Paolo Molaro

A new portrait of Galileo Galilei?

Abstract

We present the possible discovery of a portrait of Galileo Galilei described in Molaro (2012 AN 333, 186) together with more recent studies. The man in the painting reveals clear resemblance with Galileo's portrait made by Domenico Tintoretto and with the engraving made by Giuseppe Calendi from a lost portrait made by Santi di Tito in 1601. The painting is not signed and the identification is physiognomic although corroborated by sophisticated PCA face analyses. ‘Galileo’ looks to be about 20–25 years of age when he was at the beginning of his career and before reaching a worldwide fame. The eyes are clear and the expression intense and appealing. Rather interestingly, there is the possibility of a self-portrait whose existence is mentioned in the first biography of Galileo by Salusbury in 1664 as reported by Drinkwater in 1829.

Biography

Dr. Paolo Molaro was born in Artegna (Ud) in 1955 and is married and the father of four children. He is Professor astronomer at the Astronomical Observatory of Trieste INAF, of which he was director. He graduated from the University of Trieste with Margherita Hack and did his doctorate at SISSA with Dennis Sciama. He is the author of over 300 publications with interests ranging from observational cosmology to the variability of the fundamental physical constants, to the astronomical instrumentation.