Cydonia

The work is part of the Universal Garden project curated by Cornelia Lauf, inspired by plants depicted in preserved ancient Roman frescoes located in the Villa Livia, north of Rome. This site attracts not only scientists but also artists. A key component of the Universal Garden project is the Artists’ Herbarium, a collection of artistic interpretations of plants captured in frescoes, created through various media, including drawing, painting, graphics, collage, photography, and mixed media.

For my illustration, I chose the plant Cydonia (Cydonia oblonga, Cydonia vulgaris), commonly known as the quince. I view this fruit as an immigrant plant, originally migrating from the South Caucasus and Northern Iran to various countries in the West and the Americas.I was drawn to the quince because of the ambiguity of its name and its "different identities." Cydonia is not only a fruit; it is also the name of an ancient Greek city and a region on Mars. Photographs taken in the 1960s of this Martian region famously showed what appeared to be a "Martian face." These images sparked the imagination of those intrigued by sensational theories and led to various speculations about the origin of this structure. However, with the advancement of photographic technology, it was later determined that the face was merely an optical illusion.

Furthermore, the quince appears interchangeably with apples in some myths and religious beliefs. For instance, it is possible that the “golden apples” stolen by Heracles from the garden of the Hesperides were, in fact, quinces, particularly because this fruit is known for its sweetness in warm climates, contrasting with the quinces grown in Poland, from which quince liqueur is made. Additionally, the "apple of discord," thrown by the goddess Eris during the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, carrying the inscription “for the most beautiful,” could have also represented a quince. Interestingly, the quince undergoes a colour change when cooked, transforming from yellow to red.

My work serves as a visual essay reflecting the multiple meanings associated with the word “Cydonia.” At the centre of the composition is an element painted based on a photograph by Rob Kesseler, which reveals quince pollen as viewed under a microscope.

BIBLIOGRAPHY / VISUAL SOURCES:

Rob Kesseler, Cydonia oblonga, Quince pollen, hand coloured SEM, 2009. Lola Vico, "Virtual Restoration from an Architectonic and Constructive Interpretation of Villa of Livia", CAA2010: fusion of cultures: Proceedings of the 38th Annual Conference on Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology, ed. Javier Melero, Pedro Cano and Jorge Revelles, (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2013), 237-240.

"Ancient Cydonia", Crete.gr, http://www.crete.gr/en/pages/ancient-kydonia.php.

William Witler Meech, "Quince Culture: An Illustrated Hand-Book for the Propagation and Cultivation of the Quince, with Descriptions of Its Varieties, Insect Enemies, Diseases and Their Remedies", (New York: Orange Judd Company, 1888).

Nola Taylor Tillman, "The Face on Mars": Fact and Fiction, Space.com, https://www.space. com/17191-face-on-mars.html.

"Cydonia - the face on Mars", The European Space Agency, https://www.esa.int/Science_ Exploration/Space_Science/Mars_Express/Cydonia_-_the_face_on_Mars.

Sissi, "Quince Vodka", With a glass - blog, http://www.withaglass.com/?p=7276.