A Saddlebag For Galileo Galilei 2009

An olive-colored cowhide saddlebag abundant in pockets was created to commemorate the 400^th anniversary of Galileo’s first observations of the moon by means of the telescope, celebrated at Palazzo Strozzi with the exhibition ‘Galileo: Images of the Universe from Antiquity to the Telescope’ (March – August 2009).

The saddlebag, with its astronomical instruments and educational notepads illustrated by Peter Sis (Czech artist and winner of the Caldecott prize), guides visitors through a reflection on how, over the course of time, our perception of the movement of stars and planets has changed, as has our relationship with what lies beyond that which we’re able to see through the naked eye.