Wawel Royal Castle will start the new year 2023 with an impressive exhibition that presents the work of renaissance painter Jacob Mertens, who was a prominent Dutch/Flemish painter based in Kraków at the turn of the 16th/17th century. His brilliant works have been scattered all over Poland in private collections, and their importance has only been known by a select group of art historians. Thus, this exhibition is an opportunity for the rest of the world to view works that are uniquely Cracovian, and have a historic connection to many places in the city. These include "Zwiastowanie Marii", the only painting signed by Jacob Mertens, originally part of the altar intended for St. Mary's Church; a naturalistic bas-relief "Opłakiwanie Chrystusa" made of wax and silk fabrics, kept on a daily basis in the Church of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Góra Kalwaria; and a unique home altar made of ivory.