K Gallery

1689 Sir Isaac Newton portrait young

Sir Isaac Newton ( 4 January 1643 -31 March 1727). English physicist and mathematician. 18th Century Mezzotint portrait after the painting by Sir Godfrey Kneller 1689, with later colouring. It shows Newton in his prime and is the earliest of the portraits. Newton is famous for his laws of motion and gravitation and remains one of the greatest scientists of all time. His opus magnus was his "Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica". Other pursuits included optical physics, alchemy, religious and occult investigation, and preventing forgery while superintendant of the Royal Mint. He was widely viewed as an eccentric genius, but his human remains indicated mercury poisoning from his alchemy may have contributed to his instability. This version retains yellow age toning of original and is in the possession of the photographer

© PAUL D STEWART/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

John Knox reproving Mary, Queen of Scots

Leader of the Scottish Reformation John Knox reproving the Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots, for her religious beliefs. From ?Wycliffe to Wesley; Heroes and Martyrs of the Church in Britain? published in 1885 by T. Woolmer, London. Author Gregory J. Robinson

© Linda Steward

16th Century Style, 19th Century Style, 515835719, Action, Adult, Anger, Authori

1662 Schott Sea Monsters and mermaids

I Triton, II "Sea monster in the likeness of a monk", III " Sea man in the dress of a bishop", IV "Sea Satyr". Copperplate from Gaspar Schott's Physica Curiosa, sive mirabilia naturae. Gaspar Schott was a Jesuit scholar (1608-1666). He worked with Athanasius Kircher in Rome before returning to Germany in 1655 where he was appointed professor of Mathematics at Augsburg. This work may have been inspired by unfinished elements of Kircher's work and draws together a remarkable array of the real and the imagined. Schott describes them all as real, the monkfish here seems derived from the likeness of a dried ray fish to a monk. The Bishop fish is a logical extension of the principle!. Many of Schott's images were ultimately derived from similar to be found in the 16th century works of Gessner

© This image is Paul D. Stewart 2009. Do not reproduce without permission of the photographer at Stewartpauld@aol.com.