Attending to Early Modern Women 2012—Environments: Workshop #6 “Space, Place & Environment: Concepts of Femininity and Authority in Early Modernity”

Early Modern domestic environments supported and reinforced gendered

activities far beyond the “house” or “home.” Intellectual, social, cultural, and

imaginative spaces were coded for men and women in order to support the Elizabethan

gender hierarchy. Whether gendered identities were real or imagined, they played a

crucial role in dictating movement, ideas, and physical spaces.

Both within the home and around it—in gardens and surrounding countryside—

women filled roles as wives and mothers, family members and servants, and as

employers and employees. Whatever role she assumed, a woman was expected to

comport herself in prescribed ways that limited movement and fixed identity.

How did women move through the world in both real and imaginary locations?

We seek to open new avenues of inquiry into how women’s gendered spaces and

activities both restricted and encouraged the exploration of individual identities; in

particular, whether women could and did form or shape their own intellectual, literary,

and physical environments. A woman’s gendered identity was constructed through the

spaces she inhabited, the books she read, the language she employed in speech and

letters, her clothes, and her restriction to the domestic environment as distinct, separate,

and opposite to the public realm.

Within this investigation are many possible avenues of inquiry. The architectural

spaces of the country houses constructed and elaborated during the reign of Elizabeth I

are notable for their reinforcement of the division between male and female, public and

private. Landscape architecture provides new and intriguing possibilities for women’s

expansion of the “domestic realm” beyond the walls of the house and into gardens, fields,

and subsidiary buildings and spaces that supported the country house lifestyle. Social

history brings further issues of degree, status, and social interaction between strata of

Elizabethan society, including the fluidity of class and rank. Finally, women’s letters, as

historical documents and instruments of women’s voices and agency, created a means of

self-presentation and influence beyond the domestic sphere.

LUCIA T ONGIORGI TOMASI Univcrslta eli Pisa

"La femminil pazienza": Women Painters and Natural History in the Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth Centuries

c\1ana Sibylla Merian, rroorispiece from DJssertatio de genewtione (I( melamorpboslbus !Tl sectorum Surinamensium IAmsterdam, 1705 1 Collec tIOn of M [$, Paul MeUon, Oak Sprlllg G:lf(len Library, Upper<ld le, Vlrgima

I n a provocative essay that generated consid-erable di scuss ion when it was published in 19JI, Linda N ochlin affirmed:

Thus, the so-caned woman question, f;u from being a minor, peripheral and laughably provincial sub-issue grafted on to a serious, estabhshed discipline, can become a catalyst, an inteUectualll1strument, probing basic and {{natural" assumptions, providing a para-digm for other kinds of internal questioning, and in tUIn providing links with paradigms es tablished by radical approaches in other fields. Even a simple question like "Why have there been no great women artists? " can, if answered adequately, create a sort of chain reaction, expanding not merely to encompass the accepted assumptions of the single field, but outward to embrace history and the social sciences, or even psychology and literature, and thereby, from the au tset, can challenge the assumption that the traditional divisions of int.ellectual inquiry are still ad equate to deal wi th the meaningful questions of OUI time, rather than t.he merely convenient or self-generated ones. l

Following Nochlin 's lead, more than a generat ion of felninist art historians have investigated the h istoricat sociological, and anthropological reasons why wom en were perennially relegated to "the mar-gins," as Natalie Zemon Davis so ap tly described it,' and hindered from developing their own artistic identities, succeeding in emerging from the private sphere only in

rare cases during the period that extended from the sixteenth centu ry to about the middle of the eighteen th century. Women were usually found working in a se1ni-clandestine manner, hidden from sight in fa mily-based ateliers, although it may be noted that " family " and "convent"-the two social poles which defined the exis-tence of women in that period-were in fact much more open than one might tend to think today:'

Few indeed were the exceptions, among whom may be singled out the outstand-ing Roman artist Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-r6sr/1653). Elizabeth Cropper, who for many yea rs has studied women and their roles in the panorama of sixteenth-and seventeenth-centnry art, raised luany interesting issues about this painter. In an essay she wrote for an exhibition shown in 2 002, Cropper pointed out how Genti-leschi's life and works "became a magnet for the exercise of every new form of art history.'" Indeed, all research focusing on art produced by women has the potential to generate "1nagnets" for similar exercises, leading to new methodological approaches and reflections of a much broader nature. Our perspective on their work can only open further each time that, freed of the rigid schematicism of the past, we focus on actual personages, their historical and cul-tural backgrounds, and specific works of art, challenging tradi tional orientations and the

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::::meTOUS ropoi or cliches that persist in the of an history. These might include the

:=yili of the genius or that of the artist as a ;::u:::tpletely free and independent creator, not : 0 mention the value judgments implicit in =:::.an - of the conventional classifications, :::::!duding the dichotOlTIies {{lnan-wOlnan/' aatuIe-culture/' and {{reason-intuition,"s

... F eminine" Genres

One of the preconceived notions that has ::,coved most difficult to uproot concerns -'!..e artistic genres traditionally associated w:ch women artists over the course of the = :uries. Although it is now agreed that ::aey regularly worked in the studios of their :,nbers, husbands, or other male relatives-wnere they may even have participated in ",-,ch prestigious projects as historical, myth-o!og.ical, and religions received public recognition only for a limited ::!1Illber of ({low-style II subjects convention-

reserved for theln. These were genres ::2 which neither the gift of inventio nor Z:ly great technical or stylistic "Jot:' of which were considered the pre-

of male believed to ie necessary. These thelTIes, ilnposed by 'ang tradition, were regarded as the only c::es truly suitable lor the donnesca mana "-omanly hand) and femminil pazienza :e-minine patience), characteristics that

today tend to be associated with the 5O-<:alled fair sex6

The prevailing conviction, therefore, was :112: embroidery, the senna humilis (humble :.c!...:.,guage) of fl owers, insects and birds; the ','J life ; an d in certain cases domestic ",,=e5 and portraits were peculiarly adapted :n .....-omen artists. Techniques requiring the ;:,!"ecise application of colors or a delicate :""ch, such as the painting of miniatures d.:ld \,"o rks in gouache or watercolor, were considered appropriate to the feminine ::=0, just as the painting of frescoes and 2:ge-scale canvases in oils, not to lnention 'CJlpting in stone-which demanded physi-:..i strength and, above all, were sustained

:he power of regarded as - d.omain of men. It is certainly not fortu-::,,::s that m ost historical sources describe : =os" ·,·iIt llose donne (talented women) - io dedic,lted th emselves to the arts as

= :-O '\" G I ORGI TOMASI

ll1inicztrici (n1iniaturists) or intczgliatrici (engravers) rather than as genuine pittrici (painters), thus underlining the distinc-tion between the higher and lower forms of artistic endeavor. 7

Another art fonTI in which won1en dis-tinguisbed themselves at a very early stage, but on which lnuch research remains to be done, was that of naturalistic illustration. The ain1 of this genre, whose en1ergence coincided with the birth of the modern sci-ences, was to provide an accurate portrayal 01 plants and animals, alai thlul copy of the natural world. Between the end of the sixteenth and the middle 01 the eighteenth century, in the stimulating atmosphere created by the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment, Europe saw an outpour-ing of artistic works marked by particular attention to naturalistic phenOlnena. During this period, in which new criteria and new instruments for scientific study (such as the lnicroscope) were introduced, naturalistic illustration achieved the status of an artistic genre. Although generally commissioned by men of science as an aid to their stud-ies, such works soon won the appreciation of sovereigns and curiosi, who vied with one another to add examples to their col-lections. The genre quickly attracted many WOlnen artists, some of whom achieved both wealth and fame, although they have until now received little attention from scholars in comparison to won1en frOlTIlTIOre recent epochs, such as the Victorian age or the early twentieth century8

Since antiquity, WOlTIen have been consid-ered the privileged repository of knowledge regarding herbs and their curative properties, and they were often credited with magi-cal powers: the figure 01 Circe in Homer's Odyssey is a classic example. However, the activities of these women were usually rel-egated to the level 01 popular medicine and superstition, WOlnen herbalists being con-sidered little more than witches and held in contempt by the officially recognized practitioners of medicine-physicians and apothecaries. Notable exceptions did exist, bowever, such as the Gern1an abbess Saint Hildegard von Bingen (r098-II79). In addi-tion to her lTIusical cOlTIpositions, she is distinguished for her treatises on natural history and the medicinal uses of plants,

animals, and minerals. Between I I 50 and 1160, she compiled a list, in both Latin and German, of no fewer than 2r 3 different medicinal herbs.

