Maria Sibylla Merian
Maria Sibylla Merian | |
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Free Imperial City of Frankfurt, Holy Roman Empire | |
Died | 13 January 1717 | (aged 69)
Occupations |
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Known for |
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Spouse |
Johann Andreas Graff
(m. 1665) |
Children | |
Parents |
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Maria Sibylla Merian (2 April 1647 – 13 January 1717
Merian received her artistic training from her stepfather, Jacob Marrel, a student of the still life painter Georg Flegel. Merian published her first book of natural illustrations in 1675. She had started to collect insects as an adolescent. At age 13, she raised silkworms. In 1679, Merian published the first volume of a two-volume series on caterpillars; the second volume followed in 1683. Each volume contained 50 plates that she engraved and etched. Merian documented evidence on the process of metamorphosis and the plant hosts of 186 European insect species. Along with the illustrations Merian included descriptions of their life cycles.
In 1699, Merian travelled to Dutch Guiana to study and record the tropical insects native to the region. In 1705, she published Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium. Merian's Metamorphosis has been credited with influencing a range of naturalist illustrators. Because of her careful observations and documentation of the metamorphosis of the butterfly, Merian is considered by David Attenborough to be among the more significant contributors to the field of entomology.[2] She discovered many new facts about insect life through her studies.[3] Until her careful, detailed work, it had been thought that insects were "born of mud" by spontaneous generation. Her pioneering research in illustrating and describing the various stages of development, from egg to larva to pupa and finally to adult, dispelled the notion of spontaneous generation and established the idea that insects undergo distinct and predictable life cycles.[4]
Life and career
Maria Sibylla Merian's father, the Swiss engraver and publisher
I spent my time investigating insects. At the beginning, I started with silkworms in my home town of Frankfurt. I realized that other caterpillars produced beautiful butterflies or moths, and that silkworms did the same. This led me to collect all the
caterpillarsI could find in order to see how they changed.
In May 1665, Merian married Marrel's apprentice, Johann Andreas Graff from Nuremberg; his father was a poet and director of the local high school, one of the leading schools in seventeenth-century Germany. In January 1668, she had her first child, Johanna Helena, and the family moved to Nuremberg in 1670, her husband's home town. While living there, Merian continued painting, working on parchment and linen, and creating designs for embroidery. She also gave drawing lessons to unmarried daughters of wealthy families (her "Jungferncompaney", i.e. virgin group), which helped her family financially and increased its social standing. This provided her with access to the finest gardens, maintained by the wealthy and elite, where she could continue collecting and documenting insects.[6] In 1675, Merian was included in Joachim von Sandrart's German Academy. Aside from painting flowers she made copperplate engravings. After attending Sandrart's school she published flower pattern books.[8] In 1678, she gave birth to her second daughter Dorothea Maria.[9]
Other women still-life painters, such as Merian's contemporary Margaretha de Heer, included insects in their floral pictures, but did not breed or study them.[10]: 155 In 1679, she published her first work on insects, the first of a two-volume illustrated book focusing on insect metamorphosis.[5]
In 1678, the family had moved to
Friesland
From 1685 onward, Merian, her daughters, and her mother lived with the Labadist community, which had settled on the grounds of a stately home – Walt(h)a Castle – at
In Wieuwerd, the Labadists engaged in printing and many other occupations, including farming and milling.[11] At its peak, the religious community numbered around 600, with many more adherents further afield. Visitors came from England, Italy, Poland, and elsewhere, but not all approved of the strict discipline, religious separatism, and community property. Merian's husband was refused by the Labadists, but came back twice.[12]
Amsterdam
In 1690, Merian's mother had died. A year later, she moved with her daughters to Amsterdam. In 1692, her husband divorced her. In Amsterdam the same year, her daughter Johanna married Jakob Hendrik Herolt, a successful merchant in the Suriname trade, originally from Bacharach. The flower painter Rachel Ruysch became Merian's pupil.[4] Merian made a living selling her paintings.[8] She and her daughter Johanna sold flower pictures to art collector Agnes Block. By 1698 Merian lived in a well-furnished house on Kerkstraat.[10]: 166
In 1699, the city of Amsterdam granted Merian permission to travel to Suriname in South America, along with her younger daughter Dorothea Maria. On 10 July, the fifty-two year old Merian and her daughter set sail. The goal of the mission was to spend five years illustrating new species of insects.[5] In order to finance the mission, Maria Sibylla sold 255 of her own paintings.[14] She would later write:
In Holland, with much astonishment what beautiful animals came from the East and
Fredericus Ruysch, doctor of medicine and professor of anatomy and botany, Mr. Livinus Vincent, and many other people. In these collections I had found innumerable other insects, but found that their origin and their reproduction is unknown, it begs the question as to how they transform, starting from caterpillars and chrysalises and so on. All this has, at the same time, led me to undertake a long-dreamed-of journey to Suriname.[7]
