Sainte Kinga

Matejko made this in 1892, 600 years after Kinga died, as a memorial for the anniversary. Kinga was a medieval Hungarian princess who married a Polish duke, and the miners of Wieliczka claim her as their patron. Their legend says the engagement ring she dropped into a shaft back in Hungary was found again in a lump of Polish rock salt, her dowry carried underground. Matejko skips the young princess of that tale. He paints her old instead, kneeling in prayer against the mountains near Nowy Sacz toward the end of her life. It went to the salt works at Wieliczka, where it still hangs among the workings she is said to watch over.