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Botanical Illustration

Life Captured on Paper. Botanical Illustration. Elaine Yau CS99D. Problems In Botanical Illustration. Early Botanicals, or Herbals Grete Herbal, 1526 Reused Woodblocks Crude and clumsy illustrations Text-based. Problems In Botanical Illustration. Specific or Generic?

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Botanical Illustration

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  1. Life Captured on Paper Botanical Illustration Elaine Yau CS99D

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

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

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

  5. What’s Wrong?

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

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

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

  9. Dutch and Flemish Paintings

  10. Dutch and Flemish Paintings

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

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

  13. Florigelia • Pierre-Joseph Redouté • Opium Poppy, 1827 • Stippled engraving • Softness, light, and shadow

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

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

  16. Linnaean Method • Selective Illustration • Unlike Brunfels or Fuchs

  17. What about photography?

  18. Photographs & Real life Images Field Guide

  19. Photographs & Real life Images Nature Print

  20. Photographs & Real life Images Cyanotype

  21. Specific vs. general What’s the best way?

  22. Specific vs. general Flawed vs. idealized What’s the best way?

  23. Specific vs. general Flawed vs. idealized Whole vs. partial What’s the best way?

  24. Specific vs. general Flawed vs. idealized Whole vs. partial Real Life vs. Illustration What’s the best way?

  25. The End

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