Caravaggio and the New Naturalism

Caravaggio

• Born 1571 in Milan
• Exiled to his death 1610 on a beach
• Sept. 29th Baptism
• Left Milan at 5, 1576 because of plague
• moved to Caravaggio
• Mother died in 1584
• Was apprentice to Simone
• Trained with Titian
• One of mysteries is his early work
• After apprenticeship, visited Venice
• A lot of speculation comes from looking at work he was familiar with specifically Leonardo di Vinci
• Very careful painter
• Very interested in Venetian painting techniques
• Style of painting: tight brushstrokes, very Milanese
• Been seen more like Venetians
• Create shapes from actual contour lines
• Becomes known for Naturalism
• His Naturalism is seen as extreme-Extreme Naturalism
• Caravaggism*
• Strong phases of style in Baroque period
• 1592- around 1599 Roman period characterized by certain types of works
• Overlapping never really neat
• Gets some of his first great commissions
• 1592 visit Rome
• Gets in trouble
• Requires patronage, sets the tone
• Gets hired in studio by important painter to the Pope
• Fruit and flower specialist
• Typical only having paintings certain sizes
• Life sized figures only painted half
• Neutral background
• Subjects/subject matter reflects type of art from Northern artist
• Allowed to sell works in local shop
• Work began to get noticed quickly
• Early works were collected
• Smart artist
• Probably had training with figures
• Would have been person assisting in these types of works
• Economical in producing paintings quickly
• Typical of this period, not just straight forward subject matters, but beyond that, subject and its meaning

Portrait of Caravaggio

• Octavio Leoni
• 1621-25
• Early modern
• Ealy Baroque

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caravaggio

Conversion of Saul (St. Paul)

• 1600-01
• Baroque:Italian
• Early Modern
• Early Baroque
• First monumental period in Rome
• Profound transformation
• Elements of nature
• No obvious light source

https://www.studyblue.com/notes/note/n/midterm-2/deck/2718829

David with the Head of Goliath (detail)

• Self portrait
• Similarity between this and Ottavio’s Caravaggio portrait

http://www.wga.hu/html_m/c/caravagg/11/70david1.html

Butcher’s Stall (with the Flight into Egypt)

• Pieter Aersten
• 1551
• Dutch
• Early Modern
• Late Renaissance
• New kind of subject matter for meditation after Council of Trent
• Religious subject matter
• Reverse of subject importance
• Number of still life objects
• What Caravaggio would have been doing as an apprentice
• Attention to still life/objects
• Things are rarely what they seem

The Fortune Teller

• Caravaggio
• 1595
• Culture:Italian
• Early Modern
• Early Baroque
• France
• Was in Palatzo
• This works picks up prestige
• Fine surface
• Create sense of more engaged viewer
• Co-extension of space
• Made like figures are apart of our space (the sword’s position)
• Man considered a “Bravo”-young man with sword who went around town picking fights

Still-life, Basket of Fruits

• 1600-01
• Italian
• Early Baroque
• Was collected by Cardinal Federico
• Admired for its fidelity to nature
• Imperfect fruits/ decayed
• Not idealized
• Painting from natural; his goal
• Simple composition with co-extension of space with cast shadow

http://westerncivart.com/items/show/2776

Bacchus

• 1595
• Early Baroque
• Italian
• god of wine
• Drawn from a reflection made during period in studio with Cavallari
• Realizing more complex elements
• Still neutral color background, but darker
• Get strong sense of direction and light
• Bacchus utilized as Christ-like figure
• Co-extension of space

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacchus_%28Caravaggio%29

Boy Bitten by a Lizard

• 1595
• Painted for sale
• Admired for the way reflections are represented
• Captured a moment
• Self-conscious;naturalistic in treatment

Doubting Thomas

• 1602-03
• Italian
• Early Baroque
• Continues to paint “bread and butter” works for patrons
• See incorporation of religious subject matter of St. Thomas
• Not shown in graphic matter
• Became familiar with this subject matter
• Classical notion of subject matter of figure pointing at the wound and not in
• More than half figures and dark background

http://www.artble.com/artists/caravaggio/paintings/doubting_thomas

Super at Emmaus

• 1601
• Also known as Pilgrimage of Our Lord to Emmaus.
• Commissioned by Ciriaco Mattei, a brother of cardinal Mattei in whose Roman palazzo Caravaggio lived at the time.
• Inspired by Titian
• The still-life elements on the table have symbolic meanings. The bread and the wine obviously refer to the Eucharist that is taking place. The grapes in turn refer to the wine, the apples to the Fall of Man, and the pomegranates symbolize the Church. So the table is not an ordinary table but an altar.

