Transformation of a Giant Peacock Moth

Maria Sibylla Merian (1647–1717) was a naturalist and scientific illustrator, and one of the first naturalists to observe insects directly: “I spent my time investigating insects. At the beginning, I started with silkworms in my home town of Frankfurt. I realized that other caterpillars produced beautiful butterflies or moths, and that silkworms did the same. This led me to collect all the caterpillars I could find in order to see how they changed.” In 1679 and 1683, Merian published two volumes of caterpillar studies titled Der Raupen wunderbare Verwandelung und sonderbare Blumennahrung (The Wondrous Transformation of Caterpillars and their Strange Diet of Flowers). Each volume contained fifty copperplate etchings and engravings by Merian depicting the remarkable life cycle of the insects she had observed for several years, particularly larvae, butterflies, and moths.

We present today marvelous work, which belongs to the Rijksmuseum collection, thanks to Europeana.  <3

Maria Sibylla Merian is one of the heroines of our Women Artists Notebook; check it out here.  : )

P.S. Here you can see how incredibly beautiful botanical illustration can be and here you can get to know more about the secret language of flowers.