1. Bacon, Francis 1561-1626. English
politician, philosopher, and essayist.
He became Lord Chancellor 1618, and the same
year confessed to bribe-taking, was fined
40,000 (which was paid by the king), 
and spent four days in the Tower of London.
His works include Essays 1597, characterized
by pith and brevity; The Advancement of 
Learning 1605, a seminal work discussing
scientific method; the Novum Organum 1620, 
in which he redefined the task of natural 
science, seeing it as a means of empirical
discovery and a method of increasing human
power over nature; and The New Atlantis 1626,
describing a utopian state in which 
scientific knowledge is systematically sought
and exploited. Bacon was born in London, 
studied law at Cambridge from 1573, was part
of the embassy in France until 1579, and 
became a member of Parliament 1584. 
He was the nephew of Queen Elizabeth's
adviser Lord Burghley, but turned against him
when he failed to provide Bacon with
patronage. He helped secure the execution of
the earl of Essex as a traitor 1601, after
formerly being his follower. Bacon was
accused of ingratitude, but he defended
himself in Apology 1604. The satirist Pope
called Bacon `the wisest, brightest, and
meanest of mankind'. Knighted on the
accession of James I 1603, he became Baron
Verulam 1618 and Viscount St Albans 1621. His
writing helped to inspire the founding of the
Royal Society. The Baconian Theory,
originated by James Willmot in 1785,
suggesting that the works of Shakespeare were
written by Bacon, probably has no validity.
His writing helped to inspire the founding of
the Royal Society.

2. Bacon, Francis 1909- . British painter,
born in Dublin. He came to London in 1925 and
taught himself to paint. He practised
abstract art, then developed a distorted
Expressionist style with tortured figures
presented in loosely defined space. From 1945
he focused on studies of figures, as in his
series of screaming popes based on the
portrait of Innocent X by Velazquez. Bacon
began to paint about 1930 and held his first
show in London in 1949. He destroyed much of
his early work. Three Studies for Figures at
the Base of a Crucifixion 1944 (Tate Gallery,
London) is an early example of his mature
syle.