Hostname: page-component-7b7567c8c-fvjsw Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-15T09:13:39.747Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Gazing Hands and Blind Spots: Galileo as Draftsman*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Horst Bredekamp
Horst Bredekamp
Affiliation:
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Get accessRights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The article deals with the interrelation between Galileo and the visual arts. It presents a couple of drawings from the hand of Galileo and confronts them with Viviani's report that Galileo had not only wanted to become an artist in his youth but stayed close to the field of visual arts throughout his lifetime. In the ambiance of these drawings the famous moon watercolors are not in the dark. They represent a very acute and reasonable tool to convince the people who trusted images more than words. The article ends with Panofsky's argument that it was Galileo's anti-Mannerist notion of art that evoked a repulsion of Kepler's ellipses. It tries to show that it was again an aesthetical prejudice that hindered Einstein from accepting Panofsky's theory.

Information

Type
2. The Context of the Artists: Astronomy and its New Representations
Information
Science in Context , Volume 13 , Issue 3-4 , Autumn-Winter 2000, pp. 423 - 462
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2000

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Footnotes

*

This paper was presented in different forms at the Hamburger Kunstakademie in June 1993, as an inaugural lecture at the Humboldt University in December 1994, and at the Zürich Galilei-Symposium from January 1996. Parts of it were published under the title, “Galileo Galilei als Künstler” (Bredekamp 1996a); parts were published under the title, “Zwei frühe Skizzenblätter Galileo Galileis” (Bredekamp 1996b) and parts appeared as Bredekamp 1995, 366ss. I am grateful to Jürgen Renn for his critique and help.

References

Ariew, Roger 1984. “Galileo's Lunar Observations in the Context of Medieval Lunar Theory.” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 15:221ss.Google Scholar
Biagioli, Mario. 1993. Galileo, Courtier. The Practise of Science in the Culture of Absolutism. Chicago and London: Univ. of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bloom, Terrie F. 1978. “Borrowed Perceptions: Harriot's Maps of the Moon.” Journal for the History of Astronomy 9:117–122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blumenberg, Hans. 1980. “Das Fernrohr und die Ohnmacht der Wahrheit.” In Galileo Galilei, Sidereus Nuncius [Nachricht von neuen Sternen]. Dialog über die Weltsysteme (Auswahl). Vermessungen der Hbölle Dantes. Marginalien zu Tasso, 7–75, edited by Blumenberg, Hans. Frankfurt am Main, Suhrkamp.Google Scholar
Bredekamp, Horst. 1993. Florentiner Fußball. Die Renaissance der Spiele. Calcio als Fest der Medici. Frankfurt am Main and New York: Campus-Verlag.Google Scholar
Bredekamp, Horst. 1995. “Words, Images, Ellipses.” In Meaning in the Visual Arts: Views from the Outside. A Centennial Commemoration of Erwin Panofsky (1892–1968), edited by Lavin, Irving, 363–371. Princeton.Google Scholar
Bredekamp, Horst. 1996a. “Galileo Galilei als Künstler.” In Übergangsbogen and Überhöhungensrampe — naturwissenschaftliche und künstlerische Verfahren. Symposium I und II, edited by Ecker, Bogomir and Sefkow, Bettina, 54–63. Hamburg.Google Scholar