Suriname and return to Netherlands
Merian arrived on 18 September or 19 September in Suriname, and met with the governor Paulus van der Veen. She worked for two years,[15] travelling throughout the colony and sketching local animals and plants. She recorded local native names for the plants and described local uses.[5]
Unlike other Dutch naturalists, Merian was not employed by a commercial enterprise or corporation. The preface of her Suriname book does not acknowledge any patrons or sponsors of her trip.[16] Some believe her journey may have been financed by the directors of the Dutch West India Company.[17]: 211 In her subsequent publication on the expedition Merian criticised the actions of the colonial merchants, saying that "the people there have no desire to investigate anything like that; indeed they mocked me for seeking anything other than sugar in the country." Merian also condemned the merchants' treatment of slaves. An enslaved person was forced to assist Merian in her research, and the labor of this person enabled interactions she had with the Amerindian and African slaves in the colony who assisted her in researching the plants and animals of Suriname. Merian also took an interest in agriculture and lamented the colonial merchants' resistance to plant or export anything other than sugar. She later showcased the vegetables and fruits that could be found in Suriname, including the pineapple.[17]: 212–213
In June 1701 an illness, possibly malaria, forced her to return to the Dutch Republic.[5] Back in the Netherlands Merian opened a shop. She sold specimens she had collected and her engravings of plant and animal life in Suriname. In 1705, she published a book Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium about the insects of Suriname.[3]
In 1715, Merian suffered a stroke. Despite being partially paralysed, she continued her work.[4] She died in Amsterdam on 13 January 1717 and was buried four days later at Leidse kerkhof.[18] Although she is sometimes described as dying impoverished,[19] her funeral was a middle-class one with fourteen pall-bearers.[20] Her daughter Dorothea published Erucarum Ortus Alimentum et Paradoxa Metamorphosis, a collection of her mother's work, after Merian's death.
Work
Botanical art
Merian first made a name for herself as a
The drawings were decorative and not all were drawn based on observation. Some of the flowers in the three-volume series appear to be based on drawings by
Merian also sold hand-coloured editions of the Blumenbuch series.
Research into insects and caterpillars
Merian was one of the early naturalists to observe insects directly.[5] Merian collected and observed live insects and created detailed drawings. In her time insects still had a reputation as "beasts of the devil" and the process of metamorphosis was largely unknown. While a handful of scholars had published empirical information on the insect, moth and butterfly life cycle, the widespread contemporary belief was that they were "born of mud" by spontaneous generation. Merian documented evidence to the contrary and described the life cycles of 186 insect species.[4]
Merian had started to collect insects as an adolescent and kept a study journal. Aged 13, she raised silkworms and other insects. Her interest turned to moths and butterflies, which she collected and studied. While living in Nuremberg and Frankfurt Merian would travel to the surrounding countryside to search for caterpillar
She observed the life cycles of insects over decades, making detailed drawings based on live insects in their natural environment or freshly preserved specimens. This set her apart from previous artist-naturalists such as
In 1679, Merian published the first volume of a two-volume series on caterpillars, with a second volume in 1683.[24] Each volume contained 50 plates engraved and etched by Merian, with a description of the insects, moths, butterflies and their larvae she had observed. Der Raupen wunderbare Verwandlung und sonderbare Blumennahrung – The Caterpillars' Marvellous Transformation and Strange Floral Food, was very popular in certain segments of high society as it was written in the vernacular, but her work was largely ignored by scientists of the time.[21]: 36
The title page of her 1679 Caterpillars proudly proclaimed in German:
"wherein by means of an entirely new invention the origin, food and development of caterpillars, worms, butterflies, moths, flies and other such little animals, including times, places and characteristics, for naturalists, artists, and gardeners, are diligently examined, briefly described, painted from nature, engraved in copper and published independently."[21]: 39
While Merian's depiction of insects' life cycle was innovative in its accuracy, it was her observations on the interaction of organisms that are now regarded as a major contribution to the modern science of
Among her more significant contribution to science is the pairing of each larval lepidopteran, which she observed with a plant on which it feeds. She collected and kept caterpillars and conducted experiments to confirm her observations. She noted "caterpillars which fed on one flowering plant only, would feed on that one alone, and soon died if I did not provide it for them." She documented that some caterpillars would feed on more than one plant, but some only did so if they were deprived of their preferred host plant.[21]: 41
Merian in her detailed studies made several other unique observations. In relation to larvae, she recorded that "many shed their skins completely three or four times". She illustrated this with a drawing showing a shed exoskeleton.[21]: 39 She also detailed the ways in which larvae formed their cocoons, the possible effects of climate on their metamorphosis and numbers, their mode of locomotion, and the fact that when caterpillars "have no food, they devour each other". Such information was recorded by Merian for specific species.[21]: 41
