Agostino Scilla (10 August 1629 – 31 May 1700) was an Italian

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

painter, paleontologist, geologist, numismatist, and a pioneer in the study of

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

s and in scientific illustration. In addition to his paintings, he published an early text on

paleontology Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

: ''La vana speculazione disingannata dal senso'' ("Vain Speculation Undeceived by Sense", 1670) which was introduced to English audiences by

William Wotton William Wotton (13 August 166613 February 1727) was an English theologian, classical scholar and linguist. He is chiefly remembered for his remarkable abilities in learning languages and for his involvement in the Quarrel of the Ancients and the ...

of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

in 1696. He was among the first to promote a scientific understanding of fossils in contrast to fantastic Biblical and divine interpretations.

Biography

The son of a notary in

Messina Messina (, also , ) is a harbour city and the capital of the Italian Metropolitan City of Messina. It is the third largest city on the island of Sicily, and the 13th largest city in Italy, with a population of more than 219,000 inhabitants in ...

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

, Scilla studied under Antonio Barbalunga in Messina and later

Andrea Sacchi Andrea Sacchi (30 November 159921 June 1661) was an Italian painter of High Baroque Classicism, active in Rome. A generation of artists who shared his style of art include the painters Nicolas Poussin and Giovanni Battista Passeri, the sculptors ...

in Rome and became a painter. In Messina, he painted frescoes in the churches of San Domenico and of the Nunziata de' Teatini. Among his canvases are a depiction of ''Death of San Ilarione'' painted for the church of Sant'Ursula. His frescos in the

Cathedral of Syracuse The Cathedral of Syracuse (''Duomo di Siracusa''), formally the ''Cattedrale metropolitana della Natività di Maria Santissima'', is an ancient Catholic Church, Catholic church in Syracuse, Sicily, the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Si ...

date from 1657. After participating in an unsuccessful revolt against Spanish rule, in 1678 he was exiled from Sicily. Scilla worked as a painter in

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

and then Rome for the rest of his life. He was a censor in the Academy of Design in Rome in 1695. One of his pupils was the painter Antonio Madiona and Placido Celi. Agostino's brother Giacinto, and Giacinto's son Saverio, were also painters.

Works

Scilla began to study fossils found in the hills of Sicily, sometimes accompanied by botanist Paolo Boccone. His only written scientific work is ''La vana speculazione disingannata dal senso'' ("Vain Speculation Undeceived by Sense", 1670). The book was dedicated to the Sicilian nobleman Don Carlo di Gregorio, who founded the Accademia della Fucina (1639–1678) in Messina. In this work Scilla argues for a scientific explanation for fossils, as opposed to them being of fantastic origin or a test of faith from

God In monotheism, monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator deity, creator, and principal object of Faith#Religious views, faith.Richard Swinburne, Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Ted Honderich, Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Ox ...

. He also correctly identified the supposedly magical objects that were called '' glossopetrae'', or "tongue stones", as shark teeth. He was however not the first to do this.

Nicolas Steno Niels Steensen ( da, Niels Steensen; Latinized to ''Nicolaus Steno'' or ''Nicolaus Stenonius''; 1 January 1638 – 25 November 1686Fabio Colonna in ''Dissertatio de glossopetris'' (1616) had burnt these fossils to show that they were made of lime, organic matter, rather than minerals. The book included 29 drawings of fossils drawn from specimens by him and engraved using copper-plate by

Pietro Santi Bartoli Pietro Santi Bartoli (also ''Sante'' or ''Santo''; 1635 – 7 November 1700) was an Italian engraver, draughtsman, painter and antiquary. Life and career Bartoli was born at Perugia. He moved to Rome in 1635 as a youth, there he studi ...

. The book was rediscovered by William Wotton of the Royal Society in 1696 and an English summary became widely available. Scilla was apologetic about being but an untrained artist and the style of writing was commented on by Wotton as lacking art. Scilla argued that his training gave him a painter's eye with the ability to probe into nature and interpret things better, and depict nature without mediation. Scilla plate 27

Scilla argued that fossils were not ''lusus naturae'', whimsical simulacra of animals and plants created by God or divine Nature. He termed fossils as "jokes of time, not of nature."

