| |
 |
| Paper: |
A Telescope Inventor's Spyglass Possibly Reproduced in a
Brueghel's Painting |
| Volume: |
441, The Inspiration of Astronomical Phenomena VI |
| Page: |
13 |
| Authors: |
Molaro, P.; Selvelli, P. |
| Abstract: |
Jan Brueghel the Elder depicted spyglasses belonging to the Archduke
Albert VII of Habsburg in at least five paintings in the period
between 1608 and 1625. Albert VII was fascinated by art and science
and he obtained spyglasses directly from Lipperhey and Sacharias
Janssen approximately at the time when the telescope was first shown
at The Hague at the end of 1608. In the Extensive Landscape with
View of the Castle of Mariemont, dated 1608-1612, the Archduke is
looking at his Mariemont castle through an optical tube and this is
the first time a spyglass was painted whatsoever. It is quite
possible that the painting reproduces one of the first telescopes ever
made. Two other Albert VII's telescopes are prominently reproduced in
two Allegories of Sight painted a few years later
(1617-1618). They are sophisticated instruments and their structure,
in particular the shape of the eyepiece, suggests that they are
composed by two convex lenses in a Keplerian optical configuration
which became of common use only more than two decades later. If this
is the case, these paintings are the first available record of a
Keplerian telescope. |
|
|
|
|
|
