Showing posts with label astronomy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label astronomy. Show all posts

Saturday, July 18, 2026

Alto

Anonymous Russian Artist
Astronomical Diagram
1917
lithograph
(poetic text by Vasily Kamensky)
Cabinet d'Arts Graphiques des Musées d'Art et d'Histoire, Genève

Walter Dexel
Bridge of Stars
1919
woodcut
Städtisches Museum, Braunschweig

Hans Burgkmair the Younger
Stars falling from the Sky
ca. 1550
drawing
(Bible illustration - Apocalypse)
Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna

Conrad Martin Metz
Centaur Chiron instructing Achilles in Astronomy
1804
drawing
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Anonymous German Artist
Suns and Moons with Faces
ca. 1575
woodcut
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel

Hans Wolff Glaser
Miraculous Face in the Moon over Nuremberg, seen by Many
1561
hand-colored woodcut and letterpress
(broadside)
Graphische Sammlung, Zentralbibliothek Zürich

Hans Schäufelein
Earthquake and Fire from Heaven
1523
woodcut
(Bible illustration - Apocalypse)
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Monogrammist IB
Sol
(series, Seven Planets)
1528
engraving
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Monogrammist IB
Mercury
(series, Seven Planets)
1528
engraving
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Monogrammist IB
Venus
(series, Seven Planets)
1528
engraving
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Étienne Delaune
Venus
(series, Seven Planets)
1557
engraving
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Anonymous German Artist
Mars
(series, Seven Planets)
ca. 1550-75
woodcut
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel

Jan Sadeler the Elder after Marten de Vos the Elder
Astronomy
(series, Seven Liberal Arts)
ca. 1590
engraving
Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna

Jacques de Gheyn II
Portrait of astronomer Tycho Brahe
ca. 1595
engraving
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Johann Theodor de Bry
Portrait of astrologer Luca Gaurico
ca. 1615
engraving
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel

Anonymous German Artist
Geometer and Astronomer
16th century
woodcut
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig

But the contrary faction to the traitors being superior in number, whereby the gates were not opened presently, both they and Eucles the general, who was then there for the Athenians to keep the town, sent unto the other general, Thucydides, the son of Olorus, the writer of this history, who had charge in Thrace, and was now about Thasos (which is an island and a colony of the Parians, distant from Amphipolis about half a day's sail), requiring him to come and relieve them.  When he heard the news, he went thitherwards in all haste with seven galleys, which chanced to be with him at that time.  His purpose principally was to prevent the yielding up of Amphipolis; but if he should fail of that, then to possess himself of Eion before Brasidas' coming.

Brasidas, in the meantime, fearing the aid of the galleys to come from Thasos, and having also been informed that Thucydides possessed mines of gold in the parts of Thrace thereabouts, and was thereby of ability amongst the principal men of the continent, hasted by all means to get Amphipolis before he should arrive, lest otherwise at his coming the commons of Amphipolis, expecting that he would levy confederates both from the sea-side and in Thrace, and relieve them, should thereupon refuse to yield.  And to that end offered them a moderate composition.  . . .  When the commons heard this, their minds were turned; and the rather, because the Athenians amongst them were but few, and the most were a promiscuous multitude; and the kinsmen of those that were taken without flocked together within.  And in respect of their fear, they all thought the proclamation reasonable; the Athenians thought it so because they were willing to go out, as apprehending their own danger to be greater than that of the rest, and withal, not expecting aid in haste; and the rest of the multitude, as being thereby both delivered of the danger, and withal to retain their city with the equal form of government.  Insomuch that they which conspired with Brasidas now openly justified the offer to be reasonable; and seeing the minds of the commons were now turned and that they gave ear no more to the words of the Athenian general, they compounded, and upon the conditions proclaimed received him.  Thus did these men deliver ujp the city.  Thucydides with his galleys arrived in the evening of the same day at Eion.*

– from The Peloponnesian War as written by Thucydides (5th century BC) and translated by Thomas Hobbes (1628) and edited by David Grene (1959)

*This is a very impersonal statement of Thucydides' great failure as a military commander.  As he records later, he was disgraced for his failure to save Amphipolis and was banished from Athens. 

Monday, February 16, 2026

Telescopic Views

Claude Mellan
Phases of the Moon - Last Quarter
1637
engraving
(based on telescope views by Pierre Gassendi)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York


Henri Matisse
Woman seated in an Armchair
1940
oil on canvas
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Hans Memling
The Canon Gilles Joye
1472
tempera and oil on panel
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts

Jean-Baptiste Mauzaisse
Putto as Allegorical Figure of Commerce
1828
oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre

Claude Mellan
Phases of the Moon - First Quarter
1637
engraving
(based on telescope views by Pierre Gassendi)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Henri Matisse
Still Life with Apples
1924
oil on canvas
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Hans Memling
Portrait of a Man with a Pink
ca. 1480
oil on panel
Morgan Library, New York

Jean-Baptiste Mauzaisse
Putto as Allegorical Figure of The Arts
1828
oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre

Claude Mellan
Phases of the Moon - Full
1637
engraving
(based on telescope views by Pierre Gassendi)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Henri Matisse
Still Life with Pineapple
1924
oil on canvas
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Hans Memling
Portrait of a Man
ca. 1470-75
oil on panel
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts

Jean-Baptiste Mauzaisse
Putto as Allegorical Figure of The Sciences
1828
oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre

Anonymous French Artist
Mirror Back with Chess Game
ca. 1300
ivory relief
Musée du Louvre

Henri Matisse
Vase de Fleurs et le Plat d'Huitres
1940
oil on canvas
Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York

Hans Memling
Portrait of a Young Man
ca. 1480
oil on panel
Kunsthaus Zürich

Jean-Baptiste Mauzaisse
Putto as Allegorical Figure of War
1828
oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre

Anonymous French Artist
Mirror Back with the Storming of the Palace of Love
ca. 1350-70
ivory relief
Musée du Louvre

A tomb on the Thracian approaches of Olympus holds
Orpheus, the one whom the Muse Calliope bore. 
The oaks could not but obey him, and the mindless
Rocks kept pace to his beat, and the woodland beast-packs.
He found out the occult initiation rites of Bacchus, and likewise
Structured the linked line in epic metre.
Spellbound, with his lyre, he held the heavy mind
Of Him Whom we speak well of, the unmollifiable,
And that wrath likewise which no enchantment can bind.

– from the Greek Anthology, translated by John Heath-Stubbs and Carol A. Whiteside