens. Some paintings mentioned in the inventory of the collection of the last Vasa on Polish throne - John II Casimir, sold in Paris in 1673, could be the works of Rubens, such as no. 107, Miracles of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, which might resemble the painting in the Dulwich Picture Gallery (inv. 148) or no. 439, Education of the Virgin, which might be similar to the painting in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (inv. 306). In the room of Count de Buy, king's chamberlain at Nevers, there was "a horizontal painting on canvas, representing nude Cupid arching his bow with two little children between his legs" (un tableau en hauteur, peint sur toile, représentant en nudité un Cupidon, qui bande son arc, avec deux petits enfants entre ses jambes), a copy of Cupid carving his bow by Parmigianino, now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (after "Z dziejów polskiego mecenatu ..." by Władysław Tomkiewicz, p. 234). There is a painting by Rubens in Munich dated 1614, which is a copy of the painting by Parmigianino from Vienna whose oldest mention in the electoral gallery dates from 1748 (oil on canvas, 142.5 x 107 cm, 1304), so it is possible that it was acquired in Paris after the death by John Casimir, who managed to evacuate certain paintings from the royal collections to Silesia in 1655 during the Deluge. In Vienna, there is in turn a copy of the portrait of the mother of Sigismund III in white, based on the original by Titian (GG 531), identified by me. The painting which could come from the royal collections of Poland-Lithuania is very well painted portrait of Elisabeth of France (1602-1644), queen of Spain, painted after 1628 and attributed to the workshop of Rubens, now at Wawel Castle (oil on canvas, 58.5 x 46 cm, 6378). The painting comes from the private collection in Kraków (donated in 1978 to the State Collections) and there is no proven link with the royal collections, but this is very likely since many portraits were exchanged with Spain at the beginning of the 17th century. Another painting that could possibly originate from the royal or magnate collections of Poland-Lithuania is the Three Graces Holding a Basket of Flowers from the workshop of Rubens and Jan Brueghel the Younger, painted between 1620 and 1625, today in Nationalmuseum in Stockholm (NM 601). Nothing is known of its early history, except that it had already arrived in Sweden in the 17th century and was part of the collection of Count Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie (1622-1686), who, during the Deluge, plundered with his army a large part of the country. Important contacts contacts of clients from the Commonwealth with Rubens and Flemish painters are reflected in two other paintings from the early 1620s. They depict Tomyris, Queen of the Massagetae (also known as Queen of the Scythians), who led her armies to defend against an attack by Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid Empire, and defeated and killed him in 530 BC. One of these paintings is in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (oil on canvas, 205.1 x 361 cm, 41.40) and most likely comes from the collection of Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain (1566-1633), later, before 1662, in the collection of Queen Christina of Sweden in Rome. The other is in the Louvre in Paris (oil on canvas, 263 x 199 cm, INV 1768 ; MR 991) and comes from the collection of Everhard Jabach (1618-1695), who sold it to King Louis XIV in 1671. A drawing for an engraving (not made), attributed to Pieter Claesz. Soutman, similar to the painting in Paris, is today kept at the Plantin-Moretus Museum (PK.OT.00117). Although the two paintings mentioned, in Boston and Paris, are attributed to Rubens or his school, their style is closer to the works of Gaspar de Crayer, painter to the court of the Infanta, notably portraits of Sigismund III and Constance of Austria, attributed by me. Queen Tomyris ordered Cyrus' body brought to her, then decapitated him and dipped his head in a vessel of blood in a symbolic gesture of revenge for his bloodlust and the death of her son. The original painting by Rubens, engraved by Paulus Pontius in 1630 (Rijksmuseum, RP-P-OB-70.057), inscribed: "Satiate thyself with that blood which thou hast always thirsted for" (SATIA TE SANGVINE QVEM SEMPER SITISTI) and signed: Petrus Paulus Rubens pinxit. / Paulus Pontius sculpsit., differs in many details from the Boston painting. The original must therefore be considered lost. A reduced copy of Rubens' painting dating most likely from the 17th century was in the Kielce Cathedral, whose portal was founded by Cardinal John Albert Vasa in 1635. This painting is now in the Diocesan Museum in Kielce. It should be also noted that the queen in both paintings bears a close resemblance to the effigies of the Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia, notably the portrait in the style of Gaspar de Crayer at the National Gallery in London (NG3819) and by Rubens and Jan Brueghel the Elder at the Prado Museum in Madrid (P001684). In both compositions, the Queen's soldiers wear traditional costumes of the nobles of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, another perfect illustration of the destroyed and forgotten Realm of Venus at the height of its wealth and power before the Deluge, and a powerful warning to all tyrants. Already around 1522, Andrzej Krzycki (1482-1537), secretary of Queen Bona Sforza, in an epitaph dedicated to Anna Radziwill (1476-1522), compared the Duchess of Masovia to Queen Tomyris (Qualis erat Tomyrisque suae Cleopatraque genti, / Qualis Amazonio Penthesilea solo, / Talis erat fecunda tibi, Masovia tellus, / Anna Radiviliae gloria magna domus).
Cupid carving his bow by Peter Paul Rubens after Parmigianino, 1614, Alte Pinakothek in Munich.
Nature and her followers by Peter Paul Rubens and Jan Brueghel the Elder, ca. 1615, Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum.
Portrait of Hetman Stanisław Żółkiewski (1547-1620) by workshop of Tommaso Dolabella, ca. 1606, Zamoyski Palace in Warsaw, lost during World War II.
Portrait of King Sigismund III Vasa (1566-1632) by workshop of Tommaso Dolabella, ca. 1625-1632, Wilanów Palace in Warsaw.
Portrait of King Sigismund III Vasa (1566-1632) by Peter Paul Rubens, ca. 1625-1632, Heinz Kisters collection in Kreuzlingen.
Portrait of Elisabeth of France (1602-1644), Queen of Spain by workshop of Peter Paul Rubens, after 1628, Wawel Royal Castle.
Queen Tomyris orders that Cyrus' head be lowered into a vessel of blood, with figures in traditional costumes of the nobles of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth by Gaspar de Crayer, 1620s, Louvre Museum.
Queen Tomyris orders that Cyrus' head be lowered into a vessel of blood, with figures in traditional costumes of the nobles of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth by Pieter Claesz. Soutman, 1620s, Plantin-Moretus Museum in Antwerp.
Queen Tomyris orders that Cyrus' head be lowered into a vessel of blood, with figures in traditional costumes of the nobles of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth by Gaspar de Crayer, 1620s, Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
Queen Tomyris orders that Cyrus' head be lowered into a vessel of blood, with figures in traditional costumes of the nobles of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth by Paulus Pontius after Peter Paul Rubens, 1630, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam.
Portrait of Zygmunt Kazanowski by Gaspar de Crayer
From September 6 to October 14, 1624, the young nobleman of the Grzymała coat of arms, Adam Kazanowski (ca. 1599-1649), friend and valet of Crown Prince Ladislaus Sigismund Vasa, stayed in Brussels and Antwerp with the prince and about forty people of his entourage.
The two-week stay in Brussels was a series of grand entertainments and parties in honor of the prince, organized by Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain (1566-1633). In Antwerp, they visited the studios of various painters, including Peter Paul Rubens and Jan Brueghel the Elder, as well as the the gallery of Cornelis van der Geest. During this trip, Kazanowski kept an album Liber Amicorum in which the entries of the Habsburgs, such as Archduke Leopold V of Tyrol (no. 11), Archduke Leopold William (13) and her sister Cecilia Renata, future Queen of Poland (16), made in Vienna, and many Spanish diplomats appear. In Munich, we find the inscriptions of Maximilian I, elector of Bavaria and his wife (45-46), in Augsburg members of the Fugger family (48-51), in Brussels of the Infanta (54), Geneviève d'Urfé, Duchess de Croy (65) and the Spanish nobles. After a stay in Italy, they returned to Warsaw in May 1625. The following year, 1626, Kazanowski's album contains entries from Spanish diplomats in Poland-Lithuania - Jean de Croÿ, Count de Solre and Charles de Bonnières, Baron d'Auchy (no. 145-146), as well as Louis de Custine, seigneur de Villers-le-Rond, maître de camp of the Infanta (June 26, 1626, no. 147, all three came from the Spanish Netherlands), and other Spanish and French envoys (after "Biblioteka Warszawska", 1853, Volume 2). They show how important contacts with Spain and the Spanish Netherlands were for the young Kazanowski. Between 1627 and 1628 Adam studied in Padua. In the following years, and especially after the election of Ladislaus as new king, his wealth and influence increased considerably. As the new king's favourite, he replaced the influential "minister in a skirt" Urszula Meyerin (1570-1635), and his position can be compared, in some respects, even to that of Gaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares, favourite (valido) of Philip IV of Spain, cousin of Ladislaus. In 1639-1642, Kazanowski attempted to force an anti-French military alliance with Spain and in the spring of 1639 he negotiated with Philip IV's envoy, D. Fernando de Monroy (d. 1656). From 1642 he was the Court Marshal of the Crown (mareschalus curiæ) whose usual powers included supervision of the royal court and being deputy to the Grand Marshal of the Crown. When he received a palace from Ladislaus in 1632, he enlarged and embellished it. This magnificent building was second only to the Royal Castle in size, but was larger than the palace of Chancellor Jerzy Ossoliński, the palace of the Grand Hetman of the Crown Stanisław Koniecpolski, and perhaps even larger than the Villa Regia (Royal Villa), as visible in a print by Nicolas Pérelle from 1696 representing Warsaw around 1655. This print was made after a drawing by a Swedish military engineer, Count Erik Dahlbergh. It is interesting to note that in comparison with a print made by Adam Pérelle after another drawing by Dahlbergh, showing the capital of the empire which wanted to destroy the Commonwealth (Treaty of Radnot) - Stockholm in 1669, we see a clear difference. Dahlbergh, who knew how to glorify the Swedish Empire, sometimes enlarged the buildings in his drawings and made them more grandiose. However, while in the panorama of Warsaw the structures are of comparable size, in the panorama of Stockholm the Royal Castle (Arx Regia, Tre Kronor) dominates the center of the composition and the entire urban landscape. In the Ossoliński Palace, between the portraits of the chancellor's ancestors, Roman emperors and historical paintings, there was a portrait of Ladislaus IV with the inscription "First among equals" (Primus inter pares) (after "Piękno ocalone ..." by Maria Lewicka, Barbara Szymanowska, p. 44). In republican Poland-Lithuania, magnates boldly competed with the king in many areas, including patronage. Like the king, Kazanowski most likely also acquired and commissioned works of art in the Netherlands and Italy, including his effigies, however nothing has been preserved in Poland. He also received from the king many valuable objects, such as a painting of the Lamentation of Christ by Rubens, painted on wood, which in 1840 belonged to Mr. Piotr Romanowicz, a lawyer in Lviv (after "Rzecz o obrazach ..." by Ludwik Zieliński, z. 3, Lwowianin, p. 63). He may also have received such objects from his Spanish and Belgian friends and, like them, commissioned the paintings from the same painters. In the "Polish Varieties" (Rozmaitości Polskie / Variétés polonaises) from around 1833, a collection of engravings by Antoni Oleszczyński (1794-1879), there is an interesting full-length effigy of Kazanowski. While in the effigies of Jan Karol Chodkiewicz (d. 1621) and Lew Sapieha (1557-1633), he created a neo-Gothic or a background with panoplies, in the image of Kazanowski he used a background similar to that visible in a portrait of Ladislaus IV's cousin - Anne of Austria (1601-1666), Queen of France, made by Rubens' workshop between 1620-1625 (Louvre Museum, INV 1794 ; MR 984). It was also used in a portrait of a woman seated in an interior by Gonzales Coques (private collection). However, if in the portrait of the queen and the woman the background is almost identical, in the engraving by Oleszczyński the niche behind Kazanowski is different and shows a scene with a dancing naked woman and a bear. Adam Jarzębski in his "The main road or a brief description of Warsaw" (Gościniec abo krótkie opisanie Warszawy) from 1643 mentions in the Marshal's Palace many paintings, including "Naked people above the table" (Nad stołem nagie osoby, verse 1097). If Oleszczyński copied the background of the original painting, the painting was probably created by Rubens' studio or by another Flemish painter. On August 13, 1634, Adam's father Zygmunt Kazanowski died in Warsaw. Together with his brother Stanisław Kazanowski (1601-1648), starost of Krasno, who was removed from the court by Sigismund III for promiscuity, Adam founded a magnificent marble tomb for his father. In 1843, the monument was transferred to Warsaw Cathedral from the demolished church of the Bernardine nuns, located near the royal castle. It was destroyed during a German bombing of the cathedral in 1944. The monument was made of multicolored marble, similar in shape to the altar. The base was carved from brown stone, on which were two pillars with white Corinthian capitals. In the middle, on a black slab, a white marble bas-relief depicted Kazanowski kneeling before the Virgin Mary (after "Katedra św. Jana w Warszawie ..." by Wiktor Czajewski, p. 99-100). Zygmunt was represented in national costume, as was the custom for funerary monuments, because at court the majority of people preferred foreign costume, so that an unknown poet before the Deluge exclaimed: "Nowadays, you can barely recognize Poles, there are Italians, French, in great number at the courts" (after "Jakuba Teodora Trembeckiego ..." by Aleksander Brückner, Volume I, poem 165). Although in everyday life or at court the people preferred foreign costume, in the official portraiture they always wanted to underline their attachment to the Commonwalth and its traditions with an appropriate costume. This monument is attributed to the sculptor Conrad Walther from Gdańsk and his workshop and, according to specialists, it was made mainly from imported limestone, mainly from Belgium - "Belgian black" from the province of Namur (Noir Belge, Noir de Namur) and very expensive English alabaster (after "Lapidarium warszawskie" by Michał Wardzyński, Hubert Kowalski, Piotr Jamski, p. 288). Zygmunt was chamberlain during the reign of kings Stephen Bathory and Sigismund III Vasa, then tutor and court marshal of Prince Ladislaus Sigismund. During the military expedition of 1617-1618, as advisor to the prince, he intrigued against Chodkiewicz, the supreme commander. Zygmunt's two sons, Adam and Stanisław, were raised at the royal court and were friends of Ladislaus Sigismund, exerting influence over the young prince. At the funerals of King Sigismund and Queen Constance, Zygmunt carried the royal insignia. In 1627 he handed over the villages of Grzymałów, Kazanów and Ciepielów to his sons. In 1607, Seweryn Bączalski dedicated a panegyric to Kazanowski: "The Polish crown, very sad, makes heartfelt requests ..." (Korona polska barzo smutna prośby serdeczne czyni), praising Zygmunt as a model of honesty, masculinity, chivalry, piety, courtly customs and reason, so that the king found him worthy and entrusted him with guardianship of his son. Others have compared Kazanowski to Aristotle, the teacher of Alexander the Great. Kazanowski's employment as the prince's tutor was a turning point in his life, and probably that of the entire family. He was considered a friend both by Catholics, such as Albert Stanislaus Radziwill, and by Protestants, such as Christopher Radziwill, Duke of Birzai. He owned several boats located on the Vistula, near Solec in Warsaw (after "Kariera rodu Kazanowskich ..." by Krzysztof Zemeła, p. 45, 47-48), and thus participated in river transport and Gdańsk's trade. In the National Gallery in London is a "Portrait of a Man" by the Flemish painter, previously attributed to Rubens and Jordaens (oil on canvas, 116.2 x 85.8 cm, NG1895). It was purchased from T. Humphrey Ward, Clarke Fund, in 1902. The pose of the model and the composition are directly inspired by the portrait of Prince Ladislaus Sigismund, produced by Rubens in 1624 and engraved by Paulus Pontius (Ex Archetypo Petri Pauli Rubenij Paulus Pontius fecit anno MDCXXIIII, National Library of Poland, G.10661/II). Similar to Ladislaus, the old man wears a Spanish-Flemish costume. The fact that the man in this portrait wanted to be depicted in a similar way to the Crown Prince of Poland-Lithuania indicates that he was someone close to him, which has led to interpretation that it is a portrait of Prince's father Sigismund III (compare "Rubens w Polsce" by Juliusz A. Chrościcki, p. 178). This was a common practice at that time, for example the equestrian portrait of Don Diego Felipez de Guzmán (1580-1655), 1st Marquis of Leganés, cousin of the powerful valido Count-Duke of Olivares, painted by Gaspar de Crayer between 1627-1628 (Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, GG 9112), is very similar in many respects to the portrait of Olivares on horseback, painted by de Crayer and Peter Snayers (landscape) at the same period (The Weiss Gallery in 2018). The man cannot be Sigismund III, because according to the original Latin inscription he was 63 years old in 1626 (ÆTATIS SVE / 63 1626), while the king at that time was 60 years old (born 1566) and the man does not wear the Order of the Golden Fleece, which should be included in the Spanish-Flemish style portrait. The London portrait also bears a coat of arms, which, however, was painted in a different style and was added later, because the inscription indicating the age, which should normally be skillfully placed under the emblem, is in this case moved to the right. The position of the inscription, close to the edge and almost cut off, indicates that the painting was probably cut when the coat of arms was added. The emblem is identified as belonging to the De Waha family, whose estates were close to Namur, from where the marbles for Kazanowski's tomb were acquired. In previous publications the model is called Baron Waha de Linter of Namur, but no connection with a concrete member of this family has ever been established. It is possible that they owned the portrait and when the sitter's identity was lost he was considered a member of the family, and perhaps around 1816, when they were given the title of baron, the coat of arms was added. The man in the portrait bears a great resemblance to Adam Kazanowski's father as shown in his funerary sculpture (ear shape, mustache, eyebrows) and is comparable to effigies of Adam - after a painting by Peter Danckerts de Rij and an engraving by Jeremias Falck Polonus. His age also matches perfectly with Zygmunt, the marshal of the princely court, who was 63 years old in 1626 when several Spanish-Flemish envoys arrived in Warsaw - he was 71 years old at the time of his death in 1634 according to the inscription on his tomb, therefore born in 1563 (placide vitam cum morte commutavit Varsaviæ die XIII Augusti anno Christi MDCXXXIV ætatis suæ 71 patri desideratissimo Adamus tituli paterni successor). The style of this painting is closest to the mentioned equestrian portraits of the Marquis of Leganés and the Count-Duke of Olivares, painted by Gaspar de Crayer, court painter to the Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia, and to the portrait of Prince Ladislaus Sigismund kept in the National Museum in Warsaw (M.Ob.2434 MNW), considered to be the 17th century copy after Rubens' original.
