Robert Thornton was a British physician, botanist and publisher, best known for his work The Temple of Flora . The work combines science and art in an extraordinary way. It contains colorful, large-scale illustrations of plants created by leading artists of the time, combined with poetic and scientific texts. Today, Robert Thornton is highly valued for his contribution to botany and 18th-century art, and The Temple of Flora is considered a milestone in the history of botanical illustration.