17C Garden 1609

1609 Month of April Print made by Adriaen Collaert After Jacques Callot After Joos de Momper  

17C Garden 1614

APRIL print Made & Published by Hendrik Hondius II 1614

17C Gardens 1689

1687 April Crispijn van de Passe (I), Maerten de Vos, 1574 - 1687

17C Discovering a Garden in a Painting Background - 1640 Minerva

 1640 Louis Ferdinand Elle the Elder (French artist, 1612-1689) Anne Marie Louise d'Orleans Grande Mademoiselle as Minerva

17C Discovering a Garden in a Painting Background

Anonymous Artist - Spring with Flowers & a Garden in the Background. Madrid, Museo del Prado. 1601-1650

Spring & "springtime" refer to the ecological, environmental season, and also to ideas of rebirth, rejuvenation, renewal, resurrection & regrowth.

Allegory 1700s Harvesting

Jan Josef Horemans the Elder (Dutch artist, 1682-1759) Summer

18C Allegories of Spring - Love & Bird Nests

1785 Probably Britain. Here a young man is handing a birds' nest to a young woman. He has one hand on her shoulder as she accepts the nest.  She is collecting spring flowers in her apron. The couple is passing by another woman kneeling beside a basket of flowers and hold up a garland for the couple to see. Men are sowing grain in fields in the background to left.

18C Allegories of Spring - Love & Bird Nests

1796 Spring Published by George Thompson London

 This depiction of Spring shows a family on a river bank.  The man is holding a fishing rod and displying a fish caught on the line, while the woman opens a wicker basket full of others. The little girl stands holding a basket of flowers, while the little boy kneels in the foreground, feeding birds in a nest in his hat. Behind them a team is ploughing in the background to right. 

18C Allegories of Spring - Love & Bird Nests

18C English Woodcut of Spring

Another bird's nest with chirping chicks is gently placed in the woman's apron.

gar 1745 Allegories of Spring- In a Garden

 1745 Spring from The Four Seasons Les Quatre Saisons after Nicolas Lancret  & published in France Here in a garden with a fountain & a birdbath lying on the ground, a young man holding a spade talks to a young woman holding a basket of flowers, while another woman on the right is watering plants.

1754 Allegories of Spring - In a Garden

1754 Spring from The Four Seasons published by Thomas Major London. 

People appear to work in the walled sunken garden behind the group. A man hands a flower to a young woman sitting on a terrace with her attendant standing behind them.  A boy at right has a parrot perched on his hand.  They are in a garden with a statue of a Venus & an arch at left, through which a couple can be seen in an embrace. Plants in pots dot the area around the group.

1758 Allegories of Spring - A bit of Watering & a bit of Flirting in a Garden

1758 Spring from The Four Seasons  After Nicolas Lancret by John Simon. Here is a a garden with a fountain & a birdbath lying on the ground, where a young man holding a spade stops working to talk with a young woman holding a basket of flowers, while the other woman, now on the left, is actually watering plants.

Picking Apples - Autumn 1700s

1750s Autumn; print; John Bowles (Published by); James McArdell (Print made by); 1753-1766; London

Picking Apples 1700s

1778 Autumn Carington Bowles (Published by) John Collet (After) 1778-1779 London

Allegory- Jean Couvay (French, c 1605–1663) Harvesting

Jean Couvay (French, c 1605–1663) Allegory of Summer

Economics in the Garden - 1600s The Great Dutch Tulip Folly - Tulip-Mania!

Jan Brueghel the Younger (1601–1678) Allegory of Tulipmania

In 1593, tulips from Turkey were introduced to the Dutch. The novelty of the new flower made it widely sought after & fairly pricey. After a few decades, the tulips contracted a non-fatal virus called mosaic, which didn't kill the tulip population but altered them causing "flames" of color to appear upon the petals. The color patterns came in a wide variety, increasing the rarity of an already unique flower. Tulips, which were already selling at a premium, began to rise in price according to how their virus alterations were valued. Many began to deal in bulbs, essentially speculating on the tulip market, which was believed to have no limits.