http://www.artbible.info/art/large/28.html

The Taking of Christ

• 1602-03
• Caravaggio has gone even darker
• More figures involved
• In the act of being betrayed and taken in the Garden of Gethsemane by soldiers who were led to him by one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot.
• Caravaggio focuses on the culminating moment of Judas’ betrayal, as he grasps Christ and delivers his treacherous kiss
• Presented in coherent and consistent pattern

http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/caravbr-2.htm

The Calling of St. Matthew

• 1599-1603
• Early Modern
• Contarelli Chapel, San Luigi del Francesi, Rome
• Had zero previous works at this scale; was a challenge
• Admired for the way light goes from left to right
• Kind of emotional effect admired
• depicting the moment at which Jesus Christ inspires Matthew to follow him.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Calling_of_St_Matthew_%28Caravaggio%29

The Martyrdom of St. Matthew

• Hangs opposite The Calling of Saint Matthew and beside the altarpiece The Inspiration of Saint Matthew
• First of the three to be installed in the chapel, in July 1600

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Martyrdom_of_Saint_Matthew_%28Caravaggio%29

Inspiration  of St. Matthew

• Vertical altar piece with horizontal works on each side
• Iconic and narrative image
• Take into account actual light coming into the chapel
• Window above in chapel indicates looking at the shutter

http://www.wga.hu/html_m/c/caravagg/04/26conta.html

Crucifixion of St. Peter

• 1600-01
• Cerasi Chapel, Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome
• Creates an “x”
• Few elements of color to give a sense of depth
• Use of tenebrism
• Peter asked that his cross be inverted so as not to imitate his God, Jesus Christ, hence he is depicted upside-down.
• Peter is heavier than his aged body would suggest, and his lifting requires the efforts of three men, as if the crime they perpetrate already weighs on them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crucifixion_of_St._Peter_%28Caravaggio%29

Entombment

• 1602-04
• Chiesa Nuova, Vatican, Rome
• Probably the most monumental of Caravaggio’s work
• Dedicated to the Pietà.
• The desent from the cross of the corpse and the entombment are actually secondary to the Mourning of Mary which is the focal point of the lamentation.
• Refused to portray the human individual as sublime, beautiful and heroic.
• His figures are bowed, bent, cowering, reclining or stooped. The self confident and the statuesque have been replaced by humility and subjection.

http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/his/CoreArt/art/bar_cvggo_entom.html

Madonna di Loreto

• 1603-06
• in the Cavalletti Chapel of the church of Sant’Agostino
• In 1603 the heirs of marquis Ermete Cavalletti, who had died on 21 July 1602, commissioned for the decoration of a family chapel a painting on the theme of the Madonna of Loreto.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madonna_di_Loreto_%28Caravaggio%29

Death of the Virgin

• 1601-03
• Early Modern “15th-19th c.
• Baroque: Italian
• Louvre Museum, Paris
• Caravaggio had been working in Rome for fifteen years.
• The painting was commissioned by Laerzio Cherubini, a papal lawyer, for his chapel in the Carmelite church of Santa Maria della Scala in Trastevere, Rome
• The depiction of the Death of the Virgin caused a contemporary stir, and was rejected as unfit by the parish.
• Giulio Mancini(was a seicento physician, art collector, art dealer and writer on a range of subjects) thought Caravaggio modelled a prostitute, possibly his mistress, as the Virgin.
• led to a rejection of the painting by the fathers of Santa Maria della Scala and its replacement by a picture by Carlo Saraceni, a close follower of Caravaggio.
• Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish Baroque painter), who praised it as one of Caravaggio’s best works, the painting was bought by Vincenzo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_the_Virgin_%28Caravaggio%29

