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| Domenichino Landscape with the Burning Bush ca. 1610-15 oil on copper Metropolitan Museum of Art |
Photographs of the sky or moving-picture reproductions of the sky have of course proliferated to infinity during the past century or so. Novel perspectives (achieved by additional machinery) supply images of the sky from all-new angles. These quick-to-read two-dimensional facsimiles, by a process of spontaneous aggression, attempt to write over and cancel out with their definiteness and overt beauty those clusters of confusing formless hints supplied directly to humans for thousands of generations by their senses.
This conflict of perceptions had not yet arisen in the 17th century. Skies as represented in European paintings of that period never attempt to set themselves in competition with outdoor reality. Unlike skies on film, these painted skies (products of a long manual tradition) make no claims at all against atmospheric actuality.
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| Andrea Sacchi Mythological ceiling fresco with Muses 1629-30 Palazzo Barberini, Rome |
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| Adriaen van de Velde Golfers on the Ice near Haarlem 1668 National Gallery, London |
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| Charles Le Brun Ceiling with martial glorification of Louis XIV 1681-84 Versailles |
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| Joost II de Momper Landscape with sea view ca. 1623 Prado |
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| Jan van der Heyden Amsterdam city view with the old Haarlemmersluis ca. 1670 Rijksmuseum |
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| workshop of Gerrit van Honthorst Putti and cupids with gardland ca, 1650 Rijksmuseum |
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| Gerrit Adriaens Berckheyde View of the Golden Bend in the Herengracht, Amsterdam 1671-72 Rijksmuseum |
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| Philips Wouwerman Procession of travelers with a carriage ca. 1660-62 Prado |
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| Claude de Jongh Old London Bridge from the west 1650 Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| Ludolf Bakhuizen Beach scene ca. 1665 National Gallery, London |
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| Jan Frans van Bloemen Landscape with waterfall ca, 1700 Prado |
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| Gaspare Vanvitelli View of Venice 1697 Prado |
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| Frans Snyders An owl in the sky surrounded by a variety of hostile birds 17th century Prado |