Science and Art Gerrit Dou (Dutch 1613-1675)
The PhysicianRembrandt: The Anatomy lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp (1632)
Thomas Eakins (1844-1916) I place the American realist Thomas Eakins out of chronological order here so as to juxtapose "The Gross Clinic" to Rembrandt's "The Anatomy lesson. . . . "
The Gross Clinic (1875) is considered Thomas Eakins's masterpiece. The painting was rejected for an exhibition in Philadelphia to commemorate the centennial of American Independence because it was considered too harshly realistic.Joseph Wright (1734-1797) We see some of the same female horror and male fascination with science in the two paintings by Wright shown in this website. Joseph Wright was a close friend of Erasmus Darwin, Charles Darwin's grandfather.
William Hogarth
Hogarth's prints represent the fallibility of interpretation. In one school of thought, this series represents Hogarth's response to the gone-mad lawlessness of the masses and thus served as a jeremiad (or warning) calling for more strict and severe penalties for criminals, as represented in "Reward." On the other hand, the "Reward" can be read as a condemnation of the cruelty of the ruling class.
William Hogarth's work was instrumental in the development and popularization of physiognomics in the eighteenth century--the 'science' of interpreting human character, intelligence, and virtue by analyzing physical appearances. The practice was based upon the belief that exterior traits revealed a person's inner life. Hogarth systematized and refined the vocabulary of physiognomy. He called his representations of people characters rather than caricatures, seeking to reveal the true nature of his subjects rather than simply mocking them. His sophisticated visual repertoire of physiognomic types greatly influenced eighteenth century physiognomy and was commented upon by Caspar Lavater (1741-1801) in his popular book, Essays on Physiognomy (1775-78).
"Physiognomics" is still practiced today but we are more reflective about it, aware of the falsehood of stereotype?
Apply physiognomics to Mary Shelley's novel. One of the most disturbing things some readers find in Frankenstein is the suggestion that physical ugliness is so powerful a force that nothing can compensate for it, even among high-minded people like the cottagers.True or False?
J. J. Grandville (1803-1847), a French illustrator, uses animals to depicts surgeons at work: Dinner.
William Blake (1757-1827)
"This is Sir Isaac Newton, and Blake is mocking him, because he's so focused on measuring and quantifying the universe, that he doesn't even notice the incredibly beautiful rock he's sitting on, or anything else that he could know by intuition or by his senses. Blake uses Newton--as representative of rational man--in some of his prophetic books as the antithesis of imagination. Rational man was like the figure "Urizen," stony, rigid, self-constrained; that is, not exactly a Blakean role model. Incidentally, this very painting (it is a painting, one of the bigger ones Blake did in tempera) is the model for the bronze sculpture which is now in front of the new British Library, so it continues to haunt the intellectual world. But even there, in front of the British Library in London, it serves as an ironic comment on the scientific mind, unable to open itself up to the imagination."--Debbie LeeHenry Stacey Marks (1879) Science is measurement. The implications?
CSI: Just when police shows are going for bigger and bolder action, moviemaker Jerry Bruckheimer, master of the big bang theory, decides to get small. We're talking hair follicles and fingerprints; "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" is a painstaking detailed and sometimes stomach-turning look at the minutiae of evidence that the crack squad of the Las Vegas Criminalistics Dept. uses to track down the bad guys. And what does the modern scientist look like in 2003? See Marg Helgenberger
.Andy Warhol (1928-1987) Warhol challenged preconceived notions about the nature of art and erased traditional distinctions between fine art and popular culture.
John Locke is generally considered the first in the line of British empiricists--the fundamental claim is that human knowledge begins with sense experience and primarily is derived from it.
Luigi Galvani: Galvani's great interest was "animal electricity," which he studied in his post as a teacher of medicine in Bologna. In 1780, he constructed a crude electric cell with two different metals and the natural fluids from a dissected frog. In another experiment he applied current to the nerves of a frog and observed the contractions of the muscles in their legs.Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802) was the grandfather of Charles Darwin. Erasmus was a a prosperous physician, poet, and philosopher.
Except from Erasmus Darwin's Zoonomia
William Godwin : anchor to Political Philosophy. Obviously Godwin had a major influence on his daughter, Mary Shelley. In Godwin's Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793), he asserts that justice, to have any meaning, must serve the power and benefit of the whole of society. And that birth and rank should not affect the way people are treated [including within the legal system]. The philosphy has implications for thinking about the rights and autonomy of the individual as described in Robert Schaller's A Vision of American Law and also tells us that Godwin's philosophy of equal treatment under the law is noble in intention but difficult to implement--in Frankenstein consider the treatment of Justine by the courts juxtaposed to the treatment of Victor Frankenstein as defendant in the Henry Clerval murder trial.
Mary Wollstonecraft published her most important book, Vindication of the Rights of Women, in 1792. In the book Wollstonecraft attacked the educational restrictions that kept women in a state of "ignorance and slavish dependence." She was especially critical of a society that encouraged women to be "docile and attentive to their looks to the exclusion of all else." Wollstonecraft described marriage as "legal prostitution" and added that women "may be convenient slaves, but slavery will have its constant effect, degrading the master and the abject dependent."
Mary married William Godwin in March, 1797 and soon afterwards, a second daughter, Mary, was born. The baby was healthy but the placenta was retained in the womb. The doctor's attempt to remove the placenta resulted in blood poisoning and Mary died on 10th September, 1797.
Northwest Passage: Robert Walton's ambition
Victor Frankenstein's first mentors were indeed real people.
