NOTES ON THE ILLUSTRATIONS
Vol I
Plate I The 'Black Madonna of Czestochowa', the most venerated sym-
bol of Polish Catholicism, is probably of Byzantine origin,
brought to the monastery of Jasna Gora (founded 1382) in the
late fourteenth century. Ever since its providential deliverance
from the Swedish siege of 1655, the shrine has been the centre of
the national Marian cult.
Sikorski Museum (London).
(Anon.) Epitafium (Funeral Portrait) of Jan z Ujazdu - (John of
Ujazd), a knight of the heraldic clan of Druzyna (see coat-of-
arms), dated 1450, formerly in the parish church of Czchow and
in the Lubomirski Collection at Lwow.
Krakow (Wawel Collection).
Plate II Jozef Simmler (1823-68), Smierc Barbary Radziwillowny (1860).
This sentimental study of Queen Barbara's death in 1551, painted
by a member of the German 'Nazarene' School, was immensely
popular in nineteenth-century Poland.
Muzeum Narodowe (Warsaw).
(Anon.) Portrait of Anna Jagiellonka (1523-96), the last of the
Jagiellons - daughter of Sigismund I and Bona Sforza, sister of
Sigismund-August, queen of Stefan Bathory, aunt of Sigismund
III Vasa.
Muzeum Narodowe (Wilanow).
Plate III (Anon.) Zboze zaplaci (17th century), Torun - a scene from the
Vistula Grain Trade. The title is a pun on the Polish words for
'God' and 'Corn'.
Muzeum Torunskie, MT/M/92/SN.
A parokhet (Curtain of the Ark) from the synagogue at
Przedborz, near Piotrkow, date illegible. The design incorporates
the Keter Torah (Crown of the Law) over three Polish eagles. The
dedication is to one, Zvi Hirsch, deceased and his wife...
Orbis Books (London).
Plate IV J. Matejko (1838-93), Unia Lubelska, (1869). A reconstruction of
the submission of the Lithuanian princes painted for the 300th
Anniversary of the Union of Lublin. King Sigismund-August
holds the crucifix aloft as Primate Uchanski proffers the oath to