Jan Matejko, IMMACULATA

27.0 x 18.0 cm - pencil, paper pencil, paper glued on cardboard, 27 x 18 cm (light passe-partout)

Signed p.d.: JM [tied monogram].



Provenance: circle of the artist's Family.



Immaculata (Latin: immaculate) is an iconographic type of Mary, created by identifying her with the Apocalyptic Woman described in the vision of St. John: Then a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman mandorla clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet, and on her head a wreath of twelve stars (Rev. 12:1). The Immaculata is a depiction of Mary without the Child, at a young age, clad in a gown and blue cloak. She is depicted against the sky, her head surrounded by a mandorla and a crown of stars, while her feet rest on a crescent moon entwined by a serpent.

Religious themes appear frequently in Matejko's work. The artist was a person of deep faith, and he had a special veneration for the Mother of God. Among his earliest works is Immaculate Conception, created in 1852. Elzbieta Matyaszewska writes about the sketch depicting the Mother of God standing on a sphere and trampling a snake: She was drawn by a fourteen-year-old boy, and it can therefore be assumed that it resulted more from his inner spiritual need than any studies in this direction ("I believe in miracles not from today". Religion in the life and works of Jan Matejko, published by TN KUL, Lublin 2007, p. 61)

His best-known works depicting the Mother of God include Queen of the Polish Crown. Our Lady hovering over the Jasna Gora Monastery during the siege by the Swedes, The Assumption, Our Lady with Child. The offered painting may have been created as a sketch for an intended oil work, or for a stained glass window or fresco, which are also part of the great artist's oeuvre.

Jan Matejko (Krakow 1838 - Krakow 1893) - the most prominent Polish historical painter; he began his painting studies under W. Łuszczkiewicz and W. K. Stattler at the Krakow School of Fine Arts (1852-1858). He then studied at the Munich Academy under H. Anschütz (1859) and for two months at the Vienna Academy under C. Ruben (1860). After his studies he lived and worked in Cracow. In 1873 he took over as director of the School of Fine Arts there, holding this position until his death. He traveled extensively - he made numerous trips to Paris (in 1865-1880), Vienna (1866-1888), in 1872 he was in Constantinople, and a year later in Prague and Budapest, he also visited Italy (1878-1879 and 1883). He was a member of numerous academies and art societies, including the Académie des Beaux-Arts (1873) and the French Institute (1874) in Paris, the Berlin Academy of Art (1874), the Raphael Academy in Urbino (1878) and the Künstlersgenossenschaft in Vienna (1888). He became a member of the Scientific Society of Cracow in 1864, and received an honorary doctorate of philosophy from Jagiellonian University in 1887. He was the creator of great and well-known canvases, including the Sermon of Skarga, Rejtan, the Union of Lublin, Batory at Pskov, the Battle of Grunwald, the Prussian Homage and Kosciuszko at Raclawice. He also painted portraits and, less frequently, religious or genre scenes. Drawing played an important role in his work - the artist produced, among other things, the album Ubiory w Polsce od 1200 do 1795 and the drawing series Poczet królów i książąt polskich. In 1889-1891, together with a team of students, he worked on the polychrome of St. Mary's Church in Cracow. The painter's family home, on Florianska Street in Krakow, has housed a museum dedicated to him since 1898 - the Matejko House (a branch of the MNK).