Curriculum Materials: Amazing Animals in
Art
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Maria Sibylla Merian Essays: Questions: |
Moths, Caterpillar, and Foliage
Embarking on her most adventurous project, in 1699 Maria
Sibylla Merian set out for the exotic tropical country of
Surinam, a Dutch colony located on the northern coast of
South America. She wanted to study Surinam's insects in
their natural setting, observing their
METAMORPHOSIS
and choice of food. Funded by the city of Amsterdam, Merian
worked in the colony for two years, assisted by her
daughters. During this time, she observed, recorded, drew,
collected specimens, and interviewed the native people.
While she originally intended to catalog only insects, she
expanded her studies to include snakes, reptiles, birds, and
monkeys. In 1701 Merian returned to Amsterdam, bringing with
her extensive notes, drawings, and specimens. Four years
later her ambitious volume Metamorphosis Insectorum
Surinamensium (The Metamorphosis of Surinam Insects) was
first published. Its 60 large plates, engraved by three
Dutch artists working from Merian's watercolor studies, show
bananas, pineapples, grapes, lemons, pomegranates,
watermelons, papayas, and other plants, all supporting the
life stages of beautiful moths and butterflies and some
extremely large spiders and beetles.
The PRINT Moths,
Caterpillar, and Foliage is from her Surinam portfolio
and reveals Merian's interest in the accurate portrayal of
the various stages of a moth's development on one plant, in
this case the Agrippina White Witch moth on a rubber
tree. Moths develop by metamorphosis, a process that
includes four different and distinct stages. The process
begins when an organism known as a caterpillar (or larva)
emerges from an egg; this creature is completely different
from the adult it will become.1 The first stage
of development is represented here by the egg mass, the
yellow form attached to the plant's trunk. The next stage,
the larva or caterpillar, is shown crawling along the plant
with sinuous movement; it has been feeding on the foliage,
evident in the leaves that have been eaten away. Merian
depicts the bright
COLORS and bold
PATTERNS and stripes
of the caterpillar, illustrating with remarkable clarity the
details of its anatomy, such as its segmented skin covering,
bristly hairs, yellow head, and clawed legs. The third stage
of the moth's life cycle is the pupal stage, during which
the caterpillar changes into an adult insect. In preparation
for this stage, the caterpillar spins around itself a silken
cocoon, the egg-shaped form shown attached to thetree trunk.
Merian's rendering, using
SHADING, suggests the
swollen, expectant quality of life about to emerge. The
final stage, the adult, is represented by two moths, one in
graceful flight alighting on the plant, the other resting on
a leaf with its wings folded back. Perhaps both are included
to show the spectacular patterns and varying colors of the
inner and outer wing surfaces. The lavender color of the
closed wings contrasts with the neutral tones of the
wide-spread open wings as viewed from above.
1 Mauro Daccordi, Paolo Triberti, and Adriano Zanetti, Simon and Schuster's Guide to Butterfiles & Moths (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1987), 10.
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