Musing of the Muses

Imagine a world before screens, when all images depended on reflected rather than penetrant light (OK, OK, except those in stained-glass windows). Go back earlier and imagine a world before photography, when all illustrations were drawn, painted etc, and the best depictions of flowers were the astonishing – but undeniably flat and matte – water-coloured lithographs of Curtis Botanical magazine.

Then in that environment, imagine stumbling across ‘The Table of the Muses’ (in the Palatine Gallery, Florence, and made by the Opificio delle Pietre Dure between 1837 and 1851), in which all detail (as above and below) is created of thin slivers of semi-precious stone, inlaid into a background of lapis lazuli.

IMG_2017

Shading within each petal is created by choosing an individual piece of stone in which the colour naturally varies.

Unlike any other depiction of flowers of the time, it’s as if light penetrates deep into the surface, lingers there for a while, and re-emerges saturated in colour. There’s a pearlescent transparency to every piece. You would have been held, totally spellbound.

The image to the left is of Anemone pavonina, which, by some happy coincidence, happened to be in full bloom in my garden upon my return (right). Thanks to Marcus Harvey for confirming ID

Discussion

  1. Oh my word!! I haven’t seen those in all my visits to Florence. Oh well need to go back again!

    Back to our world…… for me digital still doesn’t have the luminosity of 35ml transparencies.However nothing surpasses the luminous work of Anita Barley. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Anita-Barley/199941716731810

Leave a Comment

More Blog Posts

Lets call it a pre-Post

I’m supposed to be doing that promised final post on meadows.  But I want to shoot off on a short tangent just cos its current, and if I don’t do it now the moment will have passed. The miniature ...

Bulbous beauty

I can’t decide if it’s just a matter of association, but I love the look of bulbs.  I’m not talking about the flowers (though I love those too), I’m talking about the bulbs themselves.  I lo ...

..and bulb blues

One of the truly great, anticipation-charged moments in the garden year looms.  The first of the bulb catalogues has appeared.  What’s on offer are brown, flaky, often ugly or even grotesque littl ...