BETWEEN IMPERIAL SCIENCE AND COMMERCE: EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY BOTANICAL ILLUSTRATIONS OF ENDEMIC CHILEAN PLANTS

This study examines eighteenth-century botanical illustrations of endemic Chilean flora within the colonial context of the imperial networks that transferred American plants and their images to Europe. To this end, we focus on early illustrations of three Chilean botanical species: the copihue, the puya and the quillay. We consider the botanical images of these species produced under the expeditions of Louis Feuillee (1707-1711) and Hipolito Ruiz y Jose Pavon (1777-1788) as efficient substitutes for the plants they represent. We find that these illustrations fulfilled the doubled necessities of eighteenth century Imperialism, that is, to identify useful new plants and to integrate them within a universal system of botany. We conclude that these considerations were given uneven weight, as artistic conventions for the botanical illustrations under study privileged scientific aspects over more lucrative endeavors.