Wildflower and fruit, from two 16th-century Europeans.
More specifically:
Medlar, Poppy Anenome, Pear ( 1561 – 1562 ).
Watercolour, gold and silver paint, and ink on parchment by Joris Hoefnagel (Flemish / Hungarian, 1542 – 1600) and Georg Bocskay (Hungarian, died 1575).
Image and text courtesy The Getty.
I guess if you’re going to use gold and silver to paint with, you make sure it’s right.
Hoefnagel (who as far as I can tell was just Flemish, not Hungarian) is also known as a maker of marginalia and miniatures. Precision counts there, too. He helped create “still life” as a genre.
Bocskay (who was Croatian) was the court calligrapher for Emperor Maximilian II.
Found via Scientific Illustration.