Giotto’s Sky
The Fresco Paintings of the First Floor Salone of the Palazzo della Ragione, Padua, Italy
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.v7i4.407Keywords:
art history, cosmology, medieval period, cultural astrology, Padua, Pietro d’Abano, constellational imageryAbstract
Giotto’s frescos in the Salone of the Palazzo della Ragione, Padua, were painted across three registers. The upper register contains celestial astronomical imagery that few scholars have been able fully to understand. Using two sections of this upper register as case studies, I reconstructed the skies over Padua in the medieval period using astronomical and astrological software, together with the knowledge of poetic astronomy and naked eye astronomy. This approach showed that, rather than being simple decorations, these images are instead reflective of the constellations that dictated the seasons and the cycle of the year as seen over Padua c. 1309. Furthermore, they reveal a night sky that was populated with a constellational iconography that, I argue, was part of an ensouled cosmology.
References
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Alighieri, Dante. 1995. The Divine Comedy (trans. Allen Mandelbaum; Everyman's Library, 183; New York/London/Toronto: Alfred A. Knopf). Online: http://dante.ilt.columbia.edu/comedy/.
Allen, Richard Hinckley. 1963. Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning (New York: Dover Publications).
Aquinas, Thomas. 1975. Summa Contra Gentiles: Book Three: Providence, Part II (trans. Vernon J. Bourke; London: University of Notre Dame Press).
Aratus. 2010. Phaenomena (trans. Aaron Poochigian; Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press).
Barzon, Antonio. 1924. Gli Affreschi del Salone in Padova (Padua: Libreria Gregoriana).
Becchis, Michela. 2001. ‘Giovanni Degli Eremitani (Giovanni Da Padova)’, in Giovanni Treccani (ed.), Dizionario Biogra_co degli Italiani (Biographical Dictionary of Italian People), Istituto dell’Enciclopedia italiana (Institute of the Italian Encyclopedia). Online: http://www.treccani.it/Portale/ricerche/ searchBiogra_e.html.
Beck, James. 1989. ‘Leon Battista Alberti and the “Night Sky” at San Lorenzo’, Artibus et Historiae 10.19: 9-35. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1483282.
Beer, Arthur. 1967. ‘Astronomical Dating of Works of Art’, Vistas in Astronomy 9: 177-223. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0083-6656(67)90028-1.
Benton, Tim. 1995. ‘The Three Cities Compared: Urbanism’, in Diana Norman (ed.), Siena, Florence and Padua: Art, Society and Religion 1280–1400. Vol. 2, Case Studies (New Haven: Yale University Press in association with Open University): 7-28.
Blume, Dieter. 2000. Regenten des Himmels. Astrologische Bilder in Mittelalter und Renaissance (Studien aus dem Warburg-Haus; Berlin: Akademie Verlag).
Bourdua, Louise. 1991. ‘Aspects of Franciscan Partronage of the Arts in the Veneto during the Later Middle Ages’ (PhD diss., University of Warwick).
Cunningham, Colin. 1995. ‘For the Honour and Beauty of the City: The Design of Town Halls’, in Diana Norman (ed.), Siena, Florence and Padua: Art, Society and Religion 1280–1400. Vol. 2, Case Studies (New Haven and London: Yale University Press in association with Open University): 52-53.
da Nono, Giovanni. 1934–39. ‘Visio Egidij Regis Patavie’, Bollettino del Museo Civico di Padova N.S. X-XI [XXVII-XXVIII] and XIII-XVII: 1-20.
Dellwing, Herbert. 1969. ‘Zur Wölbung des Paduaner “Salone”’, Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz 14.2: 145-60.
Derbes, Anne, and Mark Sandona (eds.). 2004. The Cambridge Companion to Giotto. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
Evans, James. 1998. The History and Practice of Ancient Astronomy (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Fabris, Giovanni. 1977. Cronache e Cronisti Padovani (Cittadella: Rebellato Editore).
Fantelli, Pier Luigi, and Franca Pellegrini (eds.). 2000. Il Palazzo della Ragione in Padova (Verona: Cierre Edizioni).
