November 12, 2024
Eyeing Us
Originally published June 14, 2014
Konstantin Bogaevsky, "Memories of Mantegna," 1910 image of painting from Priscilla Frank in The Huffington Post
The Moon is inspiring. For us who observe with telescopes it is a wondrous sight to behold every day and night that we catch it. But it has also inspired painters, including the Russian Bogaevsky, who created today's LPOD in 1910. This is one of twenty that a writer brought together for a story on Moon paintings. In this painting the Full Moon's effect is magnified by a vast series of halos, and clouds that arch over it like an eyebrow. It almost seems ominous, but the lack of people in the scene reduces that aspect; in fact, even the idea of a big creature overlooking all is weakened by the lack of people. Is everyone hiding inside? (If the eyeball is this big the whole creature must be a giant.) Perhaps it is just reciprocating our interest, staring down at us as we point our telescopes towards it.
Chuck Wood
Yesterday's LPOD: Extreme Earthshine
Tomorrow's LPOD: Probing the Moon
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