Centennial celebrations of the birthday of Jan Matejko

Centennial celebrations of the birthday of the outstanding painter Jan Matejko, founder of the Fine Art Academy took place  in October of 1938 in Cracow.

Proffessors of the Fine Art Academy standing in front of the building of the school.

Commemorative plaque, building of the Academy.

Marshal of Poland Edward Rydz Śmigły leaving the St.Cross Church during centennial celebrations of the birthday of  Jan Matejko.

Edward Śmigły-Rydz (March 11, 1886 – December 2, 1941); nom de guerre Śmigły, Tarłowski, Adam Zawisza) was a Marshal of Poland, Polish political figure, Commander-in-Chief of Poland’s armed forces, and a painter and poet. After many earlier successes as an army commander during the Polish-Soviet War, Rydz succeeded Józef Piłsudski as General Inspector of the Armed Forces in 1935, following Piłsudski’s death. He served in that capacity during the Invasion of Poland, which marked the beginning of World War II.

Rakowice Cementry, in front of the grave of Jan Matejko.  Rector is starting his speach.

Tomb of the Painter.

…to be continued

***

photos: National Polish Archive

Jan Matejko (1838-1893) – Polish historical painter

I will not describe a life of the painter, because there are many detailed information about him that you can easily find in your internet browser or particularly on the websites e.g.

www.jan-matejko.org or en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Matejko

My intention is to interest you who and how important  he was in  the Polish artistic life of last decades and how he still is. His paintings referred to the historical past of the country in which he lived,  so  in order to understand his art it is necessary to get to know a few facts.

The painter was born 43 years after a loss of independence –  a result of the partitions of the country.

The Partitions of Poland (known also as Partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth). It took place in the second half of the 18th century and ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The partitions were carried out by the Russian Empire, Kingdom of Prussia, and Habsburg Austria dividing up the Commonwealth lands among themselves. Three partitions took place:

• The First Partition: August 5, 1772.
• The Second Partition: January 23, 1793 (in which Austria did not participate).
• The Third Partition: October 24, 1795. With this partition, the independent nation of Poland ceased to exist.

The partitions are also divided by the partitioner into the Austrian partition, Prussian partition and the Russian partition.

… Poland lost the independence for 123 years. The country was blotted out from a map of Europe.

However Jan Matejko was brought up of a soul of the patriotism and the nationality what expressed in his art.

He  was born on June 24 1838 in the place called Free City of Kraków.  At a young age he witnessed the Kraków revolution of 1846 and the 1848 siege of Kraków by the Austrians, the two events which ended the existence of the Free City of Kraków.

ART CARIERE

Because of his exceptional talent he studied at the School of Fine Arts in Kraków from 1852 to 1858 under Wojciech Korneli Stattler and Władysław Łuszczkiewicz.

Later after studying under the historical painter Hermann Anschütz in Munich (1859) and then briefly and less successfully in Vienna, Matejko returned to Kraków, where he lived for the rest of his life and where, beginning in 1873, he was for many years the principal of the Academy of Fine Arts.

At that time Matejko started to gain international recognition. Literally a starving artist during his younger days, in 1865, his painting  Skarga’s Sermon won the gold medal at the annual Paris salon.

Skarga’s Sermon is the title of a painting according to historical figure  named  Piotr Skarga (February 2, 1536 – September 27, 1612)  referred to in some English sources as Peter Skarga. We see him (standing at right) preaches. King Sigismund III Vasa is seated in the first row, left of center.

Piotr Skarga was a Polish Jesuit, preacher, hagiographer, polemicist, and leading figure of the Counter-reformation in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. He was called the “Polish Bossuet” due to his oratorical abilities.

His oratory was so successful that he determined to become a missionary-preacher among the people, in order better to combat the social and political evils of the day. By way of preparation he studied theology in Italy from 1568 to 1570, and finally entered the Society of Jesus.

He became the first rector of the Vilnius Academy in 1579, where he wrote the Lives of the Saints, which is still popular reading today. In 1584 he was transferred to the new Jesuit College at Kraków, and in 1588 he became court preacher to King Sigismund III Vasa (a position he would hold until 1611).  Sometimes preached to the parliament.

The nobility ascribed to him a great (and baleful: he advocated strong royal authority) influence on King Sigismund.

Skarga is remembered by Poles as a vigorous early advocate of reforms to the Polish-Lithuanian polity and as a critic of the Commonwealth’s governing classes. He advocated the strengthening of the monarch’s power at the expense of Sejm, magnates and szlachta.

His name “Skarga”, which in Polish means : “accusation”  is likely because of this career as a reformer and critic. The loose translation of his name would therefore be “Peter the Accuser“.

…to be continued…