Gardens on Canvas and Paper: Cataloguing Botanical Abundance in Late Medici Tuscany

2016

What is the purpose of portraying a branch from a pear tree in bloom and fruit, of listing hundreds of citrus varieties or of dissecting a huge truffle? When Cosimo III (1642–1723), the penultimate grand duke of the Medici dynasty, commissioned artists and botanists alike to create comprehensive visual and textual catalogues of Tuscan flora, aesthetics and curiosity seemed to go hand in hand with a demonstration of knowledge and prosperity. This article deals with the collection of botanical paintings by Bartolomeo Bimbi (1648–1730), housed in the Casino della Topaia close to the city of Florence, and with the mainly handwritten work of the grand ducal botanist Pier Antonio Micheli (1679–17…