Artwork Details
- Title
- Kopernik
- Artist
- Dudley Talcott (1899 – 1986)
- Year
- 1972; installed 1973
- Medium
- Stainless steel, on red granite base
- Dimensions
- Height 12′, width 16', depth 5'7" diameter 16′ (base height 11'8″)
Artwork Description
Mikolaj Kopernik (1473–1543), better known by the Latinized version of his name, Nicolaus Copernicus, laid the foundations of modern astronomy. In an age when philosophers and the Church believed that the entire universe centered on the earth, the Polish mathematician and churchman dared to suppose that the earth revolved around the sun.
The memorial sculpture by Connecticut artist Dudley Talcott was commissioned and donated to the city by a committee of Polish Americans formed to honor Kopernik on the 500th anniversary of his birth. In Talcott’s design, the 16-foot circle symbolizes the earth’s orbit; fixed at the center is the sun, its rays extending to infinity.
The angular framework alludes to Kopernik’s homemade astronomical instruments, some of which were exhibited at the Franklin Institute before the sculpture’s unveiling. The 1973 dedication of Kopernik climaxed a year-long celebration of ethnic heritage by Philadelphia’s large community of Polish Americans.
Content on this page was adapted from Public Art in Philadelphia by Penny Balkin Bach (Temple University Press, 1992). Bach was the longtime Executive Director of the Association for Public Art, working with the organization from 1980 to 2022.
Artwork Credits
Commissioned by a committee of Polish-Americans of Philadelphia
Owned by the City of Philadelphia
Artwork Media
Museum Without Walls
Voices:
DERRICK H. PITTS is Chief Astronomer and Director of the Fels Planetarium at the Franklin Institute.
JOSEPH L. ZAZYCZNY (1935-2020) was a founder and former President of the Polish Heritage Society.
Producer: Ann Heppermann