Pinacoteca Room XV

The small observers in Donato Creti’s Astronomical Observations stand beneath enlarged views of the Sun, Moon and other celestial bodies. Telescopes and optical instruments connect the people with what appears above them. The series makes an argument through pictures. Count Luigi Marsili commissioned these paintings in 1711 as a gift for the pope. He wanted support for an astronomical observatory in Bologna. The eight canvases present the bodies then included in the series, among them a comet. Uranus had yet to be discovered. Portraits in the room make different kinds of public claim. Thomas Lawrence painted the future George IV in 1816 with rich clothing, orders of chivalry and objects associated with royal status. Giuseppe Maria Crespi’s portrait changed when its sitter, Cardinal Lambertini, became Pope Benedict XIV. The artist altered his clothing and added papal attributes. Compare how the astronomy pictures and portraits use carefully selected details to ask something of their viewers.