DOI issue:
Nr. 4
DOI article:Poprzęcka, Maria: "And I still see their faces": on Jan Matejko's Physiognomies
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18938#0106
4. Jan Matejko, The Battle of Grunwald, 1878, detail: Grand Duke Witold, Warsuw,
Muzeum Narodowe
thing close to a mask"35 appears among the abundance of costumes. But in this respect,
Malczewski certainly did not follow into his master's footsteps. Matejko was an instinctive
heir to and continuator of many elements of the physiognomic tradition. Instinctive, because —
as Treter36 observed — Matejko did not conduct any research or studies; moreover, he was
generally indifferent to theory, even with direct reference to his artistic practice. Matejko's
'atheoreticaP attitude accounts for the fact that his painting has been rarely confronted with
the tradition of thinking on art in spite of its being well rooted in it. To indicate some of these
links is among the goals of this paper, Matejko certainly had access to physiognomic treaties
35. ibid., p. 192.
36. Treter, op. cii., p. 524.
92
Muzeum Narodowe
thing close to a mask"35 appears among the abundance of costumes. But in this respect,
Malczewski certainly did not follow into his master's footsteps. Matejko was an instinctive
heir to and continuator of many elements of the physiognomic tradition. Instinctive, because —
as Treter36 observed — Matejko did not conduct any research or studies; moreover, he was
generally indifferent to theory, even with direct reference to his artistic practice. Matejko's
'atheoreticaP attitude accounts for the fact that his painting has been rarely confronted with
the tradition of thinking on art in spite of its being well rooted in it. To indicate some of these
links is among the goals of this paper, Matejko certainly had access to physiognomic treaties
35. ibid., p. 192.
36. Treter, op. cii., p. 524.
92