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| INTRODUCTION TO BOTANICALS |
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Since Ancient Greek and Egyptian times, flowers were a symbolic motif in art. Medieval manuscripts continued this tradition of embellishment and imagery. Floral borders and illumination brought beauty and meaning to an otherwise drab world.
With the invention of the printing press in the 15th century, it became possible to publish texts with accompanying illustrations. Early botanical images served as herbal guides for developing medicines, dyes, and preservatives. Special medicinal gardens, called "hortus medicus" often cultivated New World plants for such purposes. At the beginning of the 17th century, plants began to be valued for their intrinsic beauty and complexity as artistic subjects. It was also the beginning of the great Florilegia - these sumptuous color studies of flowers showed the unique beauty of a species or private collection. In the 18th century, traders and colonizers brought back specimens for governmental and private collections. Systematic anatomical studies of the structure of plants began to accompany their decorative depictions. Color printing appeared in various forms making larger editions and wider distribution possible. Nature was transposed onto tapestries, porcelains, and paintings. By the 19th century, an emerging middle class, with both money and leisure to collect and grow botanical specimens, was eager to own botanical graphics. The invention of lithography and chromolithography made larger and more economical volumes available. Expanding empires provided explorers, naturalists, and artists with unlimited opportunities for field studies. It was in this century that gardens as we know them today with borders and layers of color appeared. With the invention of the camera, the great age of botanical art came to an end.
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