Year 1903 (1903) Artist Stanisław Wyspiański | Type stained glass Created 1904 | |
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Location Medical Society, Krakow | ||
Apollo (System Copernicus) is a stained glass window, designed by Stanisław Wyspiański for the Medical Society in Krakow, from 1904.
Contents
Location and history
The stained glass is located in the building of the House of the Medical Society, Radziwiłłowska Street 4 in Krakow. The building was built at the request of Dr. Julian Nowak in 1904. This is one of the many decorative arts, of the building, designed by Wyspiański, who also designed stair railings, wall paintings and floor, and also the furniture, and chandeliers. The Wyspiański stained glass windows in the House of Medicine are the only stained glass windows of the artist within a secular building.
The choice of the theme of stained glass was associated with connecting to the Astronomical Society of Medicine. Originally it was to be on the form of Nicolaus Copernicus. Finally, while the remaining subjects related to astronomy, the chosen form of Apollo-Sun.
The stained glass was made on the basis of a pastel by Wyspiański under the same title; the drawing is located in the collection of the National Museum in Krakow, which came in 1946 as a gift from Dr. Nowak. The project of stained glass is one of the most reproduced works of Wyspiański, printed in magazines, album publications and postage stamps.
Description
Apollo, god of the Sun, on the stained glass is presented tied up and attached to the lyre, which crushes him with its weight. Such an approach to the subject is interpreted among other things, as a reference to "stop" the sun by Nicolaus Copernicus. Around Apollo are presented other planets in the solar system: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Earth, Luna and Venus.