Explanation:
Is this painting the earliest realistic depiction of a total eclipse of the Sun?
Some historians believe it is.
The above painting
was completed in 1735 by
Cosmas Damian Asam,
a painter and architect famous in early eighteenth century Germany.
Clearly drawn is not only a total
solar eclipse, but the
solar corona and the
diamond ring effect visible when
sunlight flows
only between mountains on the Moon.
The person depicted viewing these eclipse phenomena is
St. Benedict.
Roberta J. M. Olson and Jay Pasachoff
have hypothesized that Asam
himself may have seen first hand one or all of the
total solar eclipses
of May 1706, 1724, and 1733.
Many facts about our
astronomical universe
that are taken for granted today have been known -- or accurately recorded -- only during the
last millennium.
Asam's painting currently hangs in
Weltenburg Abbey in
Bavaria,
Germany.
