Published by Johann Wilhelm Weinmann
German, 1683-1741
African Aloe, plate 47 from Phtanthoza Iconographia
INV-2248
Published by Johann Wilhelm Weinmann
German, 1683-17411736
African Aloe, plate 47 from Phtanthoza Iconographia
Published by Johann Wilhelm Weinmann German, 1683-1741 →mezzotintprint
Date
1736
Medium
Color mezzotint and engraving on cream laid paper
Dimensions
Plate: 32.4 × 21 cm (12 13/16 × 8 5/16 in.); Sheet: 37.5 × 23 cm (14 13/16 × 9 1/16 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Gift of Walter S. Brewster
The botanist Johann Wilhelm Weinmann employed several German artists to provide unsigned color illustrations for his massive study of the iconography of plants. The artists mentioned on the title page included Bartholmaus Seuter (1678–1754), Johann Elias Ridinger (1698–1767) and Johann Jacob Haid (1704–1767). The mixed technique of mezzotint and engraving in multiple colors had never before been used for botanical publications, and so preceded Jacques Gautier D’Agoty’s 1767 attempt, the Collection of Usual, Curious and Foreign Plants, as well as Robert John Thornton’s more graphically successful 1799 Temple of Flora.