Artists or Scientists?

The role of women in th e sciences has been studied in considerable detail, and it may be said that here they played an even more sporadic and marginal role than in the arts, at least until the Age of Enlighten-ment. This happened in part because the sciences were considered a highly elite and intellectually exacting pursuit, while the ar ts, after all, included a component of manual dexterity and craftsmanship which women were admitted to possess.' Furthermore, as scientific discoveries and information were disseminated through the m edium of the printed word, the allthors of scieutific texts were invariabl y men, for the pen was considered to be an instrument even less suited to the female hand than the brush.

As the sciences becan1e institutionalized during the course of the seventeenth cen-tury, they barred wOmen far more uncon-ditionally than the arts. Women were not admitted to the scientifi c academies of Europe (the firs t of which, the Accademia dei Lincei, was established in Rome in 1603) until well into the eighteeuth century- even tho ugh, ironically, these academies were often symbolized by female fi gnres.'" In contrast, during the seventeenth century, some art academies were already accepting women as members, although they were uever granted official duties or allowed to participate in n1eetings. 11

Denied an acti ve role in the theoretical and experimental sciences, 111any WOll1en with an inclination for such subjccts wmed instead to scientific illustratiol1, an art form which provided an outlet for their innate curiosity and sensitivity to the myriad aspects of the natural world . With their attributes of patience and lTIinute accu-racy, women were acknowledged to excel in this art form. Furthermore, the favor-able climate that developed beginning in the late sixteenth ceutury allowed some women to separate themselves from the paternal atelier system and to strike ou t on their

own, placing their talents at the dis, o, j,in :c of scientists or, in a fe,-\' cases thelTIselves in auton01110llS CJIecors

In addition, advances in primm" r,cl::naI-ogy during the sixteenth and centuries led to the publication of ever more lavishly illustrated texts, whose populari ty increased the demand for speCialized art -ists and engravers, among whom could be counted lnany women. For exrunple, it i s known tha t at the end of the sixteenth cen-tury the renowned bookbinder and printer Christophe Plantin of Antwerp (r 5 20- I S 89 ), who specialized in the publication of scien-tific texts, retained three widows on his staff to hand-color the plates of important botani-cal texts. The coloring was done not only to make the books more attractive to potential buyers but also in the interest of scientific accuracy, as such work was always carried out under the direct supervision of scien-tists12 A limited number of copies intended for presentation to illustrious personages were prepared with particular care and atten-tion to detail, so that their plates approached the quality of miniature paintings. Plan tin's employment of women confirms that they had been found to be particularly skilled at this painstaking task.

Before long, however, a handful of wom en painters began to dedicate themselves to the represeutation of plants and auimals as fully autonomous artists, achieving il11pressive results not only on an aesthetic level but also on a scientific one. Botanical, floral, and zoological lin particular ornithologi-cal) subj ects traditionally associated with embroidery, the feminine art par excellence, became the preferred subjects for these arti sts. Once women had advanced beyond the stage of copying the m asters, they did nOt limit themselves to the mere documen-tation of naturalis tic specimens but sought instead to capture and portray their subjects' very essence, in the process developing a highly personal style.

This period also saw the affirmation of the still life, which came to share som e of the same themes as naturali stic illus -trati on. As reflected by the various terms devised for this new geure in the many lan -guages of Europe- still life, nature marte, natura morta, Stilleben-its aim was to depict "imlno bile" nature, as opposed to

TO NGIORCI T OMASI r6r

the "living" model of the human figure . In the hierarchy of painting, the still life was relegated to a subordinate position . Ini-tially it was considered a II low" genre, and indeed the Roman polymath and art col-lector Vincenzo Giustiniani (r564- r6371, around r 620 placed no higher than fifth in his classification of the gradi (grades ) of painting /I il saper ritrane fiari ed altre cose minute" (the ability to portray flowers and other small things)" This low rank was assigned to flower painting in spite of the judgment of the revolutionary painter Cara-vaggio (r 571 -1 610 1, as reported by Gius-tiniani himself, that " tanta manifattura gli era a fare un quadro buono di fiori come di figure" (there was as much effort involved in executing a fine painting of flowers as one of human figures) .

The still life was obviously as fitting to the female hand as was scientific illus-tration, and m any WQlllen-especially in northern Europe- specialized in this genre, I' including the French artist Louise Moillon (r6IO-r 6961, the Italian painter Fede Gali-zia (r578- r630), the Dutch painter Clara Peeters [15 94- C. r657 ), and-perhaps the most famous of them all-Rachel Ruysch [1664-r7 50), the daughter of Frederik Ruysch (r 638- r 731 I, illustrious professor of anatOlny at the university in Amsterdam and owner of an exceptional collection of scientific specilneus.

Inevitable and immediate were the ties and exchanges that sprang up between tlie still life and n aturalistic illustration, a fascinating theme of which many aspects remain to be inves tigated. While artists focused on and polished the "naturalistic citations ll contained in their works, scien -tific illustrations tended "irresistibilmente a farsi quadri " (irresis tibly to turn into paintings). Transcending their specialized status as a form of scientific documenta-tion, still-life paintings soon acquired a decorative dim ension and the configllIa-tion of genuine works of an IS Indeed, it is sometimes impossible to decide wheth er to assign these works to the category of still life or that of scientific illus tration . Many of the flori legia, manuscripts of min-iature paintings, and printed books illus-trated with engravings of flowers lusuall y exotic species or horticultural varieties)

162 TO NGIORGI TO MASI

w hich were being produced all over Europe during this period constituted a veritable marriage between botanical illustration and the floral still life. T hese works in turn came to be used as sources for designs in the applied arts l '

If one examines the careers of those women who dedicated themselves to natu -ralistic art throughout the seventeenth and in the first decades of the eighteenth cen-turies, linking their body of work, where possible, to the salient events in their per-sonallives, it m ay be possible to understand better the contributions they made to this new genre in which art and science fus ed, with intriguing consequences . The close links that developed in this period between these two traditionally separate cultures have formed the subject of study by many scholars. 17 Ultimately, the recomposition of these two branches of human endeavor, illu-minated by an examination of one of their most pleasing m anifestations - scientific illustration- could provide points for fur-ther reflection and unexpected insights into various issues relating to the role of women in art.

The Seventeenth Century: Three Women Artists in Rome

During the reign of Pope Urban VIII IMaffeo Barberini; r623- r644), Rome was one of the most open and vivacious cultural capitals of Europe. A nunlber of WOlnen artists man-aged to establi sh careers for themselves in cultural circles among the gifted and the powerful, sharing a passion for the sciences and the arts. In this period, the nobleman Federico Cesi 11585- 1630) founded the illus-trious Accademia dei Lincei, of which th e astronomer Galileo Galilei was a member. Various m embers of the papal family, in particular Cardinal Francesco, the nephew of Pope Urban VID, cultivated an interest in the sciences, especially bota ny, and constructed magnificent gardens in which exotic plants and rare cultivars were grown. 18

In this fertile climate, where the activi-ties of artists and scientists were so closely in tertwined, many prunters chose to spe-cialize in the genre of botanical painting, anlong them the Frenchman Nicolas Robert Ir614-r685 ), whose work woul d later win

great favor at the court of Louis XIV and the approval of Nicolas Guillaume Ic. 1600-1663) of Lorraine, also known as Nicolas de La Fleur and IfMonsu Fiore" for his great skill as a botanical artist. Both Robert and de La Fleur came to Rome early in their careers, and it was there that they painted the leaves of their first florilegia. Indeed, for many artists a sojourn in the Italian capi-tal allowed them to gain solid training and establish a reputation that would later help then1 to obtain prestigious cOlllnissions from wealthy patrons in other Italian and European states. 1?

