Milton visiting Galileo when a prisoner of the Inquisition. Oil painting by Solomon Alexander Hart, 1847.
- Hart, Solomon Alexander, 1806-1881.
- Date:
- 1847
- Reference:
- 45632i
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On the wall in the background, a cabinet version of Titian's altarpiece of the murder of St Peter Martyr, the original version of which was destroyed by fire in 1867. As St Peter Martyr was the chief Dominican inquisitor and persecutor of heretics, a painting of his death would have been an especially appropriate picture for Galileo to contemplate. Several cabinet versions of the altarpiece have survived: Christie's, New York, 11 January 1995, lot 28 (67 x 41 cm.); Christie's, London, 24 February 1995, lot 43 (67.6 x 51 cm.); Sotheby's, London Olympia, 6 December 2005 (119 x 73.5 cm.) and (same painting) 25 April 2006, lot 335; Christie's South Kensington, 24 March 2009, lot 46 (68.6 x 51.4 cm.)
Milton referred to his visit to Galileo thus: "There it was that I found and visited the famous Galileo grown old a prisoner to the Inquisition, for thinking in Astronomy otherwise than the Franciscan and Dominican licensers thought" (Areopagitica, 1644). Neil Harris, 'Galileo as symbol: the "Tuscan artist" in Paradise lost', Annali dell'Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza di Firenze, 1985, vol. X, fasc, 2, pp. 3-29
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