Jean-Léon Gérôme (French artist, 1824-1904) The Tulip Folly 1882. The scene depicts the late 1630s, where a Dutch soldier guards one potted tulip, while other troops (or speculating investment bankers?) stomp out fields of competing, less-precious flowering bulbs.

Bulb speculators began to fill up inventories for the growing season, depleting the supply further & increasing scarcity & demand. Soon, prices were rising so fast & high that people were trading their land, life savings, & whatever they could liquidate to get more tulip bulbs. Many Dutch persisted in believing they would sell their hoard to hapless & unenlightened foreigners, thereby reaping enormous profits. Somehow, the already overpriced tulips enjoyed a twenty-fold increase in value - in one month!

A portrait of a precious Dutch daughter with a precious Dutch tulip. 1631 Unknown artist Inscription [at upper left] Sarra Depeyster AEtatis 30 Maenden 23 Mey 1631

The inflated prices were not an accurate reflection of the value of a tulip bulb. As it happens in many speculative bubbles, some prudent people decided to sell & store their profits. A domino effect of progressively lower & lower prices took place, as everyone tried to sell while few were buying. The price began to dive, causing people to panic & sell regardless of losses.

Jacob Marrel (1634) Still life with a tulip

Dealers refused to honor contracts & people began to realize they traded their homes for a piece of greenery; panic & pandemonium were prevalent throughout the land.

Detail of Jan Brueghel the Younger's Satire of tulip mania c. 1640. Owning & flaunting rare specimens was a reflection of wealth & standing within society. Up until the early 1600s, tulips were only a single color. The enticing change came about with the introduction of the "broken" tulip allowing unique color variations, such as those above, which had never been seen before.

The government attempted to step in & halt the crash by offering to honor contracts at 10% of the face value, but then the market plunged even lower, making governmental restitution impossible. Few emerged unscathed from the crash. Even the people who had locked in their profit by getting out early suffered during the depression which followed.

Hendrik Gerritsz Pot painted this allegory of Flora’s Wagon of Fools around 1640. This painting shows a cartload of tulip-obsessed elites leading the common workers into the sea. During the time when tulip bulbs were treated like a form of currency, much like the years of the California gold rush, people abandoned jobs, businesses, wives, and homes to become tulip growers.

The 1637 event was popularized in 1841, by the book Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, written by British journalist Charles Mackay. According to Mackay, at one point 12 acres (5 ha) of land were offered for a Semper Augustus bulb. Mackay claimed that many tulip investors were ruined by the fall in prices & that Dutch commerce suffered a severe shock. Although Mackay's book is a classic reprinted today, his account is contested because of his lack of primary sources.

In “Flora’s Fool’s Cap,” a cartoon etched in 1637 by Pieter Nolpe, merchants gather inside a giant fool’s cap to compare and trade bulbs. A satire on Tulipmania, people who had invested in tulip bulbs and failed to realise their mistake; in the centre a tent in the shape of a fool's cap, background right, the figure of Flora departing on a donkey, foreground right, peasants joyfully bending over a basket with a crop of tulips and tulip bulbs, foreground left, peasants carrying tulips and transporting earth, bulbs and tulips in a wheel-barrow, background left, figure of a devil brandishing a rod with fool's cap and paper bonds.

Dutch Tulip Traders

The Tulip Trade Unknown artist of the Dutch school, about 1640

Women & Gamepark Myths - 17C-18C Diana Female Hunter - Pastoral Allegory

1745 Jean-Marc Nattier (French painter, 1685-1766) Madame Adélaïde as the goddess Diana.  She has a crescent moon in her hair, a bow & quiver with an animal-skin at her waist.

