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| Paper: |
Piero della Francesca's Sky in The Dream of Constantine |
| Volume: |
441, The Inspiration of Astronomical Phenomena VI |
| Page: |
161 |
| Authors: |
Valerio, V. |
| Abstract: |
The recent restoration of the frescoes by Piero della Francesca in the
Church of San Francesco in Arezzo has made to appear on the background
of the scene of Constantine's dream a number of stars. They are
clearly painted with the intention to illustrate a sort of “natural”
sky. In 2001 Anna Maria Maetzke recognized in a group of stars the
constellation of the Ursa Minor, but so far no further study has been
carried on to find any relation between the painted and the true
sky. In this paper I show the existence of more constellations in the
fresco, which are hardly detectable due to the mirror representation
of the starry sky. Such a mirror image, as the Universe was seen from
the outside, has a Greek origin and this kind of representation was
introduced in Western Europe not only in celestial globes but also in
star maps. This discovery leads to consider that Piero had at his
disposal either a globe or a map which he reproduced on the fresco. My
hypothesis is that a star map might be supplied to Piero by the
astronomer Regiomontanus who was in Italy since 1461 following the
Cardinal Bessarion in his journey from Wien to Rome. In 1463, Cardinal
Bessarion was named papal legate to Venice and in July of the same
year he leaved Rome together with Regiomontanus to reach Ferrara and
Venice. The road to Venice crossed Umbria nearby Sansepolcro, Piero's
birthplace not far from Arezzo. The trip took more than two weeks due
to a stop before crossing the Apennines because the plague in
Ferrara. Bessarion and Regiomontanus might have met Piero who was
painting the cycle of frescoes in Arezzo and supplied him with a star
map. Unfortunately, due to the lack of the horizon and any right line
in the scene it is not possible to detect the latitude of the place
corresponding to the painted sky. |
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