Press Release
A GARDEN OF FLOWERS:
Lilla Tabasso & Crispijn de Passe
Study Room ǀ May 21 to November 2, 2025

This showcase exhibition brings together two fascinating artistic positions that meet and engage in dialogue across different eras and mediums: the Dutch engraver Crispijn de Passe the Younger (1594–1670) and the contemporary Italian artist Lilla Tabasso (b. 1973). Their common theme: the timeless beauty of flowers. While De Passe recorded floral diversity in his printed herbarium Hortus Floridus in the seventeenth century, Tabasso takes his depictions as the artistic starting point for her hyperrealistic sculptures made of Murano glass.

Crispijn de Passe: Graphics between Beauty and Science
Together with his brothers, Crispijn de Passe the Younger documented the botanical diversity of his surroundings in 166 detailed copperplate engravings and was also inspired by the first botanical garden in Leiden. The Hortus Floridus is not only a scientifically precise collection of plant portraits, but also a testimony to his aesthetic fascination with nature. Its depictions combine meticulous precision with artistic sensitivity and reflect the spirit of exploration prevalent in the seventeenth century. At the same time, they bear witness to a deep reverence for nature and its aesthetic beauty that still fascinates us today.

Lilla Tabasso: Art in glass between Perfection and Transience
We have invited the Italian artist Lilla Tabasso to approach this important work from our collection and translate it into her personal artistic language. She uses De Passe’s work as a source of inspiration and transforms the monochrome, two-dimensional copperplate engravings into sensual, three-dimensional glass sculptures. Her flower arrangements made of Murano glass captivate with their brilliant colors and precise attention to detail, making them almost indistinguishable from real plants. At the same time, she also thematizes their decay: her works show flowers in various stages of withering and thus take up the tradition of vanitas depictions in still lifes from Crispijn de Passe’s time.

An Encounter between Past and Present
The exhibition invites visitors to view flowers from two different artistic perspectives. The encounter between De Passe’s printmaking masterpiece and Tabasso’s glass creations shows how these two are characterized by both their scientific precision and their artistic sensibility. At the same time, it makes clear how art and science, tradition and modernity, as well as craftsmanship and creativity can be combined in a unique way.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue in German, English, and Dutch.