informations about this artist
Quoting: Lightbulb
Those are always great, though I'd really like to see them up close, since they have so much detail that's lost over the internet, it looks like.
here you have whole gallery of his famous paintings
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Matejko’s_Galleryas to details, yes they are really important, because there is a lot of historical persons, and their face or actions showed on painting have meaning. So maybe I will give you one exaple of it (the easiest ;) to show)

The jester is the only person at a royal ball who is troubled by the news that the Russians have captured Smolensk. This event happened in 1514.
and this jester isnt casual one ... (folow link below)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanczykso in other paintings most of charcters have their interpretation, especialy on pictures showing political events.