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Maria Sibylla Merian - Mexican Poppy and Longhorn Beetle Nr. 24

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. MEXICAN SPRAY POPPIES AND HLONGHORN BEETLES The plant is a prickly poppy, Argemone mexicana, native to Mexico but distributed throughout the tropics. A successful ensemble: the soft, light fullness of the flowers, the repellent prickliness of the leaves, the metallic, solid and dark tone of the beetles and the fat, angelic whitishness of the maggots. Here too, a breakout from the butterfly area, no dusty forms, but chiselled ones. Three different species of longhorn beetles and two maggots. The middle, largest beetle is perhaps Callipogon barbatus. Here too, reality was treated freely for the sake of the composition. The beetle larvae do not live on plants, but mostly in the soil, in the humus of weathering plant parts, and if not there, then in trunks and stems. The author says it herself: »I found small worms under the roots of this plant, orange in color with a black head and tail. They turned into yellow-spotted beetles - just like one was drawn in flight at the bottom left. She encountered the second worm in rotten wood, which became the top beetle, which still retains something worm-like on its belly. (Original plate no. 24) ____________________________________ 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: LU9046237942602
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  • Maria Sibylla Merian - P. Sluyter - Peppers and Hawkmoths Nr. 55
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    Located in EINDHOVEN, NL
    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. PEPPERS AND MOTIVES Paprika, from the night damage family, a gift from the New to the Old World, a pleasant one like tomatoes and potatoes, like corn and beans, not a dangerous one like tobacco. You can no longer imagine our, especially the Mediterranean cuisine of the pre-Columbian period, both received such enrichment from America, potatoes, corn, beans as substances, tomatoes and peppers as spices and flavors, foreign, from far away , adding a new dimension to our dishes. The pepper has become the strongest source of vitamins in our latitudes, an indispensable medicine in our often denatured food. The varieties we grow belong to the species Capsicum annuum, the plant drawn by the painter is Capsicum sinense, of which two or three fruit shapes and different stages of ripeness were combined on one branch. The ripe fruit bodies are visible on the eye of the tongue: anyone who looks at them will taste the peppery spiciness after a while. The leaf is a triangle, it thins from the lower broad solidity of the capsule area up to the lightness of the buds and flowers. Diversity also in the fact that the fruits are of different lengths, different colors, harmony between the dark green and red shapes, relief-like articulation of the pod surfaces. Butterfly, chrysalis and caterpillar cannot be precisely defined; they are hawkmoths from a group that counts seventy species in tropical America. A close relative of the strong-snouted Cocytius antarus - the pupa's beak is also noticeable here. (Original plate no. 55) ____________________________________ Maria Sibylla...
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  • Maria Sibylla Merian - J. Mulder - Batate and spinners Nr.41
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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
    By Maria Sibylla Merian
    Located in EINDHOVEN, NL
    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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    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. 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...
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