Hypatia (c.370-415 AD) was a great female scholar known as the first woman mathematician, an astronomer, and a philosopher. In a world dominated by men, she was a free thinker dedicated to the pursuit of wisdom in a pivotal moment in time of the great city of Alexandria. Her life came to an end when she was brutally murdered by a group of zealous monks that saw her standing in society as a threat. Her dismembered body were scattered around the city and burned.
Inspired by her strength, wisdom, and dedication to knowledge and science, I wanted to depict a portrait of Hypatia as a proud heroine, a vivid portrait of an exceptional woman with a tragic hint in her face as she sternly glazes beyond the norm of her time. Behind her, an astrolabe credited as her invention, symbolizes the age of science and discovery. She is ancient and modern, holding archetypal value that survives in the contemporary age, and a bearer of universal human values, of education and science, and of the global struggle of women’s equality.
