QUEEN BARBARA'S PEARLS

by K. Paul Zygas

(From the May / June 2008 issue)

Queen Barbara Radvilaite wearing her pearls.

Coco Chanel was convinced that no fashionable lady could do without pearls, while Marilyn Monroe was just as sure that "Diamonds are a girl's best friend." Such attitudes about power jewels reinforce each other, suggesting that they are about equally alluring today, neither one monopolizing all the glamour. Yet, historically, there is no question that pearls have long been far more prestigious. The taste for diamonds coalesced at the court of Versailles just three centuries ago, while pearls, the "Queen of Gems," have been coveted worldwide for millennia. Pearls, ever in vogue among high-status and pedigreed women, will surely continue bewitching them for generations to come.

Pearlmania afflicted the nobility of ancient Rome who thought little of bidding astronomical sums for the best pieces. Suetonius writes that general Vitellius paid for an entire military campaign simply by selling off one of his mother's prized pearls. And Cleopatra once wagered Marc Anthony that she could host the most expensive supper in history, winning the bet by savoring a glass of wine into which she had dissolved a pearl earring. The gem in question, according to Pliny, was worth 30 million sesterces, or about five million U.S. dollars today.

The Renaissance, too, was hopelessly obsessed with pearls. Strange as it may now seem, the fashion consultants of that era did not particularly value diamonds, ranking them in eighteenth place, far behind pearls, rubies, sapphires, emeralds, and a dozen other gemstones. Pearls occupied first place, and their premier status long remained unsurpassed. It is worth pointing out that Ferdinand and Isabella sent out Columbus, not on a voyage of discovery, but on a mission primarily seeking a new source of pearls. To be sure, gold and silver, together with gemstones and spices, also interested the pair, but those items were further down on their shopping list. The royal couple knew that kings and queens would pay anything for gorgeous pearls, whether or not their treasuries could afford the power jewels. Columbus, initially unsuccessful, came across the oyster beds near Venezuela only in 1498, on his third voyage to the New World. The Americas then supplied Lisbon and Seville with sea pearls for a century or so, providing a temporary fix for Europe's insatiable and incurable addiction.  

Sigismund August (Grand Duke of Lithuania 1544-72, King of Poland 1548-72) was the type of monarch that Ferdinand and Isabella had in mind - his extravagant tastes would do any potentate proud. Regarding jewels and gems, he was like an acquisitive schoolboy squirreling away prized hoards of glass marbles and postmarked stamps. Papal nuncio Bernard Bongiovanni visited him in Vilnius and afterwards wrote: "He loves jewels inordinately and one day showed them to me in secret, because he hides them from the Poles, not wanting them to know the enormous sums that he had spent to buy them." The nuncio saw a long wall-to-wall table which held sixteen jewel-filled caskets.  Four were from his mother Queen Bona Sforza; four the king had bought himself;  the remaining eight were filled with antique jewelry. One had a cap filled to the brim with rubies, emeralds, and diamonds. Bongiovanni concluded: "In a word, I saw so many splendid gems. which the treasuries of Venice and papal Rome, which I have also seen, cannot compare." 

Wedding of King Zygimantas Augustas and Barbara Radvilaite.

A few years earlier, Sigismund August, not yet thirty, had fallen in love at first sight with the recently-widowed, ravishingly beautiful, twenty-something Barbara Gostautas, nee Radvilaite. At the time the Radvila (Radziwill) family was the wealthiest and most powerful in Lithuania, holding an impressive list of high offices and grand titles. Their status extended far beyond the country's actual borders. On the political stage of continental Europe, Barbara's uncle - Nicholas III, her brother - Nicholas V "the Brown," and  her cousin - Nicholas VI "the Black," were all princes of the Holy Roman Empire - titles conferred in Vienna, courtesy of the Hapsburg Emperor.  

By all accounts Sigismund August and the Radvilas enjoyed one another's company, trust, and respect. When Nicholas VI "the Black" returned from diplomatic missions on the crown's behalf, Sigismund August would oftentimes ride out of Cracow to meet him. And when prince Radvila was late to a session of the Seimas (Senate), the king would invariably rise, advance a few steps to greet him, and show his place next to the throne. This irked everyone in the room, since protocol required that they also stand. Characteristically, Radvila would find reasons to come late. 

In 1547 Sigismund August secretly wed Barbara Radvilaite, putting off the official announcement until after his father's death. Bona Sforza, the young king's mother, and the nobility feared domination by the Radvila clan and opposed the marriage. They delayed Barbara's coronation as Queen of Poland and Grand Duchess of Lithuania until 1550. She reigned for only a year, dying from nasty, "natural causes."   

Sigismund August followed Queen Barbara's wishes and insisted on burying her, not in Cracow, but Vilnius, even though it would take at least a month for the funeral cortege to cover the 500 miles between the two capitals. The king never left the procession, following behind his wife's coffin the entire way. When the cortege came to a settlement, Sigismund August would dismount and follow on foot. Queen Barbara was laid to rest in the Cathedral of Vilnius, alongside Elizabeth of Austria, the king's first wife. To the end of his days Sigismund August mourned for Queen Barbara, and it is said he consulted sorcerers and tried necromancy to conjure up her spirit. Her name was on his lips when he died. 

