Botanical Revolutions: How Plants Changed the Course of Art

Desired

for their aesthetic beauty, sought after for their medicinal properties,

harvested for their scents and flavors, or grown as indispensable material

resources, plants are indissolubly entwined with our existence. In art it is

no different: plants have played a critical role. Yet despite their

significant material and conceptual contributions, plants have been sidelined

in the commentary of art historians and critics.

Botanical Revolutions

presents a global history of plants in art, focusing on the crucial moments

that signaled the formation of new movements and styles, as well as the

creation of media that could not have occurred without the involvement of and

interaction with the vegetal world. In this fascinating and beautifully

illustrated book, author Giovanni Aloi delves deeply into the history and

representation of plants in art, advocates for a change in our relationship

with the botanical world, and presents an alternative history of art that

foregrounds the truly indispensable contributions of plants.