Astronomer Copernicus, or Conversations with God

Matejko finished this in 1873, timed for the 400th anniversary of Copernicus's birth, and it was meant to do something specific. Poland had been wiped off the map, partitioned among its neighbours, and Matejko spent his career painting great Polish moments to keep national pride alive. Here he claims Copernicus, the man who moved the Earth from the centre of the universe, as one of those figures. He shows him kneeling on a rooftop balcony at night, instruments scattered around, the cathedral of Frombork behind him and the sky wheeling overhead. The setting is invented. Copernicus's real observing spot was almost certainly at ground level, not this dramatic tower, and scholars still argue about where exactly it stood. The canvas was bought for the nation by public subscription and hangs today in the great hall of the university in Krakow where Copernicus once studied.