A Flower Painting by Rachel Ruysch
A long, close look at what's hiding in the undergrowth of Rachel Ruysch's bold and beautiful flower painting
What's hiding in the undergrowth of Rachel Ruysch's bold and beautiful flower painting? Follow the link below to explore the picture and you'll be able to zoom in and see the tiniest details as you listen. This is a world where buds hiss like snakes, poppies twirl and tiny insects devour - a vibrant, fecund jungle, full of uncanny life.
Cathy FitzGerald hears how this great Dutch artist was influenced by her unusual childhood as the daughter of Frederik Ruysch, maker of one of the world's great curiosity cabinets. Frederik Ruysch's weird tableaux - created from human skeletons and embalmed bodies, insects and plants - were hugely popular in 17th Century Amsterdam and his young daughter Rachel was almost certainly involved in their creation. Is this what brings a touch of strangeness to her brilliantly observed vases and bouquets?
Cathy talks to art-experts, garden historians and artists - and asks why this brilliant painter - one of the most sought-after of her age - is so little known today.
(Picture: Roses, Convolvulus, Poppies, and Other Flowers in an Urn on a Stone Ledge by Rachel Ruysch, c.1680s, from the collection of the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Photograph by Google Arts and Culture)
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Moving Images from 主播大秀 World Service
Moving Pictures is a three-part series offering listeners the chance to take a long, slow look at great artworks, photographed in incredible detail. The images draw on technology developed for the Google Arts & Culture website which features content from over 1,000 leading museums and archives which have partnered with Google to bring the world's treasures online.
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Broadcasts
- Wed 12 Oct 2016 02:32GMT主播大秀 World Service Americas and the Caribbean
- Wed 12 Oct 2016 04:32GMT主播大秀 World Service Online, UK DAB/Freeview, South Asia & Europe and the Middle East only
- Wed 12 Oct 2016 05:32GMT主播大秀 World Service East Asia
- Wed 12 Oct 2016 06:32GMT主播大秀 World Service Australasia
- Wed 12 Oct 2016 12:32GMT主播大秀 World Service except News Internet
- Wed 12 Oct 2016 18:32GMT主播大秀 World Service except East and Southern Africa, News Internet & West and Central Africa
- Wed 12 Oct 2016 19:32GMT主播大秀 World Service East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa only
- Mon 17 Oct 2016 06:32GMT主播大秀 World Service East Asia
Zoom in on The Flower Painting
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