Portrait of Crown Prince Ladislaus Sigismund Vasa (1595-1648) by Paulus Pontius after Peter Paul Rubens, 1624, National Library of Poland.
Portrait of Zygmunt Kazanowski (1563-1634), marshal of the court of Crown Prince Ladislaus Sigismund Vasa, aged 63, by Gaspar de Crayer, 1626, National Gallery in London.
Portrait of Adam Kazanowski (ca. 1599-1649), Court Marshal of the Crown by Antoni Oleszczyński after lost original by Gaspar de Crayer from about 1642 (?), ca. 1833, National Library of Poland.
Portrait of Archduchess Cecilia Renata of Austria by Justus Sustermans
"It was reported here that the Polish prince had left the kingdom to marry the daughter of the emperor [Ferdinand II] or the king of Spain [Philip III], which caused great suspicions in the [Turkish] empire", wrote the English ambassador in Istanbul in a letter to London about the journey of Prince Ladislaus Sigismund Vasa between 1624-1625. He also added that Queen Constance of Austria, his stepmother, tried to create a faction supporting her oldest son of John Casimir Vasa in his bid for the throne. English ambassador in distant Istanbul had good informants, because at the meeting of the Consejo de Estado in Madrid on November 1624, the letter of Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia, written in Brussels, was discussed. The Infanta asked King Philip IV for permission to marry the Polish prince with infanta Maria Anna of Spain (1606-1646), the king's sister and cousin of Ladislaus Sigismund as the daughter of his mother's sister. One of the participants of this council commented as follows: "Marriage with a Polish prince is very good, but with a German prince it is more advantageous". Concerning the marriage with the emperor's daughters, there was the lack of consent of Pope Urban VIII to a possible dispensation for the marriage of the prince with a close relative Archduchess Maria Anna (1610-1665) or Cecilia Renata (1611-1644), who eventually became his first wife (after "Świat polskich Wazów: eseje", p. 48, 280-281, 311).
In order to prove to his son that the daughters of his uncle Emperor Ferdinand II were not affected by disabilities, unlike their mother Maria Anna of Bavaria (1574-1616), Sigismund III Vasa had them specially portrayed, as reported Bishop Giovanni Battista Lancellotti, papal nuncio in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, in a letter dated March 17, 1627 to Cardinal Francesco Barberini (Scuoprì meco di nuovo SM l'intento suo desiderio d'accasarlo con una delle figliuole dell'imperadore per altro aborrite da SA asserendo ella questa esser derivata in quelle da certa natural indispositione della loro madre e mi disse SM d'haverne fatto venir qua i ritratti per certezza del contrario) (after "Das Leben am Hof ..." by Walter Leitsch, p. 2378). It is not known whether these effigies were good or faithful, perhaps as in the case of the portraits of Sigismund's aunt Anna Jagiellon or his two wives they were nude paintings, however, later in a letter written in Warsaw on October 31, 1644, Ladislaus requested from Cardinal Mazarini reliable portraits of candidates for his second wife. During his stay in Vienna on June 23, 1624, the prince had the opportunity to meet the emperor's two daughters. He also admired the emperor's artistic collections, including "a set of portraits of many emperors and other notable figures of the House of Austria". In Salzburg he saw "various paintings", in Munich the Antiquarium and in Augsburg the paintings of the Fugger family. Philipp Hainhofer, connoisseur and art agent from Augsburg, recounts in his diary that the prince gave him "unusual trinket made of yellow amber". In Nuremberg, Ladislaus Sigismund admired "the famous paintings by Dürer" and the ceiling paintings by Rubens. In the 1620s, two daughters of Emperor Ferdinand II were frequently depicted and their effigies were sent to various friendly courts in Europe, including that of Poland-Lithuania (all probably destroyed or lost during the wars). Most of them are close in style to the works of the Flemish painter Justus Sustermans, court painter of the Medici family, who between 1623 and 1624 worked in Vienna on commission from the emperor. In a painting from the Esterházy collection at Forchtenstein Castle, probably made by the Sustermans workshop, Maria Anna and Cecilia Renata are depicted together. The two sisters kneel together behind their mother Maria Anna of Bavaria and their stepmother Eleonora Gonzaga (1598-1655) in a votive painting of Emperor Ferdinand II by Matthias Mayer, painted in 1631 for St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague. A few years later, around 1640, a painter close to Frans Luycx created similar effigies of the imperial family kneeling before Virgin in the Dominican church in Vienna, when Cecilia Renata, was already queen of Poland and her sister Maria Anna, electress of Bavaria (their likenesses were inspired by other portraits sent to Vienna). Among the portraits of Maria Anna made by Sustermans and his studio is a painting from Neuburg Castle (Alte Pinakothek in Munich, inventory number 2792). This is a copy of a painting from the Medici collection, now kept at the Medici Villa of Cerreto Guidi (inv. 1890 / 4275), which is considered to represent Princess Eleonora de' Medici (1591-1617), daughter of Ferdinando I de' Medici, as well as another similar portrait of Maria Anna's sister Cecilia Renata in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence (inv. 1890/2297), however, both are "clearly identified as Emperor Ferdinand's daughters in the 1624 inventory of the Villa del Poggio Imperiale and as Emperor Ferdinand's sisters in the 1654-1655 inventory" (after "The Grand Duke's Portraitist ..." by Lisa Goldenberg Stoppato, p. 35). A copy of the mentioned effigy of Cecilia Renata from the Uffizi (inv. 1890 / 2297), is also in Munich (inv. 6958), but the model's face is damaged. It is believed to represent Archduchess Margaret of Austria and also comes from Neuburg Castle. The two archduchesses were also depicted in two similar portraits from the Wallenstein gallery, today at Hrádek u Nechanic Castle (after "The Wallenstein portrait gallery in the Cheb Museum", p. 71). In these effigies, Maria Anna (inv. 3318 / 3802) and Cecilia Renata (inv. 3320 / 3804) look very similar and wear identical Spanish costumes. One of them was also represented in a painting at the Royal Castle of Racconigi, which was the official residence of the Carignano line of the House of Savoy, attributed to the Flemish painter (oil on canvas, 64 x 49 cm, R 5576). The woman was formerly identified as Princess of the House of Savoy and now as Margaret of Austria (1584-1611), Queen of Spain and Portugal. Her face more closely resembles the effigy of Cecilia Renata from the Uffizi (inv. 1890 / 2297) and Hrádek u Nechanic (inv. 3320 / 3804). A very similar effigy of the Queen of Poland was reproduced in an anonymous etching made before 1700 (Leipzig University Library, 8/61) with an inscription in German: Cecilia Renata ErtzHerzogin zu Osterreich / Uladislas Königs in Pohlen Gemahlin. Comparison with later effigies of the two sisters - portraits of Maria Anna, Electress of Bavaria by the circle of Joachim von Sandrart, created around 1643, from Dachau Castle (Alte Pinakothek in Munich, 3093) and from the Medici collection, identified by me (Pitti Palace in Florence, inv. 1890 / 5261) and Cecilia Renata by Peter Danckerts de Rij also painted in 1643, at Gripsholm Castle, most likely looted during the Deluge (signed: Peter. Danckers fecit A:o 1643, Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, NMGrh 299) and reduced version from the Marble Room at the Royal Castle in Warsaw (State Historical Museum in Moscow, И I 5922 / 74493), indicates that it is a portrait of the future Queen of Poland because the electress has a pointed nose. The style of this painting is particularly close to the portraits of Cecilia Renata's relatives at the Pitti Palace in Florence - her father Emperor Ferdinand II (Palatina 209), her stepmother Eleonora Gonzaga (Palatina 203) and her uncle Archduke Charles of Austria (1590-1624), prince-bishop of Wrocław as Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights (Palatina 293). All these paintings were made by Justus Sustermans around 1623. Since this effigy is a version of a portrait at Hrádek u Nechanic, showing her around 1626-1627, it could be made on the occasion of the preparation of the likenesses for Sigismund III. The color of the dresses of the two archduchesses (white and red, used as the national colors of Poland-Lithuania in the so-called "Stockholm Roll" from about 1605, Royal Castle in Warsaw, ZKW/1528/1-39) in paintings in Hrádek u Nechanic and in a portrait in Racconigi could also indicate that one of them was considered a future queen of Poland in 1627.
Portrait of Archduchess Cecilia Renata of Austria (1611-1644), future Queen of Poland by Justus Sustermans, ca. 1626-1627, Royal Castle of Racconigi.
Portrait of Archduke Charles of Austria (1590-1624), Prince-Bishop of Wrocław by Justus Sustermans, ca. 1623, Pitti Palace in Florence.
Portraits of Sigismund III Vasa and Constance of Austria in coronation robes by Gaspar de Crayer
"A life-size portrait that shows the emperor in pontifical attire, with a crown on his head, with a scepter in his right hand and a royal orb in his left, this is the king of Poland" (No. 26/22) and "Portrait of the empress, dressed in silver cloth, with a scepter in her right hand and an orb in her left hand, his wife" (No. 27/23), this is how the inventory of the Coudenberg Palace in Brussels from 1659 describes the portraits of King Sigismund III Vasa and his second wife Constance of Austria in coronation dresses, known from the copies, today in the Neuburg State Gallery.
The Brussels paintings could be the paintings that Pieter Claesz. Soutman brought from Poland-Lithuania in 1628 for Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain (1566-1633), governess of the Spanish Netherlands, but nothing is known of their author and the paintings were probably destroyed in an accidental fire which declared itself on the night of February 3, 1731. Three other portraits of Sigismund's son and successor Ladislaus IV were also included in the collection of the governors of the Spanish Netherlands - in full length when the prince in national costume with a hand on his sword (No. 40/36), in a hat by Peter Paul Rubens (No. 122/84) and in crimson costume, called Hungarian (No. 123/85) and another portrait of Sigismund with a hat and a fur-lined coat (No. 124/86) (compare "Rubens w Polsce" by Juliusz A. Chrościcki, p. 158, 162, 214). The Neuburg portraits have a similar composition (so-called pendants) and dimensions (oil on canvas, 220.5 x 131.8 cm, 984 and oil on canvas, 219 x 132.7 cm, 985). The two are believed to come from the dowry of the Infanta Anna Catherine Constance Vasa (1619-1651), the daughter of Sigismund and Constance, and would therefore have been made shortly before her marriage in Warsaw in 1642. Both have also been attributed to Soutman (after "Portrety tzw. koronacyjne ..." by Jerzy Lileyko, p. 377). Portraits of monarchs were frequently produced in series and sometimes copied by different painters. It is possible that the originals were actually created by Soutman before 1628. However, although the attribution to this painter is now rejected, the portraits in Neuburg are clearly made by a painter trained in Flanders, as their style indicates. The king and his son organized the orders and transport of works of art through their agents including Jan Bierens (1591-1641), as well as another Antwerp merchant and financier Joris Descamps. He acted as an intermediary in transferring 1,000 and then 800 florins from a bank in Amsterdam to Rubens as an outstanding payment for paintings for Sigismund III. At the same time, Descamps agreed to transfer another 1,000 florins from an Amsterdam bank for the previously delivered paintings for Ladislaus Sigismund's collection. The letter of July 16, 1626 mentions two further creditors of the prince, namely the already mentioned Bierens (290 florins) and a certain Jacob Wijz or Weez (20 thalers). Among the prince's agents was also the Frenchman Mathieu Rouault, who was commissioned in September 1625 to deliver the objects purchased in Antwerp to Gdańsk. On one occasion, Spanish border guards at Dunkirk found and confiscated from his traveling trunks portraits of the French royal family, namely Henry IV and his wife Marie de Medici, Louis XIII and his wife Anne of Austria, Gaston, Duke of Orléans and Cardinal Richelieu, as well as effigies of King James I of England, Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia and her husband Archduke Albert of Austria, Archduke Ernest of Austria, Emperor Ferdinand II and Elisabeth of Lorraine, Electress of Bavaria (after "Świat polskich Wazów: eseje", p. 290-291). In many ways, including fashion and patronage, the elected monarchs of the Commonwealth emulated the rulers of the greatest empire of the time, Spain. Although there were many prominent painters in Spain, artists from other regions of the empire frequently worked for the Madrid-based court, the Spanish Habsburgs, their relatives and allies. This is how the painting collections of Florence (Uffizi, Pitti Palace), Vienna (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Hofburg), Munich (Alte Pinakothek, the Residence) are in many aspects comparable to those of Madrid (Prado, historical Alcazar), especially when it comes to the portraits exchanged between countries. Therefore the royal collections of the Commonwealth before 1655 should be comparable, unfortunately almost all perished in deliberate destruction by invaders, burning and looting. Several important portraits of Queen Constance's nephew, King Philip IV of Spain, were made by Gaspar de Crayer, court portraitist of his aunt the Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia (like the equestrian portrait in the Prado Museum in Madrid, P001553), who probably never met the king in person. It is known that between 1621-1622 de Crayer painted the king and his wife Elisabeth of France for the Chamber of Accounts of Brabant, but these works have been lost. The portraits of Juan de Velasco and his brother José de Velasco, probably painted around 1620 during their stay in Brussels, are attributed to Gaspar, who even in his later works did not apply the loose brushwork of Rubens's painting, but continued to work in the traditional style with which he perhaps responded to a preference of his customers (after "Gaspar de Crayer ..." by Hans Vlieghe, Volume I, pp. 43, 213, 251-252). In his later works we can see more of the influences of Anthony van Dyck and Paolo Veronese, best seen in the signed painting depicting Saint Ambrose, created around 1655 (Prado, P005198, signed lower right: GAS. DE CRAYER FE.), as part of a series of the Holy Founders from the convent of Saint Francis in Burgos. As for the composition, the portrait of the King and Queen of Poland in Neuburg follows the same convention with a full-length representation and an open loggia in the background. In terms of style, the paintings more closely resemble the portrait of Mechteld Lintermans (d. 1641), wife of Jan Bierens (Sotheby's New York, June 4, 2009, lot 15), which is dated 1625-1630 and portrait of Juan de Velasco (1574-1621), secretary to King Philip III of Spain, brother-in-law of Queen Constance (private collection in Cantabria). Thus created before van Dyck's influences became more visible in his work from 1631 onwards. In the Alte Pinakothek in Munich, another similar effigy of Queen Constance from Neuburg Castle is preserved, therefore probably also from her daughter's dowry. This "portrait of a lady", attributed to the German School, is in a poor state of conservation (oil on canvas, 77 x 59 cm, 6807), however the style of de Crayer is noticeable as well as a similarity with the portrait of brother of Juan de Velasco - José (1571-1623) (private collection in Madrid). Regarding the Brussels paintings, around 30 years after their creation, the notion of who was represented was very vague. If it was not clearly stated that this is an effigy of the Polish king in the inventory, the entries could be considered to concern effigies of members of the Habsburg family - the emperor and his wife. The main document confirming de Crayer's contacts with clients from the Commonwealth is his letter to Matthijs Musson (1593-1678) in Antwerp, dated December 2, 1645 from Brussels, concerning the arrival of Krzysztof Opaliński (1609-1655), voivode of Poznań, envoy of King Ladislaus IV Vasa, and his entourage: "We were informed that the Poles would be here on Friday or perhaps Thursday. They have seen an Assumption of Our Lady at Lier that I made for the Jesuit Fathers and they desire a copy" (Wy hebben hier avies dat de Polacken zullen hier wesen vrydagh oft mogelyck donderdach. Zy hebben gesien een Hemelvaert van Onse live Vrouwe tot Lier die ick hebbe gemackt voor de paters van Jesuiten en hebben begeert eene copye) (after "Na Peter Pauwel Rubens ..." by Jean Denucé, p. 36). Opaliński visited the painter's workshop and ordered a copy of his Assumption. 19th-century copies of portraits of the king and queen in coronation robes can be found at Wawel Royal Castle (8555, 8556). The copies from the Przeździecki collection in Warsaw and the collection of Leopold Méyet, also in Warsaw, were most likely destroyed during the Second World War.
Portrait of King Sigismund III Vasa (1566-1632) in coronation robes by Gaspar de Crayer, ca. 1630, Neuburg State Gallery.
Portrait of Queen Constance of Austria (1588-1631) in coronation robes by Gaspar de Crayer, ca. 1630, Neuburg State Gallery.
Portrait of Queen Constance of Austria (1588-1631) by Gaspar de Crayer or workshop, ca. 1630, Alte Pinakothek in Munich.
Portraits of Prince John Casimir Vasa by Rembrandt
Polish-Lithuanian kings and aristocrats owned many works by Rembrandt, his workshop or followers, he frequently painted people in costumes very similar to these known from effigies of the Polish-Lithuanian nobility, he began his career in the workshop of supplier of the King of Poland and married his relative, he lived in Amsterdam, where tons of Polish grain, large quantities of fur and other products were shipped every year in the 17th century, yet he allegedly painted no Pole known by name (concerning preserved effigies).
