Polonia, the name for

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

and many

Romance Romance (from Vulgar Latin , "in the Roman language", i.e., "Latin") may refer to: Common meanings * Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings * Romance languages, ...

and other languages, is most often used in modern

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

as referring to the

diaspora A diaspora ( ) is a population that is scattered across regions which are separate from its geographic place of origin. Historically, the word was used first in reference to the dispersion of Greeks in the Hellenic world, and later Jews after ...

. However, as can be seen from the image, it was also used as a

national personification A national personification is an anthropomorphic personification of a state or the people(s) it inhabits. It may appear in political cartoons and propaganda. Some early personifications in the Western world tended to be national manifestations ...

. The symbolic depiction of a country as a woman called by the Latin name of that country was common in the 19th Century (see

Germania Germania ( ; ), also called Magna Germania (English: ''Great Germania''), Germania Libera (English: ''Free Germania''), or Germanic Barbaricum to distinguish it from the Roman province of the same name, was a large historical region in north- ...

Britannia Britannia () is the national personification of Britain as a helmeted female warrior holding a trident and shield. An image first used in classical antiquity, the Latin ''Britannia'' was the name variously applied to the British Isles, Great ...

Hibernia ''Hibernia'' () is the Classical Latin name for Ireland. The name ''Hibernia'' was taken from Greek geographical accounts. During his exploration of northwest Europe (c. 320 BC), Pytheas of Massalia called the island ''Iérnē'' (written ). ...

Helvetia Helvetia () is the female national personification of Switzerland, officially ''Confoederatio Helvetica,'' the Swiss Confederation. The allegory is typically pictured in a flowing gown, with a spear and a shield emblazoned with the Swiss fla ...

Personifications of Poland in art

Bernardo Morando Bernardo Morando, also known as ''Bernardino'' or ''Morandi'' (ca. 1540 - 1600) was an Italian architect from the Republic of Venice. He is notable as the designer of the ''new town'' of Zamość, modelled on Renaissance theories of the 'ideal ci ...

''Polonia'', Old Lublin Gate in

Zamość Zamość (; yi, זאמאשטש, Zamoshtsh; la, Zamoscia) is a historical city in southeastern Poland. It is situated in the southern part of Lublin Voivodeship, about from Lublin, from Warsaw. In 2021, the population of Zamość was 62,021. ...

, 1588 *

Ary Scheffer Ary Scheffer (10 February 179515 June 1858) was a Dutch-French Romantic painter. He was known mostly for his works based on literature, with paintings based on the works of Dante, Goethe, and Lord Byron, as well as religious subjects. He was als ...

''Polonia'', 1831 *

Horace Vernet Émile Jean-Horace Vernet (30 June 178917 January 1863), more commonly known as simply Horace Vernet, was a French Painting, painter of battles, portraits, and Orientalism, Orientalist subjects. Biography Vernet was born to Carle Vernet, another ...

''Polish Prometheus'', 1831 *

Jan Matejko Jan Alojzy Matejko (; also known as Jan Mateyko; 24 June 1838 – 1 November 1893) was a Poles, Polish painting, painter, a leading 19th-century exponent of history painting, known for depicting nodal events from Polish history. His works includ ...

''Polonia'', Illustration to

Zygmunt Krasiński Napoleon Stanisław Adam Feliks Zygmunt Krasiński (; 19 February 1812 – 23 February 1859) was a Polish poet traditionally ranked after Adam Mickiewicz and Juliusz Słowacki as one of Poland's Three Bards – the Romantic poets who influenced ...

's "Psalmy Przeszłości" ("Psalms of the past"), 1861 *

Artur Grottger Artur Grottger (11 November 1837 – 13 December 1867) was a Polish Romantic painter and graphic artist, one of the most prominent artists of the mid 19th century under the foreign partitions of Poland, despite a life cut short by incurable ill ...

''Polonia'', 1863 *

''Rok 1863. Zakuwana Polska'' ("Year 1863 - Polonia enchained"), 1864Jan Cavanaugh. ''Out Looking in: Early Modern Polish Art, 1890-1918''.

University of California Press The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by faculty ...

. 2000. pp. 18, 106-107, 188. *

Jan Styka Jan, JaN or JAN may refer to: Acronyms * Jackson, Mississippi (Amtrak station), US, Amtrak station code JAN * Jackson-Evers International Airport, Mississippi, US, IATA code * Jabhat al-Nusra (JaN), a Syrian militant group * Japanese Article Numb ...

''Polonia'', 1890–91 *

Stanisław Wyspiański Stanisław Mateusz Ignacy Wyspiański (; 15 January 1869 – 28 November 1907) was a Polish playwright, painter and poet, as well as interior and furniture designer. A patriotic writer, he created a series of symbolic, national dramas within ...

''Polonia'', 1892-93. Part of stained-glass design for

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ove ...

Latin Cathedral in Lviv The Archcathedral Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, usually called simply the Latin Cathedral ( uk, Лати́нський собо́р, pl, Katedra Łacińska) is a 14th-century Roman Catholic cathedral in Lviv, western Ukrai ...

