'Matejko, Our Master' and Anti-Semites

The article deals with the ties of Jan Matejko (1838-1893), one of Poland's most famous painters, with modern anti-Semitism. The first part discussed an anti-Semitic diatribe delivered by Matejko in 1882 at the Kraków Academy of Arts and its repercussions in Kraków and Warsaw (e.g., a defamation suit filed by the painter against Leon Eibenschütz and the publication of Józef Mochnacki's anti-Semitic brochure). In the next part, the author presents Matejko's attitude to Jan Jelenski and the 'Rola' periodical edited by the latter. In this journal, Matejko was consistently portrayed until his death as a Pole who is aware of the great threat coming to the Polish nation's material and spiritual existence from the Jews, and who for this reason was incessantly persecuted by 'united Jewry' and its stalwarts. Part three contains an analysis the anti-Semitic views of Matejko and the men who exerted a significant influence on his world outlook, i.e., Marian Gorzkowski and Józef Mochnacki. The opinions articulated by them about the Jewish question are presented in the context of modern anti-Semitism and the statements by its leading representatives. Part four discusses those Matejko paintings which prove the artists anti-liberal stance (the artwork in Lvov Polytechnic auditorium), and also revealing his negative attitude to the presence of the Jews in Poland ('Konstytucja 3 Maja', 'Przyjecie Zydów w roku 1096', 'Napad krakowskiego pospólstwa w XV wieku na Zydów').