|
One of the supreme ironies of the period can be found in Foggini's design for the tomb of Galileo, whose astronomical writings were condemned by the Church under Urban VIII but whose monument borrowed significantly from Algardi's tomb of Leo XI. Galileo's attendant allegories are of course Astronomy and Geometry; these are not cardinal virtues, and despite the monument's presence in the Florentine basilica of Santa Croce, it commemorates the astronomer as a secular saint, showing him gazing to the sky foe scientific rather than religious enlightenment.
|
