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.
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 Cross-Tradition Connections
Depicts
The painting's sole subject, one of the best known Polish images of the astronomer.
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