Research in Suriname
In 1699, Merian travelled to Dutch Surinam to study and record the tropical insects.[21]: 36 The pursuit of her work in Suriname was an unusual endeavour, especially for a woman. In general, only men received royal or government funding to travel in the colonies to find new species of plants and animals, make collections and work there, or settle. Scientific expeditions at this period of time were not common, and Merian's self-funded[25] expedition raised many eyebrows. She succeeded, however, in discovering a whole range of previously unknown animals and plants in the interior of Suriname. Merian spent time studying and classifying her findings and described them in great detail. She not only described the insects she found, but also noted their habitat, habits and uses to indigenous people.[6] Her classification of butterflies and moths is still relevant today. She used Native American names to refer to the plants, which became used in Europe:
I created the first classification for all the insects which had chrysalises, the daytime butterflies and the nighttime moths. The second classification is that of the maggots, worms, flies, and bees. I retained the indigenous names of the plants, because they were still in use in America by both the locals and the Indians.[7]
Merian's drawings of plants, frogs,
In 1705, three years after returning from her expedition, she published Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium.[21]: 36 Metamorphosis first was published at her own expense.[21]: 43 Merian had returned from Suriname with sketches and notes. As the word spread among scholars in Amsterdam, visitors came to view her paintings of exotic insects and plants. She noted "Now that I had returned to Holland and several nature-lovers had seen my drawings, they pressured me eagerly to have them printed. They were of the opinion that this was the first and most unusual work ever painted in America." With the assistance of her daughters Johanna and Dorothea, Merian put together a series of plates. She did not make the printing plates herself this time, but hired three printmakers to do the engraving. She supervised the work closely. To pay for this work she advertised for subscribers, who were willing to give her money in advance for a hand-painted deluxe edition of the Metamorphosis. Twelve subscribers paid in advance to receive the expensive hand-painted edition, while a less expensive printed edition in black and white was also published.[28]: 71 After her death the book was reprinted in 1719, 1726 and 1730, finding a larger audience.[21]: 43 It was published in German, Dutch, Latin and French.[21]: 48 Merian contemplated publishing the book in English, so that she could present it to the queen of England. She mused "It is reasonable for a woman to make such a gift to a person of the same sex". But nothing came of the plan.[28]: 76
Metamorphosis and the tropical ants Merian documented were cited by the scientists
A significant number of Merian's paintings combining a plant, caterpillar and butterfly are simply decorative, and make no attempt to describe the life cycle. For instance, the
Merian was the first European woman to independently go on a scientific expedition in South America. In the 19th century
Scientific practice in Amsterdam
When Merian moved to Amsterdam in 1691, she made the acquaintance of several naturalists.
Trading ships brought back never seen before shells, plants and preserved animals.
The exotic specimens on display in Amsterdam may have inspired her to travel to Surinam, but only interrupted her study of European insects briefly. Merian continued her collection and observation activities, adding plates to her Caterpillars books and updating the existing plates. She republished the two volumes in Dutch in 1713 and 1714 under the title Der Rupsen.[21]: 36 She extended her studies into flies and rewrote the preface to her books to eradicate any mention of spontaneous generation. She explained that flies emerged from a caterpillar pupa, and suggested that flies could thereby be born from excrement.[33]: 222 The 50 plates and descriptions of European insects that appear to have been intended for a third volume were published after her death by her daughters, who combined them with the 1713 editions to one large volume. A number of Metamorphosis editions were also published posthumously by her family, to which 12 additional plates were added. All but two appear to have been Merian's work.[21]: 36
Merian was described as lively, hard working and courteous by a visiting scholar in 1711. Her house was full of drawings, insects, plants, fruit, and on the walls were her Surinam watercolours.[28]: 79 Shortly before Merian's death, her work was seen in Amsterdam by Peter the Great. After her death in 1717, he acquired a significant number of her paintings,[34] which to this day are kept in academic collections in Saint Petersburg.[35]
Posthumous Misattributions
Several scholars have traced mistakes that were falsely attributed to Merian after her death.[36][37] One example revolves around who added color to first edition plates of her Surinam book. Some first editions included plates that were painted by Merian and others had colorless plates. People later colored in the black and white plates without following the color palette used by Merian, similar to the concept of coloring books, and some suspect these later colors made it to the second edition.[38] In another example, the printer of the 1730 edition of Surinam added plates using fictitious images of caterpillar life cycles that Merian did not originally include in the book and used for different, unscientific, purposes. Critics later cited these plates as proof to discredit Merian.[39]
Eponyms
Long after her death a number of
The Cuban sphinx moth has been named .
