The most famous Italian in Polish history, Bona Sforza, unfortunately owes her fame to a "black legend" that effectively covered up the queen's qualities and merits for her new homeland for hundreds of years.

Bona Sforza - the Polish queen
In 1518. The 22-year-old Bona Sforza d'Aragona (1494-1557), daughter of a Neapolitan royal and a Milanese duke from the powerful Sforza family, married the over 50-year-old King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, Sigismund I, known as the Old (1467-1548). Her reign influenced the development of Renaissance culture, but also new culinary traditions. For her needs, Bona imported large quantities of Italian fruit and vegetables. The royal court laughed at 'Italians who eat thinly', but to this day we call the combination of carrots, parsley, leek and celery Italian vegetables, and we are the few European nations to have adopted the name of tomatoes from the Italian 'pomodori'.

Italian delicacies, however, are only a small part of Queen Bona's contribution. Thanks to her skilful administration, the new queen put the royal domain in order, introduced agricultural reform (under the name of spear measurement) to the monarch's estates, and oversaw the development of towns, crafts and trade. She brought Italian architects, artists and musicians to Poland, promoting the idea of artistic patronage. One of them was Gian Jacopo Caraglio (c. 1505-1565), an engraver, medallist and glyptist (sculptor and engraver in precious stones), author of a stunning portrait of a female ruler in the form of a cameo, which is now kept in The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

The cameo, which is a type of gemma (miniature relief in precious stone) in convex relief, conveys to us both a realistic image of Bona Sforza as a person and a symbolic one of her as a strong and independent monarch.

Bona Sforza - businesswoman
Bona was raised to be a future ruler. She received a thorough education. She was fluent in Latin and Spanish, had knowledge of state administration, law, mathematics, history and theology, could play several instruments, loved dancing, horse riding and hunting. The envoys sent to Italy described her as an ideal candidate as a wife for the widowed King Sigismund the Old - beautiful and comprehensively educated.

"Bona, by God's grace queen of Poland, grand duchess of Lithuania, duchess of Bari and Rossano, mistress of Ruthenia, Prussia, Mazovia" turned out to be a real businesswoman, which did not win her any sympathy at the Polish court. Neither the high officials nor the nobility were ready for an intelligent woman who managed her own estates efficiently, carried out reforms, was economical, able to multiply profits, and actively influenced politics. She went down in history as a ruler with great ambitions and an equally difficult character, which became fodder for rumours and slanders that are repeated to this day.

Polish queen patron of the arts
Bona and Sigismund Augustus, mother and son, although at odds and despite their many differences, were united by their love of beautiful, luxurious objects, especially jewels. Thanks to the patronage of the queen's favourite musician, Alessandro Pesenti, as well as Pietro Aretino himself (1492-1556, an eminent Renaissance literary figure), Gian Jacopo Caraglio, a native of Verona (or Parma), an artist of considerable renown in his homeland, arrived in Krakow around 1538. Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574) wrote of him in his famous 'Lives of the most famous painters, sculptors and architects': "being very skilled, he devoted himself to cutting cameos and crystals". Giving up engraving, Caraglio 'then went to the court of the King of Poland [...] for jewel making and polishing and as an architect'.

His predilection for valuables made Bona and Sigismund Augustus the dream patrons of the gifted jeweller, gem sculptor and medal maker from Italy, whose talent was fully appreciated in Poland. In addition to 15 florins every quarter, he also received a daily ration of oats, a testament to the fact that Caraglio was one of the few artists to have a horse.

He earned the honourable position of court artist. Sigismund Augustus granted him the title of Knight of the Golden Spur, a title of nobility with the right to mark monuments and buildings with his own coat of arms, and citizenship of the city of Krakow. To commemorate the ennoblement, the gliptician commissioned an allegorical portrait in Venice from his pupil Titian, in which we see the artist with the attributes of a goldsmith, bent over in front of a Polish eagle with the monogram SA (Sigismundus Augustus).

The Italian gem master also made cameos and medals for Sigismund Augustus, including an elaborate pair of portraits of the Jagiellon and his wife, Barbara Radziwiłłówna.

Cameo with a portrait of Bona Sforza
The oval cameo with Bona Sforza's portrait was carved in sardonyx (a multicoloured variety of agate) and refers to ancient portraits of the Caesars known from medals and coins. The unframed miniature masterpiece measures just 3.1 cm in height and 2.2 cm in width and is astonishing in its number of details and precision of execution.