Rome in this period also saw the publica-tion of hooks on the subjects of botany and borticnlture, which lnet with il11mediate success and hecame models of their kind because of the importance of their scien-tific content and the remarkable quality of their illustrations. In 1616 the printer )acopo Mascardi published Minus cognita-HID? rarioTuDlque nostro coelo orienti7.1Dl stirpimn ekphrasis, an encyclopedic work on the flora of Europe by the Linceian aca-demician Fahio Colonna of Naples 11566-1640), which included a particularly fine set of etched plates. In 1625 the same printer published Exactissima descriptio rariorum quarundam plantoILlln ... in Horta Farne-siano. in which the alchemist and herbalist Tobias Aldini Idates unknown), formerly curator of the Ifgabinetto di cose rare del cardinal Barberini" I collection of rare objects [owned by] Cardinal Barberini)' in collabora-tion with the celebrated physician and bota-nist Pietro Castelli Ic. 1575-1657), described the rare plan ts growing in the garden of Car-dinal Odoardo Farnese on the Palatine Hill. This text was accompanied by extraordi-nary plates engraved by Luca Ciamaberlano Ic. IS80-c. 1645).20

Botanical illustration in this period there-fore became not only a well-established and respected genre, but also a vastly popular one which attracted such women of talent as Isabella Cattani Parasole lor Parasoli; act. 1597-1616), Anna Maria Vaiani lact. 1627; d. c. 1655), and Giovanna Garzoni 11600-1670). Parasole was Roman, while Vaiani was from Florence and Garzoni was born in Ascoli. All three came from families of artists and artisans but were irresistibly drawn to Rome, where they eventually

gravitated to the scientific circles of :he Accadelnia dei Lincei and the entourage oi the Barberini family.

Isabella Cattani Parasole

Isabella Cattani Paras ole, artist and engraver, won a certain renown for her volun1e of designs for embroidery and lacework, Teatro delle nobili e virtuose donne. published in 1616 with plates drawn and engraved by the artist herself. Earlier in her career, her talent had attracted the attention of Castore Durante 11529-1590), who commissioned her to prepare the illustrations for his trea-tise, Herbaria nuova. Isabella's hnsband, Leonardo Parasole Ic. 1570-c. 1630, also known as Leonardo Norsino) engraved the woodblocks to print her designs. Durante, a native of Umbria, was chief physician to the pope and professor of materia medica at the university in Rome. After the Herbario nLlOVa was flrst published in 1585, it was so well received that it immediately went through several reprintings.2l

Although the title of the work alludes to llfigure che rappresentavano piante vive" Ipictures representing live plants), Cattani Parasole's illustrations were in large part drawn-perhaps on the advice of Durante himself-from illustrations published in the most authoritative botanical treatises of the period, such as the many editions of I dis corsi by Pietro Andrea Mattioli and De historia stirpiLun cOlnlncntarii insigncs IBasel, 1542) by Leonhard Fuchs. Despite Isabella's use of prototypes, however, her drawings, and the engravings into which they were translated, exhibit a noteworthy originality that is clearly discernible, even in the reduced dimensions of the illustra-tions accompanying Durante's text. While the artist took care to provide an exact, if somewhat abridged, portrayal of each plant, including its leaves, roots, flowers! and fruit! she also sought to add her own personal touches, departing from the traditional can-ons of botanical illustration and showing a considerable freedom of expression and style. In some of the drawings the plant is shown in a landscape illustrating its natu-ral habitat, with perhaps the addition of a human figure or two. In others, the plant I S depicted in a garden setting! for example

TON GIORGI

L A RI C E.

CD1't;!." d'li"cat LARIX . l:'"".llit& aiU',m Ryjna, renC,f:l6f.. t:dlfaci(, i :,de

growing in an ornamental pot such as those "tienes i ... su Ie logge" (kept on loggias), in a charming allusion to the everyday details of gardening {figs. rand 2 )."

After the successful completion of this project, Cattani Parasole was invited to work with one of the most illustrious and demanding patrons in Rome, Prince Fede-rico Cesi. Giovanni Baglione, a painter and writer on the arts, describes Cattani Parasole's " intagli nel Libro dell'herbe del Principe Cesi d' Acquasparta, letteratissimo signore" {engravings in the book of plants of Prince Cesi of Acquas parta, m ost lea rned gentleman), 23 som e of which would later be reproduced in Tesoro messicano (officially titled Rert1l1lmedicarum Novae Hispaniae thesaurus), th e monumental work on the natural history of the "Nuove Indie" (New Indies) begun by Cesi and finished in 165 r, many years after his death, by mem bers of his scientific circle. Some of the engravings in Tesoro messicano were clearly adapted from the HeIbario nuovo, a lthough they have been shorn of the added details t hat made the illustrations to the original work by the Umbrian physician so captivating.

164 TON G I ORG I TOM ASI

BA SILI CO MIN O ltE .

elMAquo mtiitJ!lentil (rag /'are MINORA

Anna Maria Vaiani

Little is known of Anna Maria Vai ani, a native of Florence like the Barberini pope and daughter of the painter and engraver Alessandro Vaiani, from w hom she learned her art.'" A portrait of her, executed in Rome by the French art is t and engraver Claude Mellan (r5 98-r 688), has been preserved.'"

I. Isabella CaUam Pamsole, LaIice (larch ), from Cast.Q[e Durante, Herbaria lW OVO (Rome, 1636), wood engraving Na[]onal of Med,clIle, E:e'hesda,

.2" Isa bel la Cattani P,nasole, BasIlica nlll10Ie (basiJ), from CaStore Durante, Herbano nuovo (Rome, r6 36 ), wood engraving NailOnal Library of Mc:(hcllle, Dethesd..1, MarylJnd

3- Claude MeHan, Anna Mana Vaiani, C J626, etching iSUnl to NaZlOlI:llc Jlcr 18 Rome

_ ._-- _...;;:::-- - . ---- - _....- ---. I I I

I I

4. Anna Ntana Vaian i, Vase of Plowers, from GlOvan Ba[[is[a Ferrari, De florum w 1tu[{l IRome, 1633), hand-colored e tchlllg

uj Mrs P;lUj Mell eln, Oak Spring Garden Upperv ille, VHgJma

The engra ving and the original drawing show the artist in elegant attire and wearing jewels, to all appearances a lady of rank, with a cartouche that identifles her as "pittrice et intagliatrice fi orentina" (fig. 3). Although her nan1e is Inentioned by various sources, however, the woman behind the portrait-as Elizabeth Cropper has observed-remains a tantalizingly elusive flgure.'6

Vaiani is cited, for exampLe, in adm iring terms in several letters by Galil eo Galilei,

who, describing her as a " fa nciulla di gran-dissimo taLento" Iyoung Lady of the greatest talent ), did his best to introduce her into influentiaL cultural circles in Rome .27 Galileo, who dedicated one of his letters on Copernicus to Christine of Lorraine, grand duchess of Tuscany, appreciated the fri endship of gifted women and the talent of women artis ts, as is dem ons tra ted by his close ties with Artemisia Gentileschi .28 Vaiani soon showed herself to be not only a skilled engraver, translating drawings of antiquities into elegaut plates, but also a fln e fl oral pain ter whose works became quite sought after.

Although the floral paintings that she executed for Cardinal Francesco have been lost, an impressive work by Vaiani's hand may be found in the t reatise on gardening and horticulture published in Rome in 1633 by the Jesuit Giovan nattista Ferrari( 1584-1655 ). De florum cultura (1633) was one of the most prestigious books to be produced in seventeenth-century R0111 e , and many well-known artists collaborated on its illus-tration, including Pietro da Cortona, Andrea Sacchi, Giovanni Lanfranco, Guido Reni, Johann Friederich Greuter, and Claude Mel-Ian . Vaiani herself designed and engraved a plate showing an elaborate bouquet of some of th e rarest fl owers- double anemones, a tulip, and other prized bulhous species -then being cultivated in the most famous gardens in Rome (fig. 4). Although this is the only signed engraving by the artist in De flomm cultma, it is not unreasonable to hypothesize a closer and more prolific col-laboration with Monsu Fiore, who prepared the botanical drawings that were reproduced in th e trea tise.29

Other works allow us to appreciate the breadth of Vaiani's oeu vre. In the short period from r632 to 1633 , for example, she not only participated in the illustra -tion of an exceptional work dedicated to the antiquities preserved in the Roman Gall eria Gillstiniana,"J she also painted the coa ts of arms in the cappella segreto papale in the Vatican and was an active Inelnber of the atelier of the eclectic connoisseur and collector Cassiano dal Pozzo 11588-r 657)31 Anna Maria Vaiani probabLy also had ties with the Accademia di San Luca, the artists ' aCade ll1Y of Rom e, as her

T ONGIO RGI TOMASl r65

ll<!lne is cited In S01ne of the institution's latcr documents.

