About

As Artist in Residence I am making a series of drawings from observation called 'The Paper Museum' in response to the exhibition 'Discoveries: Art Science and Exploration' from The University of Cambridge Museums.

'Discoveries' was exhibited at Two Temple Place, London, until the 27th April. The Paper Museum will be exhibited at Two Temple Place, London, WC2R 3BD on 16 May 2014.

Two Temple Place

Winning Review


The History of The Paper Museum

In the 1600's a Paper Museum was created by a man called Cassiano dal Pozzo, it was a visual encyclopaedia of the ancient and natural worlds consisting of thousands of drawings and prints. The subject matter covered the surviving remains of Roman Civilization, artefacts connected with the early Christian Church, maps, portraits as well as every aspect from the natural world: birds, fishes and other animals, plants, fungi and fossils.  Dal Pozzo commissioned many artists to make the drawings for the Paper Museum, Vincenzo Leonardi was one, but little is known about the artists because it was regarded as a scientific rather than an artistic endeavour.

Dal Pozzo was a member of the Accademia dei Lincei (Accademy of the Lynx), established in 1603 it was Europe's first Scientific Academy which took it's name from the Lynx, an animal famed for its' vision. The Lincei placed great emphasis on observation as the key to unravelling the mysteries of nature and the universe.

In 15th and 16th Century a movement called Renaissance Humanism flourished in Italy, this was the revival of classical learning which among other things led to a great interest in observation and empiricism. After the fall of the Byzantine Empire to the Turks in 1453 Orthodox Greek refugees flooded into Italy bringing with them Greek Manuscripts. In particular the works of Aristotle were suddenly accessible, Aristotle believed that human curiosity was infinite and that no subject was unworthy of systematic study. He wrote treatises on botany, ethics, history, logic, metaphysics, meteorology, oratory, the physical world, political science, religion and zoology.

In contrast to earlier Greek philosophers, including his teacher Plato, he placed less reliance on discussion than on research and inductive logic. Each enquiry began with the exhaustive compilation of existing evidence, both physical and written. The material was then codified according to the principals of logic, and only when the work was completed did the researcher propose theories and conclusions of his own. The same method was applied to each subject of study, whether physical objects (such as stones or animals), human constructs (such as plays or systems of government) or abstractions (such as virtue or justice).

Aristotle's conclusions were never meant to be prescriptive, but rather a summary of all evidence so far available, with conclusions drawn from it. In his view new material and new evidence were constantly appearing and therefore new conclusions should be drawn from them.

Undoubtedly Dal Pozzo and the other Lincei were influenced by Aristotle's philosophy, as I believe was the Sicilian artist Agostino Scilla, whose book 'Vain Speculation Disabused by Sense' (1670) is exhibited in the Discoveries Exhibition along with Scilla's collection of fossils and fish jaws, urchins and sharks teeth (John Woodward cabinet drawers from the Sedgwick Museum). It was Scilla who was the first to suggest that fossils had once been living organisms, a ground breaking concept at the time and one that continued to influence scientists for the next two centuries. His drawings from observation of fossils and sea life played a vital role in establishing this theory.
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It is this emphasis on visual documentation as a means to draw new conclusions with which I am approaching the exhibition Discoveries; Art, Science and Exploration. I am keeping an open mind as to where it will lead me!