Astronomie 1663 - 1738

This engraving titled "Astronomie" was created by Jacques-Antoine Friquet de Vauroze in France sometime around the late 17th century. The print shows a scene of apparent devastation with figures that seem to allegorize the state of astronomical science. We can see the figure of a man collapsed on what looks like a geological survey. His tools have fallen by his side. An older, bearded man gestures dramatically, as if trying to ward off some unseen threat. A large dog cowers beside him. This image was made at a time when the institutions of science were beginning to grow in power and influence. Vauroze seems to suggest that astronomy has the power to enlighten, but it is also perilous, perhaps even ruinous. To understand the visual codes and cultural references that Vauroze is drawing on, a historian might research the scientific debates taking place in France at the time, as well as the symbolic language of gesture and the history of scientific institutions.