7 Must-Watch Astronomical Paintings from the Past to the Present

We are enchanted by darkness, especially when we look at a star-studded sky with twinkling stars greeting us from light years away.  

From the prehistoric times, humans were overwhelmed by the limitless expanse of sky and the uncountable stars. They were awed by the presence of the sun and the moon and the eclipses, so they started worshipping these astronomical bodies for protection, blessings, and benedictions. They also revered these elements for bringing light, rain, seasons, and good harvest.

For humans, it was an unforced and natural bond with the vast universe.

The stars, planets, galaxies, and the constellations stirred the minds of poets, seers, mystics, philosophers, and painters. Artists from the ancient times to the contemporary era have depicted these heavenly bodies, trying to decipher a celestial and mysterious identity called space.

They didn’t just portray the beauty of the universe, of the brilliant sun, soon, and the planets. They wanted to extract the hidden cosmological power their bare eyes could not fathom, through astronomy and space drawings, even before the telescope was invented by Galileo Galilei. 

How Ancient Civilizations Dealt with Astronomy and Space Drawing

Ancient civilizations looked at the stars to transform the mysteries into mythologies, like the Egyptians designed temples aligned to stars, the Aztec civilization offered prayers to the Sun God, and so on. Greeks and Roman Gods and Goddesses were linked to stars and constellations too.

Some ancient sketches, scriptures, and manuscripts of the medieval artists, and star charts show the efforts to measure the depth and complexity of the heavenly elements, though not scientifically accurate as compared to contemporary astronomical paintings and cosmology art.

The High Renaissance and Astronomical Paintings

In the High Renaissance period, astronomy was understood from a different perspective altogether. Famous artist Botticelli used mythological references in his immortal creations ‘Primavera’ or ‘The Birth of Venus;’ Leonardo da Vinci did numerous astronomical drawings with imaginary figures, like the moon and other planetary observations.

Northern Renaissance artists, like Albrecht Dürer created celestial maps to help decipher the cosmological magic, while Raphael used the cosmological symmetry to blend the natural elements with their divine aura.

Let’s look into 7 of the most famous astronomy paintings to know the evolving trends of how the depiction of the cosmos evolved from a divine gallery to a sci-fi hub over time.

Map of the Northern Sky: Albrecht Dürer

Albrecht Dürer, a prominent German painter, printmaker, and mathematician from the Northern Renaissance period captured celestial wonders with his detailed map of both the hemispheres in 1515. It proves that the fascination for the zodiac started a long ago, when there was no such fine line between astrology and astronomy. Royal courts relied on astrologers to prepare precise star charts.

Albrecht Dürer made these observations on woodcut prints, unlike previous hand-made preparation of astral charts which

were more tedious.

In his hemispheric depiction, he showed constellations, and zodiacs represented by animals and figures. There were Medusa and Persius, the constellations of Orion and the Great Bear. Dürer also placed four famous astronomers of his time at the four corners of the hemispheric map. 

Thanks to Dürer’s woodcut prints, these charts were able to be copied and distributed with comparative ease throughout Europe, and were included in major astronomical texts later on.

The Creation of the Sun, the Moon and the Planets: Frescoes by Michelangelo Buonarroti on the Sistine Chapel Ceiling

The Italian polymath Michelangelo Buonarroti immortalized fresco paintings on the Sistine Chapel ceiling creating larger than life depictions from the Book of Holy Bible. In one of his celebrated frescoes, two scenes from Genesis are depicted, on the right side of the painting, God is seen creating the sun and the moon, while on the left, he is seen from behind, busy creating trees. The period of Renaissance blended divine aura with empiricism to value mathematics and observation, combining art and astronomy.

Leonardo da Vinci and Earthshine: The Famous ‘Da Vinci Glow’ 

One of the stalwarts of the Italian Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci, carried his scientific pursuits with great enthusiasm just like he did extensive research on his anatomical drawings. He drew multiple sketches showing planetary constellations, and early astronomical charts like ‘Studies of the Illumination of the Moon.’ He proposed a unique phenomenon like the Earthshine – the heavenly glow illuminating the dark side of the Earth’s moon. All these efforts linked art to a growing scientific thought, even as traditional geocentric views persisted. 

Tintoretto: The Origin of the Milky Way (1575)

Jacopo Tintoretto, the late Renaissance artist, enriched art and astronomy with his mythological painting, where he painted the milky way while astronomy was still in a budding stage. Science and alchemy were more prevalent in society. The astronomical painting loaded with symbolism was inspired by Roman myths.

The story behind the painting takes reference from myths about the planets. A sleeping Juno, wife of the planet Jupiter, was startled by her baby Hercules. While she’s shaken by the child suckling her milk, she draws herself back and the milk gets spilled all over the night sky, forming the stars of the Milky Way. There are several images in the painting that suggest the spiritual teachings of Christianity.

The Starry Night: Vincent van Gogh (1889)

‘The Starry Night,’ the remarkable painting by Vincent Van Gogh in 1889, had been hugely critiqued in the history of art. Till date, it is regarded as one of his masterpiece creations – complex with hidden meanings and symbols. Though it looks different from other astronomical paintings, it not only depicts his absolute frenzy in experimenting with art form and style but also shows his inner turmoil in every brush stroke. In the night sky, a desperate artist was trying to find solace, mapping the universe with his inner sky.

Chesley Bonestell: Saturn as Seen from Titan (1944)

American painter Chesley Bonestell was a designer and illustrator, popular for his realistic astronomical drawings that included themes of exploration of the moon and planets, designing future spacecraft, and imaginary scenes relating to the solar system. The painting shows a visionary image of Saturn, with tall mountains, and blue backgrounds, as if someone’s watching the planet closely from Saturn's moon Titan.

From Ancient Star Gazers to Sci-Art and Astronomy: A Rare Astronomy Art in Display at the TATE, London

With the influx of digital images and sci-fi models of space exploration, contemporary artists are experimenting with cross-disciplinary methods and virtual reality to probe into the fathomless depth of the universe. Modern artists use deep-space photographs, interactive installations, film, and advanced computer graphics to show space and time as something tangible and real.

Contemporary artist Katie Pieterson’s All the Dead Stars (2009) is a marvelous work, mapping more than 27,000 dead stars gazed by human eye. It is an aluminum map documenting the locations of these dead stars that have been observed so far.

Thus, the mystery behind the endless cosmos continues to intrigue creators, often mirroring the mental universe of the artist. And the exploration goes on …

We will be looking into another fascinating series of art and science explorations in our upcoming blog on math and geometry in art, to know if there is any mathematical calculation behind beauty …