Calling botanists and farmers

Watermelons with white inner
rinds (top--lower right)?

According to a story by John Allen in On Wisconsin, the alumni mag of the Univ of Wisc, horticultural professor James Niehuis, PhD, uses paintings to show how fruits and veggies have changed over the centuries. Check out the watermelons in Giovanni Stanchi's painting.

He and his students in his World Vegetable Crops class go a a nearby museum to look a Renaissance still lifes to see how carious aspects of plants have been bred in or out over the centuries.

With grains, he says, archeologists can look at actual samples--but the more moist plants don't last.

He calls fruits and vegetables "art you can eat."

Hmmm...What else could we tell from paintings? Maybe that people are taller now. Breeds of dogs we don't have now? Certainly trends in fashion. Weapons?