Hans Simon Holtzbecker was commissioned over a decade to produce paintings for Duke Frederic III of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf in 1649 of the beautiful plants and flowers in the gardens at Gottorf’s castle. What we have now is a wonderful restoration project that allows us the opportunity to see the four volumes of work.
There are 365 pages detailing 1180 illustrations and they have been restored by the conservators at SMK,the National Gallery of Denmark. What an absolute joy! And a definite candidate for my next project, there will definitely be one of my hand made books showing off these beauties. I think I may decide to show the illustrations as they appear – unadorned by any text. Normally I am inclined to complement either text such as one of Eliot’s poems with illustration, or illustration with complementary poetry or quotation. This volume may simply be a small tribute to the Gottofer Codex and simply be a number of selected pages from it. Sometimes less is more.
For more information on the restoration project and the Gottofer Codex, here is a link that should take you there.
moving in time 