Richard Payne Knight, the Picturesque and Scientific Revolution
Richard Payne Knight, the Picturesque and Scientific Revolution

Summary/Abstract: The aim of the present article is to show that Richard Payne Knight promotes the same style in aesthetics that was first described by William Gilpin in his theory of the picturesque, but that Knight also transforms the Gilpinian conception as he sets it in the context of the contemporary scientific thought. Gilpin enumerated characteristic features of the picturesque style, among which he mentions richness of colour and variegated chiaroscuro modeling. Variety of hues was also postulated by Knight. Knight referred to the Newtonian atomistic theory of colours and Newton’s molecular physiology of visual perception to account for man’s preference of the aforesaid assemblages of colours.

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