Martín Forés
Trubiute wall to Jerónimo Muñoz, 2025
Plastic paint on the wall
Jeroni Muñoz Research Building of the Burjassot-Paterna Campus
Photo: Eduardo Alapont
This work is part of the project "Universitat de València’s values: Art and heritage over the campus"
The new wall of large dimensions embellishes the oriental facade of the Jeroni Muñoz Research Building and welcomes to the campus in its prominent location besides the entrance. The wall, designed by the illustrator Isabel Gálvez and painted by Martín Forés, is inspired in the observations that the valencian astronomer Jeroni Muñoz (Valencia, ca. 1520- Salamanca, 1591), did five centuries ago of a “new star” in our skies.
In November, 1572 some shepherds and burners from Torrent warned the professor of Hebraic language, mathematics and astronomy of General Studies, Jeroni Muñoz, of the apparition of a star, as bright as Venus, in the Cassiopeia constellation. In fact, it was a supernova, and it was observed by astronomers from all Europe, including Tycho Brahe. The valencian astronomer did observations of the supernova for months and tried to measure the distance to it, concluding that it was in a very large distance. Now we know that it was a supernova Ia type that was at almost ten thousand light years from us.
The wall commemorates this event showing Jeroni Muñoz, of which we don’t have any portrait, indicating the position of the supernova in the sky to a curious group, in the surroundings of the Lonja de la Seda in the city of Valencia. The fluorescent painting used for the stars, which position corresponds to the time of the year in which it was observed, shines at night when it is light up by black light, and it makes us remember that, even if the light pollution prevent us from seeing them in the city, the sky is upholster with stars.
Pablo Cerdà Durán and Vicent J. Martínez García
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