The bird-eating spider
A genus of flowering plants was named Meriania. An iris-like plant was given the name Watsonia meriana.[28]: 88
Modern appreciation
Merian is considered a saint by the God's Gardeners, a fictional religious sect that is the focus of Margaret Atwood's 2009 novel The Year of the Flood.[43][44]
In the last quarter of the twentieth century, the work of Merian was re-evaluated, validated, and reprinted.
The renewed scientific and artistic interest in her work was triggered in part by a number of scholars who examined collections of her works, such as the one in Rosenborg Castle, Copenhagen.[47] In 2005, a modern research vessel named RV Maria S. Merian was launched at Warnemünde, Germany. In 2016, Merian's Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium was re-published with updated scientific descriptions and, in June 2017, a symposium was held in her honour in Amsterdam.[48][49][50] In March 2017, the Lloyd Library and Museum in Cincinnati, Ohio hosted "Off the Page", an exhibition rendering many of Merian's illustrations as 3D sculptures with preserved insects, plants, and taxidermy specimens.[51][52]
The Argentine black and white tegu (Salvator merianae), a type of large lizard, was named in honour of Merian after its discovery and classification.[53]
Daughters
Today, while Merian has experienced reinvigorated fame in the eyes of the art and science communities, some of her work has now been re-attributed to her daughters Johanna and Dorothea; Sam Segal has re-attributed 30 of 91 folios in the British Museum.[54]
Gallery
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Butterfly on a hibiscus plant
Bibliography
- Blumenbuch. Volume 1. 1675
- Blumenbuch. Volume 2. 1677
- Neues Blumenbuch. Volume 3. 1680
- Der Raupen wunderbare Verwandlung und sonderbare Blumennahrung. Volume 1, 1679
- Der Raupen wunderbare Verwandlung und sonderbare Blumennahrung. Volume 2, 1683
- Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium. 1705
See also
References
- ^ Rogers, Kara. "Maria Sibylla Merian". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on 23 June 2018. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
- ^ Natural Curiosities film, BBC
- ^ ISBN 978-3-11-015704-8.
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- ^ .
- ^ a b c Foreword from Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium
- ^ ISBN 9781851094608.
- ^ Wulf, Andrea (January 2016). "The Woman Who Made Science Beautiful". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on 23 August 2019. Retrieved 19 January 2016.
- ^ ISBN 9780674955202.
- ^ "Schetsplattegrond van Waltha- of Thetinga-state opgetekend door Johann Andreas Graff, echtgenoot van Maria Sibylla Merian | Tuinhistorisch Genootschap Cascade". 26 February 2008. Archived from the original on 2 June 2019. Retrieved 26 February 2016.
- ISBN 3-7829-0459-1
- ISBN 9781317146742.
- ^ a b Reidell, Heidi (April 2008). "A Study of Metamorphosis". Americas. 60 (2): 28–35. Archived from the original on 2 April 2023. Retrieved 10 August 2015.
- ^ de Bray (2001), p. 48.
- ^ Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium, Maria Sibylla Merian, Lannoo Publishers; Slp edition (8 November 2016), p 177
- ^ ISBN 9789004340640.
- ^ "Merian, Maria Sibylla (1647–1717)". Archived from the original on 24 December 2017. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
- ^ Pieters, F. F. J. M., & Winthagen, D. (1999). "Maria Sibylla Merian, naturalist and artist (1647–1717): a commemoration on the occasion of the 350th anniversity of her birth" Archived 19 February 2018 at the Wayback Machine. Archives of Natural History, 26(1), 1–18.
- ^ Reitsma, Ella (2008). Maria Sibylla Merian and Daughters: Women of Art and Science. Los Angeles: Getty Publications. p. 234.
- ^ ISBN 9781443830676.
- ^ ISBN 9780816667642.
- ^ a b Kopaneva, N.P. (February 2010). "The Vivid Colors of Merian". Science First Hand. 25 (1): 110–123. Archived from the original on 2 April 2023. Retrieved 10 August 2015.
- ^ Etheridge, Kay (2020). The Flowering of Ecology, Maria Sibylla Merian's Caterpillar Book. Brill.
