the surreal proportions of Volckamer's 18th c. botanical prints

Thanks to Giornale Nuovo for this incredible feast of startling but yet endearing images from Johan Volckamer's Nuremberg Hesperides. G.N.'s source suggests that these prints, generated from a wintry German countryside, show a longing for the warmth of the Mediterranean that only the wealthy could afford by means of hot-houses and orangeries. ("Hesperides," I've just learned, is a synonym for "the blossom garden culture of the 1650s to 1800s"). The citrus fruits here do seem to have become substitutes for large, looming suns...

I would so much love to have one of these prints to brighten the winter, together with, I think, a Meyer lemon tree.