Gdańsk Real Estate will carry out conservation work on Jan Hevelius’s golden sgraffito ‘Northern Sky’, which adorns the walls of the tenement house at 2 Bednarska Street. This depiction of a 17th-century map of a section of the night sky, created by the famous astronomer, was completed in 2008. Since then, it has suffered some damage – chips and signs of vandalism have appeared on its surface. The restoration work will be carried out by the creators of the artwork, professors and former students of the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk.
Sgraffito inspired by Johannes Hevelius’s atlas
The mural was created in October 2008 on the blank walls of an outbuilding standing opposite the Jan Hevelius monument, right next to Hevelius Square and the Old Town Hall. It was created using the sgraffito technique, which involves applying several layers of coloured plaster and scraping them away to reveal the colours beneath. The work was inspired by the map ‘The Northern Sky’ from the atlas *Firmamentum Sobiescianum sive Uranographia*. This was Johannes Hevelius’s final major work, published posthumously in 1690 by his wife, Elizabeth Koopman Hevelius. The atlas contained maps of both hemispheres of the sky, and the Gdańsk sgraffito depicts the section devoted to the northern sky.
‘The Northern Sky’ by the Gdańsk astronomer
Against a burgundy background are golden depictions of the classical constellations of the northern sky. However, it is the constellations devised by Hevelius himself that attract the most attention. These are Sobieski’s Shield, the Hounds, the Giraffe, the Lizard, the Sextans and the Little Lion. Of the ten constellations proposed by the Gdańsk astronomer, the International Astronomical Union has retained seven. This group also includes the Lynx, which was not included in the sgraffito. Cerberus, the Little Triangle and the Fly, however, have disappeared from astronomical catalogues.
photo by Tanjasimone, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The entire composition at 2 Bednarska Street was planned in a very thoughtful manner. The statue of Johannes Hevelius was positioned opposite the wall so as to give the impression that the scholar is observing his own map of the sky. In this way, an open-air narrative was created about the legacy of Gdańsk’s most famous astronomer.
The creators are returning to restore ‘The Northern Sky’
The sgraffito was the brainchild of Professor Jan Szczypka. The design was prepared by Professors Andrzej Dyakowski and Jacek Zdybel, and the work was carried out by them together with students and graduates of the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk: Anna Waligórska, Agnieszka Budenko, Anna Kloc, Małgorzata Witschenbach, Anna Taut, Justyna Dziechciarska, Zofia Błażko and Sergiusz Powałka. Nearly 20 years after its creation, the work requires conservation. Visible damage and graffiti left by vandals have led Gdańsk Real Estate to decide to restore it. The work will be carried out by the same artists affiliated with the Academy of Fine Arts who created the sgraffito in 2008.
Source: Gdańsk Real Estate, gaps.gda.pl
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