Compare And Contrast Galileo And Van Gogh

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Both Galileo and van Gogh studied the night sky with passion and fascination; yet, both didn’t (contraction) receive major credit until after their deaths. However, their approach in being astronomers of the sky was different, Galileo sought out scientific discovery while Van Gogh merely wanted to depict the beauty of a starry night.
Passion; any powerful or compelling emotion or feeling. A feeling so strong that linked together an astronomer and an artist separated by 300 years. Fascination; the state or an instance of being transfixed. A state that drove both an astronomer and an artist to illustrate the night sky from two different eras (parallelism). Galileo Galilei began in mathematics in the universities of Pisa and later in Padua, from …show more content…

Through studies and research, he observed the universe beyond Earth, which evidently contradicted the Aristotelian view of the universe (Galileo Biography). While the Aristotelian view continuously prevailed in both the scientist and theologian community, Galileo’s discoveries (possessive) did not receive validation. He also discovered the moon had a rugged surface which went against the thought of the untouched heaven above, a utopia of sorts. Not only was the thought of perfection broken and questioned by his thoughts and revelations, the orbits of the Medicean stars infringed the thought of the heavens revolving around the Earth (Galileo Biography). By supporting the Copernican Theory, the sun being the center of the universe, Galileo challenged the belief system of the catholic church, which in that time was extremely prevalent. He was a brigand (vocab word) of Christian beliefs, and although he was accused …show more content…

Despite Galileo going against his own religion, and being persecuted in retaliation, the church later showed interest in the work he poured his life into. In 1758, the church decided to lift the ban on any work supporting the Copernican Theory (Galileo Biography). Later, in 1835, the church dropped their opposition to heliocentrism (Galileo Biography), the discovery Galileo made throughout his inquisitions. Due to his pursuit of informing people of his revelations of the sky, several popes realized the bounds Galileo made in his research, and acknowledged their mistakes in judging him so harshly. In the 20th century, Pope John Paul II publicly announced his regret in how the church reacted to his work and relayed the name, “The Father of Modern Science,” to the world (Galileo Biography). Just as Galileo, Van Gogh received commendation for his work. Today, Vincent van Gogh’s painting, The Starry Night, reaps recognition at MoMA, in New York City (MoMa Learning). Millions of people have gazed upon his work of, The Starry Night. Many people knew him as the man who cut off his ear, but now, they also know him for the artwork that embodies emotion, nature, and the depiction of the night

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