BSHS Monographs Publishes Work of Lasting Scholarly Value That Might Not Otherwise Be Made Available, and Aids
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
BSHS Monographs publishes work of lasting scholarly value that might not otherwise be made available, and aids the dissemination of innovative projects advancing scholarship or education in the field. 13. Chang, Hasok and Jackson, 06. Morris, PJT, and Russell, CA; Catherine (eds.). 2007. An Smith, JG (ed.). 1988. Archives of Element of Controversy: The Life the British Chemical Industry, of Chlorine in Science, Medicine, 1750‐1914: A Handlist. Technology and War. ISBN 0‐0906450‐06‐3. ISBN: 978‐0‐906450‐01‐7. 05. Rees, Graham. 1984. Francis 12. Thackray, John C. (ed.). 2003. Bacon's Natural Philosophy: A To See the Fellows Fight: Eye New Source. Witness Accounts of Meetings of ISBN 0‐906450‐04‐7. the Geological Society of London 04. Hunter, Michael. 1994. The and Its Club, 1822‐1868. 2003. Royal Society and Its Fellows, ISBN: 0‐906450‐14‐4. 1660‐1700. 2nd edition. 11. Field, JV and James, Frank ISBN 978‐0‐906450‐09‐3. AJL. 1997. Science in Art. 03. Wynne, Brian. 1982. ISBN 0‐906450‐13‐6. Rationality and Ritual: The 10. Lester, Joe and Bowler, Windscale Inquiry and Nuclear Peter. E. Ray Lankester and the Decisions in Britain. Making of Modern British ISBN 0‐906450‐02‐0 Biology. 1995. 02. Outram, Dorinda (ed.). 2009. ISBN 978‐0‐906450‐11‐6. The Letters of Georges Cuvier. 09. Crosland, Maurice. 1994. In reprint of 1980 edition. the Shadow of Lavoisier: ISBN 0‐906450‐05‐5. ISBN 0‐906450‐10‐1. 01. Jordanova, L. and Porter, Roy 08. Shortland, Michael (ed.). (eds.). 1997. Images of the Earth: 1993. Science and Nature. 2nd edition. ISBN 0‐906450‐08‐X. ISBN 0‐906450‐12‐8. 07. Sheets‐Pyenson, Susan. 1992. Index to the Scientific For e‐prints and ordering Correspondence of J. W. Dawson. information, visit the BSHS ISBN 978‐0‐906450‐07‐9. Monographs Website: www.bshs.org.uk/monographs IMAGES OF THE EARTH essays in the history ofthe environmental sciences edited by LudmillaJordanova and Roy Porter BRITISH SOCIETY FOR THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE Preface to the Second edition © LudmillaJordanova and Roy Porter 1995 In trodu etion © LudmillaJordanova and Roy Porter 1978 'Revelation and the cyclical cosmos ofJohn H utchinwn' © G. N. Cantor 1978 'Hutton's theory ofthe earth' © R. Grant 1978 'The natural theology ofthe geologists: some theological strata' ©John Hedley Brooke 1978 'Transposed concepts from the human sa.ences in the early ·work ofCharles Lyell' © MartinJ. S. Rudwick 1978 'Geology and landscape painting in nineteenth-century England' © Mania Poimon 1978 'Earth science and environmental medicine: the synthesis ofthe late Enlightenment' © Ludmilla Jordanova 1978 'Chemical geology or geological chemsitry?' © W. H. Brock 1978 'The controversy ofthe Moulin-OJ!ignon jaw: the role ofH IIgh Falconer' © Patrick J. Boylan 1978 'The lost limb: geology and natural history' © David Elliston Allen 1978 'Geological communication in the Bath area in the last halfofthe eighteenth century' © Hugh Torrens 1978 'Geological controversy and its historiography: the prehistory ofthe Geological Society ofLondon' © PaulJulian Weindling 1978 Postscript © LudmillaJordanova 1995 First published 1979 reprinted 1981 Second, revised and enlarged edition 1997 lSBN 0-906450-12-8 Designed and typeset in Stempel Garamond byJeffrey Dean, The Stingray Office, 4 Chandos Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester M21 OST Printed in Great Britain by The Alden Press, Oxford Contents List of illustrations vu Preface to the Second edition vm LUDMILLA JORDAN OVA AND ROY PORTER Introduction LUDMILLA JORDANOVA AND ROY PORTER Geology and belief 1. Revelation and the cyclical cosmos ofJohn Hutchinson 17 G. N. CANTOR 2. Hutton's theory of the earth 37 R. GRANT 3. The natural theology ofthe geologists: some theological strata 53 JOHN HEDLEY BRO OKE The language ofenvironmental science 4. Transposed concepts from the human sciences in the early work of Charles Lyell 77 MARTIN J. S. RUDW1CK 5. Geology and landscape painting in nineteenth-century England 93 MARCIA P01NTON Earth science and discipline boundar'ies 6. Earth science and environmental medicine: the synthesis of the late Enlightenment 127 LUDM1LLA JORDANOVA 7· Chemical geology or geological chemistry? 153 W. H. BROCK 8. The controversy of the Moulin-~ignon jaw: the role of Hugh Falconer 175 PATR1CK J. BOYLAN [vi] Contents 9. The lost limb: geology and natural history 203 DAVID ELLISTON ALLEN The social history ofgeology la. Geological communication in the Bath area in the last half of the eighteenth century 217 HUGH TO RRENS 11. Geological controversy and its historiography: the prehistory of the Geological Society ofLondon 247 PAUL JULIAN WEINDLING Notes on contributors 269 Postscript 273 LUDMILLA JORDANOVA Bibliography 280 Index 287 -5 Geology and landscape painting in nineteenth-century England MARCIA POINTON Does then the artist concern himself with microscopy, History, Palaeontology? Only for purposes of comparison, only in the exercise ofhis mobility ofmind. And not to provide a scientific check on the truth of nature. Only in the sense offreedom. 