Favaro, Antonio. 1880. Le Matematiche Nella Studio di Padova dal Principio del Secolo 14 Alla Fine del 16 (Padova: Tipogra_a, G.B. Randi).
Federici Vescovini, Graziella. 1987. ‘Peter of Abano and Astrology’, in Patrick Curry (ed.), Astrology, Science and Society: Historical Essays (Suffolk: Boydell Press): 19-39.
Fox, Matthew. 2004. ‘Stars in the Fasti: Ideler (1825) and Ovid’s Astronomy Revisited’, American Journal of Philology 125: 91-133. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/ajp.2004.0003.
Frojmovi_, Eva. 1996. ‘Giotto’s Allegories of Justice and the Commune in the Palazzo Della Ragione in Padua: A Reconstruction’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes LIX: 24-47. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/751396.
Gaffarel, Jacques. 1650. Unheard-of Curiosities: Concerning the Talismanical Sculpture of the Persians; the Horoscope of the Patriarkes; and the Reading of the Stars (trans. Edmund Chilmead; London: G.D. for Humphrey Moseley).
Giglioni, Guido. 2008. ‘Nature and Demons, Girolamo Cardano Interpreter of Pietro D'abano’, in Jacqueline Hamesse (ed.), Continuities and Disruptions between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (F.I.D.E.M, Textes et Etudes du Moyen Age; Turnhout: Brepols): 89-112.
Gunzburg, Darrelyn. 2013. ‘The Perugia Fountain: An Encyclopaedia of Sky, Culture and Society’, in Nicholas Campion and Liz Greene (eds.), Sky and Symbol (Ceredigion: Sophia Centre Press, University of Wales Trinity Saint David): 103-18.
Hess, Jacob. 1967. ‘On Some Celestial Maps and Globes of the Sixteenth Century’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 30: 406-409. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/750759.
Jobes, Gertrude, and James. 1964. Outer Space: Myths, Name Meanings, Calendars from the Emergence of History to the Present Day (New York: Scarecrow Press).
King, David A. 2011. Astrolabes from Medieval Europe (Farnham: Ashgate Variorum).
Kuhn, Thomas S. 1990 [1957]. The Copernican Revolution: Planetary Astronomy in the Development of Western Thought (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press).
Lippincott, Kristen, and Rodolfo Signorini. 1991.‘The Camera dello Zodiaco of Federico Il Gonzaga’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 54: 244-47. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/751494.
Mariani Canova, Giordana. 1998. ‘Duodecim Celestia Signa et Septem Planete Cum Suis Proprietatibus: L’immagine Astrologica nella Cultura Figurativa e Nell’illustrazione Libraria a Padova Tra Trecento E Quattrocento’, in Il Palazzo della Ragione di Padova (Treviso: Ministero per I Beni Culturali e Ambientali): 23-61.
———. 2011. ‘Padua and the Stars: Medieval Painting and Illuminated Manuscripts’, in Enrico Maria Corsini (ed.), Padua and the Stars: Medieval Painting and Illuminated Manuscripts (San Francisco: Astronomical Society of the Paci_c): 111-29.
Massing, J.M. 1987. ‘Der Stern Des Giotto’, in W. Prinz and A. Beyer (eds.), Die Kunst und das Studium der Natur vom 14. zum 16. Jahrhundert (Weinheim: Acta Humaniora VCH): 159-79.
Murray, Peter. 1953. ‘Notes on Some Early Giotto Sources’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 16.1/2: 58-80. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/750227.
Olson, R.J.M., and J.M. Pasachoff. 2002. ‘Comets, Meteors and Eclipses: Art and Science in Early Renaissance Italy’, Meteorites & Planetary Science 37: 1563-78. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1945-5100.2002.tb00811.x.
Partridge, Loren. 1995. ‘The Room of Maps at Caprarola, 1573–75’, Art Bulletin 77.3: 413-44. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3046119.
