Iupiter [Jupiter]

Mallet’s artistic representation of Jupiter.

This finely engraved print showing Jupiter in the night sky was created by Alain Manesson Mallet for publication in his Description de L’Univers. Artistic license was certainly used, as contemporary knowledge of the planet was limited (note the absence of the ‘spot’). The image below shows a fantastic scene that represents the characteristics of the Roman god after which the planet was named.

As the chief deity of the Dii Consentes (Greek Olympians), Jupiter is the god of the sky and thunder. Thus it’s appropriate that so much of the engraving is left to his domain. The immediate foreground shows a hill overlooking a small town – perhaps the Capitoline (closely associated with Jupiter’s functions) and the foundations of Rome itself?