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Presenter:Oh, you're just in time. This is my favourite part of the day.

Presenter:Everyone's gone, they turn out the lights, and I can look up through the windows at the stars and planets moving across the sky.

Presenter:It must have been amazing when scientists first started discovering everything up there. In space. You don't get much of that in older paintings.

Presenter:It's probably because for ages artists were told to stay away from science and stick to painting historical stories or landscapes or people like old Sir Winbag here.

Presenter:A man called Wright thought this was totally wrong. Everyone ended up calling this man Joseph Wright of Derby because guess what, he was from Derby.

Presenter:He painted this picture in 1766. Wright loved science. And he loved giving long names to his paintings.

Presenter:This one's called… A Philosopher Giving That Lecture On The Orrery In Which A Lamp Is Put In Place Of The Sun.

Presenter:Well I know about lamps and the sun but… I have no idea what an orrery is. I reckon I should probably go and join in the talk.

Presenter:Oop!

Presenter:Oh, oop! Sorry.

Presenter:I think that might have been someone's toes. It's a bit dark in here.

Presenter:Okay. I can just about see some bookshelves, which makes me think we're in the library of someone's house. And that man in the red jacket, painted to look so big and impressive, is the scientist.

Presenter:And this must be the orrery that he's showing the group. Let's see if I can get a closer look.

Presenter:Oh! Now I see! That golden ball in the middle is the sun, and all the other planets have been placed around it.

Presenter:There's a handle. Oh, that sends all the planets on their different orbits. Wow.

Presenter:There's Earth with our moon. And there's Mercury, closest to the sun. Which the scientist has decided to show with a burning, hot lamp.

Presenter:So why did they want to sit around watching this?

Presenter:Well we know lots about the planets now, but that's only because people like this clever clogs scientist found out about them.

Presenter:We've got films and computers to show us all of space but at the time of this painting, the orrery was the best way to show the universe in action.

Presenter:Perhaps these are the people that Wright saw when he went to one of these talks. A woman, deep in thought. A man, scribbling loads of notes. And children, trying to get as close as they can.

Presenter:In fact they're peering at Saturn, the closest planet to the sun.

Presenter:Hang on? What about Uranus or Neptune? And Pluto?

Presenter:Oh. They hadn't been discovered yet in 1766. So we are a little bit cleverer than him after all.

Presenter:Wright wants us to see how exciting this new science is. So he shows us everyone gathered together in the dark.

Presenter:Now a painter-- Oop, done it again.

Presenter:Now a painter uses the lamp just like the flash on a camera or the sun coming in through a window to light up objects in the dark.

Presenter:Artists like Wright knew that a face or a scene could look different depending on where the light source is coming from. The front.

Presenter:The side.

Presenter:From underneath.

Presenter:Look how everything's changing.

Presenter:Our eyes can only see where the light falls and we have to imagine everything else. For this painting, Wright knew exactly where he should put the lamp. In the centre, like the sun at the centre of the universe. With everyone leaning out of the dark to see the light.

Presenter:And the light is science. Helping people to see and understand new things in the world.

Presenter:If I told those two kids that now we're flying robots to Mars, I don't think they'd believe me.

Presenter:Imagine all the modern discoveries you could put in a picture, that those kids haven't even dreamed of. I wonder which one you'll paint for them first.