Abstract: This paper was written in the spring of 2016 for a class titled Space

History. It is a history of space art, art inspired by the celestial bodies in our solar system,
as well as a discussion of how this genre of space art has developed over time. In this
essay, I discuss various topics intertwining space history and art history, including
subtopics like: the man in the moon, the impact of the telescope, and modern
astronomical art. Currently, the paper is set up in order of developing methods of art
starting with more traditional artworks displaying the face of the man in the moon,
moving toward the current age with the creation of the telescope, and ending in a more
contemporary time period with modern art. I would like to submit this paper for
publication in a space history or art history journal, like the journal Space and Culture or
the Oxford Art Journal.

1. What are the main issues in your paper?

a. My paper deals with the issue of space art and history when did
human thought develop in regards to outer space and celestial bodies,
and how did the art work they produced show this progress?
2. Why is your paper important, why is it needed?
a. In a time where space travel is no big deal, its common and
unsurprising, it is good to look back and remember that it was not
always like this. At some point, we really did believe that there was a
man living in the moon.
3. What should it accomplish? What are the goals?
a. To encourage readers to look at space art more critically and
analytically to look at the history of space and space thought and
how we have progressed as a society.
4. List strengths and weaknesses as-is.
a. Its relatively unedited no lie, I did this the night before and turned it
in. There are grammar issues, and the use of the word that is
mightily evident and unwanted. The strength of my paper is the topic
its intriguing, in my opinion, and my authorial voice is heard
throughout it. It does not just list facts, but list facts in an interesting
way for the reader.
5. 2 questions you want your reviewer to answer.
a. How can my paper improve structure wise, or is the structure sound?
b. Do I need to remove more of my authorial voice and make this essay
more academic, or is it acceptable the way that it is? What is your
opinion?

THE MAN IN THE MOON:

TECHNOLOGICAL, SCIENTIFIC, AND ASTROLOGICAL ADVANCEMENTS
REFLECTED IN ART HISTORY
McKenna Britton

The moon and other celestial bodies have always been objects of human curiosity
we quickly became obsessed with the possibilities surrounding the moon, imagining
facial features on the surface of the strange rock, wondering what eerie, alien figures
were hiding beyond the dark side of the moon. The accumulation of tangible scientific
knowledge regarding the moon pushed our imaginative fantasies to evolve, as space
travel and the details of our ever-expanding universe became a reality and no longer just
the things of dreams. We moved from mythological ideas based on god-figures toward
images of alien life forms; images of the moon are no longer created upon creativity
alone, but are influenced by the knowledge we have gathered as astronomers. As human
thought developed and grew in regards to outer space, celestial bodies, and the possibility
of space travel, these scientific advancements were reflected in the art we produced; the
development of scientific explanations for many mysteries surrounding the moon caused
artists to follow suit, creating images of the celestial body that best reflected the current
reams of knowledge. As technological and scientific advancements began to flourish, the
moon stopped being such a mysterious being in the sky, coming closer and closer until
we were walking on the surface of it a journey reflected through art history, as we
progressed from mythological images, to more accurate images of the surface of the rock,
to images of humans traveling to the moon a dream that would soon become reality.

Comment [E1]: This sentence up until the

dash is a bit confusing in regards to the
wording.

Comment [E2]: I think you should include

what you are going to specifically talk about
somewhere in the introduction.

The Man in the Moon: Mythological Images of Celestial Bodies

When we first turned our eyes toward the moon, we labeled it a heavenly,
mysterious figure that approaches us and offers us light every night, like clockwork. We
admired the moon nightly, and our eyes searched for some sort of physicality that we
could recognize. Hypnotized by the secrecy surrounding this celestial body, stargazers
began to notice features on the surface of the moon that, in their imagination, morphed a
familiar image: a mans face appeared in the moon. The Man in the Moon became the

Comment [E3]: This seems unnecessary.

figure of myths, childrens rhymes, illustrations, romance, and culture in general.

