DOI Heft:
Nr. 4
DOI Artikel:Poprzęcka, Maria: "And I still see their faces": on Jan Matejko's Physiognomies
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18938#0111
Another rhetoric principle should bc recalled liere considering that: "In classical writings on
rhetoric we have perhaps the most careful analysis of any expressive medium ever under-
taken"52. The above is a recommendation of modal differentiation and gradation of the style
of statements which the later art theory had adopted for the "painting of effects". In Matejko
on the other hand, as observed above, the wealth of faces is not accompanied by a silmilar
wealth of facial expressions, and certainly not by their gradation, especially in his later works,
fceginning with the Battłe of Grunwald. The Sermon of Skarga is still a painting where the clas-
sical principle is observed; we may even speak of a scalę of cxpression. Later only one and the
most powerful chord is struck.
"I do not compose and paint [my works] in accordance with my understanding of the condi-
tions of artistic perfection of a picture; I mean something more important than that: the ex-
pression of a character or the expressiveness of a group", Matejko said53. Witkiewicz saw this
attitude as the cause of the artist's 'errors' understood as his negligence of the elementary ru-
les of the construction of a painting, the laws of perspective, chiaroscuro and colour scheme,
which he explained with great pains and so much passion. As regards expression, the artist's
'errors', if we cali them this way, lie elsewhere: the painter, whose foremost desire was to "ex-
press himself", did not obey the rules of utterance. Though a history painter, Matejko was not
one of 'action' but 'states'54. This is why, unlike is usually the case with history painting, his
physiognomies rarely perform a narrative function. Again, the Sermon of Skarga, the most 'cor-
rect' of Matejko's works, is an exception. As Witkiewicz brilliantly pointed out: „Faces, facial
expressions are the pivot of Matejko's entire paintings. The restrained gestures of the seated or
standing figures, and an absence of stress on other aspects of painting caused the plot to be
enacted only on the faces so that the whole picture made an impression of a dark surface on
which the pink discs of faces were afloat"55.
The Sermon of Skarga is an almost textbook example of "dcscribing action through reaction",
one of the proved methods of visual narration56. But the faces in the Rejtan do not only reveal
the characters' reaction to the ongoing events or passing emotions, or their personalities, but
are also carri?rs of information on their roles and positions in the historie events. The func-
tion has remaincd with them for good: they are not only individual characterizations but also
synthetic biographies. Hence the density of information contained within these countenances.
I have touched on just a few problems underlying Matejko's physiognomies. Whenever one
gives up considering the content of Matejko's 'visions' in favour of investigating into methods
of "fixing them in painting", one becomes aware of the intricate course of his artistic invention,
oscillating between various principles of representation, not always consciously, and exposed
to contradictory pressures and dimands. The art historian is always concerned with the ques-
tion how the given thing has been made. Whatever the answer, the most important is that we
'still see the faces in the theatre of the national soul"57.
Translated by Joanna Holzman
52. ibid., p. 317.
53. The statement is ąuoted by Witkiewicz, Matejko, loc. ci!., p. 33.
54. The distinctinn was introduced by M. Schapiro, Words and Pictures. On the Literat and the Symbolic in the Iluslraiion of
a Texl, The Hague — Paris, 1973, pp. 17—37.
55. Witkiewicz, "'Największy; obraz Matejki,, (Matejko's 'Biggest' Painting), loc. cii., p. 55.
56. More on the subject {also in connection with Matejko) in my: Czas wyobrażony. O sposobach opowiadania w polskim malar-
stwie XIX wieku (Time Imagined. On Methods of Narration in 19th century Polish Painting), Warszawa, 1986, p. 89 and
tf.
57. Both the titlc and the closing words of the artiole refer to lines in Teatr mój widzę ogromny (I See My Grand Theatre),
a poem by Matcjko's outstanding student Stanisław Wyspiański.
97
rhetoric we have perhaps the most careful analysis of any expressive medium ever under-
taken"52. The above is a recommendation of modal differentiation and gradation of the style
of statements which the later art theory had adopted for the "painting of effects". In Matejko
on the other hand, as observed above, the wealth of faces is not accompanied by a silmilar
wealth of facial expressions, and certainly not by their gradation, especially in his later works,
fceginning with the Battłe of Grunwald. The Sermon of Skarga is still a painting where the clas-
sical principle is observed; we may even speak of a scalę of cxpression. Later only one and the
most powerful chord is struck.
"I do not compose and paint [my works] in accordance with my understanding of the condi-
tions of artistic perfection of a picture; I mean something more important than that: the ex-
pression of a character or the expressiveness of a group", Matejko said53. Witkiewicz saw this
attitude as the cause of the artist's 'errors' understood as his negligence of the elementary ru-
les of the construction of a painting, the laws of perspective, chiaroscuro and colour scheme,
which he explained with great pains and so much passion. As regards expression, the artist's
'errors', if we cali them this way, lie elsewhere: the painter, whose foremost desire was to "ex-
press himself", did not obey the rules of utterance. Though a history painter, Matejko was not
one of 'action' but 'states'54. This is why, unlike is usually the case with history painting, his
physiognomies rarely perform a narrative function. Again, the Sermon of Skarga, the most 'cor-
rect' of Matejko's works, is an exception. As Witkiewicz brilliantly pointed out: „Faces, facial
expressions are the pivot of Matejko's entire paintings. The restrained gestures of the seated or
standing figures, and an absence of stress on other aspects of painting caused the plot to be
enacted only on the faces so that the whole picture made an impression of a dark surface on
which the pink discs of faces were afloat"55.
The Sermon of Skarga is an almost textbook example of "dcscribing action through reaction",
one of the proved methods of visual narration56. But the faces in the Rejtan do not only reveal
the characters' reaction to the ongoing events or passing emotions, or their personalities, but
are also carri?rs of information on their roles and positions in the historie events. The func-
tion has remaincd with them for good: they are not only individual characterizations but also
synthetic biographies. Hence the density of information contained within these countenances.
I have touched on just a few problems underlying Matejko's physiognomies. Whenever one
gives up considering the content of Matejko's 'visions' in favour of investigating into methods
of "fixing them in painting", one becomes aware of the intricate course of his artistic invention,
oscillating between various principles of representation, not always consciously, and exposed
to contradictory pressures and dimands. The art historian is always concerned with the ques-
tion how the given thing has been made. Whatever the answer, the most important is that we
'still see the faces in the theatre of the national soul"57.
Translated by Joanna Holzman
52. ibid., p. 317.
53. The statement is ąuoted by Witkiewicz, Matejko, loc. ci!., p. 33.
54. The distinctinn was introduced by M. Schapiro, Words and Pictures. On the Literat and the Symbolic in the Iluslraiion of
a Texl, The Hague — Paris, 1973, pp. 17—37.
55. Witkiewicz, "'Największy; obraz Matejki,, (Matejko's 'Biggest' Painting), loc. cii., p. 55.
56. More on the subject {also in connection with Matejko) in my: Czas wyobrażony. O sposobach opowiadania w polskim malar-
stwie XIX wieku (Time Imagined. On Methods of Narration in 19th century Polish Painting), Warszawa, 1986, p. 89 and
tf.
57. Both the titlc and the closing words of the artiole refer to lines in Teatr mój widzę ogromny (I See My Grand Theatre),
a poem by Matcjko's outstanding student Stanisław Wyspiański.
97