A few sources mention her possible Ibur brief) marriage to the well-known painter of battle scenes Jacques Courtois (1 62 1- 1676), and later a trip to England (on which she was duly accompanied by her mother). She was ostensibly invited to paint flora l pic-tures for Aletheia Talbot, Countess of Arun-del (d . 1654), the wife of Thomas Howard, second Earl of Arundel, but the actual rea-so n for Vaiani's presence was apparen tly to add luster to the reputation of George Co nn, the pope's envoy to the Court of Saint Jam es '. Serving officially as artistic adviser to Charles I, Conn was at the same time seeking (unofficially) to convert him to Ca tholicism ."

Giovanna Garzoni While the information we have regarding Isabella Cattani Paras ole and Anna Maria Vaiana is disappointingly m eager, much more is known about the life and career of Giovanna Garzoni, the lniniatoro (Ininia-turist ), as she was often referred to by con-temporary sources. Indeed, her personality stands o ut distinctly against the panorama of the seventeenth-century art world :" Gar-zoni was born in Ascoli, in the Marches, in 1600 to a fa mily of goldsmiths and artisans originally from Venice. Boldly striking out on her own at an early age, she eventually established a brilliant career for h erse lf in many of the capitals of Europe. In 1648 she would be cited by the seventeenth-century art historian Carlo Ridolfi in Le meravig]ie dell'aIte as demonstrating "a qua le segno arrivi 1a perspicaccia donnesca" ItO what grea t heights feminine perspicacity may reach ), a most lauda tory judgmen t indeed, especially since his contemporary, the his to-rian Emanuele Tesauro, described this very quality of perspicaccia as enabling the pos-sessor "penetrare Ie piu Ininute e lontane circos tan ze di ogni soggetto 'l (to penetrate the mOst minute and subtle causes underly-ing every subject )."

Garzoni's portraits and h er copies of famous paintings, superbly executed in the miniaturist style, were greatly admired, but she was above all known for her lumi-nous s till-life paintings- beautiful floral

I 66 TO NC IO R G I T OMAS l

compositions and luxuriant vessels of fruits and vegetables painted in an unmistakable style based on the application of minute dots and strokes of color using the finest brushes. She was showered with commis-sions from m embers of the COurt of Savoy in Turin and the Medici fami ly in Florence, as well as numerous virtuosi in Naples, Ven-ice/ Florence, and Rome, who were ready to pay considerable sums to possess one of her works.

The artist arrived at her mastery of the principles of still life, however, only after a long period of training in botanical illustra-tion during th e early seventeenth century in Rome. Testifying to this is a series of botanical studies Garzoni executed at age s ixteen and preserved in a remarkable min-iated herbal at Dumbanon Oaks in Wash-ington, D .CJ' As we lea rn from an lmedited manuscript nOte by the eighteentb-century Tuscan naturalist Giovanni Targioni Toz-zetti (1712- 1783), in r 6r6 the pharmacist Enrico Corvino (Hendrik de Raeff, dates unknown) commissioned the young artist Iwho had just completed a fine painting of the Holy Family for a church in her native city) to paint an herbal for him . Corvino was horn in Delft and moved to Rome, where he married the sister of the botanist Pietro Castelli. He owned the celebrated phannacy "at the sign of the Imperial Eagle" on Mount Giordano, which became a meeting place for many of the naturalists who lived in Rome, including members of the Accademia dei Lincei. Like other pharmacists of the period, Corvino assembled a fine collec-tion of naturalia and cu ltivated a large gar-den of medicinal plants. Corvino was also considered a capable botanical artist in his own right/ and tWO of his children becalne miniature painters, Francesco specializing in insects and butterflies and Maddalena in religious sub jects.

The Erbmio miniato (which Targioni Toz-zetti tells us was later acquired by Monsignor Leone Strozzi, as confirmed loy the owner's stamp on thefronrispiece), had untilrecently been thought to be a fairly late work because of the inclusion of a presumed self-portrait showing the artist as a fully mature woman (fig. 5). This sh eet was actually inserted at a later date, however, and is not by Giovanna Garzoni herself, but rather by an anonymous

1

.. . Anonymous, Giovantla ':;.] rzoni, from Giovanna :;,arzoni, ErbOl IO mmia to, ':'::ldared, pencil, ink, and . ;arercoior

Ooks ReS(<lrch LJbf:lry Qd COlieCtlOll, W JshmgtOn, D.C.

artist wh o based his work upon portraits of her execu ted either by Carlo Maratta or by the artist's com patrio t, Giuseppe Ghezzi. One of these portrai ts is preserved at the Accademia di San Luca and the other adorns Giovanna Garzoni's tomb in the church of San ti Luca e Martina in Rom e.

The Dumbarton Oaks herbal actually COll -

sists of works painted by Garzoni in differ -ent periods of her life. At least some of the pages are clearly by the hand of an immature artist, for they were not execu ted from life but instead are based on illus trations from one of the most celebrated botanical works of the s ix teenth century, Pietro Andrea

Ma ttioli 's tran slation, ...... j ::: of Dioscorides' De DWf,c.."nl= Corvino gave her a COP) to 1L<e a.;. just as Castore D urante to n... -- -with Isa bella Cattani Parasole. Tl:" rr.....:-. _.-script also contains lua u")' later in which the artist provides ample d"",= -stration of her abil ity to draw h om :lic au'! in the case of the ill ustration of L.o:;; r",; clandestina (purple toothworti, of her ti es with Federico Cesi and his academy, the prince having made a special study of tills parasitic plant J6

It may be presn med that the artist's con-nection with the botanist and ant iquarian Cassiano dal Pozzo also dates from this early period in Rom e. Cassiano, who arrived in the papal city in r612, became an enthusias-tic advocate of Garzoni 's work, and his sup-port helped her to obtain many pres t igious commissions, as revealed by the letters of grati tude she sent him.·17

It is known that G iovanna Garzoni li ved for some time in Venice, where in r 622 she entered into a brief m arriage to the portrait art ist Tiberio Tinelli . Perhaps because she had taken a vow of chas ti ty when she was a young W 0 111an, her experience of Inatrilnon y was less than happy, but it may, in fact, have been her h usband who convinced her to turn her exceptional talen t as a In iniaturist to the art of portraiture'S Garzoni, perhaps realizing that she was wedded excl usively to her art , spent the next three decades of her life working for a series of enlightened patrons, ln oving froln one Italian court to another, always accompani ed by her devoted brother Mattia .

The artist's name was by this time famil -iar to c01ll1oisseurs all over Italy and abroad . After a sojourn in N aples from 1626 to 1631, where she pa inted portraits and religi ous scenes for the D uke of Acala, viceroy of Naples, Garzoni t ransferred to the Savoy court in Turin. She remained there until r 63 7, painting frui t, flowers, and ani mals on vellum for Chris tine of Lorrai ne and execu t-ing an extraordinary series of portraits for other m em bers of the fam ily.

Evidence has recently com e to ligh t con -firming her trip to Paris: in 1640, Garzoni received wann accolades and expressions of esteem from no less than the dis tinguished Italian ar tist and engraver Stefano della Bella

T O NG [ O RG I TO M A SI 167

po

(,610- 1664), who was then living in the French capital. Still, his flattering reception did not lessen her desire to return to Italy as soon as possible,39 Garzoni 's stay in Paris, brief as it was, must have played a crucial role in her artistic formation . It was there that she had the opportunity to meet many well · established still ·life painters and, inspired by their example, to develop the themes that would characterize her later work and win her las ting fame. She seem s to have been particularly impressed by the opulent floral arrangements she saw in Paris, especially by the dishes overflowing with fruit and vegetables painted by Jacques Linard, Fran·

Garnier, and Louise Moillon (Garnier's daughter-in -law!, and by the Flemish artist Jean Michel Picart." Evidence of her close ties with Picart can be found in a compari-son of his painting Bouquet of Plowers in a Vase (De Boer Coll ection, Amsterdam) with a work in gouache on vellum by Garzoni, today conserved in the Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe at the Uffizi 4 ! Indeed, the very same vase, embellished with a design of leaves in low relief, appears in paintings by both artists (figs. 6 and 7). It may be hypothesized that Garzoni executed her work in Paris and took it with her to Florence in 1642, where

r68 TONGIORGI TOMASl

it was later acquired by Cardinal Leopolda of the Medici, as revealed in an inventory of his collections.

