Jacob's Rod

By Pierre-Joseph Redouté

Join the glory days of botany with this beautiful copy of "Asphodelus Tauricus" (Jacob’s Rod / King's Spear), which was originally painted by the great master known as “Raphael of Flowers,” Pierre-Joseph Redouté.

Painted between 1807 and 1816 as a part of his awe-inspiring multi-volume work Les Liliacées, the stunning image shows a majestic, unbranched spike topped with a dense mass of star-like blossoms in creamy white and green. Stipple engraving, perfected by Redouté, lends a surreal, almost ethereal accuracy to every flower petal, leaf stripe, and structural element.

Having been known since time immemorial, the asphodel flower was featured in Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, where it decorated the legendary Elysian Fields. The current picture offers a perfect merger of rigorous botanical study and exquisite court art, having attracted attention of Empress Joséphine Bonaparte herself.