Judith and Holofernes

• 1599
• Barbernini Palace, Rome
• Clearly and harshly drawn figures characterize this gruesome scene.
• The servant holds the bag as Judith cuts off the head of Holophernes, the leader of the enemy troops.
• In an earlier version, Judith’s breasts were visible. Caravaggio later added the blouse.

http://www.artbible.info/art/large/11.html

The Flagellation of Christ

• 1607
• Commissioned by the di Franco (or de Franchis) family for a chapel in the church of San Domenico Maggiore in Naples.
• The family were connected with the Confraternity of the Pio Monte della Misericordia, for whose church Caravaggio had already painted The Seven Works of Mercy.
• Had long been a popular subject in religious art—and in contemporary religious practice, where the church encouraged self-flagellation as a means by which the faithful might enter into the suffering of Christ.
• Caravaggio’s painting introduces an acutely observed reality into the scene: Christ is in this drooping pose, not because it might seem graceful, but because the torturer on the right is kicking the back of his knee while the figure on the left holds his hair tightly in his fist.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Flagellation_of_Christ_%28Caravaggio%29

Seven Acts of Mercy

• 1606-07
• Pio Monte della Misericordia, Naples
• depicts the seven corporal works of mercy in traditional Catholic belief, which are a set of compassionate acts concerning the material welfare of others.
• was made for, and is still housed in, the church of Pio Monte della Misericordia in Naples. Originally it was meant to be seven separate panels around the church; however, Caravaggio combined all seven works of mercy in one composition which became the church’s altarpiece. The painting is better seen from il “coreto” (little choir) in the first floor.
  Bury the dead- In the background, two men carry a dead man (of whom only the feet are visible).
• Visit the imprisoned, and feed the hungry– On the right, a woman visits an imprisoned man and gives him milk from her breast. This image alludes to the classical story of Roman Charity.
• Shelter the homeless- A pilgrim (third from left, as identified by the shell in his hat) asks an innkeeper (at far left) for shelter.
• Clothe the naked– St. Martin of Tours, fourth from the left, has torn his robe in half and given it to the naked beggar in the foreground, recalling the saint’s popular legend.
• Visit the sick– St. Martin greets and comforts the beggar who is a cripple.
• Refresh the thirsty– Samson (second from the left) drinks water from the jawbone of an ass.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven_Works_of_Mercy_%28Caravaggio%29

Weeks 3-4 Transition to Early Baroque; Caravaggio

Santa Susanna Facade

• Carlo Maderno
• 1597-1603.
• Rome
• High Baroque
• Early Modern
• Renovation of church that already existed
• Created double tabernacle facade
• Repetition of forms
• Rhythm created
• Doesn’t give facade that extends on either side
• Interior eluded to early Christian designs
• Flat ceilings

Transition to Early Baroque

Taddeo and Federico Zuccaro

Taddeo in the Belvedere Court in the Vatican, Drawing the Laocoön

• Federico Zuccaro
• 1595
• Italy
• Early Modern 15th-19th C.
• High Renaissance
• Elements of Council of Trent
• Clarity/intelligent
• Federico was a theorist
• Partly responsible for spread of Italian style
• Becomes one of the instigators for a new academy in Rome, Accademia Di San Luca in 1607
• Premier training opportunities for artist to come to Rome and learn new style
• Painted facades
• Learned from Taddeo
• Negatively compared to older brother Taddeo
• At the end of Council of Trent, began to get commissions
• Style of Raphael

Parnassus, in the Stanza della Segnatura, Vatican Palace, Vatican City, Rome

• Raphael
• Renaissance:Italian
• Early Modern: 15th-19th C.
• High Renaissance

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Parnassus

Blinding of Elymas

• Raphael
• Tapestry Cartoon
• Made cartoon tapestries to hang in Sistine Chapel
• Began to get known in various ways
• Paul is on Pathos preaching to council
• Gets blinded
• Shows great Roman architecture

http://www.wikiart.org/en/raphael/the-blinding-of-elymas-cartoon-for-the-sistine-chapel

Conversion of Saul, Frangipani Chapel, S. Marcello del Corso, Rome

• Federico and Taddeo Zuccaro
• 1564
• Late Renaissance
• Italy
• Becomes one of new subjects widely utilized
• Conversion becomes key subject to the church
• Moment when Paul becomes defender of the church
• Birth of defender of church
• Conveys growing sense of military triumphalism
• Follows Michelangelo
• Dedicated to Paul