The cameo depicts the Queen in bust, in profile, facing right. The proudly raised head, upright shoulders, face with a coolly distinguished expression and accentuated high forehead highlight the features reserved for a portrait of a ruler. The opulence of Bona's attire is highlighted by the gold foil covering the chain around her neck and the tricks adorning the headpiece and sleeves of her gown. The silver brooch on the queen's chest, with Medusa's head, alluding to ancient representations of Minerva, symbolises wisdom and strength. The elaborate costume and jewellery make this shot different from the images of the queen in widow's garb and ascetic colours painted at the same time. Here the Italian is not a widow queen, but a monarch in all the splendour of majesty.

It is most likely that the jewel was intended as a gift for Philip II of Habsburg (1527-1598), then King of Naples and Sicily and later ruler of Spain and Portugal, from whom Bona Sforza sought the dignity of Viceroy of Naples in secret negotiations, which explains the propaganda significance of the work. Caraglio created a single cameo, not as a pair to a royal spouse, with the model's head facing to the right, as monarchs were shown. The rim shows the master's signature IACOBV/VERON and the signature BONA SPHOR REGINA POLONIAE.

The 19th century gold setting with enamel and stones gave the cameo the function of a pendant. On the reverse, the date 1554 and the Polish eagle and erroneously the lion with quince, the coat of arms of the Sforzas of the Pesaro line, are depicted in enamel among floral tendrils. Queen Bona, on the other hand, descended from the Milanese branch of the family, whose coat of arms was a crowned serpent swallowing a child.

Cameo with a portrait of Bona Sforza - further fate
It is difficult to determine the further fate of the jewel today, as the queen's possessions were dispersed after her death, while Sigismund Augustus never managed to recover it. The cameo reappeared three hundred years later in an 1847 catalogue of the collection of the French collector and early art expert Louis Fidel Debruge-Duménil (1788-1848), probably already in its present setting. Three years later, the gemma was sold at an auction of his collection.

It was not until the early 20th century that the cameo became known to the wider public, following the ofice of a tiny treasure to a New York museum by the American financial and industrial tycoon, John Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913).

The cameo could also be admired in Poland in 2012-2013 and in 2019, in exhibitions at the Royal Castle in Warsaw dedicated to the Jagiellons and the jewels of 16th and 17th century jewellery.

On 15 September 2023, an exhibition entitled Picture of the Golden Age, presenting the flourishing culture and art of the Polish-Lithuanian monarchy in the Jagiellonian era, will open at the Wawel Royal Castle. One of its ornaments will be a cameo with a portrait of Queen Bona Sforza from the collection of The Metropolitan Museum.

Bona Sforza - the tragic fate of
Paradoxically, Queen Bona Sforza's love of jewels and business skills contributed to her tragic end. When she left Poland in 1556, she had to relinquish all her earthly possessions and was allowed to take all her movable property. The decision to leave was certainly influenced by the conflict with her son, growing after his marriage to Barbara Radziwillowna (1547) and subsequent marriage to Catherine Habsburg (1553).

Bona left for her estates, the principalities of Bari and Rossano, but dreamed of recovering the estates inherited from her parents, Isabella of Aragon and Gian Galeazzo Sforza. Hoping to gain support for this cause, she made a huge loan (430,000 ducats in gold, the famous 'Neapolitan sums') to the King of Spain, Philip II of Habsburg. Legends circulated about the money and valuables taken back to her homeland; in Venice, Bona amassed a 'bank of silver and gold' as security for her old age in Italy. Unfortunately, just one year after her return to Italy, she was poisoned by her trusted courtier, John Lawrence Pappacoda, acting on behalf of the Habsburgs, who thus never repaid the loan. In addition, on the basis of a forged will, they took over the hereditary principalities of Bari and Rossano. Sigismund Augustus did not succeed in recovering his mother's estate, despite many years of effort.

Commissioned by Bona's daughter Anna Jagiellon, the queen's tombstone in the Church of St Nicholas in Bari was designed by the Roman engraver Tomasz Treter and executed in 1593 by the sculptors Andrea Sarti, Francesco Zagarella and Francesco Bernucci.