My Cultural Attaché has returned to London after a short spell in Poland and a longer one in the US. She is curating interesting outings paired with excellent restaurants.
This week we went to Copernicus at the National Gallery. As we walked up the stairs she asked me what I knew about Copernicus. I had thought he was Greek until a University Challenge question put me on the right track – he was from Poland. Otherwise all I could think of was that he was an astronomer and I didn’t think of him as an artist. I kept that second bit to myself luckily as although he was a polymath he did not have the arrow of artistry in his quiver of erudition.
It transpired we were going to see a 19th century picture of Copernicus by Polish painter, Jan Matejko (1838–1893).
“On loan from Kraków’s historic Jagiellonian University, one of Europe’s oldest founded in the 14th century, this is the first time that we’ve exhibited a painting by a Polish artist.
Despite being largely unknown outside his homeland, Matejko is regarded as the national painter of Poland. His huge paintings, showing iconic events from Polish history, are part and parcel of Poland’s national identity.
This painting celebrates one of the most important names in the history of science, Polish mathematician and astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (1473—1543); known for his theory, published in 1543, which proposed the solar system with the sun at its centre and the planets orbiting around it.
Matejko painted the enormous canvas in 1873 to mark the 400th anniversary of the astronomer’s birth.” (National Gallery)
Copernicus is portrayed telling God of his discovery that the earth revolves round the sun, something of which our Creator must have been aware. When Galileo came to the same conclusion a century later he was branded a heretic so how Copernicus escaped censure from the church is a mystery. The fact he died shortly after publishing his findings was an important factor.
Even the most assiduous student of Polish 19th century art can only look at a picture for so long. We moved to another room exhibiting five views of the Fortress of Königstein by Bellotto, Canaletto’s nephew. It was unusual to see them together as two hang in Manchester, one in the United States, one belongs to the Earl of Derby and the fifth belongs to the National Gallery. A good Bellotto beats a bad Canaletto and probably vice versa.
