Drawing

Beautiful Like an Insect

Short Coverage

**An illustration by Maria Merian.**
**Plate 5 of *Caterpillars* vol 1, depicting the metamorphosis of the garden tiger moth, its plant host, and parasitic wasps.** [Source – Wikipedia]

Little Maria loved drawing. Drawing something beautiful, beautiful like an insect, a small being living in a jar, brimming with life, ready to burst, ready, delicate wings, ready to fly, fly-fly-fly, finding that plant, that flower, that fruit, which becomes its new home, where it rests and lay eggs for the cycle to continue blooming, for life to rise in a tiny form, a beautiful form, in sync with the movement, the grand movement, grand yet subtle, that speaks with the sun, the stars, the galaxies, all light and bright, such colours in the dark, brimming with life, bursting, moving in waves, gently touching all life, gently letting the wind lift the tiny insect which flies looking for that plant, that flower, that fruit, which becomes its new home.

Title page of The Caterpillars’ Marvellous Transformation and Strange Floral Food, first volume, published 1679 – Wikipedia
Plate I of Caterpillars vol 1, entitled “Maulbeerbaum samt Frucht”. It depicts the fruit and leave of a mulberry tree and the eggs and larvae of the silkworm moth. – Wikipedia
Plate showing the stages of the Cocytius antaeus from Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium. – Wikipedia
Coloured copper engraving from Metamorphosis, “Spiders, ants and hummingbird on a branch of a guava”. The spider in the bottom left corner is eating a bird. – Wikipedia
Plate 1 of Metamorphosis, showing a pineapple and cockroaches. – Wikipedia
Plate 8 of Caterpillars, first volume. Depicting a dandelion Taraxacum, with Dicallomera fascelina, the dark tussock moth. The Dutch common name for the moth Meriansborstel is named for Merian. – Wikipedia
Illuminated Copper engraving from Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium, Plate XXII. – Wikipedia
Duroia sp. and assorted insects – Wikipedia
Illuminated Copper engraving from Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium, Plate IX. Maria Sibylla Merian, 1705 – Wikipedia
Illuminated Copper-engraving from Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium, Plate VI. 1705) – Wikipedia
From Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium, Plate XIII. (Spondias purpurea) – Wikipedia
Illuminated Copper-engraving from Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium, Plate XLVIII. 1705 – Wikipedia
Illuminated Copper-engraving from Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium, Plate XXVII. Musa paradisiaca, 1705 – Wikipedia
Illuminated copper engraving from Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium, Plate XLV. 1705 – Wikipedia

**Portrait of Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717).**

Maria Sibylla Merian was a German entomologist, naturalist and scientific illustrator whose work led to the advance of entomology in 17^th and 18^th centuries. Her first book of natural illustrations was published in 1675. In 1679, she published a two-volume series on caterpillars and in 1705, she published Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium (“The Metamorphosis of the Insects of Suriname”).

Arguably the most important work of her career, it included some 60 engravings illustrating the different stages of development that she had observed in Suriname’s insects. Similar to her caterpillar book, Metamorphosis depicted the insects on and around their host plants and included text describing each stage of development. The book was one of the first illustrated accounts of the natural history of Suriname. – Britannica

Her detailed work contributed in understanding the life cycles of an insect, dispelling the two millennia old scientific theory of ‘spontaneous generation’ according to which insects were thought to be ‘born of mud’, that living creatures could arise from non-living matter.

Watch this short video now to know more about the awesome Maria Sybilla Merian and her work –

Weekly Newsletter

Recent Posts

I Can See Mountains from the Window, I’ll take this Window Along

Posted on June 6, 2014 by Jagriti Rumi Calm Rock Drawing Gratitude I'll take this window along Life Mountains Window Yin-Yang

Flash Fiction

The mountains are so grand; I realised it that day when I climbed one. The green velvety zigzag stretch left me overwhelmed.

A thought caught my attention and told me how beautiful and majestic the mountains were, how incredibly small I was, how peacefully colourful the surroundings were and how sublime the music played by the wind was.

**Portable Window! [Image by AnnaliseArt from Pixabay]**

I saw the clouds and they saw me; I blushed quietly. With my feet in the wet green grass, I stood there enjoying the drizzle. I sat on a calm rock calmly and opened the notebook. I couldn’t write for some reason, so I drew the scene instead.

Have you ever felt the same? Like when you feel something you cannot describe in words or otherwise? When the smell of an old book takes you back in a different century?

As if the leaf that fell near you was meant to fall there so that you could pick it up and observe it? And that the glamorous city lights were talking to each other and the moon was talking to you?

What about the smiley face drawn by a passer-by on a dusty car that reminds you of the one you had drawn? Have you ever felt the still mind?

The drawing that I made took the shape of the yin-yang without my knowledge. Opposites complement each other. I sat near the window and thought about it; the sun passed by and the moon came with white light very quickly and in the shadow, I saw the light and immediately, I agreed.

I again looked at that drawing, in gratitude but the drawing was no longer the same… there were dark green mountains and blue sky, white clouds and green grass and me, sitting on the calm rock calmly. And I looked through the window…

I can see mountains from the window, I’ll take this window along.

Weekly Newsletter