Resumen de After Galileo: the image of science in Niccolò Tornioli's "Astronomers"
Portraying a dialogue among the supporters of Aristotelian and Copernican views of the solar system, Niccolò Tornioli's "Astronomers" was conceived in the aftermath of Galileo's death in Rome during the 1640s. This essay contextualizes Tornioli's painterly strategies within early modern astronomical observations, and optical and perspectival experiments, especially considering the impact of the Galilean revolution on the credibility of the visual. Questioning the painter's response to the technological and epistemological novelties in the history of scientific observation introduced by Galileo, the analysis demonstrates that the canvas is concerned with the reassertion of visual knowledge. This contribution also reconsiders the genesis of the "Astronomers" in the context of Tornioli's patronage by the Spada family in Rome. Throughout an enquiry into Virgilio Spada's museum of curiosities and the verses hosted in the Spada sundial patronized by Cardinal Bernardino, the research considers how these patrons shaped Tornioli's imagery and aims to prove the artist's chief contribution of the Spada cultural agenda.
