Historical and stylistic developments

Ancient world

There is evidence through painting and sculpture that during the Old Kingdom (c. 2686–c. 2160 bce) the Egyptians placed flowers in vases. In the tomb of Perneb bas-relief carvings show lotus blossoms and buds alternately arranged in flared bowls that were set upon banquet tables or carried in processions. Paintings of functional vases with spouts designed to support the heavy-headed lotus flower are found in the tombs of Beni Hasan (c. 2500 bce). Formal bouquets of lotus and berries offered to the dead are represented in the paintings from the tomb of Apuy at Thebes. Garlands and wreaths, floral headdresses, and collars were woven. Because of the formalized rules of Egyptian art, the lotus (Nymphaea), sacred to the goddess Isis, and papyrus, both of which were easily conventionalized, were the plant materials depicted almost exclusively for 2,000 years. During the Ptolemaic era (305–30 bce) perfume recipes, flower garlands found on mummies, and Greek and Roman writings reveal a more varied native plant life and show that foreign plants had been introduced, most notably the rose.

The ancient Greeks’ love of flowers was expressed mainly in the making and wearing of wreaths and garlands. Vase paintings, temple friezes, and architectural ornamentation all illustrate their widespread use. They were also frequently mentioned in Greek literature. The techniques of making garlands and wreaths, the most appropriate plant materials, and the proper time and way to wear or display them, were the subjects of several treatises. Fruits and vegetables mounded in baskets or spilling in profusion out of a cornucopia were types of arrangements used for religious offerings.

The earliest depiction of mixed cut flowers, artfully arranged in a container, is a mosaic dating from the early 2nd century ce of a basket of flowers from the emperor Hadrian’s villa at Tivoli near Rome. Garlands and wreaths continued to be popular among the Romans, as did displays of fruits and vegetables in cornucopias and baskets.

Middle Ages

Little evidence remains of floral decoration in early medieval Europe. In the mosaics of Ravenna, the Byzantines depicted highly contrived formal compositions. Symmetrical, with an emphasis on height, these arrangements were usually spires of foliage with regularly placed clusters of flowers or fruit.

Illuminated manuscripts of the Gothic period (from the 13th to the 15th century) occasionally include simple floral bouquets holding symbolic flowers. This was a time of intense religious fervour, and plant symbolism assumed great importance. There was both a liturgical and a secular language of flowers. In the church, for example, the rose symbolized the Virgin; in the chivalric courts, passionate love. Usually plant materials were casually placed in utilitarian containers such as earthenware jugs, bottles, glass tumblers, and in majolica, or glazed and enamelled pottery, drug jars called albarelli. The still life in the foreground of the open centre panel of the Portinari Altarpiece by the Flemish painter Hugo van der Goes is an illustration of this type of arrangement. Metal ewers often held Madonna lilies (Lilium candidum), as in the 15th-century painting The Annunciation by Rogier van der Weyden (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York).

15th and 16th centuries

Floral decorations became more studied and elaborate during the Renaissance period of the 15th and 16th centuries. The revival of interest in antiquity influenced the widespread use of garlands and wreaths in Renaissance Europe, especially in Italy. They were popular for pageants and feasts as well as for decorating houses and churches, and were commonly depicted in the art of the time. Among the most notable examples are the terra-cotta wreaths that framed the decorative ceramic plaques and reliefs made by the della Robbia family in the late 15th century, and the garlands of flowers, fruits, and vegetables in the paintings of such northern Italian masters as Andrea Mantegna and Carlo Crivelli. Cut-plant materials were generally arranged in either high sparse bouquets or tight low bunches. There were also pyramidal compositions in pedestal vases, such as those in the background of the painting Virgin and Child and St. John (Borghese Gallery, Rome) by the Florentine artist Sandro Botticelli. Arrangements of fruits and vegetables on salvers or in baskets also were popular.

17th century

The arrangement of plant materials truly became an art and an important decorative device in the 17th century. During this period of worldwide exploration, colonization, and commerce, new plants were introduced into Europe, where an avid interest in horticulture developed. Still-life paintings of the late 16th, 17th, and early 18th centuries reveal what a great variety of plants there was in the gardens of Europe. Beginning with Jan Brueghel (called “Velvet Brueghel”; 1568–1625), a tradition of flower painting developed in Flanders and Holland, which culminated with the works of Jan van Huysum (1682–1749). The canvases of the many hundreds of still-life painters of the period are valuable source material for the student of the history of floral decorations and gardens. They must, however, be considered as idealized compositions and not as literal translations onto canvas of actual bouquets. Early 17th-century pictures, particularly those of Jan Brueghel, who painted one-of-a-kind arrangements, seemed most interested in displaying the content of the garden itself. Depictions of later 17th-century bouquets show profuse arrangements that reflect the sensuality and exuberance of the Baroque style. Curvilinear elements such as sinuous S curves are other Baroque devices of design used to create grandiloquent, dramatic compositions. The massed bouquets of the Baroque period are studies in dominance, contrast, rhythm, and sculptural effect. The eye is drawn around and into the bouquets by the turning of flower heads, the reversing of leaves, and the curving of graceful flower stems.

The French style of the Louis XIV period (1643–1715) is best exemplified in the flower engravings of Jean-Baptiste Monnoyer. The plates for his famous portfolio Le Livre de toutes sortes de fleurs d’après nature (Book of All Kinds of Flowers from Nature) accurately portray flowers from a horticultural standpoint and at the same time show prototypes of display. These floral arrangements are freer and more airy than those of the Low Countries and yet suggest Baroque opulence. Flora ouerocultura di fiori (“Flora: The Cultivation of Flowers”), a renowned garden book published in Rome in 1633 by the horticulturist P. Giovanni Battista Ferrari, illustrates the styles of floral displays preferred by the Italians and also describes arranging techniques and devices. Among the ingenious devices illustrated is a vase with holes in its removable top that made it easy to arrange flowers and change water.