New book on Mutio Oddi published

Alex Art-Science Leave a Comment

Alexander Marr’s new book on Mutio Oddi, Between Raphael and Galileo: Mutio Oddi and the Mathematical Culture of Late Renaissance Italy has been published by the University of Chicago Press.  The first full account of Oddi’s like and work, it includes a chapter on the Linder Gallery Interior as well as extensive discussion of Oddi’s activities in mathematics, the visual …

An alternative candidate for Disegno?

Alex Allegory, Art-Science, Instruments and machines, Mathematics 3 Comments

It is by no means clear whether the figure of Disegno in the Linder gallery is intended to be generic or a specific portrait.  Michael John has suggested Kepler as a possible candidate – which is certainly plausible, although I have yet to be convinced of the similarity between known portraits of Kepler and the features of the Linder gallery figure, …

Drawing and Painting? Art and Science?

Jeff Cordover Allegory, Art-Science, Mathematics 5 Comments

The foreground of the Linder Gallery is dominated by two figures, a bearded old man and a young woman in classical clothing reclining in his lap. Whereas the male figure appears to be a portrait, the female figure seems to be purely allegorical. The paintbrushes, maulstick and artist’s pallete would suggest that she can be identified as Painting, or perhaps …

The Caravaggio Letter: Eyewitness account of the Linder Gallery?

michaeljohn Artist, Astronomy, Mathematics, Provenance Leave a Comment

There is an intriguing letter in the university library of Urbino recently uncovered by Alexander Marr that provides a direct eyewitness account of the Linder Gallery from shortly after its creation. It was sent in March 1629 by an engineer, Giovanni Battista Caravaggio to his mathematical  tutor, Mutio Oddi, describing a visit to the house of the German merchant Peter …

Muzio Oddi and the Linder Gallery

Alex Astronomy, Mathematics Leave a Comment

The sole surviving piece of textual evidence that sheds light on the Linder gallery interior is a letter, sent on 28 March 1629, from the architect-engineer Giovanni Battista Caravaggio to his former tutor in mathematics, Mutio Oddi of Urbino.  In the letter, Caravaggio (then in Milan) mentions a visit to their friend Pieter Linder, a German merchant who had also …

A possible self-portrait?

Jeff Cordover Allegory, Artist Leave a Comment

There is no signature on the Linder Gallery, but on the red table on the right hand side of the painting is a small double-portrait. The portrait shows two men, a bearded man pointing at a drawing and the other, younger man looking at the drawing and painting. On close inspection of the drawing it can be seen that it …