We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 April 2024
Abstract
The rise of floriculture in the seventeenth century occurred in context of emerging transnational study of botany, international rise of the formal garden, colonial conquest, and global trade, through which flowers emerged as potent demonstrations of power and taste across Europe. And yet, the cultural and political uses of flowers were simultaneously national in nature. This essay examines Tudor and Stuart floriculture in context of continental cultural exchange, transnational networks of knowledge, and national posturing. Through the analysis of seventeenth-century gardening manuals, the deployment of flowers in identity making, and the gendering of flowers, it illuminates the realisation of distinctly English flower culture and plumbs the national translation of the cosmopolitan in a more nuanced understanding of English floriculture.
Keywords: gardens; gender; floral symbolism; heraldry; Henrietta Maria; Louis XIV
Introduction
Around 1550, a painter believed to be William Scrots (d. 1553) painted the young Edward VI, son of Henry VIII and King of England (1537–1553), holding a red rose (figure 10.1). Shown in profile on the right half of the painting, Edward faces in the direction of a sun staring out at the viewer and a variety of flowers populating the left half of the panel. But the flowers, including violas, perhaps pinks or even heliotrope, as well as red and white roses, defy their tendency to follow the movement of the sun over the course of the day—and turn to face not the sun, but rather the young king. In golden letters painted at the bottom of the panel, related though not identical Latin and medieval Italian inscriptions invoke Ovid's tale of the metamorphosis of the nymph Clytie, the Latin reading: ‘We ask you to witness how Clytia, a flowering plant among these roses, / Rightly unites King Edward with Phoebus the Sun.’
In Ovid's telling, Jupiter is asked to witness Clytie's devotion to Apollo (here, Pheobus), or the Sun. Clytie, envious of Apollo's seduction of Leucothoe, made public Leucothoe's transgression, for which Leucothoe's father buried his daughter alive.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
