Narcissus hipanicus ; nar. hisp. maior amplo callice ; nar. hisp. pumilius ; narcissus silvestris (1624)
水仙属
Narcissus hipanicus ; nar. hisp. maior amplo callice ; nar. hisp. pumilius ; narcissus silvestris (1624)
Ten ways of seeing
- measured cast yellow-green
- upright 1.57 : 1
First Look
夫象物必在于形似，形似须全其骨气。
—— 唐·张彦远《历代名画记》
Likeness is the threshold; bone-and-breath is the point.
The sheet is vertical: the eye climbs and settles in the upper half. Let the plant stand before you look for detail. Then step in close: watch where colour meets line, and whether the line ever breaks. Third, find the darkest small patch: the whole tonal order is measured from there.
Name and Thing
The binomial is Narcissus hipanicus: the first word is the genus it belongs among, the second the epithet that sets it apart. The genus name Narcissus: Narcissus is the youth of Greek myth who fell in love with his own reflection. The Chinese name 水仙属 is a modern rendering of the Latin, not an old garden name.
Form and Colour
Measured on this plate: flower colour covers 12.1% of the sheet, foliage 4.1%, the cast yellow-green with a second note of amber. No other plate shares exactly this measure. A layered bulb, upright strap leaves, six white tepals and a small golden cup — the Chinese name is 'silver terrace with a golden cup'.No colour group is recorded. A single plant, laid out with nothing hidden.
Composition
The sheet is tall. No details are appended: a plate for looking, not for keying out. The plant covers only 18% of the sheet, centred above centre; the emptiness is where the eye rests.
Line and Colour
Before 1700 most botanical figures came from woodcut: thick, hard lines in relief, colour brushed on afterwards. There is evidence on the back too: the plate mark pressed into the paper, the slight relief of the pigment, lines worn shallow in a later printing. If you mean to copy it: take its skeleton, its margins and the order of its colours; the burin's hatching is the language of copper — suggest it with pencil density, do not imitate it stroke for stroke.
Poetic Resonance
山崦寻香得早梅，园丁又报水仙开。
—— 宋·陆游《东阳郭希吕吕子益送酒》
The poem gives the mood first and the picture supplies the form; set the line beside the plate and the corolla becomes its resting point.
Symbolism
In China it is the New Year's offering — clear, fragrant, a little otherworldly; in Europe, because of Narcissus, it means self-love and the gaze turned inward. Flower language was added later; the flower knows nothing of it, and that innocence is part of its power.
Season and Place
Late winter into early spring: forced in water in the twelfth month, blooming at the New Year. Zhangzhou in Fujian has grown it since Ming times. The year 1624 on the plate is that of publication, not of flowering — the gathering came a year or two earlier. The bud and the ripe fruit on one branch tell the season; the name in the title often tells the journey.
The Book and the Hand
“Collection of flowers and insects” carries only Daniel Rabel's name. A plate is collective work: drawer, engraver and colourist were different hands, and the unnamed ones decided how good it looks.
What to Take Away
Carry three rules away: whole before detail; line before colour; picture before book. The flower of that year is dust, yet its image on paper has outlived every living cousin.
About this plate
Narcissus hipanicus ; nar. hisp. maior amplo callice ; nar. hisp. pumilius ; narcissus silvestris (1624) is plate 57, from Collection of flowers and insects, drawn by Daniel Rabel. This public-domain plate is reproduced at high resolution, free to view and download. Publication: Paris, 1624.
