Meum seu Foeniculum ursinum, Fenouille sauvage...
| Reference: | S43445 |
| Author | Johann Wilhelm Weinmann |
| Year: | 1734 ca. |
| Measures: | 210 x 325 mm |
€130.00
| Reference: | S43445 |
| Author | Johann Wilhelm Weinmann |
| Year: | 1734 ca. |
| Measures: | 210 x 325 mm |
€130.00
Description
Botanical print from Johann Wilhelm Weinmann’s monumental work Phytanthoza Iconographia, sive conspectus aliquot millium, tam indigenarum quam exoticarum, ex quatuor mundi partibus… plantarum, arborum, fruticum, florum, fructuum, fungorum, &c . published in Regensburg 1734-1745.
Mezzotint with fine original colouring, good condition.
Johann Wilhelm Weinmann was an influential apothecary, pharmacist and botanist in Regensburg, Germany. His background is evident in the composition and style of the botanical studies in this work, which are at once scientific or herbal and beautifully decorative as well. He used mezzotint to achieve subtle tonal variations of leaves and flower petals.
Many of the superb plates of this important florilegium are engraved after drawings by the eminent botanical artist Georg Dionysus Ehret, the dominant influence in botanical art during the 18th century. Ehret was born in Heidelberg, Germany, and trained as a gardener. He became the protégé of the Margrave of Baden-Durlach, who hired him to design town and palace gardens at Karlsruhe and make paintings of his flowers. After leaving the Margrave’s employ, relocated in Regensburg, where he met Johann Wilhelm Weinmann, and was engaged to produced drawings for Phythanoza Iconographia.
References:
Pritzel, Georg August. Thesaurus Literaturae Botanicae Omnium Gentium. Milan: 1950; Blunt, Wilfred, rev. by Stearn, William T. The Art of Botanical Illustration. Woodbridge, Suffolk, England: Antique Collectors Club, 1994. pp. 25, 154-55, 159-166, 181; Dunthorne, Gordon. Flower and Fruit Prints of the 18th and Early 19th Centuries. Their History, Makers and Uses, with a Catalogue Raisonne of the Works in Which They are Found. Washington, D.C.: Published by the Author, 1938.
Johann Wilhelm Weinmann (1683-1741)
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Johann Wilhelm Weinmann, son of the German barber Matthias Cristiana Weinmann, was born on March 13, 1683 in Gardelegen (Germany). We do not have certain information about the first years of his life; probably, after receiving a training as pharmacist in Hamburg, he settled in Regensburg in 1710, where he worked as assistant in a local pharmacy. Here Weinmann particularly distinguished himself, so much so that his fortune grew so rapidly that in 1712 he was able to purchase a pharmacy. In the same year he married the daughter of a wine merchant, Isabella Catharina Furst. Shortly after his marriage, Weinmann was involved with the pharmacists of the city in a series of disputes, originated by his appointment as "Hospital Pharmacist", received in 1713, year in which his pharmacy had a fundamental role during the epidemic of plague. The quarrel, which became disruptive, was settled in 1715 by the City Council. This affair, however, did not have negative repercussions on Weinmann's profession. In fact, in 1722, he became a member of the City Council and from 1733 to 1740 he held an eminent position ("Stadt gerichtsbeisitzer") within it. In the meantime, his business became particularly prosperous, so much so that he was able to cultivate his botanical vocation. So he created a small botanical garden in Regensburg and, in 1723, published a short work entitled Catalogus Alphabetico ordine exhibens Pharmaca. But the work that made him famous is certainly the "Phytanthoza Iconographia, sive, Conspectus aliquota millium, tam indigenarum quam exoticarum, ex Quatuor mundi partibus ... plantarum, arborum, fruticum, florum, fructuum, fungorum, ..." (1737-1745). This work is the most important and valuable compendium of botanical studies of the eighteenth century. The Phytanthoza Iconographia is a monumental eight-volume project containing more than a thousand hand-painted engravings depicting a wide range of flowers and plants from "Ex Quatuor mundi partibus." Weinmann has produced one of the most complete and best represented botanical collections known to us, ranging from garden plants to flowers (especially tulips), from tropical to desert plants, set in graceful baroque pots, from exotic fruits to medicinal herbs. The result is a rare combination of the traditional herbarium and flower book that became popular in the Baroque period. His experience as an apothecary is evident in the composition and style of the prints, whose purpose is both artistic, as evident by the use of color gradients to render the subtle tonal variations of the leaves and petals of the flowers, and scientific, as shown by the dominant presence of medicinal herbs within the work. Weinmann produced the Phytanthoza Iconographia with the help of some of the most important engravers of his time-Bartolomeo Seutter (1678-1754), Johann Ridinger (1698-1766), and Johann Jacob Haid (1704-1767). The work appeared in multiple issues between 1735 and 1745; it was published by Seutter, who helped finance the project, by Ridinger, who handled the first volume, and by Haid, who revised the later volumes. The Phytanthoza Iconographia was published with text in Latin and German; then appeared a Dutch edition published in four volumes in 1736-1748.