1 The objects ofthis essay are twofold. In the first place, we are concerned to define the relationship between British landscape painting and geological theories and discoveries relating to the earth's history that were widely disseminated in the middle years of the nineteenth century. In the second place, the use that could be made ofthis knowledge by exploiting it in terms ofvisual imagery will be demonstrated through a detailed critical analysis of paintings by two educated and materially successful Victorian artists. The tension between representation and creation, between mimesis and inven tion which Klee postulated in the first quarter of our own century can be seen as the pivot on which the nineteenth-century debate balances, whether its mode be verbal or pictorial. We are, in short, dealing with the dilemma of an age when the artist is exposed to novel views about the nature of his environment but when, at the same time, representational and objectively viewed landscape is regarded as a low form of art unsuited to the expression of universal truths and ideas. In order to understand this dilemma we must first look briefly at the more recent history oflandscape painting. In 1771, Sir Joshua Reynolds, speaking to the Royal Academy, said of the seventeenth-century French painter Claude: CIaude Lorrain ... was convinced, that taking nature as he found it seldom produced beauty. His pictures are a composition of the various draughts which he had previously made from various beautiful scenes and prospects ... That the practise [sic] of Claude Lorrain, in respect to his choice, is to be adopted by landscape painters in opposition to that of the Flemish and Dutch schools, there can be no doubt, as its truth is founded upon the same principle as that by which the Historical painter I P. Klee, On modern art, hrst published 1924; (tr. and inrro. hy H. Read), London, 1948, P·49· Marcia Pointon acquires perfect form. But whether landscape painting has a right to aspire so far as to reject what the painters call Accidents ofNature, is not easy to determine. It is certain C1aude Lorrain seldom, if ever, availed himself of these accidents; either he thought that such were contrary to that style ofgeneral nature which he professed, or that it would catch the attention too strongly, and destroy that quietness and repose which he thought necessary to that kind of painting2 Reynolds's main concern in his discourses is with History painting-- that is with morally elevating subjects from literature and history treated in the grand style of Raphael and Michelangelo. Landscape was a lowly genre of art but, in so far as it was admitted in the canon of taste, Reynolds's view of the relative merits of Claude and painters of the Dutch and Flemish schools remained virtually law until the end of the eighteenth century and was widely influential well into the nineteenth. We are referring here to British art but in fact similar academic tenets were strong in most European coun tries at this time. In addition to the choice between Claudian tranquillity or the rude cot tages and blasted trees favoured by, for example, Jacob van Ruisdael and Wynants, there were two further possible landscape modes available to the student of art in Reynolds's time. Salvator Rosa was widely admired for the dramatic way in which he exploited those accidents of nature which an Aristotelian approach to landscape excluded and h.is work became, not surprisingly, extremely popular with the authors and readers of Gothic novels towards the end of the eighteenth century.3 The other possibility open to the landscape artist was never regarded as anything more than hack work by writers on art from Reynolds to Ruskin. Nevertheless, topographical landscape drawing and painting was an impor tant industry throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Atten tion has been drawn to the ability of eighteenth-century geologists to draw field sketches with a degree of competence as a factor ofsome importance in the development of the science.4 Certainly it is true that the leisured social classes from which many ofthese early geologists came were, through their education and environment, equipped in draughtsmanship. But the menial 2 Sir.J. Reynolds, Discourses on art, ed. R. Wark, New Haven and Londoil. 1975, 'Discourse iv, Royal Academy T771', pp. 69-70. J For a useful discussion of modes of landscape painting and attitudes [Q nature in This period see L. Parris, Landscape in Britain Co J750-J850, London, Tate Gallery, 1973. , M. Rudwick, 'The emergence of a visual language for geological science 1760-134°', Elm. Sci., 1976, xiv, 149-95 (153). An extremely detailed and interesting discussion of the aesthetics of singularity with relation to geological features came to my notice toO late for any proper reference in my text.