At the height of his fame throughout Europe, Isaac Newton proclaimed … “if I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants”. This metaphor was a superb expression of the evolution of knowledge. The inspiration for the composition was Nicolas Poussin’s painting “Landscape with Orion Searching for the Rising Sun” ( 1658 ).

 

Prior knowledge is the bust of Nicholas Copernicus ( 1473 – 1543 ). New knowledge standing on the shoulders of this giant, is symbolically a woman, also symbolically in new material – aluminum.

 

Copernicus is gazing downwards, contemplating his theory of the heliocentric planetary system.  New knowledge is focused ahead, gesturing towards the new knowledge she has seen.

 

Maybe she has seen Galileo or even Newton …….