Cape Goosberry, Brigid Edwards, Shirley Sherwood Collection. Image courtesy of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
24 Hour Museum Renaissance Student Journalist Zoe Adjonyoh travelled to see a combination of art and science in Oxford.
The Eldon and McAlpine Galleries at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford are, until September 11 2005, home to a stunning collection that spans over 1,000 years of botanical art from all over the world.
Glass cases house several large books containing reams of drawings, opened for display at particularly intricate and beautiful images of watercolour and pencil drawings from artists such as Pierre-Joseph Redouté and James Bateman.
Iris, Graham Rust, Shirley Sherwood Collection. Image courtesy of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
Wall-hung paintings include the mesmerising detail of artists such as Ann Schweizer’s Exotic Cactus, Susan Ogilvy, Gertrude Hamilton and Christopher Jacob Trew, while more unusual displays include Yannow Petters’ Irish Meadow, an oil painting on framed glass and a Bryan Poole etched copper plate next to which hangs a print made from it.
The common link between this plant portraiture in all its varying mediums and forms is the painstaking scientific detail that appears apparent throughout. This is true of the oldest painting in the display, a thistle painted by an 11th century monk to the most recent, a rare Peruvian slipper orchid, discovered in 2002 and painted by Angela Miro.
Roses (2), Regine Hagedorn, Shirley Sherwood Collection. Image courtesy of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
A rich variety of artistic impressions of fruit, vegetables, flora and fauna are on display, which serve as an excellent history lesson for all, whether an art lover, botanist or scientist. The exhibition charts the discovery and inter-continental movement of new species of botanical life and art over the past 1000 years.
One of the more notable historic documents is Tradescant’s Orchard, a compilation of watercolours of garden fruit from the 1620-30s that reveals the introduction of new fruits from the continent.
Metamorphosis Insectorum Surninamensium, Maria Sibylla Merian, Oxford University of Natural History. Picture courtesy of Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
The age of exploration and discovery is remembered through the ground-breaking artistic explorations of Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717) who travelled to Surinam to paint exotic plants. As well as one of the most influential modern artists in the exhibition, Margaret Mee (1909-88), whose paintings of endangered species from the Amazon significantly contributed to the awareness of protecting the rainforest.
Tradescant's Orchard, Bodleian Library, Oxford. Image courtesy of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
Art imitating botanical life is this year’s highlight at the Ashmolean and will be one of the museum’s last major exhibitions before building work on its redevelopment begins at the end of the year.
Zoe Adjonyoh is the 24 Hour Museum Renaissance Student Writer in the South East region. Renaissance is the groundbreaking initiative to transform England's regional museums, led by MLA, the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council.