Curiosity regarding the moon is not specific to our century or our culture in fact,
different cultures have conceived a variety of mythical explanations of its nature. Of
particular interest in this context is the moons face: lunar surface features have been
interpreted as the man or woman in the moon. This association is reflected in the
depiction of the moon in ancient art, and in images from the Middle Ages, as a stylized
human face in a circle.1 This attribution of facial features to the surface of the moon
dates back to the Renaissance, as well. This is evident in Raphaels The Mond
Crucifixion, a 16th century image that was displayed in an Italian chapel. This painting
depicts the traditional religious scene of Jesus Christs crucifixion. In Figure 1 the sun
and the moon are portrayed in the upper left and right corners of the painting,
respectively. In Raphaels artwork, the sun and the moon are depicted as having human
faces a reflection of Renaissance culture and thought regarding astronomy and the
heavens.2

Steinhoefel, Myth and Astronomy, 115.

Jonathon Jones, Starry, starry night: a history of astronomy in art, The Guardian, December
24, 2014, accessed April 22, 2016.
1
2

Comment [E4]: I think adding the specific

chapel it is in would be supplemental.

Figure 1: The Mond Crucifixion, Raphael, 1502-033

Poets gaze up at the face in the moon and, inspired by the beautiful, mysterious
body, wind tales of desire, love, and heartbreak. We look to the moon to explain physical
phenomena, too; a full moon, in popular cultural thought, can cause both lunacy and lust,
creating hormonal imbalance (in females, particularly) and provoking insanity in others.
The Man in the Moon has quite the reputation. In more modern films and illustrations,
lovers rendezvous in the night, joined only by the moon, a curious face peering down
from the night sky and serving as an onlooker. Illustrations similar to Figure 2 graced the
pages of magazines and newspapers, in which the moon became an image of romance,
representative of longing and wonder.
At some point, when artists, stargazers, lovers, and astronomers turned their eyes
toward the moon, they noticed that they were always viewing the same side of the
celestial body. Their eyes always met the eyes of the Man in the Moon; this observation
3

Fig. 1: Raphael, The Mond Crucifixion, early 16th century, oil on poplar, 283.3 x 167.3 cm, The
National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, London, accessed April 22, 2016.

Comment [E5]: I think mentioning figure 2

so far before it is introduced can take away
from the flow. Maybe place the figure earlier
or try to incorporate this sentence later?

led to the initial assumption that the moon did not rotate. This primary assumption was
later proved incorrect with the discovery of the concept of synchronous rotation. The
moon does rotate, astronomers realized the moon experiences a full rotation on its axis,
though it is accomplished in the same amount of time it takes to complete a full orbit
around the Earth. As a consequence, the same side of the moon is always facing the Earth
as it rotates around the planet. The majority of moons throughout the solar system
experience this type of rotation in relation to their primary planets.4 This advancement in
scientific, astrological thought was reflected in the art created during these periods of
time the Man in the Moon became a mythological figure, and artists began to draw
much realistic, gritty images of the moon and its surface.

Figure 2: The girl in the moon, c. 1909, Brown & Bigelow5

Galileos Moon: The Impact of the Telescope on Art History
Images of the Man in the Moon are much less popular today than they were in
centuries past, and this is partially a consequence of the various scientific discoveries that
have been made throughout history. The concept of synchronous rotation is only one of
Synchonous Rotation, Dictionary.com, Dictionary.com Unabridged, Random House, Inc.,
accessed April 22, 2016.
5
Fig. 2: Brown & Bigelow, The girl in the moon, c. 1909, Library of Congress photo archives,
accessed April 22, 2016.
4

Comment [E6]: This section is great and

very descriptive!

