On 24 May, celebration of the 290th anniversary of Rundāle Palace included the official opening of the exhibition “The Allure of Flowers” in the Museum, and it will be open for visitors until 31 October.
The exhibition offers a multi-layered view of flowers and their depiction in art, revealing the arrival story of garden flowers nowadays popular in Europe, their popularity in the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia, and also the symbolic meaning of flowers in the 17th- and 18th-century art.
The exhibition is arranged in the exhibition halls and vestibule of the ground floor of the Palace where its own thematic emphasis has been assigned to each specific room. The exhibition is enriched by special arrangements of artificial flowers, the flower and stucco décor motifs characteristic to the interior of Rundāle Palace, and also an abundant collection of art works from prominent European museums.
Visitors have the opportunity of viewing works from the collections of Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery, Het Loo Palace Museum, Amsterdam Rijksmuseum, and M. K. Čiurlionis National Art Museum. One of the central parts of the exhibition is the multimedia installation “Tulip Mania” by the artist Jos Agasi from The Netherlands which offers a modern interpretation of the 17th-century “tulip mania” of The Netherlands – one of the first documented financial bubbles in the global history.
The exhibition is an invitation to learn more about the world of flowers in its different expressions – paintings, interior elements, symbols, and fragrances. A visit to the French garden of Rundāle palace will be a wonderful addition to the exhibition as many of the plants and flowers depicted in art works also bloom in nature.
Within the scope of the exhibition, there will be several thematic events at the end of May and in June. Information about the events and ticket prices will be gradually posted on the website of the Museum.
The exhibition has been created in co-operation with Rijksmuseum, Het Loo Palace Museum, Het Noordbrants Museum, Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery, M. K. Čiurlionis National Art Museum, the Latvian National Museum of Art, the Art Museum RIGA BOURSE, the National Library of Latvia, the Library of the University of Latvia, the National Archives of Latvia, Tikkurila Ltd., and JSC “Latvijas Finieris”.
The exhibition has been supported by the Boris and Inara Teterev Foundation, the Rundāle Palace Support Foundation, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia, and Groglass Ltd.
