Plants and Gardens as Artefacts in Transcultural Contexts

Minna Törmä is an honorary senior lecturer research fellow in the history of art at the University of Glasgow and adjunct professor of art history at the University of Helsinki.

"Rich in new research and underpinned by a sophisticated engagement with questions of methodology, this impressive collection ranges widely in time and space. By focussing on the complex transcultural 'itineraries' of plants, images and spaces from the early modern period to the contemporary, each essay provides an individually enlightening case study, while taken together they make a significant contribution to our understanding of phenomena at the intersection of nature and culture."-- Craig Clunas, FBA, University of Oxford"Taking examples from the history of trade, art, architecture, and landscape design, the essays in this volume give us a nuanced understanding of how plants—as objects, images, or symbols—shaped transcultural exchanges. A timely contribution to a largely neglected field, highly informative and a pleasant read."--Anton Schweizer, Kyushu University

• List of Illustrations List of Contributors Chapter 1 Introduction Minna Törmä Part I Chapter 2 Seventeenth-century Dutch ventures in the global rhubarb trade Anne Gerritsen Chapter 3 Breadfruit itineraries Sarah Easterby-Smith Chapter 4 Rootless Orchids could travel: Transplanting a Chinese plant iconography in the early modern world Yizhou Wang Part II Chapter 5 Concordia Discors: The ‘natural’ style in Alexander Pope’s grotto – from a ‘nymphaeum’ to a ‘mine’ Yue Zhuang Chapter 6 Questioning ‘Japaneseness’ in the Broughton House Garden Minna Törmä Chapter 7 East Asian inspired gardens in Sweden: Expressions of material culture and cultural encounters Catharina Nolin Chapter 8 Monet’s Pond in Tokyo: Global circulation of waterscape aesthetics and the politics of ecological curation Ewa Machotka and Takehiro Watanabe Bibliography Index