the many discoveries that have changed the way we, as artists and astronomers, view the
moon and our universe. The turning point in our scientific perspective on this celestial
body was the creation of the telescope in the early 17th century. It is recognized by
scholars across the globe that while the moon has been an object of enquiry from the
beginning of human thought, a real understanding of our satellite did not begin until the
telescope came into use in the early seventeenth century.6
Galileo Galilei pointed his telescope toward the starry night sky in 1609,
publishing the results of his astronomical observations a year later, which was titled The
Starry Messenger.7 His sketches of the surface of the moon were the first images of the
celestial body that were not heavily influenced by imagination and creativity; his viewing
of the moon led him to create some of the first historically-known astronomically
accurate images of the physical characteristics of our moon. Many scholars argue that
Galileo became the first astronomical artist when he made the huge conceptual leap
required to depict the moon as another world, and not just a star floating above us in the
night sky. 8 Galileos work with his telescope allowed him to disprove previous
perspectives on the moon firsthand during a period of scientific thought in which it was
believed that the moons surface was entirely smooth, Galileo discovered that the Moon
has mountains, pits, and other features, just like Earth.9
The sketches published in The Starry Messenger, alongside Galileos discussion
on various astronomical discoveries he had made not only did he observe the surface of

Steinhoefel, Myth and Astronomy, 115.

David L. Butts, Galileo and the Telescope: Naturalistic Representations in Visual Astronomy,
Journal of Art History, Vol. 1, 2006, University of Tampa, accessed April 22, 2016.
8
Don Dixon, A Brief History of Space Art, Cosmographica, accessed April 22, 2016.
9
Our Solar System: Galileos Observations of the Moon, Jupiter, Venus and the Sun. NASA
Solar System Exploration, published February 25, 2009, accessed April 22 2016.
6
7

the moon, he also turned his telescope toward the sun, the stars, and Jupiters moons are
some of the first realistic images of the moons physical characteristics. With the help of
the telescope, Galileo, through his publication and his observations, showed that what
we see in the sky at night are physical phenomena, not heavenly phantoms, a scientific
perspective that delineated the romantic and religious views of the moon in past
centuries.10 Images of the moons likeliness, like the sketch shown in Figure 3 one of
Galileos were created much more frequently after the production of the telescope.
These more scientifically accurate images of the moon began to replace the Renaissance
artworks that depicted the moon with happy grins and shimmering eyes, thanks to the
trailblazing discoveries of Galileo Galilei.

Figure 3: The Moon, Galileo Galilei, Sidereus nuncius (The Starry Messenger) 161011
Following in Galileos Footsteps: Astrophotography
A few centuries following Galileos innovative, observational sketches of the
moons surface were published two men further revolutionized how we view the moon
and its physical characteristics. James Nasmyth and James Carpenter banded together in

10

11

Jones, Starry, starry night: a history of astronomy in art.

Fig. 3: Galileo Galilei, The Moon, Sidereus nuncius, 1610, Lownes Science Collection, Brown
University Library, accessed April 22, 2016.

Comment [E7]: This section really helps

with the gap between Galileo and modern
space art, great job!

the late nineteenth century to produce a book of photos of the moons surface, titled:
The moon: considered as a planet, a world, and a satellite. There were no actual means
to photograph the surface of the moon the technology had not advanced to that stage yet
at this period of time so the men became pioneers of astrophotography. They created,
by hand, plaster models of the moon based off of their personal observations via
telescope, lit them with raking light and produced photographic illustrations for their
book.12
The inscription on the title page of the publication explains that the book comes
equipped with twenty-six illustrative plates of lunar objects, phenomena, and scenery:
numerous woodcuts, etc. 13 These images are detailed and ornate, making it rather
unbelievable and amazing that they were hand-created by these two creative scholars,
evidenced in Figure 4, a photo taken from the publication referenced. The publication
consists of fifteen chapters, each discussing an aspect of the moons physical
characteristics, the possible and at that point in scientific thought plausible causations
of these characteristics, and other astronomical observations made by the two scholars. In
the Preface, the authors discuss their reasoning behind the creation of the novel:
Enough has...been written for the benefit of those who desire an acquaintance
with the intricate movements of the moon in space...But very little has been
written respecting the moons physiography, or the causative phenomena of the
features, broad and detailed, that the surface of our satellite presents for study.
Our observations had led us to some conclusions, respecting the cause of volcanic
energy and the mode of its action as manifested in the characteristic craters and
other eruptive phenomena that abound upon the moons surface. We have

