Flowers in a Glass Vase

Rachel Ruysch, a canonical Dutch still life painter from the Northern Netherlands, has been celebrated for hundreds of years for her exquisitely poetic floral still lifes. Her 1704 piece Flowers in a Glass Vase exemplifies her uncanny ability to execute work with scientific precision and an elevated sense of spiritual splendor to boot. 
 
Ruysch came by her ability to pay meticulous attention to details and capture botanical subjects with lifelike precision naturally. Her father, a professor of anatomy and botany, had an extensive collection of animal skeletons, minerals, and botanical specimens–and from a young age, Ruysch drew from it literally and figuratively. She mastered the ability to depict nature with exceptional accuracy and achieved international fame, becoming the most documented female painter of the Dutch Golden Age.