Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Jun;278(3):114-122.
doi: 10.1111/jmi.12828. Epub 2020 Feb 3.

The lost portrait of Robert Hooke?

Lawrence R Griffing  1
Affiliations

The lost portrait of Robert Hooke?

Lawrence R Griffing. J Microsc. 2020 Jun.

Abstract

This letter considers the 'Portrait of a Mathematician' attributed to Mary Beale in the 1680s as a likely candidate for a portrait of Robert Hooke made during his lifetime. It closely matches the physical descriptions of Hooke made by his biographers who knew him, Richard Waller (d. 1715) and John Aubrey (1626-1697). The portrait contains a remarkable diagram, as well as its mechanical analogue, demonstrating the elliptical orbit of a body under constant force similar to an unpublished, unfinished 1685 manuscript by Hooke. It also contains a landscape, which is likely to be Lowther Castle and its associated church. Hooke provided designs for the Lowther castle church renovations completed in 1686. The portraitist, Mary Beale, knew Hooke and was very familiar with the Lowther family, who commissioned 30 portraits from her. The diagram and armillary sphere in the portrait establish Hooke's contribution to the theory of gravity. Their presence may have been one of the reasons the portrait was not purchased and kept by the Royal Society. It might have diminished the legacy of Isaac Newton.

Keywords: Isaac Newton; Mary Beale; Micrographia; Principia Mathematica; armillary sphere; cells; gravity; microscopy; planetary orbit.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Ball, C.S. (1966) The early history of the compound microscope. Bios 37, 51-60.
    1. Barber, T. (1999) Mary Beale. Portrait of a Seventeenth-Century Painter, Her Family and Her Studio. Geffrey Museum Trust Ltd., Fisherprint Ltd., Peterborough, UK.
    1. Bennett, K. & Aubrey J. (eds.) (2015) Brief Lives with An apparatus for the Lives of our English Mathematical Writers. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.
    1. Cesi, F. (1625) Apiarium ex frontispiciis naturalis theatri principis Federici Caecsii Lyncei S. Angeli et S. Poli Princ. I. March. M. Caelii. II. etc. Baron. Roman. Depromptum, quo Universa melificum familia ab suis Praegeneribus derivata in suas spectis ac differentias distributa, in Physicum conspectum adducitur. Mascardi, I, Rome, Italy.
    1. Chapman, A. (2005) England's Leonardo. Robert Hooke and the Seventeenth-Century Scientific Revolution. Institute of Physics Publishing, Bristol, UK and Philadelphia, PA.

LinkOut - more resources