Deposition, Santa Felicita

• Pontormo
• 1526-28
• Renaissance
• Italian
• Mannerism
• Interest in taking ideas of High Renaissance further
• Same means as Parmigiano
• Exaggerated proportions
• Figures squeezed into a tight space
• Form to increase its beauty
• Not great deal of depth
• Figures squeezed in tight space
• Initiated Mannerist painting in Florence
• Figures gestures/expressions give sense of motion
• Quotation of Michelangelo’s early works in Rome (The Pieta)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Deposition_from_the_Cross_%28Pontormo%29

Federico Barocci

• Inventor of light and color
• Also a pioneer
• There were works by Titian nearby that he would study
• Would become extremely important with major patrons in Italy and Spain
• Continue to have a following of High Baroque artist
• Scholars paid a lot of attention to him
• Work on scale of Fresco painters
• Painting on scale of altar pieces’ not easy to get to
• None of his works were in collections because they’re up in churches
• Influenced by Taddeo
• Takes from Raphael and Michelangelo
• Look at great masters’ studying techniques
• Interests in compositions, forms, practice of drawing
• Works well known are his drawings
• Bring diverse traditions together
• Becomes famous for single works of saints

Desposition

• 1569
• Italian
• Mannerism
• Figures have more room to breathe and stretch
• Figures clothing continue out the scene
• Allows viewer to empathize
• Use foreshortening; natural perspective; consistency
• Explores more painterly approach to color
• Interested in Venetian color
• Color change by light and shadow
• Franciscan Monk observing; not completely idealized
• New elements of naturalism

http://www.wikigallery.org/wiki/painting_343652/Federico-Fiori-Barocci/Deposition

Pastel Study

• Renaissance
• Italian
• Early Modern: 15th-19th C.
• Mannerism
• Hasn’t existed before
• Gets picked up by Venetian artists
• Broken contour lines; gestural approach
• 3 color chalk drawing

Visitation

• 1583-86
• Italian
• Early Modern: 15th-19th C.
• Mannerism
• Limited number of figures with restraint and simplicity
• Diagonal
• St. Phillip Neri would pray/ meditate in front of it and fall into a mystical swoon

http://www.alaintruong.com/archives/2013/02/28/26529332.html

Presentation of the Virgin at the Temple, Chiesa Nuova, Santa Maria della Vallicella, Rome

• 1594
• Baroque:Italian
• Early Modern 15th-19th C.
• Early Baroque
• More figures
• Complex version of The Visitation
• Many same characteristics: color; light

http://arthistoryreference.com/cgi-bin/hd.exe?art2=a53913

St. Jerome

• 1598
• Italian
• Early Modern: 15th-19th C.
• Mannerism
• Monochromatic setting
• Night setting
• Create emotion
• 3 light sources
• Heightened emotions

Parmigianino, Conversion of Saul

http://www.artbible.net

Michelangelo

• The Conversion of Saul
• 1542–1545
• Italian Renaissance
• Pauline Chapel, Vatican

The Conversion of Saul

Week 2 Research Excercise #1 and Lecture

Baroque: The principal European style in the visual arts in the 17th century and the first half of the 18th; generally considered to be characteristic of the period of Caravaggio, Rubens, Rembrandt, Giordano and Tiepolo in painting, Bernini in sculpture, and Borromini, Fischer von Erlach and Wren in architecture. Usage of the term is often extended to the whole period 1600–1750 without qualifying restrictions, or improperly to mean a florid and elaborate style in art, architecture, music or literature, of any date from late antiquity to the early 20th century.

Kerry Downes. “Baroque.” Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 28 Jan. 2015.<http://www.oxfordartonline.com.libproxy.temple.edu/subscriber/article/grove/art/T006459>.

In Baroque, a thematic approach to Baroque art by John Rupert Martin, Martin defines Baroque as the predominant artistic trends of the period that is roughly comprehended by the 17th century and in an attempt to define the characteristics of Baroque art we may begin with naturalism (Martin, pg 12).  Both definitions recognize that the Baroque period was a European style in the 17th century. Martin says that the end of the Baroque period is as unclear as its beginning. There are works that belong to the 18th century that can be called Baroque, but no doubt that the Baroque began to slack by the last quarter of the 17th century. Traditional subjects such as mythology, portraiture and other sacred art were transformed and given a more naturalistic vision of Baroque ( Martin, 13).

