Mamy pamiętać, czy czas zapomnieć? Wartości edukacyjne obrazu Jana Matejki "Jan Kochanowski nad zwłokami Urszulki"

Abstract

In the 19th century, art was perceived as a source of values: cognitive, educational, and educative. This is how one should look at the famous painting by Jan Matejko - “Jan Kochanowski over Urszulka’s Dead Body”, though not the original, but a copy to be found in one of his homes - converted into a museum in Koryznówka near Wiśnicz. It is one of the most fascinating artistic images of father’s love to his child, and an important component of what can be described as the Polish national identity. Death of a child was rarely the leading motif in the Polish culture. Kochanowski’s Laments {Treny), as the archetype of a father’s reaction to the death of the loved child, constitute an exceptional example of parental love recorded in literature. Emphasizing the topical novelty of Kochanowski’s Laments, we should note the same with regard to Matejko’s painting. As we know, the idea came from Kochanowski. His work left an indelible impression on Matejko. The subject matter of Matejko’s painting implies its educational significance. It indicates that in the second half of the 19th century, purely humane matters started to permeate art, including those showing the performance of parental roles. Matejko’s painting demonstrates the need to mature to responsible parenthood, which should be a subject of consideration at school. However, Matejko’s painting is not used at school. The fact that the work “Jan Kochanowski over Urszulka’s Dead Body” is absent, is not the result of a lack of appreciation for the subject, but rather of the absence of the original itself, and the authors of handbooks as well as the teachers themselves have problems finding a copy of it.