A gorgeous compendium that illuminates the rich history of
floriography through the lens of the Fine Arts Museums of San
Francisco's expansive collection
This volume draws upon the rich history of the language of flowers in
order to offer a new perspective through which to explore the permanent
collection of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Featuring a
sampling of floral imagery selected from across cultures, periods, and
media, this guide builds on the methods of floriography as a means for
navigating how the collection's expansive array of objects intersects
with the rich histories of floral symbolism and communication.
Looking across the Fine Arts Museums' holdings of American art, works on
paper, costume and textile arts, European painting, and European
decorative arts and sculpture, this selection of 50 floral objects
presents the collection through a new lens, with accompanying texts that
explore a rich variety of source material, including poetry, etymology,
folklore, botany, popular music, biblical verse, mythology, histories of
exploration and colonization, and systems of belief. A branch of azaleas
recalls lines of poetry from the oldest extant collection of Japanese
verse; the deep purple irises of a stained-glass window suggest the myth
of Iris, the Greek goddess who carried messages of love from heaven to
Earth; and a lemon blossom atop a piece of French soft-paste porcelain
evokes the lyrics of a 1960s pop song. These connections reinforce an
essential aspect of art appreciation: if approached with a keen eye, an
open heart, and a curious mind, any artwork can be placed at the center
of its own constellation of associations.
