Botanical Illustration

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Botanical Illustration

• Life Captured on Paper

Elaine Yau CS99D
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Problems In Botanical Illustration

• Early Botanicals, or Herbals
• Grete Herbal, 1526
• Reused Woodblocks
• Crude and clumsy illustrations
• Text-based

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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!

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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

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Whats Wrong?
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Whats Wrong?

• Hawthorn, 1583
• Woodcut, Fuchs style
• Distorted
• Cropped trunk
• Horizontally compressed
• Limitations of medium

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Dutch and Flemish Paintings

• 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

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Dutch and Flemish Paintings
Jan Davidsz. De Heem Vase of Flowers, c.1660
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Dutch and Flemish Paintings
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Dutch and Flemish Paintings
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Dutch and Flemish Paintings
Rachel Ruysch Still Life with Snake, c.1685
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Florigelia

• Flower Books
• Singular Beauty of the flower
• Decorative
• Pattern books for applied arts
• Georg Dionysius Ehrets Parrot Tulip, 1744

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Florigelia

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

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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

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Carl Linnaeus

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

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Linnaean Method

• Selective Illustration
• Unlike Brunfels or Fuchs

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What about photography?
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Photographs Real life Images
Field Guide
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Photographs Real life Images
Nature Print
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Photographs Real life Images
Cyanotype
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Whats the best way?

• Specific vs. general

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Whats the best way?

• Specific vs. general
• Flawed vs. idealized

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Whats the best way?

• Specific vs. general
• Flawed vs. idealized
• Whole vs. partial

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Whats the best way?

• Specific vs. general
• Flawed vs. idealized
• Whole vs. partial
• Real Life vs. Illustration

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The End