Bredekamp, Horst. 1996b. “Zwei frühe Skizzenblätter Galileo Galileis.” In Ars naturam adiuvans. Festschrift für Matthias Winner zum 11. Maärz 1996, edited by von Fleming, Victoria and Schütze, Sebastian, 477–484. Mainz am Rhein.Google Scholar
Callot, Jacques. 1971 [1592–1635]. Dasgesamte Werk, edited by Schröder, Thomas. Munich: Rogner und Bernhard.Google Scholar
Casini, Paolo. 1994. “II ‘Dialogo’ di Galileo e la Luna di Plutarcho.” In Novità Celesti e Crisi del Sapere. Atti del Convegno Intternazionale di Studi Galileiani, edited by Galluzzi, Paolo, 57–62. Florenz.Google Scholar
Cavina, Anna Ottani. 03 1976. “On the Theme of Landscape-II: Elsheimer and Galileo.” The Burlington Magazine 118/876:139–144.Google Scholar
Chappel, Miles. 1975.“Cigoli, Galileo, and Invidia.” Art Bulletin 57/1:91–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ciampoli, Giovanni. 1978. “Discorso sopra la Corte di Roma.” In Marziano Guglielminetti and Mariarosa Masoero, Lettere e prose inedite [o parzialmente edite] di Giovanni Ciampoli. Studi secenteschi 19:228–237.Google Scholar
Cohen, Bernard. 07 1955. “An Interview with Einstein.” Scientific American 93:69–73.Google Scholar
Contini, R. 1991. Il Cigoli. Soncino.Google Scholar
de Angelis, Paolo. (1621) imprimatur 1616. Basilicae S. Marioris de Urbc…descriptio et delineatio. Rome.Google Scholar
de Maio, Romeo. 1978. Michelangelo e la Controriforma. Rome and Bari.Google Scholar
de'Nelli, Giovanni Batista Clemente. 1793. Vita e commercio letterario di Galileo Galilei. Lausanne.Google Scholar
Dietz Moss, Jean. 1993. Novelties in the Heavens. Rhetoric and Science in the Copernican Controversy. Chicago and London.Google Scholar
Drake, Stillman. 1976. “Galileo's First Telescopic Observations.” Journal for the History of Astronomy 7:153–168.Google Scholar
Dussler, Luitpold 1959. Die Zeichnungen des Michelangelo. Kritischer Katalog. Berlin.Google Scholar
Edgerton, Samuel Y. 1984. “Galileo, Florentine ‘Disegno’ and the ‘Strange Spottedness’ of the Moon.” Art Journal 44/1:225–32.Google Scholar
Edgerton, Samuel Y. 1991. The Heritage of Giotto's Geometry. Ithaca and London.Google Scholar
Einstein, Albert. 1953. “Introduction” to Galileo Galilei. In Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems. Translated by Drake, Stillman. Berkeley.Google Scholar
Faranda, Franco. 1986. Ludovico Cardi detto il Cigoli. Rome.Google Scholar
Favaro, Antonio. 1880. “Inedita Galilaeiana. Frammenti tratti dalla Biblioteca Nazionaledi Firenze.” Attie Memorie dell'Instituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti 21:35–43.Google Scholar
Favaro, Antonio. 1887. “Sul giorno della nascitàdi Galileo.” Memorie del R. Istituto Veneto di scienze lettere ed arti 22:703–711.Google Scholar
Fehl, Philipp. 1958. “Review.” Journal of Aethetics and Art Criticism 17:124–125.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feldhay, Rivka. 1995. Galileo and the Church: Political Inquisition or Critical Dialogue? Cambridge.Google Scholar
Feyerabend, Paul. 1993. Wider den Methodenzwang, 4th ed. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.Google Scholar
Fölsing, Albrecht. 1993. Albert Einstein. Eine Biographie Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.Google Scholar
Frieß, Peter. 1993. Kunst und Maschine. 500 Jahre Maschinenlinien in Bild und Skulptur. Munich: Dt. Kunstverl.Google Scholar
Galilei, Galileo. 1890–1909. Le Opere.di Galileo Galilei. Edizione Nazionale, edited by Favaro, Antonio, 20 vols. Florence: Barbéra Editrice. Reprint:1929–1939, 1964–1966, 1968.Google Scholar
Galilei, Galileo. 1610. Sidereus Nuncius. In Opere di Galileo by Galilei, Galileo (1890–1909), 3/1:53–96. Florence: Barbéra Editrice.Google Scholar
