Boullee, Wolter, Newton. Architektura i newtonianizm w dobie oświecenia

This article presents selected aspects of the cult of Isaac Newton in France during the Age of the Enlightenment that appear both in Voltaire’s philosophical writings as well as in contemporary visual culture. These reflections feed into art historical interest in the affinity of “two cultures” (C.P. Snow), that is science and humanities, at the same raising questions on methods of research in the reception of scientific theories in art. The paper recalls earlier research on the phenomenon of Newtonianism in eighteenth century European culture (F. Wagner, J.B. Shank), as well as discussions on Newtonian iconography in literature and the visual arts (M.H. Nicholson, M. Keynes, F. Haskell, J. Gage, A.M. Vogt). The celebrated project by Étienne-Louis Boullée for Newton’s cenotaph serves as the main architectural example of Newtonianism in the Age of Enlightenment, but also contributes to analysis on the reception of scientific discoveries in visual arts. The description of Newton’s cenotaph, included in Architecture; Essai sur l’art by Boullée, is compared with selected excerpts from Letters on the English and Elements of Newton’s Philosophy by Voltaire, these being the main source of the popularization of his scientific discoveries in France. The design for Newton’s monument is interpreted in the context of a wider phenomenon, namely the cult of the genius and the cult of posterity in the Enlightenment era. Two aspects of Boullée’s project – the spherical shape and the symbolism of light – are subject to a more detailed analysis, since the decomposition of light and the law of gravity that encompasses the infinite space of the universe are the two main themes recurring in Newton’s iconography, in literature, painting and sculpture. The spherical shape of the cenotaph (as noted earlier by the architect’s monographer A.M. Vogt) is not an “illustration” of Newton’s discovery; the law of gravity assumes that the Earth is not a sphere, but a spheroid. The spherical form of the monument can, at most, be considered as an example of the quest for new formulations of iconography, referring to the attributes of the astronomer and Astronomy (Urania); as one example of the so-called fabriques astronomiques; as a reinterpretation of the shape of the Pantheon; or a reference to then contemporary hot air ballooning. The contrast of light and shadow, mentioned by Boullée in his description of the cenotaph, has little in common with the representation of the famous Newtonian experiment of the dispersive prism. Rather, it forms part of a new and persuasive symbolism of light and darkness, typical of the French Enlightenment, present for example in the depictions of the Apotheosis of Voltaire, as well as in the aesthetics of the sublime outlined by Edmund Burke. The importance of light in Newton’s cenotaph is interpreted in conjunction with the iconography of a small garden building in Ermenonville (Temple de la Philosophie Moderne), in which one column bearing the inscription “Newton – Lucem” was dedicated to the scientist. This context brings us to an earlier analysis of this rotunda (V. Klein), which emphasized that Newton’s achievements – known in France in the second half of the eighteenth century – included not just the decomposition of white light using a prism, but also an early hypothesis defining light as a kind of ether.