On Wednesday we went to the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square, with the intention of seeing this painting which had recently come to London with much fanfare within the Polish community. It is the first time it has been displayed in England and my photos do not do it justice in anyway. But I photographed the captions because I thought they give a good idea of why knowledge about Copernicus is important in the modern English speaking world. In my experience very few people have even heard of him, let alone are aware of his nationality.

About Matejko the painter, I have my reservations. I find him instructional rather than aesthetic. But then I don’t know enough about Art.

It was, however, very edifying that this small yet important exhibition had a room all to itself in the National Gallery, and very few people were allowed in at anyone time. As we went in, a Japanese family with four little girls were coming out. I wonder what they made of it?

I will let the rest of the photos speak for themselves.

For me this was the most exciting piece in the exhibition. A book, written by Copernicus and printed in Nuremberg. This is why Latin is still so important.

And finally a torquetum. I’d never even heard of this before. A pity this is a replica!

So that’s it. A lot of history and art condensed into a few objects. Have you been? What did you think?