When considering the visual representation of plants, it is therefore useful to explore not only what plants mean in the context of a particular subject matter, but also how the plants were handled visually to stimulate responses tied to and informed by Enlightenment thinking about nature. These shifts in thinking about plants were paralleled in visual representations by an artistic treatment that urged viewers to contemplate plants for reasons other than interpretive readings based on inherited symbolism, even while such meanings continued to circulate and be adapted to social and historical changes. In this regard, several aspects of Enlightenment thought had implications for the visual representation of plants during this period: the philosophical contemplation of a vegetal “soul” the poetic endowment of noble status upon trees the development of a science of botany, informed by voyages of discovery and exploration and theories of aesthetics that revolved around a notion of beauty observed in nature, with flowers valued purely for their colors, shapes, and form. This change was driven in part by a new scepticism towards religion triggered by philosophical debates.

From the mid-seventeenth century onward, plants were less often infused with narrative purpose. In Medieval and Renaissance art, plants were largely included as didactic symbols tied to specific meanings outlined in the Bible and emblem books, which combine allegorical illustrations with explanatory text (Woldbye 1991: 46). Between 16, the representation of plants in art shifted from the inclusion of religious references to the stimulation of secular reflections.

Enlightened by Joanna Chambers