UFOs in Historical Paintings, Part 1 of 2

Some researchers are persistent in their conviction that humanity’s fascination with UFOs is not so recent, citing evidence in several remarkable pieces of art, some of which were painted 500 years ago, or more. In the mid-1960s, “sensational” images began to circulate of a 14th-century Christian fresco called “The Crucifixion of Christ” from the Visoki Decani Monastery in Kosovo. The mural contained imagery of what appeared to resemble a “spacecraft” and its “crew,” hovering in the top portion of a crucifixion scene painted on the alter wall.

Painted in the 15th century, “The Miracle of the Snow”, Italian artist Masolino da Panicale deliberately chose to introduce a flotilla of UFOs into the picture. “The Madonna with Saint Giovannino,” it is the assertions of alien theorists that the painting unmistakably portrays an extraterrestrial object which attracts the most attention. Meanwhile, research into Florentine Renaissance artworks reveals a common symbolic value in portraying such an object in an artwork. Two figures appear directly below the believed UFO, a man and his dog-person, who stare intently at the “airborne” object. Here are two more depictions from the same era; firstly, the “Nativity by Vincenzo Foppa,” where a man, clearly a shepherd, observes an angel-like glowing object in the sky, and again in “Adoration of the Christ with St. Benedict and Angels,” also by Vincenzo Foppa.

“The Annunciation with Saint Emidius,” some UFO enthusiasts think the Holy Spirit is an alien spacecraft. The Orb of Fortuna is a spherical object shown with the Greek goddess of fortune and her spinning wheel. This object may be another contender for the UFO files.