A sculptor from Bucks was asked to create a statute of the Polish national poet for a London display.

Professional sculptor Andrew Lilley has spent the past six months working on a bronze statue of Jan Kochanowski, the great Polish Renaissance poet.

Born in 1530, Jan Kochanowski was a contemporary of William Shakespeare, and both men made a lasting impact on Polish and English language and literature.  

After working with the Polish Cultural Institute in 2017 to sculpt the WW2 heroine Irena Sendler, he was commissioned to make the Kochanowski- statue.

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Mr Lilley said: “He was famed for his lamentations on the death of his daughter.

“I chose to show him over his daughters grave clasping her doll like a crucifix.”

First he sculpted it in clay, and then moulded and cast it in bronze.

He said: “The challenge is that serious defects are very hard to rectify but the reward is it is so durable and a beautiful medium." 

During the 2020 lockdown he designed a statue to celebrate all NHS health workers.

"I am currently designing a statue of the war in Ukraine," he added. 

The sculpture of Jan Kochanowski will be revealed in the garden of Ann Hathaway in Stratford-on-Avon in June.