In 1768, the artist Joseph Wright painted a very strange painting that shows a group of people of all different ages scrutinizing a cockatoo in a jar. To make sense of what is really going on in the painting and why they are doing it, we will have to start from afar.
Experiment with a bird in an air pump
In 1765, a scientific society was organized in Birmingham, England, whose members included many local scientists, bohemians and industrialists interested in science. It was called the “Lunar Society” because its members usually went about their business during the day and gathered for scientific discussions and debates in the evening during the full moon. There was a practical reason for this: in the moonlight it was easier to get home after intense scientific debates, and it was possible to save a little on candles. They ironically called themselves “lunatics”, and besides scientific discussions, they tried to think of something useful themselves, to contribute to science. Some succeeded, for example, the chemist Joseph Priestley discovered oxygen. Besides him, the grandfather of the famous Charles Darwin, Erasmus Darwin, was a member of the society.
Erasmus Darwin
He was a very progressive man by those standards: he was in favor of women's rights and the abolition of slavery, so the famous theory of evolution did not come from nothing - from the youth of his grandson Charles was brought up by the right parents and relatives.
An alchemist in search of the Philosopher's Stone discovers phosphorus and prays for the successful completion of his operation, as was the custom of ancient alchemists
The artist Joseph Wright was also a member of this society, and under the impression of one of the experiments conducted there he painted “Experiment with a bird in an air pump”. It is reminiscent of the works of Caravaggio in its manner of execution and clearly expressed light and shade.
Caravaggio. The Calling of the Apostle Matthew
But if Caravaggio depicted events from the Bible, and such contrasting lighting allowed to focus attention on the main thing and show the importance of the moment, as in the painting “The Calling of the Apostle Matthew”, then Wright, being a convinced Caravaggist in style, decided to show other miracles - the miracles of science.
In the painting with the help of Boyle's vacuum pump the pumping out of air from the vessel and the formation of an airless environment is demonstrated, well, and the cockatoo is to become a victim of science - if air is pumped out of the vessel, it will, of course, die and its death will be just a proof of the existence of airless space.
Joseph Wright. Dead soldier
And the fact that science requires sacrifice becomes clear if you read the notes of Boyle, who improved this very air pump, invented by Otto von Guericke, and brought it to perfection. Of course, this was not without experimentation: Boyle tested the effects of airless space on combustion, magnetic fields, sound and whether living things could exist in it. The results of his experiments on living creatures he diligently recorded, and it is impossible to read these records without shuddering: “the lark weakened, then went into convulsions, making it clear that the vacuum is destructive to all living things.
Joseph Wright. View of Vesuvius from Posillipo
Boyle's initiative was taken up by wandering lecturers who, for a fee, demonstrated what would happen to poor birds if the air was pumped out of the flask. However, they usually used an ox bladder instead of an expensive glass one, and chose the most familiar birds, which could be easily caught by themselves.
A philosopher gives a lecture on the orrery
But no one saves money on Wright's painting, even the experience is carried out on a cockatoo, which is not cheap. The artist must have depicted this bird for the sake of beauty and to show the importance of the moment. He cleverly manages to make the viewer a part of this circle of naturalists. It is true that the bird's torments upset only the children - it is not by chance that the older girl even turns away, just so as not to see all this, but the adults do not care at all about what is going on: they do not care about the suffering of a brainless creature, and the triumph of science is much more important than the life of some parrot.
Sketch for the painting "Experiment with a bird in an air pump"
By the way, on one of the early sketches Wright depicted how he himself in the image of a scientist calms the girls, frightened by this experiment. Surely they feel sorry for the bird, but the scientist is trying to convince them that it will lie a little, yes recover, because the air is not pumped out entirely. But later the artist decided to give up this option: somehow it is all unscientific and sentimental, and let the girls get used to real life, where not only small birds are victims.
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