Queens Museum of Art-Abbot Antonio Jose de Cavanilles

Salvador Riso, born and died in Columbia from 1768-1816, painted Abbot Antonio Jose de Cavanilles in 1801.  This piece is an oil on canvas.  This painting is of an actual person.  Abbot Antonio Jose de Cavanilles was a botanical taxonomist in the 1800s.  This piece is a side profile of the abbot looking off into the distance.  With his right hand he was holding a pen and taking notes.  With his left hand he was pointing to a diagram of a plant labeled Rizoa.  The abbot was wearing all black and was in a rather dark room.

What caught my attention was the word Rizoa that was in the painting.  As I was walking through the gallery, I saw it from the corner of my eye.  Interestingly, the word Rizoa was one of the terms that I learned from my biology lecture a few days prior to my visit.  Rizoa is a genus of plants in the taxonomic system.  It was rather interesting to know that contributions to taxonomy also came from the Carribean.  Normally, in class we simply learn about Carl Linnaeus and other European taxonomists.  Abbot Antonio Jose de Cavanilles named Rizoa after his portraitist, Salvador Riso.  This was considered a high honor.  Salvador Riso was an artist for the Royal Botanical Expedition for the kingdom of Granada, a colonial territory consisting of modern day Columbia and parts of Venezuela.  Salvador Riso was instructed to make a portrait of Abbot Antonio in honor of his many achievements in naming countless plants.  Abbot Antonio contributed greatly to the understanding of flora in the West Indies and Latin America.