What’s the Meaning Behind Copernicus’ Portrait with Lily-of-the-Valley?

It’s always intriguing to see what attributes people chose to be painted with in old portraits. After all, portraits were a big deal. Unlike modern photographs, even well-to-do people often had a single portrait of them painted throughout their lifetime.

Some famous painters, like Rembrandt, produced a whole bunch of self-portraits, documenting their own face in all kinds of images, ranging from the solemn to the comical. But in normal cases, a portrait was a formal, important affair, and the way you were portrayed mattered.

Astronomer Who Painted a Self-Portrait

There aren’t many authenticated lifetime portraits of Nicolaus Copernicus.

Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543) was a mathematician, astronomer, and physician, famous for coming up with a mathematical model showing that the Sun was stationary, while the Earth revolved around it.

While today he’s best known for his heliocentric model of the solar system, Copernicus was mainly active as a church canon and a physician during his lifetime. He studied astronomy and indulged in various scholarly pursuits, but not in any official capacity.

Portrait of Nicolaus Copernicus. 16th century. Author Unknown, German school

Copernicus’ theory made him famous, but mostly among other astronomers. Tycho Brache (1546-1601), a renowned Danish astronomer, admired Copernicus’ work. It is said that he owned a self-portrait by Copernicus, showing the astronomer with a lily-of-the-valley in his hand.

A copy of this portrait likely survives, placed at the side of the Strasbourg Astronomical Clock in Strasbourg’s cathedral. It shows Copernicus kneeling beside a large book with a text that reads, “Nicolaus Copernicus, his image from his self-portrait”; he holds a lily-of-the-valley in his hand.

Strasbourg Astronomical Clock; Copernicus portrait

What’s the Meaning of the Flower?

Whether an authentic copy of his self-portrait or not, Nicolaus Copernicus was often portrayed with a lily-of-the-valley in his hand. Before we jump to the conclusion that this must have been his favorite flower, let’s try to unravel the reason for this curious choice of attribute.

As all other scholars of his time, Copernicus studied both astronomy and astrology, which were tightly interrelated at the time. So was medicine and astrology. During the Renaissance, people believed that heavenly bodies directly influence events in people’s lives. Moreover, stars and planets didn’t only determine how lucky you would be, but in Renaissance thinking, they also influenced human health and caused illnesses. Zodiac signs were believed to rule various parts of the body, for example. So, in order to heal, a physician had to have a thorough knowledge of astrology and horoscopes to counterbalance the negative influence of the stars. 

Anatomical Man, Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry, Limbourg Brothers, 1402-1416

Healing herbs were another important element of Renaissance medicine. Without pharmaceutical chemistry, a lot of substances and elements could only be derived from plants. 

Lily-of-the-valley has been used for centuries to treat heart failure and arrythmia, as well as many other serious health issues, such as epilepsy. It’s still in use today. However, due to its high toxicity, the plant should never be used in home remedies or herbal teas.

In Copernicus’ portrait, the lily-of-the-valley symbolized his profession of physician. The lovely, delicate flower represented the healing powers of herbs that the physician enlisted to make his patients well.

Healing Plants in Portraits  

 Conrad Gessner, a doctor. 1587. engraving by Christoph Murer; rosa damascena

Copernicus wasn't the only famous physician to be portrayed with herbs in his hands. Conrad Gessner (1516-1565) was a Swiss physician. His portrait shows several flowers laid out on the table before him. Two of them look like roses (possibly the rosa damascena used in medicine and in cosmetics), while the third flower is recognizably a lily-of-the-valley. 

Leonhart Fuchs,  (1501-1566). 1541. Heinrich Füllmaurer

Leonhart Fuchs (1501-1566), a German botanist and physician, is also portrayed holding a flower, which in his case seems to be one of the many plants in the veronica genus, perhaps veronica officinalis that was used to treat coughs and heal wounds.

In Conclusion

The symbolism of the objects in old portraits can be surprising and very interesting to explore. Often, it’s about a person’s profession, as in the case of Nicolaus Copernicus and his lily-of-the-valley. Sometimes, objects in portraits hint at important events in a person’s life, such as a betrothal or a change in social status. Numerous other options are possible – family connections, age of the portrayed, a nickname, and, on occasion, even a family secret. That’s what makes old portraits interesting – you never know what you might uncover if you take some time to research!

 

Bibliography

Chasing the Sun: The Epic Story of the Star That Gives Us Life. Richard Cohen. Simon & Schuster. 2010. London

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nicolaus-Copernicus/Publication-of-De-revolutionibus

http://www.visittorun.pl/232,l2.html

https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl020595711

https://restorativemedicine.org/library/monographs/lily-of-the-valley/