Items Similar to Maria Sibylla Merian - J. Mulder - Pomegranate and blue morpho Nr. 9
Video Loading
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
Maria Sibylla Merian - J. Mulder - Pomegranate and blue morpho Nr. 9
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.
POMEGRANATE AND BLUE MORPHO
Vivid red blossom and juicy fruit of the Oriental-Mediterranean pomegranate tree, Punica granatum, which was transplanted to Suriname and released into the wild there. The author regrets that this plant is no longer cultivated in Guyana. The fruit contains numerous seeds surrounded by an edible fruit pulp. The juice that squirts out when consumed is processed into grenadine and gives the flavor to most Arabic scherbets. The bark of the unripe fruit produces a red color that is used to tan the Moroccan leather. Always and in all cultures in which it is known, the plant has left a deep imprint on the human spirit; it is one of the most crossed gates that lead into the interior of nature. In Egypt the pomegranate was sacred and because of the countless seeds it was viewed as a symbol of fertility. In early Christianity it was considered the biblical tree of life and was considered a symbol of eternity. We recognize something of this holiness in the perfect design of the engraving; we are conquered as if by a being of a higher kind.
The broken fruit, the buds to its side, above it the two opened flowers and then the contrast of red and blue of the resting, waiting plant and the hovering butterfly that complements its peacock-like surface. Peace and movement are conveyed by the sitting animal, which shows its inconspicuous back and could move, but does not.
The butterfly is Morpho melaneus from the family Morphidae, which has around forty species in tropical South America. The insects stay above the treetops, in the tops of the jungle, and only rarely come down to the ground, perhaps to drink. The pupa belongs to this species, but is empty because the imago has already emerged. Maria Sibylla seems to have been mistaken about the caterpillar, despite her firm assurance that it probably does not belong to this species. The painter is enthusiastic about the butterfly: “It is a silvery blue framed by a brown edge, and this in turn is filled with white crescents. The underside is a yellow-spotted brown. When it flies, it does so at great speed.
(Original plate No.9)
____________________________________
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:Maria Sibylla Merian (Artist)
- 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: LU9046237942842
Maria Sibylla Merian
Maria Sibylla Merian (1647—1717) was a naturalist and artist. Her contributions to entomology were never appropriately recognized in her lifetime. She is now considered to be a pioneer in the fields of botany and zoology. She made detailed observations of live specimens, which was a departure from previous studies that used preserved specimens. She focused great detail on the processes of metamorphosis, which had not been studied so comprehensively before her work. The engravings for the publication were done by J. Mulder, P. Sluyter and A. Stopendaal, all after paintings on vellum by Merian. The work is considered to be one of the most beautiful, and famous illustrated natural history works of the 18th century. The work was the result of Merian's trip in 1699 with her daughter Dorothea to Surinam, a Dutch colony on the northeastern coast of South America. The pair studied and recorded plants and insects for two years under difficult conditions. They came back to Amsterdam with specimens, notes and drawings and there completed their astounding work. One naturalist proclaimed "Her portrayals of living insects and other animals were imbued with a charm, a minuteness of observation and an artistic sensibility that had not previously been seen in a natural history book; if Gould and Audubon have 'a spiritual ancestor, then it is difficult to think of a more worthy claimant to the title than Maria Sibylla Merian." On the day Maria Sibylla Merian died, Tsar Peter the Great purchased a two-volume collection of her unbound paintings, as well as her journal. Born in Frankfurt am Main, Maria Sibylla Merian was the daughter of Matthaus Merian the Elder (1593—1650), a famous German-Swiss painter, engraver and publisher. Her father died when she was three and her mother remarried Jacob Marrel (1614-1681), who was a still-life painter. From the time she was eleven, Marrel schooled Maria Sibylla Merian in the tradition of northern European still life painting, working directly from life. As her interests evolved toward the study of insects, she employed these artistic skills to create her outstanding scientific and esthetically beautiful works. She was truly at the crossroads of art and science.
About the Seller
5.0
Vetted Seller
These experienced sellers undergo a comprehensive evaluation by our team of in-house experts.
Established in 2009
1stDibs seller since 2023
8 sales on 1stDibs
Typical response time: 1 hour
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: EINDHOVEN, Netherlands
- Return PolicyA return for this item may be initiated within 10 days of delivery.
