Plant motifs and art (#1)

Yesterday I visited the V&A Museum in South Kensington with an old friend whose job involves extensive travel to very interesting parts of the world. She has a very keen interest in the traditional art forms of different cultures. The ground floor level of the V&A is a delight in terms of the juxtaposition of European decorative art from medieval and renaissance Europe and the decorative art forms found in China, Japan, Korea, South Asia and the Islamic world. It was great to visit with somebody who'd just got back from central Asia!

The V&A is very civilized and has small folding stools which can be used by artists who have come to draw. Partway through the visit my feet gave out and so I sat on my V&A stool and did a very quick (unfinished) pencil sketch of a palampore in the South Asia (Nehru) Gallery - which is in Room 41. And no - I didn't know what a palampore was either! Mind you I wouldn't mind in the least if I had a nice bit of hand painted chintz from India c.1700 as a bed-hanging.

What I noticed particularly on this visit is the extent to which plants are used as motifs in both realistic and abstract forms. When I got home I studied the website and doing a search on the term 'flowers' produces 2,211 items in the museums's various collections. As a result, I think I'm going to make studies of a number of plant motifs on my SGFA drawing day at the V&A next week.

Here's my list of things to look out for - and this is just based on the things we saw yesterday!

• vine leaves in Abbasid style (Iraq 750--850)
• Acanthus leaves in the Spanish Umayid style (Spain 750-1031)
• Chinese lotus leaves in Ilkhanid style (Iran 1250-1350)
• abstract plant forms in the Nasrid style (Spain 1300 -1450)
  
• garden flowers and floral fantasies in Ottoman art (1299 -1923) see also Ottoman Empire
  
• floral fantasies in Safavid art (Iran 1500-1722)
  
• floral themes in Qajar style (Iran 1790 to 1900)
• botanical studies (and European influences) in Mughal painting 1550-1650 (Mughal Empire - Indian sub-continent 1526 - 1857)
  
• floral paintings and themes in Sikh painting (Panjab, India )
• flowers in Isnik pottery (Anatolia 17th century)
• natural motifs in Japanese art
  
• plants in Palissy ware (Europe 16th-17th Centuries)
• plants in Maijolica (Europe late 18th - 19th centuries)
  
• the influence of plants on William Morris wallpaper, tiles and textiles
  

There's a very interesting page on the V&A website "About Plant Motifs". The website of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York also includes sections on vegetal patterns in Islamic Art and plant motifs.

Links:

• Victoria and Albert Museum, London
  
• Society of Graphic Fine Art (SGFA)
• Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
  

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