Francis Bacon Research Trust

The Sun-God

(Title-page to the 1645 edition of Francis Bacon’s De Dignitate & Augmentis Scientiarum.)

Draped over Bacon’s legs, appearing to hang just beneath the folio book and Bacon’s right hand, is a cloak. Picked out in dots upon the cloth, near the hem of the cloak, is a sun haloed with solar rays and a face on it—a face which would appear to be that of the sun god, Apollo, who is normally shown as crowned with solar rays. Apollo’s Hebraic-Christian counterpart, the Archangel Michael, explains this further, as the name Michael means ‘he who is like God’ or ‘the face/countenance of God’.

Bacon was known in his life-time as ‘Apollo’, so this is an apt image for a Bacon book and picture; but, in addition to this, the Apollonian sun is fine symbol of the light of nature shining in the warp and weft of nature’s forms which cloak it, veiling the light from normal sight. This itself is an apt symbol of Part III of the Great Instauration, a Natural History: for the purpose of this history is to provide a collection of all possible examples of life, of the nature of life—natural, human and divine. The cloak with the Apollonian sun in it represents all this—a man-made garment, woven from natural fibres, symbolising the veil or cloak of nature in which or behind which is hidden the divine light.

Appropriately, the sun-face of Apollo is depicted low down in the picture (on Bacon’s cloak), on the Lord Chancellor’s right, counterbalancing the temple of Artemis which is shown raised high up (on its acropolis), on Bacon’s left. Apollo and Artemis are twins, brother and sister, god of the sun and goddess of the moon. One rules the heart, the other the mind. They are polarities to each other. The Apollonian light is the light of nature, hidden in its heart as the foundation of all things, whilst the temple and vestal flame of Artemis is that of the soul, the illumined mind that is the crown of creation.

Apollo and Artemis are also represented by the ‘Double A’ headpiece (‘AA’) which is printed at the head of certain pages of the Shakespeare folio and other works by Bacon. The emblem known as the ‘Pan tailpiece’ is also associated with this symbolism, depicting Pan and the face of his ‘bride’, Echo, within the frame of nature. Echo, also known other mythologies as Bride, is the personification of Truth (i.e. the Wisdom that is known or revealed), which in turn is equated with the enlightened human soul who ‘lives in truth’.