The Manner of sailing by the power of Bellows practiced on that Planet
1769
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
1769
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
You see a boat sailing through the air, pushed by two giant bellows instead of wind. This etching is part of a series imagining life on the moon. People in the 1700s loved wild stories about space—Morghen filled his moon with oversized pumpkins, rats the size of cows, and scissors big enough to catch them. The boat here is just one strange idea in a whole world of make-believe. If you like this kind of playful fantasy, look up the subject of italy for more early sci-fi art.
