A beautifully illustrated and highly readable book on the art of the garden from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries.
ITALIAN SCHOOL, EARLY 17TH CENTURY
Peony (Paeonia mascula (L.) Mill.) with the root of (Paeonia officinalis L.)
c. 1600-25Watercolour and bodycolour over black chalk or graphite | 36.2 x 27.0 cm (sheet of paper) | RCIN 919401
A watercolour of a Peony, from the family Ranunculaceae; mounted in a Cassiano mount type D. The drawing shows the roots and a single flower with large pink petals. The roots drawn on a separate sheet of paper cut out and stuck on.
This drawing is one of a large group of botanical sheets produced for Cassiano’s friend Federico Cesi, and acquired by Cassiano after Cesi’s death in 1630. It is a composite of two species of peony, a flowering branch of Paeonia mascula ('male peony'), to which the root of Paeonia officinalis (then known as 'female peony') has been pasted. Both species were widely used in herbal remedies of the period.
