Folia historica 24

II. Közlemények - Ewa Letkiewicz: The Jewels of Queen Isabella of Hungary

white, black, blue and green enamel. The largest spindle-shaped link consists of volutes tied with rosettes at their ends. Its middle part is covered with convex rosettes with balls of white enamel. Another type of enamel consist of a pair of domes with stripes of black enamel connected by convex tapes, and the third type is formed by links built of two open work rosettes, between which there is a plain stripe with loosely set little wire with granulation. In the hitherto literature this chain was related to King Sigismundus the Old, King Sigismundus Augustus, King Sigismundus III Vasa and to Queen Constance the Austrian.'

9 On the basis of the preserved iconography - the painted and sculpted images, as well as the enormous amount of sources - we can assume that the chain was either hung on the neck or served as belts was the intrinsic characteristic of elites. No wonder that as a sign of class membership, they started to be worn by rich bourgeoisie, despite laws against luxuries, repeated many times.

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0 Chains of such kind with plastic, spacious links, hung on the neck or interchangeably, serving as belts are known from iconography, in. a. from portraits of Jagiellonian princesses, Isabella's younger sisters, painted by Lucas Cranach the Younger's atelier.

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1 In these portraits three Jagiellonian sisters: Zofia, Anna and Katarzyna are wearing identical dresses and jewellery. (photos 8-10) Each of the dresses is adorned not only with short necklaces with their 8-1U. photo Portraits of Jagiellonian Princesses, Isabella's younger sisters: Zofia, Katarzyna, Anna, с. 1 550. Krakow, Museum Czartoryskich. names' initials, but also with two other chains: one of pearls, with a cross attached to it, another of pearls and gold, and the third one, gold, reaching below the waist, with enormous, massive links, decorated with stones and pearls. Unfortunately, it was painted too schematically for anyone to recognize the details precisely. The same jewels are repeated in their other portraits: in the portrait of Katarzyna Jagicllonka of ca. 1550-1560, burnt in Nuremberg dur19 Piskorz, A.—Nowacki, D. op. cit. 121-122. 20 The oldest law against luxuries in Krakow is from the year 1336. repeated many times with not much of an effect in subsequent years, until the 18" century, cf. Grabowski, Ambrozy: Starozytnicze wiadomosci о Krakowie. Krakow. 1852. 183-186.. as well as in other towns, cf. Salmonowicz, Stanislaw: О reglamentacji obyczajowosci mieszczanskiej w Toruniu w XVI-XVI1I wieku (Zarys problematyki). Studia historyczno prawne. Torun. 1995. 61-74. 21 Wawel 1000-2000. Katalog Wystawy Jubileuszowej. vol. 3.. Krakow, 2000. photo 74. 201