

Located in the recently restored church of San Pietro, Montalcino, Italy, are three beautiful works of art. The one located immediately behind the alter is called the Glorification of the Eucharist and was painted just before 1600 AD by the very talented artist Ventura Salimbeni. What makes this painting both rare and unusual is the focal point which features a mechanical device that strongly resembles a satellite or observation drone. Although this has been refuted as nothing more than a creation globe there are a few points worth noting that challenge this rather high-handed dismissal. The device clearly has telescopic antenna, what appears to be a camera (or lens) as well as a spotlight.
According to some people the lens is a depiction of the moon and the light is a depiction of the sun. If this is the case then the moon is a double crescent and the Sun is depicted proportionally smaller than it should be. In addition, the antennas are clearly fixed to the globe with grommet-like devices and are tipped with aerial spheres. The globe also displays lines which have been claimed to represent early longitude lines on the globe of the Earth. This too cannot be true as in 1600 AD the prevalent belief was that the world was flat not round. It would have actually been illegal to depict it in this way. In fact, the lines look like the joins in metal plates and perhaps that is what they are