52 Weeks of Inspiring Illustrations, Week 6: Nasmyths Moon Images, St. Andrews

University, Special Collections: Rare Book Collection, published July 30, 2012, accessed April
22, 2016.
12

13

James Nasmyth and James Carpenter, The Moon: considered as a planet, a world, and a
satellite (London: John Murray, 1885).

endeavored to explain these phenomena...and to connect them with the general

hypothesis of planet formation which is now widely accepted by cosmologists.14
As the moon became less and less a mythological, fantastical celestial body, and
scientific and astrological thought in reference to the moon advanced, issues like lunar
volcanism, which the authors refer to in the above quote, begin to arise. Interestingly
enough, in the later half of the twentieth century, the concept of lunar volcanism would
rise again in scientific thought, and, ultimately, become a contested topic of astronomy.
Two astronomical scientists would argue, publicly, over the idea of active volcanoes on
the moons surface, when in November 1958...Nikolai A. Kozyrev, an astro-physicist...in
Leningrad, announced that he had obtained spectroscopic proof of active lunar
volcanism.15 This claim surprised and worried many American scientists, as it was
made during a time of high tension regarding the moon in terms of space exploration.

Figure 4: an image taken from The Moon: considered as a planet, a world, and a
satellite, 187416

14

James Nasmyth and James Carpenter, The Moon: considered as a planet, a world, and a
satellite (London: John Murray, 1885), vii - viii.
15
Ronald E. Doel, The Kozyrev-Kuiper Controversy Over Lunar Volcanism: An Episode in
Soviet-U.S. Relations, Institute for Time Nature Explorations, accessed April 21, 2016, 309.
16
James Nasmyth and James Carpenter, The Moon, 1874, one of twenty-four woodburytypes.

As lunar thought advanced and we began to move even closer toward the surface
of the moon, that bright light in our nightly sky, the art we produced evolved, as well. We
moved from creating images based entirely on scientific thought, to moving to images
combining scientific thought and the imagination images like the works of Chesley
Bonestell.
Modern Astronomical Art: the Work of Bonestell
Art historians and scholars alike have referred to Chesley Bonestell as the grand
master of astronomical art.17 Bonestells work, similar to Galileos sketches, acted as a
transitional factor in the public perspective on space travel. Bonestell was producing and
publishing pieces of space art during the peak of sci-fi popular culture during the
1950s and 1960s, when the concept of space travel, sending ships and human beings
toward the moon, become more than fantasy. Artists like Bonestell, commonly labeled as
astronomical artists, had the interesting job of creating landscapes and creative scenes
that reflected the magical possibilities of space, while remaining, to some degree,
scientifically accurate. These creators have been compared to medical illustrators, in that
they attempt to depict realistically aspects of nature beyond ordinary experience.18

17
18

Dixon, Space Art.

Dixon, Space Art.

Comment [E8]: The second citation of the

same source on the same page should just
read Ibid.

Figure 5: Trip to the Moon, Life magazine, 194619

In all of his artwork, like the one shown above in Figure 5 in which the artist
depicts a scene in deep space, featuring a rocket flying into the upper right corner of the
image Bonestell illustrated, put into pictures, the immense lure and mystery
surrounding distant space, the places we had yet to travel. His pieces were laced with
feelings of photographic realism, to such an extent that his artwork was extremely
pervasive in society, and he shaped the very thinking of both layperson and scientists as
to what spacecraft were expected to look like.20 He was part of the team that worked on
a series of articles on the plausibility of space travel, published by Colliers magazine in
collaboration with the German engineer Wernher von Braun, that was highly popular and
immensely influential on public thought.
Bonestells illustrations published in collaboration with both Colliers and Life
magazines, and the entirety of his artistic career, motivated many Americans into

19

Chesley Bonestell. Trip to the Moon. March 4, 1946. Life Magazine illustration.