- PMID 37173737.
- ^ Etheridge, Kay (2010). "Maria Sybilla Merian's Frogs" (PDF). Bibliotheca Herpetologica. 8: 20–27. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 July 2011. Retrieved 4 March 2011.
- PMID 21126767. Archived from the original(PDF) on 19 July 2011. Retrieved 4 March 2011.
- ^ ISBN 9781947440012.
- ^ Shapiro A.M. 2008. [Review of] Chrysalis... by Kim Todd. Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society vol 62(1), pp 58–59.
- ISBN 9789401433785. Archived(PDF) from the original on 28 July 2020. Retrieved 24 January 2017.
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- ^ Todd, Kim (2007), pp. 228–229
- ISBN 3775707514.
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- JSTOR 2739414.
- JSTOR 2739414.
- JSTOR 2739414.
- ^ 1967 Some early works on heliconiine butterflies and their biology (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae) JRG Turner – Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 46, pp. 255–266
- ^ NAKAHARA, SHINICHI. et al. Discovery of a rare and striking new pierid butterfly from Panama. [1] Archived 9 December 2018 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Laskow, Sarah. A Rare and Striking Butterfly Is Named for a Pioneering Female Naturalist [2] Archived 7 December 2018 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Saints". The Year of The Flood. Retrieved 7 September 2022.[permanent dead link]
- OCLC 290470097, retrieved 7 September 2022
- ^ Erlanger-Glozer, Liselotte (March–April 1978). "Maria Sibylla Merian, 17th Century Entomologist, Artist, and Traveller". Insect World Digest. 3 (2): 12–21.
- ^ Lachno, James. "Maria Sibylla Merian: Scientific illustrator honoured with Google doodle". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 4 April 2013. Retrieved 2 April 2013.
- ISBN 9781317146742.
- ^ JoAnna Klein (23 January 2017). "A Pioneering Woman of Science Re-Emerges After 300 Years". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 23 June 2018. Retrieved 24 January 2017.
- ^ "Conference Changing the Nature of Art and Science. Intersections with Maria Sibylla Merian". www.aanmelder.nl. Archived from the original on 2 February 2017. Retrieved 24 January 2017.
- ISBN 9789401433785. Archivedfrom the original on 28 January 2017. Retrieved 24 January 2017.
- ^ Coleman, Brent (19 March 2017). "Covington, Ky. taxidermist brings insect drawings by German artist to life in 3-D for Lloyd Library". WCPO. Archived from the original on 5 January 2018. Retrieved 4 January 2018.
- ^ Meddling with Nature (4 April 2016), Off the Page – Maria Sibylla Merian, archived from the original on 21 December 2021, retrieved 4 January 2018
- ^ Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). "Tupinambis merianae". The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 175. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5.
- ^ "Attributed to Maria Sibylla Merian in a collection her daughter - Dorothea Graff - made of her mother's works. Dorothea (1867-1745) and Maria". Jigidi. 2 December 2023. Retrieved 22 February 2024.
External links
- Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium:
- Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium Archived 8 April 2013 at the Wayback Machine images at website sponsored by Johns Hopkins University
- Online version of Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium from GDZ
- Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium (1705) – full digital facsimile from the Linda Hall Library
- Das kleine Buch der Tropenwunder : kolorierte Stiche from the Digital Library of the Caribbean
- Online version of Over de voortteeling en wonderbaerlyke veranderingen der Surinaemsche Insecten from GDZ
- Online version of Erucarum ortus, alimentum et paradoxa metamorphosis from GDZ
- The Flowering Genius of Maria Sibylla Merian Ingrid Rowland on Merian from The New York Review of Books
- Der Raupen wunderbare Verwandlung, images from collection at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Gaedike, R.; Groll, E.K. & Taeger, A. 2012: Bibliography of the entomological literature from the beginning until 1863 : online database – version 1.0 – Senckenberg Deutsches Entomologisches Institut.
- Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. 1900. .
- Maria Sibylla Merian on the RKD website
- The Maria Sibylla Merian Society with links to digitized works from Maria Sibylla Merian and digital sources
- The Kleps-Hok Collection on Maria Sibylla Merian at The National Museum of Women in the Arts
- "The Woman Whose Paintings Changed Science Forever" (28 April 2022) video via BBC Ideas
- In viaggio con Merianin Online exhibition of the Archiginnasio Library - Bologna
- Mariae Sibillae Merian, Dissertatio de generatione et metamorphosibus insectorum Surinamensium:..., Hagae Comitum, apud Petrum Gosse, 1726