Some of the finest works of art in the world’s history have occurred at the intersection of art and science. Leonardo da Vinci was renowned for the medical and biological illustrations that filled his notebooks. In fact, the Italian renaissance was a prime showcase of biological and scientific illustration, particularly the works of Da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael.
Fast forward a few centuries to the Age of Enlightenment, and England had its own practitioners of the art of depicting science and art.
One of the great masterpieces from the Age of Enlightenment, Joseph Wright of Derby’s monumental An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump (1768), depicts a small group of people gathered around a candlelit table on which a lecturer in natural history is performing a scientific experiment—the creation of a vacuum—as described by chemist Robert Boyle in the 17th century. As air is removed from a glass jar, the fate of a cockatiel inside a jar held high above the table, hangs in the balance.
As The Huntington describes the work, “The observers’ reactions range from fascination to dismay. In Wright’s hands, the tableau is an exercise in the sublime, a moment of extreme tension recast as a dramatic meditation on the fragility of life. At the same time, the experiment being performed relates to advances in the fields of science and medicine, making the scene a celebration of human achievement.”
The premier work is the focus of “Science and the Sublime: A Masterpiece by Joseph Wright of Derby,” which presents the powerful 6-by-8-foot painting to the Huntington Art gallery on a loan from the National Gallery in London, where it is one of that institution’s most popular paintings, along with 15 works from The Huntington’s own collections, including two smaller paintings by Wright and 13 rare objects from the Library’s holdings.
The exhibit runs through May 30, 2022.
The reciprocal loan follows the recent loan of Thomas Gainsborough’s iconic painting of The Blue Boy (ca. 1770), which will be on display for London museumgoers for the first time in a century, from Jan. 25 through May 15, 2022.
According to the Huntington gallery’s announcement, the Wright exhibition’s theme highlights two major strengths of The Huntington’s collections—British art and the history of science—providing a unique opportunity to juxtapose materials that are not normally displayed together. Alongside Bird in the Air Pump, are rare books and ephemera that reveal the real science behind the elements that Wright depicts on canvas, as well as the contemporary moral and aesthetic debates with which he engages.
“Science and the Sublime: A Masterpiece by Joseph Wright of Derby,” The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Feb. 12, 2022–May 30, 2022. 151 Oxford Road San Marino, CA 91108. (626) 405-2100. www.huntington.org.
