Sunflower
by BIMBI, Bartolomeo, Oil on canvas, 101 x 78 cm
This large flower painted by Bimbi is part of a huge series of botanical illustrations created by him and other Florentine artists of the time. The painter’s aim was not scientific classification, but documentary: he wanted to capture on canvas the majestic elegance of this double sunflower which grew in the Medici gardens. It was painted at the personal commission of the sophisticated collector Cosimo III de’ Medici.