Fruit and insects. Rachel Ruysch. 1711 CE oil on wood.

• Form
  • Asymmetrical, artful arrangement
  • A finely detailed illustration of natural objects in a rural setting
• Content
  • Not a depiction of actual flowers, but a construct of perfect specimens all in bloom at the same time
  • The artist probably used illustrations in botany textbooks as a basis for the painting
  • Wheat and grapes juxtaposed: may have been a reference to the Eucharist
• Context
  • The artist’s father was a professor of anatomy and botany as well as an amateur painter
  • The artist produced a number of such still lives in a woodland setting.
  • Parallels Dutch interest in botany, and the growing of flowers for decorative and medicinal purposes
  • Flowers were symbols of wealth and status.
Previous Next