Arcing the Horizon. The Curvature, the Celestial Spheres and the Picture Plane
Abstract
The representation of a curved marine horizon populated by a series of receding ships as the background of a crucifixion scene on an altarpiece made around 1460 at the Upper Rhine display its painter’s familiarity with the widely read Sphera written around 1230 by Sacrobosco. The consideration of the broader cultural and historical context for the altarpiece’s unusual use of this background reveals the experimentation that painters and illuminators of encyclopedic manuscripts undertook in the second half of the fifteenth century in how to depict the spherical cosmos within a largely square pictorial format. The Northern Alpine painter’s use of color perspective and close observation of nature is considered here in relation to ideas about the shape of he earth and the heavenly spheres that circulated his day.
Date Issued
2016-10-25
Publication Type
Conference Item
Language(s)
en
Author(s)
Additional Credits
Access(Rights)
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