L'assassinio di san Stanislao

Matejko painted this in 1892, near the end of his life, at a time when Poland did not exist on any map. It had been carved up between Russia, Prussia, and Austria for nearly a hundred years, and Matejko had spent his career painting the nation's history so that Poles would not forget it. Here he goes back to the oldest wound of all. In 1079 Stanislaus, the bishop of Krakow, fell out with King Boleslaw and was cut down at the altar during mass, on the king's own order. The bishop became a saint and a patron of Poland. The king fled into exile. Matejko worked this small panel in dense, jewel-like color right up against the moment of the blow. He died the following year, in 1893.