Jan Alojzy Matejko (; also known as Jan Mateyko; 24 June 1838 – 1 November 1893) was a Polish painter, a leading 19th-century exponent of history painting, known for depicting nodal events from Polish history. or Battle of Grunwald (1878). He was the author of numerous portraits, a gallery of Polish monarchs in book form, and murals in St. Mary's Basilica, Kraków. He is considered by many as the most celebrated Polish painter, and sometimes as the "national painter" of Poland.

Matejko spent most of his life in Kraków. He enrolled at the Kraków Academy of Fine Arts at age fourteen, where he studied under notable artists such as Wojciech Korneli Stattler and Władysław Łuszczkiewicz and completed his first major historical painting in 1853. His early exposure to revolutions in Kraków and the military service of his brothers influenced his artistic themes. After studying art in Munich and Vienna, he returned to Kraków and set up a studio. He gradually gained recognition, selling key paintings that settled his debts and created some of his most famous works, including Stańczyk and Skarga's Sermon. Matejko's art played a key role in promoting Polish history and national identity at a time when Poland was partitioned and lacked political autonomy.

At the same time, Matejko's painting style has been criticised as old-fashioned and overly theatrical, labeled as "antiquarian realism". His works often lost their nuanced historical significance when displayed abroad due to the audience's unfamiliarity with Polish history. Matejko's support for the Polish cause was not just through his art; he also contributed financially and materially to the January Uprising of 1863. Later, he became director of the art academy in Kraków, which was eventually renamed the Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts. A number of his students became prominent artists in their own right, including Maurycy Gottlieb, Jacek Malczewski, Józef Mehoffer and Stanisław Wyspiański. He received several honors during his lifetime, including the French Légion d'honneur. Matejko was among the notable people to receive an unsolicited letter from the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, as the latter tipped, in January 1889, into his psychotic breakdown while in Turin.

Biography

Youth

Matejko was born on 24 June 1838, in the Free City of Kraków. He grew up in a kamienica building on Floriańska Street. After the death of his mother in 1845, Jan and his siblings were cared for by his maternal aunt, Anna Zamojska. He never fully mastered a foreign language.<!-- and did not do well even with his native Polish. As a result, the public appearances he was obliged to make all his life must have been difficult for him. --> Despite that, and because of his exceptional skill, at the age of fourteen he entered the School of Fine Arts in Kraków, where he was a contemporary of Artur Grottger from 1852 to 1858. He opted for historical painting as his specialism, and finished his first major work, The Shuyski Tsars before Zygmunt III (Carowie Szujscy przed Zygmuntem III), in 1853 (he would return to this theme a year before his death, in 1892. His graduation project in 1858 was Sigismund I the Old ennobles professors of the Jagiellonian University (Zygmunt I nadaje szlachectwo profesorom Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego) and proved to be seminal.

After graduation in 1859,

1862 saw the completion of his Stańczyk, initially received without much acclaim, but in due course becoming one of Matejko's best known works. It marks a manifest departure in Matejko's art, from mere illustrator of history to commentator upon its moral content. Subsequently, his Skarga's Sermon (Kazanie Skargi), May 1864, was exhibited in the gallery of the Kraków Society of Friends of Fine Arts, which gained him much publicity. On 21 November he married Teodora Giebułtowska, with whom he went on to have five children: Beata, Helena, Tadeusz, Jerzy and Regina. His next major painting was the Union of Lublin (Unia Lubelska), created during 1867–1869. Acclaimed in Paris, it won Matejko the Cross of the Légion d'honneur. and was purchased by the Sejm of Galicia.

In 1872, during an exhibition in Prague he was offered the directorship of the Prague Academy of Fine Arts, quickly followed by a similar offer from the Kraków School of Fine Arts. That year he received an "honorary grand gold" medal in Paris, while Kraków city council presented him with a ceremonial scepter, as a symbol of his "royal status in fine art".

1880-1882 were taken up with another large work, The Prussian Tribute (Hołd Pruski) which Matejko gifted to "the Polish nation". It earned him the honorary citizenship of Kraków. The painting is on permanent exhibition in the Sobieski Room at the Vatican Museums. Around that time he also became vocal on a number of political issues, publishing letters on topics such as Polish-Russian relations.

