Bergera, Susanna (Author)
Schechner, Sara Jane (Author)
Annals of Science: The History of Science and Technology
Volume: 78
Issue: 4
Pages: 418-462
Our discussion of Niccolò Tornioli's The Astronomers questions some of the traditional identifications of its characters, although we cannot claim to have solved these figures’ identities and several remain a mystery. We do present new iconographic interpretations of particular scientific instruments, diagrams, and natural phenomena in the canvas. These novel readings occasionally remain conjectural in part because Tornioli represents these entities in a way that makes it clear that he did not fully comprehend them. The errors and obscurities in Tornioli’s painting lead us to two conclusions. First, that his erudite patron Virgilio Spada was unlikely to have been involved in the definition of the painting’s iconographies, as he would have objected to Tornioli’s crass mistakes and obscure imagery. Second, that these errors and indistinct details should be taken at face value, insofar as they accentuate the difficulties of astronomical observation. Beyond highlighting these challenges, we argue that the painting also visualizes techniques for countering them. Specifically, the canvas would have focused early modern observers’ attention on the edifying powers of civil conversations and communal observations with scientific instruments as well as images—including diagrams, celestial maps, and paintings.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Article
Baudot, Laura;
(2012)
An Air of History: Joseph Wright's and Robert Boyle's Air Pump Narratives
(/isis/citation/CBB001320004/)
Thesis
Corbett, Jane Paisley Russell;
(2004)
Painted Science: Convention and Change in Seventeenth-Century Netherlandish Paintings of Alchemists, Physicians and Astronomers
(/isis/citation/CBB001561861/)
Article
Limanskaia, L. Yu.;
(2006)
“The Eye as “Master Astronomer””: Leonardo da Vinci's “Science of Painting” and Universal Mechanics
(/isis/citation/CBB000930312/)
Book
Elkins, James;
(2008)
Six Stories from the End of Representation: Images in Painting, Photography, Astronomy, Microscopy, Particle Physics, and Quantum Mechanics, 1980--2000
(/isis/citation/CBB000774367/)
Book
Attenborough, David;
Owens, Susan;
Clayton, Martin;
Alexandratos, Rea;
(2007)
Amazing Rare Things: The Art of Natural History in the Age of Discovery
(/isis/citation/CBB000772794/)
Chapter
Rikken, Marrigje;
Smith, Paul J.;
(2011)
Jan Brueghel's Allegory of Air (1621) from a Natural Historical Perspective
(/isis/citation/CBB001201615/)
Book
Camerota, Filippo;
Cigoli, Ludovico Cardi da;
(2010)
Linear Perspective in the Age of Galileo: Lodovico Cigoli's Prospettiva Pratica
(/isis/citation/CBB001033190/)
Article
Marcaida, José Ramón;
(2014)
Rubens and the Bird of Paradise. Painting Natural Knowledge in the Early Seventeenth Century
(/isis/citation/CBB001201349/)
Article
Madrid Casado, Carlos Miguel;
(2010)
La Representación de la Técnica y de la Ciencia entre los Siglos XVI al XVIII en la Colección del Museo del Prado
(/isis/citation/CBB001033797/)
Article
Dekker, Elly;
(2009/2010)
Die astronomischen Deckengemälde des Benediktinerstifts St. Paul im Lavanttal
(/isis/citation/CBB001024594/)
Chapter
Jorink, Eric;
(2011)
Beyond the Lines of Apelles: Johannes Swammerdam, Dutch Scientific Culture and the Representation of Insect Anatomy
(/isis/citation/CBB001201617/)
Article
Higton, Hester;
(2004)
Portrait of an Instrument-Maker: Wenceslaus Hollar's Engraving of Elias Allen
(/isis/citation/CBB000410705/)
Book
Biagioli, Mario;
(2006)
Galileo's Instruments of Credit: Telescopes, Images, Secrecy
(/isis/citation/CBB000641593/)
Article
Spiegel, Richard J.;
(2015)
John Flamsteed and the Turn of the Screw: Mechanical Uncertainty, the Skilful Astronomer and the Burden of Seeing Correctly at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich
(/isis/citation/CBB001202244/)
Article
Tongiorgi Tomasi, Lucia;
(2007)
La conquista del visibile: Rimeditando Panofsky, rileggendo Galilei
(/isis/citation/CBB000931274/)
Article
Victoria Dickenson;
(2021)
Introduction: Undescrib'd: Taylor White (1701–1772) and His Collections
(/isis/citation/CBB632215005/)
Book
Huhtamo, Erkki;
(2013)
Illusions in Motion: Media Archaeology of the Moving Panorama and Related Spectacles
(/isis/citation/CBB001421230/)
Article
Geimer, Peter;
(2004)
Picturing the Black Box: On Blanks in Nineteenth Century Paintings and Photographs
(/isis/citation/CBB000500653/)
Chapter
Egmond, Florike;
(2007)
Curious Fish: Connections between Some Sixteenth-Century Watercolours and Prints
(/isis/citation/CBB000773419/)
Article
Pyenson, Lewis;
(2011)
The Enlightened Image of Nature in the Dutch East Indies: Consequences of Postmodernist Doctrine for Broad Structures and Intimate Life
(/isis/citation/CBB001022672/)
Be the first to comment!