Galluzzi, Paolo. 1994. “I Sepolcri di Galileo: o delle spoglie ‘vive’ di un eroe della scienza.” Lecture delivered at the symposium Galileo Galilei. Berlin: Istituto di Cultura di Berlino.Google Scholar
Garrard, Mary D. 1989. Artemisia Gentileschi. The Image of the Female Hero in Italian Baroque Art. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Gingerich, Owen. 1975. “Dissertation cum Professore Righini et Siderio Nuncio.” In Reason, Experiment, and Mysticism in the Scientific Revolution, edited by Righini Bonelli, M. L. and Shea, William R., 77–88. New York.Google Scholar
Hallyn, Fernand. 1992. “Introduction.” In Galilei, Galileo, Le Messager des êtoiles, 14–101. Paris.Google Scholar
Haskell, Francis and Penny, Nicholas. 1981. Taste and the Antique: The Lure of Classical Sculpture 1500–1900. New Haven and London.Google Scholar
Heikamp, Detlev. 1978. “Ammannati's Fountain for the Sala Grande of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence.” In Dumbarton Oaks Colloquium on the History of Landscape Architecture V, 116–176, edited by MacDougall, Elisabeth B.. Washington/D. C.Google Scholar
Holton, Gerald. 1996. “On the Art of Scientific Imagination.” Daedalus 125/2:183–208.Google Scholar
Jesinghausen-Lauster, Martin. 1985. Die Suche nach der symbolischen Form. Der Kreis um die kulturwissenschaftliche Bibliothek Warburg. Baden-Baden: Verlag V. Koerner.Google Scholar
Kant, Max Immanuel. 1923. “Entwürfe zu dem Colleg über Anthropologie aus den 70er und 80er Jahren.” In Kant'sgesammelte Schriften, edited by Königlich Preußische Akademie der Wissenschaften, , 15:655–899. Berlin and Leipzig.Google Scholar
Kemp, Wolfgang. 1979. “ … einen wahrhaft bildenden Zeichenunterricht überall einzuführen” Zeichnen und Zeichenunterricht der Laien. 1500–1870. Ein Handbuch. Frankfurt am Main.Google Scholar
Koyrè, Alexandre. 1955. “Attitude esthetique et pensée scientique.” Critique, nos. 100–101, 835–847. Printed in German in Alexander Koyrè. 1988. “Kunst und Wissenschaft im Denken Galileis.” In Galilei, . Die Anfänge der neuzeitlichen Wissenschaft, 70–83. Berlin; reprinted with Panofsky's text in Erwin Panofsky. 1993. Galilée Critiqued'Art, edited and translated by Nathalie Heinich, 81–97. Leuven.Google Scholar
Kutschmann, Werner. 1986. Der Naturwissenschaftier und sein Körper. Frankfurt am Main.Google Scholar
Lattis, James M. 1994. Between Copernicus and Galileo. Christoph Clavius and the Collapse of the Ptolemaic System. Chicago and London.Google Scholar
Lotz, Wolfgang. 1958. “Review.”,Art Bulletin 40/2:162–164.Google Scholar
Ludwig, Richard M. 1974. Dr. Panofsky and Mr. Tarkington. An Exchange of Letters. Princeton.Google Scholar
Magani, Fabrizio. 1995. “II Collezionismo a Venezia al Tempo del Soggiorno di Galileo.”In Galileo Galileie la Cultura Veneziana, Atti del Convegno di Studio Promosso nell' Ambito delle Celebrazioni Galileiane indette dall' Università degli Studidi Padova (1592–1992), 1992. 137–159. Venice: Lettere ed Arti.Google Scholar
Mann, Heinz Herbert. 1987. “Die Plastizität des Mondes—Zu Galileo Galilei und Ludovico Cigoli.” In Natur und Kunst, edited by Pochat, Götz and Wagner, Brigitte. (Kunsthistorisches Jahrbuch Graz, no. 23,55–59).Google Scholar
Masotti, Arnaldo. 1970–1980. “Ricci, Ostilio.” In Dictionary of Scientific Biography, XI:405f., edited by Gillispie, Charles C., 16 vols. New York.Google Scholar
Matteoli, Anna. 1980. Lodovico Cardi Cigoli. Pittore e Architetto. Pisa.Google Scholar
