Maria Sibylla Merian

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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, founders of one of Europe's largest publishing houses in the 17th century.

Merian received her artistic training from her stepfather, Jacob Marrel, a student of the still life painter Georg Flegel. She remained in Frankfurt until 1670, relocating subsequently to Nuremberg, the small village of Wieuwerd in the Dutch Republic (1685), where she stayed in a Labadist community till 1691, and Amsterdam.

Merian published her first book of natural illustrations, titled Neues Blumenbuch, in 1675 at age 28. In 1699, following eight years of painting and studying, and on the encouragement of Cornelis van Aerssen van Sommelsdijck, the then-governor of the Dutch colony of Surinam, the city of Amsterdam awarded Merian a grant to travel to South America with her daughter Dorothea. Her trip, designed as a scientific expedition makes Merian perhaps the first person to "plan a journey rooted solely in science." After two years there, malaria forced her to return to Europe. She then proceeded to publish her major work, Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium, in 1705, for which she became famous. Because of her careful observations and documentation of the metamorphosis of the butterfly, she is considered by David Attenborough to be among the most significant contributors to the field of entomology. She was a leading entomologist of her time and she discovered many new facts about insect life through her studies.

Video Maria Sibylla Merian

Life and career

Maria Sibylla Merian's father, the Swiss engraver and publisher Matthäus Merian the Elder, married her mother, his second wife, Johanna Sybilla Heyne, in 1646. Maria was born within the next year in 1647, making her his 9th child. Her father died in 1650, and in 1651 her mother remarried the flower and still life painter Jacob Marrel. Marrel encouraged Merian to draw and paint. While he lived mostly in Holland, his pupil Abraham Mignon trained her. At the age of thirteen she painted her first images of insects and plants from specimens she had captured. Early on, she had access to many books about natural history. Regarding her youth, in the foreword to Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium, Merian wrote: "I spent my time investigating insects. At the beginning, I started with silk worms 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 May 1665, Merian married Marrel's apprentice, Johann Andreas Graff from Nuremberg; his father was a poet and director of the local high school, one of the leading schools in 17th-century Germany. In January 1668, she had her first child, Johanna Helena, and the family moved to Nuremberg in 1670, her husband's home town. While living there, Merian continued painting, working on parchment and linen, and creating designs for embroidery. She also gave drawing lessons to unmarried daughters of wealthy families (her "Jungferncompaney", i.e. virgin group), which helped her family financially and increased its social standing. This provided her with access to the finest gardens, maintained by the wealthy and elite, where she could continue collecting and documenting insects. In 1678, she gave birth to her second daughter Dorothea Maria. In 1679, she had published her first work on insects which was a two-volume, illustrated book focusing on insect metamorphosis.

In 1678, the family had moved to Frankfurt am Main, but her marriage was an unhappy one. She moved in with her mother, after her stepfather died in 1681. In 1683 she traveled to Gottorp and was attracted to the Labadists community in Holstein. In 1685 Maria traveled with her mother, husband and children to Friesland where her half-brother Caspar Merian had lived since 1677.

Friesland

After Jean de Labadie had died, Pierre Yvon moved the community to a stately home - Walt(h)a Castle - at Wieuwerd in Friesland, which belonged to three sisters Van Aerssen van Sommelsdijck, who were his adherents. Here, printing and many other occupations continued, including farming and milling.

At its peak, the religious community numbered around 600 with many more adherents further afield. Visitors came from England, Italy, Poland and elsewhere, but not all approved of the strict discipline, separatism and community property. Those of arrogant disposition were given the most menial of jobs. Fussiness in matters of food was overcome since all were expected to eat what was put in front of them. It seems the community had problems with Merian's husband; he was refused but came back twice.

Several noted visitors have left their accounts of visits to the Labadist community. One was Sophie of Hanover, mother of King George I of Great Britain; another was William Penn, the Quaker pioneer, who gave his name to the US state of Pennsylvania; a third was the English philosopher John Locke.

Amsterdam

In 1690, Maria Sibylla's mother died. A year later, she moved with her daughters to Amsterdam and met with Agnes Block, Caspar Commelin, Michiel van Musscher and Steven Blankaart. In 1692, her husband divorced her. In Amsterdam the same year, her daughter Johanna married Jakob Hendrik Herolt, a successful merchant on Surinam, originally from Bacharach. The flower painter Rachel Ruysch became her pupil.

