DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.23229#0112
CHOPIN'S ALMA MATER AND THE WARSAW LYCEE
I
The monument
to Nicolaus Copernicus
and two letters by Chopin
Ts
founding of the monument to Nicolaus Copernicus was a sym-
bolic common achievement of the University and the Association of
Friends of the Sciences. The enterprise had been planned for years;
according to initial plans, dating from as early as 1810, the monument was
to be located in the courtyard of the University, in front of the Kazimie-
rzowski Palace. Its form, however, the design for which was put forward
by Piotr Aigner after discussions with a group of scholars, was entirely
different from the one by Thorvaldsen which was finally erected. Aigner
designed a monument in the shape of an obelisk decorated with the signs
of the Zodiac and a drawing of a planetary system, with the inscription
SYSTEMA and the Sun in the centre (fig. 110). Before the latter design
was accepted, the members of the Association asked Jan Sniadecki, one
of the most famous scientists of the period, for an opinion, since he was
considered the highest authority on "issues pertaining to astronomy and
Copernicus". Sniadecki expressed his "rather unfavourable assessment
of Aigner's design"145. Sniadecki's letter to the Association caused not
only the design to be dismissed, but also the other designs to be aban-
doned and whole idea of founding the monument to be postponed. One
of those other designs was particularly fanciful: it was by Jan Foralski,
and featured the great astronomer sitting on a globe supported by per-
sonifications of the Four Seasons. This idea must have quite appealed to
the imagination of the inhabitants of Warsaw, since it was recorded on
two contemporary watercolours146. It was only in the year 1814 that the
issue of a monument to the author of De revolutionibus was returned to
again. As a result of several meetings of the Association (and as has been
noted already, the majority of the professors of the University were also its
members), a contract with Bertel Thorvaldsen was signed in Warsaw on
30th September 1820. In fact, the most famous sculptor of contemporary
Europe took nine years to fulfil the contract. He sent to Warsaw a plaster
model of the statue, which was then cast in bronze in Poland.
In Fryderyk Skarbek's memoirs there is a description of the ceremony of
the unveiling of this monument on 11th May 1830. Skarbek remembered
particularly clearly the uplifting atmosphere of the day and an extraordi-
nary moment of sunshine:
Fig. 110. Chrystian Piotr Aigner, Design for a monument to Copernicus, 1810, drawing,
private collection.
I
The monument
to Nicolaus Copernicus
and two letters by Chopin
Ts
founding of the monument to Nicolaus Copernicus was a sym-
bolic common achievement of the University and the Association of
Friends of the Sciences. The enterprise had been planned for years;
according to initial plans, dating from as early as 1810, the monument was
to be located in the courtyard of the University, in front of the Kazimie-
rzowski Palace. Its form, however, the design for which was put forward
by Piotr Aigner after discussions with a group of scholars, was entirely
different from the one by Thorvaldsen which was finally erected. Aigner
designed a monument in the shape of an obelisk decorated with the signs
of the Zodiac and a drawing of a planetary system, with the inscription
SYSTEMA and the Sun in the centre (fig. 110). Before the latter design
was accepted, the members of the Association asked Jan Sniadecki, one
of the most famous scientists of the period, for an opinion, since he was
considered the highest authority on "issues pertaining to astronomy and
Copernicus". Sniadecki expressed his "rather unfavourable assessment
of Aigner's design"145. Sniadecki's letter to the Association caused not
only the design to be dismissed, but also the other designs to be aban-
doned and whole idea of founding the monument to be postponed. One
of those other designs was particularly fanciful: it was by Jan Foralski,
and featured the great astronomer sitting on a globe supported by per-
sonifications of the Four Seasons. This idea must have quite appealed to
the imagination of the inhabitants of Warsaw, since it was recorded on
two contemporary watercolours146. It was only in the year 1814 that the
issue of a monument to the author of De revolutionibus was returned to
again. As a result of several meetings of the Association (and as has been
noted already, the majority of the professors of the University were also its
members), a contract with Bertel Thorvaldsen was signed in Warsaw on
30th September 1820. In fact, the most famous sculptor of contemporary
Europe took nine years to fulfil the contract. He sent to Warsaw a plaster
model of the statue, which was then cast in bronze in Poland.
In Fryderyk Skarbek's memoirs there is a description of the ceremony of
the unveiling of this monument on 11th May 1830. Skarbek remembered
particularly clearly the uplifting atmosphere of the day and an extraordi-
nary moment of sunshine:
Fig. 110. Chrystian Piotr Aigner, Design for a monument to Copernicus, 1810, drawing,
private collection.