Italian painter, paleontologist, and geologist

Agostino Scilla inaugurated the modern scientific study of fossils. Born the son of a minor government official in Messina, Sicily, he studied art in Messina under Antonio Ricci Barbalunga, who arranged for him to study in Rome for five years under Andrea Sacchi (1599–1661). Upon his return to Messina, Scilla associated with the Accademia della Fucina and established himself throughout eastern Sicily as a painter of religious scenes for church interiors, including some decorations for the cathedral in Syracuse. A gentleman of broad humanistic learning, with particular interest in ancient local culture, he became an expert on the history of Sicilian coins. During the 1650s or 1660s he began to study natural history, especially the fossils he found in the Sicilian hills. His expeditions were sometimes in company with the botanist Paolo Boccone (1633–1704). Scilla's training as a painter enhanced his...