Pieper, Josef. 2001. Scholasticism (trans. Richard and Clara Winston; South Bend, IN: St Augustine’s Press).
Ptolemy. 1969 [1917]. Tetrabiblos (ed. J.M. Ashmand; Mokelumne Hill, CA: Health Research).
———. 1998. Ptolemy's Almagest (trans. G.J. Toomer; Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press).
Rigobello, M. Beatrice, and Francesco Autizi. 2008. Palazzo della Ragione di Padova. Simbologie degli Astri e Rappresentazioni del Governo (Padova: Il Poligrafo).
Savonarola, Michele. 1902 [1446]. Libellus De Magni_cis Ornamentis Regie Civitatis Padue Michaelis Savonarole (Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, Xxiv, Part Xv; ed. Arnaldo Segarizzi; Città di Castello: Coi Tipi dell’editore S.Lapi).
Scardeone, Bernardino. 1560. De Antiquitate Urbis Patavii et Claris Ciuibus Patauinis Libri Tres, in Quindecim Classes Distincti. Eiusdem Appendix de Sepulchris Insignibus Exterorum Patavii Iacentium (Basel: Nicolaum Episcopium iuniorem).
Siraisi, Nancy. 1970. ‘The Expositio Problematum Aristotelis of Peter of Abano’, Isis 61.3: 321-39. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/350649.
Stubblebine, James H. 1969. Giotto: The Arena Chapel Frescoes (London: Thames & Hudson).
Thomann, J. 1991. ‘Pietro D’abano on Giotto’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 54: 238-44. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/751492.
Thorndike, Lynn. 1923–58. A History of Magic and Experimental Sciences (8 vols.; New York: Columbia University Press).
———. 1944. ‘The Latin Translations of the Astrological Tracts of Abraham Avenezra’, Isis 35.4: 293-302. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/358721.
Urban, Emily. 2013. ‘The Sala Bologna in the Vatican Palace: Art and Astronomy in Counter Reformation Rome’ (PhD diss., Rutgers University).
Valenzano, Giovanna. 2000. ‘Giovanni Degli Eremitani, Un “Enzegnere” Tra Mito E Realtà’, in Arturo Carlo Quintavalle (ed.), Medioevo: Immagine e Racconto, Atti del Convegno Internazionale di Studi Parma, 27–30 Settembre 2000 (Parma: Electa): 413-23.
Alighieri, Dante. 1995. The Divine Comedy (trans. Allen Mandelbaum; Everyman's Library, 183; New York/London/Toronto: Alfred A. Knopf). Online: http://dante.ilt.columbia.edu/comedy/.
Allen, Richard Hinckley. 1963. Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning (New York: Dover Publications).
Aquinas, Thomas. 1975. Summa Contra Gentiles: Book Three: Providence, Part II (trans. Vernon J. Bourke; London: University of Notre Dame Press).
Aratus. 2010. Phaenomena (trans. Aaron Poochigian; Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press).
Barzon, Antonio. 1924. Gli Affreschi del Salone in Padova (Padua: Libreria Gregoriana).
Becchis, Michela. 2001. ‘Giovanni Degli Eremitani (Giovanni Da Padova)’, in Giovanni Treccani (ed.), Dizionario Biogra_co degli Italiani (Biographical Dictionary of Italian People), Istituto dell’Enciclopedia italiana (Institute of the Italian Encyclopedia). Online: http://www.treccani.it/Portale/ricerche/ searchBiogra_e.html.
Beck, James. 1989. ‘Leon Battista Alberti and the “Night Sky” at San Lorenzo’, Artibus et Historiae 10.19: 9-35. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1483282.
Beer, Arthur. 1967. ‘Astronomical Dating of Works of Art’, Vistas in Astronomy 9: 177-223. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0083-6656(67)90028-1.
Benton, Tim. 1995. ‘The Three Cities Compared: Urbanism’, in Diana Norman (ed.), Siena, Florence and Padua: Art, Society and Religion 1280–1400. Vol. 2, Case Studies (New Haven: Yale University Press in association with Open University): 7-28.