Matteoli, Anna. 1992. Disegni di Lodovico Cigoli (1559–1613), exh. cat. Florence: Uffizi.Google Scholar
Mazzi, Maria Cecilia. 1985. “Introduzione” In Panofsky, Erwin, Galileo Critico delle Arti, 7–18. Venedig.Google Scholar
Montgomery, Scott L. 1994. “The First Naturalistic Drawings of the Moon: Jan van Eyck and the Art of Observation.” Journal for the History of Astronomy 25:317–320.Google Scholar
Montgomery, Scott L. 1996. The Scientific Voice. New York.Google Scholar
Mss. Accademia del disegno No. 124. Archivio di Stato, Florence.Google Scholar
Mss. Galileiani. Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale. Florence.Google Scholar
Olschki, Leonardo. 1965 [1922]. Bildung und Wissenschaft im Zeitalter der Renaissance in Italien, 3:141–155, Galilei und seine Zeit. Vaduz.Google Scholar
Ostrow, Steven F. 1996a. Art and Spirituality in Counter-Reformation Rome. The Sistine and Pauline Chapels in S. Maria Maggiore. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Ostrow, Steven F. 1996b “Cigoli's Immacolata and Galileo's Moon: Astronomy and the Virgin in Early Seicento Rome.” Art Bulletin 78/2:218–235.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Panofsky, Erwin. 1954. Galileo as a Critic of the Arts. The Hague.Google Scholar
Panofsky, Erwin. 03 1956. “Galileo as a Critic of the Arts.” Isis 47/147:3–15.Google Scholar
Panofsky, Erwin. 06 1956. “More on Galileo and the Arts.” Isis 47/148:182–185.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pantin, Isabelle. 1992. “Introduction.” In Sidereus Nuncius by Galilei, Galileo (1610). Le Messager Celeste, pp. IX–CIV. Paris.Google Scholar
Perrig, Alexander. 1991. Michelangelo's Drawings: The Science of Attribution. New Haven and London.Google Scholar
Puppi, Lionello. 1995. “Galileo Galilei e la Cultura Artistica a Venezia tra la Fine del 500 e l'lnizio del '600.” In Galileo Galilei e la Cultura Veneziana, Atti del Convegno di Studio Promosso nell' Ambito delle Celebrazioni Galileiane indette dall' Università degli Studi di Padova (1592–1992), 1992. 243–255. Venice: Lettere ed Arti.Google Scholar
Reaves, Gibson and Pedretti, Carlo. 1987. “Leonardo da Vinci's Drawings of the Surface of the Surface Features of the Moon.” Journal for the History of Astronomy 18/52:55–58.Google Scholar
Reeves, Eileen. 1997. Painting the Heavens. Art and Science in the Age of Galileo. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Reti, Ladislao. 1959. “‘Non si volta chi à Stella è fisso’. Le ‘imprese’ di Leonardo da Vinci.” In Bibliothèque d'Humanisme et Renaissance 21:7–54.Google Scholar
Reynolds, Ted. 1974. “The ‘Accademia del Disegno’ in Florence, Its Formation and Early Years, Ph.D. diss., Columbia University. New York.Google Scholar
Righini, Guglielmo. 1975. “New Light on Galileo's Observations.” In Reason, Experiment, and Mysticism in the Scientific Revolution, edited by Bonelli, M. L. Righini and Shea, William R., 59–76. New York.Google Scholar
Righini, Guglielmo. 1978. Contribute alla interpretazione scientifica dell' opera astronomica di Galileo. Florence.Google Scholar
Rosen, Edward. 03 1956. Isis 47/147:78–80.Google Scholar
Segre, Michael. 1989. “Viviani's Life of Galileo.” Isis 80:207–31.Google Scholar
Segre, Michael. 1991. In the Wake of Galileo. New Brunswick/New Jersey.Google Scholar
Settis, Salvatore. 1996. “Warburg continuatus. Description d'une bibliothèque.” In Les Pouvoir des Bibliothèque. La mémoire des livres en Occident, edited by Baratin, Marc and Jacob, Christian, 122–170.Paris.Google Scholar
