18th century art reflected an era that alternately promoted and questioned the notions of civilisation, knowledge, education, and the pursuit of pleasure. This was the age of encyclopedists, scientific experimenters, inventors, archaeologists, and classifiers. As Denis Diderot was assembling the first great encyclopaedia (intended to contain all the world's knowledge), Benjamin Franklin was experimenting with electricity, and Linnaeus was laying down his vast system to classify nature.
