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| Paper: |
Elsheimer, Galileo, and The Flight into Egypt |
| Volume: |
441, The Inspiration of Astronomical Phenomena VI |
| Page: |
23 |
| Authors: |
Howard, D.; Longair, M. S. |
| Abstract: |
Elsheimer's The Flight into Egypt is famous as the first
apparently naturalistic rendering of the night sky. It was painted at
almost exactly the same date as the invention of the telescope and
predated Galileo's discoveries described in his Sidereus
Nuncius of 1610. This paper, a follow-up to that of Howard (1992), discusses the history of the discovery of the
telescope through this period and assesses how realistically Elsheimer
depicted the sky. It is argued that the sky was not one that
Elsheimer could ever have seen and that the painting is more a
religious iconographic text than an accurate representation of the
sky. |
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