#scientific illustrator

[mintytrifecta]

Sea Walnuts painted for the @20kleagueszine !!

[blondebrainpowered]

Spectacled Caiman (Caiman crocodilus) and a False Coral Snake (Anilius scytale), ca. 1705 - 1710

Artist: Maria Sibylla Merian

Maria Sibylla Merian (2 April 1647 – 13 January 1717) was a German-born naturalist and scientific illustrator, a descendant of the Frankfurt branch of the Swiss Merian family. Merian was one of the first naturalists to observe insects directly.

[thepastisalreadywritten]

Maria Sibylla Merian

Maria Sibylla Merian is a German-born naturalist and scientific illustrator from the 17th century.

Maria Sibylla Merian’s journey to Suriname in 1699 was, by any measure, an extraordinary undertaking.

She was a 52 year-old woman, traveling without a male companion, accompanied only by her younger daughter, Dorothea Maria.

Their mission was not to seek fortune or to accompany a husband but to pursue pure scientific inquiry.

At a time when women were largely confined to the domestic sphere and the internal workings of insects were considered evidence of spontaneous generation, her ambition was radical.

She financed the expedition herself, largely from the sale of her paintings and a collection of natural specimens. This financial and intellectual independence was remarkable.

Upon arrival, the tropical world of Suriname opened before her, a dizzying array of colors, forms, and life cycles.

Unlike the male naturalists of her era who often relied on preserved specimens or secondhand accounts, Merian and her daughter immersed themselves in the environment.

They ventured into the fields and forests, observing insects in their natural habitats.

Her working method was meticulous and revolutionary. She would find a plant, note the insects that fed upon it and then collect the specimens, not as dead curiosities but as living processes.

She would raise caterpillars in her home, patiently observing and documenting their metamorphosis into butterflies or moths.

This hands-on approach allowed her to definitively illustrate the specific relationships between predator and host plant, a foundational concept in ecology that would not be formally recognized for centuries.

She saw the ecosystem as a connected whole, depicting the leaf that had been chewed, the caterpillar that did the chewing, the pupa it became, and the final, resplendent butterfly, all on a single page.

Her findings systematically dismantled prevailing superstitions.

She refuted the idea that insects spontaneously generated from mud or decay, providing clear, visual evidence of their complex life cycles.

Her illustrations also recorded the hidden lives of species previously unknown to European science.

She documented the voracious army ants, the intricate nest of a paper wasp, and the stunning metamorphosis of the stunning blue morpho butterfly.

Furthermore, her work was not without a critical social eye. She witnessed the brutal conditions of the enslaved African and Indigenous people on the Dutch plantations and did not remain silent.

In her published writings, she openly condemned the colonial cruelty she observed, connecting the violence of the slave system to the land she was studying.

This moral conviction, woven into her scientific text, adds a profound and often overlooked dimension to her legacy.

After a little under two years, severe illness, likely malaria, forced her return to Amsterdam.

The result of this expedition was her magnum opus, Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium (The Metamorphosis of the Insects of Suriname), published in 1705.

The book was a sensation, not only for its breathtakingly detailed and accurate illustrations but for the new scientific knowledge it contained.

It was a work that appealed to both the scientific community and the popular imagination, bridging art and science in a way few works had before.

© She's So Cool

Maria Sibylla Merian (2 April 1647 – 13 January 1717) was a German entomologist, naturalist and scientific illustrator.

She was one of the earliest European naturalists to document observations about insects directly.

Merian was a descendant of the Frankfurt branch of the Swiss Merian family.

[oddestishottest]

Kunstformen der Natur

Publisher: Leipzig und Wien, 1899

Contributor: Smithsonian Libraries

Internet Archive

[mote-historie]

Maria Sibylla Merian, Branch of Duroia Eriopila with Zebra Swallowtail butterfly, detail, 1702 - 1703.

Royal Collection Trust

[lovefromnadia]

Warm

[walkersinclairvisuals]

Neapolitan Cephalopods

he author of the magnificent Comingio Merculiano and b/w plates  is Comingio Merculiano (1845- 1915), a professional watercolor painter hired in 1885 by prof. Anton Dohrn as in-house illustrator for the Naples Zoological Station. Loving these scientific illustrations of all times and this book on cephalopods is probably his masterpiece."

[carnegiemuseumnaturalhistory]

My Guildey Pleasure

By Andrew McAfee

As the Scientific Illustrator for the Section of Vertebrate Paleontology at Carnegie Museum of Natural History, I spend most of my time in the museum interpreting and representing the paleontologists’ work in visual form. Most of this work takes place at a desk with a computer. But as a member of the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators (GNSI), I spend one week per year away from the desk, learning new techniques in the field and sharing a few of my own.

The GNSI is an organization of scientists and science illustrators founded in 1968 by illustrators at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. The purpose of the GNSI is to advance science illustration by facilitating the exchange of ideas, knowledge, and techniques among its members.

Every year around July, the GNSI has a conference that brings members from all around the world together for a week of plenary speakers, technique expositions, lectures, and workshops. It’s a wonderful opportunity to commune with colleagues in the field of scientific illustration and acquire new perspectives and technical abilities.

Andrew McAfee with his digital painting of Mansourasaurus (upper left) on display in GNSI’s 50th anniversary exhibition, Visualize: Art Revealing Science, at AAAS headquarters. Photo: Reid Psaltis.

I joined the GNSI in 2013 and have not missed a conference since. This year’s event marked the 50th anniversary of the Guild’s formation and represented a homecoming, returning to Washington, DC. As a part of our anniversary celebration, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)—known for, among other things, publishing one of the world’s foremost scientific journals, Science—hosted our annual members’ juried exhibition.

This year I was honored to have two pieces selected for exhibition in the show: my reconstructions of the recently-named dinosaurs Mansourasaurus shahinae and Tratayenia rosalesi, both completed at Carnegie Museum of Natural History under the guidance of paleontologist Matt Lamanna. I was proud to represent the museum and it was gratifying to see my work sharing walls with the stellar work of my colleagues in the AAAS gallery.

Visualize: Art Revealing Science, the 50th anniversary GNSI exhibit, will be on display at AAAS headquarters until October 15, 2018.

Andrew McAfee is Scientific Illustrator for the Section of Vertebrate Paleontology at Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Museum employees are encouraged to blog about their unique experiences and knowledge gained from working at the museum.