GIOVANNI BATTISTA FERRARI

These prints are from a book devoted to citrus fruit - a most sumptuous baroque botanical book. The work "was illustrated by all the important Roman baroque painters of classicist leanings" (Benesch). The plates were drawn and engraved by Cornelius Bloemaert, who served his apprenticeship under Crispin de Passe and whose patrons were Cortona and the Barberini. He was one of the great Dutch seventeenth century botanical artists.