Family

Colder weather, with a little rain has delivered a much tighter lockdown today. Only the hardiest exercisers were out and about.

I listened to the Farm's album Spartacus for the first time, and my favourite track was not the extremely well-known song All Together Now, which seems a bit too obvious and "on the nose" in present circumstances.  I preferred "Don't Let Me Down."

An intriguing painting by Joseph Wright of Derby today - A Philosopher giving a Lecture on the Orrery" (c1764 - 66.) This shows a group of people gathered around a machine named after the Earl of Orrery, who financed its construction. The device demonstrated the path of the planets around the sun. The use of a large painting to illustrate a scientific development, rather than classical scenes or portraits of rich folk, was a typical development of the time. Right at the start of the Industrial Revolution (James Watt built the first steam engine in 1765) the painting marks the growing importance of science in thought, in the economy and the arts.

The painting was also forward thinking in its portrayal, amongst the group of onlookers, of a woman and two children. Attitudes towards children were starting to improve in the 18th century. John Locke's book Thoughts Concerning Education demanded that teachers pay attention to the interests of children rather than forcing them to learn by rote.  The two at the centre of this scene are clearly engrossed in and fascinated by what they were watching.

The use of light in the painting is also superb.  Its source is hidden at the centre of the picture and the machine's sun object is also not apparent.  It has been observed that each of the adult faces in the picture reveals one of the main phases of the moon - new, half, gibbous and full.

A clear picture, full of light was also highly apt for the time. The period became known in English as The Enlightenment, in German as the Aufklärung and in French as the siècle des lumières, all expressions about increasing light and clarity.

And who is the "Philosopher" at the centre? Some think it was John Whitehurst, clockmaker and scientist and a colleague of Wright's in the Lunar Society, along with Josiah Wedgewood.  It has also been pointed-out that the appearance of the Philosopher is very similar to that of Isaac Newton in a earlier painting by Godfrey Kneller.