In 1887 Matejko received an honorary doctorate from the Jagiellonian University, and recognition from the Austrian Society, Litteris et Artibus. 1891 marked his Constitution of the 3 May (Konstytucja 3 Maja). He also designed the monumental polychrome murals for the Brick Gothic St. Mary's Basilica, Kraków (1889–1891), which in 1978 became a UNESCO World Heritage Site alongside the Historic Centre of Kraków.

Death

thumb|200px|Matejko's tomb, [[Rakowicki Cemetery, Kraków<!-- DO NOT LINK, see MOS:GEOLINK for further guidance -->]]

Matejko suffered from a peptic ulcer, and died in Kraków on 1 November of internal bleeding. He was buried in <!--center of the Alley of the Meritorious at -->Kraków's Rakowicki Cemetery.

Significance, style and themes

He is counted among the most significant of Polish painters,

He succeeded in propagating Polish history, and fostering the memory of an erstwhile historic state lost to the world, while his country remained carved up between three European powers which afforded its Polish natives no prospect of political self-determination.

Criticism and controversy

Critics of his work have pointed to his use of traditional, outdated or bombastic painting style, discrediting him for "antiquarian realism" and "theatrical effects". At exhibitions abroad, the nuanced historical context of his works was often lost on foreign audiences.

Awards

  • Chevalier de la Legion d'honneur, 1870 for his Union of Lublin 1869
  • Médaille d'or at the Salon de Paris in 1867 for Rejtan
  • Kunst-medaille 1873, Vienna
  • Membre de l'Académie des Beaux-Arts (1873)
  • Médaille d'honneur at the Exposition Universelle (1878)
  • Commander's Cross of the Order of Franz Joseph
  • Commander's Cross of the Order of the Iron Crown
  • Commander's Cross with Star of the Order of Pius IX
  • Gold Medal of the Munich Academy of Art
  • Papal Gold Medal of Leo XIII
  • Medal "Pro litteris et artibus", Vienna
  • Odznaka Honorowa za Dzieła Sztuki i Umiejętności, Poland (1887)
  • Honorary citizenship of the cities of Kraków, Lwów, Przemyśl, Ivano-Frankivsk, Stryj and Brzezany
  • Doctor honoris causa of the Jagiellonian University (1887)
  • Member of the Institut de France (1874), the Berlin Academy of Arts (1874), the Accademia Raffaello in Urbino (1878), and the Wiener Kunstlergenossenschaft (1888)

Legacy

thumb|Matejko's manor house in Krzesławice, now a museum

Matejko's aim was to focus on major themes in Polish history using historical sources to paint events in minute historical detail. His earliest paintings are purely historical depictions without didactic content. Stańczyk focuses on the court jester, portrayed as a symbol of his country's conscience, sitting in a chair, against the background of a party - a lonely figure reflecting on war, ignored by the joyful crowd.

His paintings are on display in numerous Polish museums, including: the National Museum in Warsaw, National Museum in Kraków, National Museum in Poznań and National Museum in Wrocław. Another museum dedicated to Matejko is the Jan Matejko Manor House (Dworek Jana Matejki w Krzesławicach), in the village of Krzesławice, where Matejko had bought a small estate in 1865.

As teacher and influencer

Over 80 painters were Matejko's students, many influenced during his tenure as director of the Kraków School of Fine Arts, and are called members of the "Matejko School". Some went on to become members of the brief flowering of the Young Poland (Młoda Polska) movement, which encompassed literature, music, theatre as well as visual arts and was dissipated by World War I. Matejko has been dubbed "Father of Young Poland". Prominent among his students were:

  • Maurycy Gottlieb
  • Jacek Malczewski
  • Włodzimierz Tetmajer
  • Józef Unierzyski, Matejko's son-in-law
  • Leon Wyczółkowski

Bibliography

  • JSTOR
  • Works by Jan Matejko chambroch.com
  • A gallery of paintings with links to biography (289 words) and bibliographical pages (12 books).
  • Matejko gallery, wawel.net
  • Matejko gallery, malarze.com
  • Jan Matejko, culture.pl
  • "Clothing and Costumes..." From the Collection of Jan Matejko
  • "Artists from the School of Jan Matejko"
  • www.Jan-Matejko.org A website dedicated to Matejko