Prussian Homage

Prussian Homage is a large oil on canvas that Jan Matejko painted between 1879 and 1882 in Kraków. It depicts the moment when Albrecht of Hohenzollern, Duke of Prussia, paid tribute and swore allegiance to King Sigismund I the Old in Kraków's market square on 10 April 1525. Matejko gathered more than thirty important figures of the Polish Renaissance in the scene, including some who were not actually present. St. Mary's Basilica appears in the background, and he painted the Sukiennice with Renaissance features, although the event took place in 1525.

The composition stresses the majesty of the Polish king, calm and powerful, against an Albrecht who kneels on both knees, a gesture reserved for God rather than a sovereign, and who grips his standard tightly while barely touching the Bible. These details, together with a gauntlet lying on the ground, suggest future military ambitions. For this reason the work also reads as a warning: that triumph was a hollow victory, since Prussia would later become one of the powers that partitioned Poland at the end of the eighteenth century. Matejko painted it during the partition period, when Poland no longer existed as an independent state, and its message seeks to remind Poles of their glorious past and of history's changing fortunes.

Painter

Jan Matejko

Date

1879

Medium

oil paint, canvas

Dimensions

388 × 785 cm

Museum

National Museum in Kraków, Kraków

Genre

history painting

Depicts

St. Mary's Basilica in Kraków, sword, Janusz III of Masovia, Seweryn Boner, helmet, Friedrich von Heydeck, Krzysztof Kreutzer, Frederick II of Legnica

Share:FacebookWhatsApp