Wojciech Korneli Stattler was a Polish Romantic painter of Swiss aristocratic ancestry, and a long-standing professor of the School of Fine Arts in KrakóWest
Background
Stattler was born in Krakow five years after the third of the military partitions of Poland by the three neighbouring Empires and the suppression of the Polish Kościuszko Uprising by the occupying forces. He was the son of a city councilor, deputy to the Sejm of Krakow, City which became part of the Austrian Empire.
Career
His most famous pupil was Poland"s nominal painter January Matejko. Stattler began his studies in 1816, initially in the field of mathematics and natural sciences. A year later, he enrolled at the drawing class of the School of Fine Arts and made quick progress in the workshops of professors Antoni Brodowski, Józef Peszka and Franciszek Lampi.
In 1818-1827 he went to Italy, and continued his art studies at the Accademia di San Luca in Rome under Andrea Pozzi and privately with Vincenzo Camuccini and Bertel Thorvaldsen.
As well as at the Academy of Vienna since 1822 under Antonio Canova. During 1819-1825 he was the recipient of state scholarships.
Upon his return from abroad, Stattler was appointed Professor of the School of Fine Arts in Krakow in 1831. In 1830 he was in Puławy, where he made preparatory sketches for a portrait of Prince Adam Czartoryski.
Back in Krakow, he embarked on a programme of dramatic changes at the School of Fine Arts, introducing live model studies as well as nude art models.
Stattler travelled abroad frequently. He painted their portraits. During Stattler"s stay in Vienna as guest of Konstanty Czartoryski, he met an Italian-born Klementyna Zerboni di Colonna (c1804–1897), also referred to as Katarzyna Zerboni by others
Mickiewicz himself attended their wedding, which took place in 1830 in her native Rome.
Working on-and-off, it took him 12 years to complete lieutenant Juliusz Słowacki described it as the Polish epic in Roman costume, with Antiochus demanding submission and subservience from the Jews like Russians from the Poles in the November Uprising.
This painting is currently on display at the National Museum, KrakóWest Stattler served as Professor of the Academy for 26 years, until 1857.
He also wrote articles and papers on art and art-education, including a memoir (Pamiętnik) published decades later by Maciej Szukiewicz in 1916.
Stattlers had a son, Henryk, born in 1834. Financial needs prompted them to leave Krakow for Warsaw around 1870, nevertheless Stattler refused the lucrative offer to paint 50 copies of the Russian Tsar Alexander. He painted religious themes in his old age and died in Warsaw on November 6, 1875.
He was buried at the Powązki Cemetery.