Recent studies have fruitfully examined the intersection between early modern science and visual culture by elucidating the functions of images in shaping and disseminating scientific knowledge. Given its rich archival sources, it is possible to extend this line of research in the case of the Royal Society to an examination of attitudes towards images as artifacts—manufactured objects worth commissioning, collecting, and studying. Drawing on existing scholarship and material from the Royal Society Archives, I discuss Fellows’ interests in prints, drawings, varnishes, colorants, images made out of unusual materials, and methods of identifying the painter from a painting. Knowledge of production processes of images was important to members of the Royal Society, not only as connoisseurs and collectors, but also as those interested in a Baconian mastery of material processes, including a “history of trades.” Their antiquarian interests led to discussion of painters’ styles, and they gradually developed a visual memorial to an institution through portraits and other visual records.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Book
Jorink, Eric;
Ramakers, Bart;
(2011)
Art and Science in the Early Modern Netherlands
(/isis/citation/CBB001201611/)
Article
Hans Laurens de Jonge;
(2023)
Depicting Race: A Newly Discovered Portrait of Aquasi Boachi and Kwame Poku from the Anthropological Collection of Jan van der Hoeven (1801–1868)
(/isis/citation/CBB974718126/)
Article
Paolo Molaro;
(2016)
On the lost portrait of Galileo by the Tuscan painter Santi di Tito
(/isis/citation/CBB844459404/)
Book
Gal, Ofer;
Chen-Morris, Raz;
(2013)
Science in the Age of Baroque
(/isis/citation/CBB001213194/)
Book
Huhtamo, Erkki;
(2013)
Illusions in Motion: Media Archaeology of the Moving Panorama and Related Spectacles
(/isis/citation/CBB001421230/)
Thesis
Anna Theresa Majeski;
(2022)
Visualizing the Cosmos in Trecento Padua: From Giotto di Bondone to Giusto de' Menabuoi
(/isis/citation/CBB863390852/)
Article
Tosi, Alessandro;
(2013)
Tennis in Early Modern Visual Culture
(/isis/citation/CBB001252890/)
Thesis
Baldasso, Renzo;
(2007)
Illustrating the Book of Nature in the Renaissance: Drawing, Painting, andPrinting Geometric Diagrams and Scientific Figures
(/isis/citation/CBB001560536/)
Book
Dr Roger Lederer;
(2019)
Birds: Ornithology and the Great Bird Artists
(/isis/citation/CBB095367682/)
Article
Madrid Casado, Carlos Miguel;
(2010)
La Representación de la Técnica y de la Ciencia entre los Siglos XVI al XVIII en la Colección del Museo del Prado
(/isis/citation/CBB001033797/)
Chapter
Charlene Villaseñor Black;
(2020)
The Half-Life of Blue
(/isis/citation/CBB466157807/)
Article
Katherine M. Reinhart;
(2019)
Richard Waller and the Fusion of Visual and Scientific Practice in the Early Royal Society
(/isis/citation/CBB856781822/)
Article
Kusukawa, Sachiko;
(2012)
Thomas Kirke's Copy of Philosophical Transactions
(/isis/citation/CBB001212084/)
Article
Sachiko Kusukawa;
(2019)
Introduction Making Visible: The Visual and Graphic Practices of the Early Royal Society
(/isis/citation/CBB301285884/)
Article
Jessie Wei-Hsuan Chen;
(2020)
A Woodblock’s Career: Transferring Visual Botanical Knowledge in the Early Modern Low Countries
(/isis/citation/CBB817740739/)
Article
Stouraiti, Anastasia;
(2013)
Talk, Script and Print: The Making of Island Books in Early Modern Venice
(/isis/citation/CBB001202085/)
Book
McCall, Timothy;
Roberts, Sean E.;
Fiorenza, Giancarlo;
(2013)
Visual Cultures of Secrecy in Early Modern Europe
(/isis/citation/CBB001201734/)
Article
Bodart, Diane H.;
(2012)
Il mento “posticcio” dell'Imperatore Carlo V
(/isis/citation/CBB001420823/)
Article
Kruger, Lawrence;
(2005)
The Scientific Impact of Dr. N. Tulp, Portrayed in Rembrandt's “Anatomy Lesson”
(/isis/citation/CBB000600104/)
Article
Jensen, William B.;
(2004)
A Previously Unrecognised Portrait of Joan Baptista van Helmont
(/isis/citation/CBB000501394/)
Be the first to comment!