Flora Graeca

Acanthus Mollis growing wild in my neighbourhood. This plant is the one that inspired the design on Corinthian Capitals

While running around the leafy dales and narrow gorges of Andros, surrounded by hundreds of beautiful plants, herbs and flowers, my friend mentioned an exhibition we should see on ‘Flora Graeca’ once we were back in Athens. I went to the exhibition on Saturday.

The exhibition is in the Gennadius Library, a beautiful building, and part of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. The exhibition centres around Flora Graeca, a book of Greek flowers, based on the research in Greece, in the late 18th century, of an Oxford professor of botany, John Sibthorp, and the illustrations of Austrian artist, Ferdinand Bauer. The book is magnificent and the exhibition also shows how the book developed out of other botanical books of the era and the development of botanical classification.

Apart from the chance to look at beautiful illustrations of the lovely flora of Greece, there was also lots of other interesting items to see. I knew that the Goulandris family (big shipping family) were very involved in the art world and I’ve been to an exhibition of Surrealism in The Goulandris Museum of Contemporary Art in Chora, Andros, but I had no idea about the Goulandris Natural History Museum in Kifissia, Athens. Niki Goulandris is a renowned botanical artist and the Flora Graeca exhibition features a Hermes scarf with one of her Flora Graeca designs, as well as some water colours.

The other items I found fascinating, being a massive fan of Byron’s works, life and letters, are the Byron memorabilia, including a funeral laurel wreath made for him here in Greece after his death in Missolonghi, as well as some writings from his friend John Cam Hobhouse when , as a young British toff, he took part in the Grand Tour with Byron.

It’s bit odd going to an art/botany exhibition in a working academic library with people poring over great tomes around you. Of course, you also have to be very, very silent. But it was lovely to get away from all the frenetic activity in the centre and escape the turmoil of protests against a new batch of ever tougher austerity measures. If I must acquiesce to Greece’s fate as a vassal state of Germany, I’m going to do it running around fields of Greek flowers, either on my hiking walks or on the pages of these fantastic botanical works of art. I highly recommend the exhibition to anyone interested in Greek history and botany. It’s lovely and it’s free.

This weekend I’m going to go and check out the GNHM in Kifissia. Sunday is International Museum day, so if you’re in Greece, there’s a wealth of fantastic museums to choose from and if anyone wants any pointers about museums in Greece, just ask. But, wherever you are, make sure you visit a museum this weekend. Support the work of museums, big or small.