Maria Sibylla Merian (1647–1717) - Ciliegio - Originale

Representation of the life cycle of a butterfly on a branch of cherry with double flowers. The egg, the larva, the pupa, and the adult butterfly can be seen.
The plant is Kanzan flowering cherry, one of the most appreciated varieties of ornamental cherry, famous for the extraordinary beauty of its double flowers.

The French name of the plant is shown in the lower left corner.
Table IX from the work: Histoire des insectes de l'Europe,
1730

Work of the engraver and naturalist Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717). Plate from the first volume of the work published for the first time in Frankfurt am Main in 1683: Der Raupen wunderbare Verwandelung......

Here is another impression with the Latin numbering used for the first time in the work published by Bernard in Amsterdam in 1730: Histoire des insectes de l`Europe.

On hand-made paper. With a margin around the plate irregularly wide. Minutely browned from an old passepartout mounting. The antique coloring is slightly faded but still sharp.

Maria Sibylla Merian (1647 – 1717) was a German artist and entomologist who studied plants and insects, producing detailed drawings. As far as we know, she was the first to draw insects together with the plant on which they feed.

In 1699 the naturalist and artist Maria Sibylla Merian undertakes the first scientific journey ever undertaken by a woman and, arriving in the Dutch colony of Suriname, dedicates the following two years to documenting the life cycle of tropical butterflies. Merian follows the inhabitants of local communities and refines her method of study. Her keen eye as a draughtsman soon allows her to understand that insects, then regarded as demonic beings, are in fact creatures capable of fascinating transformations. From that moment their metamorphoses become the sole subject of her artistic practice.

Maria Sibylla Merian is today remembered as one of the most important scientists of the Enlightenment.