Image: Arthur Szyk (1894-1951). In Comradeship of Arms series, King Jagiełło of Poland (1942), New York

Description: In 1410, The Polish King and Grand Duke of Lithuania, Wladyslaw Jagiełło famously led a stirring victory of Polish/Lithuanian forces over invading German armies. The battle took place at Grunwald in northwestern Poland. In this painting, Szyk uses the nobility of that historic military victory, one-half millennium earlier, as a metaphor representing the continuity of right over might against yet another aggressive German invasion during World War II. King Jagiełło, jeweled crown on his head, stands, in full ornamental regalia, striking a pose of supreme strength with his right hand clasped around a ritualistic military shield. At his feet is a bloody silver axe atop a German helmet. All of the painted text that pervades the complete image is directed to invoke the destruction of Germany. In the extreme upper left hand corner Szyk has written, in Polish, “To the American People from the Polish Nation in a brotherhood of arms”. Upon the red and white Eagle shield is the inscription “We will not give up the land from which we came. We will not let the Polish Nation be Germanized by force. We Polish Royal Piast nation.” This text, taken from a Polish patriotic song, refers to the royal dynasty of Piast from the first half of the second millennium. Along the handle of the axe is written “Polish ax, German head,” an appropriate rhyming ditty. Upon the black German eagle shield, Szyk has added in German “You will not escape the People’s vengeance.” And nearby “Lieold” and “Kreutz” This is perhaps a reference to the Knights of the Cross, a monastic fighting unit (like the better known “Templars”) that led the German armies during the 1410 battle of Grunwald. Kreutz is German for “cross”. Hidden in the extreme lower left-hand corner is one word that provides a powerful summation to all the others: “Thieves.” Even after becoming an American citizen, Arthur Szyk was famously proud to be a Son of Poland. This illumination of the Polish Jagiello straddles several centuries at once, incorporating the earlier times of the Polish King with the mirrored chaos of World War II. The modern airplanes in the upper right hand corner present an eerie sense of anachrony that Szyk explored several times before in his In Comradeship of Arms series: Queen Elizabeth [England], Joan of Arc [France], and Peter the Great [Russia].
Title: Arthur Szyk (1894-1951). In Comradeship of Arms series, King Jagiełło of Poland (1942), New York
Credit: The Arthur Szyk Society, Burlingame, CA (www.szyk.org)
Author: Arthur Szyk
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