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Show 126 classical sculpture and his brooding obsession with fragmentary, decaying architecture, overgrown and reclaimed by the more powerful and chaotic nature), as well as an interest in the exotic and in distant lands. By the nineteenth century a new and more pedestrian meaning --far removed from the original definition of the "Sublime and the Beautiful"--was attached to the "picturesque," describing scenes that were quaint, charming, or simply unusual. (Hence, the plethora of pastoral artistic views by minor and amateur artists during the early nineteenth century). Additionally, since distant lands seemed more picturesque than the familiar and commonplace, the enormous popularity of travel literature during this time promoted a kind of "sociological" picturesque illustration, to satisfy the growing demands of the public. It might be proposed that Bodmer's painting of the White Castles was influenced not by one particular aspect of the picturesque, but by several: fascination with the unfamiliar and exotic, interest in the fragmentary and decayed, and a nostalgic yearning for the Eden of the mythic past. Further, The White Castles may accurately be defined overall as picturesque, since the objective forms, through "connection" and "intricacy," combined with the subject-fragmented architecture-leading to a chain reaction of associated ideas which ultimately affected the viewer's sensibilities. 10. The foundations of modern objective science were laid by Francis Bacon in his Novum Organum. published in 1620. The title of this work was a reference to the Organum of Aristotle, in which the philosopher had proposed that the proper method of logic was that of reasoning by deduction. Bacon's book, as the title implies, advanced a new method of empirical reasoning. Bacon argued convincingly that deductive logic would not work for science. The laws of nature could only be induced-through generalizations extracted from numerous specific observations and experiments. Because of Bacon's influence, the empirical scientific method was popularized and legitimized, and, thus, set the stage for the great culminating intellectual and scientific achievement of the Enlightenment-Sir Isaac Newton's Principia. Newton presented to the world a comprehensive and consistent explanation of the mechanical universe, by discovering and clarifying the predictable mathematical regularities found in nature. The significance of this concept rests in its ultimate simplicity-that there are mathematical regularities in the universe, accounting for all the complexities observed in nature. In one stroke Newton's theories overthrew the subjective interpretations of nature that had dominated science and natural philosophy since the time of Aristotle. The Age of Reason turned instead to rational inquiry and worshipped progress. |