Athanasius Kircher Athanasius Kircher (2 May 1602 – 27 November 1680) was a German Jesuit scholar and polymath A polymath ( el, πολυμαθής, , "having learned much"; la, homo universalis, "universal human") is an individual whose knowledge spans ...

had claimed that inanimate nature could produce pictures and sculptures that resembled living things.

Girolamo Cardano Gerolamo Cardano (; also Girolamo or Geronimo; french: link=no, Jérôme Cardan; la, Hieronymus Cardanus; 24 September 1501– 21 September 1576) was an Italian polymath, whose interests and proficiencies ranged through those of mathematician, ...

claimed in his ''On the Subtlety of Things'' (1550) that he owned a piece agate that had the face of the Roman emperor Galba in it. Scilla dismissed Cardano's claim. Scilla may have seen fossil collections in Rome belonging to Cardinal Francesco Barberini (1597–1679) and his secretary Cassiano dal Pozzo (1588–1657). Scilla had also been influenced by Giovan Pietro Bellori (1613–1696) who had lectured on the role of the artist in inquiry. Bellori besought artists to go deep into a subject just as they examined the squaring of the circle and explored anatomy below the skin of the nudes they depicted, as depicted in

Carlo Maratta Carlo Maratta or Maratti (13 May 162515 December 1713) was an Italian painter, active mostly in Rome, and known principally for his classicizing paintings executed in a Late Baroque Classical manner. Although he is part of the classical tradition ...

's ''Tanto che basti'' (1682)''.'' Maratta had been a student of Sacchi alongside Scilla''.'' Scilla gained reputation as a scientific illustrator and worked for

Marcello Malpighi Marcello Malpighi (10 March 1628 – 30 November 1694) was an Italian biologist and physician, who is referred to as the "Founder of microscopical anatomy, histology & Father of physiology and embryology". Malpighi's name is borne by several phy ...

. Scilla is considered to have been the first to use dotted lines to indicate reconstructions in paleontological illustration.

John Ray John Ray FRS (29 November 1627 – 17 January 1705) was a Christian English naturalist widely regarded as one of the earliest of the English parson-naturalists. Until 1670, he wrote his name as John Wray. From then on, he used 'Ray', after ...

made use of some of Scilla's fossil illustrations. Scilla's fossil collection was acquired by

John Woodward John Woodward or ''variant'', may refer to: Sports * John Woodward (English footballer) (born 1947), former footballer * John Woodward (Scottish footballer) (born 1949), former footballer * Johnny Woodward (1924–2002), English footballer * Jo ...

(1665–1728), an English physician, in 1717. These went into the University of Cambridge and became the nucleus of the collections of the

Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences The Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, is the geology museum of the University of Cambridge. It is part of the Department of Earth Sciences and is located on the university's Downing Site in Downing Street, central Cambridge, England. The Sedgw ...

. Dorsum Scilla on the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...

is named after him.Romano, Marco, Historical Biology (2013): ‘The vain speculation disillusioned by the sense’: the Italian painter Agostino Scilla (1629–1700) called ‘The Discoloured’, and the correct interpretation of fossils as ‘lithified organisms’ that once lived in the sea, Historical Biology: An International Journal of Paleobiology, DOI: 10.1080/08912963.2013.825257

References

External links

''La vana speculazione disingannata dal senso''
(1670) – digital facsimile from the

Linda Hall Library The Linda Hall Library is a privately endowed American library of science, engineering and technology located in Kansas City, Missouri, sitting "majestically on a urban arboretum." It is the "largest independently funded public library of scien ...

Scan from the Biodiversity Heritage Library on the Internet Archive
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Scilla, Agostino 1629 births 1700 deaths 17th-century Italian painters Italian male painters Italian Baroque painters Painters from Messina

Biography

Works

See also

References

External links