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Johann Wilhelm Weinmann (1683-1741)
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Johann Wilhelm Weinmann, son of the German barber Matthias Cristiana Weinmann, was born on March 13, 1683 in Gardelegen (Germany). We do not have certain information about the first years of his life; probably, after receiving a training as pharmacist in Hamburg, he settled in Regensburg in 1710, where he worked as assistant in a local pharmacy. Here Weinmann particularly distinguished himself, so much so that his fortune grew so rapidly that in 1712 he was able to purchase a pharmacy. In the same year he married the daughter of a wine merchant, Isabella Catharina Furst. Shortly after his marriage, Weinmann was involved with the pharmacists of the city in a series of disputes, originated by his appointment as "Hospital Pharmacist", received in 1713, year in which his pharmacy had a fundamental role during the epidemic of plague. The quarrel, which became disruptive, was settled in 1715 by the City Council. This affair, however, did not have negative repercussions on Weinmann's profession. In fact, in 1722, he became a member of the City Council and from 1733 to 1740 he held an eminent position ("Stadt gerichtsbeisitzer") within it. In the meantime, his business became particularly prosperous, so much so that he was able to cultivate his botanical vocation. So he created a small botanical garden in Regensburg and, in 1723, published a short work entitled Catalogus Alphabetico ordine exhibens Pharmaca. But the work that made him famous is certainly the "Phytanthoza Iconographia, sive, Conspectus aliquota millium, tam indigenarum quam exoticarum, ex Quatuor mundi partibus ... plantarum, arborum, fruticum, florum, fructuum, fungorum, ..." (1737-1745). This work is the most important and valuable compendium of botanical studies of the eighteenth century. The Phytanthoza Iconographia is a monumental eight-volume project containing more than a thousand hand-painted engravings depicting a wide range of flowers and plants from "Ex Quatuor mundi partibus." Weinmann has produced one of the most complete and best represented botanical collections known to us, ranging from garden plants to flowers (especially tulips), from tropical to desert plants, set in graceful baroque pots, from exotic fruits to medicinal herbs. The result is a rare combination of the traditional herbarium and flower book that became popular in the Baroque period. His experience as an apothecary is evident in the composition and style of the prints, whose purpose is both artistic, as evident by the use of color gradients to render the subtle tonal variations of the leaves and petals of the flowers, and scientific, as shown by the dominant presence of medicinal herbs within the work. Weinmann produced the Phytanthoza Iconographia with the help of some of the most important engravers of his time-Bartolomeo Seutter (1678-1754), Johann Ridinger (1698-1766), and Johann Jacob Haid (1704-1767). The work appeared in multiple issues between 1735 and 1745; it was published by Seutter, who helped finance the project, by Ridinger, who handled the first volume, and by Haid, who revised the later volumes. The Phytanthoza Iconographia was published with text in Latin and German; then appeared a Dutch edition published in four volumes in 1736-1748.
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