Started: dec 18, 2004
Last Update: july 13, 2005

Dating MV 2074

Introduction

Initially taking the title Etablissement de l'Académie des Sciences et fondation de l'observatoire. 1666 at face value, I assumed that picture was created shortly after the event mentioned in the title.
As I studied the painting I became more and more convinced of the fact that my initial assumption was faulty. Based on several more or less independent features of the painting and events pertaining to the development of the Academy, I have assembled evidence for a much later creation date for the painting as well as a slightly different interpretation of it's meaning.

Dating the various details: a summary

Cassini	Arrived in Paris in april 1669
Telescopes	The Campani telescope in the forground was identified as having arrived in France in Nov 1672
Quadrant	Designed in 1667, used in 1669, appeared in print in 1671
Skeletons	Lions were dissected from 1667, gazelles were first dissected in 1668 and an ostrich was (probably) dissected in 1671.
Lunar drawing	A Lunar map was designed by Cassini in the period sept 1671- febr 1679, based on drawings by Jean Patigny and Sebastien LeClerc.

The dates for all these separate details mentioned above suggest a date for the painting after 1672. The skeletons and the quadrant might point to the publication of both Mesure de la Terre (1671) by Picard and Memoires pour servir a l'histoire naturelle des animaux (1671) by Perrault. The Observatory was officialy finished in 1672. All in all enough reasons to celebrate the various accomplishments of the academy as well as its establishment.