Celestial images in artistic paintings

Abstract

The subtitle of this book is: History, Artistry, and Cartography. Up to now, I have presented important historical and cartographic information related to the heavens, using beautiful illustrations to represent the artistry of the images. Symmetrical circles and forms, Baroque putti, and vegetation, people and places depicted in the borders—star maps have included many artistic elements. But what about the obverse: how have celestial images been used in art? Many examples come to mind, and this chapter will show and discuss some of these. Mirroring the predominant focus on ink and paint applied to paper-like material found in the previous chapters, the main focus of this chapter will be artistic drawings and paintings as opposed to other forms of artistic endeavors, such as sculpture, music, literature, etc. Unless otherwise indicated, the pieces shown are from the Nick and Carolynn Kanas collection.