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24 open at the left to reveal a successful display of some new naval technology recently devised by the proud inventor. Where Brumidi depicts the steamship Clermont, the scene in West's portrait records the effective use of Fulton's tor- pedoes to blow up a ship, a demonstration that took place at Walmer Roads, near Deal, England, on October 15, 1805. 25 e two most celebrated American scientists of the late eighteenth-century were Benjamin Franklin and David Rittenhouse, the first two presidents of the American Philosophical Society. 26 Shown here are portraits of Franklin and Rittenhouse (figs. 12 and 13), dated 1789 and 1796 respectively, by Charles Willson Peale (1741–1827), him- self an educated man of science as well as an accomplished artist. e Franklin portrait is at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia; the Rittenhouse is in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. In Peale's two paintings, the main features of this portrait type in terms of setting, pose, attributes, and so on, are again evident. In his portrait of Franklin, Peale emphasizes Franklin's experiments with electricity and his invention of the lightning rod, one of which he holds in his hand. The nocturnal view through the window shows lightning bolts hitting several brick buildings. Rittenhouse's reputation as an astronomer of great mechanical genius is referred to by the inclusion of a ref lecting telescope. 27 Some of the interest in American men of science, notes Brandon Fortune, grew out of a national desire to defend "the new republic against accusations . . . that Americans could not equal, much less surpass, European achieve- ments" and "to persuade viewers that European culture was," indeed, "moving westward." 28 Consistent with these attitudes was the fact that late eighteenth-century Ameri- can portraits of men of science had clear precedents in con- temporary European portraits d'apparat, such as Jacques Louis David's Portrait of Doctor Alphonse Leroy, 1783, at Musee Fabre, Montpelier, and Portrait of Antoine-Laurent and Marie-Anne Lavoisier, 1788, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. 29 Furthermore, the social and cultural prestige bestowed upon the subjects of these paintings, both American and European, came in part through historical association with Renaissance images of scholars in their studies, espe- cially learned saints such as St. Jerome. Typical Renaissance depictions of "St. Jerome in His Study" include versions by Jan Van Eyck, dated 1432–41, and Domenico Ghirland- aio, dated 1480. In both portraits St. Jerome sits at a built- in desk in the studious pose of melancholy, flanked by cur- tains pulled aside to reveal books, manuscripts, and other emblems of learning reflecting his scriptural authority as SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION Fig. 13. Charles Willson Peale, David Ri enhouse, 1796. Oil on canvas, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., bequest of Stanley P. Sax. HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA Fig. 12 Charles Willson Peale, Benjamin Franklin, 1789. Oil on canvas, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Phila- delphia. THE CAPITOL DOME SPRING 2014