Bishop Iwo Odrowąż Consecrates the Foundation Stone for the Church in Iwonicz

Jan Matejko painted Poland's past at a time when Poland did not exist on the map. It had been carved up between Russia, Prussia and Austria for most of a century, and Matejko spent his life putting its lost kings, bishops and battles onto huge canvases as a way of keeping the nation's memory alive. This picture reaches back to 1226 and to Iwo Odrowaz, bishop of Krakow, shown blessing the foundation stone of a church at Iwonicz, in the south of the country. Matejko made it in 1887, late in his career, when he was the most honoured painter in the Polish lands and effectively the keeper of their national image. He filled his historical scenes with carefully studied medieval dress, armour and ritual, treating the past almost as a staged reconstruction. The bishop's raised hand over the stone is the still point the whole crowded scene turns around.