Moraea sordescens

Twelve ways of seeing

• measured cast amber
• upright 1.67 : 1
• published 1802
• Plate 11

Not a catalogue entry but a way of looking: how to stand, what to notice, how the line was cut, when it flowers, where it came from, who made it — and then the poems and the classics that taught China to see the same flower. Read the twelve in order and the plate opens.

1. 01

   First Look

   凡画山水，意在笔先。

   —— 唐·王维《山水论》

   In painting, the intention precedes the brush.

   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.

2. 02

   Name and Thing

   The binomial is Moraea sordescens: the first word is the genus it belongs among, the second the epithet that sets it apart. Two words carry a whole provenance. No established Chinese name exists, so it is cited by its binomial alone.

3. 03

   Form and Colour

   Measured on this plate: flower colour is sparing, 0.5% of the sheet against 0.9% of foliage, the cast tending amber — as with pale or white blooms, outline and tone do the talking. Irises carry rhizomes or bulbs, sword-shaped leaves in two ranks, and six tepals — three falls drooping, often bearded or speckled, three standards erect.No colour group is recorded. A single plant, laid out with nothing hidden.

4. 04

   Composition

   Tall and narrow, the plant rising in one movement with generous margins — the upright format of most floras. (about 1.67 : 1) No details are appended: a plate for looking, not for keying out. The plant covers only 4% of the sheet, centred above centre; the emptiness is where the eye rests. Cover the margins with your thumb and the plate suffocates; uncover them and the flower breathes again.

5. 05

   Line and Colour

   The first half of the nineteenth century moved from copper to steel to lithography; stipple could render the softest transition. Take a loupe to three places: petal edge, leaf vein, caption. An unbroken line means engraving; colour crossing the outline means a hand.

6. 06

   Season

   Late spring to early summer, peaking in April and May, before the summer rains. The year 1802 on the plate is that of publication, not of flowering — the gathering came a year or two earlier. The best time to read such a plate is its flowering season: three minutes under the tree explains what no text can.

7. 07

   Provenance

   Temperate north. In China iris and sweet flag belong to the Dragon Boat festival; in Europe Iris germanica gave the perfume trade its orris root. The volume was made in 1802-1816, when most of this knowledge came from living plants under glass.

8. 08

   The Book and the Hand

   “The Liliaceae - Volume Two” was drawn by Pierre-Joseph Redouté and published 1802-1816. This plate is Plate 11. The image is public domain; the hand-colouring is still one person's hand.

9. 09

   Poetic Resonance

   别后相思隔烟水，菖蒲花发五云高。

   —— 唐·元稹《寄贈薛濤》

   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.

10. 10

    The Written Tradition

    五月五日，采艾以为人，悬门户上，以禳毒气。

    —— 南朝梁·宗懔《荆楚岁时记》

    On the fifth of the fifth month they gather mugwort, shape it into a figure and hang it on the door to drive off fever — plant as medicine and as charm.

    The Bencao Gangmu lists iris and sweet flag among herbs; the Jingchu seasonal records describe hanging mugwort and flag at the door at midsummer — a custom unbroken for a thousand years. Keep the line; it will surface the next time you meet the same plant.

11. 11

    Symbolism

    In China sweet flag hung at the door wards off evil at midsummer; in Europe the iris is the messenger, since Iris was the rainbow goddess who carried divine words. Flower language was added later; the flower knows nothing of it, and that innocence is part of its power.

12. 12

    What to Take Away

    Carry three rules away: whole before detail; line before colour; picture before book. Two centuries on, the plant may still flower in some garden; the one on this sheet stopped in the season of 1802.