Painting the heavens

by Eileen Adair Reeves

The remarkable astronomical discoveries made by Galileo with the new telescope in 1609-1610 led to his famous disputes with philosophers and religious authorities, most of whom found their doctrines threatened by his evidence for Copernicus's heliocentric universe. In this book, Eileen Reeves brings an art-historical perspective to this story as she explores the impact of Galileo's heavenly observations on painters of the early seventeenth century.