Joseph Wright of Derby combined contemporary science in the Age of Enlightenment with impressive lighting and chiaroscuro effects, across a series of paintings from 1765.
Wright
The story of Dibutades who painted the outline of her boyfriend’s shadow, leading to early struggles with the optics of cast shadows, their use as cues to depth and shape, and appearance in landscapes. Paintings of shadow play.
Popularly intended to transform base metals like lead into gold, alchemy relied on special glassware like alembics, and is included with other ‘dark arts’ in paintings.
Lycaon transformed into a wolf, the origin of later werewolves, the she-wolf who fed Romulus and Remus, a shepherd defending his flock, the wolf of Agubbio, the fable of the wolf and the lamb, and others.
A unique systematic and accessible account of clouds, their naming and classification, illustrated not with photos but an excellent selection of paintings.
Self-help thatching and maintaining your scythe, blacksmiths hard at work in their forges, a tilt-hammer in another forge, and a tinker fixing pots.
The Roman goddess Minerva, the Greek statesman Solon, King Solomon, the three Magi, a ‘philosopher’ of Enlightenment, a scientist with a microscope, and the School of Athens.
Odysseus had been away from his home, wife Penelope and son Telemachus for over 20 years. What would she have written to him?
A small selection of favourites from its huge and eclectic collection, from Duccio in about 1310 to Joseph Wright of Derby and a gem from Thomas Jones.
An early Rembrandt, chiaroscuro lighting, one of Adam Elsheimer’s oil on copper paintings, above Frederick the Great, and adorning Goya’s painting hat.
The Eclectic Light Company 