Flowering Masterwort Plant: 18th C. Hand-colored Botanical Weinmann Engraving
This hand-colored botanical mezzotint and line engraving by Johann Wilhelm Weinmann (1683-1741) is entitled "Imperatoria seu ostrution Imperatoire Meisterwirk". It is plate 604 in Weinmann's monumental publication "Phytanthoza Iconographia", published in Amsterdam 1736-1748. The engraving depicts the flowering Masterwork plant, which is used as a medicinal and to make liqueurs.
Creator: Johann Wilhelm Weinmann (1683 - 1741, German)
Creation Year: 1736
Dimensions: Height: 15.38 in (39.07 cm)
Width: 9.88 in (25.1 cm)
Medium: Engraving, Mezzotint
Condition: See description below.
This hand-colored botanical mezzotint and line engraving by Johann Wilhelm Weinmann (1683-1741) is entitled "Imperatoria seu ostrution Imperatoire Meisterwirk". It is plate 604 in Weinmann's monumental publication "Phytanthoza Iconographia", published in Amsterdam 1736-1748. The engraving depicts the flowering Masterwork plant, which is used as a medicinal and to make liqueurs.
Creator: Johann Wilhelm Weinmann (1683 - 1741, German)
Creation Year: 1736
Dimensions: Height: 15.38 in (39.07 cm)
Width: 9.88 in (25.1 cm)
Medium: Engraving, Mezzotint
Condition: See description below.
This hand-colored botanical mezzotint and line engraving by Johann Wilhelm Weinmann (1683-1741) is entitled "Imperatoria seu ostrution Imperatoire Meisterwirk". It is plate 604 in Weinmann's monumental publication "Phytanthoza Iconographia", published in Amsterdam 1736-1748. The engraving depicts the flowering Masterwork plant, which is used as a medicinal and to make liqueurs.
Creator: Johann Wilhelm Weinmann (1683 - 1741, German)
Creation Year: 1736
Dimensions: Height: 15.38 in (39.07 cm)
Width: 9.88 in (25.1 cm)
Medium: Engraving, Mezzotint
Condition: See description below.
This engraving is printed on laid chain-linked paper measuring 15.38" x 9.88". There are a few tiny spots in the right upper corner and one in the lower margin. The print is otherwise in excellent condition.
Johann Weinmann, was a botanist and pharmacist who directed a famous pharmacy in Regensburg. The Phytanthoza Iconographia was his masterpiece, which was a huge work in eight folio volumes, which provided one of the most comprehensive botanical references of the eighteenth century. It has been described as a "pioneering work of botanical prints” and it remains today one of the most ambitious works ever undertaken, displaying over 4,000 species.
The artist for the much of the work was the gifted and very collectible Georg Dionysius Ehret (1708-1770). Born of a humble family in Heidelberg, Ehret was taught to draw by his father at an early age. As a young man, he worked as a gardener first for the Elector of Heidelburg and then the Margrave of Badaen-Durlac. He became a well respected botanist and entomologist and one of the most influential European botanical artists of all time.
