A Philosopher Lecturing on the Orrery

This magnificent work, painted by Joseph Wright of Derby in 1766, depicts a scientist teaching a small audience about the significance of an Orrery.  An Orrery is a small display of the arrangement of the planets in the solar system. (A Philosopher Lecturing on the Orrery) At first glance, this painting highlights the sense of amazement of two children at its focal point who stare ominously at the Orrery.  With the rest of the painting dark, it draws the viewer’s eyes to the center, which is what the artist was trying to accomplish.  Wright gave the Orrery a supernatural presence because the solar system had never been depicted in this form.  The other on-lookers have very intrigued looks on their faces and may feel baffled that someone could have so much confidence in their model of earth’s place in the cosmos.  

This painting was created during the scientific revolution while various theories about our solar system were being advanced.  Throughout the enlightenment and the scientific age of discovery, religious dogma began to be challenged.  The Orrery did exactly this.  It put the sun at the center of the solar system and the planets, including earth, around it.  This idea contradicted that of the Church, which was that we live in a geocentric universe.  Wright believed that the magnificence of the scientific revolution could attract just as much wonder as the traditional works of the religious enlightenment.  Joseph Wright was a revolutionary artist, and made it clear to Europeans that religion would no longer stand in the way of man’s awe of the natural world.