It may also be observed that Giovanna Garzoni produced many works during her extended stay in the Tuscan capital. These consist primarily of vases of flowers or vessels piled high WIth fruit or vegetables, harmoniously arranged on tables or on stone shelves, with such added details as insects or flowering vines, thelnes that sh e had apparently mastered in Paris (fig. 8) . All the members of the grand duke's court were great admirers of her art, as evidenced by the many paintings on vellum by her hand to be found today in the museums of Florence.42

The Medici family esteemed Garzoni's talent as a miniaturist so highly that, long after she left the Tuscan city in 165 1, she continued to receive commission s for still lifes, CQlte di sempjici (drawings of plants), naturalistic subjects, copies of famous paint-ings/ and decorative work (paint ed fan s, designs for pietTe dme m osaics, and the like). The artis tic tradition so generously fostered by the Medici, which had featured th e naturalis tic image since the time of the artist )acopo Ligozzi (1547- 1627), as well as the more recent interest of many members

6. GlOvanna Ga rzolll/ Vase of Flowers, undated, gouache on vellum

DLseg!lJ e Stal1!pe, Gallerw dcgh Ulf lz l, Florence; llhotOgrapll Scab/ An Rescu.rct, New York

7. Jean Michel PiC.1rt, Vase of Flowers, Ilndared, ojl Ponland An Museutn, Oregorl; m useum purchase, funtls plovuled by the Reserve FlIflt.land the Bra.n;1:m:1Il ;Ifld GeorgI" SWclzci Branaman Ccqucst

• :::;iQvanna Garzoni, PIme with

":'" _: , :r]t's and Bean Pods, -::-:::.;-: ra on veUum, C. 1620

w lk(.:llon

of the family in still life, fit admirably with Garzoni's chosen themes and refined style.

When Garzoni returned to her beloved Rome in 1651 she was a wealthy and cele-brated artis t. There she became closely associated with, although never an official m ember of, the Accademia di San Luca, to which she bequeathed many works, som e of her papers, and her personal fortune upon her death in 1670 . Today Garzoni's name is associated with a large body of work consist-ing of elegant floral pain tings and glowing "portraits" of fruits and vegetables. To her known oeuvre, m ost of which is preserved in Florence, may be added some previously unpublished works presented in the exh ibi-tion The Flowering of Flmence (2002)" and another still life (private collect ion) depict-ing a platter of asparagus, several carnations, and a lively green grasshopper (fig. 9). These are all furt her testimon y to the pictorial and naturalistic sensibility, the fruit of an infinite femminil pazienza, of this excep-tional artist.

Catherine Perrot, Painter and Teacher

Giovanna Garzoni Ina y neve r have been allowed to become a full-fledged member of the Accademia di San Lnca, but her slightly younger French colleague, Catherine Perrot, was offi cially received into the Academie royale de peinture et de sculpture of Paris in 1682 . She was one of thefew women ever to obtain this honor. Unfortunately, little information abour Perrot has come down to us, and no paintings can be attributed with certainty to her hand. We do know that she studied under the French painter Charles Le Brun (16 19-1690) and that she learned to paint miniatures of naturalistic subjects from the great botanical artist N icolas Rob-ert. Returning to Paris after his trip to Rome, Robert was appointed ptelTJleT p eintlB du my en miniature, a prestigious but demanding position . His appointment required him not only to document the king's botanical col-lections in the Jardins royals, producing the superb velins (paintings on vellum) in which he so excelled, but also to spend consider-able time teaching his art to others."

TON GI O R G l T O MA SI 169

9- GlOvanna Garzoni, Plate of Asparagus with CornatlOns and a Cfl1sshopper, undated, gouache On vellum Pnvnre coll<!cdon, Ju ly, reprod\lced by peLllllS510n 01 the owner; ph.otO'Of:lph Tnnuy Fme Alt, London

Catherine Perrot married Claude Harry, notary to the archbishop of Paris, and was 'lss igned to teach the ar t of mi niature pain ting to the yo unger members of the royal family, including Gabrielle de Savoie, the future wife of Philip V, king of Spain. Perrot was thus One of the first of her gender to become a teacher of naturalistic painting, an occupation that was destined to become a specialty for women artists. This unusual appoin tment also presaged the emergence, in the eighteenth century, of the predominantly female fi gure of the amateur painter.

Perrot was the author of two modest works intended for students of the art of flower painting that were published in Paris in 1686 and r693.4'; The firs t, Les Le00ns roya1es, au 1a maniere de peindlB en migna-ttlIeles fleurs et les oyseaux, was dedicated to " Madame la Dauphine" and explained, step by s tep, how to paint flowers and birds on vellum, itnparting SOlne of the "secret" techniques that had become an essential component of the tradition of naturalist ic painting (fig. raj. This work gives us an idea of Perrot'S teaching methods, which con-sisted primarily in h aving her s tud ents copy the works of the great master Nicolas

170 T ONGIO RGI T OMASI

Robert. "To paint flowers . . . ,1/ she wIote, "and to succeed at it, you cannot find better examples than the prints of Nicolas Robert .. . th e most excellent flower-painter who

has ever lived, until now.''''' She also fur-nished a list of the necessary pigments, together with their prices, and noted that these materials could be purchased at the shop 1/ A1a Cornemuse," run by the widow Foub ert, in the parish of Saint Nicolas Deschamps.

Perrot borrowed th irty engravings from Robert 's florilegium, Multiformes flowm species, to serve as models and taught her students how to m ake careful copies of these as tb e firs t step to becoming true flower painters. They had to begin by tracing the outline of an engraving, eith er in silver-point or by piercing a series of tiny holes wi th a needle onto a piece of high-quality vellum fixed to a wooden board. The col-ors, diluted with gum arabic, could then be applied within the outiines, taking care to employ only the most delicate tints where there were no shadows. For each engrav-ing Perrot specified the exact pigments to be used and their gradations, following the example of the original by Robert .

10. Catherine Perrot, title page from Les royales, on 1a maniere de pemdre eD mignarDfe les {leurs e£ les oyseaux (Paris, 1686) Collcctlon of MJ$ Paul Mel lon, 01lk Spring G:lrdcn LlbzAry, Uppervllle, Vlf¥ima

T 1 . Netherlandish art ist, Mana SibyIla Merian. 1679, oil \{unsunm e\IJn, Uaqel

Les Le90nS royales, which could be purchased at the printing house of Fran-

Poilly, was not, as the introduc tion explained, addressed exclusively to "per-sonnes de qualite." Rather, it was intended to serve as a dO-it-yourself manual for any-one interested in learning the ar t of !lower painting. The simple yet efiective format invented by Catherine Perrot proved highly successful and would la ter be adopted by other au thors of painting treatises.

Maria Sibylla Merian

One of the greatest pain ters in the his-tory of scien tific illustration was Maria Sibylla Merian 11647-17I7) lfig. II ), an art-ist whose li.!e and work have formed the subject of numerous s tudies, some of them quite recent. Researchers have focused, in turn, on h er unique conuibutions to the art of bo tanical painting, her impressive scientific achievements, and lately on an analysis of her career from the perspective of gender studies.

Merian was born into a family of artists; her father, Matthaus Merian the Elder 1' 593-1650), was a well -known engraver from Basel who eventually settled in Frankfurt. His daugh ter'S natural ta len ts were brought out by early training, so that she became profiCient in drawing, painting, and embroi-dery, as well as in the use of various print-making techniques-etchi ng, engraving, drypoint, and autography lin which a damp-ened sheet of pa per or vellum was pressed onto a fresh ly prepared plate and both were passed through a press). After the death of her father, Maria Sibyll a learned the art of flower painting from her stepfather, the still-life painter and art dealer Jacob Marrel1161 4-1681). She al so srndied un der two artists £rOITI Man·el/s atelierl Abraham Mignon, a painter specializing in stillilles with insects, and the German Jo hann Andreas Graff 1,637- 170 , ), whom she married in 1665."

Even as a chi ld, Merian had always been fascinated by insects and their various m eta-m orphoses; it is IG10wn that she collected sill{wonns and fed them leaves, carefully observing and recording their subsequent rransforn1ations .4R After her marriage she con tinued her studies, depicting the l ife cycles of th e moths and but terflies to be

LES LEC O N S I

ROY A LE S ON la manitre de P indn

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C OMPOSE'ES

l'ar Damoifcllc CAT H l\ r N PER.R 0 T J Peil1rre femme de M' C. HOrtl Norai r ; Apofl:olique de l' ArchcVdeJlc

Dedties A M AD AM E LA D A ;V P H H i E.

