Convallaria majalis (liljekonval); Convallaria majalis (varietet af liljekonval) 1649 - 1659

Hans Simon Holtzbecker made this study of lillies of the valley with watercolour on paper some time in the first half of the 17th century. These botanical studies were a distinctive genre, patronised by the powerful, and they formed a bridge between art, science, and the culture of collecting. The lily of the valley was highly prized for its beauty and its perceived medicinal properties. Holtzbecker worked in Gottorf, now part of Germany but then a Danish territory. Here, the local Dukes were building up extensive collections of natural specimens and displays. Botanical illustration served the needs of this courtly culture, documenting new discoveries and demonstrating the patron's wealth and connoisseurship. Holtzbecker was employed to depict plants from life, but he did so in a stylized way that also emphasizes their symbolic value. Lilies of the valley signify purity and spring, as well as, in Christian iconography, the tears of the Virgin Mary. By studying such images today, with access to the records of the Dukes' collections, we can better understand the networks of knowledge and power in early modern Europe.