Due to the lack of written sources explicitly confirming it even the "Polish rider" or the "Polish nobleman" by Rembrandt or his school are questioned as possibly not representing Polish-Lithuanian people, the same with the "Queen of Poland" by Rembrandt's pupil Ferdinand Bol. This vast, multicultural country with incomprehensible languages, an elective monarchy, religious tolerance and the growing influence of papists and Habsburgs, represented all the evil of this planet for pious Protestants. They must have welcomed the fact that Calvinist Prince of Transylvania George II Rakoczi (1621-1660) joined other contries and invaded the Polish-Lithuanian Commonweath from the south during the Deluge (1655-1660). Joost Cortwiert published in 1657 in The Hague an eight-page Dutch-language pamphlet entitled "A manifesto by George Rakoczi, prince of Transylvania, containing the reasons why he is attacking the kingdom of Poland with his army" (Manifest van Georgius Ragotsky, prins van Transilvanien. Vervattende de redenen waer om hy metsyn chrijchs-macht int koninck-rijck Polen valt). Also around that time a portrait of this important ally was published, though due to the lack of a proper effigy, possibly by mistake, an earlier print by Jan van Vliet after a painting by Rembrandt was used. It was created in 1631 and represents an eastern prince, who however bear no resemblance to other effigies of George II Rakoczi (1621-1660) or his father George I (1593-1648) (compare "323 The Rákóczy identity" by Gary Schwartz). This likeness was also published as a portrait of Skanderbeg (1405-1468), Lord of Albania. The march of Rakoczi army towards Warsaw was marked by atrocities, destruction, and looting. Simultaneously, Jerzy Sebastian Lubomirski's forces organized a revenge invasion of Transylvania. After the defeat and subsequent retreat of his Cossack allies, Rakoczi capitulated to Lubomirski, promising to break his alliance with Sweden and abandon the royal city of Kraków. Not only pople were killed, property looted, buildings destroyed, but foreign invasion triggered epidemic diseases, profound economic crisis and ethnic cleansing. People who survived the invasion were struggling to survive in destroyed country, like in Kazimierz Dolny on the Vistula River, the mannerist gem of the Commonwealth, which raised into prominence after 1561 thanks to grain trade as an important river port. The city was ransacked and burned in February 1656 by the troops of the Brigand of Europe (as he was called by Stefan Czarniecki), Charles X Gustav of Sweden, who invaded the country from the north, and again by Transilvanian troops in 1657. Before 1661 the troops of Stefan Czarniecki destroyed the local synagogue and killed many Jews, who were accused by the Catholics of supporting invaders. From one of the wealthies nations in Europe, Poland-Lithuania has become one of the poorest. The opulent magnate and royal residences were ransacked and burned. One preserved document - inventory of goods transported to Stockholm from Warsaw by March 9, 1657 lists "188 large and small paintings and portraits painted on panel and canvas" (188 St. stoora och små Skillerij och Conterfey på trää och lerfft måhlat), "One painting from the altar, painted on wood" (1 måhlat alltaretafla af trää duger intet) and "Oil paintings which were in coffered ceilings in Warsaw, from five rooms" (Schillerij som hafwer suttit under taket i Warschow till 5 Cambrer af Wattnferger) from the inventory of items taken from the Warsaw Castle in 1656 (after "Inwentarz przedmiotów wywiezionych z Warszawy ..." by Katarzyna Wagner). Venetian-style gilded frame ceilings in royal residences were filled with oil paintings, similar to these preserved in the Palace of the Kraków Bishops in Kielce, created by workshop of Tommaso Dolabella (1570-1650) in about 1642, or in the Koniecpolski Castle in Pidhirtsi (Podhorce) near Lviv in western Ukraine, also by workshop of Tommaso Dolabella and Dutch painter Jan de Baen (1633-1702), a pupil of Jacob Adriaensz Backer in Amsterdam (1640s and 1660s). Polish shipments of grain and other products to Amsterdam virtually ceased during the invasion, but Johann Köstner, a Gdańsk merchant, pointed out in 1660 that Holland had managed with grain from elsewhere. Curiously, however, the decline in Rembrandt's career coincided with the invasion of the Commonweath. On 24 November 1655 the 14-year-old Titus, the fourth and only surviving child of Rembrandt, made his last will and testament and named his father as his sole heir, including what he had inherited from his mother. The painter, who lived beyond his means, failed to pay off the loans. In 1656 he filed for bankruptcy and his property was sold. The monarch of the Commonweath at that time was John II Casimir Vasa, the eldest son of Sigismund III and his second wife Constance of Austria, elected by the Polish-Lithuanian Parliament to succeed his half-brother Ladislaus IV in 1648. During the Deluge he fled to Silesia taking some of the most valuable items from the royal collection. Already in 1626, during the Toruń Sejm, he was proposed by his mother's supporters and on her initiative as a candidate for the heir to the throne. Simultaneously, at the end of the 1620s, contacts between the Polish-Lithuanian royal court and the Dutch Republic intensified. Abraham van Booth secretary of the Dutch delegation that visited Poland between 1627-1628 with a mediation mission in the dispute that arose between Sigismund III Vasa and Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, created some drawings, including of the Royal Castle in Warsaw and audience before Sigismund III in the Old Senate Chamber. The ultra-Catholic camp in the Commonwealth, by which Prince John Casimir was considered the leader, lost its importance after the sudden death of the queen in 1631. Between 1632 and 1635, Ladislaus IV sought to enhance his influence by negotiating John Casimir's marriage to Queen Christina of Sweden, his distant relative. John Casimir, a great patron of the arts like his father and brother, was probaly one of the first royal connoisseurs of Rembrandt's art. The king had in his collection a painting of "Diana bathing and Actaeon" by Rembrandt (Un tableau en hauteur, peint sur toile, qui est un bain de Diane avec Acteon) sold in 1673 in Paris to François Andrault de Buy de Langeron (item 88 of the inventory). His residence in Nieporęt near Warsaw, "a masterpiece of carpentry" according to Jean Le Laboureur who visited the palace on March 3, 1646, was richly decorated mainly with Flemish tapestries. Before 1643 Samuel von Sorgen paid to an unknown painter in Vienna, most probably Frans Luycx, "ad rationem altars to Nieporęt" and in 1651 a Dutch architect and a Mennonite Peeter Willer (or Willert) built a lock in Nieporęt on the Narew river, a "Dutch house" (a hunting manor) and a brewery, and in Warsaw a pavilion called "pleasure house" (lusthauz) for Queen's ladies at the Villa Regia Palace and a mill. Possibly after his accession to the throne around 1649 John Casimir's court painter, Daniel Schultz, created his portrait to the Marble Room at the Royal Castle in Warsaw. Schultz was trained in the Netherlands and he studied in Leiden in 1643 (most likely he is mentioned as "Daniel Schultz Borussus"). The mentioned portrait from the Marble Room, very in Rembrandt's style, shows the king in a tall fur hat, a shirt and a chain very similar to the portrait of a man in profile with feathered cap and long wavy hair in private collection in Germany, monogrammed lower left 'RHL', exactly as a print by Jan van Vliet, signed in the plate 'RHL. v Rijn. jn. / 1631. / JG v. vliet fecit' (compare "323 The Rákóczy identity" by Gary Schwartz). This portrait, most probably one of a series, was undoubtedly a model to van Vliet's print. The same profile was also included in a study drawing or preliminary sketch by Rembrandt in the Barber Institute of Fine Arts in Birmingham. The young man with protruding lower lip resemble greatly other effigies of John Casimir (especially his marble bust by Giovanni Francesco Rossi), who was 22 years old in 1631 when the portraits were created and inherited the Habsburg (Masovian) jaw from his mother Constance of Austria. The same year Rembrandt moved from Leiden into the house of an art agent to King Sigismund III Vasa, Hendrick van Uylenburgh, in Amsterdam. Rembrandt became chief painter of the studio and in 1634 married Van Uylenburgh's relative Saskia. Also in 1631, two important Polish-Lithuanian magnates arrived to the Netherlands, Janusz Radziwill (1612-1655) to Leiden and Jerzy Sebastian Lubomirski (1616-1667) to Louvain in the Spanish Netherlands (possibly also to Leiden that year).
A sheet of figure studies with a portrait of Prince John Casimir Vasa (1609-1672) by Rembrandt, 1630s, The Barber Institute of Fine Arts.
Portrait of Prince John Casimir Vasa (1609-1672) in a fur hat by Rembrandt or follower, ca. 1631, Private collection.
Portrait of Prince John Casimir Vasa (1609-1672) in a fur hat by Jan van Vliet after Rembrandt, 1631, Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.
Portraits of Jerzy Sebastian Lubomirski by Rembrandt and Ferdinand Bol
In 1629, Jerzy Sebastian (1616-1667) and his older brother Aleksander Michał (1614-1677), sons of fabulously rich voivode of Ruthenia Prince Stanisław Lubomirski (1583-1649), set out to study abroad. Aleksander was 15, and Jerzy 13 years old. Jakub Piotrowicki, Catholic priest and professor of the Kraków Academy, became their guardian, they were also accompanied by steward Sebastian Kokwiński. The first destination was the Jesuit university in Ingolstadt (September 17, 1629). From there they went to Leuven/Louvain in the Spanish Netherlands in 1630, where there was also a Catholic university, very popular with the Polish nobility and magnates, and to Cologne in 1632. Then in April 1633 Jerzy Sebastian was in the Protestant Leiden to study military engineering and there he probably met Janusz Radziwill (1612-1655), a Calvinist, who was also studying there. Later he visited England, France, Spain and Italy. During these journeys, he learned the art of fortification, rhetoric, grammar, mathematics, languages, and he had the opportunity to meet foreign nobles and monarchs. He returned to Poland in 1636.
Between 1639-1641, a Flemish painter Mattheus Ingermann (Ingenraen) from Antwerp, who studied painting in Rome, worked as a court painter of Stanisław Lubomirski (Jerzy Sebastian's father), portraying his son Aleksander, which is confirmed by the preserved inventory of the Wiśnicz gallery. His "Annunciation" fom the chapel of the Wiśnicz Castle is today in the Saint Anne's Church in Warsaw-Wilanów. He also made large-format paintings for the Carmelite Church in Nowy Wiśnicz. After Stanisław's death in 1649 his three sons Jerzy Sebastian, Aleksander Michał and the youngest Konstanty Jacek (1620-1663) managed the estates including the opulent Wiśnicz Castle. During the Deluge (1655-1660) Aleksander Michał secured some rich furnishings of the Wiśnicz estate (Castle and Monastery), taking them to Spiš. Leaving Wiśnicz on September 19, 1656, the army of the Brigand of Europe, as he was called by Stefan Czarniecki, king Charles X Gustav of Sweden, plundered the most valuable things and reportedly took away as many as 150 wagons of precious loot and 35 cannons. The "Inventory of belongings spared from Swedes and escapes made on December 1, 1661 in Wiśnicz" in the Central Archives of Historical Records in Warsaw, lists some of the preserved paintings, mainly by Italian masters like Raphael, Titian, Veronese, Guido Reni, Guercino, Domenichino, from the Flemish names are only Paul Bril and Daniel Seghers, but next to them the inventory lists plenty of Flemish and Dutch paintings, "in general, much more than Italian paintings", according to Jerzy Mycielski (1856-1928) - meeting of the Commission for the Study of Art History in Poland on February 26, 1903, moreover, the portraits of the Lubomirski family, painted in Venice by Nicolas Régnier (Niccolò Renieri) and in Gdańsk by Daniel Schulz. In 1660 Jerzy Sebastian invited to Poland Tylman Gamerski (Tielman van Gameren, born in Utrecht), a Dutch architect and engineer, who was at that time working in Venice, reportedly as a painter of battle scenes. From 1674 Gamerski worked in the Royal Ujazdów Castle in Warsaw, devastated during the Deluge and sold to Jerzy Sebastian's son Stanisław Herakliusz Lubomirski (1642-1702). One of the earliest works of possibly most gifted pupil of Rembrandt, Carel Fabritius (1622-1654), the Raising of Lazarus in the National Museum in Warsaw painted in about 1643 (signed CAR.FABR.), comes from the Lubomirski estate in Ujazdów (before 1702 most probably in the St. Anne's Church in Ujazdów together with a a statue of dead Christ by Flemish sculptor Giusto Le Court). Some members of the Lubomirski family also owned paintings by Rembrandt or his circle. Before 1790 in the collection of Count Lubomirski in Lviv there was a Portrait of a young man (oil on canvas 71 x 59.7 cm), attributed to Barent Fabritius and later to Samuel van Hoogstraten (after "Rembrandt After Three Hundred Years ..." by Jay Richard Judson, Egbert Haverkamp Begemann, p. 74). The catalog of paintings from the collection of Countess Eleonora Teresa Jadwiga Lubomirska née Husarzewska (1866-1940), exhibited in Lviv in 1909 ("Katalog ilustrowany wystawy mistrzów dawnych ..." by Mieczysław Treter, item 52, p. 18), is the oldest surely documented provenance of the painting by Rembrandt or follower, today kept at the Indianapolis Museum of Art (2023.4). According to the catalog, the painting was signed and dated lower left: f. R. H. 1628 (year not visible today). It is considered one of the earliest of his self-portraits. The painting was probably evacuated from Poland during World War II (1939-1945) by its owners. The Countess also owned "Hagar's exile in the wilderness" by School of Rembrandt (oil on canvas, 75 x 52 cm, item 56, p. 19). Majority of preserved effigies of Jerzy Sebastian come from his later years and were created by Flemish artists, including a portrait by Jan de Herdt (Royal Castle in Warsaw), created in about 1664. Portrait of a young man with a sword by Ferdinand Bol in Dayton Art Institute (oil on canvas, 205.7 x 130.8 cm, 1962.18), depict a man in rich princely costume. His heavily embroidered velvet tunic, pose and oriental sabre are very similar to effigy of King Ladislaus IV Vasa from "Het Groot Balet" (Caricature of the peace negotiations after Battle of Lützen) in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, anonymous print created after 1632. Very similar leather shoes in Polish style, together with velvet arrow case and quiver were offered by John II Casimir Vasa, elected monarch of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, to five year old king of Sweden Charles XI in about 1660. They are also visible in famous Polish Rider (Lisowczyk) by Rembrandt or his circle, which most probably depict Marcjan Aleksander Ogiński (1632-1690), colonel of the Polish-Lithuanian light cavalry. The latter painting, today in the Frick Collection in New York City, comes from the Polish royal collection (acquired in 1791 by king Stanislaus Augustus Poniatowski). Ogiński was portraited by Bol at the time of his studies in the Netherlands. This effigy bearing the inscription MO / STR (bottom right), identified as "Marcjan Ogiński / Starost of Trakai", and showing him in a fur hat is in a private collection (after "O amerykańskich polonikach Rembrandta ..." by Zdzisław Żygulski, p. 49). Bol, who was the same age as Jerzy Sebastian Lubomirski, both born in 1616, was brought as a child to Amsterdam. He must have entered Rembrandt's studio at an early age, probably when he was about sixteen (after Emile Michel "Rembrandt, His Life, His Work and His Time", Volume 1, p. 244). Described portrait is dated to about 1635-1640, therefore most probably when Lubomirski was no longer in the Netherlands, however, this does not exclude the possibility that it was made on the basis of drawings created earlier in the artist's atelier or sent from Poland. Jerzy Sebastian's oriental style sabre and horse tack are today in the Czartoryski Museum in Kraków. The same man was depicted in two paintings by Rembrandt or his circle. One entitled Young man with a plumed hat, today in the Toledo Museum of Art (oil on panel, 81.3 x 66 cm, 1926.64), was created in 1631 when Rembrandt moved to Amsterdam from his native Leiden (monogrammed and dated lower left: RHL. 1631), to live in the house of the artistic agent of the King of Poland. The second, in the North Carolina Museum of Art (oil on canvas, 118.1 x 96.5 cm, GL.60.17.68), signed and dated '1633' in upper right corner, shows the man holding a heavy ancient sword, similar to Bronze Age swords found in Nowy Żmigród, south-eastern Poland, not far from Lubomirski estates in Łańcut and Nowy Wiśnicz, today in the Subcarpathian Museum in Krosno. He is not a simple soldier, he is a tremendously rich connoisseur, a descendant of the ancient belligerent Sarmatians (legendary ancestors of Polish nobility), trained in Leiden as a military engineer.
Portrait of Jerzy Sebastian Lubomirski (1616-1667) with a pumed hat by Rembrandt or circle, 1631, Toledo Museum of Art.
Portrait of Jerzy Sebastian Lubomirski (1616-1667) with an ancient sword by Rembrandt or circle, 1633, North Carolina Museum of Art.
Portrait of Jerzy Sebastian Lubomirski (1616-1667) with an oriental sabre by Ferdinand Bol, 1634-1640, Dayton Art Institute.
The Raising of Lazarus by Carel Fabritius, ca. 1643, National Museum in Warsaw.
Portraits of Anna Kiszczanka by Rembrandt and Giacinto Campana
"May I have, honorable lady, according to your dignity, / A golden gift for your name day / And foreign countries subtle works" (Żebym miał, zacna pani, według twej godności / Na twoje imieniny upominek złoty / I krajów cudzoziemskich subtelne roboty), expressed his wishes on St. Anne's Day in 1633 in a poem dedicated to Anna Kiszczanka (1593-1644), Princess Radziwill, court poet Daniel Naborowski (after "Anna Kiszczanka Radziwiłłowa ..." by Mariola Jarczykowa, p. 95-97, 102-103).
