arts and design

Huge portrait of Copernicus to be seen in UK for first time

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A spectacular three-metre-wide painting of the astronomer Copernicus is to be shown in the UK for the first time, to showcase a superstar 19th-century artist little known outside his native country.

The National Gallery said Jan Matejko is widely regarded as the national painter of Poland, revered for his huge, minutely detailed depictions of key moments in the nation’s history.

His masterpiece, Astronomer Copernicus, or Conversations with God, is his portrait of Nicolaus Copernicus, the 16th-century astronomer who transformed our understanding of the solar system.

It hangs in the senate chamber of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, from where it rarely leaves. The National Gallery announced on Monday that it would display the painting in the spring in a free exhibition introducing British audiences to Matejko.

The painting celebrates the achievements of Copernicus, the first person since the ancient Greeks to realise that it is the sun, not the Earth, which is at the centre of our planetary system and that we revolve around it.

The monumental canvas shows Copernicus kneeling awestruck on a rooftop in his home town of Frombork having a conversation with God about his discovery.

It was exhibited at a time when debate raged about Copernicus’ nationality, with both Germany and Poland claiming him.

Matejko’s painting is saying Copernicus is unquestionably Polish, bringing the work instant fame and reverence. It became a symbol of Polish cultural identity, with thousands of reproductions circulated before it was acquired by subscription for the university.

Christopher Riopelle, the National Gallery’s curator of post-1800 paintings, said: “Matejko saw his role not merely as recording great events from Polish history but at expressing their deep inner meaning for Poles.

“He stands at the end of a long tradition of history painting and, as the wider world is rediscovering, was one of its most ingenious and provocative exponents.”

The display, delayed from the summer by the pandemic, will include a copy of the book in which Copernicus set out his heliocentric theory, De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium, loaned by the National Maritime Museum, as well as astronomical instruments from the Jagiellonian University’s museum.

• Conversations with God, Jan Matejko’s Copernicus will be a free display at the National Gallery 25 March-27 June 2021.

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