Star-painted ceiling
A ceiling painted with stars frequently occurs as a design motif in a cathedral or Christian church, and replicates the Earth's sky at night.
[4] Illustrations, paintings, and murals of the sky, heavens, and stars have a long history as a source of decoration.
[4] The Imperial temple in Palmyra, approximately constructed in the late 2nd century BC, is one of the earliest known examples of a religious building that features star-painted ceilings as a decorative motif.
[7] The earliest known instance of a star-painted vault related to Christianity is a baptistery at the city of Dura-Europos which is dated approximately 300 AD.
[10] This decorative feature takes a range of forms but has been created using gold stars on a blue ceiling, black and white, or glow in the dark paint.
Art historian Alva William's states that these pentacles symbolise the five wounds of Christ and is thought to “ward off evil spirits”.
[2] Nevertheless, this connection to heaven and symbolic use of stars can be seen continuing to be recreated into the 19th and 20th centuries, such as seen in the Grand Synagogue of Edirne.
The synagogue was built in 1906 and features large vaulted ceilings covered in thousands of small painted white, gold, and black stars on a sky-blue background.
[14] The depiction of heaven and the sky is a recurring decorative feature that can be found in several Christian churches, chapels, and cathedrals.
Swift and Alwis state that star-painted ceilings associated with cosmology may have been used as a way to illustrate that the one being baptised was symbolically going to be “reborn into a new world”.
It was painted by Giotto di Bondone and his assistants between 1303 - 1305 A.D.[16] The work depicts scenes from the Bible, with hundreds of geometrically aligned stars mixed into the mural.
[17] Much like other religious buildings such as churches and cathedrals, a ceiling decorated in stars is a recurring motif in Synagogues.
[19] It features a large central dome ceiling which is painted blue and covered in golden stars.
[19] This location of the mural is significant because, as noted before, this area of the synagogue is recognised as a particularly holy place close to heaven.
[21] As there are little to no depictions of human figures in mosques it is common for scripture and decorative features, such as stars, to fill the inside of the religious buildings.
[23] The ceiling of the Mexuar, one part of the Nasrid palace complex, was designed in the 16th century and features star polygons with eight points.
[23] As well as being a decorative technique, star-painted ceilings have been created which accurately depict the night sky and constellation systems.
The ceiling is decorated with over 2,500 stars and illustrates a North American winter night sky around December 1 - February 28.
[26] As well as stars, the mural includes depictions of animals and symbols which historian Feng Shi states represent different constellation systems.
[27] One of the tombs that is part of the Complex of Koguryo features the astronomical chart known as Cheonsang Yeolcha Bunyajido (天象列次分野之圖) and is dated 1395 A.D.[28] The mural itself features a constellation system that includes approximately 1,500 painted and engraved stars that mimic real star systems found in the night sky viewed from Korea during the Joseon dynasty.