It was written in a gloomy atmosphere of war with Moscow, when during the royal election after the death of Sigismund III Vasa, the Russian army, supported by Sweden, attacked the eastern border and besieged Smolensk. Naborowski praised Princess Anna's piety, which was confirmed in a letter from the Calvinist minister Baltazar Krośniewicz from Birzai (August 29, 1617). In 1631, with her husband Christopher Radziwill (1585-1640), she founded "a large brick church in the square of Kedainiai" and a Calvinist school. Moreover, they founded "a second brick church and a cemetery for evangelical funerals on the mountain near our manor house, on the square they call Januszów. There, in Januszów, we are building a hospital for the poor, the elderly, the infirm, the disabled and the sick" (after "Upamiętnienie Radziwiłłów ..." by Aliaksandr Prudnikau, p. 92-93). Kiszczanka's strong anti-Catholic sentiment best illustrates the document of June 8, 1644. This is an extract from the tribunal files containing the protest of Mikołaj Karol Białozor, the parish priest of Kedainiai, against Anna, for not allowing the Corpus Christi procession in Kedainiai. She arrived in town on the eve of the celebration, i.e. on May 25, 1644, and imposed penalties on all those who would go in the procession the next day. On the holiday itself, she ordered the bridge to be blocked, which prevented the procession from passing (after "Katolikom nabożeństwa zabroniła ...", Habemus Documentum, AGAD 1/354/0/10/707). Anna was the daughter of Stanislaus Kiszka and Elizabeth Sapieha and the heiress to huge estates, including Kedainiai. She married Christopher in 1606, when she was only 13 years old. Of their six children, two survived to adulthood, Janusz (1612-1655) and Catherine (1614-1674). Her son, Janusz, graduated from the Calvinist gymnasium in Slutsk and went to study abroad at the age of 16. He continued his studies in Leipzig, Altdorf and Leiden. In 1632, as Commonwealth ambassador, he visited France and England. A year later, in 1633, after having hired 1,000 infantrymen and 200 dragoons in the Netherlands, he returned to Poland-Lithuania and participated in the Smolensk war. In the summer of 1628, Boguslaus Radziwill (1620-1669), who lived in Germany with his mother, after her second marriage was entrusted to the care of his uncle and aunt and moved to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Boguslaus was educated, like earlier Janusz, by Protestant pastor Paweł Demitrowicz, who had previously been the rector of Calvinist schools in Vilnius and Slutsk. Shortly after becoming a courtier of King Ladislaus IV Vasa, he also went to study in the Netherlands in 1637, like his cousin Janusz. Among the best painted effigies of the two cousins are portraits created by Dutch painters - the portrait of Janusz by David Bailly (1584-1657), painted around 1632 in Leiden (National Museum in Wrocław, VIII-578) and the portrait of Boguslaus, attributed to Willem van Honthorst (1594-1666), painted around 1665 as his costume indicates (private collection), perhaps on the occasion of his marriage to his Catholic relative Anna Maria Radziwill (1640-1667). Due to connections of the Protestant branch of the Radziwill family in Europe, in 1633, during the Smolensk war, the bedridden Prince John Casimir Vasa proposed to marry Anna's daughter Catherine. Her father, however, undoubtedly involved in the two Protestant unions desired by the king - John Casimir was to marry Queen Christina of Sweden and Ladislaus wanted to marry her mother Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg, politely refused. Catherine Radziwill lived with her sick mother - Princess Anna wrote to her husband from Birzai on October 9, 1628 that she had ulcers on her left ear. She drank thermal water and finally went to recover in 1632 in Cieplice Śląskie-Zdrój, according to a letter from Dolatycze near Novogrudok to Janusz, dated July 9. In Kapyl, on the advice of doctors, the princess "took steam in the bathtub" (after "Zdrowie Władysława IV" by Rumbold z Połocka, p. 171-172). To commemorate their son and his cousin Anna and Christopher founded two towns named after them - Januszpol near Kedainiai and Bogusławpol near Minsk, which were to become important craft and trade centers. Due to the decline of the Protestant lineage of the Radziwill family after the Deluge, Januszpol and Bogusławpol lost their names. On August 17, 1643, the widow Anna Kiszczanka issued the privilege for Januszpol, also known as Januszów and Janopol, confirming that the majority of its inhabitants were foreigners, invited to settle in the new town by her husband. According to the document, "I was greeted by the famous inhabitants of my town, Januszów, people of foreign nations, recruited by various letters of his majesty the prince, voivode of Vilnius, grand hetman of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, my husband". Responding to the request of the people of Januszpol, Anna ordered her governor of Kedainiai, Andrzej Przystanowski, sword-bearer of Samogitia, to measure the squares and distribute them to people "coming from foreign nations". The new residents were freed for 10 years from all monetary and customs charges to the princely treasury. The settlers of Januszpol and Kedainiai were mostly evangelical refugees from Scotland, England, the Netherlands and Germany. In a letter dated January 12, 1612 from Hamburg, Daniel Naborowski informed his patron Christopher Radziwill about the recruitment of Englishmen in the Netherlands (after "Korespondencja i literatura okolicznościowa ..." by Mariola Jarczykowa, p. 114). The architecture of Kedainiai before 1655, as shown in virtual reconstructions created for the Kedainiai Museum, resembles towns in the Netherlands, England and Germany more than towns founded by Catholic patrons, such as Zamość settled with Italians, Armenians, Jews and Greeks. The register of Anna Kiszczanka's expenses from 1641 for her estate in Zabłudów near Białystok indicates that most of her expenses went for personal purposes, food, renovation of manor rooms and the purchase of luxury goods, most of which were imported goods purchased in Gdańsk and Toruń. Expenses related to charitable or educational activities constituted a margin of income from Zabłudów estates (after "Rozchody i wydatki księżnej Anny Kiszczanki" by Antoni Mironowicz, p. 274). No painted effigy of Princess Anna is known, but there must have been many, probably by Dutch painters or by a royal court painter. Inventory of paintings from the collection of Anna's great-granddaughter (Boguslaus' daughter and Janusz's granddaughter) Louise Charlotte Radziwill (1667-1695), drawn up in 1671, lists two effigies of Anna Kiszczanka - item 78/8 and 106/5 (after "Inwentarz galerii obrazów Radziwiłłów z XVII w." by Teresa Sulerzyska). The painters are not mentioned, but this collection undoubtedly included the paintings of the best European Old Masters. Some titles indicate that some of the paintings were created in the Netherlands, such as "A young Dutch woman" (314/23), "A Dutchman with a glass and a pipe" (337/13), "A Dutchman plays an instrument and laughs" (343/19), "A Dutchman plays the viol and sings" (345/21), "A Dutchman plays the pipe" (346/22), "Dutch art, drinking peasants" (429/17), "A Dutch painting" (446/6), "A Dutchman courtes a lady and she takes money from his pouch" (492/12), "A Dutch lady with a watering can" (696/9), "A Dutch lady is reading a book and a watering can is next to her" (730/43) and trompe-l'œil painting "A Dutchman painted on panel but on canvas" (797/13). Alongside portraits of Polish-Lithuanian monarchs, monarchs of France, electors of Brandenburg and Saxony, foreign and Polish-Lithuanian nobles like Leszczyński or Lubomirski, the inventory includes numerous effigies of members of the Radziwill family from both branches Catholic (Nesvizh-Olyka) and Calvinist (Birzai-Dubingiai). An effigy created around the time of Anna Kiszczanka's lifetime is confirmed. This is a drawing kept in the Hermitage Museum (ОР-45863), a study for an engraving from a series of effigies of family members (possibly created between 1646 and 1653). It is inscribed in Polish: Anna Kiszczanka Żona and shows her in a rich 1620s Spanish-style saya and a typical Polish-Lithuanian fur hat and coat. The series was probably not printed because of the Deluge, which also significantly affected and impoverished the Radziwill family. We can assume that the studies were created to be sent to a renowned engraver in Gdańsk, such as the Dutch Willem Hondius, or the Netherlands. This effigy (or very similar) was published more than a century later, in 1758, in the cycle Icones familiæ ducalis Radivilianæ, where Anna's face was slightly modified. The same goes for the image of Anna's son Janusz, which may have been modeled on his portrait by Daniel Schultz, now housed in the National Art Museum of Belarus. During the Deluge (1655-1660), invaders plundered almost everything that the inhabitants could not evacuate or protect in some way. Over the following centuries, the Radziwills had to evacuate their collections several times. Such activities as well as post-war chaos contributed to incorrect identifications of models in preserved effigies, which is why there are obvious errors in Icones familiæ ducalis Radivilianæ, such as the portrait of Anna Kiszczyna née Radziwill (1525-1600) in which the model resembles effigies from the end of the 17th century or early 18th century and not from the 16th century or another Anna Kiszczanka, who according to the inscription lived in the first quarter of the 16th century (born in 1513 and died in 1533) and the effigy depicts a lady in costume similar to the mentioned effigy of a wife of Christopher Radziwill, thus created in the first quarter of the 17th century. At the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York there is a portrait of a woman by Rembrandt, which comes from the Radziwill collection in their Nesvizh Castle (oil on wood, 67.9 x 50.2 cm, inventory number 14.40.625). Later in the collection of Cyprian Lachnicki (1824-1906) in Warsaw, the painting was sold in Paris on June 15, 1867 ("Catalogue de la collection de tableaux de M. Lachnicki", Hôtel Drouot, no. 24). In the Paris sale, it appeared after the portrait of Rembrandt, now at the National Museum in Warsaw (M.Ob.296, earlier 734). The work was signed and dated by the painter (lower left): Rembrandt f· / 1633·, although it is also considered the work of Rembrandt (face) and his collaborators (costume). The sitter's costume is typical of Dutch fashion of this era and can be seen in many portraits by different painters. Rembrandt's portrait of Aechje Claesdr. in the National Gallery in London (NG775) is very similar, both in terms of composition and the sitter's attire. Aechje was the widow of Rotterdam brewer Jan Pesser and one of the leading figures in the Remonstrant community of Rotterdam. The Remonstrants were Protestant, but their beliefs were slightly different from the Calvinist orthodoxy that dominated religion in Holland at the time. This painting was also signed and dated (Rembrandt.ft / 1634) and also indicates her age (Æ. SVE. 83). An effigy similar to that in New York was also reproduced in the Icones familiæ ducalis Radivilianæ. The woman's ruff indicates that it was painted around the same time as Rembrandt's painting, but according to the inscription it shows Anna Fiedkonis née Radziwill (d. 1492). What is very interesting is that in Lithuania a copy of Nesvizh's painting has been preserved, today at the National Museum of Art in Vilnius (oil on canvas, 72 x 51 cm, LNDM T 4153). It was obviously painted by another painter, so it is not associated with Rembrandt but, mainly because of the woman's costume, with the 17th century Dutch school. Although the woman wears the attire of a Protestant woman from the Netherlands, the style of this painting is more Italian than Dutch and can be compared to Giacinto Campana's Saint Mary Magdalene at the Wilanów Palace in Warsaw (Wil.1732), attributed by me. Campana arrived in Warsaw in 1637 and in 1639 he worked in Vilnius so that he could copy a picture by Rembrandt or another painter from the Radziwill collection. The woman in both paintings resembles Anna Kiszczanka, Princess Radziwill from all the mentioned effigies, as well as the portraits of her son Janusz by Bailly, by Bartholomeus Strobel (National Art Museum of Belarus) and engraving by Hondius (Czartoryski Museum). The Nesvizh (New York) portrait or a series was therefore ordered from Rembrandt's workshop in 1633 on the occasion of Anna's name day. The Vilnius portrait has a pendant depicting another woman of similar age and costume (oil on canvas, 71.5 x 50 cm, LNDM T 3990). The two were depicted together because they were sisters or otherwise related. Assuming the first woman is Anna Kiszczanka, the other should be identified as her sister-in-law Christina Kiszczyna née Drutska-Sokolinska (d. 1640). Like her father, Michael Drutsky-Sokolinsky (d. 1621), voivode of Polotsk and Smolensk, she was most likely also a Calvinist. Christina's husband, Janusz Kiszka (ca. 1586-1654), Field Hetman of Lithuania and voivode of Polotsk, raised in Calvinism, converted to Catholicism around 1606. In 1624-1626 he studied in Padua, where on March 4, 1625 he met the Crown Prince Ladislaus Sigismund Vasa and accompanied him to Venice. Papal nuncio Honorato Visconti gave the following description of the voivode of Polotsk and Field Hetman of Lithuania (report to Cardinal Francesco Barberini, July 15, 1636 from Warsaw): "he is also a better soldier than senator. Catholic but only in name, impulsive, not very pious, he still has many heretical superstitions, in which his father remained" (after "Relacye nuncyuszów apostolskich" by Erazm Rykaczewski, Volume 2, p. 252). Janusz Kiszka married Christina, the widow of Sebastian Gnoiński, in 1608 or 1609. She enjoyed the great trust of her husband, as evidenced by the fact that during his stay abroad for several years, on April 20, 1624, he entrusted her with the management of all estates. Returning to the country in 1627, preoccupied with military service, he left his property under her full management until May 16, 1633. In 1629, Kiszczyna concluded a contract with Abraham Jonaszewicz, a burgher from Gdańsk, for the sale of the Czaśniki estate with the Smolany farm. Gdańsk merchants wanted to organize the export of forestry and agricultural products on a large scale, bypassing the Vitebsk chamber customs (after "Próba utworzenia gdańskiej faktorii handlowej ..." by Jarosław Zawadzki, p. 43, 46). Christina died in 1640 and in connection with her funeral, a mourning booklet entitled "Mourning Shadows After Bright Rays" (Cienie żałobne po jasnych promieniach) by Melchior Stanislav Savitsky was published in Vilnius. Another version or original of this portrait is now in the Kremer collection in Amsterdam (oil on panel, 45 x 35.5 cm). It comes from the collection of the Kielmansegg family in Vienna and was cut, perhaps from an oval shape. This painting is attributed to Rembrandt's follower Jacob Adriaensz Backer and dates from around 1634. Stanisław Koniecpolski (1591-1646), Grand Hetman of the Crown, may have received copies of the portraits of the two women, because two of such paintings are visible in a photograph by Edward Trzemeski taken around 1880 and showing the Eastern Antechamber of his palace in Pidhirtsi near Lviv in Ukraine. In a portrait of a family as donors by a Kraków painter, painted around 1620 (National Museum in Kraków), the sitters wear Italian (the man and boy next to him) and Dutch costumes (the other members of the family). The painting style is inspired by the Italian school, while the family kneeling before the resurrected Christ looks more like Dutch, Silesian or Gdańsk paintings. Although the nobility of Poland-Lithuania had favored different fashions since at least the second quarter of the 16th century, specific garments had important connotations and were expressions of political opinions and sympathies. In a painting created in 1665, in the Corpus Christi Church in Poznań, Queen Jadwiga (Hedwig of Anjou, 1373-1399) was depicted in a typical Spanish costume from the 1620s. This effigy was probably inspired by the portrait of Queen Constance of Austria (1588-1631) or other unpreserved effigies of Jadwiga commissioned by Catholics sympathetic to the Spanish Empire and the Habsburgs. It was natural that when the Catholics and Habsburgs asserted their position at the royal court in Warsaw and their supporters manifested it through Spanish, Italian or Flemish fashion, the Calvinist aristocrats were represented in the Dutch costumes. The portrait of Queen Bona Sforza d'Aragona (1494-1557) kept at the National Museum in Lublin (oil on canvas, 60.5 x 51 cm, S/Mal/609/ML), painted in a style comparable to the two paintings in Vilnius, shows the queen in the convention of bourgeois portraits of the 17th century, emphasized by all authors. Its style is more Italian, however, the costume is clearly Nordic and the painting is attributed to the Dutch school. Similar ones can be seen in numerous portraits made around 1640 and attributed to the Dutch school (such as portrait of Dorothea Berck, private collection), Willem van Honthorst (Museum of Fine Arts in Lille), circle of Bartholomeus van der Helst (private collection), several portraits attributed to the Flemish school (dated 1641 and 1646, private collection) or a portrait of a French lady, perhaps Huguenot, signed by the unknown painter Panuier and painted in 1641 (private collection). Unlike the royal court, her dress is modest and her hair is not dyed Venetian blonde. The inscription with a crown - REGINA BONA, appears to be original, therefore the painting was most likely created to remind some people that the Commonwealth was from the beginning a tolerant country with different people, customs and religions.
Portrait of Anna Kiszczanka (1593-1644), Princess Radziwill by Rembrandt, 1633, Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Portrait of Christina Kiszczyna née Drutska-Sokolinska (d. 1640) by Jacob Adriaensz Backer, ca. 1634, Kremer collection in Amsterdam.
Portrait of Anna Kiszczanka (1593-1644), Princess Radziwill by Giacinto Campana, ca. 1639, National Museum of Art in Vilnius.
Portrait of Christina Kiszczyna née Drutska-Sokolinska (d. 1640) by Giacinto Campana, ca. 1639, National Museum of Art in Vilnius.
Portrait of Queen Bona Sforza d'Aragona (1494-1557) by Giacinto Campana or circle, ca. 1640, National Museum in Lublin.
Saint Mary Magdalene by Giacinto Campana, 1640s, Wilanów Palace in Warsaw.
Portraits of Jan Zawadzki, Ambassador of the King of Poland by Rembrandt
"The next day, in fine weather and the most favorable wind, we came to Amsterdam. Beautiful are edifices of this city, canals crossing it, streets lined with linden trees, forests of ship masts, rich merchant warehouses. [...] The merchant market is beautiful and rich. Reformatory House, magnificent Indian Company buildings, full of the most expensive goods. On the 14th day, having sent the court and things to The Hague, we arrived alone in Leiden, on the day of Pentecost, we listened to mass in a private Catholic chapel. There we met with joy, the sons of Prince Wiśniowiecki, voivode of Ruthenia, who invited us to dinner; then we were visited from our other countrymen, that is from Gentlemen Żółkiewski, Zieliński, Kreitz and Korfa. On that day the envoy, the Council of the Bohemian Queen, informed about his arrival, who immediately invited him on the following day for an audience at three in the afternoon. [...] After 16 days of expensive stay on June 1, we left The Hague. [...] On June 22, near the village of Leith near Edinburgh, we dropped the anchor. He immediately sent an envoy to the Scottish Chancellor to announce his arrival", recalls the author of the manuscript from the collection of Count Józef Sierakowski about Jan Zawadzki (d. 1645), starost of Świecie and Chamberlain of the King, envoy of His Highness Ladislaus IV, king of Poland and Sweden to the German princes, to the Queens of Sweden and Bohemia, to the United Provinces of the Netherlands, and to the King of England in 1633.
