Jan Matejko ( 1838-1893 ) Rejtan , or the Fall of Poland
1866 oil on canvas
282 cm × 487 cm ( 111 in × 192 in ) Royal Castle , Warsaw
Masters of
Central Europe
Beautiful and Monumental Painting from Poland and Czechoslovakia
Americans who lived during the Cold War may remember the countries of Central Europe 1 primarily as the satellite buffer states dominated by the Soviet Union , their people living behind the “ Iron Curtain ” under the oppression of totalitarian governments . We also remember the Soviet repression of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and its invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 to suppress attempts to reform the hard-line Communist regime .
Prior to these events we know from history how Nazi Germany invaded Czechoslovakia in 1938 . British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain returned to England after his famous meeting with Hitler , optimistically reporting that his policy of appeasement meant “ peace for our time .” It didn ’ t work . The following year the Nazis invaded Poland , igniting World War II . In 1944 the Hitler regime set about to systematically destroy the city of Warsaw ( and others ), using flamethrowers and explosives to raze its notable buildings and edifices : castles , palaces , houses , bridges , and great libraries . Warsaw and its memory would be obliterated from the face of the earth .
Over many centuries , the Slavic regions of Central Europe were repeatedly overrun by their stronger neighbors . They continually struggled to affirm their ethnic and cultural identities and gain political selfdetermination . In the West , we scarcely learned anything in school about these regions — neither their long histories nor their cultural achievements . It was all too easy to dismiss these places as political sinkholes and cultural backwaters in the grand scheme of things . With the exception of musical composers like Chopin , Dvorák , Smetana , and Bartók , we in the West have not considered Central Europe as sources of great artistic achievement compared to places like France or Italy . For example , do we know anything about Polish painting and whether it even existed ? Be assured that it flourished , and in the late 19th century and into the 20th ,
Polish and Czech artists of great skill attained international renown .
After the sudden unraveling of the Soviet Union in 1991 , many of the former Soviet satellites gained national sovereignty for the first time in centuries and formed democratic governments . As these regions opened up to greater freedom of travel and the influence of the Internet , we of the West gained greater access to the cultural heritage of the Slavic peoples of Central Europe . Let us take a look at some of the work of four outstanding artists of the region , three Polish and one Czech , whose names and reputations had for decades been eclipsed .
Jan Matejko 2 was born in and died in Kraków , one of the oldest cities in Poland and one of its major centers of academic and cultural life ( mercifully , it survived WWII relatively unscathed ). An ardent patriot , he is best known for his grand and majestically detailed paintings of the former glories of Polish history .
40 ART CHOWDER MAGAZINE