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Desmond Lazaro
Herschel Galaxy IIII, 2022Raised gild on indigo dyed cotton cloth on MDF board96.5 x 60 x 2.75 in
245 x 152 x 7 cmCopyright The ArtistWilliam Herschel's drawing 'Model of the Milky Way' (1785) is considered the first (modern) image of our galaxy. This work is the earliest representation of the Milky Way as an elongated...William Herschel's drawing 'Model of the Milky Way' (1785) is considered the first (modern) image of our galaxy. This work is the earliest representation of the Milky Way as an elongated organic form, one that persisted well into the twentieth century. The image comes from Herschel’s 1785 illustration 'Account of some observations tending to investigate the Construction of the Heavens', drawn with painstaking accuracy as he plotted each observed star as a simple cross. In Lazaro’s representation of Herschel’s Galaxy, the Milky Way has been represented as water-gilded crosses on an indigo dyed cloth.