On July 19 Zawadzki arrived to London. "We visited the house of the Duke of Buckingham, killed by a murderer four years ago. [...] In this palace, the rooms are beautifully painted by Vandyck. [...] We were also at the merchant market [...] Here, by the old custom, the envoy received gifts from the King, three large basins with ewers, six large cups, four smaller ones, a censer, cups for salt and sugar. The envoy gave to the bearers 50 Jacobs (2000 fl.). From London, we set off for the Netherlands again, [...] on August 10th we came to Amsterdam". The envoy also brought many valuable gifts: "to the Royal Undersecretary, I gave a gift of money so that he would be careful about our affairs. I gave the Master of Ceremonies a chain with diamonds, the Kitchen Master Cupbearer and other officials, expensive rings, or gifts in money". In 1636 he offered to the King of England, after a private audience, the horses, "dressed in tacks with broadswords and maces. Hussar pure breed horse with a horse tack set with turquoises, a leopard skin on it, on a bay, second tack in Arabic style - a bow, a quiver, a very beautiful tack. [...] Two soroks of sable for the Queen, with which they are very surprised, and estimate for a lot of money. He also gave the Prince, five tovaglia tablecloths, whose work is great in admiration" (after "Zbiór pamiętników o dawnej Polszcze" by Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, Volume 3, p. 105-133). During the solemn audience in 1636 before the King of England Zawadzki's servants were dressed in red velvet żupans, beige or scarlet delias, and having ostrich feathers on their hats. They were followed by fifteen other people dressed in Italian style and by Mr. Poręmbski and Mr. Wilczkowski holding golden maces, both dressed in red velvet żupans lined with lynx and sable. Then the son of Zawadzki in a robe of gold cloth, a hat with crane feathers and a diamond clasp and the envoy himself in a czamara coat lined with sable fur, ruby clasp and a chain. He was followed by servants in red delias and with three crane feathers on their caps, red, white and blue, and wearing azure delias. Ambassador's retinue numbered about 66 people. Zawadzki was a son of Jan of Rogala coat of arms, judge of Ciechanów and Swedish Izabela Guldenstern (de Gyllenstierna). Through his mother he was related to the royal house of the Vasas. He was probably born in 1580 and at the age of 18 he entered the Jesuit college in Braniewo and after graduation he went to Louvain to continue his education. At that time, he entered the service of Count Christopher of East Frisia (1569-1636), son of Edzard II, Count of East Frisia, and the Swedish princess Catherine Vasa (1539-1610). King Sigismund III maintained close contacts with this part of the family, and a special intimacy with Count Christopher is evidenced by the correspondence they exchanged. The Count sent Zawadzki as his envoy to Sigismund III. Zawadzki's cheerful and friendly disposition guaranteed him the king's sympathy and he performed various diplomatic missions for him. Before October 1617 he was also appointed a royal secretary and between 1624 and 1625 he was a member of the retinue accompanying Prince Ladislaus Sigismund Vasa (future Ladislaus IV) on his journeys to Western Europe (after "Misja Jana Zawadzkiego na dwory Europy Północnej ..." by Marta Szymańska). Willing to regain the Swedish throne, Ladislaus IV sent eight legations to various European countries between 1633-1634. In addition to the embassy of 1633, Jan Zawadzki was sent on a mission to England, The Hague and to Paris in 1636. Among objectives of these missions was also the King's marriage and possibly other family matters, however, these negotiations were kept secret. "After the hearing with the King of England, our envoy will go to the Queen Her Majesty and will ask her for a secret audience", instructed Zawadzki Bishop Jan Gębicki in 1636. At the beginning of 1634, Zawadzki stayed briefly in Hamburg (8 days, during which he was plagued by fever) to discuss with Hugo Grotius (Hugo de Groot, 1583-1645), a Dutch humanist, diplomat and lawyer, his possible employment by the King of Poland. Aside from his memoirs, Zawadzki is credited with being the author of a memorandum dated 1634, dealing with the campaign in Prussia against the Swedes. An etching by Rembrandt from 1634 depicting a man with a wart under the eye (Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, inventory number RP-P-OB-42), despite bearing no resemblance whatsoever, is frequenly identified as his self-portrait. In the same year, the artist actually created his self-portrait in eastern costume holding an oriental sword. Both etchings are signed and dated: Rembrandt f. 1634. Rembrandt also created other version of the first mentioned etching in oval (Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, RP-P-1961-990A), also signed and dated: Rembrandt f. 1634. In the larger version of the print the man is holding a heavy ancient sword, similar to Bronze Age swords found in Nowy Żmigród, south-eastern Poland, identical to that visible in a portrait of Jerzy Sebastian Lubomirski (1616-1667) in the North Carolina Museum of Art, created by Rembrandt or a follower in 1633. Also his pose is identical, like if the man ordered similar portrait from Rembrandt in the pose of an ancient Sarmatian (legendary ancestors of Polish nobility), after which the artist created the etching. This pose is similar to that visible in a portrait of Zawadzki's friend Crown Prince Ladislaus Sigismund Vasa (future Ladislaus IV), created by workshop of Peter Paul Rubens, as one of the series, during his visit to Brussels and Antwerp in 1624 (Wawel Royal Castle). Pieter Claesz Soutman, court painter of the King of Poland, was also depicted in similar pose in his portrait by Anthony van Dyck (Louvre Museum), while Boaz in his painting in the National Gallery of Denmark (Ruth in Boaz's field, attributed), wears the outfit of a Polish magnate and also has a hand on his hip. Finally, this pose is also visible in the famous Polish rider by Rembrandt (The Frick Collection in New York). The man wears a fur beret with a hat decoration (egreta) with feathers, similar to that visible in a portrait of a man in a fur coat and a feathered hat by Isaac de Joudreville, who worked in Rembrandt's workshop from November 1629 (oil on panel, 62 x 50 cm, sold at Christie's London, auction 15497, December 7, 2018, lot 155), from private collection in Germany. Similar hat was also depicted in an effigy of bearded Polish nobleman created in Rembrandt's style in 1644 (Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, RP-P-1882-A-6250) and several paintings of Polish-Lithuanian soldiers and nobles from book of friendship (album amicorum/Stammbuch) of Michael Heidenreich, created in Gdańsk in the 1600s by Anton Möller or Isaak van den Blocke (Kórnik Castle). Similar headdress can be found in many other images of Polish-Lithuanian nobles, like in the Allegory of Gdańsk trade by Isaak van den Blocke in the Red Hall of the Main Town Hall in Gdańsk, created in 1608, View of Gdańsk from the northwest (The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus) by Hans Krieg, created in about 1620 (National Museum in Gdańsk), or in a painting entitled Head of Cyrus brought to Queen Tomyris by Peter Paul Rubens, created between 1622-1623 (Museum of Fine Arts in Boston). He also wears a jerkin similar to czamara, a coat lined with fur similar to delia and a gold chain. This proud Sarmatian must therefore be Jan Zawadzki, envoy of His Highness Ladislaus IV. In 2016 a painting attributed to follower of Rembrandt from a private collection in the USA and similar to the oval print was sold at auction (oil on canvas, 70 x 58 cm, Doyle New York, Jan 27, 2016, lot 59). Stilistically this painting is close to Peter Danckers de Rij, especially portrait of Court Chamberlain Adam Kazanowski in the Wawel Royal Castle and even more to the paintings by Adolf Boy. The painting was sold together with a portrait of a lady (oil on canvas, 81.3 x 68.5 cm, lot 60), painted in similar style, however, slightly larger and with not matching composition. It it possible that effigies of these important courtiers of Ladislaus IV were sent to their friends or relatives in England or Scotland. At the beginning of the 17th century Scottish Eva Forbes, was a wet nurse of Prince Ladislaus Sigismund. An old copy, perhaps made for Stanisław Koniecpolski (1591-1646), Grand Hetman of the Crown, is now in the Lviv National Art Gallery. It was previously in the hetman's palace at Pidhirtsi near Lviv in Ukraine, hanging above the portal of the Yellow Chamber, as shown in a photograph by Edward Trzemeski taken around 1880.
Portrait of Jan Zawadzki (d. 1645), Ambassador of the King of Poland with an ancient sword by Rembrandt, 1634, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam.
Portrait of Jan Zawadzki (d. 1645), Ambassador of the King of Poland in oval by Rembrandt, 1634, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam.
Portrait of Jan Zawadzki (d. 1645), Ambassador of the King of Poland by follower of Rembrandt, possibly Adolf Boy, 1634-1645, Private collection.
Portrait of a lady in a fur coat by follower of Rembrandt, possibly Adolf Boy, 1634-1645, Private collection.
Portrait of Polish-Lithuanian noble in a fur coat and a feathered hat by Isaac de Joudreville, 1630s, Private collection.
Portrait of Prince Alexander Charles Vasa by Rembrandt
"He is all according to your customs and the Polish spirit: he is bold, agile and quick-witted - why shouldn't you elect him", noted the words of king Sigismund III Vasa who was appealing to the nobility in 1626 in favor of his youngest son Alexander Charles Vasa (1614-1634), the French diplomat Charles Ogier, who visited Poland between 1635-1636. Unlike his brothers, Alexander was very sociable, because of this he resembled his half-brother Ladislaus. He was considered as a possible successor to Ladislaus and as the most gifted of the royal brothers. Alexander was also artistically talented: like his father, he could draw, he also learned to sing. His singing teacher was the musician and Jesuit Szymon Berent, who accompanied the prince on his trip to Italy (July 1633 - July 1634).
During the 1632 election, he supported his older brother Ladislaus, who was crowned king of Poland on 6 February 1633. Soon after Alexander set off on a trip to Spain. The prince was warmly welcomed in Rome, where Cardinal Antonio Barberini organized a major equestrian event in Piazza Navona in his name. While in Italy he resigned from visiting the royal court in Madrid. Probably one of the reasons was the rejection by king Philip IV of his endeavors to marry beautiful Anna Carafa della Stadera (1607-1644), Princess Stigliano, one of the richest heiresses of the entire Kingdom of Naples at that time. After a month and a half in Rome, the prince went to Florence, where he met his relatives from the house of Medici who had hosted Ladislaus nine years earlier. Lorenzo Medici, brother of Cosimo II, escorted him to Livorno, from where the prince was to sail to Genoa. In Milan, at the end of March 1634, he met his cousin Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand, brother of Philip IV, who was Governor of the Spanish Netherlands from November 1634. The prince also visited Vienna twice, where he spent over three months in total. In May 1634, just before leaving, he stayed with his uncle in Laxenburg for several days (after Ryszard Skowron's "Budowanie prestiżu królewskiego rodu", p. 72). Alexander returned to Poland in July 1634. He went to Lviv in today's Ukraine, where he was preparing for the Turkish expedition and in October 1634 he met with Prince John Casimir. There he probably contracted smallpox from his brother and died on November 19, 1634 on his way to Warsaw. From December 19, 1634 to January 2, 1635 king Ladislaus IV stayed in Gdańsk, where he commissioned a series of his portraits, created by Silesian painter Bartholomeus Strobel from Wrocław, who settled in Gdańsk in 1634. On this occasion the king also commssioned a series of maps commemorating the relief of Smolensk and surrender of Muscovite forces, who besieged the Polish garrison, in February 1634. One large map, created by Willem Hondius, a Dutch engraver from The Hague, who moved to Gdańsk in about 1636, is in the Skokloster Castle in Sweden (SKO 10693) and in the National Museum in Kraków (MNK III-ryc.-33883). Salomon Savery in Amsterdam created a print with king's effigy in Polish costume and Surrender of Mikhail Shein at Smolensk in the base after a painting by Pieter Claesz. Soutman (Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, inventory number RP-P-OB-5592) and a print with the Relief of Smolensk (National Museum in Kraków, MNK III-ryc.-150 and The Royal Collection Trust, RCIN 722074.a), after a painting or a drawing by Ladislaus' court painter Adolf Boy, published by Willem Blaeu in Amsterdam in 1635. Additionally around that time a view of Kraków from the northwest by Nicolaes Visscher I after a drawing by Pieter Hendricksz. Schut was published in Amsterdam (MNK III-ryc.-29449). It is very possible that paintings have also been commissioned in Amsterdam in 1634. Some portraits from this period depicting Ladislaus (in the National Museum in Warsaw, 186555 and in the National Museum in Poznań, MNP Mo 2184) are attributed to the court painter of Sigismund III Vasa, Pieter Claesz Soutman, who from 1628 was active in nearby Haarlem, and who created the mentioned painting of Surrender of Mikhail Shein at Smolensk, engraved by Savery. The so-called Self-portrait with shaded eyes by Rembrandt comes from the collection of Christian Gottlob Frege (1715-1781), his son or grandson who bear the same name (according to two wax seals on the reverse). Frege was a Leipzig banker and merchant, who learned the exchange business in 1728 from a grocer in Dresden (then the informal capital of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth as the main residence of the Saxon kings) and had trading partners in Warsaw, Wrocław and other cities. Saxon kings transferred from the royal collection in Warsaw some preserved paintings by Rembrandt or his circle, all in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, like Portrait of a man in the hat decorated with pearls (inventory number 1570), Portrait of a bearded man (1567) or Portrait of a man in a red kolpak (1568). In 1763 Dresden court appointed Frege electoral chamber councilor. In 2008 the work was acquired by the Leiden Collection in New York. The painting was signed and dated by the artist: Rembrandt. f. / 1634 and was overpainted relatively soon after its original execution. The man's oriental costume, removed from the 1950s to the 1980s, was similar to that visible in Rembrandt's Self-portrait with raised sabre dated '1634' (etching in the Print Room of the Warsaw University Library, inventory number Inw.zb.d. 2891) wearing a fur coat, similar to royal mantle and a tall Polish/Ruthenian-style hat, a so-called kolpak or kalpak, adorned with jewels, like in the portrait of unknown nobleman from the collection of Jan Popławski (1860-1935) in the National Museum in Warsaw (inventory number M.Ob.1639 MNW) or portrait of a bearded cleric by Helmich van Tweenhuysen (II) in the National Museum in Wrocław (inventory number VIII–489). The man however is much younger then in Rembrandt's Self-portrait with raised sabre. He has a slimmer nose and a bit protruding lower lip - the Habsburg (Masovian) jaw and resemble greatly Alexander Charles Vasa in his portrait in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich, possibly by Peter Danckers de Rij, or his effigy as a child from about 1619 (1885 copy in the National Museum in Warsaw, Rys Pol.3269) as well as effigies of his brothers John Casimir and Charles Ferdinand Vasa.
Portrait of Prince Alexander Charles Vasa (1614-1634) by Rembrandt, 1634, The Leiden Collection (version with additions in about 1935).
Portrait of Prince Alexander Charles Vasa (1614-1634) by Rembrandt, 1634, The Leiden Collection.
Portraits of Anna Catherine Constance Vasa by Rembrandt
At the beginning of September 1634, young Jerzy Sebastian Lubomirski (1616-1667), son of Stanisław, voivode of Ruthenia, who just finished his studies in Leiden, set off to Spain. The year 1634 was the time of intensification of contacts between Ladislaus IV and his cousin Philip IV of Spain. The king, using various methods, skillfully influenced the court in Madrid. In January, he defended the commercial interests of Jerzy Hewel (Höwel, Hövelius), a Gdańsk merchant and a Calvinist, who had his ship and goods seized in the Netherlands. Hewel was a relative of famous astronomer Johannes Hevelius, who in 1630 studied jurisprudence at Leiden. In 1634 on his ship "Fortuna" he delivered weapons to King Philip IV. At that time the king of Poland set up a naval commission and, with the help of Hewel, created a fleet (11 ships, including one galley) equipped with 200 guns and 600-700 crew.