. , ", ,:, P I! RIS,

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TO NG IOR G I TO M AS I 1-1

lOund around her new home in N uremberg. . though entomology was her main interest, plantS and flowers also figured prominently in her an, for she usnally portrayed her insects together with a branch of the plant

n which they fed. In addition to her highly original insect studies, she also produced more traditional works in the genre of botanical painting, such as a volume of flo -ra l motifs for embroiderers, Neues Biumen-buch (r680), and a magnificent florilegium in three volumes for the nobleman Vincent .\1011er, a prominent figure in the political, eeonomic, social, and religious affairs of the city of Ham burg .

.\1erian's first important work, Del rupsen begin, voedzel en wondelbaale verandel'-ing, published originally in German as Del Raupen wun delbare Verwandeiung und sonderbare Blulnennahrung, was devoted to caterpillars and their transformation into butterflies. It was originally divided into three volumes, the first appearing in r679 and the second in r683, both published by her husband. The fifty plates in each vol-ume were accompanied by a text prepared by the artist and based on h er own obser-vations. The third volume was published posthumously in Amsterdam, together with a Dutch translation of the first two volumes, under the supervision of the artist's elder daughter and close collaborator, Dorothea Maria Henrietta. In keeping with the time-honored tradition of the family atelier, the artist generally signed her works with her maiden name, Maria Sibyll a Merian, but on the title page of the second vo lu me of Del rupsen begin appear the words "Maria Sibylla GraWn Sculpsit."

Iu this work we find early evidence of a rare characteristic of the artist, one that has not received much attention from scholars. Most of her illustrations were accompanied by descriptions that reveal not only the fac-ulty for observation of the born scientist, but also a genuine literary talent . She conceived her studies as an enthralling experience of discovery of the marvels of creation, and her words contain an irrepressible note of wonder and joy, sometimes verging on the lyrical tones of poetry, in their descriptions of even the most humble plants and insects, couched in a style which could have not

1]2 TONGIORGI T OMASI

been more different from the works of her male colleagues.

For example, the description that accom-panies Maria Sibylla's drawing of the moth Periphanes de1phinii not only reflects the passionate interest and boundless patience which she brought to her studies; word and image work together to proVide the m ost precise idea possible of the phenomenon under investigation (fig. 121. She writes:

I have often seen hovering over the light blue flowers of the Consolid'l legalis the enchanting lIttle moth that I depict here: so well known is it for its beauty and unusual coloring that I found myself wondering more than once from what caterpillar it might spring. I therefore pnr-sued my research untill found the caterpillars I was lookiug for on the flowers of this very plant, to which they cause great damage since they not only lli<:e to feed upon them, but often devour the leaves and flowers with such vorac-ity that tbey leave the stem completely bare.

The text continues with an account of the magnificent colors which the insect assumes in its various lTIutations, and concludes:

I have portrayed one of these sma ll moths in the center of the picture, poised on two green

u. Maria Slbylla Men an, Meadow Larkspm and Pease Blossom Moth. undated, gouache on parchment Collecuon 01 Mrs Paul Mellon, Oak Spring C;J{dcn Libr:l ry, Uppervil le, VlrgilHa

13- Mana Sibyila Meri.ln, Ciuon with a Moth ond {I

Hc lrlequin Beetle, c. 1701 -1-02 , watercolor ,llld body "':I,.,lor over pencil and etching on vellum Tll.c Royal Collect IOn () 2005, Hcr Majesty Q U CCll Ehzabeth U

leaves, the more to delight the eye of the natnre lover the more attentive and acute that eye is, and to lend luster to this tiny work of art of indefatigable

On the subject of the humble plantain, the artist o bserves:

l have often found these endearingly pretty green cate rpillars on the greater plantain and, ascertaining that this weed is so much to their taste that they will eat it with the greatest voracity, I was extremely glad to be able to include ill my fonhcol11ing treatise this salu-tary little plant with its changeable colors, which many thoughtlessly tread UPOll as they walk through meadows or along roads: whereas an artist might perhaps make good use of it because of its unusual and lovely

form, arranging it in the foregoun-: 0 : .:: scape or similar palllting.:v

III 1685, at the age of thirty-eight, :'vI. '''''' was persuaded by her beloved hall-h.. r!:er Caspar to abandon husband and home JnJ together with her two daughters and her lTIother, to join the Labadists, a pious sect founded by Jean de Labadie (16IO-r6n . This ex-Jesuit priest called for a re tUrn to the virtues of the early church and to this end established a religious conunu-nity at the isol ated castle of Waltha, near Leeuwarden, in Frisia. Taking advantage ot the sect's belief in absolute equality between the sexes, the artis t devoted all her time to scientific study_ At Waltha, she discov-ered a unique collection of insects from Surinam that had been acquired by a mem-ber of the Sommelsdijk family, propri etors of the castl e. The color, form, and dimen-sions of these tropical insects, so different from the European species with which she was falniliar, lTIUst have been a revelation to her.

Merian left the Labadist community in 1691 and m oved to Amsterdam, where she earned her living by painting floral stilllifes for wealthy art coll ectors. There she also began working on the third volume of Del rupsen begin, her treatise on caterpillars and butterflies. At the same time she had the opportunity to associate with such intel-lectuals as Nicolaas Witsen, the enlight-ened burgomaster of Amsterdam, who was a member of the Dutch East India Company and owned a magnificent insect collection. She also met two illustrious scientists, the anatomist Frederik Ruysch ,md the botanist Caspar Commelijn, director of the ci ty's botanical garden.

In 1699, when she was fifty-two years of age, with the encouragement and financial assistance of these fri ends, Merian was able to realize her dream of setting off for Suri-nam to study in situ the insects that she had hitherto seen only as iuanimate specim ens. From this extraordinary two-year expedi-tion, which she undertoolc with her daughter Dorothea Maria Henrie tta but "without a Inan's protection, "s1Merian produced Dis-sertatio de generatione et m etamolphosibus insectoIUn] Surinamensium, the crowning achievement of a life dedicated to art and

T ON GIQ It GI TOMA S I 17 :;

i D ll[ cilecrual and spiritual inquiry. Botb omher 2nd daughter suffered great hard-ships during their stay in the South Ameri-can colony. As the artist wrote in 1702 upon hCl return to Amsterdam, ffln that country iliere reigns a torrid heat, and every task t>ecomes an enormous effort; I m yself risked paying with my very life and fOl this reason could not prolong m y stay." Indeed, she had contracted malarial fever, and thus in September 1701 she and her daughter se t sail for home.

Merian spent the rest of her life com-pleting th e record of tbe entomological observations that she had made in Suri-nam, editing the scientific data witb the help of the botanist Commelijn and arrang-ing and retouching th e paintings which she had executed on site. The extraordinarily refined technique of these works, which today can he seen in the British Museum, the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle, and the Russian Academ y of Sciences in Saint Petersburg (fig. 13), reflects the artist's early training as an engraver. Beneath the tempera colors One ca n tra ce the marks of her origi -nal pencil drawing, with strokes that are reminiscent of the fine lines incised by the engIaver's tool. In fact, these pencil marks must have been of invaluable help to the artists charged with the task of transferring her drawings to m etal plates. Merian her-self engraved perhaps twenty of the plates for the book she was preparing, while the remaining forty p lates were executed hy Joseph Mulder (I659 /I660-after 171 8) and Jan Pieter Sluyter (1 675-171 3). The artist insisted, however, that only she and her daughter, who had studied the insects from life, should be entrusted with the final task of coloring the illustrations in the printed copies of the book.

The first edition of Dissertatio de gen -eratione et nlCtamorphosibus insectolum Surinamensium was published in Latin and Dutch in 1705, with s ixty plates. The sec-ond edition , whicb appeared in ' 7I9 , two years after the artist's death, contained an additional twelve plates, some the work of Merian and others perhaps by the hand of her younger daughter, johanna Helena. The sheer magnificence of its engravings and its unusual subject matter make the Dissertatio one of the most important scientific books

I74 TO NG IOR G I T O MAsr

ever to be produced in Europe, a true mas-terpiece of the printer's art .

