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Joseph Wright of Derby, 'Three Persons Viewing the Gladiator by Candlelight', 1765

 



In the dimness of candlelight, Joseph Wright of Derby depicts three figures gazing intently at the Classical nude sculpture in the centre of the work. The viewer joins in this exploration, taking their own seat at the table right in front of the the leaning, contrapposto figure, which seems to be an imitation of the Borghese Gladiator. From light to dark, from flesh to marble, Derby's painting is typical of his tenebristic style, yet here he takes on a new subject that expands beyond his oeuvre of portraits, or even beyond his most well known work An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump.

Certainly, the work in question bears similarities to the Air Pump, particularly in the sudden explosion of light cast across the sculpture. Not only does this illuminate the musculature of the lean, stretching gladiator, but it also allows to viewer to catch a glimpse of the faces which surround the table, all of whom are individualised - in fact, the work is even said to include a portrait of the artist himself. Although the eye is immediately drawn to the central figure and his distinct red collar, the spectacled gentleman who cranes his neck on the far left is a particularly characterful depiction: his hand stretches right the way around the table in front of the viewer, as if he is pulling himself closer to the sculpture for a more useful angle of study, examining the movement and material with an intense depth of intellectualism. From these three figures, Derby also illustrates the training of artists during the eighteenth century, studying from the Classical nude, attempting to imitate the ancient artistic practices which were held up in the Enlightenment age as the pinnacle of creative achievement. Not only is this painting a celebration of Derby's abilities to handle light and dark, even amidst the limited, earthy palette, it also accurately portrays the intellectual, Academic mood of the time. 

This is a painting dominated by lines of sight: through the intensity of Derby's deep shadows, through the creation of what we can and cannot see, from what both the viewer is looking at and the learned gentlemen in the painting are viewing at the same time, and what is produced from that, modelled by the drawing on the far right of the canvas (also an example of meta painting). Only ten years before this painting, eminent art historian Johann Joachim Winckelmann had outlined the 'noble simplicity and quiet grandeur' which artists should be evoking in their depictions of the Classical past, citing the Belvedere Torso as evidence of this. In Derby's painting, he has achieved exactly that: a subtle yet powerful evocation of the ancient tradition in artistic practice, and the Enlightenment aim to imitate that in all its glory. 

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