Astronomy

An etching after one of the four rectangular frescoes painted on the vault of the Stanza della Segnatura in the Vatican. Dated and lettered with production details in margin below image. One from a series of plates executed by Bocquet between 1690 and 1695 reproducing the ceiling frescoes of the Stanza della Segnatura. The female figure depicted in the fresco, shown as she bends over the celestial globe, is generally identified as an embodiment of the science of Astronomy, but has also been interpreted as the allegory of the Universe or the Prime Mover.