Introduction
It might be hard, in present day, to consider a flower as anything other than ornamental, as simply beautiful objects. However, in the narrative of Western flower painting they are depicted in a wide range of subjects for a variety of purposes.
Naturalistic studies of flowers are first encountered in early Netherlandish painting, initially in the work of artists such as Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden, before emerging in German painting from the mid fifteenth century in Cologne and Franconia. The use of botanical imagery in German painting flourished at the turn of the sixteenth century, particularly as artists became progressively interested in the representation of the natural world, though their depiction in this period was often threefold. There is a variety of subject matter that involved the symbolic use of plants and flowers, most commonly in Marian subject matter. Beyond these decorative and symbolic features, we can begin to observe the emergence of the independent plant study and, more importantly, a unification in approach by artists: the simultaneous desire for aesthetic and botanical accuracy. Finally, in the late sixteenth century flowers begin to emerge as the subjects of still life, which initiated a surge of specialist flower painters in the following century.
This exhibition brings together a small selection of works by German artists active in the sixteenth century, who were pivotal to the development and emergence of still life flower painting in European art.
Naturalistic studies of flowers are first encountered in early Netherlandish painting, initially in the work of artists such as Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden, before emerging in German painting from the mid fifteenth century in Cologne and Franconia. The use of botanical imagery in German painting flourished at the turn of the sixteenth century, particularly as artists became progressively interested in the representation of the natural world, though their depiction in this period was often threefold. There is a variety of subject matter that involved the symbolic use of plants and flowers, most commonly in Marian subject matter. Beyond these decorative and symbolic features, we can begin to observe the emergence of the independent plant study and, more importantly, a unification in approach by artists: the simultaneous desire for aesthetic and botanical accuracy. Finally, in the late sixteenth century flowers begin to emerge as the subjects of still life, which initiated a surge of specialist flower painters in the following century.
This exhibition brings together a small selection of works by German artists active in the sixteenth century, who were pivotal to the development and emergence of still life flower painting in European art.