Ron Miller, The Archaeology of Space Art, Leonardo, Vol. 29, No. 2 (MIT Press: 1996),
139.
20

believing in the possibility of space travel, ranging from astronomers and rocket
engineers to the common civilian. Incredibly enough, many astronomers and authors,
along with ...Carl Sagan, the cosmologist, have attributed their career choices to being
moved by Bonestells art. 21 One of Bonestells most famous artworks is pictured in
Figure 6. His images, instilling excitement over the possibility of space travel which
would, in time, become reality portray the development of scientific thought over time,
from images of the Man in the Moon to images of space travel and adventure.

Figure 6: Saturn as seen from Titan, 195222

The Evolving Nature of Space Art

The artists and images discussed in this essay portray the transitive nature of
astrological artworks throughout history. From Renaissance images of the Man in the
Moon to the persuasive portrayals of space travel published in popular twentieth-century
magazines, the moon has remained a figure of interest to the curious human. As scientific
knowledge was gathered via the seventeenth-century telescope and continued to broaden
as scientists continued their studies of our universe, the discoveries made by scholars and
intellectuals were reflected in artworks like James Nasmyth and James Carpenters
Steve Johnson, At the Adler, paintings that fired outer space imaginations, Chicago Tribune,
published November 25, 2014, accessed April 20, 2016.
22
Chesley Bonestell, Saturn as seen from Titan, 1952, Chesley Bonestell Archives, accessed
April 20, 2016.
21

experimental novel and Bonestells intriguing illustrations. Each of these artists, and the
others throughout history who created pieces of astronomical art, reveled in the
challenge of combining their latest scientific findings with their own creativity. 23 As
astronomical discoveries continue to be made in the twenty-first century, the art produced
during this time that portrays images of space and celestial bodies like the moon will
continue to follow in the pattern of previous pieces of astronomical art.
The production of art in correlation with scientific discovery is natural, and has
been traced throughout history; this is truth, that Science and art naturally overlap. Both
are a means of investigation.24 The modern astronomical artist may find it increasingly
difficult to produce pieces of space art that are scientifically accurate, but they should not
be discouraged by this rather, they should follow the example of the innovative and
experimental artists discussed above, and, like Bonestell, incorporate their own personal
flair and imagination in their artworks. Scientific thought and creative thought can live
peacefully in the twenty-first century. We made it to the moon, and our artists encouraged
us on our journey there where will we go next?

Miller, The Archaeology of Space Art, 141.

The Enduring Relationship of Science and Art, Art Institute of Chicago, last updated: January
7, 2003, accessed April 20, 2016.
23
24

Comment [E9]: I think everything is a lot

more understandable and your thesis is
stronger. Great job!

Bibliography
Primary Sources
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National Gallery: Trafalgar Square, London, accessed April 22, 2016.
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/raphael-the-mond-crucifixion

Fig. 2: Brown & Bigelow. The girl in the moon. c. 1909. Library of Congress photo archives.
Accessed April 22, 2016. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2003681599/

Fig. 3: Galileo Galilei. The Moon, Sidereus nuncius. 1610. Lownes Science Collection, Brown
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Fig. 4: James Nasmyth and James Carpenter. The Moon. 1874. One of twenty-four
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Fig. 5: Chesley Bonestell. Trip to the Moon. March 4, 1946. Life Magazine illustration.
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Nasmyth, James and James Carpenter. The Moon: considered as a planet, a world, and a
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https://archive.org/details/consideredasmoon00nasmrich

Comment [E10]: The bibliography should

be single-spaced, not double.

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