Western science began in ancient Greece as a branch of philosophy, but modern science originated in alchemy, the fruitless search for ways to turn base metal into gold. Numerous Dutch and Flemish seventeenth-century paintings mock these activities, but Holland was still a home of modern science and Britain’s Royal Society was founded in 1660. Science became more rational and based on experiments, dramatised in Joseph Wright of Derby’s well-known An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump of 1768.