Flower power. The Ara Pacis, an altar erected in Rome by the emperor Augustus in 9 B.C.E., includes one of the earliest documented depictions of an orchid (inset) in Western art. Credit: Wikimedia Commons; Bernd Haynold/Wikimedia Commons
Posted on 10/29/2012 2:02:37 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Turns out the early Romans were wild about orchids. A careful study of ancient artifacts in Italy has pushed back the earliest documented appearance of the showy and highly symbolic flowers in Western art from Renaissance to Roman times. In fact, the researchers say, the orchid's popularity in public art appeared to wilt with the arrival of Christianity, perhaps because of its associations with sexuality...
A few years ago, botanist Giulia Caneva of the University of Rome (Roma Tre) set out to change that. Working with several graduate students, she began assembling a database of Italian artifacts, including paintings, textiles, and stone carvings of subjects including vegetation. Then, the team began the painstaking process of trying to identify the real plants the artists had copied.
One surprise was that depictions of Italian orchids -- there are about 100 species in all -- showed up much earlier than expected. Although scholars had spotted the flowers in paintings from the 1400s, Caneva's team discovered that stone carvers were reproducing orchids as early as 46 B.C.E., when Julius Caesar erected the Temple of Venus Genetrix in Rome. And at least three orchids appear among dozens of other plants on the Ara Pacis, a massive stone altar erected by the emperor Augustus in 9 B.C.E., Caneva and colleagues reported last week in the Journal of Cultural Heritage. Artists probably chose the flowers to help emphasize the altar's theme of civic rebirth, fertility, and prosperity following a long period of conflict, Caneva says.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.sciencemag.org ...
Flower power. The Ara Pacis, an altar erected in Rome by the emperor Augustus in 9 B.C.E., includes one of the earliest documented depictions of an orchid (inset) in Western art. Credit: Wikimedia Commons; Bernd Haynold/Wikimedia Commons
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| GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach | |
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Wow, system's running sloooow. |
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Not seein’ it. Plant on left has whorls, plant in center has regular , as opposed to irregular, flowers.
The pic on the left looks like Clematis vines. They are not orchids. The pic on the right appear to be orchids possibly dendrobium.
The pic on the left looks like Clematis vines. They are not orchids. The pic on the right appear to be orchids possibly dendrobium.
Why do they assume an artistic pattern is realistic? Artistic license might combine species or make them up to get the desired look.the flowers in the relief some look like hibiscus, but the rendition isn’t consistent.
Gee, maybe Brutus was pissed that Caesar had copped some of his orchids?
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