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'Rest on the Flight into Egypt'. Patinir. Oil on panel, (1518 – 1520) Museo Nacional del Prado.
A Walk Through the Lush Garden of the Prado

A Walk Through the Lush Garden of the Prado

The museum offers an enticing journey through the lush garden of botanical species recreated in masterful works from its collection. Expert Eduardo Barba has cataloged over two thousand works with botanical species in all the paintings of the gallery.

Miguel Lorenci

Madrid

Lunes, 28 de octubre 2024, 13:26

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Pipirigallo, burdock, mullein, cymbalaria, chickweed, plantain, columbine, citron.... These are just a few of the hundreds of flowers and plants found in the paintings and sculptures of the Prado Museum. Eduardo Barba, gardener, landscaper, and botanical researcher in art, has been studying and cataloging them for twelve years. He now proposes a tour through the lush garden of the Prado via 26 works featuring 40 species. A botanical walk to be enjoyed until March 30th, guided by masters like Patinir, Fra Angelico, Bronzino, Van der Weyden, Titian, Velázquez, Rubens, or Zurbarán.

"The Prado itself is a formidable and bountiful garden, and the plants are another character in the works, not just a mere aesthetic accompaniment. They often have a symbolic character," says Barba, who meticulously searches for all kinds of botanical species in the paintings, more than 2,000, which he has located among those on display and in storage.

He has included in his selection roses, lilies, marigolds, jasmines, violets, carnations, irises, daisies, vines, poppy plants, a lichen called Methuselah's beard, or even a blue tulip nonexistent in the real world. A varied and colorful botanical walk covering a time span of seventeen centuries across two floors of the Villanueva Building.

'Woman in the Bath (Diana of Poitiers?)' Workshop of François Clouet Oil on wood panel. Circa 1566 National Museum of the Prado.

"From Roman sculptures to the early 18th century, the viewer will discover how the representation of flowers and plants can speak to us of mythological, religious, noble, or customary symbolism, to convey qualities inherent to the scene," notes Barba.

His selection includes all types of media, from marble to semi-precious stones, panels, and canvases. It starts from the 1st century AD with a delicate sculpture, 'Sleeping Eros' or 'Hypnos', a small representation of the Roman god of sleep embraced by two poppy plants. In a millennial leap, the botanical tour ends with 'Charles III, child, in his cabinet' by Jean Ranc, where the future monarch holds jasmine flowers in his right hand.

The tiny and elusive violets that appear in 'The Bacchanal of the Andrians', by Titian, have great symbolic character. "It is the flower of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, and they appear in the ear and neckline of a woman, perhaps as a nod to Violante, Titian's companion, and on the head of a child, to remind us that their leaves were used as a remedy for hangovers," explains Barba.

On the head of one of 'The Three Graces' by Rubens appears a pipirigallo flower. "It is a plant that only grows in southern Europe and for which Rubens must have had a special affection," notes the expert. In the same canvas, a garland of roses, a symbol of love, appears with the three most cultivated species of the time: the alba rose, the May rose, and the red rose.

Beggar's herb

Barba has a fondness for 'The Annunciation' by Fra Angelico. "It is a garden with a multitude of symbolic details." The iconic panel features the so-called 'beggar's herb', the clematis. 'Clematis vitalba' is the scientific name of a plant that caused blisters and with which beggars rubbed themselves to elicit more pity and obtain more alms. The privet, a dye plant, also appears.

'The Annunciation'. Fra Angelico. Tempera on panel. Circa 1426 National Museum of the Prado

Not included in the tour - which avoids the most visited rooms - but in the catalog 'The Garden of Earthly Delights', a botanical delirium "in which Bosch makes faithful representations of plants like the columbine, a medieval flower with medicinal and aphrodisiac properties and enormous strawberries".

In this botanical journey, laurels, countless petals, and wild fruit shrubs can be found. Trees. Like the stone pine painted by Claude Lorrain, 'The Archangel Raphael and Tobias', a work in which burdock also appears. The exotic snowball appears in a floral still life by Juan van der Hamen. The cypresses in the views of the garden and villa of the Medici by Velázquez, or the tricolor amaranth in a vase by Tomás Hiepes.

'Charles III, child, in his cabinet'. Jean Ranc Oil on canvas. Circa 1724. National Museum of the Prado.

"Each era," notes Barba, "represents plants in a different way, with more or less attention to detail and botanical fidelity." "In the Romanesque, the extreme simplification of their anatomy gave the plants a very peculiar beauty. In the Gothic, precision and correct description of each plant of each flower were sought. The botanical portrait acquires its own entity in the works that culminate the Renaissance. In that period and with the previous ones, the plants abound in the foreground of the works with a prominent naturalistic style.

Brueghel the Elder is, in Barba's opinion, one of the great painters of plants, a theme "almost disappeared from contemporary art but which can also be traced." "Even in Picasso's 'Guernica', with the flower held alongside the sword by one of the figures fallen on the ground," he concludes.

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