Sir Isaac Newton 

Editor: Here we have John Flaxman’s relief carving of Sir Isaac Newton, made in marble. It strikes me as a really austere portrayal, almost god-like in its simplicity. What captures your attention in this work? Curator: Ah, Newton! That brow… It's the brow of a man who unravelled the universe! It seems Flaxman has rendered Newton in a way that makes him eternal. He's not just a man but an ideal, a principle chiseled in stone – or rather, marble! Editor: That's interesting! It seems almost cold, a far cry from the messy experiments I picture in my head. Curator: Perhaps. But isn’t that the essence of Neoclassicism? The quest for a pristine ideal, a world ruled by reason. What's funny is that it shows his 'reason' and yet we still think of him being sat under an apple tree. He was a man of ideas first though - like the Greeks of old. But doesn't marble almost amplify that sense of cold perfection? Editor: I guess so! That perfect medium for a perfect image, maybe. It’s so cool to think about how deliberate all of those choices must’ve been! Curator: It really is. And perhaps we, centuries later, add our own interpretations, layer upon layer of meaning onto this quiet profile. Isn’t that the beauty of art though, to remain forever evolving? Editor: Totally! I came expecting hard facts, but I got to wander in the philosophical weeds! Thanks!