Blume, Dieter. 2000. Regenten des Himmels. Astrologische Bilder in Mittelalter und Renaissance (Studien aus dem Warburg-Haus; Berlin: Akademie Verlag).
Bourdua, Louise. 1991. ‘Aspects of Franciscan Partronage of the Arts in the Veneto during the Later Middle Ages’ (PhD diss., University of Warwick).
Cunningham, Colin. 1995. ‘For the Honour and Beauty of the City: The Design of Town Halls’, in Diana Norman (ed.), Siena, Florence and Padua: Art, Society and Religion 1280–1400. Vol. 2, Case Studies (New Haven and London: Yale University Press in association with Open University): 52-53.
da Nono, Giovanni. 1934–39. ‘Visio Egidij Regis Patavie’, Bollettino del Museo Civico di Padova N.S. X-XI [XXVII-XXVIII] and XIII-XVII: 1-20.
Dellwing, Herbert. 1969. ‘Zur Wölbung des Paduaner “Salone”’, Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz 14.2: 145-60.
Derbes, Anne, and Mark Sandona (eds.). 2004. The Cambridge Companion to Giotto. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
Evans, James. 1998. The History and Practice of Ancient Astronomy (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Fabris, Giovanni. 1977. Cronache e Cronisti Padovani (Cittadella: Rebellato Editore).
Fantelli, Pier Luigi, and Franca Pellegrini (eds.). 2000. Il Palazzo della Ragione in Padova (Verona: Cierre Edizioni).
Favaro, Antonio. 1880. Le Matematiche Nella Studio di Padova dal Principio del Secolo 14 Alla Fine del 16 (Padova: Tipogra_a, G.B. Randi).
Federici Vescovini, Graziella. 1987. ‘Peter of Abano and Astrology’, in Patrick Curry (ed.), Astrology, Science and Society: Historical Essays (Suffolk: Boydell Press): 19-39.
Fox, Matthew. 2004. ‘Stars in the Fasti: Ideler (1825) and Ovid’s Astronomy Revisited’, American Journal of Philology 125: 91-133. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/ajp.2004.0003.
Frojmovi_, Eva. 1996. ‘Giotto’s Allegories of Justice and the Commune in the Palazzo Della Ragione in Padua: A Reconstruction’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes LIX: 24-47. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/751396.
Gaffarel, Jacques. 1650. Unheard-of Curiosities: Concerning the Talismanical Sculpture of the Persians; the Horoscope of the Patriarkes; and the Reading of the Stars (trans. Edmund Chilmead; London: G.D. for Humphrey Moseley).
Giglioni, Guido. 2008. ‘Nature and Demons, Girolamo Cardano Interpreter of Pietro D'abano’, in Jacqueline Hamesse (ed.), Continuities and Disruptions between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (F.I.D.E.M, Textes et Etudes du Moyen Age; Turnhout: Brepols): 89-112.
Gunzburg, Darrelyn. 2013. ‘The Perugia Fountain: An Encyclopaedia of Sky, Culture and Society’, in Nicholas Campion and Liz Greene (eds.), Sky and Symbol (Ceredigion: Sophia Centre Press, University of Wales Trinity Saint David): 103-18.
Hess, Jacob. 1967. ‘On Some Celestial Maps and Globes of the Sixteenth Century’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 30: 406-409. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/750759.
Jobes, Gertrude, and James. 1964. Outer Space: Myths, Name Meanings, Calendars from the Emergence of History to the Present Day (New York: Scarecrow Press).
King, David A. 2011. Astrolabes from Medieval Europe (Farnham: Ashgate Variorum).
Kuhn, Thomas S. 1990 [1957]. The Copernican Revolution: Planetary Astronomy in the Development of Western Thought (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press).
Lippincott, Kristen, and Rodolfo Signorini. 1991.‘The Camera dello Zodiaco of Federico Il Gonzaga’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 54: 244-47. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/751494.
