Kazanie Skargi Jana Matejki w kontekście ówczesnej wiedzy o epoce i poglądów na dzieje Polski
Jan Matejko’s Skarga’s Sermon in the Context of the then Knowledge of the Epoch and Views on Poland’s History

Summary/Abstract: Authors studying the works of the greatest painter of the history of Poland Jan Matejko have long failed to do systematic research on numerous references to specific historical matters in his work, ignoring the aspect to which the artist attached such great importance. In the case of Skarga’s Sermon, one of his most iconic works, the situation has changed due to Jarosław Krawczyk’s book Matejko i historia, even though the author focused on one theme only: the conflict between the nobility and king Sigismund III. The study published here shows that equally important were the problems of Poland’s religious union and its submission to Russia in the early 16th century. Such broader interpretation is based on the assessment of the knowledge of such matters which was available to the artist. Undoubtedly, the fact that Matejko was inspired by his friend Józef Szujski, who back then had published a volume of his work Dzieje Polski concerning that part of the history of Poland, is particularly significant. The issues of the period discussed in the book and shown in the painting reveal far-reaching consistency, and the essence of Skarga’s Sermon is the subject of a great historical opportunity which Poles had lost(also know from Matejko’s other works). Poland had wasted its chance to take control of Moscow and to civilize it, which led to the rise of an empire – Poland’s future oppressor in the partition period.

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