Botanical Illustration vs Natural History Plate

ボタニカルアート / 博物図譜

Both sit in Natural History Illustration, so the question is not what they belong to but how they behave. Both are read here as style. They are reached for with some of the same intent, which is where they get confused.

Botanical Illustration

Botanical Illustration — ルドゥーテ『バラ図譜』1817–24 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainBotanical Illustration — ルドゥーテのバラ — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainBotanical Illustration — ゲオルク・ディオニシウス・エーレット《Vicia sylvatica》1756 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

The tradition of plant portraiture holding scientific precision and decorative beauty together. Redouté's roses in stipple engraving and hand color established elegance-through-accuracy as a style.

Natural History Plate

Natural History Plate — ヘッケル『生物の驚異的な形』クラゲ — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainNatural History Plate — 同 イソギンチャク — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainNatural History Plate — ジョン・ジェームズ・オーデュボン《Cedar Bird》『アメリカの鳥類』 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

The naturalist's plates showing unknown life as both taxonomy and wonder. The symmetrical compositions of Haeckel's Kunstformen der Natur became the junction where science plates flowed into Art Nouveau's language of form.

Botanical IllustrationNatural History Plate
Era16th century–18th–19th century
FamilyNatural History IllustrationNatural History Illustration
KindStyleStyle
CuesA single plant on white / Dissection details added / The softness of stipple engraving / Transparent hand colorSymmetrical specimen layouts / Taxonomic completeness / Precision beside ornament / Systematic plate numbering
Best used forPlant plates precise enough to identify the cultivar a product claims · A single plant image for packaging or pages that must stay quietPlates presenting the sheer number of specimens or varieties as wonder · Gathering forms from specimens when they will be reused as ornament
TypeThe botanical name in light italic below, never across the figurePlate number in a corner, species names in a key clear of the image
CompositionOne specimen alone on white, dissections tucked into a cornerSeveral specimens arranged symmetrically, the largest at the center
MaterialLayered transparent watercolor, hairline contour, no cast shadowChromolithography or hand-colored copperplate, plain ground, no shadow
CautionArranging flowers as decoration while skipping leaf attachment and section views yields a generic bloom matching no actual species.Enjoying the parade of strange forms first breaks the scale and the taxonomic order, and the plate becomes useless as a record.

Put these two together

Natural History Illustration

IndexStyle