Credit: © The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.9570
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    Portrait of Ambrose Godfrey

    Date
    1718
    Sitter
    Ambrose Godfrey (1680 - 1756, British) , Chemist
    Creator
    George Vertue (1684 - 1756, British) , Printmaker
    After
    Johann Rudolf Schmutz (1670 - 1715, Swiss) , Artist
    Object type
    Image reference
    Material
    Technique
    Dimensions
    height (print): 260mm
    width (print): 188mm
    Subject
    Content object
    Description
    Head and shoulders portrait in the style of a sculpture bust. Godfrey is shown surrounded by chemical equipment including a furnace (left, inscribed: “Ignis adest apifex perfecit Arte Manus.”) and retorts (right, inscribed: “Natura inpura dat Rectificatio mundat”). At the pedestal to the bust is a container of phosphorus (inscribed: “ Phosphor: urens igne suo.”). Below that is a landscape vignette in which a snake and a hart appear in woodland. To the right, two men are mining in a hillside, while in the centre a phoenix bursts from the ground (inscribed: “Naturae regna instar Phoenicis per ignem reviviscunt”) .

    Additionally inscribed: “Hac Amicitiae tessera Fautorib, valedicit Peregri natures Ambros: Godfrey Hanckwitz Chym: ad Phoenice Londini. R.Schmutz pinxit. Geo: Vertue Sculp: 1718.” In pencil lower left “1729” and lower right “1/6”.

    Ambrose Godfrey the younger [sometimes referred to as Ambrose Godfrey Hanckwitz] was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1729.
    Object history
    Noted in Catalogue of the prints in the possession of the Royal Society, by Henry George Plimmer FRS (1856-1918), manuscript, p.31. J.P.Gassiot Collection, purchased 1878.
    Associated place
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