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AOBPreview originally published online on November 28, 2005
Annals of Botany 2006 97(2):165-176; doi:10.1093/aob/mcj025
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© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Annals of Botany Company. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

The Cucurbit Images (1515–1518) of the Villa Farnesina, Rome

JULES JANICK1,* and HARRY S. PARIS2

1 Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, Purdue University, 625 Agriculture Mall Drive, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2010, USA and 2 Department of Vegetable Crops and Plant Genetics, Agricultural Research Organization, Newe Ya'ar Research Center, PO Box 1021, Ramat Yishay 30-095, Israel

* For correspondence. E-mail janick{at}purdue.edu

Received: 8 August 2005    Returned for revision: 28 September 2005    Accepted: 19 October 2005    Published electronically: 28 November 2005

• Background The gorgeous frescoes organized by the master Renaissance painter Raphael Sanzio (1483–1520) and illustrating the heavenly adventures of Cupid and Psyche were painted between 1515 and 1518 to decorate the Roman villa (now known as the Villa Farnesina) of the wealthy Sienese banker Agostino Chigi (1466–1520). Surrounding these paintings are festoons of fruits, vegetables and flowers painted by Giovanni Martini da Udine (1487–1564), which include over 170 species of plants. A deconstruction and collation of the cucurbit images in the festoons makes it possible to evaluate the genetic diversity of cucurbits in Renaissance Italy 500 years ago.

• Findings The festoons contain six species of Old World cucurbits, Citrullus lanatus (watermelon), Cucumis melo (melon), Cucumis sativus (cucumber), Ecballium elaterium (squirting cucumber), Lagenaria siceraria (bottle gourd) and Momordica balsamina (balsam apple), and two or three species of New World cucurbits, Cucurbita maxima, C. pepo and, perhaps, C. moschata (pumpkin, squash, gourd). The images of C. maxima are the first illustrations of this species in Europe.

Key words: Citrullus lanatus, Cucumis melo, Cucumis sativus, Cucurbita maxima, Cucurbita pepo, Ecballium elaterium, Lagenaria siceraria, Momordica balsamina, Cucurbitaceae, Agostino Chigi, Giovanni Martini da Udine


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