Three months later Ladislaus asked the King of Spain: "We must wage war with the Swedes, enemies of Our Royal House after a six-year truce, we will need all sorts of talented and experienced people, such as can be found especially in the Belgian provinces of Your Ducal Highness. So for this purpose, we send someone there to first of all call the masters skilled in building trenches and bring them to us" (after Mirosław Nagielski's "Z dziejów stosunków Rzeczypospolitej Obojga Narodów ze Szwecją w XVII wieku", pp. 47-49). Apart from politics, Polish-Lithuanian envoys in Spain also talked about personal matters. In 1633 the Scottish Wilhelm (William) Forbes, son of Alexander Forbes of Drumallachie (Drumlasie), sought salaries for the brothers of the Polish king. After the death of both parents, Ladislaus' younger siblings were left at the mercy of their brother, as the elective system of the Commonwealth did not provide for any due income or public functions for them. In June Philip IV promised to grant John Albert and Charles Ferdinand (his cousins) a salary for a period of two years, in 1634 he considered awarding the Order of the Golden Fleece to Prince John Casimir and in April 1636 his envoy proposed to the emperor to marry his daughter Cecilia Renata with Ladislaus IV. The mission of Jerzy Sebastian Lubomirski to Madrid must have been successful as in October 1634 he was grated the wealthy Spiš County in today's Slovakia, obtaining the consent of the king to change the Spiš estates from royal to private and hereditary. On March 7, 1632, Balthasar Charles (1629-1646), the only son of King Philip IV and his first wife, Elisabeth of France, was sworn before the nobility and the Cortes of Castile as "His Majesty's Heir". His father soon began diplomatic efforts to seek a bride. Balthasar Charles' cousin Mary, Princess Royal (1631-1660), was proposed as a potential bride, but he was betrothed in 1646 to another cousin Mariana of Austria, daughter of Philip IV's sister Empress Maria Anna of Spain (1606-1646). Mariana of Austria was born on 24 December 1634 and after death of Balthasar Charles, the 14-year-old girl married her widowed 44-year-old uncle Philip IV in October 1649. The increased contacts of the Polish-Lithuanian diplomacy in 1634 left a significant mark in Spanish literature (compare "Clorilene, her son Segismundo and other Polish Princes and Princesses in the Spanish Golden Age Theater at 1634: Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Antonio Coello, Francisco de Rojas Zorrilla with Lope de Vega in the Background" by Beata Baczyńska). It is higly possible that in 1634 Ladislaus IV considered a marriage of his only sister Princess Anna Catherine Constance Vasa (1619-1651) with the heir to the Spanish throne. Later her marriage to 9 years younger Archduke Ferdinand Charles of Austria-Tyrol (1628-1662) was considered. Philip IV undoubtedly must have received a portrait of this important bride, his cousin, whose godmother was Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia (1566-1633), governor of the Spanish Netherlands, and the godfather Archduke Leopold V of Austria-Tyrol (1586-1632). Rembrandt was an eminent painter and his style infulenced generations of painters. Some 19th-century authors, when Poland did not exist on the maps of Europe, got us used to the idea that majority of the women he painted must be his wife Saskia van Uylenburgh: blonde, brown-haired, fat or slim, rich or poor. But was Saskia so exceptional that so many people were willing to pay for her effigy? On the other hand fabulously rich Princess Anna Catherina Constance Vasa, the only daughter of elected monarch of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and hereditary king of Sweden Sigismund III Vasa, sister of his sucessor Ladislaus IV, cousin of the ruler of half the known world, king Philip IV of Spain, niece of the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II and a cousin of his successor Ferdinand III, descendant of the kings of Poland and Sweden, dukes of Milan and kings of Naples, could be, before my discoveries, identified on a handful of effigies. Rembrandt, supposedly met Saskia at the home of her relative, Hendrick van Uylenburgh, a painter and art dealer of King of Poland. Until she married Rembrandt, she assisted her brother-in-law, the Polish theology professor Jan Makowski (Johannes Maccovius, 1588-1644). Rembrandt and Saskia were married on 2 July 1634. The painting of Judith at the banquet of Holofernes (also known as Artemisia receiving Mausolus' ashes and Sophonisba receiving the poisoned cup) by Rembrandt in the Prado Museum in Madrid (oil on canvas, 143 x 154.7 cm, P002132) was possibly in the collection of Don Jerónimo de la Torre, secretary of state of Philip IV. Jerónimo died in Madrid in 1658, leaving his son Don Diego de la Torre as universal heir, and the work is probably tantamount to description in the appraisal of paintings of Don Diego made on September 3, 1662 by the painter Francisco Pérez Sierra: "The beautiful Judit, valued under the name of a Venetian woman, original, at four thousand reais" (La bella Judit, tasada devajo del nombre de una mujer veneciana, original, en quatro mill rreales) (after "¿Judit o Ester? El Rembrandt del Museo del Prado" by Juan María Cruz Yábar). The title of Venetian woman is most probably a reference to the woman's bleached hair. Blonde hair was valued as an association with youth and divinity and Venetian women of the 16th century created the famous 'Venetian Blondes' by exposing their hair to sunlight and applying bleaching mixtures (after "Being Beautiful: An inspiring anthology of wit and wisdom on what it means to be beautiful" by Helen Gordon, p. 81). In the inventory of the collection of King Charles III from 1772 the subject is also identified as Judith: "A painting showing Judith to whom some maids serve a goblet and on a round table an open book, figures of more than half length, an original by Rembrandt, seven quarters long and one and a half varas high" (Un quadro que representa a Judic, a quien unas doncellas sirven una copa, y en una mesa redonda tiene un libro abierto, figuras de más de medio cuerpo, original de Rembrandt, de siete quartas de largo y vara y media de caída). Biblical heroine Judith, exemplary in virtue and in guarding her chastity, unlike in the paintings showing Anna Catherina Constance's great-grandmother Bona Sforza by Lucas Cranach, is depicted after arriving at Holofernes's camp and before killing him. The artist signed and dated the painting which is clearly visible on the chair below the Judith's hand: Rembrant. /f 1634. In about 1634 Pieter Claesz Soutman and his workshop in nearby Haarlem created two effigies of King Ladislaus IV Vasa. One, in Spanish costume, is in Wilanów Palace in Warsaw, the other was published by Claes Jansz. Visscher in Amsterdam (Österreichische Nationalbibliothek). The same woman was also depicted in other paintings by Rembrandt. The earlierst of them shows her as Bellona, ancient Roman goddess of war. The work is signed and dated: Rembrandt f:/ 1633 and there is also inscription on the shield: BELLOON[A]. The woman is slightly younger than the Madrid version and her hair is not bleached. By 1797 this painting was in the collection of George Nugent Temple Grenville, 1st Marquess of Buckingham in Stowe House, Buckinghamshire in England, today in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (oil on canvas, 127 x 97.5 cm, 32.100.23). In 1633 Jan Zawadzki (ca. 1580-1645), a courtier of king Ladislaus IV was send on a mission to the Netherlands and England to discuss the marriage of the king with Elisabeth of the Palatinate (1618-1680), the eldest daughter of Frederick V, Elector Palatine (who was briefly King of Bohemia), and Elizabeth Stuart. Chancellor Jakub Zadzik, in his letter from Warsaw, dated January 15, 1633, recommended Zawadzki to the care of a councilor from Amsterdam. That same year Zadzik commissioned in nearby Delft a series of heraldic portiere tapestries with his coat of arms in the workshop of Maximiliaan van der Gucht (created between 1633-1636, Cathedral Museum at Wawel Hill and Czartoryski Museum in Kraków). After his stay in The Hague in May 1633, Zawadzki went to Scotland and obtained an audience with Charles I of England on June 26 in Edinburgh. Then he traveled around Scotland and England, during which he met Thomas Roe (after "Misja Jana Zawadzkiego na dwory Europy Północnej w 1633 roku…" by Marta Szymańska, p. 93). Undeniably, he brought some diplomatic gifts with him and portraits of the members of the royal family. She was also depicted in a portrait wearing a pearl necklace, associated with purity, chastity and innocence. The painting, signed: Rembrandt f. 1634 and sold in Lucerne (Fischer, 5-9-1922), is today in the National Museum of Fine Arts in Buenos Aires (oil on canvas, 62.5 x 55.6 cm, 8622). Another painting by Rembrandt, in the National Gallery in London (oil on canvas, 123.5 x 97.5 cm, NG4930), shows her as Flora, the Roman goddess of fertility, flowers and vegetation. It was signed and dated by the artist Rem(b).a... / 1635 and before 1756 it was in the collection of Marie Joseph d'Hostun de La Baume-Tallard, duc d'Hostun, comte de Tallard in Paris. Its earlier history is unknown, therefore we cannot exclude the possibility that it was brought to Paris by John Casimir Vasa, Anna Catherina Constance's brother, after his abdication in 1668 or it was sent as a gift to Anna Catherina Constance's cousin Anne of Austria (1601-1666), Queen of France. A drawing in the British Museum (inventory number Oo,10.133), attributed to Ferdinand Bol, who worked as an apprentice in Rembrandt 's studio in Amsterdam, could be a preparatory drawing to the painting by Rembrandt. The same as in the painting representing the same woman as Minerva, Roman goddess of wisdom, justice and victory, in her study. A drawing signed by Ferdinand Bol (F:bol.ft.) is in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam (RP-T-1975-85), while the painting from the collection of James, 13th Lord Somerville in Drum House, Gilmerton, signed by Rembrandt (Rembrandt. f. / 1635), is today in The Leiden Collection in New York (oil on canvas, 138 x 116.5 cm, RR-107). Apparently in 1635 Rembrandt and his pupils worked on some large commission, maybe conneted with another diplomatic mission of Jan Zawadzki, who was sent again to England, The Hague and also to Paris in 1636. The same sitter, with protruding lip of the Habsburgs and Masovian dukes clearly visible and wearing a crown, was depicted in the painting by Rembrandt from 1638 (signed and dated: Rembrandt. f. 1638.) showing the Wedding feast of Samson, today in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden (oil on canvas, 125.6 x 174.7 cm, 1560). It was acquired by Augustus II, elected King of Poland and Elector of Saxony, before 1722. On October 18, 1641 the painter Philips Angel commented on the painting in his speech to the painters of Leiden on St. Luke's Day. In 1654, the work was probably in the estate of Cathalijntje Bastiaens (1607-1654), widow of Cornelis Cornelisz. Cras (d. 1652), mentioned as "a wedding by Rembrandt" (een bruyloft van Rembrandt). Most probably in 1777, when he was working for Izabela Czartoryska in Voŭčyn (Wołczyn, Wolssin en Lithuanie), Jean-Pierre Norblin de La Gourdaine created a drawing after this composition, today in the National Museum in Warsaw. It is possible that he saw it in Dresden, however since his drawing is not identical with the painting in Dresden, it is possible that another version was also in the Czartoryski collection. Norblin was a great admirer of Rembrandt's work and frequently created paintings, drawings and etchings in his style. It is also possible that he included in his portfolio a drawing by the master or his workshop. In this painting the biblical hero Samson poses a riddle to the guests at his wedding feast, dressed in oriental and Polish costumes. It is not Samson, however, who is in the center of the composition, but his Philistine bride, another biblical femme fatale who betrayed her husband. Therefore the painting could be a warning of what type of wife the woman should not be and it was most probably commissioned by the man in a turban, holding a flute and gazing at the viewer. It could be also a subtle allusion to politics, exaclty as Daniel and king Cyrus before Bel (Prophet Daniel exposing the fraud of the priests of Idol Baal) by Bartholomeus Strobel in the National Museum in Warsaw (M.Ob.1284), created between 1636 and 1637 and considered to be political allegory of the reign of Ladislaus IV Vasa. She was also represented in a small painting, wearing a large ruby pendant. This picture, painted on oak wood panel, comes most probably from the old collection of the Royal Palace on the Isle in Warsaw (oil on panel, 21.5 x 17 cm, M.Ob.2663 MNW, Dep 473). It is attributed to an 18th century imitator of Rembrandt and could a copy of a lost original from the 1630s. A very similar painting in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem (oil on panel, 11.5 x 9 cm, B86.0906), is attributed to follower of Rembrandt and dated to the first half of the 1630s (1630-1635). It comes from the collection of French banker and art collector Ernest May (1845-1925) in Strasbourg and Paris. 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 "The image of Pallas" (Obraz na ktorym Pallas, No. 243). The painting was brought to the Royal Marywil Palace in Warsaw from other royal residences after the king's death. This inventory included several paintings by Rembrandt (Rynbranta Malarza, No. 74, 75, 92, 93, 210) and other Dutch painters from the the king's collection. "A painting of Judith, in a carved and gilded frame" (Obraz Judyty, wramach rzniętych złocistych, No. 77), which is sometimes identified as a self-portrait of Lavinia Fontana disguised as Judith with the head of Holofernes (National Museum in Kraków, MNK XII-A-664), hung in the King's Bedroom among tronie-like portraits of artistic agent of the Polish-Lithuanian Vasas Hendrick van Uylenburgh (called the Portuguese rabbi) and his daughter Sara (the Jewish girl in a biret) by Rembrandt (No. 74, 75, now at the Royal Castle in Warsaw). The painting of Judith was valued at 200 thalers, while the mentioned paintings by Rembrandt at 150 and 190. The higher value indicates that this painting must have been comparable to the other two, or even better, and that it was perhaps also by Rembrandt or another Dutch painter. The descriptions contained in this register are generally quite detailed. For example regarding a painting of Herodias, worth 40 thalers, identified with the painting kept at the Wilanów Palace (Wil.1519), being a disguised portrait of Princess Elisabeth of Hesse (1502-1557), it is states "A painting of Herodias with the head of Saint John on a panel in a black frame" (Obraz Herodyady z głową Swiętego Iana na desce wramach czarnych, No. 217). "The head of Holofernes" is therefore missing in the description of Sobieski Judith, as in the Prado painting, was it therefore a copy of this work by Rembrandt or its reduced version? Maybe we'll never know. There is also a large image of Pallas (Athena/Minerva) in the Radziwill collection in the 17th century. The inventory of paintings from the collection of Princess Louise Charlotte Radziwill (1667-1695), drawn up in 1671, lists several portraits of Sigismund III and his successor Ladislaus IV, two portraits of Queen Cecilia Renata (61/1, 110/9), one of Prince Sigismund Casimir Vasa (52/2), one of Prince Alexander Charles Vasa (52/3), and one of Queen Marie Louise Gonzaga (307/16). Several effigies of other members of the Polish-Lithuanian royal family are missing. It is possible that their portraits were "disguised" and their true identity was lost after the Deluge. The inventory mentions "Two large similar paintings on tin plate in black frames, one of Pallas and the other of a battle" (Obrazów dwa wielkich jednakich na blasze w ramach czarnych, na jednym Pallas, a na drugim bitwa jakaś, 740-741) (compare "Inwentarz galerii obrazów Radziwiłłów z XVII w." by Teresa Sulerzyska). Although no paintings by Rembrandt or his school painted on tin are known, especially in large format, this cannot be ruled out. This painting was certainly destroyed to reuse the material, either by invaders or due to the impoverishment of the family and the country. Princess Anna Catherina Constance, who died childless on October 8, 1651, aged 32, was forgotten shortly after her death. Before her marriage in 1642 the workshop of Maximilian van der Gucht in Delft, not far from Amsterdam, created a tapestry with her coat of arms and monogram A.C.C.P.P.S. (Anna Catharina Constantia Principissa Poloniae Sueciae), most likely one of the series, that she brought to Neuburg an der Donau (today in the Munich Residence). Chancellor Zadzik commissioned his tapestries in van der Gucht worshop as well as Mikołaj Wojciech Gniewosz, Bishop of Włocławek, secretary of Kings Sigismund III and Ladislaus IV (today in the Skokloster Castle in Sweden). The princess brought with her to Neuburg the most exquisite works of art created not only in Europe, but also in Persia (Safavid kilims with coat of arms of her father are in the Munich Residence and Wittelsbacher Ausglechsfonds in Munich) while her portraits were created by Rembrandt.
Portrait of Crown Princess Anna Catherine Constance Vasa (1619-1651) as Bellona by Rembrandt, 1633, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Portrait of Crown Princess Anna Catherine Constance Vasa (1619-1651) as Judith at the banquet of Holofernes by Rembrandt, 1634, Prado Museum in Madrid.
Portrait of Crown Princess Anna Catherine Constance Vasa (1619-1651) wearing a pearl necklace by Rembrandt, 1634, National Museum of Fine Arts in Buenos Aires.
Modello or ricordo drawing for a portrait of Crown Princess Anna Catherine Constance Vasa (1619-1651) as Flora by Ferdinand Bol, ca. 1635, British Museum.
Portrait of Crown Princess Anna Catherine Constance Vasa (1619-1651) as Flora by Rembrandt, 1635, National Gallery in London.
Modello or ricordo drawing for a portrait of Crown Princess Anna Catherine Constance Vasa (1619-1651) as Minerva in her study by Ferdinand Bol, ca. 1635, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam.
Portrait of Crown Princess Anna Catherine Constance Vasa (1619-1651) as Minerva in her study by Rembrandt, 1635, The Leiden Collection.
The Wedding feast of Samson with portrait of Crown Princess Anna Catherine Constance Vasa (1619-1651) by Rembrandt, 1638, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden.
The Wedding feast of Samson by Jean-Pierre Norblin de La Gourdaine after Rembrandt or Rembrandt's pupil, 1777 (?), National Museum in Warsaw.
Portrait of Crown Princess Anna Catherine Constance Vasa (1619-1651) with a ruby pendant by follower of Rembrandt, possibly Maerten van Couwenburgh, 18th century (?) after original from the 1630s, Palace on the Isle in Warsaw.
Portrait of Crown Princess Anna Catherine Constance Vasa (1619-1651) by follower of Rembrandt, 1630s, Israel Museum in Jerusalem.
Portraits of Prince Christopher Radziwill wearing a feathered bonnet by Rembrandt and studio
The signed and dated portrait by Rembrandt kept at the Musée Jacquemart-André in Paris (RHL van Ryn 1632, inventory number 423) was long considered to be the effigy of his wife Saskia van Uylenburgh, relative of Hendrick van Uylenburgh, artistic agent of king Sigismund III Vasa. It was mentioned with this identification in numerous publications, such as "Treasures of Musee Jacquemart-Andre, Institute de France" (Issue 8, p. 2), published in 1956 or the postcards from the Museum by J.E. Bulloz, signed Portrait de Saskia. It was after restoration in 1965 that the painting was identified as being the pendant of the portrait of Frederick Henry (1584-1647), Prince of Orange, signed by Gerard van Honthorst (GHonthorst fe 1631), formerly at the Huis ten Bosch Palace in The Hague. The woman is now identified as Frederick Henry's wife, Amalia of Solms-Braunfels (1602-1675), Princess of Orange and this identification was confirmed in the inventory of the Stadtholders Quarters in The Hague drawn up in 1632, where "A likeness of Her Excellency in profile done by Rembrants" (Een contrefeytsel van Haere Excie in profijl bij Rembrants gedaen) is mentioned.
