Finally, a thread about a fellow countryman!

The portrait wasn't made to flatter, and most likely there was no seating: this one comes from a gallery of curiosities (Insbruck, Ambras Castle: Listed at source HERE).

Given that this particular prince used to run a rather tight budget throughout his life (even not counting jail, exile, violent loss and regain of power twice...) I wonder if those may have been his, or the painter's compliment so to speak. Although that portrait wasn't meant to flatter. Without a sitter, the painter should have had at hand some of the sketches published by German and Hungarian pamphlets; including this dated in 1491 (Listing at the british Library. There are others, each with a different thinghie instead of the pearly hat. I do not know of any contemporary with VD though, i.e. printed before December 1476.

Methinks, this would have been a reasonable fashion choice for a painter imagining a costume in a remote country a century before: perhaps an adaptation from Ottoman head-dress (not contemporary though?) or a throw back to Byzantine use of pearls. However, I wonder if such a hat would have been a reasonable fashion choice for the wearer, since there isn't anything similar among the very scarce representations of prominent local contemporaries. The entire piece looks a tad costumey for lack of detail; which makes sense in absence of a realistic source in the hand of an obscure draughtsman of exotic oddities...

There is no inventory of jewelry in the possession of the rulers of that time. Walachian princess didn't last to settle for a dynasty so that any transfers of such possessions as a large collection of pearls would have been passed down and documented in family circles rather than court ledgers, as it would be occasionally the case elsewhere.

That's about as much as comes to mind.

2C.