A marriage of art and science - botanical illustrations at Amgueddfa Cymru
Mankind has always been fascinated by flowers and the plants on which they grow - by their beauty and their possibilities for healing and knowledge. The stories behind botanical illustrations are rich and intriguing in their own right - the desire to capture the flower before it fades often amounted to an obsession. Scientists risked life and limb to acquire new specimens and the collection of over 7,000 botanical prints and drawings at Amgueddfa Cymru reveals the human tales behind the history of botanical discovery.
Click on the thumbnails below for further details.
Botanical illustrations
Related
Article: Drawn from nature: Botanical illustrations
20 August 2007Mankind has always been fascinated by flowers, by their beauty, and by their possibilities for healing and knowledge. Amgueddfa Cymru holds a unique collection of more than 9,000 botanical illustrations spanning five centuries.
Interactive: Giant Waterlily navigator
13 July 2007
Move around a close-up image of this highly detailed lithograph of Victoria regia, the Giant Waterlily, taken from a book that was specially commissioned to celebrate the first flowering of the plant at Kew in 1854.
Article: Stunning plant portraits donated
12 June 2007