Reflections on the Farnese Atlas: Exploring the Scientific, Literary and Pictorial Antecedents of the Constellations on a Graeco-Roman Globe
| Dublin Core | PKP Metadata Items | Metadata for this Document | |
| 1. | Title | Title of document | Reflections on the Farnese Atlas: Exploring the Scientific, Literary and Pictorial Antecedents of the Constellations on a Graeco-Roman Globe - The Imagined Sky |
| 2. | Creator | Author's name, affiliation, country | Kristen Lippincott; The Exhibitions Team; |
| 3. | Subject | Discipline(s) | Art History; Cultural Anthropology |
| 4. | Subject | Keyword(s) | Farnese Globe; Ptolemy; constellational imagery; Graeco-Roman mythology; iconography |
| 5. | Subject | Subject classification | History of Ideas; Art History |
| 6. | Description | Abstract | In exploring the figures of the constellations on the celestial globe held by the so-called ‘Farnese Atlas’, this article reflects upon Ptolemy’s comment that ‘...in many cases our descriptions [of the constellations] are different because they seem to be more natural and to give a better proportioned outline to the figures described’ (Syntaxis Mathematica/ Almagest VII, 4). It suggests that, whereas most scholars writing on the history of constellation imagery tend to focus on two areas to support their findings—scientific data gleaned from early descriptions and depictions of the stars and iconographical details derived from Graeco-Roman mythology—more attention should be paid to the largely independent pictorial tradition that also helped to shape the heavens. By examining a wide range of visual sources, such as Greek vase painting, coins and sculptural reliefs, one can conclude that, in many cases, the role of the artist is neither as an inventor nor as a scientific draughtsman, but as a torch-bearer for the continuity of a specific set of widely accepted pictorial formulae. Working from this, I tentatively propose a new avenue of exploration for the mysterious grid-like figure on the Farnese Globe, often misidentified as the ‘Throne of Caesar’. |
| 7. | Publisher | Organizing agency, location | Equinox Publishing Ltd |
| 8. | Contributor | Sponsor(s) | |
| 9. | Date | (YYYY-MM-DD) | 15-Jun-2016 |
| 10. | Type | Status & genre | Peer-reviewed Article |
| 11. | Type | Type | case study |
| 12. | Format | File format | |
| 13. | Identifier | Uniform Resource Identifier | https://journals.equinoxpub.com/index.php/books/article/view/22675 |
| 14. | Identifier | Digital Object Identifier | 10.1558/equinox.22675 |
| 15. | Source | Journal/conference title; vol., no. (year) | Equinox eBooks Publishing; The Imagined Sky |
| 16. | Language | English=en | En |
| 18. | Coverage | Geo-spatial location, chronological period, research sample (gender, age, etc.) |
Graeco-Roman world, Roman antiquity |
| 19. | Rights | Copyright and permissions | Copyright 2014 Equinox Publishing Ltd |