The mystery of the missing portrait of Robert Hooke, 17th-century scientist extraordinaire
Groundbreaking discoveries in science often come with two iconic images, one representing the breakthrough and the other, the discoverer.
Known as Mary Beale’s ‘Portrait of a Mathematician,’ could the circa 1680 painting depict Hooke?
Mary Beale, CC BY
For example, the page from Darwin’s notebook sketching the branching pattern of evolution often accompanies a portrait of Darwin in his early years when the notebook was written. Likewise the drawing of the orbits of the moons of Jupiter often accompanies a portrait of Galileo.
Hooke’s famous etching of the tiny magnified cells he saw in a piece of cork.
Robert Hooke, Micrographia, 1665/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY
Another groundbreaking discovery in science was the discovery of the cell by Robert Hooke (1635-1703). The iconic image of the brea...