A key ideological accent can be found in the spear being aimed at the chest of the Grand Master.
Significance of tannenberg battle full#
The triumph of the victors is personified in the figure of Duke Witold, full of momentum, appearing as if elevated above the fighting masses. We see von Jungingen is the midst of a fatal clash with plebeian warriors symbolising the Polish-Lithuanian nation.
The action portrayed in the painting revolves around two figures, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order Ulrich von Jungingen and the Lithuanian Grand Duke Witold. Matejko’s depiction of this very event in the era of the country’s partitioning was intended to bolster Poles’ faith in their homeland’s future resurgence. As one of the nation’s greatest military victories, it became an affirmation of the historical strength of the kingdom. The Battle of Grunwald acquired a monumental relevance in Polish history. The painting depicts the culmination of a battle waged in July of 1410 which ended in a rout of the Teutonic Knights’ army by allied Polish-Lithuanian-Russian forces led by Ladislaus Jagiełło. The largest painting in the National Museum’s collection – Jan Matejko’s Battle of Grunwald, measuring over four metres in height and nearly ten in width.
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