Images of the Earth, Images of Man
67
beyond a purely aesthetic or illustrative, appreciation of natural phenomena.
In fact, the extensive notes accompanying these plates constitute the first publication of Desmarest’s theories of the volcanic origin
of basalt.
15 And art and science are also tightly interwoven in the plate
entitled “Pavé des Géans” (fig. 5). Originally painted by the artist
Susannah Drury, in 1740 this depiction of the Giant’s Causeway in
Northern Ireland won the £25 premium for landscape painting for the
Dublin Society before eventually being incorporated into the Encyclopédie. Drury’s careful attention to the detail of the rock formation
(even if the scale of the whole is somewhat enlarged) placed her image within the context of science as much as in that of art: Desmarest,
for example, referred to Drury’s image in the exposition of his theory
of the volcanic origin of basalt.
16
In the plates on mineralogy, then, Nature is represented in the
context of both leisure interest and scientific endeavour, a spectacle to
be admired and valued for its aesthetic value as well as an object for
scientific research. The various contexts in which the eighteenth century related to nature are also, however, made evident within the images themselves by the presence of human figures; and it is these
figures, and the role they play, which tie the images more closely to
the Encyclopédie project itself.
At first sight, however, the presence of humanity in the plates
is easily overlooked. Even without their titles, there is little question
as to what the plates are purporting to show. Dominating each image
as they do, the glaciers, volcanoes and rock formations presented by
the Encyclopédie are clearly the main focus of their respective plates.
The human figures in the foreground, by contrast, initially go unnoticed; yet despite their tiny size and seeming irrelevance to the main
focus of the plates, these human figures do play a role in the Encyclopédie reader’s apprehension of the phenomena shown.
___________________________
15 Perez and Pinault, p. 392. On the construction of the “scientific gaze”, see Stafford,
Voyage Into Substance, pp. 31-35.
16 Anne Crookshank, The Painters of Ireland, 1660-1920 (London: Barrie and Jenkins, 1978), pp. 62-27; Martyn Anglesea and John Preston, “A Philosophical Landscape: Susannah Drury and the Giant’s Causeway”, Art History, 3 (1980), 252-73;
Nicolas Desmarest, “Sur l’origine & la nature du basalte à grandes colonnes polygonales, déterminées par L’histoire naturelle de cette pierre, observée en Auvergne”,
Mémoires de l’Académie des Sciences, vol. 87 (1771), pp. 705-75.
67
beyond a purely aesthetic or illustrative, appreciation of natural phenomena.
In fact, the extensive notes accompanying these plates constitute the first publication of Desmarest’s theories of the volcanic origin
of basalt.
15 And art and science are also tightly interwoven in the plate
entitled “Pavé des Géans” (fig. 5). Originally painted by the artist
Susannah Drury, in 1740 this depiction of the Giant’s Causeway in
Northern Ireland won the £25 premium for landscape painting for the
Dublin Society before eventually being incorporated into the Encyclopédie. Drury’s careful attention to the detail of the rock formation
(even if the scale of the whole is somewhat enlarged) placed her image within the context of science as much as in that of art: Desmarest,
for example, referred to Drury’s image in the exposition of his theory
of the volcanic origin of basalt.
16
In the plates on mineralogy, then, Nature is represented in the
context of both leisure interest and scientific endeavour, a spectacle to
be admired and valued for its aesthetic value as well as an object for
scientific research. The various contexts in which the eighteenth century related to nature are also, however, made evident within the images themselves by the presence of human figures; and it is these
figures, and the role they play, which tie the images more closely to
the Encyclopédie project itself.
At first sight, however, the presence of humanity in the plates
is easily overlooked. Even without their titles, there is little question
as to what the plates are purporting to show. Dominating each image
as they do, the glaciers, volcanoes and rock formations presented by
the Encyclopédie are clearly the main focus of their respective plates.
The human figures in the foreground, by contrast, initially go unnoticed; yet despite their tiny size and seeming irrelevance to the main
focus of the plates, these human figures do play a role in the Encyclopédie reader’s apprehension of the phenomena shown.
___________________________
15 Perez and Pinault, p. 392. On the construction of the “scientific gaze”, see Stafford,
Voyage Into Substance, pp. 31-35.
16 Anne Crookshank, The Painters of Ireland, 1660-1920 (London: Barrie and Jenkins, 1978), pp. 62-27; Martyn Anglesea and John Preston, “A Philosophical Landscape: Susannah Drury and the Giant’s Causeway”, Art History, 3 (1980), 252-73;
Nicolas Desmarest, “Sur l’origine & la nature du basalte à grandes colonnes polygonales, déterminées par L’histoire naturelle de cette pierre, observée en Auvergne”,
Mémoires de l’Académie des Sciences, vol. 87 (1771), pp. 705-75.