Early European portrait artists painted their contemporaries as allegories.  Often painters would put the faces of their patrons on the bodies of Christian saints, whom they had been commissioned to portray. These came to be called donor portraits. As years passed, allegorical portraits remained popular, as they expanded to show the female sitter as a Biblical figure, a Greek or Roman goddess, or poetic muse, or nymph in in a gamepark or rustic setting.

In Roman mythology, Diana was the goddess of the hunt; the moon; & friend of wild animals, whom Diana could talk to & control.  Artists often depicted Diana wearing a classic tunic & sandals.  Some painted her holding a hunting spear or a hunting horn with a bow & a quiver on her shoulder.  Many Diana's were accompanied by friendly deer or hunting dogs.  Like Venus, she was portrayed as beautiful & youthful. Early artists sometimes depicted Diana wearing a crescent moon as a hair decoration & sometimes wearing an animal-skin wrap. 

Jan Mytens (Dutch artist, 1614-1670) Lady as Diana

 Jan Mytens (Dutch artist, 1614-1670) Lady as Diana

1550 Meister der Schule von Fontainebleau Diana the Huntress. This early Diana carries a bow & quiver & travels with her dog.  But, as for clothing, a few yards of cloth seems enough.

1590 Ambroise Dubois (Flemish-born French artist, 1542-43–1614-15) Gabrielle d'Estrees as Diana the Huntress with her faithful hunting dogs, Syrius & Phocion.  She has dogs, deer, a bow & quiver, a hunting horn, & a crescent moon in her hair.

 1630 Claude Deruet (French artist, 1588–1660) Marie de Rohan, Duchesse de Chevreuse as Diana the Huntress.  She has dogs, a bow & quiver, a hunting horn, & a crescent moon in her hair.

1635 Claude Deruet (French artist, 1588–1660) or Charles Beaubrun (Charles Bobrun) (French artist, 1604–1692)  Portrait of a Lady as Diana.   She has a quiver & a crescent moon in her hair.

1640 Joseph Werner the Elder (Swiss artist, 1600s) Young Lady as Diana with a hunting spear & some very impractical shoes. The slit dress & hells are also quite a surprise.

1640s Christina, Queen of Sweden Alexandra Maria Vasa (1626-1689) as Diana carrying a hunting spear.

1640 Willem van Honthorst (Dutch artist, 1594-1666) Henriette von Nassau as Diana with her faithful hunting dogs, Syrius & Phocion.  She carries a bow & quiver with feathers in her hair.

c 1635 Unknown artist, A Young Lady As Diana The Huntress

 1640s Ferdinand Bol (Dutch artist, 1616-1680) Portrait of a woman as Diana. She has a bow & quiver.

1640-50s Attributed to Giovanni Domenico Cerrini (Italian artist, 1609-1681) Christina, Queen of Sweden Alexandra Maria Vasa (1626-1689) as Diana.  Here she has her dog & a hunting spear.  The crescent moon hangs in the sky above them.

1650 Charles Beaubrun (Charles Bobrun) (French artist, 1604–1692) Portrait of a lady as Diana. She has a dog & a bow.

 1650 Jan van Mijtens (1613-1670) Lady as Diana. She has a tiny lap dog/hunting dog & carries a quiver on her back.

 1654 Justus van Egmont (Dutch painter, 1601-1674) Marie Anne Mancini as Diana the Huntress.  She has feathers in her hair & carries a bow & arrow, but she stands in a formal garden.

1661 Abraham Wuchters Christina, Queen of Sweden Alexandra Maria Vasa (1626-1689) as Diana holding an arrow.

1666 Giovanni Maria Morandi (Italian painter, 1622-1717) Claudia Felicitas of Austria as Diana.  She has a crescent moon in her hair, carries a hunting spear and has a dog at her side.

1667 Claude Lefèbvre (French painter, 1633–1675) Louise de La Vallière as Diana. She has a quiver & bow as well as her faithful hunting dogs, Syrius & Phocion.

