It’s no secret that we live in the age of digital images. If you have a smartphone, you can search for an apartment or find true-ish love, perhaps both by looking at an image. While the technology is relatively new, people have used the content of images to create narratives since the first cave paintings.
James Nienhuis and Irwin Goldman are professors in UW-Madison’s Department of Horticulture. They say that it is difficult to find historical documentation of fruits and veggies that could be used to trace their evolution. Their search for images led them to what some would call an unlikely place: The Chazen Museum.
In this edition of Radio Chipstone, contributor gianofer fields speaks with Nienhuis and Goldman about the intersection of Art History and Horticulture and what we can glean from examining works of art. Goldman says for him, it all started with a carrot.
About the Host:
gianofer (JON nah fer) fields is an Art Historian and Material Culture contributor and curates the Radio Chipstone series. The project is hosted by the School of Human Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and funded by the Chipstone Foundation; a decorative arts foundation whose mission is preserving and interpreting their collection, as well as stimulating research and education in the decorative arts.
About the Guests:
Irwin Goldman is a Professor of Horticulture and Department Chair. James (Jim) Nienhuis is a Professor in the Department of Horticulture. Both share their wisdom at UW-Madison.
Image: Giovanni Stanchi, “Watermelons, peaches, pears and other fruit in a landscape” (1645–72), oil on canvas. Courtesy of Christie’s.
This segment comes from the Radio Chipstone Archives on WUWM Milwaukee Public Radio. See here.
