Saylor.org ARTH207: "Joseph Wright of Derby"

This lecture is entitled Joseph Wright of Derby, A New Spirituality. Now Joseph Wright of Derby, who you see over here on the left, can be considered one of the quintessential Enlightenment painters. And this is his self-portrait from 1780. He was trained as a portrait painter, but he became famous for scenes like these, these two paintings on the right. And these are paintings whose subject matter is concerned with scientific discovery, industry, and the changing view of the world that was brought about by the Industrial Revolution. Industrial Revolution, and of course the ideals of the Enlightenment. And we're gonna take a closer look at this image here, which is the Philosopher giving a lecture at the Orrery, and it dates to 1765. And over here on the right is a painting known as The Alchemist, and it dates to 1771, to give you a sense of what time frame we're looking at here. And I think it's interesting to just quickly look at these two paintings of his that show scientific discovery, scientific works, before we take a close look over here. Because they really feel like religious paintings. So that's what I mean when I say a new spirituality, especially if you look at this image on the right with this alchemist here kneeling before this glowing ball. It seems almost like this could be, you know, a monk overcome with some spiritual emotion or moment. But these are paintings about science. So we're seeing a really interesting shift, not only in the culture at large, but specifically here with the art created by Wright of Derby. So I want to take a closer look at the painting in the middle here, which is one of his most famous works of art. So this is known, again, as Philosopher Giving a Lecture at the Orrery. So I'm going to write that down for you. Philosopher Giving a Lecture at the Orrery. Sort of a hard word to pronounce. Orrery. And it dates to 1765. And many people consider this one of the best examples, not only of Wright of Derby, but of the Enlightenment period in how the world is changing and how this influences painting and the arts in general. So what we're seeing here is a scholar, you can see him here, demonstrating a model of the solar system. And that's what an orrery is. So it's a model that shows how the solar system works. And each planet revolves around the Sun, which you can't see, but we can tell there's an artificial light source here. And that's a lamp or a candle, a natural flame in the center of this model. So that's essentially what we're seeing here. And we see figures crowding around. You can see these two little children sort of looking on in wonder. This man up here taking notes. And the very serious scholar at the top demonstrating his knowledge to his audience. So a very straightforward, but very intimate scene of this scientific, enlightening moment as people are learning about the world. Learning about the natural world. And I think it's pretty interesting that this image is illuminated by candlelight. And we have that famous chiaroscuro that we associated with, chiaroscuro, that we associated with artists like Caravaggio and Rembrandt and Georges de La Tour, artists from the Baroque. And you might recall, I hope you recall, that that chiaroscuro was often a way of creating a sense of spiritual wonder in these paintings. And Rite of Derby has appropriated that technique, but to a different end. Rather than creating a spiritual wonder at God or faith, there's a wonder at faith in science, in knowledge, in industry, in this, all these new things that are coming about during the Industrial Revolution. And I think that really hits home when you compare this actually to a work by Georges de La Tour. So here they are. And I chose this comparison because you might recall that Georges de La Tour was also famous for his candlelit scenes. So there's a similar aesthetic in these two paintings. But again, Georges de La Tour was famous for religious scenes, like this one on the right, which shows Joseph the Carpenter. And it's an intimate scene between a father and a son, but it's ultimately a religious scene because this is Christ and his father. These are important religious figures from the Bible. Whereas on the left we have, again, science. But Rite of Derby is using the same exact conventions that artists of religious paintings had used in the Baroque period. And this really signifies a shift in culture and in art. And it boils down to the wonder of knowledge of the world and science has come to sort of take the place of the wonders of the unknown and of religion. Thank you for watching.