Abraham Munting (1626-1683). “Herba Viva Chinensis Arborescens”. For Pytographia Curiosa.
Amsterdam: 1702-13. 12 7/8 x 8 ½ (plate mark) Folio. Full text and margins. Hand color.
This print is from one of the classic and most beautiful series of botanical illustrations done in the Seventeenth Century. Munting selected new plants that were brought to Europe from around the world by European merchantmen who enjoyed them for their color, their fragrance and their medicinal properties. Being the age of Baroque art the draughts men and engravers would have spontaneously added ribboned titles and aesthetically beautiful landscapes to make the prints more pleasing than the kind of black and white wood engravings that had preceded these in the Medieval Period of illustration.