Jan Matejko's Astronomer Copernicus, or Conversation with God, completed in 1873, shows Nicolaus Copernicus alone at night in deep contemplation, with Frombork Cathedral, where Copernicus served as a canon, visible in the background. The painting was acquired by the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, where Copernicus had studied, and is held today at the university's Collegium Novum. It remains one of the best known Polish images of the astronomer, presenting his cosmological insight as a moment closer to religious revelation than to instrument-based observation. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
Rights and Reproduction
Reproduction and CopyrightSourced to the subject's own accountPainted more than three centuries after Copernicus's death from no surviving contemporary likeness taken from life, Matejko's image nonetheless became the default visual reference for the astronomer reproduced in Polish textbooks and popular print, more widely circulated today than any of the handful of portraits actually made in Copernicus's own lifetime. 1 Classification
Object TypeSourced to the subject's own account Medium (class)Sourced to the subject's own account Connections
Depicts
The painting's sole subject, one of the best known Polish images of the astronomer.
Source Jan Matejko (Wikipedia)
Additional Source Frombork Cathedral (Wikipedia)
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Authored By
Also in Arts and Music Atlas: the author of this subject.
Sources
1. Jan Matejko (Wikipedia)
Wikipedialead sentence, Jan Matejko biography
Jan Alojzy Matejko was a Polish painter, a leading 19th-century exponent of history painting, known for depicting nodal events from Polish history.
- Wikipedia 'Jan Matejko': lists his 'large scale oil paintings such as Stanczyk (1862), Rejtan (1866), Union of Lublin (1869), Astronomer Copernicus, or Conversations with God (1873)'
catalogue record, medium/object-type description
Jan Matejko's Astronomer Copernicus, or Conversation with God, completed in 1873, shows Nicolaus Copernicus alone at night in deep contemplation, with Frombork Cathedral, where Copernicus served as a canon, visible in the background.
- In Group: Portraits of Scientists, article documents Matejko as the painter of this Copernicus portrait
View the Source Frombork Cathedral (Wikipedia)
WikipediaDepicts: Nicolaus CopernicusQuote, Depicts: Nicolaus Copernicus
Frombork Cathedral in background of Jan Matejko's 1873 painting, Astronomer Copernicus, or Conversations with God.
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