Astronomical Themes in Art

Astronomy in Art

This page contains a rough outline of a talk I gave on the 28th of February, 2003, at Florida International University as part of the Department of Physics Astronomy Lecture Series. The topic of my causerie was astronomical themes in art. I may give this talk again, or some version of it. Any suggestions regarding works of art with astronomical or celestial themes would be greatly appreciated. My e-mail address is vanhamme@fiu.edu.

Supernova of 1054 A.D. depicted by the Anasazi in Chaco Valley
- SEDS ' creation of the crab nebula page
- Solar Astronomy in the Prehistoric Southwest, go to slide #20 of a slide set by P. Charbonneau , O. R. White, and T. J. Bogdan
- Chaco Valley, eastern sky, early morning July 5, 1054 A.D. (image generated with Starry Night Pro, Sienna Software)
Halley's Comet
- Bayeux Tapestry
  - Isti mirant stella
- Adoration of the Magi in the Cappella Scrovegni, Padua, by Giotto di Bondone
- Taddeo Gaddi, The Angelic Announcement to the Shepherds
- See Olson & Pasachoff 1987, A&A 187, 1-11
The Moon in Renaissance art
- Pre-Galileo
- Post-Galileo
  - Ludovico Cigoli: Assumption of the Virgin (Pauline Chapel, Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome);
  - See Ostrow, S. F., Cigoli's Immacolata and Galileo's Moon: Astronomy and the Virgin in Early Seicento Rome, 1996, Art Bulletin 78, 218
Pieter Breughel and Abraham Ortelius
- Landscape with the fall of Icarus
- Theatrum Orbis Terrarum
The origin of the Milky Way
- Jacopo Tintoretto, The origin of the Milky Way
- Pieter Paul Rubens, Birth of the Milky Way
Vincent van Gogh
- Café terrace on the Place du Forum, Arles, at night
- Starry night over the Rhone river
- La nuit étoilée
  - Venus, Moon in eastern morning sky, 19 June 1889, Saint-Rémy-de-Provence
    (image generated with Starry Night Pro, Sienna Software)
  - Lord Rosse's drawings of Messier 51, the Whirlpool galaxy
Edvard Munch's Starry Night
Celestial themes in Camenbert cheese labels
Alexander Calder's Universes and Constellations
- Southern Cross
- Day and Night
- La Lune et les Fesses
Joan Miró's Constellations
- Morningstar
- Percussionist-composer Bobby Previte's compositions based on Miró's 23 Constellations
Nancy Holt's Sun Tunnels

Other pictures

James Turrell's Roden Crater project

See also this link

Daniel Libeskind: WTC design proposal

Wedge of Light