Mariani Canova, Giordana. 1998. ‘Duodecim Celestia Signa et Septem Planete Cum Suis Proprietatibus: L’immagine Astrologica nella Cultura Figurativa e Nell’illustrazione Libraria a Padova Tra Trecento E Quattrocento’, in Il Palazzo della Ragione di Padova (Treviso: Ministero per I Beni Culturali e Ambientali): 23-61.
———. 2011. ‘Padua and the Stars: Medieval Painting and Illuminated Manuscripts’, in Enrico Maria Corsini (ed.), Padua and the Stars: Medieval Painting and Illuminated Manuscripts (San Francisco: Astronomical Society of the Paci_c): 111-29.
Massing, J.M. 1987. ‘Der Stern Des Giotto’, in W. Prinz and A. Beyer (eds.), Die Kunst und das Studium der Natur vom 14. zum 16. Jahrhundert (Weinheim: Acta Humaniora VCH): 159-79.
Murray, Peter. 1953. ‘Notes on Some Early Giotto Sources’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 16.1/2: 58-80. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/750227.
Olson, R.J.M., and J.M. Pasachoff. 2002. ‘Comets, Meteors and Eclipses: Art and Science in Early Renaissance Italy’, Meteorites & Planetary Science 37: 1563-78. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1945-5100.2002.tb00811.x.
Partridge, Loren. 1995. ‘The Room of Maps at Caprarola, 1573–75’, Art Bulletin 77.3: 413-44. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3046119.
Pieper, Josef. 2001. Scholasticism (trans. Richard and Clara Winston; South Bend, IN: St Augustine’s Press).
Ptolemy. 1969 [1917]. Tetrabiblos (ed. J.M. Ashmand; Mokelumne Hill, CA: Health Research).
———. 1998. Ptolemy's Almagest (trans. G.J. Toomer; Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press).
Rigobello, M. Beatrice, and Francesco Autizi. 2008. Palazzo della Ragione di Padova. Simbologie degli Astri e Rappresentazioni del Governo (Padova: Il Poligrafo).
Savonarola, Michele. 1902 [1446]. Libellus De Magni_cis Ornamentis Regie Civitatis Padue Michaelis Savonarole (Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, Xxiv, Part Xv; ed. Arnaldo Segarizzi; Città di Castello: Coi Tipi dell’editore S.Lapi).
Scardeone, Bernardino. 1560. De Antiquitate Urbis Patavii et Claris Ciuibus Patauinis Libri Tres, in Quindecim Classes Distincti. Eiusdem Appendix de Sepulchris Insignibus Exterorum Patavii Iacentium (Basel: Nicolaum Episcopium iuniorem).
Siraisi, Nancy. 1970. ‘The Expositio Problematum Aristotelis of Peter of Abano’, Isis 61.3: 321-39. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/350649.
Stubblebine, James H. 1969. Giotto: The Arena Chapel Frescoes (London: Thames & Hudson).
Thomann, J. 1991. ‘Pietro D’abano on Giotto’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 54: 238-44. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/751492.
Thorndike, Lynn. 1923–58. A History of Magic and Experimental Sciences (8 vols.; New York: Columbia University Press).
———. 1944. ‘The Latin Translations of the Astrological Tracts of Abraham Avenezra’, Isis 35.4: 293-302. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/358721.
Urban, Emily. 2013. ‘The Sala Bologna in the Vatican Palace: Art and Astronomy in Counter Reformation Rome’ (PhD diss., Rutgers University).
Valenzano, Giovanna. 2000. ‘Giovanni Degli Eremitani, Un “Enzegnere” Tra Mito E Realtà’, in Arturo Carlo Quintavalle (ed.), Medioevo: Immagine e Racconto, Atti del Convegno Internazionale di Studi Parma, 27–30 Settembre 2000 (Parma: Electa): 413-23.
Published
2014-03-13
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Gunzburg, D. (2014). Giotto’s Sky: The Fresco Paintings of the First Floor Salone of the Palazzo della Ragione, Padua, Italy. Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, 7(4), 407-433. https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.v7i4.407