The woman in the painting resembles many women painted by Rembrandt and she looks more like a patrician lady than the wife of the stadtholder and his political advisor, so probably Rembrandt's portrait was replaced by the portrait painted by Gerard van Honthorst in which she was depicted in more aristocratic attire. She has lighter hair than in the other portraits and the resemblance is also very general. Nineteenth-century authors, when the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth disappeared from the maps of Europe after numerous invasions ultimately divided by insatiable imperialist neighbors, led us to believe that Rembrandt made a living from painting himself and his family, which is obviously absurd. Although many of his works are in fact true self-portraits, at a time when there were no public or other subsidies for artists, Rembrandt created an impressive collection of his own effigies. Some of them could be tronies, so popular in the 17th century in the Commonwealth according to preserved inventories, an advertisement of his talent, as in the case of the self-portraits of Sofonisba Anguissola, sent to different patrons in Europe, or simply created for practice, but who was this mysterious benefactor, thanks to whom he could paint himself so often? Among the artist's major works between 1628 and 1656 are approximately 27 of his self-portraits and over 40 in his lifetime, which is an impressive number for a 17th-century painter. According to known historiography, Rembrandt was not a court painter of an important person. He painted the ambassador of the King of Poland, but he is not considered a painter of European monarchs, like Rubens who worked for Sigismund III and his son Ladislaus IV, painted the monarchs of Spain, France, England, the rulers of Flanders, Lorraine, Mantua and Genoa or Diego Velázquez, court painter to the King of Spain, sovereign of an immense empire. While Rubens and Velázquez only produced a few of their self-portraits, when compared with Rembrandt's works found in many different collections (in Rome, Austria, France, Poland and Sweden), we will have the impression that this painter of the Dutch patricians was a true Prince or even the king of the Baroque portrait painters. In some of Rembrandt's "Self-portraits", as in the case of likeness of Amalia of Solms-Braunfels, the resemblance to the painter is quite general. This is the case of a series of effigies wearing a feathered bonnet, created by Rembrandt and his followers in 1635. The "Prince of painters" was depicted in a truly princely pose and outfit. It is strange that so many experts want to believe that in the highly hierarchical Western Europe of the 17th century, Rembrandt allowed himself to be portrayed in this way in a series that appears to be official portraits. The portrait, now kept at Buckland Abbey in Devon (oil on panel, 91.2 x 71.9 cm, NT 810136), was signed and dated by the painter (bottom right: Rembran(..) / f ... 1635) and comes from the collection of the princes of Liechtenstein, first mentioned in the catalog of the Liechtenstein collection in Vienna in 1767 (Descrizzione completa di tutto ciò che ritrovasi nella galleria di pittura e scultura di sua altezza Giuseppe Wenceslao ... by Vincenzo Fanti). The "Prince of painters" apparently sent his portrait to the princes of Liechtenstein or even to the emperor in Vienna. A good copy of the portrait, probably painted by Rembrandt's circle, is in the Palazzo Corsini in Rome (oil on panel, 82 x 71.5 cm, inventory number 887). This palace was built at the end of the 15th century by the Riario family, nephews of Pope Sixtus IV della Rovere and in the 17th century the palace was inhabited by Queen Christina of Sweden, so the portrait was probably offered to the Pope, the cardinals or the Queen of Sweden. In the same collection there is also the portrait of Prince John Casimir Vasa (1609-1672) in a fur hat by follower of Rembrandt (inventory number 305), identified by me. Another very good workshop copy, restored by Marina Aarts in Amsterdam in 2020, was sold in 2017 in Sweden (oil on panel, 77 x 63 cm, sold at Uppsala Auktions Kammare, June 7 - 10, 2017, lot 1105). The painting comes from Viderup Castle in Scania, which become the Swedish province in 1658. An old copy from the Wiesbaden Museum is mentioned in Iconographia Batavia by Ernst Wilhelm Moes, Volume 2 (item 34, p. 313) and another is in the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest. Interestingly, along with the Wiesbaden portrait, Moes mentions two portraits by Rembrandt wearing a Polish coat (op en Poolschen mantel aan, items 35 and 36) - self-portrait in the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena and portrait of a man from Me Lellan collection in Glasgow. In a series of portraits of a man in a fur hat, also identified as Rembrandt's self-portraits, his costume is also very eastern, not to say Polish-Lithuanian or Ruthenian (e.g. from the collection of Michiel Onnes van Nijenrode, Kasteel Nijenrode). In 1914, a copy of Rembrandt's portrait from the collection of the Prince of Liechtenstein in Vienna was in the Cook Collection, Doughty House, Richmond (oil on canvas, 87 x 66 cm). The same collection also included a portrait of Prince Ladislaus Sigismund Vasa, future Ladislaus IV, on horseback by the workshop of Peter Paul Rubens (after "A catalogue of the paintings at Doughty House ...", items 321 and 344, p. 79, 91), today at the Wawel Royal Castle (inventory number 6320). In 2017, a miniature attributed to the German miniaturist Joseph Kaltner (born ca. 1758 - died after 1824), probably based on a painting formerly in the Liechtenstein collection, was sold in Vienna (oil on paper, mounted on metal, 18.2 x 14.8 cm, sold at Dorotheum, September 13, 2017, lot 33). In the 17th century, as in previous era, many elements of portraits had important symbolic meaning. The man in the mentioned series by Rembrandt and his followers, created in 1635, wears a parade gorget and the decoration of his hat resembles the eastern szkofia or aigrette, popular in Poland-Lithuania and Hungary. A somewhat similar szkofia can be seen in a portrait of Prince Christopher II Radziwill (1585-1640), husband of Anna Kiszczanka (1593-1644), kept in the National Art Museum of Belarus in Minsk. The feathers on his hat also had a symbolic meaning: one is white and the other orange or brown. However, the Vanitas still life, attributed to Abraham Susenier, indicates that its true color should be red. This painting, now at Agnes Etherington Art Centre in Kingston (oil on canvas, 59.7 x 73.7 cm, 57-001.32), is variably dated between 1635-1668 or 1669/1672. In 1932 it was in the private collection of B. Zimmermann in Switzerland. If this collector was Bernard Zimmermann (1885-1931) - Polish architect of Jewish origin, active in Kraków, this painting could come from a Polish aristocratic collection. In this still life with a statuette, a skull, an overturned roemer and a portfolio of drawings, the two feathers, white and red placed on the skull, most likely symbolize the death of an important person. This man must be identified as the man from paintings created in 1635 by Rembrandt and studio, because a study drawing with the same image lies on the table. The gorget in the portraits indicates that the man is a soldier, his rich outfit and pose that he is a prince, szkofia-like hat decoration that he comes from Eastern Europe and the colors of feathers that he is an important official of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Although today these colors are mainly associated with Poland and not Lithuania, in the 17th century they were the colors of Sarmatia, that is, the Commonwealth of Poland, Lithuania, Ruthenia, Prussia, etc., as evidenced by the so-called Stockholm Roll at the Royal Castle in Warsaw (ZKW/1528/1-39), showing the entry of the wedding procession of Sigismund III Vasa into Kraków in 1605. Many dignitaries, as well as guards, wear white and red (crimson) clothing. The horses are also painted white and red. The man is therefore Prince Christopher II Radziwill (1585-1640), whose wife's portrait by Rembrandt or studio is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (14.40.625) and he commissioned this series of his splendid effigies on the occasion of receiving the important and long-awaited position of Grand Hetman of Lithuania, the highest-ranking military officer of the Grand Duchy, in early 1635. King Ladislaus IV Vasa, in the Grand Hetman's Privilege issued on January 1, 1635 in Gdańsk, stated that the Grand Hetman is the commander of the entire army of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In the later privilege issued in Toruń, he named Christopher's brother-in-law Janusz Kiszka (1586-1654), Field Hetman of Lithuania (after "Rzeczpospolita Wazów II ... " by Henryk Wisner, p. 28). The studies for the portraits were therefore most likely made in Gdańsk. As mentioned above, the resemblance to Rembrandt's features is very general, the man has a smaller nose and flatter cheeks than the artist in his self-portrait in a gorget from around 1629 (Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg), mentioned effigy in a Polish coat in Pasadena and self-portrait at the age of 34, painted in 1640 (National Gallery, London). His facial features resemble those in the portrait of the Grand Hetman of Lithuania, such as the portrait in Minsk at the age of 51, painted in 1635 (CHRISTOPHORVS RADZI/WIL DVX [...] ANNO. 1635. / ÆTATIS 51.), engraving by Willem Jacobsz Delff after a painting by Michiel Jansz. van Mierevelt, "Which portrait was painted and modified by Michaele Johan Miereveldio based on the model sent from Poland" (Quam effigiem a Michaele Johan Miereveldio iusta exemplar e Polonia transmissum depictam et reformatam ...), created in 1639 and a drawing preserved in the State Hermitage Museum (ОР-45862), made between 1646 and 1653. The prince, who in Mierevelt's portrait is bald, probably like King Ladislaus IV wore wigs with more courtly attire (Ladislaus in his portrait at Kórnik Castle from around 1625 is almost bald, while in his coronation portrait at the National Museum in Warsaw from around 1633 he has lush hair). After Sigismund III Vasa's second marriage in 1605 to Constance of Austria (1588-1631), the influence of sometimes fanatical Catholics increased significantly at the royal court and difficult times began for people of other religions. Christopher's commitment to Calvinism was the reason Sigismund III blocked his nomination to the Senate for years. He took several thousand armed soldiers with him to the election after his death (1632) and appealed for help from the Elector of Brandenburg to ensure the protection of his co-religionists. He studied at the universities of Leipzig and Heidelberg. On December 20, 1602 in Heidelberg, it was proposed to elect him rector, but this idea was rejected (after "Studia z dziejów epoki Renesansu" by Henryk Zins, p. 44). He traveled to Switzerland, France, England and the Netherlands. In 1603, he stayed at the camp of Maurice of Orange (1567-1625) at 's-Hertogenbosch, learning the art of war and fortification. To increase the profitability of his estates, he brought settlers from the Netherlands and England, imported cattle from the Netherlands, established fish ponds and horse farms. He inherited the leadership of the Lithuanian Calvinists from his father Christopher Nicolaus Radziwill (1547-1603). As a tolerant person, he counted among his friends Eustachy Wollowicz (Eustachijus Valavičius; 1572-1630), Catholic bishop of Vilnius. Christopher had his portraits, mentioned in certain preserved inventories. Wollowicz was a great patron of the arts and had several of his effigies made by Lucas Kilian, a German engraver active in Augsburg, in 1604, 1618, 1621. Kilian also made an engraving (in 1604), perhaps based on a painting by Michelangelo, and representing Pietà with the Wollowicz coat of arms (British Museum, V,2.41). Henryk Wisner, in his monographic work, writes that "the prince was a connoisseur of painting, his assessments being much ahead of his time" (after "Książka i literatura w kręgu Radziwiłłów birżańskich ..." by Mariola Jarczykowa, p. 23). Before 1629, the Hetman purchased paintings in Utrecht from Hendrick ter Brugghen, one of the most prominent representatives of Caravaggionism in the Netherlands. Perhaps the large painting of the Battle of Nieuwpoort painted by Adriaen van de Venne, active in The Hague, for a Polish prince was associated with the hetman (after "Galerie obrazów i "Gabinety Sztuki" Radziwiłłów w XVII w." by Teresa Sulerzyska, p. 88). The inventory of Radziwill Castle in Lubcha in Belarus (Central Archive of Historical Archives in Warsaw, 1/354/0/26/45) lists many valuable items from the prince's collection. It also mentions several of his garments which could be depicted in the paintings, like hat decorations and feathers (Kity y Piora), including: "Indian broad spotted feather", "Four red parrot feathers, Eight better white crane feathers", "Three wonderful black crane feathers" (Pioro Indyiskie szerokie Pstre, [...] Pior Papuzych Czerwonych Cztery, Pior żorawich Białych Przednieyszych osm [...], Pior Czarnych żorawich Cudnych trzy), 10 magierka caps, incluing 3 black "hairy" (kosmate - velvet?) and 4 "smooth" (gładkie - silk?) or 19 different kurta (a jacket or a short kaftan), like "yellow satin kurta with stitching" or "perfumed leather kurta" (Kurta Atłasowa żótła Przeszywana [...] Kurta skurzana Perfomowana). Christopher strongly supported Ladislaus IV's plans for a Protestant marriage to Princess Elizabeth of Bohemia (1618-1680), the eldest daughter of Frederick V, Elector Palatine (who was briefly King of Bohemia) and Elizabeth Stuart. Effigies of the princess are mentioned in several inventories of the Radziwill collections. However, the king, feeling deceived during the peace negotiations with the Swedes in 1635 by the Protestant magnates, changed his mind and decided to seek the support of the Catholic camp, notably the Habsburgs, to regain the Swedish crown. In the spring of 1636, Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II proposed a marriage between Ladislaus and Archduchess Cecilia Renata of Austria. The emperor offered a substantial dowry, financial support to regain the Swedish throne, as well as salaries and titles for the royal brothers (after "Projekt kalwińskiego małżeństwa ..." by Zofia Trawicka, p. 98-99). In 1636, Rembrandt placed the man with two feathers in his famous print Ecce Homo (British Museum, F,4.182). The etching bears the signature: Rembrandt f. 1636 cum privile and it is considered a joint work with a Leiden engraver, Jan Gillisz. van Vliet (died 1668). The painting Ecce Homo in grisaille kept at the National Gallery in London (NG1400), signed and dated: Rembrandt.f./1634, is often considered to be the original composition. The artist modified and added several elements, including the man. "According to the Gospel of John (19:5), Pontius Pilate showed Jesus to the crowds during the trial with the words "Ecce homo" (Behold the man). However, the picture of Rembrandt seems to be dominated by the diagonally displayed knobbly staff. One could obviously think of a judge's staff" (after "The Road to Justice: The Bible and the law ...", p. 109). The notion of divine justice seems to be the most important message of this work of art. The bust on a high pedestal on the left is considered to be the effigy of the Roman emperor Tiberius Caesar. Rembrandt's drawing depicting the bust of Emperor Galba (Berlin Museum of Prints and Drawings) and other similar studies (Albertina in Vienna and Royal Library of Turin) prove that he knew what a Roman emperor should look like. However, his Tiberius Caesar with the bushy mustache looks more like a Polish-Lithuanian nobleman than a Roman emperor and resembles several effigies of King Ladislaus IV - in Roman costume on horseback in Friedrich Getkant's Topografia practica (1638), as a sculpted bust in Paweł Szczerbicz's Speculum Saxonum (1646), with laurel wreath in Triumphal arch by Jeremias Falck Polonus (1646) or, also in the form of a sculpted bust, in Apotheosis of John II Casimir Vasa by Cornelis Bloemaert after Lazzaro Baldi (ca. 1648). A good painting dated 1647 kept in the National Museum in Gdańsk, attributed to the Dutch painter active in Gdańsk Helmich van Tweenhuysen (II) or Johann Aken, is one of the oldest inspirations by Rembrandt's print and proves its popularity in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The painting was founded by Adrian von der Linde (1610-1682), mayor of Gdańsk and a zealous Lutheran, who, nota bene, opposed the growing Calvinist influence in the city. The German inscription on the panel also refers to the concept of justice – the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). An old painted transposition of the print, created between 1640 and 1715, can be found in Kołobrzeg Cathedral. According to inscription in Latin it was painted on April 3, 1640 (IOACHIMUS. KNOCHENHOWERUS. pinxit. ANNO. 1640. / D: 3. APRIL.) and renovated in 1715 by the grandson Aegidius Knochenhauer. The man in the print ostentatiously hold a large mace known as morning star (Morgenstern in German), which was in common use from the 14th to the 17th century, mainly in plebeian and peasant units (especially popular among the Hussites and German peasant insurgents of the 16th century). They were also popular in Poland-Lithuania in the 17th century (called nasiek, nasieka, nasiekaniec, siekaniec, siekanka, kropacz, palica, wekiera or morgensztern), so that "peasants were forbidden to go to the market with nasiek, sticks or clubs" (after "Encyklopedja staropolska ..." by Zygmunt Gloger, Volume 3, p. 255). The morning star is most often used as the name for the planet Venus when it appears in the east before sunrise, while in classical mythology the name of the planet Venus as the morning star is Lucifer ("light-bringer" in Latin). Interpretations could vary, however, the composition can be compared to the masterfully painted Daniel and King Cyrus before the Idol Bel by Bartholomeus Strobel in the National Museum in Warsaw (M.Ob.1284 MNW), painted around the same time (1636 and 1637). The painting by Strobel is frequently interpreted as a political allegory for the reign of Ladislaus IV, when the Protestant party was deeply disappointed by the king's failure to seek the hand of Princess Elizabeth of Bohemia. The direct and explicit link between the paintings and prints and the Radziwills may never be established, but given all the information presented as well as the amount of work by Rembrandt and his students which, despite enormous destruction, looting, confiscations and evacuations, can be linked to Poland-Lithuania, the man can inevitably be identified as a splendid patron Christopher Radziwill.
Portrait of Prince Christopher Radziwill (1585-1640), Grand Hetman of Lithuania, wearing a feathered bonnet by Rembrandt and studio, 1635, Buckland Abbey.
Portrait of Prince Christopher Radziwill (1585-1640), Grand Hetman of Lithuania, wearing a feathered bonnet by follower of Rembrandt, ca. 1635, Palazzo Corsini in Rome.
Portrait of Prince Christopher Radziwill (1585-1640), Grand Hetman of Lithuania, wearing a feathered bonnet by follower of Rembrandt, ca. 1635, Private collection.
Portrait of Prince Christopher Radziwill (1585-1640), Grand Hetman of Lithuania, wearing a feathered bonnet by follower of Rembrandt, ca. 1635, Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest.
Portrait of Prince Christopher Radziwill (1585-1640), Grand Hetman of Lithuania, wearing a feathered bonnet by Joseph Kaltner after Rembrandt, ca. 1806, Private collection.
Ecce Homo with portrait of Prince Christopher Radziwill (1585-1640), Grand Hetman of Lithuania by Rembrandt and Jan Gillisz. van Vliet, 1636, British Museum.
Vanitas still life with art collection of Prince Christopher Radziwill (1585-1640), Grand Hetman of Lithuania by Abraham Susenier, ca. 1640, Agnes Etherington Art Centre in Kingston.
Portraits of Elżbieta Kazanowska by circle of Rembrandt and Adolf Boy
In spring of 1633, Adam Kazanowski, thanks to the support of King Ladislaus IV, married the then 14-year-old Elżbieta (Halszka) Słuszczanka (1619-1671). For Kazanowski, the marriage meant not only a substantial dowry (50,000 zlotys), numerous movable and immovable property, but also valuable connections. On the occasion of the wedding, Halszka received a pure gold mug and 20,000 zlotys from the king, the value of other gifts amounted to 40,000 zlotys.