More From This SellerView All
- Maria Sibylla Merian - J. Mulder - Pomegranate blossom and lantern bearer Nr.49By Maria Sibylla MerianLocated in EINDHOVEN, NLFrom 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. POMEGRANATE FLOWER AND LANTERN BEARER Again the pomegranate, this time of the double flowering form. The division of the picture, the vegetative world below, the bizarre insect figures above, but these also subjugate the lower piece if three of them crawl on the branch. There are three types of cicadas. The three large animals belong to the species Laternaria phosphorea; they are lantern bearers with a chitinous bulge on their foreheads that shines so brightly in the darkness that one can read. Natives had once brought the painter some lantern bearers. She didn't know anything about them, put them in a box and went to sleep. She woke up from the noise that was going on in the box, opened it and dropped it in shock - a flame shot up at her, so powerful was the combined light of the cicadas, which, by the way, sing just as shrilly as the Mediterranean ones. The lowest animal is also a Laternaria, although a different species from phosphorea. The green insect that makes a lyre music...Category
Antique 18th Century Dutch Other Prints
MaterialsPaper
- Maria Sibylla Merian - J. Mulder - Pomegranate blossom and lantern bearer Nr.49By Maria Sibylla MerianLocated in EINDHOVEN, NLFrom 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 ...Category
Antique 18th Century Dutch Other Prints
MaterialsPaper
- Maria Sibylla Merian - J. Mulder - Passionflower and insects Nr. 21By Maria Sibylla MerianLocated in EINDHOVEN, NLFrom 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. PASSION FLOWER AND INSECTS A leaf filled with life, a small cosmos, a square without a blank space, once again the dominance of the plant, Passiflora laurifolia, i.e. bay leaf passionflower, from the Passifloraceae family, beautiful the open flower that shines into the sun. As the English names Yellow Granadine and Jamaica Honeysuckle suggest, the juice of the fruit is made into drinks; the taste is so pleasant that the plant, which comes from America, has spread throughout the tropics. The author praises the pleasant, widely noticeable scent. On the stem at the bottom right and in the middle on the left are two colorful bugs, just like these rhynchotes, which we despise, make magnificent creatures in the tropics. The butterfly on the right is no more definable than all the caterpillars and pupae shown here. Two caterpillar sacks, houses of sack carriers, are shown. The caterpillars build this shell out of webs, stones, pieces of leaves and stems and carry it around with them like a hermit crab does its snail shell. When they want to move or eat, they leave it with only their front part and pull By closing the opening, they retreat inside in case of danger. (Original plate no. 21) ____________________________________ Maria Sibylla...Category
Antique 18th Century Dutch Other Prints
MaterialsPaper
- Maria Sibylla Merian - J. Mulder - Batate and spinners Nr. 41By Maria Sibylla MerianLocated in EINDHOVEN, NLFrom 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...Category
Antique 18th Century Dutch Other Prints
MaterialsPaper
- Maria Sibylla Merian - J. Mulder - Batate and spinners Nr.41By Maria Sibylla MerianLocated in EINDHOVEN, NLFrom Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium, first published 1705 Engravings by J. Mulder, P. Sluyter (Sluiter) and D. Stoopenda...Category
Antique 18th Century Dutch Other Prints
MaterialsPaper
- Maria Sibylla Merian - J. Mulder - Citron and longhorn beetle Nr. 28By Maria Sibylla MerianLocated in EINDHOVEN, NLFrom 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 ...Category
Antique 18th Century Dutch Other Prints
MaterialsPaper
You May Also Like
- Engraved MARIA SYBILIA MERIAN - G. E. RUMPHIUS Sea Life Prints [Set of 7]Located in Hawthorne, CASix exquisitely framed sea life prints engraved by Maria Sybilla Merian from G.E. Rumphius, Amsterdam, circa 1800. A unique set of seven beautifully et...Category
Antique Mid-18th Century Dutch Dutch Colonial Paintings
MaterialsPaper
- Set of 2 Antique Prints of the Menelaus Blue Morpho and Other ButterfliesLocated in Langweer, NLSet of 2 antique butterfly prints of the Menelaus blue morpho and other butterflies. These prints originate from 'Dictionnaire pittoresque d'Histoire Naturelle' by Adolph Felix-Edoua...Category
Antique Mid-19th Century Prints
MaterialsPaper
- Antique Frontispiece of Birds and Putti by Merian, 1660Located in Langweer, NLAntique print titled 'Dr. J. Jonstons Beschrijving van de Natuur der Vogelen (..)'. Frontispiece of the Dutch edition of 'Historiae Naturalis de Avibus' by John Johnston. Translated ...Category
Antique 17th Century Prints
MaterialsPaper
- Merian, Butterflies, Moths, Folio, Hand Coloured EngravingLocated in Norwich, GBFolio Leaf: 37 x 23 cms. Hand colored copper engraving. Matthäus Merian der Ältere (or "Matthew", "the Elder", or "Sr."; 22 September 1593 - 19 June 1650) was a Swiss-born engr...Category
Antique Early 1700s German Baroque Prints
MaterialsPaper
- Antique Map of Vänersborg by Merian 'circa 1680'Located in Langweer, NLAntique map titled 'Grundtriss und Situation von der Statt und Vöstung Wennersburg'. Copper engraved plan of Vänersborg, Sweden. This map orginates from 'Theatrum Europaeum' by Meria...Category
Antique Late 17th Century Maps
MaterialsPaper
- Merian, Stein am Rhein, large double folio, SwitzerlandLocated in Norwich, GBMatthäus Merian, engraved by M.I.I. Ringle “STEIN AM RHEIN - STENIUM AD RHENUM” View of the municipal town of Stein am Rhein and the castle Hohenklingen, at that time in the Ca...Category
Antique 17th Century German Prints
MaterialsPaper
![Engraved MARIA SYBILIA MERIAN - G. E. RUMPHIUS Sea Life Prints [Set of 7]](https://a.1stdibscdn.com/engraved-ge-rumphius-sea-life-framed-prints-set-of-seven-for-sale/1121189/f_121343611537881359907/12134361_master.jpg?width=240)
