Reading visual art: 112 Constellations A

Before the twentieth century brought widespread use of electric lights at night and our cities came to glow in the dark, people were accustomed to seeing the stars, and learning the constellations. Many nocturnes show stars, and in some cases they’re recognisable in their constellations. Those were used to tell the season, hence formed the zodiac of the year, and were assimilated into the pseudoscience of astrology.

Today, if there’s one constellation that many people can recognise in the northern hemisphere it’s the Great Bear, Ursa Major, also known as the Plough in a more prosaic interpretation of its shape.

Samuel Palmer (1805-1881), The Harvest Moon (c 1833), oil and tempera with graphite on paper, laid on panel, 22.1 x 27.7 cm, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT. Wikimedia Commons.

Samuel Palmer’s Harvest Moon from about 1833 shows workers in a corn field under the light of a full moon, seen low in the sky and to the left of centre. The workers are cutting corn into stooks, some piled high on a cart drawn by oxen towards buildings tucked away in a bank of trees. The constellation Ursa Major is low in the sky above the river on the right, its stars burning bright.

Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), Starry Night over the Rhône (1888), oil on canvas, 72.5 x 92 cm, Musée d’Orsay, Paris. WikiArt.

Vincent van Gogh’s famous Starry Night over the Rhône (1888) shows a clear night on the bank of the wide, calm river, with the water and sky filling most of the painting. The sky is paler in the centre of the painting. Several stars are shining brightly, with lemon bursts around each. Seven form the constellation of Ursa Major, straight ahead of the viewer.

Ursa Major and Minor are formed in myth by the catasterisation of the nymph Callisto, who had been turned into a bear by Juno, and her son. A more famous aetiological myth tells of the origin of the Milky Way.

Jacopo Tintoretto (c 1518–1594), The Origin of the Milky Way (c 1575), oil on canvas, 149.4 × 168 cm, The National Gallery (Bought, 1890), London. Image courtesy of and © The National Gallery, London.

Tintoretto’s Origin of the Milky Way from about 1575 shows the infant Hercules being pulled away from the breast of Juno by an anonymous assistant, with fine streams of milk gushing upwards to generate individual stars. In the background, Jupiter’s eagle appears to have a crablike object in its talons, perhaps representing the constellation of the Crab (Cancer), and Juno’s peacocks are at the right.

Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640), The Birth of the Milky Way (1636-37), oil on canvas, 181 × 244 cm, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, Spain. Wikimedia Commons.

A few years before his death, Peter Paul Rubens painted an even more wonderful account of The Birth of the Milky Way (1636-37). Jupiter sits in the background on the left, seemingly bored. Juno’s milk arcs out from her left breast over the heavens, and her peacocks look distressed.

Adam Elsheimer (1578–1610), The Flight into Egypt (date not known), oil on copper, 30.6 x 41.5 cm, Alte Pinakothek, Maxvorstadt, Germany. Wikimedia Commons.

One of Adam Elsheimer’s most brilliant nocturnes, The Flight into Egypt probably from around 1600, surely makes a reference to this myth, as the Holy Family are entering a small camp of other refugees, set around a fire. Above them is the vast sky, with recognisable constellations and the wonder of the Milky Way.

Other paintings tell the aetiological myths of other constellations.

Elihu Vedder (1836–1923), The Pleiades (1885), oil on canvas, 61.3 × 95.6 cm, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY. Wikimedia Commons.

In Greek mythology, the Pleiades were originally the seven daughters of the titan Atlas and the sea-nymph Pleione. When Atlas was made to carry the heavens on his shoulders, Orion started to pursue the Pleiades, so Zeus transformed them into doves, then into stars. Their name is given to a star cluster, which it appears is chased across the night sky by the constellation of Orion.

Vedder’s painting of The Pleiades (1885) was made in association with his first illustration for the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, representing Khayyam’s horoscope. Each of the sisters is connected by a thread to their corresponding star, perhaps representing the process of catasterisation.

Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis (1875-1911), The Sun is Passing the Sign of Sagittarius (1906), further details not known. Wikimedia Commons.

The Sun is Passing the Sign of Sagittarius (1906) is one of a series painted by Mikalojus Čiurlionis showing the constellations, in this case the archer taking aim at a large eagle-like bird from a mountaintop.