Earlier that year, on March 2, 1633 Elżbieta's father Aleksander Słuszka or Słuszko (1580-1647) become the voivode of Minsk. He was brought up as a Calvinist, but later, in about 1621, he converted to Catholicism together with his wife Zofia Konstancja Zenowicz. For his favourite, Adam Kazanowski, who already recived a magificent palace in Warsaw, later known as Kazanowski (or Radziejowski) Palace, the king restored the office of the Crown Steward in 1633, and soon after that, he become the Pantler of the Crown and recieved other offices. In 1634 he most probably accompanied the king to Gdańsk and on June 1635, he came with him to Toruń. In 1635, he conducted a successful purchase of a fleet of ships for Ladislaus IV in Gdańsk (12 ships for 379,500 zlotys). Kazanowski also participated in the Vistula grain trade and one of the largest granaries in Warsaw's Skaryszew belonged to him. Słuszczanka and her husband accompanied the king in 1638 on a trip to Baden near Vienna, and in the Imperial capital she won in women's rifle shooting competition, for which she received "a nice jewel". The Lithuanian (Litewka), as Łukasz Opaliński called her, was famous for her frivolous sexual conduct, just like her husband. Years passed and she did not get pregnant. Perhaps she contracted syphilis from Kazanowski, who according to rumors, gained property and offices because he kept a harem of lovers for the ruler (after "Jak romans doprowadził do jednej z największych tragedii w dziejach Polski" by Jerzy Besala). Educated in Braniewo, Würzburg, Leiden and Padua (after Marcin Broniarczyk "Wykształcenie świeckich senatorów w Koronie za Władysława IV", p. 280), Kazanowski was a patron of arts. According to Adam Jarzębski's "Short Description of Warsaw" in his palace there was a workshop of Dutch painters (lines 1605-1608, Olandrowie, Nie Polacy). His portrait at the age of 44 as a Court Chamberlain (Wawel Royal Castle), was created by Dutch painter Peter Danckers de Rij, born in Amsterdam (signed: P Donckers fecit / AETATI[S) SVAE 44). Other preserved effigies of Kazanowski were created by another Dutchman Willem Hondius: engraving with a portrait against the Vistula River and his estates in Praga and Skaryszew, created in 1646, and two other created in 1648 after paintings by Maerten van Couwenburgh, most probably a relative of Christiaen van Couwenbergh from Delft. Other effigy from the 1640s (Royal Castle in Warsaw) is attributed to engraver Jeremias Falck Polonus from Gdańsk. In 1645 Hondius also created a series of views of the Wieliczka salt mine, sponsored by Kazanowski, who was a żupnik (manager of a mining district) from 1642. "Never has Poland seen and will never see so much wealth in the hands of a single man", wrote about the Court Chamberlain Wawrzyniec Jan Rudawski (1617-1674). Kazanowski died childless on December 25, 1649 and his beautiful wife Halszka become heiress to a large fortune. Just few monts later, in May 1650, she married another royal courtier Hieronim Radziejowski (1612-1667). This marriage was reportedly arranged by her lover, the new king John II Casimir Vasa (half brother of Ladislaus IV). Soon, however, disagreements began. The reason was supposed to be the portrait of the deceased Kazanowski, which the lady did not want to remove from her room, others said that it was not the portrait, but the young Jan Tyzenhaus, a handsome royal valet, who had quarreled the couple. Violent Radziejowski became very angry when his wife's affair with the king was revealed in the late spring of 1651. Elżbieta left the military camp near Sokal and took refuge in the convent. She also filed a lawsuit for annulment of the marriage. Despite repeated attempts, Radziejowski did not manage to break into the Kazanowski Palace, defended by Elżbieta's brother Bogusław Słuszka. At the time, John Casimir and pregnant Queen Marie Louise Gonzaga were staying in the nearby Royal Castle. At the Sejm session Radziejowski was accused of offending the majesty and violating the security of the royal residence and sentenced to banishment and infamy. Słuszczanka and her brother Bogusław received much lighter sentences - a fine of 4,000 zlotys and a year and six weeks of hard imprisonment in the tower. Halszka drove to the prison at the Castle in the carriage drawn by six horses. After twelve weeks, she was forgiven and her brother left the prison earlier (after "Życie codzienne w Warszawie za Wazów" by Jerzy Lileyko, p. 270). Portrait of a lady holding a fan from the Jan Popławski collection was offered to the National Museum in Warsaw in 1935 (inventory number 34661), most probably lost during World War II. This small painting (28 x 22 cm) was painted on a wood panel and attributed to a imitator of Dutch painting from the 18th century (after "Katalog wystawy obrazów ze zbiorów dr. Jana Popławskiego" by Jan Żarnowski, number 97, p. 53). The pose of a woman with her right hand on a table and holding a fan in her left hand is very similar to portraits representing the king's sister Crown Princess Anna Catherine Constance Vasa (Ambras Castle, GG 5611) and Queen Cecilia Renata of Austria (Nationalmuseum in Stockholm/Gripsholm Castle, NMGrh 1417), both holding fans and painted by Adolf Boy, court painter of Ladislaus IV, in the late 1630s or early 1640s, as the style indicate. Also the woman's hand is very similar to the hand of Anna Catherine Constance in Ambras painting. If not the material and dimensions, this portrait could be considered as a pendant to mentioned portrait of Kazanowski by Danckers de Rij (oil on canvas, 119.5 x 94.5 cm), as the composition match perfectly. Since the portraits of such notables were created in series, in different dimensions and by different court painters (such as other versions of portrait of Ladislaus IV by Boy from the Royal Castle in Warsaw, ZKW 559 dep.), this cannot be excluded. Maybe a reduced portrait of Kazanowski painted on panel by Boy was also created at that time. The Wawel painting was acquired the as a gift from Julian Godlewski from Switzerland in 1970. Consequently the portrait of a woman from Popławski collection can be dated to about 1643, like the Kazanowski portrait. She wears a strange wide-brimmed hat with a hole cut through the crown with her blonde hair spread over the broad brim. The woman is bleaching her hair like Venetian women in engravings by Cesare Vecellio or Pietro Bertelli from the late 16th century or in the Album Amicorum of Burchard Grossmann, created between 1624-1645, and other albums of foreign travellers in Venice. Venetian women bleached their hair using a solana (a wide brim hat with a hole in the centre) and sitting in the sun. The hair, soaked in a concoction of lemon juice and urine, was thrown out of the crown space and spread over the brim, which shaded the person from the sun (after "Venice: the Queen of the Adriatic" by Clara Erskine Clement Waters, p. 224). Venetians, who settled in great number in Poland-Lithuania from the beginning of the 16th century, undoubtedly introduced this technique there. Her coat, lined with fur, is very similar to the coat visible in an engraving showing a Polish noblewoman (FOEMINA NOBILIS POLONICA), illustration to Hans Weigel's "Habitus Praecipuorum Populorum", published in 1577. The same woman, with identical earring in her left ear, was depicted in a series of paintings by circle of Rembrandt. One signed and dated (upper right: Rembrandt f. 1635 or 1638, oil on canvas, 99.5 x 71 cm) was before 1794 in the collection of Louis-Marie Lebas de Courmont, Marquis de Pomponne in Paris. In 1669 king John II Casimir Vasa brought many paintings from Polish royal collection to Paris after his abdication. A pastel after this version, or other not preserved painting, most probably by an 18th century French pastelist, was sold on 11 June 2020 in Amsterdam. Other version (oil on canvas, 100.5 × 81 cm) was first mentioned in 1854, when hung in the collection of the Earl of Listowel, lost. Another, smaller picture (oil on canvas, 77 x 63 cm) was sold in New York (Doyle, 2016-01-27, lot 56). The style of this painting can be compared with the Lovers by Christiaen van Couwenbergh in the Kunsthalle Bremen, painted in 1632. It is possible that this copy after original by Rembrandt was made by Maerten van Couwenburgh. Other, more simplified versions are in Kunstmuseum Basel (oil on canvas, 33 x 29.5 cm, inventory number 501), acquired in 1859 from the Birmann collection and in private collection (oil on canvas, 56 x 46 cm), sold on November 18, 2020. The "fanciful custume" of a woman is similar to those visible in the Feast of Herod by Bartholomeus Strobel, court painter of Ladislaus IV, created in the 1630s (Prado Museum in Madrid) and to the costume of Queen of Sheba from the copper-silver sarcophagus of Queen Cecilia Renata of Austria (scene of Queen of Sheba before Solomon), created by Johann Christian Bierpfaff before 1648 (Wawel Cathedral). In the portrait of a lady with forget-me-nots in the National Museum in Warsaw (oil on canvas, 69 x 61 cm, M.Ob.2510), painted in the style of Adolf Boy, the woman resemble closely the woman wearing a solana hat from the Popławski collection. Her black dress, most likely a mourning dress, is evidently Central European of the epoch and similar to that visible in a portrait of a lady aged 26, created in 1645 (National Museum in Kraków, inventory number MNK I-689), in epitaph portrait of Zofia Kochańska née Świerczewska, created in mid-17th century (Saint James church in Sanka), or in a portrait of a lady, said to be a member of the Węsierski family, painted by Danckers de Rij in about 1640 (National Museum in Gdańsk). As a consequence, the portrait depict Kazanowska in mourning after death of her first husband (1649) or imprisonment in the tower (1652) and was most probably adressed to her former lover, king John Casimir Vasa. This painting comes from the collection of the Krosnowski family in Saint Petersburg (formed in the years 1888-1917), donated to the Polish state and transported to Poland under the regulations of the Treaty of Riga (1921). The woman from all mentioned portraits bear a resemblance to a man depicted in a portrait, today in the Lithuanian National Museum of Art in Vilnius, which according to inscription depict Aleksander Słuszka, voivode of Minsk and father of Elżbieta. The portrait of Słuszka in Vilnius is similar to full-length portrait of Józef Bogusław Słuszka (1652-1701), Lithuanian Field Hetman, which was in the collection of the Radziwill family in Niasvizh, lost. The costume is almost identical and more typical of the end of the 17th century, the man is holding a bulava mace (a sort of military baton), typical for Field Hetmans and other effigies of Józef Bogusław, therefore both depict Aleksander Słuszka's descendant (a grandson), however, some family resemblance to described female portraits is still visible. A man with a mustache in an oriental costume, very similar to the woman in the mentioned portraits, was depicted in another painting in the collection of the National Museum in Warsaw (oil on panel, 23.5 x 18.5 cm, inventory number 131229 MNW). It was transferred by the Central Board of Museums and Monuments Preservation in 1949 (after "Early Netherlandish, Dutch, Flemish and Belgian Paintings 1494–1983" by Hanna Benesz and Maria Kluk, Vol. 2, item 923). The style of this small effigy is similar to that of the portraits which could be attributed to Maerten van Couwenburgh. Consequently the man should be identified as Elżbieta's brother Bogusław Jerzy Słuszka, who died after January 9, 1658. Together with his brother Eustachy Adam, who at a very young age became a courtier of Ladislaus IV, he went to study abroad. In 1637 he was matriculated at the University of Ingolstadt, and after return he become the starost of Rechytsa (1639), Lithuanian Pantler (1643) and Lithuanian Court Treasurer (1645). Beautiful marble epithaph of Eustachy Adam Słuszka (1615-1639), the brother of Elżbieta and Bogusław Jerzy, in the Church of Saint Stanislaus of the Poles (Santo Stanislao dei Polacchi) in Rome, is the only preserved and hitherto known example of splendid patronage of the family in the late 1630s and early 1640s. Eustachy Adam was a courtier of King Ladislaus IV and he died in Rome on August 27, 1639 at the age of 24. The monument was founded by Bogusław Jerzy and created after 1639 by Giovanni Francesco de Rossi or workshop of Giuliano Finelli.
Portrait of Elżbieta (Halszka) Kazanowska née Słuszczanka (1619-1671) from the Marquis de Pomponne collection in Paris by circle of Rembrandt, 1635-1638, Private collection.
Pastel portrait of Elżbieta (Halszka) Kazanowska née Słuszczanka (1619-1671) by French pastelist after original by circle of Rembrandt, 18th century, Private collection.
Portrait of Elżbieta (Halszka) Kazanowska née Słuszczanka (1619-1671) from the Earl of Listowel collection by circle of Rembrandt, 1635-1638, Private collection.
Portrait of Elżbieta (Halszka) Kazanowska née Słuszczanka (1619-1671) by Dutch painter, possibly Maerten van Couwenburgh, 1635-1638, Private collection.
Portrait of Elżbieta (Halszka) Kazanowska née Słuszczanka (1619-1671) by Dutch painter, possibly Maerten van Couwenburgh, 1635-1638, Kunstmuseum Basel.
Portrait of Elżbieta (Halszka) Kazanowska née Słuszczanka (1619-1671) by Dutch painter, possibly Maerten van Couwenburgh, 1635-1638, Private collection.
Portrait of Elżbieta (Halszka) Kazanowska née Słuszczanka (1619-1671) in solana hat by Adolf Boy, ca. 1643, National Museum in Warsaw, lost.
Portrait of Elżbieta (Halszka) Kazanowska née Słuszczanka (1619-1671) with forget-me-nots by Adolf Boy, 1649-1652, National Museum in Warsaw.
Portrait of Bogusław Jerzy Słuszka by Dutch painter, possibly Maerten van Couwenburgh, 1640s, National Museum in Warsaw.
Portrait of the "Last Jagiellon" bearing the features of Ladislaus IV Vasa by Bartholomeus Strobel or workshop
"Sigismund Augustus, last king of Poland of the Jagiellonian dynasty" (SIGISM. AUGUSTUS REX / POLONIÆ IAGELLONIDARUM / ULTIMUS) is the Latin inscription on a painting now kept in the National Museum in Kraków (oil on copper, 62, 5 x 52.5 cm, inventory number MNK I-21). It is very meaningful that this effigy of the last male Jagiellon was acquired in Sweden. The history of the painting, perhaps looted during the Deluge and purchased by Henryk Bukowski (1839-1900), most probably in Stockholm, perfectly illustrates the fate of the portrait collections of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Bukowski, who emigrated to Sweden in 1864 after the collapse of the January Uprising (1863-1864), which aimed to end Russian occupation of part of the former Commonwealth, donated the painting to the Kraków Museum in 1885.
During the reign of Sigismund Augustus, the Union of Lublin was signed on July 1, 1569, creating a single state, the Commonwealth, as a merger of the two states, headed by a single elected monarch and governed by a common parliament, although each retained substantial autonomy, with their own army, treasury, laws and administration. The legacy of the Jagiellonian state was also the Warsaw Confederation of 1573, which officially recognized complete freedom of religion in the Commonwealth, granted dissidents state protection and equal rights with Catholics, and prohibited secular authorities from supporting clergy in religious persecution. Although the patronage of the last male Jagiellon was comparable to that of Italian and German princes, kings of France, Spain, England, emperors and popes, due to wars and destruction until the end of the 18th century, very few of his effigies have been preserved. Moreover, some of them were considered to be the effigy of his ancestor Jogaila of Lithuania, such as the painting by Marcello Bacciarelli in the Royal Castle in Warsaw (ZKW/2713/ab), while the portrait of the maternal grandfather of Ladislaus IV Vasa - Archduke Charles II of Austria, from the same series of Polish monarchs painted between 1768 and 1771, was considered the effigy of Sigismund Augustus (ZKW/2719/ab). The most popular effigy of the monarch, the miniature portrait by workshop of Lucas Cranach the Younger in the Czartoryski Museum (MNK XII-538), was purchased in the mid-19th century in London by Adolf Cichowski. The style of the portrait of the "Last Jagiellon" as well as the material on which it was painted (copper) indicate that the painting was created in the first half of the 17th century. Although it is obviously based on the same effigy of the king as the mentioned miniature by Cranach, the facial features are slightly different, the painter has rounded the nose and made the lower lip protrude. This is also better visible in comparison with other inscribed effigies of the king, such as the miniature from the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (GG 4697) or the miniature by workshop of Dirck de Quade van Ravesteyn in Kraków (MNK XII-146). In this way, the "Last Jagiellon" more closely resembles the descendant of the Jagiellons - Ladislaus IV Vasa, especially his portrait by Pieter Claesz. Soutman at Wilanów Palace (Wil.1134) as well as an engraving by Jonas Suyderhoef after a drawing by Claesz. Soutman at the National Museum in Warsaw (79212 MNW). Ladislaus, the new Augustus, the monarch who will revive the spirit of tolerance of the last male Jagiellon, is what many people, especially Protestants, expected from the newly elected king (November 1632), after many years of reign of his father Sigismund III, who leaned towards Spanish-style Catholicism. However, when Ladislaus abandoned his plans to marry a Protestant princess and allied with his Habsburg relatives, many of them felt deceived. Beautifully painted Daniel and Cyrus before the Idol Bel, attributed to the court painter of Ladislaus - Bartholomeus Strobel, in the National Museum in Warsaw (oil on copper, 39.5 × 30 cm, M.Ob.1284), is considered a political allegory of the reign of Ladislaus under a "biblical disguise". This story derives from the apocryphal portion of the Book of Daniel and the painting represents the Prophet exposing the fraud of the Babylonian priests of Idol Bel (Baal) to King Cyrus of Persia. It was most likely commissioned by the country's Protestant elites, perhaps Gerard Denhoff (1589/90-1648), voivode of Pomerania or his wife Sibylla Margaret of Legnica-Brzeg (1620-1657), a native of Silesia like Strobel. If the portrait of the "Last Jagiellon" was commissioned by the king, we should assume that he wanted to convince his subjects, especially non-Catholics, that he will be a tolerant ruler, or if like Daniel and Cyrus by the Protestants, this could be a message to the king to which of his predecessors he must refer and which he should take as an example. Not only is the theme of the two paintings described linked, but also their style. The face of King Cyrus is particularly similar in both model characteristics and painting style. It resembles the signed work of Strobel (Bartholo. / Strobel. / Pinxit:) - Our Lady of the Rosary with Saint Dominic and Saint Nicholas in the Church in Grodzisk Wielkopolski, painted between 1634 and 1635, and some of the attributed or workshop paintings such as the half-length portrait of Jerzy Ossoliński (1595-1650) in the National Museum in Warsaw (deposited in Wilanów Palace, 182280, 3020 Tc/72).
Portrait of Jerzy Ossoliński (1595-1650) by Bartholomeus Strobel or workshop, ca. 1635, National Museum in Warsaw.
Portrait of the "Last Jagiellon" Sigismund II Augustus (1520-1572), bearing the features of Ladislaus IV Vasa (1595-1648) by Bartholomeus Strobel or workshop, ca. 1636-1637, National Museum in Kraków.
Daniel and Cyrus before the Idol Bel - Allegory of the reign of Ladislaus IV Vasa (1595-1648) by Bartholomeus Strobel, ca. 1636-1637, National Museum in Warsaw.
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