Procession to Santa Maria Maggiore

• Pilgrimage- important incinitive/jubiliee
• Were many deaths due to crowds
• Yearly papal processions

Ecstasy of St. Teresa-Bernini 1647-52

Image source: http://caravaggista.com/2011/08/on-the-power-of-aesthetics-and-artistic-intent/bernini-ecstasy-of-st-theresa-1/

• St. Teresa was a Carmalite
• Sculptural altar piece
• Reflects dedication to the chapel
• Counter reformation of saints
• Shows different ways enlightenment could occur
• Borgias

Lecture-Rome of Sixtus V (1585-1590)

Period that had more spaces and areas to build on

Portrait of Sixtus V.-  Fillipo Bellini

Image source: necspenecmetu.tumblr.com

• Franciscan
• Secular/birth name Felice Peretti di Montalto
• Often credited for trans-formative shift
• Iron Pope
• Interested in building
• Ability to get things done
• Begun engineering projects to upgrade the city
• facilitate new plans of transportation

Fountain of Moses (Aqua Felice)

Image source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acqua_Felice

• Project by Pope Sixtus V
• Dominico Fantana was the engineer who helped Pope Sixtus realize his dream
• An expressed vision of Sixtus to make Rome most modern/Christian/beautiful
• Begun the day Pope Sixtus V was elected pope
• Main subject played out in sculptural program is Moses
• Analogy of Moses and Pope Sixtus V-both leading the poeple; associations with water
• No names of the sculptures that helped build this fountain
• Many people got their water from this fountain
• See the opening of streets
• Marked intersections
• Architectural form
• Large attic filled for any sculptural relief
• Went through a number of renovations throughout Baroque period

The Palazzo

• Had three churches
• Many of the projects were nameless team projects run by an engineer

Il Gesù-Jacopo della Porta

image source:http://sanjoseitalia2012.wikispaces.com/Nathalia

• When Pope Sixtus V becomes pope this is the new church
• Often referred to as a transitional phase from Renaissance to the Baroque period
• Complex use of elements
• not a façade with a lot of movement
• Patron Alexander
• The façade of the church is divided into two sections.

Baroque Week 1

Judith Beheading Holofernes

http://www.artble.com/artists/caravaggio/more_information/style_and_technique

When I think of the Baroque period I think of Caravaggio’s paintings. He was known for his realism, intense chiaroscuro and emphasis on co-extensive space.I love the subtle color he uses an his attention to detail. His drapery is very beautiful and I also enjoy the way he shows action in his paintings and the way they tell a story.

Ann Sutherland Harris Reading

Seventeenth-Century Art & Architecture

• A period that encompassed the careers of many of the best-known artists of European history.
• Far more painting than sculpture was produced because the latter (controlled by the Spanish monarchy) is an expensive medium and fewer artists took it up.
• Gian Lorenzo Bernini was the trans-formative genius of this medium in the 17th century.

Six countries whose art and architecture that are usually taught in courses of Baroque art:

• Italy
• Flanders
• Spain
• France
• the Dutch Republic
• England

The Habsburg court of Emperor Rudolf II in Prague

• Attracted painters, engravers, and sculptors from Antwerp, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Basle, and Milan.
• Their sophisticated style became the final fling of Mannerism.
• Court moved to Vienna in 1620.

Italy

• In the 16^th century, Italy became a magnet for the artists from the Netherlands and France
• Italian artists were sought by courts in Spain, France and England.
• Carracci and Caravaggio began the stylistic revolution.
• The Counter-Reformation Church offered many opportunities for artists in Rome that the city became the most important center of artistic production in Europe.
• Rome remained the most important European city for ambitious artists until Paris gradually replaced it in the 19^th century.

Flanders (the Spanish Netherlands) and Spain

• Developments affected by Italian art.
• Artistic production in Flanders gradually declined after the deaths of Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck in the 1640s.

