SET OF 6 BLACK AND WHITE BOTANICAL PRINTS BY ABRAHAM MUNTING (1626-1683)

SET OF 6 BLACK AND WHITE BOTANICAL PRINTS BY ABRAHAM MUNTING (1626-1683)
FROM NAAUWKEURIGE BESCHRYVING DER AARDGEWASSEN (ACCURATE DESCRIPTION OF TERRESTRIAL PLANTS)
Published posthumously by Pieter van der Aa & Francois Halma, Leyden & Utrecht, Netherlands: 1696
Fine copper plate engravings on laid paper framed in acid free museum board mounts with hand made water gilt and painted frames.

Abraham Munting (1626-1683) was professor of botany at the University of Groningen, and took over and enlarged the botanic garden founded by his father Henricus. It was known as the 'Paradise of Groningen' and became one of the most famous gardens of its time. Botanical colleagues sent him seeds of numerous exotic plants from the Dutch East and West Indies, South Africa, the Americas, etc. His posthumously published opus magnum, the Naauwkeurige, enjoyed particular success, at least in part due to the novelty of the plates, which in a radical departure from the iconography of the traditional florilegium, presented its plant species against a charming series of landscape backgrounds. The illustrations are remarkable for their elegance and originality. Each plate shows a different plant in flower, including many exotic species from America and other distant lands. The plant dominates the foreground, filling the entire page, often with a detail of the fruit or flower presented on a smaller scale. In some cases the plants are presented à trompe l'oeil, while in others they have been arranged in decorated urns. Sometimes gardening tools are depicted as well. The latin name of each plant appears written on an elegantly fluttering ribbon or cartouche, or on a crumbling marble plaque'. The plates are after drawings by Abraham Munting & Joseph Mulder (1659-1710). The artist of many of the backgrounds, particularly those featuring architecture, classical ruins, putti, etc. is most probably Jan Goeree (1670-1731)

HEIGHT: 53 cm (20¾") outside of frame
WIDTH: 43 cm (17") outside of frame

price 3,300 GB Pounds (If the prints remain in the EU they are subject to 20% VAT on the price)