Author Description

During the Renaissance, a deep love of flowers and gardens among Tuscans developed among intellectual circles to become an interest in horticulure and the botanical sciences - subjects which would co-exist in harmony with the Medici family's love of the arts. Published to coincide with an exhibition at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, of around 65 works of art, primarily from the Florentine collections, this volume explores the ties between art and the natural sciences in Tuscany as seen in the botanical renderings created in Florence for the Medici grand dukes from the late 1500s to the early 1700s. The catalogue comprises an essay and checklist with reproductions of the works in the show. Examples include Jacopo Ligozzi's plant drawings in tempera on paper from the Uffizi Gallery, Giovanna Garzoni's fruit and flower paintings on vellum, and Bartolomeo Bimbi's later and much larger still-life paintings.