i8o Botanical Illustration [ch. 



photographic methods of reproduction are almost exclusively- 

 used, the artist is no longer oppressively conscious of 

 the exact outline of the space which his figure will 

 occupy. 



The figures here reproduced show how great a variety 

 of subjects were successfully dealt with in Fuchs' work. 

 The Cabbage (Text-fig. 30) is realised in a way that 

 brings home to us the intrinsic beauty of this somewhat 

 prosaic subject. In the Wild Arum (Text-fig. 88) the fruit 

 and a dissection of the inflorescence are represented, so 

 that, botanically, the drawing reaches a high level. Fuchs' 

 wood-cuts are nearly all original, but that of the White 

 Waterlily appears to have been founded upon Brunfels' 

 figure. 



We have so far spoken, for the sake of brevity, as if 

 Fuchs actually executed the figures himself This, how- 

 ever, was not the case. He employed two draughtsmen, 

 Heinrich Fiillmaurer, who drew the plants from nature, and 

 Albrecht Meyer, who copied the drawings on to the wood, 

 and also an engraver, Veit Rudolf Speckle, who actually 

 cut the blocks. Fuchs evidently delighted to honour his 

 colleagues, for at the end of the book there are portraits of 

 all three at work (Text-fig. 89). The artist is drawing a 

 plant with a brush fixed in a quill. 



The drawing and painting of flowers is sometimes 

 dismissed almost contemptuously, as though it were a 

 humble art in which an inferior artist, incapable of the 

 more exacting work of drawing "from the life," might be 

 able to excel. The falsity of this view is shown by the 

 fact that the greatest of flower painters have generally 

 been men who also did admirable figure work. Fantin- 

 Latour is a striking modern instance, and one has but to 

 glance at the studies of Leonardo da Vinci (e.g. Plate XVIII) 

 and Albrecht Diirer (e.g. Plate XVII) to feel that the finest 

 plant drawings can only be produced by a master hand, 

 capable of achieving success on more ambitious lines. 

 The wood-engravings in Fuchs' herbal are a case in point. 

 The portraits which also illustrate the book (Frontispiece 

 and Text-fig. 89) show that the talents of the artists whom 

 he employed were not confined to plant drawing, but were 

 also strong in the direction of vigorous and able portraiture. 



