The Art of Natural History: Illustrated Treatises and Botanical Paintings, 1400-1850 – Hardback

Presenting images found throughout Europe in works on natural history, medicine, botany, horticulture, and garden design, and studies of insects, birds, and animals, the contributors emphasize their artistic as well as scientific values. Illustrators are shown to have been both artists and either naturalists or gardeners, bringing to their work aesthetic judgment and empirical observation. Their images receive a fresh, wide-ranging analysis that covers such topics as innovation, patronage, readership, reception, technologies of production, and the relationship between the fine arts and scientific depictions of nature.

280 pages, 170 b&w illustrations + 50 colour images.