The Moon in art and poetry
No heavenly body has inspired poets, painters and musicians as much as the Moon. This section follows her light across centuries and cultures: from Lucian of Samosata's burlesque voyage to Dante's lunar heaven, from the valley of lost things where Ariosto sends Astolfo to recover Orlando's wits to the projectile of Jules Verne's Gun Club. Alongside fantastic literature stand the science of Galileo and Kepler, who turned the Moon into a world to be observed, and the questions of Leopardi's wandering shepherd. In music we meet Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, a title the composer never chose, Debussy's piece born from Verlaine's verses and the great opera arias devoted to the night star. In painting, Friedrich's silent figures, Van Gogh's vibrant nights and the Immaculate Virgin on the crescent Moon. Finally the gaze widens to the East, with Japanese poetry and the verses of Li Bai.
Lucian of Samosata's True History: the first journey to the Moon
Lucian of Samosata's True History, second century AD: a ship lifted to the Moon, the war between Endymion and Phaethon and a parody of travellers' tales.
02 · 3 min readDante and the Heaven of the Moon: lunar spots and broken vows
The first heaven of Dante's Paradiso: Beatrice's explanation of the lunar spots, Piccarda Donati, Constance of Hauteville and the legend of Cain.
03 · 3 min readAstolfo on the Moon: Orlando's lost wits in the Orlando Furioso
Astolfo's journey to the Moon in canto XXXIV of Ariosto's Orlando Furioso: Elijah's chariot, the valley of lost things and the flasks of human wits.
04 · 3 min readShakespeare and the Moon: from A Midsummer Night's Dream to Othello
The Moon in Shakespeare's plays: A Midsummer Night's Dream, the character of Moonshine, Juliet's inconstant Moon and the Moon that drives Othello's world mad.
05 · 3 min readGalileo and the Sidereus Nuncius: the Moon through the telescope
In 1610 Galileo's Sidereus Nuncius revealed a rugged, uneven Moon: the observations, the watercolours, earthshine and the echo in the art of the time.
06 · 3 min readKepler's Somnium: a dream of lunar astronomy
Johannes Kepler's Somnium, published posthumously in 1634: Duracotus, the daemon of Levania, the Earth seen from the Moon and his mother's witchcraft trial.
07 · 3 min readCyrano de Bergerac and The States and Empires of the Moon
Cyrano de Bergerac's Other World, published posthumously in 1657: bottles of dew, rockets, the Selenites and the libertine satire of 17th-century France.
08 · 3 min readLeopardi's «To the Moon»: the idyll of memory and tears
Giacomo Leopardi's idyll To the Moon, written in Recanati in 1819: its origins, its first title, the two lines added in 1835 and its theme of memory.
09 · 3 min readLeopardi's Night Song: a shepherd's questions to the Moon
Leopardi's Night Song of a Wandering Shepherd of Asia: the travel source behind it, the dialogue with the silent Moon, the flock and the theme of ennui.
10 · 3 min readJules Verne, From the Earth to the Moon: the Gun Club and the shell
Jules Verne's From the Earth to the Moon and Around the Moon: the Baltimore Gun Club, the Columbiad cannon, Michel Ardan and the curious echoes of Apollo.
11 · 3 min readSelene and Endymion: eternal sleep in art, from Rome to Canova
The myth of Selene and Endymion in art: Roman sarcophagi, Guercino's Endymion with a telescope, Girodet's Sleep of Endymion, Canova and the poem by Keats.
12 · 3 min readThe Immaculate Virgin on the crescent Moon: an iconography
Why the Immaculate Virgin stands on the Moon: the woman of Revelation, the rules in Pacheco's treatise, Velázquez, Murillo, Reni and Cigoli's cratered Moon.
13 · 3 min readCaspar David Friedrich: figures contemplating the Moon
Caspar David Friedrich's Two Men Contemplating the Moon: the versions of the painting, the figure seen from behind, nature's symbols and the political context.
14 · 3 min readVan Gogh and the Moon: from The Starry Night to moonlit sheaves
The Moon in Van Gogh's paintings: the crescent of The Starry Night, Landscape with Wheat Sheaves and Rising Moon and his passion for the night sky.
15 · 3 min readBeethoven and the «Moonlight» Sonata: the story of a title
Beethoven's Sonata Op. 27 No. 2, known as the Moonlight: the dedication to Giulietta Guicciardi, its three movements and the nickname Rellstab later gave it.
16 · 3 min readDebussy's Clair de lune: Verlaine, masks and night light
Claude Debussy's Clair de lune from the Suite bergamasque: Verlaine's poem from the Fêtes galantes, the Bergamask masks and the composer's other moons.
17 · 3 min readThe Moon in opera: from Haydn to Casta diva and Rusalka
The Moon on the operatic stage: Haydn's Il mondo della luna to a libretto by Goldoni, Norma's prayer Casta diva by Bellini and Rusalka's Song to the Moon.
18 · 3 min readPierrot lunaire: the white mask in love with the Moon
How Pierrot became the mask of the Moon: from the commedia dell'arte to Deburau, from the rondels of Albert Giraud to Laforgue and Schoenberg's Pierrot lunaire.
19 · 3 min readThe Moon in Japanese poetry: from the Kokinshū to Bashō
The Moon in Japanese poetry: the tsukimi festival, Abe no Nakamaro's homesickness, Princess Kaguya, Saigyō and the moon-viewing journeys of Matsuo Bashō.
20 · 3 min readLi Bai and the Moon: the immortal poet of the Tang dynasty
The Moon in the poems of Li Bai, poet of the Tang dynasty: Quiet Night Thoughts, Drinking Alone by Moonlight and the legend of his death in the Yangtze.