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| 3.5 The Rose from the Renaissance to the 19th Century |
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Illustration dating from 1612, this still-life
shows blooms and flowers
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Already towards the end of the Middle
Ages the concept of a garden had already changed from a garden of
utility (with maybe on rose-bush in it) into a decorative garden,
a tendency which was strengthened in the Renaissance with the re-birth
of Antiquity. People now were indulging in a more refined and sophisticated
life-style and growing roses was part of that. Quoting ancient antiquity,
the Renaissance gave the rose back its original significance, and
a maze for lovers, made from rose-bushes, which later became the rose
arbour, was a must in every garden. |
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| The pursuit of perfection made the owners of huge gardens
soon look for something new, special. Dukes and nobles were emulating merchants
to find and get the most beautiful thing (rose). In the age of new discoveries
and new trading opportunities they sent their botanists all around the world,
looking for new and rare curiosities. When around 1750 British seafarers
were sailing to India and to the Far East in order to buy plants for the
Royal gardens, they brought numerous exotic plants back with them to Europe,
among them the Chinese rose, which they had found in the Cantonese garden
of the British-East-Indian Company. The introduction of that far-eastern
sister of the European garden rose changed the cultivation of roses completely
and you can even say that a new era began. |
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The history of roses in China can be retraced as far
as to the times of Confuzius, who already wrote about roses around 500
B.C.. Roses could also be found on porcelain and on silk works. In the
age of discoveries it was also the fashion in Europe to show off with
these precious Chinese objects which included exotic plants, too. The
first traces of the Chinese roses were found in Italy, made immortal by
a Renaissance painter in 1596. About 100 years later, blooming plants
were discovered in a Jesuite monastery near Ferrara.
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| But only at the end of the 18th century did
the Chinese rose get really popular, when the French empress Josephine started
getting interested in these novelties. She made great efforts to get these
exclusive plants from the Far East. Also being a great admirer of the arts
during her short life, Josephine often invited one of the greatest rose
painters of his times, Pierre-Joseph Redouté, to stay at her castle. She
made him do his important rose water-colour paintings of the roses of Malmaison
which therefore can still be admired today. |
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In one of Redouté’s paintings you can see
one of these first Chinese roses from 1817.
There is no doubt that the most famous rose
painting ever made is Sandro Botticelli’s The birth of Venus,
in which the godess of beauty is rising from the sea while roses
are falling down from the sky to the earth. In another one of his
paintings, Spring, Botticelli dresses the goddess of flowers,
Flora, in roses. Both paintings already belong to the Renaissance,
with the influence of ancient Antiquity being quite obvious.
Flemish painters (Peter Paul Rubens, Jan Breughel
and Daniel Seeghers as the most famous ones) also may not be neglected
when talking about the rose. In their wonderful paintings the main
focus lies on the rose as a flower. It is not considered a symbol
of gods and goddesses any more, but is painted for its own beauty’s
sake .
Pierre-Joseph Redouté, who did water-colours of the
rose collection of Malmaison (illustration), and Salomon
Pinhas, who painted the roses of the Weißenstein castle, were the
first botanist rose painters.
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