Imaging a Career in Science: The Iconography of Antoine Laurent Lavoisier

Beretta, Marco, 2001, xvii + 126 pp., cloth bound and jacketed, illustrations in black and white and color In December 1788, the painter Jacques Louis David completed his famous portrait of Lavoisier and his wife. While it has long been believed that this portrait is the only authentic image of Lavoisier, on the basis of some unpublished or little-known iconographic representations, this book questions the truth of this opinion and shows that Lavoisier had in fact been the subject of iconographic attentions prior to 1788. The book also offers a new interpretation of the portrait by David, identifying the function of the five instruments shown and their role in Lavoisier’s scientific career. The book ends with an examination of the iconography depicting Lavoisier after the publication ofTraité élémentaire de chimie, where the growing idealization and mythicizing of the work of this French chemist became increasingly evident.  “Science/Art has replaced Science/Literature as the fash