Bouquet of Flowers with Fruit, a Parrot and a Mirror

Here Bimbi steps away from the plain botanical record and builds a show-piece. A full bouquet and ripe fruit are joined by two things his catalogue paintings never needed: a live parrot and a mirror. The parrot is the clue. Bright imported birds were costly rarities in late-1600s Florence, kept the way one might keep a jewel, and putting one in a picture signalled wealth as much as a love of nature. The mirror belongs to the same taste for luxury and display. The discipline, though, is unchanged. The same close attention Bimbi gave to getting a single lemon exactly right is here in every petal and feather.