Summary
Artists’ depictions of comets provide the only visual evidence of historical comets, most notably of Halley’s Comet. In this paper we discuss the visual evidence of comet P/Halley at several passages through that of 1301 and compare it with descriptions and modern images. Since it was first recognized that Giotto di Bondone painted a comet in place of the Star of Bethlehem and suggested that this was a portrait of the 1301 apparition of comet Halley (Olson, 1979), a great deal of new information has come to light. We present a synopsis of the textual, visual, and astronomical evidence to support the theory that when Giotto painted his comet in the Scrovegni Chapel he was reflecting his viewing of Comet Halley in 1301.
Key words
- comet P/Halley
- art
- historical
- Giotto
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References
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© 1988 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Olson, R.J.M., Pasachoff, J.M. (1988). New information on comet P/Halley as depicted by Giotto di Bondone and other Western artists. In: Grewing, M., Praderie, F., Reinhard, R. (eds) Exploration of Halley’s Comet. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-82971-0_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-82971-0_1
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