Solar eclipse in Art To mark a total solar eclipse which will occur later today here is a selection of art depicting this grand stellar spectacle of the year by various artists over the centuries:

(1) Solar Eclipse, 2023 wood sculpture by Franco-Australian artist Gil Bruvel;

(2) George Grosz's surrealist-influenced solar eclipse branded with a dollar sign anticipates the collapse of the unstable Weimar Republic, 1926;

(3) Dionysius the Areopagite Converting the Pagan Philosophers (1570s) by French Mannerist artist Antoine Caron painted during the reign of French royalty influenced by court anxieties and fascination with celestial omens;

(4) Eclipse in an Ancient Land, 2013 by Cedar Lee;

(5) Total Eclipse by Julia Morrison Costes, date unknown;

(6) Mexican artist Diego Rivera’s Cubist-inspired portrait of Spanish writer Ramón Gómez de la Serna (1915), Rivera placed a total solar eclipse in the poet's eye. This is a tribute to both the poet's own references to eclipses: "after the eclipse the Moon washes its face to clean up the soot", and artist’s own fascination with solar eclipse that he rushed to witness from the roof with Frida Khalo while working on his industrial frescos at the Detroit Institute of Arts;

(7) Vision of St. Benedict (1735) by the German Baroque artist Cosmas Damian Asam, depicting Saint Benedict experiencing a mystical vision of the world illuminated by a solar eclipse.

(8) Study for The Eclipse of the Sun by the Moon, 1892, by an American symbolistElihu Vedder, the moon is a winged figure that blocks the light of the sun with both her wings and the rocky sphere of the moon itself.

(9) In Christian iconography solar eclipse has been used to evoke the darkness described in the Gospels during Christ's death, traditionally was common to depict the Sun and Moon on either side of the cross in scenes of the Crucifixion to evoke the darkness described. Later like in this work Christ Crucified painted in 1643 by the Spanish Baroque master Jusepe de Ribera eclipse started to move in the painting becoming more part of the landscape;

(10) Total Solar Eclipse Of 1842 by Detlev Van Ravenswaay;

(11) Ippolito Caffi, Solar Eclipse in Venice specifically depicted the total solar eclipse on July 8, 1842, captures an eerie, theatrical twilight over the Venetian lagoon from the Fondamenta Nove;

(12) A traditional Japanese Meiji-era woodblock print (Nishiki-e) from 1887 titled "Phenomenon in the Sky - The Solar Eclipse after One Hundred-one Years. Celebrated as the first total solar eclipse visible from the Japanese main island of Honshu in 101 years;

(13) The Sun- eating Dog- Tian Gou by contemporary illustrator David DePasquale. The Ancient Chinese believed that solar and lunar eclipses were produced by a hungry dog named Tiangou or Tian Gou ("heavenly dog"), trying to eat the sun or moon. Luckily, Tiangou was always stopped by the god of childbirth.

Will you be watching it today? 🌚