Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T08:30:09.774Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

On the telescopes in the paintings of Jan Brueghel the Elder

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 June 2011

Paolo Molaro
Affiliation:
INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste, Via G.B. Tiepolo 11, 34143 Trieste, Italy email: [email protected], [email protected]
Pierluigi Selvelli
Affiliation:
INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste, Via G.B. Tiepolo 11, 34143 Trieste, Italy email: [email protected], [email protected]
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Several astronomical instruments including early spyglasses are depicted in at least five paintings that Jan Brueghel the Elder completed between 1608 and 1625. This rather unique circumstance is due to the fact that Jan Brueghel was court painter of Archduke Albert VII of Habsburg, whose love for art and science, he celebrated in his paintings. An optical tube that appears in the Extensive Landscape with View of the Castle of Mariemont, dated 1608-1612 represents the first painting of a telescope whatsoever. Some documents are collected showing that Albert VII could have obtained very early spyglasses directly from Lipperhey or Sacharias Janssen, who are two possible inventors of the telescope. Thus the painting could reproduce one of the first telescopes ever made by mankind. Two more instruments appear prominently in two Allegories of Sight made in the years 1617 and 1618. These are precious instruments made possibly in silver, composed by several draw-tubes, which look much more sophisticated than other instruments of same epoch. Rather surprisingly, the structure and, in particular the eyepiece, suggest that they may represent the first examples of Keplerian telescopes about two decades before they replaced the Dutch mounting.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2011

References

Bedini, S.A. 1971, Phisis Vol. 13, 149Google Scholar
Belloni, L. 1964, Rendiconti Istituto Lombardo B98, 238Google Scholar
Daxecker, F. 2001, Beiträge zur Astronomiegeschichte, 4, 19Google Scholar
Selvelli, P. 1997, L'Astronomia, 175, 36Google Scholar
Selvelli, P. & Molaro, P. 2009, in 400 Years of Astronomical Telescopes, Brandl, B., Stuik, R. & Katgert-Merkelijn, J. K. (eds) (Berlin: Springer), erratumGoogle Scholar
Van Helden, A. 1977, Trans. of the Amer. Phil. Soc. 67, part 4Google Scholar
Van Helden, A. 1999, Catalogue of early telescopes (Firenze: Giunti Istituto & Museo di Storiadella Scienza)Google Scholar