Morganmobile: Spring(ing)

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Jacopo Ligozzi’s carefully observed, minutely rendered watercolor depicts a white swallow-wort, a perennial herbaceous plant whose root was used as a medicinal emetic. In 1577, Ferdinando I de’ Medici, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, invited the Veronese-born Ligozzi to Florence. As a court artist, Ligozzi made comprehensive illustrations of the flora and fauna in the Medici gardens at Florence and Pisa. The drawing, its background unadorned by the artist, may have sustained accidental water damage that caused the green pigment to bleed into the parchment, transplanting this herbal specimen to an unintentionally verdant setting.

Jacopo Ligozzi (1547–1627), A Botanical Specimen of Vincetoxicum Officinale, ca. 1577–87. Watercolor, opaque watercolor, over black chalk, on parchment; 21 1/4 x 13 1/4 inches (540 x 337 mm). Gift of Dr. Werner Muensterberger.