Painting Paradise

While curating Painting Paradise: The Art of the Garden, which opens tomorrow in The Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace, the earliest surviving portrait of a professional gardener was found in the Royal Collection. It was painted by Franciabigio nearly 500 years ago and depicts Jacopo Cennini, factor and estate manager to the powerful House of Medici, the banking family and hereditary dukes of the Republic of Florence. This is among 150 works of art from the Royal Collection in the new exhibition of gardens and botanical illustrations across four centuries. Admission costs £10 adults, £9.20 silver surfers (CLICK).