#georgics

[kusurrone]

CW: nudity

Commisioned art (125usd)

[thatsbutterbaby]

Giacomo Manzù - Georgics, 1947-1948. Etching.

[beluosus]

...what late evening brings

[theogonyofbeauty]

Invocation to the Divinities who preside over Agriculture from Virgil's Georgics. By Anne-Louis Girodet de Roucy-Trioson.

[flaroh]

It’s World Bee Day so I drew my favourite Roman apiarist, Vergil 🐝

In his work 'the Georgics', Vergil dedicated book four to discussing the lives and habits of bees in Roman agricultural practices. Some scholars even think that his descriptions of bee society was a reference to the Roman civil war…

I originally drew this bust in 2017, but I wanted to see how much my style has changed over the years! On one hand I think there's still a lot of similarity to my old style, but also I've become much more precise and crisp with my details.

[sunriseoverilium]

As I had talked about doing a few weeks ago, I read Virgil’s Eclogues and Georgics (translated, of course; sadly I cannot read Latin yet), and adored both. He has such a mesmerizing way of describing natural scenes; I could practically hear the singing of the birds and the wind brushing through tree branches as I was reading both poems.

Thematically, I found the praise of rugged simplicity and naturalistic beauty very compelling, especially coming from the Augustan era and the trauma of years of civil wars in Rome. The longing for the mythological Saturnian golden age is especially powerful in that context.

[glossahortensia]

Italian Aster (Michaelmas daisy)

Aster amellus L. (1753)

Although 'Michaelmas daisy' is associated with sentiments such as afterthought and welcome to a stranger, the Aster amellus - known as the Michaelmas daisy in Europe, where it grows - is not listed as the subject species by any English-language floriography book that I've seen so far.

Instead, Henry Phillips gives this honour to the American Michaelmas daisy, Symphyotrichum tradescantii. That said, the two are pretty similar, and most books simply say 'Michaelmas daisy', so make your own conclusions.

They're a lot more purple in person (especially in domestication) than this specimen, and this is remarked upon even by Virgil, writing about them in his Georgics. You can read the Latin and see my sources on my site linked below, but while I believe the average Tumblr user is more fluent in Ancient Latin than the layperson, I nonetheless provide here the English version from a 1900 translation by James Bradstreet Greenough, who I believe captures the poetic spirit of Georgics.

There is a meadow-flower by country folk Hight star-wort [amellus]; 'tis a plant not far to seek; For from one sod an ample growth it rears, Itself all golden, but girt with plenteous leaves, Where glory of purple shines through violet gloom. With chaplets woven hereof full oft are decked Heaven's altars: harsh its taste upon the tongue; Shepherds in vales smooth-shorn of nibbling flocks By Mella's winding waters gather it. The roots of this, well seethed in fragrant wine, Set in brimmed baskets at their doors for food. (Verg. G. 4.271-280)

Read more on Glossa Hortensia:

Image source: Floral Illustrations of the Seasons, Margaret Lace Roscoe, London: Robert Havell (1831) via the Biodiversity Heritage Library.

[illustratus]

"Autumn" also known as "The Spies with the Grapes of the Promised Land"

Part of The Four Seasons (Les Quatre Saisons)

by Nicolas Poussin