Lightness and brightness

which had Galileo among its members. He commissioned artists to record plants, birds and animals for his museum and a pictorial encyclopaedia that attempted to understand and classify both the natural and ‘man-made’ world. Alexander Marshal’s floral paintings were compiled at a time when the cultivation of gardens had become a pursuit of scholars and collectors, keenly interested in exotic species. In his famous flower book, indigenous species are portrayed alongside new and exotic flowers such as the crown imperial, hyacinth and broken tulip. Marshal’s pictures endeavoured to portray the individual character of each subject. Some also carry miniature images of animals and insects. The exhibition also features drawings by Mark Catesby from voyages to Carolina, Florida and the Bahamas, during the eighteenth century. The exhibition is accompanied by the book Amazing Rare Things: The Art of Natural History in the Age of Discovery by David Attenborough.