Amazing rare things

Abstract

A new exhibition selected from the collections of Britain's royal family features work from four artists and a collector who helped shaped European awareness of the natural world at a time of exploration and colonial expansion that created enormous curiosity about life beyond the continent.Material from Leonardo da Vinci, Cassiano del Pozzo, Alexander Marshal, Maria Sibylla Merian and Mark Catesby, who shared a passion for enquiry and a fascination with nature, is displayed.Maria Sibylia Merian earned her living as a flower painter, teacher and dealer in paints and pigments in Frankfurt and Amsterdam. In 1699, at the age of 52, she travelled with her daughter to the Dutch colony of Surinam to study and chronicle the life cycle of moths and butterflies. A resulting publication is one of the most important works of natural history of its era and the first scientific volume to be devoted to the area. The painting of a toucan represents a deviation from her primarily invertebrate interests.The exhibition includes works by Leonardo da Vinci, who used drawing as means to understand natural forms. Leonardo pursued his anatomical investigations through dissection, and the exhibition includes drawings of part of a cow, horse and bear.The Italian antiquarian Cassiano del Pozzo embodied the new spirit of empirical investigation that transformed the study of natural history in the seventeenth century, so dramatically pursued by da Vinci a century earlier. He belonged to Europe's first modern science academy, the Accademia dei Lincei, which had Galileo among its members.Red-billed toucan c.1705-10 by Maria Sibylla Merian. This painting was purchased by George III, when Prince of Wales. (Photo: The Royal Collection ©2007, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.)View Large Image | View Hi-Res Image | Download PowerPoint SlideHe commissioned artists to record plants, birds and animals for his museum and a pictorial encyclopaedia that attempted to understand and classify both the natural and ‘man-made’ world.Alexander Marshal's floral paintings were compiled at a time when the cultivation of gardens had become a pursuit of scholars and collectors, keenly interested in exotic species. In his famous flower book, indigenous species are portrayed alongside new and exotic flowers such as the crown imperial, hyacinth and broken tulip. Marshal's pictures endeavoured to portray the individual character of each subject. Some also carry miniature images of animals and insects.Crown imperial, narcissi and auriculas c.1650-82 by Alexander Marshal, presented to George IV. (Photo: The Royal Collection ©2007, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.)View Large Image | View Hi-Res Image | Download PowerPoint SlideThe exhibition also features drawings by Mark Catesby from voyages to Carolina, Florida and the Bahamas, during the eighteenth century.The exhibition is accompanied by the book Amazing Rare Things: The Art of Natural History in the Age of Discovery by David Attenborough.The exhibition is at Holyroodhouse Palace, Edinburgh until 16 September. It then transfers to The Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace, London from 14 March 2008.