Celestial Atlas

星図の様式 / 17th–19th century / Style / Diagrammatic Expression

The Baroque celestial atlas layering constellation mythology over observation. Cellarius's Harmonia Macrocosmica marks the summit of an age when scientific diagram could also be decorative art.

Celestial Atlas — Cellarius, Harmonia Macrocosmica 1660 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain — Cellarius, Harmonia Macrocosmica 1660 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

Celestial Atlas — Diagram of the Ptolemaic system — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain — Diagram of the Ptolemaic system — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

Celestial Atlas — Johann Bayer, Uranometria, Orion 1603 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain — Johann Bayer, Uranometria, Orion 1603 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

At a glance

Visual cues

Myth figures over stars
Concentric celestial structure
Gold and blue coloring
Ornamented cartouches

Best used for

Double-page plates for books and exhibitions on astronomy or navigation
Showing a whole body of knowledge on one sheet with its ornament intact

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Dictionary entry

Type: Title inside an ornamented frame, star names tiny and italic
Composition: Concentric spheres at the center, four corners filled with cartouches
Material: Gold and hand color on deep blue, stars struck as engraved points
Caution: Drawing the myth figures so large that the star positions vanish leaves a plate working neither as diagram nor as ornament.
Further study: Cellarius / Bode's Uranographia / the separation of science plates from ornament

Related entries

Portolan Chart (ポルトラーノ海図)Same Diagrammatic Expression lineage.Compare Celestial Atlas and Portolan Chart
Blueprint (ブループリント)Editorially linked for a useful contrast.Compare Celestial Atlas and Blueprint

Cite this entry

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Link: https://indexstyle.org/styles/celestial-atlas
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