Congress at Gąsawa

In 1227 the Polish dukes and bishops met at Gasawa, near Znin, called together by Leszek the White to settle who controlled Pomerania. Swietopelk of Pomerania turned up with armed men. Leszek was killed getting away, and the country he had been trying to hold together stayed divided among rival dukes for almost another century. Matejko chose the moment of the arrival. Leszek stands in the middle with his small son Boleslaw, the archbishop of Gniezno and the dukes of Silesia and Greater Poland are seated to the left, Konrad of Mazovia and Swietopelk to the right. He was 28, painting in Krakow under Austrian rule two years after the January Uprising against Russia had been crushed, and finishing Rejtan, another picture about Poles wrecking their own state. This is oil on paper, 59 centimetres by 115, and he never took it further.