The University of Bologna houses a statue of Nicolaus Copernicus, which not only commemorates the Polish astronomer, but also recalls his association with the oldest university in Europe. He studied here at the end of the 15th century.

Jadwiga Bohdanowicz - Polish pupil of Bourdelle
Jadwiga Bohdanowicz (1887-1943) began her artistic studies in Kraków, but the most important stage of her education for her began in Paris, where she went in 1913. She entered the famous Académie de la Grande Chaumière, a private art college in Montparnasse. She studied in the studio of Antoine Bourdelle (1861-1929), a renowned French sculptor and educator.

Bohdanowicz spent the final years of the First War in Kraków, where she exhibited her work at the Society of Friends of Fine Arts. She then travelled to Paris again, and in 1924 received a scholarship from the French government. In Paris, she exhibited her works at Salons including the Independent, the Autumn Salon and the Tuilerian Salon. She was also a member of the Warsaw Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts.

In 1934, she left the Polish artists' colony in Paris and moved permanently to Rome. She was a member of the Union of Polish Artists "Capitol", which also included such sculptors as Antoni Madeyski (1862-1939), Józef Gosławski (1908-1963) and Krystyna Dąbrowska (1906-1944). She participated in the union's first exhibition at the Palazzo Doria. She was also invited to participate in the International Exhibition in New York in 1939.

The artist enjoyed critical acclaim and received numerous distinctions and awards.

Polish artists in Rome at Caffé Greco
Jadwiga Bohdanowicz entered the circle of Polish artists as soon as she arrived in Rome; among other things, she was well acquainted with the sculptor Antoni Madeyski. His studio in via Flaminia was a meeting place and acted as a house that supported Polish artists, it was called the 'Polish embassy in Rome'. Residing in the Eternal City since 1898, Madeyski mentored many Polish artists, including the painter Aleksander Gierymski.

While living in Rome, Jadwiga Bohdanowicz was a frequent visitor to one of Rome's most famous cafés. Caffé Greco is a historic place, the informal artistic salon of the Eternal City. From the 19th century onwards, there was a great deal of freedom here: of speech, of social class and of nationality. This oldest café, from its opening in 1760 in via dei Condotti, was a meeting place for artists from all over the world who came to Rome. It was a place for the exchange of ideas and a source of inspiration for many artists and intellectuals.

For Poles, the café was of particular importance at the end of the 19th century, when a library with a reading room was established here as part of the Polish Circle, where it was possible to find books and newspapers sent from Poland, above all from Warsaw and Krakow. The Caffé Greco is still in operation and, while sipping a cup of coffee in the Omnibus room, you can see many images of Poles, including Mickiewicz, Słowacki, Matejko or Sienkiewicz, who frequented the place, but also many works by artists who came here.

As the sculptor Antoni Madeyski recalled in 1930: "Here the newcomers would meet the incumbent Romans, here discussions and arguments were held about new directions in art, and the Kraków weekly 'Życie' kept us informed about the latest works by Przybyszewski and Wyspiański, about the artistic life of the country."

Bust of Nicolaus Copernicus at the University of Bologna
Jadwiga Bohdanowicz was known as an excellent portraitist. She mainly created heads, busts and half-figure shots of, among others, Chopin, Maharaja Ali Khan, and Italian political activists. She also executed many female nudes. From her master Antoine Bourdelle, she took over the ability to compose the figure synthetically, the delicate way of modelling and giving a certain aura of mystery to the figure depicted. She cast some of her works in bronze and forged them in stone, but unfortunately most remained at the plaster stage.

The circumstances of the commissioning of the bust of Nicolaus Copernicus from Bohdanowicz are not known. We can guess that the choice fell on her as a well-known artist in Rome with a reputation as a good portraitist. Commissioned by the Polish government, the bust was made by the sculptor in Rome, in 1935, in white Carrara marble. It depicts the figure of Copernicus in bust, resting his left hand on a book, while pointing his right hand upwards towards the sky. To the side, right, at the bottom of the figure, is the signature: ROMA / 1935 / JADWIGA BOHDANOWICZ / SCULT.

The sculpture was placed on a high stone pedestal. The inscription on it introduces the astronomer's silhouette, his relationship with Bologna and indicates that he was 'restored' thanks to 'friends from Poland'. In the collection of the National Museum in Warsaw - in the Xawery Dunikowski Museum of Sculpture, a branch of the MNW, there is a plaster prototype of the sculpture (inv. no. Rz.W. 857 MNW).

A year later the bust of Copernicus was donated by the Polish government to the University of Bologna and placed in the representative hall of the Aula Magna. According to surviving documents in the Archives of the Università di Bologna, the solemn handover of the bust to the university authorities by the Polish government, in the person of Ambassador Alfred Wysocki, took place on 15 November 1936. This ceremony was followed by a visit to the new Astronomical Station in Lojano.

It seems that the sculpture offered to Europe's oldest university (founded in 1088 and whose freedom was guaranteed from the mid-12th century by a privilege granted by Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, the Authentica habita) was intended not only to commemorate the astronomer and recall his links with Bologna (Nicolaus Copernicus studied here at the end of the 15th century), but also to be evidence of good Polish-Italian relations.

The bust of Copernicus made by Jadwiga Bohdanowicz is still in its original location, although the space has changed its character - it is now the entrance to the library. It appears in the University's General Inventory under number 162/1047 bust and 163/1048 plinth. Between 1977 and 1978, during the student protests and occupation of the Rectorate building, the bust and pedestal were covered in graffiti. After the protests ceased, the object was cleaned. In February 2021, the bust and pedestal underwent further conservation.

Campo Verano Cemetery, grave of Polish artists
Bohdanowicz was buried in the common grave of Polish artists in the historic Campo Verano Cemetery in the Altoripiano space (quaternary 15). The tomb was designed in 1903 by Antoni Madeyski as the resting place of Aleksander Gierymski. In later years, the sculptor Wiktor Brodzki (d. 1904), the author of the project Antoni Madeyski himself (d. 1939) and precisely Jadwiga Bohdanowicz, who died four years later, were buried there. Unfortunately, the names of the latter were not listed on the tombstone until 2013, although they were in the cemetery's management documents.

In 2013, with funds from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, the artists' grave underwent conservation work and plaques commemorating Wiktor Brodzki and Jadwiga Bohdanowicz were then placed with inscriptions: WIKTOR BRODZKI / ART. SCULPTOR / B. IN OCHOTÓWKA 1817 / D. IN ROME 1904 / JADWIGA BOHDANOWICZ / ART. SCULPTOR / D.O.B. IN WARSAW 1887 /DIED. IN ROME 1943.