Enamored with Barbara, the king would send her wonderful gifts. When she stayed in the Radvila estate at Dubingiai, he sent swans to decorate the castle pond. She liked Sicilian oranges, so the loving king made sure they seasonally graced her table. As a keepsake, she sent him a small sundial watch set on a ring. He responded with a miniature timepiece, mounted on a stunning, diamond-encircled ring. There is no question that Barbara prized pearls. Among the other objets de luxe listed in her dowry, we find ten pearl necklaces, a sash decorated with black pearls, seven pearl headbands, and three pearl-encrusted shoulder capes or tippets. Knowing of her fondness for pearls, Sigismund August had well-financed agents scouring European jewel markets ready to acquire more gem-quality pieces for her delight.

Historically, the most prized pearls came from the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, and the Gulf of Mannar in the Indian Ocean. They were created by the same species of sea oyster, plucked by hold-breath divers from shallow-water oyster beds. The lustrous natural jewels reached Europe through one branch of the Spice Road, which started off in Indian Ocean ports, made stops in pearl-rich Bahrain and Dubai, continuing overland to Cairo and Alexandria. Merchants from Venice and Constantinople would then acquire the pearls, gems, and spices, shipping the precious cargoes home from whence they reached the principal courts Europe. But the luxury-loving courtiers never had enough of the beautiful natural jewel, and the demand for sea pearls continued to exceed supply.

Zygimantas Augustas at the bedside of his dying wife Barbara.

Europe actually had plenty of pearls of its own - freshwater pearls, abounding in its cold, fast-flowing, gravel-lined rivers and streams. The pearl mussel Margaritafera margaritafera once ranged from Germany to the Arctic Sea, but survives today only in the northernmost rivers of Russia and Finland. This particular species also thrived in waterways of Lithuania, where it was once highly valued but is now extinct. We should recall here that the funerary pyre which consumed the remains of Grand Duke Algirdas in 1377 also turned to ashes belts of silver and gold, eighteen stallions, gold-embroidered purple cloth, and robes decorated with jewels and pearls. His gorgeous fabrics and jewels suggest ties to Byzantium, evoking its storied, extravagant splendor. It is likely that some of his pearls were imported sea pearls. Archaeologists excavating in Kernave, a site not far from the forest grove where the pagan funerary rites were held for Algirdas, have dug up items of the same period which came from Venice, Constantinople, Damascus, and Cairo. No pearls have yet been uncovered at Kernave, possibly because they are organic and can decompose; however, the archaeologists did find some cowry shells of a type found only on the Maldive Islands in the Indian Ocean. 

 The earliest known portrait of Queen Barbara displays her affection for pearls. Dated around 1548, it was possibly painted by Andrew Ruhl or Antanas Vydas (Antonius Wied), artists associated with the royal court in Vilnius at the time. A pearl-studded beret, a pearl headband, and a pearl-encrusted cheek scarf snugly hug her sad, thoughtful face. The dress, too, was preciously adorned, intricate patterns of small pearls enlivening the narrow collar, belt, and wrist cuffs. Larger pearls decorated the upper arm sleeves and the wide edging of the shoulder cape. Some of the pearls were doubtlessly imported sea pearls, highlighting the regal portrait.

The extended Radvila clan had several estates, each with a gallery needing a portrait of Queen Barbara, the family's most distinguished woman. Artists were thus repeatedly commissioned to paint images of the deceased queen. In the course of centuries the format of the original portrait was altered; material was added and deleted, giving rise to several variants; all of which Marija Matudakaite has traced in her admirable study on the subject. In 1857 Francois Grenier created the queen's most idealized portrait, which appeared as a lithograph in J. K. Vilcinskis' Album de Vilna. In it all of the pearls have gravitated upwards, assembling into the coif and the wide, shoulder-covering choker. A golden crown has also replaced the original pearl-studded beret. Widely-reproduced, it is an image of an assured and intelligent young beauty, suggesting what attracted King Sigismund August to Queen Barbara in the first place.

 Queen Elizabeth I of England must hold the record for possessing more pearls than anyone else before or since. The leading fashionista of Shakespeare's day, she coveted pearls with boundless passion, a weakness she would indulge with a bottomless purse. The queen amassed an unparalleled collection of priceless pearls, some of them inherited, others acquired from the crown jewels of Scotland, Portugal, Navarre, and Burgundy. She knew about Sigismund August's fabulous jewel collection and Queen Barbara's extraordinary pearls. And when Elizabeth I learned of his death and the imminent dispersal of his prized acquisitions, she sent off agents seeking Queen Barbara's pearls. Duly acquired, they soon found their place among the crown jewels of England. Eventually inherited by the 3rd Duke of Cumberland, at the end of the 19th century the pearls entered the dowry of his eldest daughter Princess Marie Louise of Hanover and Cumberland. In the decades between the two world wars she certainly had ample opportunities to show them off. During that very period Coco Chanel moved in the highest social circles, rubbing shoulders with Europe's creme de la creme, so chances are high that at some gala event she would have encountered some of Queen Barbara's pearls.