The work opens with a fron t ispiece showing the artis t examining specimens presented to her by six putti, while behind her a spacious arch frames a tropical land-scape (fig. 14). The foreword is full of fac-tual information and personal reflections, the author describing in detail her "longin -quuIn et swnptuosum" (ventureSOlne and costly) voyage, her working methods, and the help that she received from the natives of Surinam. She explains that each insect

14 . Maria Sibylia Menan , frontIsplece from Dissertal.IO de generatJone et metamQrphosibus l1lsectorum SurInamenS1UlI.! (Amsterdam, 1705 ) CollecCion of Mrs Pfl ul Mellon, Oak Sprmg CardeDLlbnlIY,

V. rgJ Ola

I s. Maria Sibylla Merian, Pw eapple Ideta ilJ, plate T from DIssertatio de generatlone ez metamOrphoslbus insectorurn SunnamensLUm (Amsterdam, 1705), hand- colored etching CoUeet.lon of Mrs Paul Mellon. Oak Sprmg Garden Llbury, Upperville, Virginia

has been carefully s tudied in the various phases of its life cycle- often with the aid of a microscope- and is depicted life-sized together with the plant, flower, or fruit that made up its usual diet. Each entry begins with such botanical data, thus furnishing addi tional information on how the artist composed her pictures.

As we ha ve already seen in Del rupsen begin, here the artist 's images are reinforced by her words. A descripti on of the pine-apple (fig. 15 1, which opens the Disseltatio, is characteristic and illustrates the artist's approach to her subject matter:

The pineapple being the most important fruit 1mthe Americas] among those which are edible, it is only fa ir that it occupy first place in this work, just as it has in my research. On the page 1have painted it at the moment of its fl owering. The tiny colored leaves tbat lie just benea th the fruit are like satin spotted wi th yellow. The lateral shoots continue to grow; when the mature fruit is ga thered, the longer lea ves are sea green on the outside and grass green on their inner sides, while the borders are slightly reddish and armed with sharp spines. Of all the insects i.n Am erica, the best known are the cockroaches, primarily because

of the heavy damage t h ll t the'- ,- .... :. plants they feed upon. Ther ha·.·oO -' ,= _ predilection for the pineapple, be=", are attracted to all that is sweet. r .....: the ir eggs very close to one anOther 'n:.h .... protective covering that is round i.e torm : ,,: defend them from the numerous spider::> Ch the other part of the fruit is a different SpeCl I\;

of cockroach, which carries its eggs in a hI' abdominal sac. If the creature is attackc It immediately drops the covering, from ".-weh the little ones can emerge. This defensive action allows th em to escape more

Merian's sensitivity to the Illost lninU tc aspects of the natural world and her rich visual vocabulary, the fruit of a lifetime oi s tudy and practice, are reflected in e\''''' detail of the Dissertatio. Unlike the autho5 of other botanical and entomological trea-tises of the period, our artist-naturalist pro-vides a perspective that has been defined a-"ecological"" rather than systematic, for she always s tudied her animals in th eir natural setting rather than in the sterile environ-ment of the laboratory. Moreover, although she m ade ample use of the microscope to examine the external details and form oi her insects, Merian never dissected them in order to analyze their anatomy as her col-leagues generally did, from Francesco Redi and Marcello Malpighi to Jan Swammerdam, a Du tch na turalist whose work was well known to Merian and whom she cites in her preface. As the nineteenth-century historian Jules Michelet observed, the artist 'S unique approach amounted to a veritable "theology of the insect. " In his work L'lnsecte, pub-lished in r858 in Paris, Michelet discusses the complex and sometimes contradictory aspects of Merian's personaliry; while on the one hand he admits her "noble vigor, strong simpli city, and virile seriousness," he concludes by seeing in her work "the hand of a woman, conscientious and tender, that has reached out to'touch [her subjects) with the most loving

Merian's vis ion of Surinam was far from that of an idyllic tropical paradise, and in many of her paintings she shows next to the insect its natural predator. As the French physiologist and chemist Louis Figuier II 819-18941 wrote: "Everyone of her paintings depicts a drama in miniature. Next to the frightened and suspicious insect one can see

TON G JO RG I TOMA S I ' - 5

an avid lizard waiting pa tiently, or a fero-cious spider weaving its sinister Nor do the im placable laws of nature spare the splendid tropical flowers, often depicted by the artist as falling prey to ravening insects.

Among a ll the countries of Eu rope, Holland was perhaps the only one where the career of such an excep tional figure as Maria Sibylla Merian could have been pos-sible. During the late seventeenth century, there was a passionate interest in the exotic plants and other natural history specimens that were arriving, many of them through the Dutch East India Company. In addi-tion, an exemplary rigor was exercised in the approach to scientific research established by the great universities, such as that of Leiden J

and by the bo tanical gardens of Leiden and Alnsterd3111. For exmnple, an exten-sive and systematic effort to introduce exotic plants to meet the demands of the public botanical gardens and the private gardens of wealth y collectors was begun around r665 and reached its apex around 1682 .

One notable figure among many in this stimulating ambience was Agnes Block 11629- 1704), known as the La dy of Flines, a noblewoman with an interest in the natural sciences who won the admiration of bota-nists in Holland and abroad, including Lelia Trion fet ti of Bologna 116S6- c. 1708), with whom she conducted an interesting corre-spondence. In 1687, on the estate of Vijver-hov, near Loenen, along the Vecht River, her gardeners succeeded in cu ltivating a pine-apple to fruition. Agnes had this exceptional plant depicted, along with many other exotic specimens from her garden, by botanical artists then active in Amsterdam, including Jan Moninckx and his sister Maria; Alida Withous, the daughter of Matthias Graf and the sister of Jan and Johanna Helena Graf; and Dorothea Maria Henrietta, the daughter of Maria Sibylla Merian."

Behind the Convent Walls: Artist-Nuns .md Botanical Painting

During this period, m any members of reli-gious orders, both male and female, found an outlet for their energy and talents in the arts. Embroidery and miniature painting consti-tuted regular activities in the convent, and Tuscany, especially Florence, could boast a

17 6 TONGIO It G l T O MAS I

long tradition of nuns who were also artists, the most celebrated being Sister Plautilla Nel li 11523- 1588). A stndent of Fra Paolino and a follower of Fra Bartolomeo, Sister Plau-ti lla entered the Florentine con vent of Santa Caterina da Siena, which was renowned for i ts highly productive atelier specializing in religious paintings . The names of other artists active there between the end of th e sixteenth century and the middle of the eigh-teen th century-such as Sister Prudenza Cambi, Sis ter Felicia Lumicini, and Sister Maria Angelica Razzi-have come down to us, although their lives and their oeuvre still relnain to be reconstructedY

Even less is known about the nuns who devoted themselves to natura listic illustra-tion, although th e close ties between this genre and the art of embroidery, with its bird an d flower motifs, allow u s to hypo-thesize that within the cloister many of the artistically inclined must have been attracted to the painting of subjects of this kind .

Teresa Berenice Vitelli, or Sister Veronica lact. r706- I729j, was one such figure. Proba-bly born sometime during the last decades of the seventeenth century, she took her vows as a nun of the Benedictine order and joined the convent of Sant ' Apollonia in Florence. It is known that her work was admired by Violante of Bavaria, wife of Grand Duke Fer-dinanda de' Medici, for whom she executed copies in pastels of works by Rembrandt van Rijn, Francesco Trevisani, and Livia Mehus, a Flemish painter who died in Florence in 1691. She is also mentioned as one of the par-ticipants in an exhibition organized by the Accadem ia dell ' Arti del Disegno and held in the cloister of the church of the Santissima Annunziata.

The first known painting by Sister Veron-ica is a lively composition of birds and liz-ards on vellum, signed and dated 1706, to which other works on similar subjects have recently been ad ded. Her realistically por-trayed birds and other animals are arranged in charn1ing little scenes against dOlnestic backgrounds.58 Sister Veronica was clearly familiar with the oeuvre of Giovanna Gar-zoni, however, for an elegant pain ting in gouache on vellum of two tulips, a rose, and a delphinium, bound together with a flowing blue ribbon, contains distinct echoes of the latter's style. This par ticular work allows us

: l>. Teresa Bnemcc VitellI Veronica), Bouquet

. Tuilps, from Bruno Toul, -:awologiae vivis colonbus

. undated, gouache :"!'": i dper

peT ! lkni c le AttWIIJI ;: della Repubbllca Ttal ianaj : Na:Llonale dl ;; .ft1lZe, MS Convenn $opprCSSI, • ...l - 30. volmnc i

to ascribe to Sister Veroni ca other unattrib-uted paintings on floral su bjects contained in the four th volume of OIllithologiae vivis coloribus expressae, a miscellaneous collection of paintings assembled by the Vallombrosan m onk Bruno Tozzi Ir656-I 743) from the end of the seveteenth cen-tury into th e firs t decades of the eighteenth. Tozzi was a naturalist and botanical artist working at the abbey of Vallombrosa, n ear Florence, a center for botanical studies that was renowned beyond the Alps and as far as away England."

