Battle of Grunwald, the death of the Grand Master Ulrich von Jungingen (detail) 

Jan Matejko's ‘Battle of Grunwald,’ is an oil painting, though undated, made during the artist’s lifetime in Poland. The way Matejko layers the paint is key here; thin washes of color and thick impasto highlight the dramatic moment, the death of Ulrich von Jungingen. But it's not just the application that matters. The very stuff of the work is meaningful. The pigments ground from minerals and plants, mixed with oil painstakingly refined, all speak to the economics of art in Matejko's time. Think about the canvas itself, woven from flax, stretched and primed. All this is part of a larger system of labor, politics, and consumption. The level of detail indicates the amount of work that went into the painting's production. Looking at the ‘Battle of Grunwald’ in this way allows us to appreciate the painting as more than just an image. It’s an object, born of material and process, deeply embedded in its time.