In This Issue:

Science and Art in Galileo's Time

A cupboard in Windsor Castle held a treasure-trove of 17th century natural historical drawings that remained neglected and unidentified until David Freedberg, art historian and director of the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America, opened its doors in 1986. The discovery set off scientific sleuthing by Professor Freedberg that solved the modern-day mystery: the drawings were part of a body of work by a small group of Italian scientists who made up the world’s first scientific academy, Accademia dei Lincei, whose most famous member was Galileo Galilei.

Formed by the 18-year-old Federico Cesi, the Linceans, whose name and purpose reflects the sharply focused eye of the lynx, took specimens from nature and drew them with precise and intricate detail. The drawings eventually became part of the collection that belonged to Cassiano dal Pozzo’s “paper museum.” Cassiano commissioned hundreds of drawings, from quills of porcupines to the head, beak and tongue of the flamingo to broccoli, water lilies, pineapple, fungi and fossils, all rendered with great artistry and technical skill. The collection, presented to George III in 1763, consisted of 2,700 drawings that were, at the same time, scientific and artistic.

In the beginning of the 20th century, this documentation of nature was deemed to be unimportant, and so parts of the collection were sold to private individuals. Little was known about these drawings until Professor Freedberg discovered the remaining volumes in the Windsor Castle cupboard and began to search for their origins. Following his discovery, he concentrated on art as science and science as art in the age of Galileo, writing The Eye of the Lynx: Galileo, his Friends, and the Beginnings of Modern Natural History, which includes many of the color plates of the drawings he describes in the text.

Dr. Freedberg will deliver the Magill Lecture on Science, Technology and the Arts, speaking on “Galileo, Science and Art: New Discoveries,” as part of Reunion Weekend. The lecture will be at 10:30 a.m., Saturday, June 10, in the C.P. Davis Auditorium of the Schapiro Center for Engineering and Physical Science Research.

Dr. Freedberg is a professor in Columbia’s Department of Art History and Archeology, as well as director of the Italian Academy. He continues to teach in the fields of Dutch, Flemish, French and Italian 17th century art but is now concentrating on the intersection of neuroscience and art, understanding creativity and our responses to art. He is a graduate of Yale University and received his Ph.D. from Oxford.