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Maria Sibylla Merian - Coral Tree and Silk Moth Nr. 11

About the Item

From Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium, first published 1705 Engravings by J. Mulder, P. Sluyter (Sluiter) and D. Stoopendaal after Maria Sybilla Merian. This plate is part of a comprehensive collection comprising 17 plates. Check out other listings to view the entire series. 1964 Hoffman and Campe Verlag, Hamburg Complete production Mladinska Knjiga, Ljubljana/Yugoslavia. This 1964 official reproduction table come from the editions: Dissertation sur la génération et les transformations des insectes de Surinam, The Hague, Pierre Gosse, 1726, and Over de Voortteeling en Wonderbaerlyke Veranderingen der Surinaamsche insects, Amsterdam, Jean Frederic Bernard, 1730. CORAL TREE AND SILK MOTH The plant is Erythrina glanca, the blue-green coral tree, easily recognized as a legume by its fruits, called Koffiemama by the Surinamese Dutch because it is used as a shade tree in coffee and cocoa plantations. Both crops do not tolerate the direct rays of the tropical sun well. Erythrina is also called pallisade booms because the Indians split the logs and build huts and walls from the boards. The inflorescences are so heavy that the branches are pulled against the ground and only stand up again when the petals fall off. The ripe fruit cluster has pods like a broom and also serves this purpose among the natives. If the sheet with the pomegranate (original plate no. 9) lived in the tension of red and blue, one can speak less of tension here, one must speak of a moving fullness of life, which is expressed in green, yellow and brown along the two diagonals is formed by the branch, the other by the opposition of the two butterflies, the upper female and the lower male. The butterfly is Arsenura cassandra from the family Syssphingidae, from the family group of silk moths. This species creates interest through the molting of the caterpillars. Those that have just hatched from the egg are striped black and yellow and have thorns on the front and back. Over the course of five molts, the animals turn orange with a black spot on each limb, the thorns wither and finally disappear completely before pupation. Here, too, the author of the composition has made a sacrifice of accuracy: the caterpillar pupates in the ground or on the surface in leaves and mulch, but not at the top of the tree. (Original plate no. 11) ____________________________________ Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717) Joseph Mulder, Pieter Sluyter, and D. Stopendael worked as engravers from the original drawings by Merian, who oversaw all aspects of the publication of her works during her lifetime. The Metamorphosis is Merian's most famous work, resulting from her journey with her daughter Dorothea to Surinam in 1699. The two women spent two years studying and recording insects and plants, returning to Amsterdam with a series of finished drawings on vellum, sketches and specimens, from which they continued to work. The work first appeared simultaneously in Latin and Dutch in 1705 with 60 plates. Later editions all included 12 additional plates after Merian's elder daughter Johanna. MARIA SIBYLLA MERIAN, born in 1647 in Frankfurt on the Main, was a daughter of the renowned engraver and publisher, Matthaeus Merian. From childhood she showed a vivid interest in the world of plants and insects. In her engravings an eminent artistic talent meets with scientific accuracy. First she worked in Nuremberg, the birthplace of her husband, and at a later period in the Netherlands. From 1690 to 1701 she stayed, as a member of the Labadist congregation, in Surinam (Dutch Guiana), exploring the hitherto unknown beauties of tropical plants and butterflies; her most significant work, the METAMORPHOSIS INSECTORUM SURINAMENSIUM, was the result of this voyage. After her return to Europe, the artist died in 1717 in Amsterdam. MARIA SIBYLLA MERIAN THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PLATES FROM THE BIG BOOK OF BUTTERFLIES AND PLANTS METAMORPHOSIS OF SURINAMESE INSECTS SELECTED INTRODUCED AND DESCRIBED BY GERHARD NEBEL MERIAN LIBRARY FROM HOFFMANN AND CAMPE PUBLISHING HAMBURG MCMLXIV
  • Creator:
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 17.72 in (45 cm)Width: 11.93 in (30.3 cm)Depth: 0.04 in (1 mm)
  • Style:
    Other (Of the Period)
  • Materials and Techniques:
    Paper,Other
  • Place of Origin:
  • Period:
  • Date of Manufacture:
    1964
  • Condition:
    Wear consistent with age and use.
  • Seller Location:
    EINDHOVEN, NL
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU9046237942732
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  • Maria Sibylla Merian - P. Sluyter - Peppers and Hawkmoths Nr. 55
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  • Maria Sibylla Merian - J. Mulder - Pomegranate and blue morpho Nr. 9
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  • Maria Sibylla Merian - J. Mulder - Batate and spinners Nr. 41
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    From Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium, first published 1705 Engravings by J. Mulder, P. Sluyter (Sluiter) and D. Stoopendaal after Maria Sybilla Merian. This plate is part of a comprehensive collection comprising 17 plates. Check out other listings to view the entire series. 1964 Hoffman and Campe Verlag, Hamburg Complete production Mladinska Knjiga, Ljubljana/Yugoslavia. This 1964 official reproduction table come from the editions: Dissertation sur la génération et les transformations des insectes de Surinam, The Hague, Pierre Gosse, 1726, and Over de Voortteeling en Wonderbaerlyke Veranderingen der Surinaamsche insects, Amsterdam, Jean Frederic Bernard, 1730. BATATE AND SPINNER A rich engraving, the diversity depicted is introduced by the unusual duality of the forage plants. The climbing plant with the blue morning glory flower and the underground tuber is in fact a convolvulaceae, the Ipomoea batatas, sweet potato or batate, which is widely grown in the tropics and subtropics. The yellow-flowered herb is a relative of bananas, a Heliconia, whose species could not be determined. The juxtaposition of the towering and twining growth, the lower, self-contracted tuber and the upper, bright, differentiated flower. A tropical bug flies towards the top left. At the top right is a spider caterpillar with a cocoon - an error on the part of the author that she let the bug emerge from the web. Below are two caterpillars, the pupa and two butterflies of a dioptid, a family of about five hundred similar species that inhabits America. Here too, definitions are only possible with anatomical examination, as the species imitate each other, predominantly with red-black markings. Maria Sibylla...
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  • Maria Sibylla Merian - J. Mulder - Passionflower and insects Nr. 21
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