When I was young I studied art history at the University in Linköping, and even before then I appreciated classical paintings, styles and motifs from early “middle ages” up until our time. One art genre I really like is botanical paintings and drawings.
Last year there was a big exhibition, held at Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen, about historical flower paintings called “Flowers and world views”. I was very excited to see it.
The one part I really appreciated was the big collection of gouache paintings by Hans Simon Holtzbecker, called the “Gottorfer Codex”, from 1649-59. He worked in the break between the more symbolical and the more realistic flower art.
Only a couple of images where still symbolical in the Gottorfer Codex, see below.
All these paintings had been carefully restored by conservators for four years and it felt special to be able to see them publicly for the first time.
For more info (much better photo quality and a chance to download art for free) see Statens Museum for Kunst.
But the rest of that exhibition was very much about older symbolical and heavy oil paintings, and I found out that is just not my taste. I am much more interested in “modern” delicate drawings and exact watercolors, with a more scientific approach…
…And at the same time there where another flower exhibition nearby that I totally loved, I will wright about that later…