The fourt h volume of OIllithologiae contains gouache and watercolor paintings by various hands on a variety of subjects. Some of the paintings at the beginning of the m anuscript, in particular several small bou-quets bound with fl uttering ribbons, vases of flowers, and paintings of single blossoms, can in m y opinion be attributed to Sister Veronica because of their stylistic affinities with tbe works m entioned above lfig. 16). It sh ould also be noted that since the convent of Sant'Apollonia and the abbey of Vallom-brosa belonged to the same religious order, there must certainly have been close ties and regolar exchanges between them.

The Eighteenth Cen tury: Women and Students of Flower Painl ing

During th e eighteenth century.,. : ". , ularity of naturalistic illustrat;o" beyond the ruling classes, men oi and virtuosi to an emerging class of weal:n bourgeois, the genre began to assume dimensions and greater complexity. As the number of women arti sts in Europe multi -plied, they also began to turn their hands to subjects traditionally reserved for men, although the still life would always retain an important place in their oeuvre.

Among th e artists wh o gained particular recognition in this genre was Rachel Ruysch, daughter of the anatomist Frederik Ruysch an d the most talented student of Maria Sibylla Merian, whose trip t o Surinam was partly organized and financed by Rachel's father. Rachel Ruysch was best known for her large paintings of floral bouquets, marked by brilliant plastic and chromatic effects . She did not forget her early training, h ow-ever, and-in the rigorous tradition of scien-tific illustration-focused with microscopic precision on the individual elements in her cOlnpositions.

Because the eighteenth century was also the age of femm es SQvantes, the important role that wom en played in the study of the exact and natural sciences has already been thoroughly examined. Wbat has received considerably less attention is an analogous phenomenon in the arts: women skilled in botanical and zoological illustration began to playa dominant role in the family atelier. The unique contributions of a few such art-ists deserve brief examination h ere.

Barbara Regina Dietzsch

A German pain ter of botanical and zoo-logical subjects, Barbara Regina Dietzsch In 06- I783 ) provides a typical example of the emancipated woman who enjoyed com-plete autonom y in the practice of her art. She was the eldest of nine children, born into a family that counted many painters, engrav-ers, and musicians among its Inenlbersj her father was the well-known landscape painter Johann Israel Dietzsch 1r68r - I7 54)· Barbara Regina grew up in Nuremberg, a city with au illustrious artistic and scientific tradit ion.

TONG1QRG I T OMAs r

during the same period in which the emi-nent botanist and physician Christoph [a cob Trew (r69S-1769) wrote many of his lavishly illustrated encyclopedic treatises.

Barbara Regina Dietzsch speCialized in painting flowers, birds, and insects, while her sister Margaretha Barbara concentrated primarily au botanical subjects and provided some of tlle illustrations for Trew's works. Their brother [ohann Christoph Dietzsch (IJIO-I769) chose instead to continue the tradition of landscape painting established by meir fa ther, but few works on scientific subjects by his hand have come dowu to us. Although Barbara Regina was undoubtedly the most gifted of the three siblings, it is not always easy to determine ilie exact author-ship of the botanical and floral composi-tions in gouache on vellum that came out of the highly producti ve Dietzsch workshop, compositions that were oft en enlivened by the addition of insects, lizards, and other small animals, posed against velvety dark backgrounds (fig. 17).60

Eliza beth Blackwell Elizabeth Blackwell (IloO? - Il 58) was not an artist by profession and a somewhat involvcd personal story lies behind the creation of her work, A Curious Herbal, Containing Five Hundred Cuts of the Most Useful Plants (London, r737-1739). Elizabeth's husbaud, Alexander Blackwell, was a wealthy Scot-tish intellectual and self-educated physician who, when his credentials were challenged, was forced to give up his medical practice in Aberdeen. The couple then moved to London, where he set up a successful print-ing house. He again ignored professional licensing requirements, however, and his violation of trade regulations resulted in a series of heavy fines . He was forced to close his shop and, being unable to pay h is mounting debts, he was eventually arrested and sent to debtor's prison."

Elizabeili began casting about for a means to restore the family's fortunes, and when she learned from Sir Hans Sloane, president of the Royal Society, that English physi-cians and botanists lacked an up-to-date illustrated herbal of medicinal plants, she decided to remedy this lacuna . Renting a house close to the Chelsea Physic Garden

I 80 TON G I O RGI T OMASI

(the only botanical garden in London at the timeL she began in 17 I S to make botani-cal drawings of the garden'S collection of medicinal herbs. H er husband, still in prison, wrote the text describing their uses and properties, basing his work in large part on the Botanicum officinale published by [oseph Miller in Il22.

A Curious Herbal, featuring illustrations of five hundred flowering plants engraved and hand-colored by the artist herself, was published in several parts from r 7 3 7 to r 73 9 and then reissued in two vol urnes by the Loudon publisher Samuel Harding (fig. 18). The work came to the attention of the natu-ralist Dr. Chri stoph Jacob Trew, who under-took the publication of a new edition of the work, with the text translated into Latin and German and the plates re-engraved by N . F. Eisenberger (who added another hun-dred illustrations of his own). This expanded version of the herbal, with various supple-m ents, appeared as Herbarium Black-welliallum in Nuremberg over the period Ilso- r773·

The simplicity of the drawings in A Curi-ous Herbal betrays the fact that Elizabetll Blackwell was not a professional botanical anist, but they are nonetheless commend-ably accurate (each plant being drawn in careful outline, colored, and neatly arranged on the page, together with det ails of its £lower and seeds) and possess an undeni-able charm of their own. A Curious Herbal enjoyed a modest success, and Elizabeth was able to obtain her husband's release from prison and regulate his affairs so that he could once again take up his practice.

The story of the Blackwells and their herbal underscores the fact that in ilie middle of the eighteenili century there was a grow-ing demand for botanical illustrations. With resourcefulness and determination, the wife of the eccentric phYSician was able to take advantage of iliis opportunity."

A Genteel Pastime

While Elizabeth Blackwell took up her brush in ilie face of economic necessity-choosing the genre of botanical illustration because it was popular and marketable and using her native talent to the best of her ability-many other women began painting £lowers simply

because social cOllvention deemed it to be a suitable pastime for them. Thus, as had occurred in France in the time of Catherine Perrot a century earlier, a vogue for natural-is tic painting sprang up among young ladies in eighteenth- century England. Although it was conceded that members of the fair sex were particularly sensitive to the beanties of nature, it was also believed that their natural propensity needed to be carefully directed and trained. The popularity of the flower-painting genre was therefore reflected in the large number of female pupils who clamored to study under the most celebrated botanical painters of the day.

One of these Was Georg Dionysius Ehret IIlIO-I77o l, who had settled in England after collaborating with the Swedish bota-nist Carl Linnaeus 11707- 1778) on some of his groundbreaking studies. Ehret was in such great demand as a teacher that for many years he directed an informal and remarkably successfu l school of botanical painting for well-boru young ladies!' in which he sought to teach botanical painting in accordance wi th the highest standards of the art. Furthermore, he codified the rules of botanical illustration, which gave the genre a solid professional dimension based on technical training and a careful ground-ing in the natural sciences. Ehret taught his students not only how to paint flowers in

accordance with the strict rules of scjern:::.: illustration, but also how to conserve thl.'':'!" works; he even elnphasized the of recording on each sheet the sciemuk names of the species portrayed using [he systelTI of Linnaeus. In his m emoirsl tbe artist enUlnerated with pride the names oi the many ladies of aris tocratic birth w ho frequented his classes, including Catherine, Duchess of Norfolk, and Mary, Duchess oi Leeds. Some of his students, such as Lad;-Frances Howard and Lady Ann Hamilton, later ga ined a modest fame of their own as botan ical artists, although they rarely surpassed the level of a conscientious rein-terpretation of the master 's style"

The panorama describ ed here, embracing such different personalities, all passionately engaged in the art of naturalistic illustra-tiou, gives an idea not only of the richness and complexity of thi s art form, but also of a uniquely feminine approach to the natu-ral world and scientific phenomena. In this perspective, the femminil pazienza that was otherwise consi dered a lesser gift tradi tion-ally attributed to women artists acquired extraordinary potential. Maria Sibylla Merian was fully aware of this fact wheu she wrote in lune of 1704 to the physician lohann Georg Volckamer of Nuremberg: "patience is a very beneficial little herb ."65

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