Online Study Guide

Rococo: The French Taste :: The Enlightenment: Philosophy and Society :: The Enlightenment: Science and Technology :: Voltaire Versus Rousseau: Science Versus the Taste For the "Natural" :: The Revival of Interest in Classicism :: From Neoclassicism to Romanticism :: The Rise of Romanticism :: Imagination and Mood in Landscape Painting :: Various Revivalist Styles in Architecture :: The Beginnings of Photography

THE ENLIGHTENMENT: SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Enlightenment's champion:

Houdon's marble bust shows Voltaire, whose writings and critical activism contributed to the conviction that fundamental changes were necessary in government in order for humankind to progress.

Scientific advances:

Biomechanical and chemical studies of living nature advanced that field of human knowledge. In the field of life sciences, the study of the human body- its structures, function, and disorders- was at the center of scientific interest.

28-8: WILLIAM HUNTER, Child in Womb, drawing from dissection of a woman who died in the ninth month of pregnancy, from Anatomy of the Human Gravid Uterus, 1774.

Industrial transformation:

The discovery of steam power led to the invention of steam engines, which were used for industrial production and for transportation. Power was further harnessed using coal, oil, iron, steel, and electricity. Scientific and technological advances also led to the development of photography and to changes in architecture.

The wonders of the universe:

Joseph Wright of Derby's realistic painting shows a demonstration of an orrery, the mechanism of which is scrupulously and accurately rendered.

28-9: JOSEPH WRIGHT OF DERBY, A Philosopher Giving a Lecture at the Orrery (in which a lamp is put in place of the sun), ca. 1763-1765. Oil on canvas, 4' 10" x 6' 8". Derby Museums and Art Gallery, Derby, Derbyshire.

Bridging the ages with iron:

Abraham Darby III and Thomas F. Pritchard designed and built the first cast-iron bridge. The bridge's exposed cast-iron structure prefigures the skeletal use of iron and steel in the nineteenth century.

28-10: ABRAHAM DARBY III and THOMAS F. PRITCHARD, iron bridge at Coalbrookdale, England (first cast-iron bridge over the Severn River), 1776-1779. 100' span.