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I also love the little detail of the carpet, the fact that it's "wrinkled" as if the jester let his whole weight fall to the chair in despair.

“A fire broke out backstage in a theatre. The clown came out to warn the public; they thought it was a joke and applauded. He repeated it; the acclaim was even greater." - Soren Kierkegaard

"A story is told that in 1806 a man goes to visit a doctor who is acclaimed for his ability to treat melancholia. “I can’t eat, I can’t sleep,” says the man. “I feel constantly miserable. Please help me, doctor.”

“Laughter is the best medicine, my friend,” says the doctor. “Take yourself off to Covent Garden Theatre* where you will find The Great Grimaldi performing in Harlequin and Mother Goose; or the Golden Egg. It is exquisitely funny and will cure you of all your ills without any pills or potions from my cabinet.”

The man looks at the doctor for a moment. “Ah,” he says. “That won’t help.”

“Why not, sir?”

The man shrugs. “I am Grimaldi.”

Knowing the background history of the painting makes me realize that the painter intended this painting for a very specific audience that I’m not a part of.

There's a hopelessness in this painting that makes my heart hurt. To my understanding, jesters often had the job of breaking bad news to their lord. The partiers dance, oblivious to what has happened, and he has to go in there and shatter that illusion. He has to go in there and say what no-one wants to hear, at the time they least want to hear it.

This can also be interpreted as: "How can I bring up the bad news without killing the mood?"

I can tell you one thing polish people really appreciate is when someone takes the time to actually learn how to properly pronounce polish words. good job.

it's the look on his face that gets me. i know that look, complete emptiness, hollow, disheveled, feeling like everything is crumbling around him, like he just isnt there , and his posture shows he's metaphorically and physically slumping and sinking deeper and deeper into this emptiness. and the fact that it's somebody who makes other laugh makes it so its something a lot of people can relate to.

For me, Stanczyk is one of the darkest paintings ever produced as it brings home the dark reality of life. Many pieces of art such as Goya's, while easily considered dark, are surreal and things we cannot comprehend, but something we all face over life is the feeling of crippling loneliness which is captured to perfection by Matejko in said piece. Man's own mind is the most terrifying thing there is, at least as far as I'm concerned.

In my understanding this painting has two main themes: one historical, which shows how low has Poland fell (if the jester is the only one remaining who cares about the realm) and the second one, purely emotional, which shows a man who just realized that there's nothing more he can do to protect something he loves, there's only downfall ahead despite the fact that what he loves could be easily saved but not by himself alone.

The historical context made it more relatable to me. The country is going into total catastrophe and the ruling class is decadent. The one person who cares is not in any position to fix it. I think such a "we're all doomed thanks to the rulers" perspective is very relatable to everyone, not just Poland.

I think the piece you’re missing to this puzzle is that in a lot of cases, it was the jesters job to bring bad news to the king. And if they didn’t put it the right way, it would be their head on the floor

The wonderful thing about paintings is their interpretation.
Stańczyk is a jester that appears in a book called "Wesele" (Stanisław Wyspiański) as a ghost.
The book depicts different types of thinking patterns polish people went for at the time and how these patterns and sins will lead to the fall of Poland.
Stańczyk, as one of the wisest people in Poland, points out the wrongs in the person he talks to (The Journalist) and people on this wedding reception, telling them that if they continue everything will go wrong.

Everyone ignores him.


So you could also interpret the painting as Stańczyk sitting in a state of melancholy, knowing that people behind him are blind and ignorant, knowing that he can't do anything to save his motherland.

A fun(?) fact: the Wawel castle in the background is a really important piece of Polish culture, there are coffins of kings and poets such as Mickiewicz in its basement. I love that detail, because, knowing the historical context,  Matejko showed us: not only the letter is about a 'fall of the empire', not only the commet, also the basement of Wawel awaiting for anoher fallen king

I love the sad clown paradox because it emphasizes the significance of showing kindness and empathy towards others, regardless of their outward appearance. It serves as a reminder that we cannot truly understand what someone else might be experiencing, and that it's crucial to treat others with compassion and empathy. By doing so, we can create a more nurturing and supportive environment where people are comfortable expressing their real emotions, which Stanczyk was unfortunately not able to.

I think that understanding of Matejko's envoy isn't possible without deeper knowledge of Polish history. Jan Matejko worked in the times in which there was no Polish state. In my opinion loss of Smolensk wasn't for Matejko just loss of one of fortresses at the eastern border but a beginning of a series of events which led to fall of state which used to be one of the greatest in the continent (A Polish Nobleman, Rembrandt; Stephen Bathory at Pskov, Matejko), which led to partitions of Poland, replacement of Nobles' Democracy with absolute monarchies, whole generations sentenced to work in Siberia (Christmas Eve in Siberia, Jacek Malczewski; Farewell to Europe, Aleksander Sochaczewski). I'm sure that people who saw 'Stanczyk' in XIX century were aware of it and could fully understand how huge is Stanczyk's sorrow. In this context 'Stanczyk' seems to be not only expression of grief but also a warning for future generations to care for the state more than Queen Bona.

"I think the saddest people always try their hardest to make people happy because they know what it's like to feel absolutely worthless and they don't want anyone else to feel like that" - Robin Williams

It makes sense to me that the jesters job was to deliver news to the person in command in a funny way. So, the painting itself is very powerful and the video provided a lot of context that I wouldn’t have figured out on my own. The tower didn’t catch my eye until you pointed it out.

This is the first and only painting that I have ever connected with. Not only that, but I connect with it on both a historical and personal level and I keep coming back to it over the years. I can feel his dispair, his emptiness, his dissapointment, his worry, his hopelessness. I can understand all of it and I can feel it with him. This painting will always hold a special place in my heart.