Chapter 18 Toward a New

Worldview, 1540–1789

Voltaire, the renowned Enlightenment thinker, leans forward on the left to exchange ideas and witty conversation with Frederick the Great, king of Prussia.

Voltaire,

Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz/ Art Resource, NY

A round earth is at the center, surrounded by spheres of water, air, and fire. Beyond this small nucleus, the moon, the sun, and the five planets were embedded in their own rotating crystal spheres, with the stars sharing the surface of one enormous sphere. Beyond, the heavens were composed of unchanging ether.

The Aristotelian Universe as Imagined in the Sixteenth Century

Image Select/Art Resource, NY

When Galileo published the results of his telescopic observations of the moon, he added these paintings to illustrate the marvels he had seen. Galileo made two telescopes, which are shown here. The larger one magnifies fourteen times, the smaller one twenty times.

Galileo’s Paintings of the Moon

Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Florence/Art Resource, NY; Museum of Science, Florence/Art Resource, NY

This portrait suggests the depth and complexity of the great genius. Is the powerful mind behind those piercing eyes thinking of science or of religion, or perhaps of both?

Isaac Newton

Scala/Art Resource, NY

The quest for scientific knowledge in the seventeenth century was already an expensive undertaking that required teamwork and government support, as this encyclopedic illustration suggests. Nuremberg was a historic center of commerce and culture in southern Germany, and its observatory played a pioneering role in early astronomical advances.

The Observatory at Nuremberg

Kunstsammlungen der Veste Coburg

Maria Sibylla Merian (1647–1717), the stepdaughter of a Dutch painter, became a celebrated scientific illustrator in her own right. Her finely observed pictures of insects in the South American colony of Surinam introduced many new species, shown in their various stages of development. For Merian, science was intimately tied with art: she not only painted but also bred caterpillars and performed experiments on them. Her two-year stay in Surinam, accompanied by a teenage daughter, was a daring feat for a seventeenth-century woman.

Metamorphoses of the Caterpillar and Moth

Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz/Art Resource, NY

An actor performs the first reading of a new play by Voltaire at the salon of Madame Geoffrin. Voltaire, then in exile, is represented by a bust statue.

Enlightenment Culture

Réunion des Musées Nationaux/Art Resource, NY

Catherine conspired with her lover Count Orlov to overthrow her husband Peter III and became empress of Russia. Strongly influenced by the Enlightenment, she cultivated the French philosophes and instituted moderate reforms, only to reverse them in the aftermath of Pugachev’s rebellion. This equestrian portrait now hangs above her throne in the palace throne room.

Catherine the Great as Equestrian and Miniature of Count Grigory Grigoryevich Orlov

left: Musée des Beaux-Arts, Chartres/The Bridgeman Art Library; right: © The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg

During the sixteenth century the Polish nobility confirmed its right to elect the kings of Poland. The parliament could be blocked by the veto of a single member. In the seventeenth century warfare with Sweden and Russian Cossacks resulted in Poland’s loss of the Baltic areas and Ukraine. In 1772 war threatened between Russia and Austria over Russian gains from the Ottoman Empire. To satisfy desires for expansion without fighting, Prussia’s Frederick the Great proposed that parts of Poland be divided among Austria, Prussia, and Russia. In 1793 and 1795 the three powers partitioned the remainder, and the ancient republic of Poland vanished from the map.•1 Why was Poland vulnerable to partition in the latter half of the eighteenth century? What does it say about European politics at the time that a country could simply cease to exist on the map? Could that happen today?•2 Of the three powers that divided the kingdom of Poland, which benefited the most? How did the partition affect the geographical boundaries of each state, and what was the significance?• 3 What border with the former Poland remained unchanged? Why do you think this was the case?

The Partition of Poland and Russia’s Expansion, 1772–1795

The empress and her husband pose with eleven of their sixteen children at Schönbrunn palace in this family portrait by court painter Martin Meytens (1695–1770). Joseph, the heir to the throne, stands at the center of the star pattern. Wealthy women often had very large families, in part because they, unlike poor women, seldom nursed their babies.

Maria Theresa

Réunion des Musées Nationaux/Art Resource, NY

An impish Voltaire, by the French sculptor Houdon.

An impish Voltaire,

Courtesy of Board of Trustees of the Victoria & Albert Museum