GARZONI, Giovanna

Though hinting at the destructive nature of time and the transitory nature of pleasure, these fruits, including a quince on the left, recall classical tales of disappointed birds mistaking the paintings of masters for the real thing.

This work is one of the four studies of plants kept in the Uffizi, Florence.

In the present work there is a precarious balance between scientific and decorative: a dualism is revealed in the work’s descriptive precision as a document, and in the inclusion of artistic conceits such as shadowing, which emphasize an artistic ambition rather than purely scientific.

For her studies of produce, Garzoni painted on the hair side of the parchment, which has more tooth, or texture, than the flesh side. She may have liked the additional depth that the support gave her colours.

Garzoni achieved an unequalled luminosity by stippling richly pigmented watercolour on vellum, a fine-grained lambskin, kidskin, or calfskin prepared especially for writing. Once used for the finest manuscripts, vellum had been largely replaced by paper in book making.

Garzoni’s paintings glow, because the transparent watercolour allows light to reflect off the well-whitened parchment, returning through the fine pigments available to a court’s painter and scientific illustrator.

This work is one of four studies of plants kept in the Uffizi, Florence. They depart from the more typical compositions by the artist and seem akin to botanical tables. In the present work the artist depicts a Hyacinthus orientalis, native to Mesopotamia but already grown in Italy by 1590. The unnaturally positioned feet of the lizard indicate that the animal was likely a scientific specimen.

This sheet is part of a herbarium (plate 8) illustrated by Giovanna Garzoni comprised of fifty botanical tables and preceded by a self-portrait of the artist. The drawings in the manuscript are accompanied by inscriptions that identify the species. In the upper right hand corner the botanical name appears as it was likely indicated by the naturalist who guided the artist during the creation of the herbarium. The name is repeated in fine calligraphy by Giovanna Garzoni next to the root of the plant.

The Mandrake (Mandragora autunnalis) is a plant widely found in southern Italy and was revered for its alleged magical properties.

This picture can be related to the series of “Twenty Small Paintings on Vellum” with miniatures of fruit, now housed in the Galleria Palatina in Florence. The paintings in this series are distinguished by the predominant choice of only one type of fruit or vegetable.

The present work is a reproduction of a painting in the Florentine series with minimal variations. Garzoni frequently reproduced her own miniatures for various patrons.

Patronized by, among others, Leopoldo de’ Medici, a natural-history enthusiast, Garzoni produced lively, closely observed paintings of botanical and zoological specimens.

Between 1632 and 1637, Garzoni is documented in the service of the court in Turin, where she executed many works. These included parchments depicting portraits as well as sacred, mythological, and naturalistic subjects. Two posthumous portraits of the dukes of Savoy, Emanuele Filiberto and Carlo Emanuele, of similar dimensions and belonging to this production, are currently kept in the Turinese Royal Palace.

This work is one of the four studies of plants kept in the Uffizi, Florence.

In the present work the artist depicts a Ranunculus asiaticus plant, two almonds, and an insect hymenopteran. While the influence of botanical artist Jacopo Ligozzi is evident, Garzoni most likely would have been able to view drawings by northern artists as well as a range of natural history objects. Garzoni, preceded by Ligozzi and followed by Bimbi, had the opportunity to closely observe plant and flower species from the Medicean gardens.

This self-portrait comprises the frontispiece of an illustrated herbarium. The portrait depicts the artist as an approximately fifty- or sixty-year-old woman. However, it is assumed that the sheets of the herbarium were produced earlier, since, according to a document, the herbarium was commissioned in 1616 from the sixteen-year-old Garzoni by a pharmacist originally from Delft. It is possible that the self-portrait was inserted together with the botanical sheets as the frontispiece of the herbarium at a later date.

This still-life, depicting a basket of fruit, a vase with carnations, and shells on a table, exemplifies Garzoni’s refined and elegant interpretation of natural objects.

Ferdinando I de’ Medici commissioned Bernardo Buontalenti to build a villa at Artemino. A century later Giovanna Garzoni painted this jewel-coloured, quasi-surrealist combination of portrait and genre scene. The old peasant has evidently been bringing the villa’s products to the top of its hill. But these food are not for the likes of him.

In this work, it is evident through the precision of execution, the strong three-dimensionality, and the reflection of the window in the glass vase, that the artist studied examples of northern European painting during her sojourn in Turin.