More surprisingly, Hogarth also campaigned for Newton in a small etching designed as the frontispiece of a pamphlet about Hebrew points, those small marks added as guides to meaning and pronunciation. In one of his conversation pieces, The Indian Emperor, a marble bust of Newton stares out into space from the mantelpiece while a royal governess bids her daughter pick up a fan that gravity has pulled down to the floor. Unlike Blake, the artist William Hogarth was unambiguously a Newtonian devotee who included several subtle references in his pictures. Yet at the same time, they boosted his reputation with almost religious fervour: as well as successfully concealing awkward evidence that might detract from his magnificence, such as his obsessive alchemical research or his unorthodox theological beliefs, they also seized every opportunity to advertise his achievements and suppress opposing voices. Even the most dedicated of Newton’s followers repeatedly chipped away at his original formulation, which was very different from the version of Newtonian physics in use today. Contrary to common belief, there was no overnight conversion to his notion that gravity extends out ineluctably through empty space. Newton was in the process of being elevated to his pedestal and only the most optimistic of fans could have foreseen that, a quarter of a millennium later, he would still be remembered for Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, or The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy (1687).įor decades after its publication, sceptics savaged Newton’s theories on several grounds. Even the famous anecdote about being inspired by a falling apple only became popular a century after his death. Looking back, it can feel as if Newton were destined from birth to revolutionise the cosmos, but for many of his contemporaries he was an eccentric academic with a foul temper. During the 18th century, while Blake was growing up, Newton’s superhuman status had not yet been established. Newton’s entire life is shrouded in legend, making it hard to recognise that he has not always been universally admired. Despite the ambiguities of this depiction, staunch Newtonians resented any whiff of criticism being directed towards the man celebrated as the nation’s greatest scientific genius. Blake’s naked, muscular Newton appears to be sitting underwater on a rock while he confines God’s created world within a geometrical diagram. Some were essentially toilet-humour, but protesters also objected that Paolozzi’s technological giant deliberately echoed a striking print by William Blake, who – rightly or wrongly – has gained a reputation of being hostile to Newton. Soon after it was unveiled in 1995, complaints began pouring in. Thanks to funding from the football pools, Eduardo Paolozzi’s massive bronze statue of Isaac Newton looms over the courtyard of the British Library.
Photo: Wikimedia/Creative Commons/British Library. ‘Newton after William Blake’, statue by Eduardo Paolozzi, London, 1995.
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