Equestrian Portraits of Sultan Mehmed IV and King Jan Kazimierz

The two monarchs on horseback –Mehmed IV (r. 1648-87), and Jan Kazimierz Vasa, King of Poland (r. 1648-68)– face each other in front of an imaginary landscape in the background. The sultan appears to the left; beneath his image is a coat of arms with a crescent and the inscription MAHOMETUS QUARTUS IMPERATOR TURCARIUM. The Polish king is portrayed on the right, with a coat of arms featuring the emblems of Poland, Lithuania, and of the Vasa family as well as the inscription IOANNES CASIMIRVS DEI GRACIA REX POLONIÆ AC SVeCIÆ &c.

The conclusion of the war fought since 1654 between Poland and Russia with the truce signed at Andruszow on 30 January 1667 was a source of disquiet for the Ottomans, who feared that this might be the overture to an anti-Ottoman alliance. In order to allay these fears, the Polish Commonwealth dispatched Hieronim Radziejowski, under-chancellor to the crown and wojewoda of Inflanty, on a diplomatic mission to the sultan. The emissary reached Adrianople (Edirne), but died in August before he had a chance to appear before the sultan. The Polish king issued orders that the mission be continued by the cup-bearer Franciszek Kazimierz Wysocki, who succeeded in obtaining a document dated 21 July in which the Polish and Ottoman rulers renewed the 1640 alliance between Sultan Ibrahim and King Władysław IV. The present engraving was probably executed to mark this diplomatic success (the two rulers never actually met).