Sender: Rare Books and Special Collections Forum <EXLIBRIS@RUTVM1.BITNET>
While looking through the gossip-y part of Nature (17 September 1992) I came a
cross this controversey over a statue of Newton that has been commissioned for
the forecourt of the British's Library's new building. The statue which will b
e 12 ft. high in bronze, is an interpretation by Sir Eduardo Paolozzi of a wood
cut done by Willian Blake. The woodcut with which many of you are undoubtedly
familiar shows Newton in the buff doing a little calculation on the ground in f
ront of him - he is sitting but bent double at the waist - chest resting on thi
ghs - drawing. Apparently the first response came from Blake enthusiasts who c
omplained the "artists vision had been misrepresented." The architect, Sir
Colin St. John Wilson responded to the letters, saying the sculpture retained a
nd embodied Blake's disdain for scientific obsession with the measurable. To
quote Wilson (from Nature) "This equivocal attitude to the values of science is
shared by many eminent scientists as well as laymen." This statement in turn
maddened scientists such as Mansel Davies, emeritus professor of chemistry at t
he University of Wales, Aberystwyth, who feels "It represents an antagonism to
the mathematical basis of science that the Council of the British Library has a
ccepted with question" and that it is an inappropriated symbol for a building t
hat unites for the first time the Library's science and humanities collections.
(For picture and article by Ian Mundell see: Nature, vol.359, no.6392). Tricky
things symbols.
Katharine Donahue, Biomed, UCLA.