Description:
Etching, Spite Bite, Hand-coloring
Artist:
Tallmadge Doyle
Location:
Eugene, OR
Dimensions:
6" x 6"
Constellations are an invention of the human imagination. They are an expression of a desire to order the chaos of the night sky. For farmers who wanted an agricultural calendar, for shepherds who needed a nightly clock, for navigators and explorers dividing the sky into recognizable groupings, constellations were a practical necessity.
"The constellation figures are symbolic, celestial allegories in which humans can honor and recognize sacred animals, deities, and moral tales. Throughout the centuries artists have depicted these groupings of stars. The images of these groupings and creatures have been created and recreated with various similarities and differences. Much artistic license is taken in this body of work. They are not all accurate in terms of their star's mathematical proportions and distances but they do carry on an age-old tradition of storytelling that started with the Babylonians and Sumerians, passed on to the Egyptians and later to the Greeks and Romans."
Year:
2009