Carrot (Daucus carota) and Red Currant (Ribes rubrum), Anselmus Boëtius de Boodt, 1596 - 1610
brush, h 170mm × w 267mm More details
When the Bruges mayor Joseph van Huerne rebound the albums from the Historia Naturalis in the early 19th century, he had the drawings mounted on folios with ruled borders, with the name of each creature written in the Dutch, Latin and French forms of the time. These purple carrots do not look like the orange carrots we eat today, but in the 16th century, the carrot – which originated from Afghanistan – often had this colour.
