Ferdinand
Verbiest
A Scholar of the Heavens and Earth Ferdinand Verbiest was not a visual artist in the traditional sense, but rather a brilliant Flemish Jesuit missionary, mathematician, and astronomer whose work bridged the intellectual worlds of Europe and the Qing dynasty. Born in Pittem, near Tielt, …
A portrait built from Ferdinand Verbiest's own colours
Every 1 approved work contributes its dominant tone to a single flowing field. Sorted along the hue wheel, the strip reads as a smooth spectrum. Click any band to reveal its full four-colour palette.
Bands follow the hue wheel; visually identical tones are merged.
Every painting, placed on the hue wheel
Each dot is a work — its angle set by hue, its distance from the centre by saturation. Hover a dot to see the painting.
The signature, in numbers
Where the colour came from
Up to 24 paintings representing the most frequent palette tones — each shown with its dominant colours.