African Aloe, plate 47 from Phtanthoza Iconographia

Discussion

FROM THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO’S CATALOG

The botanist Johann Wilhelm Weinmann employed several German artists to provide unsigned color illustrations for his massive study of the iconography of plants. The artists mentioned on the title page included Bartholmaus Seuter (1678–1754), Johann Elias Ridinger (1698–1767) and Johann Jacob Haid (1704–1767). The mixed technique of mezzotint and engraving in multiple colors had never before been used for botanical publications, and so preceded Jacques Gautier D’Agoty’s 1767 attempt, the Collection of Usual, Curious and Foreign Plants , as well as Robert John Thornton’s more graphically successful 1799 Temple of Flora .

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