The Picture of Dorian Gray with roles reversed: Notes for a sensible chronology of the life and the activity of the Neapolitan optician Francesco Fontana (c. 1585-1656)

TL;DR

This paper reevaluates the timeline of Neapolitan optician Francesco Fontana's career, challenging previous claims linking him to a 1615 portrait and proposing a later period for his rise to fame based on historical sources.

Contribution

It corrects the assumed early recognition of Fontana as an optician and offers a revised chronology of his professional activity and influence.

Findings

Fontana's fame spread later than previously thought

The identification of the sitter in Ribera's Allegory of Sight is unlikely

A revised timeline of Fontana's career is proposed

Abstract

In the last few years it has been alleged the possible identification of the sitter in Jusepe de Ribera's Allegory of Sight with the Neapolitan optician Francesco Fontana (c. 1585-1656), known for contributing to the diffusion of the Keplerian telescope. The present paper aims to demonstrate the impossibility of this identification, grounded on the erroneous assumption that Fontana was already renowned as an optician around the mid-1615s, and, on the basis of known sources, suggests a more reasonable chronology of his activity, which postpones the spreading of his fame out of Naples to the end of the next decade.