Portrety Mikołaja Kopernika z katedry w Strasburgu i z Muzeum Okręgowego w Toruniu

To the number of the most ancient images of Nicolaus Coipernieuis are to be counted a portrait painted oil on a pine wood pained by Tobias Stimmer in 1571—74, forming a part of the astronomical clock of the Strassbourg Cathedral and that at present preserved in the Museum in Toruń, coming from the end of the 16th century which, according to the author’s investigations, was executed by a Dutch artist named Marcus Geeraets on the basis of a portrait drawing once preserved in Frombork. Marcus Geeraets was for many years supplying his drawings to Theodore de Bry, an engraver, who at the end of the 16th century have executed the well-known copper plate representing the portrait of that great astronomer. Both the above-named artists can therefore be listed as the first inspirers and publishers of Copernicus images in the Netherlands, Germany and England. By means of X-raying it became possible to reveal in the Toruń portrait an underpainting which was e x ecuted much more artistically than the final version itself. As to its details this underpainting is identical with the copper plate engraving by de Bry which means that the engraver must have seen the portrait during the first stage of its execution and made use of the accurate drawing prepared by the Dutch painter. In the further course of investigations of that portrait it proved that in the 17th century it was shortened in height and that the sitter wais originally shown with his both fists visible, holding in one hand a istem of lily of the valley. As a consequence of the same X-ray investigations it was possible to etablish that the Strassbourg portrait was overpainted in 1835 basing on a copy from 1735 that was made for the Paris Astronomical Observatory from a sixteenth-century drawing then preserved in Toruń. From the attached rentgenograms it may easily be seen that in the authentic version the astronomer is portrayed with a quite different hair-do; his long hairs are straightly and freely hanging over the shoulders. Also the garment, having quite different shape of its folds, is bordered with a big, seemingly fur collar. So then, the most ancient image from Strassbourg that was, according to every probability, executed by Tobias Stimmer and the portrait from Toruń are two entirely different images differing one from another not only artistically but also technically and it must be said that that kept in the Regional Museum, Toruń As to be considered as one of considerably better quality.