(Dreams of the stars)
An interactive, dynamic, evolutive and all-devices-sync dream of the Renaissance
SOMNIA STELLAE
1549. In the serenity of Valdarno, a discreet village in the outskirts of Florence, Lorenzo Gherardi closes his eyes for the last time at the age of 72. His life, marked by a tangible economic misfortune, concludes without any of his creations having left his studio.
However, the echo of his genius remains alive thanks to Bianca Elena Gherardi, his daughter, who emerges as the indispensable custodian of his artistic legacy, trying to ensure her father's unique vision found posthumous recognition.
Gherardi in the Studio (1536). Wash drawing in black ink by Tuscan fellow artist Alessandro Datzelio.
Born in the heart of Florence in 1477, Master Lorenzo Gherardi dedicated much of his life to art, always on the brink of anonymity.
Distanced from the recognition and acclaim that filled his contemporaries, he found in astronomy—a passion inherited from his father, Giuliano Gherardi, a distinguished astronomer—and in painting, a personal sanctuary and an unparalleled medium of expression.
His main work stands out as a testament to his almost naive perception of the possibilities beyond the astronomical knowledge of his time, a canvas that captures his fascination and wonder at the universe.
Through his work, Gherardi invites us on a journey through the enigmas and desires of the cosmos, using his art to inquire and theorize about possible celestial territories yet unveiled. In it, he reflects his personal and pure interpretation of the astral splendors as he imagined them, as he dreamed them.
Despite having been forgotten, his legacy prefigured methodologies and perspectives that, over the centuries, other artists would come to consolidate, demonstrating his avant-garde spirit and his ability to transcend the barriers of his time.
Five centuries later, his collection Somnia Stellae, arrives as generative art.
The PALETTES
Master Gherardi carefully designed 11 color palettes, each with its own narrative and symbolism, reflecting different aspects of his vision and emotions. These palettes, composed in turn by a range of meticulously selected colors, from cheerful and vibrant tones to subtle and deep shades, serve as the emotional canvas upon which he unfolded the stories of each work.
Tuscan Harvest: Reflects the richness and joy of the Tuscan countryside, incorporating vivid greens of the vineyards and olive groves, deep browns of the tilled earth, and the dark blacks found in the shadows of cypress trees lining the paths.
Florentine Sunrise: Captures the tranquil joy of a new day breaking over Florence, with soft pinks and warm golds reflecting off the Arno River and illuminating the city's historic facades.
Cathedral Stained Glass: Inspired by the vibrant colors and ethereal light filtering through the stained glass windows of Florence's cathedrals and chapels.
Tuscan Dusk: Captures the serene beauty of twilight over the Tuscan hills, with rich ochres of the setting sun reflecting off the ancient stone buildings and the deepening shadows casting the countryside in a cloak of mystery.
Guilded Frescoes: Focused on the rich yellows and lustrous golds that illuminate the frescoes and artworks of Florence's churches and palaces.
Florentine Terra: The palette draws from the rich spectrum of earthy browns found in the Tuscan landscape and the building materials of Florence itself.
Chiaroscuro Skies: This palette embraces the soft, muted tones found in the early morning and late evening skies of Florence, where the light gently transitions from night to day and back again.
Dawn over the Arno: This palette is even softer than "Chiaroscuro Skies," capturing the tranquil and ethereal quality of dawn as it breaks over the Arno River.
Rose of the Medici: This palette draws inspiration from the subtle pinks and deep garnet hues found in the luxurious fabrics and art patronized by the Medici family.
Frescoed Chapels: This palette is inspired by the serene blues and soft pinks that adorn the walls and ceilings of Florence's chapels and churches, captured in the frescoes that tell stories of faith and human emotion.
Statues in Twilight: This palette captures the nuanced grays of marble statues as they are softly illuminated by the fading light of dusk, with touches of pale pink reflecting the warmth of the setting sun.
Lorenzo Gherardi's artwork plunges into the majesty of the cosmos, but it goes beyond the mere representation of known constellations. With a bold Renaissance spirit, Gherardi let his imagination soar to create "celestial assemblies," a term he coined for his innovative stellar configurations. These not only mimic the arrangement of galaxies but also explore the infinite possibilities of the universe, merging astronomical observation and artistic creativity in a sublime dialogue between the sky and the canvas.
The CELESTIAL ASSEMBLIES
Orbs: Evoking the perfection and harmony of celestial bodies in the cosmos.
Windows: Symbolizing doors of perception to other universes or dimensions.
