Enlightenment and the Arts Critique
The work I found most interesting from the Enlightenment Period was Joseph Wright of Derby's painting titled A Philosopher Lecturing on the Orrery. I thought that this was a great piece to represent the period because it not only expresses the increased focus on science and reasoning, but also pertains to today's society of enhanced philosophical and scientific research. During the Age of Enlightenment many societies began to look towards reasoning to explain the world around them. Science and philosophy prior to the era was rather underwhelming and even sometimes neglected. However, as thoughts of reasons came about, so did science to help explain certain phenomena's and occurrences in the natural world. Another thing that slightly changed with the occurrence of enlightenment was realism in painting. Artists began to more frequently paint realistic works of art that visualized a real occurrence happening in real time. The realism that Wright's A Philosopher Lecturing on the Orrery provides showed people that science and philosophy were now much more accepted and being constantly studied by the upper class. Likewise, with the addition of children and a woman in the painting, Wright exemplified that these new ideas and teachings were for all to learn.
This painting relates to today's society in quite a few ways. The biggest being that the studying of the Orrery was a model being used to theorize and explain how the solar system works. Obviously, the people of the Enlightenment period were far less versed in the ideas and knowledge of space, however, the scientific model being used probably isn't too far off from many of the more advanced models and tools used to teach and explain the solar system today. It goes to show that some of the ideas being theorized and taught during this period are things that are still relevant today, especially as our society begins to expand into advanced space travel with missions such as the colonization of Mars.
I admire your ability to pick up on the smaller details. I would never have noticed the woman and children in the darkened portions of the painting, and you do well to point our their significance. Your grammar can be poor at times. For example, you use "phenomena's" as a plural noun, when "phenomena" is already plural (phenomenon is the singular). However, it does not hurt the readability of your paper; I could always understand what you meant to say. Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteI think the painting that you picked perfectly sums up the Enlightenment. The enlightenment could not have occurred without advancements in math and science. The addition of the women and children is important to mention because the enlightenment was as much of a social shift as it was an intellectual shift. Your work is very easy to follow and I like how you relate it to our modern society.
ReplyDeleteHello Conner,
ReplyDeleteI thought this picture was brilliant. It relates to the enlightenment tremendously! During the enlightenment people were changing their superstitious views of religion to views that had more to do with reasoning, hence the men and children surrounding the table studying science/math. Science and math were very important in this era as the philosophers had to partake in many experiments to backup their thesis and convince others to start thinking with reason.
ReplyDeleteHey Connor! I thought you chose a great picture. I liked how you made the comparison to how these philosophers were pretty close to the concept of space that we use today, but with much less resources and knowledge. I always think it is interesting to see how far we have come and how some of these people were ahead of their time. These people who were ahead of their time did wonders for our society today and who knows how much less advanced we would be without them.
The piece of art you chose definitely illustrates the Enlightment era. Its true that people during that time period viewed science as a lost cause and that religious views were the answers to the worlds issues. I think society then and now is ahead of its time thanks to the important figures during Enlightment. It's crazy how science has advanced exponentially and that there is a possibility of colonizing Mars within our lifetime.
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