Franciszek Starowieyski’s painting ‘Divina Polonia rapta per Europa profana’, or ‘Divine Poland hijacked by pagan Europe’, is returning to the Polish Permanent Representation to the European Union.

The information was confirmed by Poland’s ambassador to the EU Andrzej Sadoś. For more than a decade, the work had been kept in storage.

The painting, measuring 3.5 metres by 4 metres, was hung in 1998 in Brussels in the lobby of the building of the Polish Mission to the European Union, later the Permanent Representation.

It was commissioned by Franciszek Starowieyski for Bronisław Geremek, then Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs. Its original title ‘Divina Polonia rapta per Europa profana’ was shortened and only ‘Divina Polonia’ remained, as not all Polish officials in the EU understood the author’s artistic intention.

When Polish diplomats moved to new premises in the centre of Brussels in 2011, the painting was put into storage.

“Now the work is returning to the Permanent Representation and will be in the most prominent place in the prestigious part, in the entrance hall of the conference centre”, said Andrzej Sadoś, Polish ambassador to the EU.

The artwork refers to the myth of the abduction of Europe and aroused much controversy in the late 1990s. It depicts Poland being raptured by a bull in the company of Europe. For many at the time, the canvas had eminently anti-integration overtones. Starowieyski, in one of his interviews, responded to these accusations by saying that he saw it that way because he was a Polish nationalist.

Adrian Andrzejewski