1670s Copy of  Peter Lely (English artist, 1618-1680) Mary II (1662–1694), when Princess Mary of York, as Diana.  She has a crescent moon in her hair, a bow &arrow & only the head of her dog companion is visible.

Style of Peter Lely (English artist, 1618-1680) Ann Fanshawe (b.1654), Daughter of Sir Richard Fanshawe as Diana with a deer.

 1674 Jacob Huysmans (Flemish artist, c 1633–1696) Portrait of a Lady as Diana.  She has dogs, a bow  quiver, a hunting spear, & feathers in her hair.

1670s-90s Giovanni Battista Gaulli (Baciccio) (Italian artist, 1639-1709) Diana the Huntress with her hunting dogs, Syrius & Phocion.  Her bow & quiver lay on the ground.

 1680s Jacob Huysmans (Flemish artist, c 1633–1696)  Elizabeth Cornwallis (d.1708), Mrs Edward Allen, as Diana the Huntress with her faithful hunting dogs, Syrius & Phocion. . She has a hunting spear, & an animal skin decoration, & feathers in her hair.

 1688 Francois de Troy Lady Mary Herbert (1659–1744-1745), Viscountess Montagu, Previously the Honourable Lady Richard Molyneux, and Later Lady Maxwell, as Diana. She has a crescent moon in her hair, a dog, & an animal-skin component to her costume.

1700-10 Nicolas de Largillière (French artist, 1656-1746)  Portrait of Lady as Diana with her faithful hunting dogs, Syrius & Phocion.  She has a bow & quiver nearby.

 1743 Jean-Marc Nattier (French painter, 1685-1766) Madame la Comtesse d'Argenson.  She wears an animal-skin wrap & holds a bow with her quiver on her lap.

1700s Unknown French artist, Portrait of a Lady as Diana, Goddess of the Hunt.  She wears a crescent moon in her hair and has an animal-skin wrap, a dog, a quiver & a bow.

 1746 Jean-Marc Nattier (French painter, 1685-1766) Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour (1722-1764) as Diana the Huntress. She has a bow & quiver with an animal-skin wrap at her waist.

 1751 Pompeo Girolamo Batoni (Italian artist, 1708-1787) Sarah Lethieullier as Lady Fetherstonhaugh, as Diana.  She has a crescent moon in her hair, a bow & a dog.

 1752 Jean-Marc Nattier (French painter, 1685-1766) Madame de Pompadour as Diana.  She has a bow & an animal-skin wrap.

1765 Carle or Charles-André van Loo (French painter, 1705-1765) Luise Henriette Wilhelmine von Anhalt-Dessau as Diana.  She has a dog, an animal-skin wrap, a bow & quiver, & a crescent moon in her hair.

 1765 Francis Cotes (English Painter, 1726-1770) The Honourable Lady Stanhope and the Countess of Effingham as Diana, and Her Companion.  Diana has a hunting spear & a crescent moon in her hair.

 1769 Thomas Beach (English artist, 1738-1806) Elizabeth Phelips (1750–1841), as Diana the Huntress.  She has a bow & quiver.

 1770 Thomas Beach (English artist, 1738-1806) Miss Elizabeth Phelips, dressed as Diana.  She has a bow.

1773 after François-Hubert Drouais (French artist, 1727-1775) Marie-Joséphine-Louise de Savoie (1753–1810), comtesse de Provence, as Diana with her faithful hunting dogs, Syrius & Phocion. She has a bow, & an animal-skin wrap.

1771 Robert Hunter (Irish artist, fl. 1748–1780) Lady Margaret Butler Lowry-Corry (1748–1775), as Diana.  She has a dog & carries a hunting spear.

1787 Ludwig Guttenbrunn (Austrian artist, 1750-1819) A portrait of Marie Joséphine de Savoy, the comtesse de Provence as Diana with her faithful hunting dogs, Syrius & Phocion.  She has a bow & quiver, & a crescent moon in her hair.