/Lwów (in

pastel A pastel () is an art medium in a variety of forms including a stick, a square a pebble or a pan of color; though other forms are possible; they consist of powdered pigment and a binder. The pigments used in pastels are similar to those use ...

, never realized in glass) *

Jacek Malczewski Jacek Malczewski (; 15 July 1854 – 8 October 1929) was a Polish symbolist painter who is one of the most revered painters of Poland, associated with the patriotic Young Poland movement following a century of Partitions. He is regarded as the f ...

''In the Dust Cloud'', 1893Jeremy Howard. ''Art Nouveau: International and National Styles in Europe''.

Manchester University Press Manchester University Press is the university press of the University of Manchester, England and a publisher of academic books and journals. Manchester University Press has developed into an international publisher. It maintains its links with th ...

. 1996. p. 135. *

''Hamlet polski - Portret of

Aleksander Wielopolski Margrave ( pl, margrabia) Aleksander Ignacy Jan-Kanty Wielopolski (born 1803 in Sędziejowice, Kraków Department, Duchy of Warsaw, died 1877 in Dresden, Kingdom of Saxony, German Empire) was a Polish aristocrat, owner of large estates, and the ...

'' (" Polish Hamlet - Portrait of Aleksander Wielopolski"), 1903 *

''The Fatherland'', 1903 *

Włodzimierz Tetmajer Włodzimierz Tetmajer (December 31, 1861 in Harklowa – December 26, 1923 in Kraków) was a Polish painter with works in collections of the Warsaw National Museum and Kraków. Biography Włodzimierz Tetmajer was born in Harklowa near Krako ...

''Alegoria Polski umarłej'' ("Allegory of Dead Poland"), St. Nicholas Cathedral in

Kalisz (The oldest city of Poland) , image_skyline = , image_caption = ''Top:'' Town Hall, Former "Calisia" Piano Factory''Middle:'' Courthouse, "Gołębnik" tenement''Bottom:'' Aerial view of the Kalisz Old Town , image_flag = POL Kalisz flag.svg ...

, 1909 *

''Polonia'', 1914 *

Władysław Skoczylas Władysław Skoczylas (4 April 1883, Wieliczka – 8 April 1934, Warsaw) was a Polish watercolorist, woodcutter, sculptor and art teacher. Biography His father was a foreman in the salt mines. He graduated from the gymnasium in Bochnia, then a ...

''Polonia'', 1915 *

Jacek Mierzejewski Jacek Mierzejewski (1883, Sosnowiec - 1925, Otwock) was a Polish painter, associated with "Formism", a Polish art movement that combined Cubism, Impressionism and Futurism. Biography He began his studies at the Warsaw School of Drawing, then ...

''Polonia'', 1915 *

''Polonia II'', 1918 * Leszek Sobocki ''Polonia'', 1982 * Edward Dwurnik ''Polonia'', 1984

Gallery

Image:Quincunx Polonia.jpg, Personification of Poland standing on the shoulders of a pope and a king; from a 16th-century political treatise by

Stanisław Orzechowski Stanisław Orzechowski, also known among others as Stanisław Orżechowski Roxolan, Stanislaus Orichovius Polonus, Stanislaus Orichovius Ruthenus,

Image:Stara_Brama_Lubelska_12-09.JPG, ''Polonia'' by

(1588). Bas-relief at the top of the ''Old Lublin Gate'' in Zamość Image:Union in lublin.JPG, Bas-relief on monument in

Lublin Lublin is the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the center of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin is the largest Polish city east of t ...

commemorating the 1569 union between Poland and Lithuania,

Paweł Maliński Paweł Maliński (1790-1853) was a Czech-born sculptor and mason who lived and worked in Poland. Training Maliński was born in Berniau, Czech Republic. In 1804 he enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts, Prague. In the years 1810-1816 he studied at ...

(1826) Image:Scheffer Allegory of the November Uprising.png, ''Polonia'' by

(1831). Allegory of fall of the

November Uprising The November Uprising (1830–31), also known as the Polish–Russian War 1830–31 or the Cadet Revolution, was an armed rebellion in the heartland of partitioned Poland against the Russian Empire. The uprising began on 29 November 1830 in W ...

Image:Jacek Malczewski, Hamlet Polski - Portret Aleksandra Wielopolskiego.jpg, ''

Polish Hamlet. Portrait of Aleksander Wielopolski ''Polish Hamlet. Portrait of Alexander Wielopolski'' is an oil painting by Jacek Malczewski from 1903, presenting the allegorical grandson Aleksander Wielopolski and two different visions of the fate of the Polish nation. Description It is in th ...

'' by

(1903). The female figures symbolize young revolutionary Poland and old enslaved Poland Image:Alegoria_Umarlej_Polski.jpg, ''Allegory of Dead Poland'' by

(1909) Image:POLONIA - Antoni Madeyski.jpg, ''Polonia'' depicted on a Polish 10 Złoty coin of 1932

References

{{National personifications National personifications History of Poland