RT Journal
A1 Cole TB
T1 THe court jester stanczyk (1480-1560) receives news of the loss of smolensk (1514), during a ball at queen bona's court
JF JAMA
JO JAMA
YR 2009
FD October 21
VO 302
IS 15
SP 1627
OP 1627
DO 10.1001/jama.2009.1372
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.2009.1372
AB 
In 1862, when The Court Jester Stanczyk (1480-1560) Receives News of the Loss of Smolensk (1514), During a Ball at Queen Bona's Court (cover) was painted, the nation of Poland was just a memory. For the past 67 years the Polish lands had been partitioned between Russia, Prussia, and Austria, but the Polish people still resented foreign rule, and their anger was about to boil over. Farm workers and students, inspired by the writings of Karl Marx, Mikhail Bakunin, and Giuseppe Garibaldi, began to participate in demonstrations. In response, martial law was imposed and public gatherings were banned. In 1863 young Poles protested conscription into the Russian army, and the protests became an uprising that was quickly put down. The leaders of the revolt were hanged and thousands of their supporters were transported to Siberia. The occupying powers attempted to suppress Polish culture by prohibiting the use of the Polish language in schools and censoring textbooks on Polish history. Russian became the official language of the country. Politically, Poland was dead, and culturally, it was dying. To reawaken a sense of national identity, Polish writers and artists adopted a theme of patriotism, and the most prominent of the artists was Jan Matejko (1838-1893).