Galaxies: Directly inspired by the spiral shapes of many galaxies, reflecting universal movement and expansion.
Crests: Suggesting the fluidity and dynamism of nebulas and what we now know today as gravitational waves.
Chaotic Constellations: Capturing the idea that in the apparent chaos of the universe, each celestial body has its place.
Rings: Reflecting the structure and resonance among planetary and stellar systems.
Pathways: Symbolizing the routes of exploration and discovery among the stars.
Order: Representing the underlying order in the vastness of space.
Vortices: Evoking direction and change, like stellar formations at critical points in the universe.
Pentagonian: Inspired by the perfect geometry observed in nature and the cosmos.
Horizons: Reflecting the era's fascination with the mysteries of the universe, embodying the pursuit of understanding and unity between the celestial and the terrestrial.
The INNOVATIONS
Generative Palettes:
The technique developed by Lorenzo Gherardi for the color management in Somnia Stellae is capable of generating hundreds, even thousands, of different combinations that derive in a great chromatic richness.
(I developed this color generation technique in 2022 and have been improving it since then until now....I mean.....Lorenzo Gherardi did).
In addition to this, in some cases, the colors will undergo a burn through overlapping that makes the collection chromatically very varied.
Movement:
The movement of all the artwork in a controlled way, generates an atmosphere of weightlessness, of ingravity.
This orchestrated movement has certain characteristics that should be highlighted:
- It is an eternal movement, so that the work will perpetually vary whether it is being executed or not. This will make the artworks, while maintaining the spirit of the artwork at the moment of the mint, evolve, varying in an unpredictable but controlled way.
- However, although eternal and unpredictable, it is a synchronous movement between all the executions of a work of art. When you run your artwork, you will see the movement fully synchronized on all your devices, in a synchronous and zero gravity dance.
HOW TO USE SOMNIA STELLAE
Somnia Stellae has been conceived to establish a bridge between physical printed art and animated digital art displayed on screens.
On the one hand, the digital canvas on which Somnia Stellae is displayed is designed to simulate a lightly aged by the passage of time paper canvas, with its texture and grain, always different between each output. Additionally, pressing the "p" key stops the animation and allows the collector to take a snapshot of the exact moment wanted to print to be hung in physical format on a wall.
On the other hand, Somnia Stellae has also been conceived to be exhibited on a digital screen. During the whole process of creation I have had this duality in my head to try to offer the audience an artwork that supports both modes of exhibition in a period of transition between physical and digital art in which we are.
The movement present throughout the work is designed to be subtle, immersive, but not to generate too much movement that could be a nuisance. However, the motion of the cosmic background can be modified using the arrow keys. At a certain distance, without paying much attention, the artwork may not appear to be animated, however, with calmer observation, one detects that almost everything is in motion.
Somnia Stellae has been designed on a 27-inch monitor in portrait format and tested on The Frame.
Video showing the live view of an artwork. (double click to see it in full screen)
Other FEATURES
Lorenzo Gherardi navigated between two distinctive styles in his art: one marked by traditional, continuous brushstrokes that filled out forms with precision, and another, pioneering the use of color dots to sculpt images, a technique that would later be recognized as pointillism.
He experimented with varying paint densities, alternating between translucent layers that overlapped and thick applications that concealed the layers beneath. Despite having a vibrant and diverse palette, sometimes he chose to limit himself to just two colors, complemented by the use of black and white, creating compositions in a style his biographers would call bicolor.
Gherardi had a unique fascination with the varying visibility of the night sky, an observation he depicted in his works by adjusting the clarity or darkness to reflect different levels of visibility.
He envisioned the cosmos filled with nebulas and organic shapes in perpetual motion, a concept he called extragalactic features, with which he played to create curved or straight silhouettes, injecting dynamism or calm into his creations.
His vision of the universe, set against a background pattern of countless distant celestial bodies, ranged from homogeneous arrangements to those mixed in a harmonious chaos, or grouped in various configurations, exploring the multiple ways they could coexist.
Lastly, and no less significant, each color hue name in Gherardi's artwork pays tribute to a celestial body whose wavelengths vibrate similarly to the color it symbolizes. Thus, he goes beyond merely defining his color palette, assigning a name to each of the more than one hundred colors he utilized throughout his extensive career.
Although Gherardi remained relatively hidden in his time, the uniqueness of his work could have filled pages of books and walls of museums, if not for the shadow cast by the success of his contemporaries.
SAMPLES
