The word “florilegium” in modern English usually means something like “a collection of writings”. One of its earlier meanings was “a bouquet”. Here I'm using it in the earlier sense to mean a collection of flowers. What follows is a selection of flower paintings; such things were all the rage in seventeenth century Europe. The very idea of painting flowers is, as far as many people are concerned, embarrassingly passé these days. (Some even argue that painting itself is passé. Whether or not any of that is true is of no consequence, really.)

The following paintings were done over the years at different times and with different intention. Some pay homage to seventeenth century European artists such as Maria Sibylla Merion and Alexander Marshall, both of whom displayed the clarity and reverence that marked the happy marriage of art and science at the time. Others are experiments with multipanel compositions forming a grid or in vertical panels as in a Chinese screen. Be sure to look at the dimensions of these paintings; some are of modest size and some are quite large.

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