Conversations with God: Jan Matejko's Copernicus
27.05.2021
In spring 2021, an iconic painting of astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, by the most famous Polish painter of the 19th century, Jan Matejko, will make a rare visit to the National Gallery, the first time it will ever have been seen in the UK.
The 10-foot wide painting, which rarely leaves its home in the Senate Chamber of the Jagiellonian University, Kraków, will be part of a new exhibition introducing visitors to the work of Jan Matejko (1838–1893). Despite being largely unknown outside his homeland, this highly original and distinctive artist is widely regarded as the national painter of Poland.
Matejko, (pronounced Ma – tay – coe), is revered by Poles for his huge, teeming, minutely detailed depictions of key moments in the nation's history. This particular work celebrates the achievements of Polish astronomer Copernicus (1473–1543), the first person since the ancient Greeks to realise that the sun rather than the earth is at the centre of our planetary system and that we revolve around it.
The monumental canvas was painted in 1873 to mark the 400th anniversary of the astronomer’s birth. Rather than depicting Copernicus at the moment of his discovery of heliocentrism – in the painting his chart of the heavens can already be seen there by his side – Matejko chose to paint him on a rooftop in his hometown of Frombork discussing the matter with God. Unlike Galileo, some 73 years later, who reached similar conclusions but who alienated the Catholic Church, Copernicus was never excommunicated for challenging traditional belief; indeed, enlightened clerics of the day celebrated his breakthrough.
This painting of a genius at work achieved almost instant fame when it was first exhibited in Kraków. It was circulated in thousands of reproductions and was subsequently acquired by subscription for the Jagiellonian University in 1873.
The exhibition will include a copy of Copernicus’s De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres, published in 1543 (National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London) which marked a turning point in human understanding of our place in the universe, together with astronomical instruments (The Jagiellonian University Museum, Kraków) and a self portrait and preliminary study for The Astronomer Copernicus: Conversations with God (The National Museum in Kraków).
The exhibition is supported by the Polish Minister of Culture and National Heritage as part of the Multi-annual Programme “Niepodległa” which commemorates the centennial of Poland regaining its independence and rebuilding statehood.
Supported by
The Capricorn Foundation in memory of Mr H J Hyams