Karton do polichromii Kościoła Mariackiego - Główka aniołka (portret córki Heleny)

This cartoon for the St. Mary's polychrome depicts an angel child's head that is in fact a portrait of Matejko's own daughter Helena, a practice with deep roots in Renaissance and Baroque art where living models — especially family members — populated sacred compositions. By using his daughter's face for an angel in Kraków's most important church, Matejko wove personal memory into a monument of national and religious significance. Helena Matejko's likeness thus became part of the permanent iconographic fabric of the Mariacki, a public building saturated with Matejko's artistic identity.

The intimate scale of the portrait head is handled with tenderness: soft modelling of the child's features in warm flesh tones, the angel wings gestured rather than fully realized. The directness of gaze gives the study an emotional immediacy at odds with its intended monumental context.