Whilst researching Alexander Jamieson, I came across images of Kircher’s Mundus Subterraneus, which I thought were stunning in detail and alternative insight of the times. I won’t go too deep into Kircher as he certainly lived a life, creating a sunflower clock and running a personal museum (visit biodiversity.org) amongst other things. It’s his eye-opening experience of volcanic eruptions on the way to Sicily, one of mount Etna and the other of Stromboli that led to conclusions of them being linked under the earth like how the human body as a whole is connected. Kircher is a product of his time (Galileo/Kepler/Newton) and believed in the earth’ s magical properties that had an insight into and could unlock through his inventions. There’s a great paper this belief in relation to Mundus Subterraneus here. Both of the links provided give great insight into the life of Athanasius Kircher and are well worth the read.
For my own art interests these are great images to practice technique and provide a way to re-imagine the infinite possibilities of exoplanets which will only become broader and broader as more discoveries are made. I love the illustrations of these global living, breathing spheres as an interpretation of the inner workings of the earth. The images of the erupting volcanoes also have a surreal quality of being recognisable but somehow not quite right.
