繪畫藝術(shù)描繪了歷史上的水果和蔬菜

繪畫藝術(shù)描繪了歷史上的水果和蔬菜

An unusual partnership has sprung up in the hallways of Europe's great art museums. A plant geneticist and an art historian have realized that their skills are more complementary than they thought, and that working together could reveal fascinating information about the history and evolution of plant-based foods.

一種不同尋常的合作關(guān)系在歐洲各大藝術(shù)博物館的走廊里如雨后春筍般出現(xiàn)。一位植物遺傳學家和一位藝術(shù)歷史學家已經(jīng)意識到，他們的技能比他們想象的更具互補性，同時合作可以揭示植物性食品歷史和進化的迷人信息。

The study authors in front of a painting.Liesbeth Everaert / via Eurekalert 

Ive De Smet, who works at VIB-UGent Center for Plant Systems Biology in Belgium, and David Vergauwen, a lecturer on cultural history at Amarant, a cultural institution in Belgium, have been friends since high school. They occasionally travel together and enjoy visiting museums and art galleries. It was while debating an unrecognizable piece of fruit in a 17th-century painting at the Hermitage that they realized art could tell them things about a fruit or vegetable's history that genetics could not.

比利時VIB-UGent植物系統(tǒng)生物學中心的艾弗•德•斯梅特和比利時文化機構(gòu)阿瑪蘭特的文化史講師戴維•維高文從高中就是朋友。他們偶爾會一起旅行，一起參觀博物館和美術(shù)館。在隱居館，他們正在討論一幅17世紀的畫作中一個認不出來的水果，他們意識到藝術(shù)可以告訴他們一些遺傳學無法告訴他們的關(guān)于水果或蔬菜的歷史。

Plant geneticists are able to decode the genomes of ancient crops, based on rare preserved seeds found in tombs and elsewhere, but there are still "significant gaps in the timelines of where and when many modern-day fruits, vegetables, and cereal crops evolved" (via Eurekalert). Nor can geneticists give accurate descriptions of a fruit or vegetable's appearance.

植物遺傳學家能夠根據(jù)在墳墓和其他地方發(fā)現(xiàn)的稀有保存種子來解碼古代作物的基因組，但是“在現(xiàn)代水果、蔬菜和谷類作物進化的時間和地點上仍然有很大的差距”(通過Eurekalert)。遺傳學家也不能準確地描述水果或蔬菜的外觀。

That's where art can help.

這就是藝術(shù)可以幫忙的地方

De Smet told CNN that paintings offer missing information for pre-photographic times. They can confirm the presence of certain domesticated species and show how growers may have bred for specific characteristics, altering appearances over time.

德·斯米特告訴CNN，繪畫提供了前攝影時代缺失的信息。它們可以確認某些馴化物種的存在，并顯示出種植者可能是如何為了特定的特性而繁殖，隨著時間的推移而改變外觀。

Examining the way fruits and vegetables looked in the past may also reveal information about where foods came from, how common they were, what they were eaten with, as well as trade routes and newly conquered lands (via CNN). In this sense, De Smet explained, "Our line of inquiry does not limit itself to genetics and art history, but also includes the field of cultural anthropology and social history as well."

研究過去水果和蔬菜的樣子還可以揭示食物的來源、常見程度、食用方式，以及貿(mào)易路線和新征服的土地。在這個意義上，德斯密特解釋說:“我們的研究范圍不僅限于遺傳學和藝術(shù)史，還包括文化人類學和社會歷史領(lǐng)域。”

"Fruit and a Jug on a Table" by Paul Cézanne, an artist who frequently depicted plant-based foods in his art. Paul Cézanne / Google Art Project via Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

It's important to have a "control" when assessing how accurate a painting is. For their research, De Smet and Vergauwen use roses, which also have "a long history of breeding and centuries-old depictions." So if an artist has painted roses, it helps to determine whether his or her portrayals of fruits and vegetables are accurate. For instance, you wouldn't look to Picasso to "figure out what a pear looked like in the early 20th century," but you could rely on late Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch to give an accurate illustration of a strawberry's biological structure, although "the fruit is taller than the people painted alongside it."

在評估一幅畫的精確度時，有一個“控制”是很重要的。在他們的研究中，德斯密特和維高溫使用了玫瑰，它們也有“悠久的繁殖歷史和長達幾個世紀的描述”。因此，如果一個藝術(shù)家畫過玫瑰，這有助于確定他或她對水果和蔬菜的描繪是否準確。例如，你不會指望畢加索“弄清楚20世紀初的梨是什么樣子的，”但你可以依靠后期荷蘭畫家波希要準確說明草莓的生物結(jié)構(gòu),盡管“水果比旁邊畫它的人還高。”

De Smet and Vergauwen recently published a paper in the journal Trends in Plant Science that explains their unique approach to analyzing fruit and vegetable history. They describe the challenges in searching through countless works of art for depictions that are often omitted from titles.

德斯密特和維高文最近在《植物科學趨勢》雜志上發(fā)表了一篇論文，解釋了他們分析水果和蔬菜歷史的獨特方法。他們描述了在無數(shù)的藝術(shù)作品中尋找經(jīng)常從標題中省略的描述的挑戰(zhàn)。

Because of these limitations, the pair is calling on the general public to help in the search for historic, artistic produce. If you see something that may be of interest, you can email it to them or use an app that is currently being developed. "This is the beauty of doing this kind of research today," De Smet said. "Crowdsourcing tools will allow you to access a lot more data faster than we ever could by just visiting museums." The overall campaign is referred to as #ArtGenetics.

由于這些限制，兩人呼吁公眾幫助尋找具有歷史意義的藝術(shù)作品。如果你看到了你感興趣的東西，你可以發(fā)郵件給他們，或者使用正在開發(fā)的應用程序。“這就是今天做這類研究的美妙之處，”德斯密特說。“眾包工具將讓你以比我們僅僅參觀博物館更快的速度獲取更多的數(shù)據(jù)。”整個活動被稱為#藝術(shù)遺傳學。