Dionysius the Areopagite Converting the Pagan Philosophers

In a town square beneath a shadowed sun, astronomers and pagan philosophers gather while Dionysius the Areopagite preaches the Christian message of salvation, pointing to the heavens as a celestial globe is carried up the steps and a putto records the event. Antoine Caron painted the scene at the court of Catherine de Medici, probably recalling the dramatic solar eclipse of 1571, which the superstitious queen and her court read as an ominous omen; the statue of Urania, muse of astronomy, watches from a twisted column. The great painter of the French court under the last Valois kings filled his elaborate Mannerist compositions with precisely this blend of erudition, astronomy and ceremony. The painting is held in the J. Paul Getty Museum.