Of the eight identifiable mortals on the great Lower Hall ceiling of the Painted Hall, five are astronomers. The earliest of these is Nicolaus Copernicus, born on 19 February 1473. He is the dark-clad man at the East end of the ceiling, standing beside the stern of the Spanish Galleon. He is holding up a golden ‘SYSTEM’, as Thornhill called it, which represents his version of a heliocentric Solar System with the human-faced sun at the centre; a planet, probably Earth, in orbit around it; and a little moon orbiting around the Earth.

Copernicus’ System

Copernicus had been developing the idea of the Earth orbiting around the Sun as early as 1514 and wrote De revolutionibus orbium coelestium during the 1530s. In 1533,  Johann Widmanstetter, secretary to Pope Clement VII, explained Copernicus’s heliocentric system to the Pope and two cardinals. Pope Clement VII was sympathetic to the ideas of Renaissance humanism and did not raise objections to heliocentrism. It wasn’t until 1616 that De revolutionibus orbium coelestium was added to the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (Index of Forbidden Books) drawn up by the Roman Catholic Church. 

For 200 years the Catholic Church outlawed the Copernican heliocentric theory, a decision which had grave consequences for another of the Painted Hall astronomers, Galileo Galilei, born in Pisa on 15 February 1564. On 13 February 1633 he arrived in Rome for his trial before the inquisition, facing a charge of heresy for advocating the theory of Copernicus. Galileo himself can be seen peering through the telescope, which he had been the first to use for observing the stars, at the other end of the ceiling.

So, was it to reinforce a pro-Protestant, anti-Catholic message that Thornhill included Copernicus and Galileo, as onlookers to the Triumph of Peace and Liberty over Tyranny? Perhaps, but we should remember that Thornhill was himself a Fellow of the Royal Society, which suggests that he was interested in theories and discoveries about the natural world.

Visit Luke Jerram’s Helios in the Painted Hall and see the Sun’s fiery expanse in astonishing detail. Helios is on until 25 March 2025.