Botanical Illustration around 1800 (abgeschlossen)
Projektdaten
| Leitung | Prof. Dr. Kärin Nickelsen |
| Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter | Prof. Dr. Kärin Nickelsen |
| Partnerinstitution | |
| Förderung |
Project Description
Botanical Illustration around 1800
This project encompasses the first (and so far: only) in-depth study of how eighteenth-century botanical illustrations were produced, both in terms of the material side of this process and in terms of considerations related to the illustrations’ use in botany. In addition to this historical work the illustrations’ visual language is explored, with particular emphasis placed on the difficult issue of colour.
The project achieved (on hand from a sample of illustrations of six plant species) a description of how botanical illustrations were improved and developed, ascertaining the criteria that drove this process, which was arrived at through a careful study of the many copying links that were discovered between images of the same species – a sophisticated strategy that fulfilled the exacting requirements of eighteenth century scientific botanical illustrations. It transpired in further work (e.g., medieval planet diagrams) that these criteria were applicable also in other cases to describe the dynamics of how scientific illustrations are evaluated and, consequentially, improved.
The monograph that grew out of this project (“Draughtsmen, Botany and Nature: The construction of Eighteenth Century Botanical Illustration”, see below) was published in a prestigious series of Springer and was awarded several international prizes.
Currently selected aspects of the project are being elaborated in more depth, such as the cooperation between botanists and craftsmen (in particular engravers, draughtsmen and gardeners) by Henriette Müller-Ahrndt.
Results were published in Nickelsen, K. (2006): Draughtsmen, Botanists and Nature: The Construction of Eighteenth-Century Botanical Illustrations, Springer, Dordrecht.
