Botanical Illustration Life Captured on Paper Elaine Yau

Botanical Illustration Life Captured on Paper Elaine Yau CS 99 D

Problems In Botanical Illustration w Early Botanicals, or Herbals w Grete Herbal, 1526 w Reused Woodblocks w Crude and clumsy illustrations w Text-based

Problems In Botanical Illustration w Specific or Generic? w Otto Brunfels’ Herbarum Vivae Eicones, 1530 -35 w Specificity & Realism w Little distortion w Good news: people are starting to look at real plants!

Problems In Botanical Illustration w Specific or Generic? w Leonhart Fuchs’ De Historia Stirpium, 1542 w Idealized plant w All parts and seasonal changes depicted on same plant w True to the real, live thing

What’s Wrong?

What’s Wrong? w Hawthorn, 1583 w w Woodcut, Fuchs’ style Distorted Cropped trunk Horizontally compressed w Limitations of medium

Dutch and Flemish Paintings w Era of Exploration w 1500 s-1600 s w Discovery of new species w Hybridization, collecting w New Wealth w Leisure time for collecting and recording plants of rarity and beauty w Commissioning extravagant bouquets

Dutch and Flemish Paintings Jan Davidsz. De Heem Vase of Flowers, c. 1660

Dutch and Flemish Paintings

Dutch and Flemish Paintings Rachel Ruysch Still Life with Snake, c. 1685

Florigelia w “Flower Books” w Singular Beauty of the flower w Decorative w Pattern books for applied arts w Georg Dionysius Ehret’s Parrot Tulip, 1744

Florigelia w Pierre-Joseph Redouté w Opium Poppy, 1827 w Stippled engraving w Softness, light, and shadow

Horticultural Illustration w Directed to the hobbyist, gardener, and florist w Focus on Color w Appeared in ads and seed packets w Recalls Dutch Painting w Also reduced to flat geometric forms – defined by color w More aesthetic than scientific

Carl Linnaeus w Formalized classification system w Based on reproductive parts w Flowers, Fruits, Leaves w Hortus Cliffortianus, 1738 w Illustrations complement text