My presentation will survey solar imagery in the representational arts of Italy, c. 1450-1750,
and
characterize the range of meanings given to these figures. In particular I will focus on the
relationships between solar images, myths with solar implications (such as that of Phaeton) and
the allegorical concepts which physically surround them. I will document the processes by which
solar images became the subject of monumental artistic representations in both Northern and
Central Italy, as well as contrast the dominant Northern and Central Italian approaches to my
subject. As this is also the period in which the sun replaced the earth as the center of the universe,
I will attempt to discern how these scientific advances were reflected in both learned and more
popular visual imagery across differing geographical regions and artistic media.