Retaking of Rus. Wealth and Education, 1366 AD, from the series “History of Civilization in Poland”

Matejko made this in 1888, when Poland was not on the map. It had been divided between Russia, Prussia and Austria for almost a century, and he worked in Krakow, in the Austrian share, the one part where Poles still ran their own schools and university. The 12 scenes in this cycle deliberately skip most of the battles. They show a coronation, the welcoming of Jewish settlers, the first parliament, the founding of a university, the constitution of 1791, moments of law and learning rather than of arms. This one is set in 1366, when Casimir the Great pushed the Polish crown east over Ruthenia, the land around Lviv. Matejko puts him at the founding of a cathedral there with his written statutes in his hand. He painted the whole set partly to meet the requirements for an honorary doctorate from the Jagiellonian University in Krakow.