Matejko, Jan: Batory near Pskov
Batory near Pskov, 1872
oil, canvas, 322 x 545 cm;
National Museum in Warsaw
oil, canvas, 322 x 545 cm;
National Museum in Warsaw
An event from the Polish-Moscow war for Livonia, conducted in the years 1578-1582 by Stefan Batory, it has become the subject of the painting, which “belongs to the highest artistic achievements of Matejko, so in terms of expressive power, like perfect compositional alignment and brilliance of color” (Juliusz Starzyński). It is not very often that we see such a high artistic appreciation of this painter's works.
From the successful war, Matejko chose a special moment and place: the period of final negotiations leading to the conclusion of peace and the Pskov foreground: a fortress city besieged by Batory in a few months without success, during a hard Russian winter.
Not a battle, not a showy victory, but a diplomatic game, mutual examination, weighing the arguments; the entire mechanism of big politics is exposed in this picture, whose true drama is in the faces of only a few people: the king, Chancellor Jan Zamoyski standing behind him, papal legate, the Jesuits of Possevina, of the Polotsk lord Cyprian who offered Batory bread and salt. On the king's face and in his pose, there is an expression of pride, maybe even shoes, but at the same time and worthy of concentration; Zamoyski's face expresses alert tension, certainty is mixed here with caution; Possevin's look – his face is the masculine of an ideal diplomat - full of cunning cunning, and in the face of a Polotsk ruler, dressed in magnificent robes, one can sense the dignity and melancholy reverie of the defeated, who, however, did not cease to believe in the victory of his arguments.
Batory's war with Ivan the Terrible is over 15 January 1582 a year favorable for Poland in Jam Zapolski, under which Poland gained Livonia, and Russia returned the last gains on Russian soil (m.in. Great Arch).
From the successful war, Matejko chose a special moment and place: the period of final negotiations leading to the conclusion of peace and the Pskov foreground: a fortress city besieged by Batory in a few months without success, during a hard Russian winter.
Not a battle, not a showy victory, but a diplomatic game, mutual examination, weighing the arguments; the entire mechanism of big politics is exposed in this picture, whose true drama is in the faces of only a few people: the king, Chancellor Jan Zamoyski standing behind him, papal legate, the Jesuits of Possevina, of the Polotsk lord Cyprian who offered Batory bread and salt. On the king's face and in his pose, there is an expression of pride, maybe even shoes, but at the same time and worthy of concentration; Zamoyski's face expresses alert tension, certainty is mixed here with caution; Possevin's look – his face is the masculine of an ideal diplomat - full of cunning cunning, and in the face of a Polotsk ruler, dressed in magnificent robes, one can sense the dignity and melancholy reverie of the defeated, who, however, did not cease to believe in the victory of his arguments.
Batory's war with Ivan the Terrible is over 15 January 1582 a year favorable for Poland in Jam Zapolski, under which Poland gained Livonia, and Russia returned the last gains on Russian soil (m.in. Great Arch).