Portrait of George Buchanan with superimposed skull
Date
1926
Creator
Object type
Archive reference number
Material
Technique
Dimensions
height (print): 273mm
width (print): 194mm
width (print): 194mm
Subject
Description
Sketch taken from the original portrait of George Buchanan in the collections of the Royal Society, with a line drawing of Buchanan’s supposed skull superimposed on the head and face. Front view.
Plate 30 from the monograph The skull and portraits of George Buchanan, by Karl Pearson (W. Lewis at the University Press, Cambridge, 1926). Reprinted from Biometrika v.18. Inscribed above ‘Plate XXX’’ and below ‘George Buchanan ROYAL SOCIETY OF LONDON’.
According to the accompanying text, the skull of George Buchanan was removed from its grave by the Rev. John Adamson of Edinburgh University and was found in Adamson’s his study after his death. It survives, having been initially in the Library of the University and subsequently in its Anatomy Museum.
Pearson wrote: ‘I believe that at present one of the chief services which can be done by aid of the skull of a great man is to find out from it which portrait, if portraits exist, truly represents him…I would exhume the skull of Shakespeare, of Newton or of Milton, and then we should be able to standardise their portraiture, and say: Here is the true man, and what would also be of interest: There is the artistic liar!’
Karl Pearson [formerly Carl] (1857–1936), statistician and eugenicist was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1896.
George Buchanan (1506-1582) British poet and historian.
Plate 30 from the monograph The skull and portraits of George Buchanan, by Karl Pearson (W. Lewis at the University Press, Cambridge, 1926). Reprinted from Biometrika v.18. Inscribed above ‘Plate XXX’’ and below ‘George Buchanan ROYAL SOCIETY OF LONDON’.
According to the accompanying text, the skull of George Buchanan was removed from its grave by the Rev. John Adamson of Edinburgh University and was found in Adamson’s his study after his death. It survives, having been initially in the Library of the University and subsequently in its Anatomy Museum.
Pearson wrote: ‘I believe that at present one of the chief services which can be done by aid of the skull of a great man is to find out from it which portrait, if portraits exist, truly represents him…I would exhume the skull of Shakespeare, of Newton or of Milton, and then we should be able to standardise their portraiture, and say: Here is the true man, and what would also be of interest: There is the artistic liar!’
Karl Pearson [formerly Carl] (1857–1936), statistician and eugenicist was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1896.
George Buchanan (1506-1582) British poet and historian.
Associated place