Abstract
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:RelyOnVML /> <o:AllowPNG /> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves /> <w:TrackFormatting /> <w:PunctuationKerning /> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas /> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF /> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-GB</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables /> <w:SnapToGridInCell /> <w:WrapTextWithPunct /> <w:UseAsianBreakRules /> <w:DontGrowAutofit /> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark /> <w:DontVertAlignCellWithSp /> <w:DontBreakConstrainedForcedTables /> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx /> <w:Word11KerningPairs /> <w:CachedColBalance /> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math" /> <m:brkBin m:val="before" /> <m:brkBinSub m:val=" " /> <m:smallFrac m:val="off" /> <m:dispDef /> <m:lMargin m:val="0" /> <m:rMargin m:val="0" /> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup" /> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440" /> <m:intLim m:val="subSup" /> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr" /> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal">When John Brett, the Pre-Raphaelite painter and astronomer, presented his theory of specular reflection in Venus to the Royal Astronomical Society, he provoked a controversy over both the constitution of the planet and the learned society. Brett thought Venus was most likely a ball of molten metal enclosed in a glass envelope and this raised the tantalizing possibility that it might function as a mirror, reflecting back an image of the earth. A few months later another <em>Mirror of Venus </em>was displayed at the Grosvenor Gallery. The surface of Edward Burne-Jones's painting provides a different model of reflection but one that illuminates the space of the Royal Astronomical Society and the practice of astronomy more broadly. Using Burne-Jones’s painting as a point of comparison, I argue that Brett’s astronomy put into play a desiring, viewing subject that was disavowed in his landscape art.
Highlights
I ask leave to add one more suggestion, as follows: — At the transit it would be worth while for someone with a good telescope and a Dawes-diaphragm to look at the centre of Venus’s disk for the reflected image of the Earth
If the envelope of the planet has great refractive power, I think it not improbable that it might be seen as a minute nebulous speck of light.[1]
In January 1877, the painter and astronomer John Brett read a paper to the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) that suggested Venus might consist of a ball of molten metal enclosed within a layer of glass.[3]
Summary
I ask leave to add one more suggestion, as follows: — At the transit it would be worth while for someone with a good telescope and a Dawes-diaphragm to look at the centre of Venus’s disk for the reflected image of the Earth. In January 1877, the painter and astronomer John Brett read a paper to the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) that suggested Venus might consist of a ball of molten metal enclosed within a layer of glass.[3] Brett’s unlikely theory was based on the light he saw reflected from the planet, which he argued was consistent with specu My thanks to John Holmes, Isobel Armstrong, and the referee for 19 who all read drafts of this paper.
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