Settle, Thomas B. 1971. “Ostilio Ricci, a Bridge between Alberti and Galileo.” In Actes du XIIe Congrès International d'Historie des Sciences, Paris 1968, 3B: 122–26. Paris.Google Scholar
Shea, William R. 1985. “Panofsky revisited: Galileo as a Critic of the Arts.” In: Renaissance Studies in Honor of Craigh Hugh Smyth, edited by Morrogh, Andrew et al. , I:481–492. Florenz.Google Scholar
Shea, William S. 1990. “Galileo Galilei: An Astronomer at Work.” In: Nature, Experiment, and the Sciences. Essay on Galileo and the History of Science in Honour of Stillman Drake, edited by Levere, Trevor H. and Shea, William R., 51–76. Dordrecht.Google Scholar
Stevens, Henry. 1900. Thomas Harriot, the mathematician, the philosopher and the scholar. London.Google Scholar
Tabarroni, Giorgio. 1984. “I Disegni Autografi della Luna e Altre Espressioni Figurative dei Manoscritti Galileiani.” In: Novità Celesti e Crisi del Sapere. Atti del Convegno Internazionale di Studi Galileiani, edited by Galluzzi, Paolo, 51–55. Florence.Google Scholar
Van Helden, Albert. 1977. “The Invention of the Telescope.” Transactions Of The American Philosophical Society Held At Philadelphia For Promoting Useful Knowledge 67:part 4.Google Scholar
van Helden, Albert. 1984. “Galileo and the Telescope.” In Novità Celesti e Crisi del Sapere. Atti del Convegno Internazionale di Studi Galileiani, edited by Paolo Galluzzi, , 149–158. Florence.Google Scholar
van Helden, Albert. 1994. “Telescopes and Authority from Galileo to Cassini.” In Instruments, edited by van Helden, Albert and Hankins, Thomas L.. =Osiris 9:9–29.Google Scholar
Vasari, Giorgio. 1962. Vita di Michelangelo, edited by Barocchi, Paola. Milan and Naples.Google Scholar
Viviani, Vincenzio. 1890–1909. “Racconto istorico della vita del Sig. Galileo Galilei”. In Opere di Galileo by Galileo, Galilei, 19:597–646. Florence: Barbèra Editrice.Google Scholar
von Stockhausen, Tilmann. 1992. Die kulturwissenschaftliche Bibliothek Warburg. Architektur, Einrichtung und Organisation. Hamburg.Google Scholar
Warburg, Aby. 1928. Warburgs Korrespondenzarchiv, General Correspondence 1928, E. Warburg Institute, London.Google Scholar
Warburg, Aby M. 1993. Bildersammlung zur Geschichte von Sternglaube und Sternkunde im Hamburger Planetarium, edited by Fleckner, Uwe et al. Berlin.Google Scholar
Warnke, Martin. 1985. Hofkünstler. Zur Vorgeschichte des modernen Künstlers. Cologne.Google Scholar
Wazbinski, Zygmunt. 1987. L'Accademia Medicea del Disegno a Firenze nel Cinquecento. Idea e Istituzione, 2 vols. Florence.Google Scholar
Westfall, Richard. 1984. “Galileo and the Accademia dei Lincei.” In Novità Celesti e Crisi del Sapere. Atti del Convegno Internazionale di Studi Galileiani, edited by Galluzzi, Paolo, 189–200. Florence.Google Scholar
Westfehling, Uwe. 1993. Zeichnen in der Renaissance. Entwicklung / Techniken / Formen / Themen. Cologne.Google Scholar
Whitaker, Ewan A. 1978. “Galileo's Lunar Observations and the Dating of the Composition of Sidereus Nuncius.” Journal of the History of Astronomy 9:155–69.Google Scholar
Whitaker, Ewan A. 1989. “Selenography in the Seventeenth Century.” In The General History of Astronomy, edited by Hoskin, Michael, 2:1 19–42. Planetary Astronomy from the Renaissance to the Rise of Astrophysics. CambridgeGoogle Scholar
Winkler, Mary and Van Helden, Albert. 1992. “Representing the Heavens: Galileo and Visual Astronomy.” Isis 83:195–217.Google Scholar
Wolf, Gerhard. 1991/1992. “Regina Coeli, Facies Lunae, ‘Et in Terra Pax’. Aspekte der Ausstattung der Cappella Paolina in S. Maria Maggiore.” In Römisches Jahrbuch der Bibliotheca Hertziana, 27/28:284–336.Google Scholar