Hospital treated subjects such as the Good Samaritan and others relating to Protestant ethics (Webster,
1978, 72–77). Works such as Wright of Derby’s An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump (1768) (Figure
5.9) shows an itinerant lecturer demonstrating the threat to a bird of air deprivation, as the result of the
creation of a vacuum. Those observing the experiment are bound by the ties of sympathy and support
assumed in the putative viewer of the painting, who is expected to share the figures’ distress at the
imminent demise of the bird.
Figure 5.9 Joseph Wright of Derby: An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump, oil on canvas, 183 × 244
cm, 1768. The National Gallery, London.
Source: Universal Images Group/Getty Images.The work of past artists was also viewed through the lens of sensibility. The work of Nicolas Poussin
began to be valued more for its expression of emotion than for its dignified classical forms. Emotion of
any kind came to signify cathartic processes that would assist viewers to develop moral standards
(Brookner, 1972, 9–10; Solkin, 1993, 171). In the later decades of the century, British and French history
paintings adopted some of the conventions of sentimental genre scenes, placing more emphasis on the
emotions experienced by their protagonists or on moving narrative episodes such as the spectacle of
women in distress. This method succeeded due to the adoption of more “natural” or familiar human
situations. Paintings by British history painters such as West, Turnbull, Edward Penny (1714–1791) and
Hayman used themes from the theater, ancient and contemporary history and religion that incorporated