Botanical Illustration Life Captured on Paper Elaine Yau CS99D.

Botanical IllustrationLife Captured on Paper

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? Otto Brunfels’

Herbarum Vivae Eicones, 1530-35

Specificity & Realism Little distortion Good news: people

are starting to look at real plants!

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

What’s Wrong?

What’s Wrong?

Hawthorn, 1583

Woodcut, Fuchs’ style

Distorted Cropped trunk Horizontally

compressed Limitations of

medium

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

Dutch and Flemish Paintings

Jan Davidsz. De Heem

Vase of Flowers, c.1660

Dutch and Flemish Paintings

Dutch and Flemish Paintings

Dutch and Flemish Paintings

Rachel Ruysch

Still Life with Snake, c.1685

Florigelia

“Flower Books” Singular Beauty of

the flower Decorative Pattern books for

applied arts

Georg Dionysius Ehret’s Parrot Tulip, 1744

Florigelia

Pierre-Joseph Redouté Opium Poppy,

1827 Stippled

engraving Softness, light,

and shadow

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

Carl Linnaeus

Formalized classification system

Based on reproductive parts

Flowers, Fruits, Leaves

Hortus Cliffortianus, 1738

Illustrations complement text

Linnaean Method

Selective Illustration

Unlike Brunfels or Fuchs

What about photography?

Photographs & Real life Images

Field Guide

Photographs & Real life Images

Nature Print

Photographs & Real life Images

Cyanotype

What’s the best way?

Specific vs. general

What’s the best way?

Specific vs. general

Flawed vs. idealized

What’s the best way?

Specific vs. general

Flawed vs. idealized

Whole vs. partial

What’s the best way?

Specific vs. general

Flawed vs. idealized

Whole vs. partial

Real Life vs. Illustration

The End