| This thesis is directed towards a study of depictions of "scientists" in Netherlandish paintings of the seventeenth century with a view to understanding them in terms of their intellectual, cultural and social context. I focus on three types of subject matter: alchemists at work in their laboratory, physicians and astronomers.; Pictorial convention governed most of the artistic production of the seventeenth-century Netherlands and, as will be shown, the themes of the alchemist, physician and astronomer are no exception. I identify the origins of each of these subjects in the pictorial arts and trace changes in the way in which they were presented, particularly with regard to their iconography.; To the modern viewer, when considered outside of their intellectual, social and artistic context, these images can be quite bewildering, thus, it is important not only to have a knowledge of the conventions that govern them, but also a familiarity with the pertinent histories of science. Consequently, I provide an account of the practices of alchemy, medicine and astronomy with special reference to the seventeenth-century Netherlands with an aim to draw some conclusions regarding the relationship of the paintings to contemporary scientific activity.; I conclude that although many seventeenth-century Netherlandish paintings of alchemists, physicians and astronomers continued to conform to the conventions established by their original sources, others manifest change, particularly with regard to the suppression of symbolic elements which advance a moralizing message. Furthermore, it is argued that the paintings provide only limited information regarding contemporary scientific practice and that the reason for this lies largely in the conventional nature of much seventeenth-century Netherlandish art. |