Dutch Republic and England

• The transformation of Paris into a modern city began around 1600.
• Printmakers and painters found a huge new market among the middle classes.
• The English continued to depend on imported talent.
• Patronage for any kind of painting was slow to develop until the end of the century.
• In the field of architecture, English artists emerge as rivals to their continental peers.
• Christopher Wren designed and built St. Paul’s Cathedral, the largest church erected in Western Europe in the 17^th century.

Caravaggio, Rubens and Poussin

There’s no simple relationship between artists’ personalities and the character of their art, but knowing something about artists’ lives and reading their own statements about their tastes and intentions can create empathy for work that may seem at first inaccessible.

• A slow examination of any visual image invariably yields deeper understanding.
• The contrast between Caravaggio’s violent temper and the profound religious sentiment that he could conjure up on canvas immediately engages specialists and the general public.
• Rubens and Poussin were serious students of the visual and intellectual culture of the Italian Renaissance and it’s ancient roots.
• Rubens was an extrovert involved in the major diplomatic and religious issues of his time.
• Poussin lived quietly in Rome working steadily except when taking a walk in the Borghese Gardens with friends.

Best known painters, sculptors, and architects working, who emerged and transformed the visual arts during the 17th century

• Bernini
• Borromini
• Caravaggio
• Claude
• Hals
• Poussin
• Rembrandt
• Rubens
• van Dyck
• Velazquez
• Vermeer
• Wren

• Florence, Antwerp, and Venice declined as centers of artistic significance
• Rome, Paris, Amsterdam expanded

Politics, Religion, and Art

• Spain ruled most of Italy south of Rome including Sicily
• Exercised de facto (denoting someone or something that is such in fact) control over Milan and the northern port of Genoa
• England and Scotland became one country under James I in 1603
• By mid century, most of Ireland, Scotland, and Wales were controlled by Parliament
• The religious wars between Protestants and Catholics from the 16th century continued into the 17th century.
• Henry VIII already declared himself head of the Church of England in 1534
• The southern Netherlands could no long serve as Spain’s “cash cow”
• One of Spain’s many reasons of steady economic decline after 1600
• Political propaganda created in Rome, was a rich source of artistic patronage
• Both Catholic and Protestant churches were major catalytic forces in the visual arts

The Economics of Art

• The enormous number of architecturally significant buildings, major sculptural monuments, and large-scale paintings produced in Western Europe in the 17th century are eloquent proof of the improved economic condition after 1600
• 18th century, British artists dominate artistic production in all media
• The money was there, but the taste and inclination weren’t
• Italy and Spain’s population declined in the 17th century
• Venice began to lose trade to Genoa and Naples
• Other sea routes were discovered and more ships carried more goods to Northern Europe
• Urban VIII drained the Church’s treasury to decorate II Gesu, the interior of St. Peter’s and his family’s properties and to fight the futile war of Castro, over a small town of his rivals, Farnese Family

Image source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_the_Ges%C3%B9

• Famine struck early 1640s
• Papal treasury couldn’t afford sufficient grain to alleviate hunger
• Urban was hated by the Romans as a result
• The papacy and its court remained the most significant source of artistic patronage in Italy
• The artistic traditions of Florence, Bologna, Genoa, Milan, Venice and Naples were maintained throughout the century

Geography, Cosmology, and Astronomy

• Developments in navigation, cartography, an d astronomy in the 16th and 17th centuries revealed new worlds to Europeans
• Astronomical discoveries were found even more disturbing

Brave Voyagers:

• Vasco da Gama sailed around Africa to Calcutta in 1497
• Amerigo Vespucci reached Brazil in 1499
• Christopher Columbus reached America a few years earlier

• At the start of the 15th century all believed the world was a flat circle hovering in a crystal sphere
• By 1500 a few realized it was round

Johannes Kepler

• discovered the 3 laws of planetary motion, proving what Nicolaus Copernicus argued that the sun, not the earth is at the center of the planetary system
• Worked out of to calculate the time it takes each planet to make its journey around the sun
• Believed in astrology

Curiosity about new worlds and the desire to record, map, and explain their fauna, flora, and inhabitants meant a ready market for books describing travelers’ experiences.

• Artists and botanists traveled and brought back drawings of new plants and animals from Asia, Africa, and South America

Image source: http://caribbean-beat.com/issue-96/maria-merian-caterpillar-lover#axzz3PTkaFhk7