Prior to the invention of photography, botanical illustration was the only way of visually recording the world’s many species of plant life.
The practice can be traced back to sometime between 50 and 70 CE, when an illustrated book was created by Greek botanist Pedanius Dioscorides to help readers identify plant species for medicinal purposes.
To read more, explore these links:
Centuries-Old Botanical Illustrations and the Art They Inspire Today
https://mymodernmet.com/history-of-botanical-illustration/
Stunning Botanical Images Are Blueprints of the Past
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/botanical-photograph-cyanotype-blueprint-past
Trees in ancient art
https://africanrockart.org/news/trees-rock-art/
From Van Gogh to O'Keeffe, Art History's Most Famous Flowers
https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-van-gogh-okeeffe-art-historys-famous-flowers
Tracing the roots – stems, leaves, fruits… – of modern botany
https://www.botany.one/2016/02/tracing-the-roots-stems-leaves-fruits-of-modern-botany/
Botany meets archaeology: people and plants in the past
https://academic.oup.com/jxb/article/64/18/5805/606750
Asian botanical artists
https://www.botanicalartandartists.com/famous-asian-botanical-artists-600-1900.html
China and Egypt: Tracing Ancient Healing PracticesThrough the Hibiscus
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&context=mcnairsymposium
Tracing Goethe’s influence on botany and plant morphology
Historical Flower Painting in China
http://www.chinaonlinemuseum.com/painting-flowers.php
The Flowering of Florence: Botanical Art for the Medici
Grand Challenge: Valuing World Cultures
Grand Challenge: Understanding and Sustaining a Biodiverse Planet
ERC Grand Challenges: For project design, for inquiry, for activism
Photo by British Library on Unsplash