In 1699, the city of Amsterdam granted Merian permission to travel to Suriname in South America, along with her younger daughter Dorothea Maria. On 10 July, Maria and Dorothea set sail. The goal of the mission was to spend five years illustrating new species of insects. In order to finance the mission, Maria Sibylla sold 255 of her own paintings. Before departing, she wrote:

In Holland, with much astonishment what beautiful animals came from the East and West Indies. I was blessed with having been able to look at both the expensive collection of Doctor Nicolaas Witsen, mayor of Amsterdam and director of the East Indies society, and that of Mr. Jonas Witsen, secretary of Amsterdam. Moreover, I also saw the collections of Mr. Fredericus Ruysch, doctor of medicine and professor of anatomy and botany, Mr. Livinus Vincent, and many other people. In these collections I had found innumerable other insects, but found that their origin and their reproduction is unknown, it begs the question[sic] as to how they transform, starting from caterpillars and chrysalises and so on. All this has, at the same time, led me to undertake a long dreamed of journey to Suriname.

Suriname and return to Netherlands

Merian arrived on 18/19 September in Surinam, and met with the governor Paulus van der Veen. She worked for two years, traveling around the colony and sketching local animals and plants. She criticized Dutch planters' treatment of natives and black slaves. She recorded local native names for the plants and described local uses. In June 1701, malaria forced her to return to the Dutch Republic.

Despite her criticism of planters' treatment of slaves, Merian herself owned slaves. Ship lists indicate that she was master to an "Indian woman" who helped to collect specimens while in Suriname. It is speculated that Merian actually owned two "Indian" slaves, but only one returned to Amsterdam with her.

Back in the Netherlands, Merian lived in Kerkstraat, where she opened a shop. Merian sold specimens she had collected and published a collection of engravings of plant and animal life in Suriname. In 1705, she published a book Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium about the insects of Suriname.

In 1715, Merian suffered a stroke and was partially paralysed. She continued her work, but her illness probably affected her ability to work.

Maria Sibylla Merian died in Amsterdam on 13 January 1717 and was buried four days later at Leidse kerkhof. The death register lists her as a pauper. Her daughter Dorothea published Erucarum Ortus Alimentum et Paradoxa Metamorphosis, a collection of her mother's work, posthumously.

Maps Maria Sibylla Merian

Work

Botanical art

Merian first made a name for herself as an botanical artist. In 1675 she published 12 plates depicting flowers and in the five years thereafter she published a three volume series on flowers, entitled Neues Blumenbuch. The drawings were decorative and not all were drawn based on observation. Some of the flowers in the three-volume series appear to be based on drawings by Nicolas Robert and her step-father Jacob Marrel. Merian included insects among the flowers, again she may not have observed them all herself and some may be copies of drawings by Jacob Hoefnagel. The single flowers, wreaths, nosegays and bouquets in the three volumes would provide patterns for artists and embroiderers.

Merian's process of creating her art used vellum which she primed with a white coat. Because of the guild system in Europe, women were not allowed to paint in oil. Merian painted with watercolors and gouache, instead.

Research into insects and caterpillars

Merian was one of the first naturalists to observe insects directly. Merian collected and observed live insects and created detailed drawings to illustrate insect metamorphosis. In her time, it was very unusual that someone would be genuinely interested in insects, which had a bad reputation and were considered "vile and disgusting." As a consequence of their reputation, the metamorphosis of these animals was largely unknown. Merian described the life cycles of 186 insect species, amassing evidence that contradicted the contemporary notion that insects were "born of mud" by spontaneous generation. Moreover, although certain scholars were aware of the process of metamorphosis from the caterpillar to the butterfly, the majority of people did not understand the process.

Merian had started to collect insects as an adolescent and kept a study journal. Aged 13 she raised silk worms and other insects. Her interest turned to moths and butterflies, which she collected and studied. While living in Nuremberg and Frankfurt Merian would travel to the surrounding countryside to search for caterpillar larvae. She recorded their food plants, the timing of their metamorphoses, and noted the behaviour she observed. While it was not unusual for naturalists to illustrate their own research, Merian was among the first professionally trained artists to illustrate her life-long studies and observations. She observed the life cycles of insects over decades, thus she made detailed drawings based on live insects in their natural environment or freshly preserved specimens. This set her apart from previous artist-naturalists such as Conrad Gesner. Her drawings and plates depict moths laying eggs, or caterpillars feeding on leaves. By drawing live insects Merian could accurately depict colours, as preserved specimens lose colour. The plates she eventually published are complex compositions. They are based on detailed studies she painted on vellum, many are preserved in her study journal. A comparison shows that she changed little and preserved the posture and colour of insects when placing them into the larger composition of her plates. In the course of her insect studies she also recorded and painted the reproductive cycle of flowers, from bud through fruit. As a trained artist Merian was concerned with colour accuracy and in Metamorphosis she recorded the plants from which pigments could be derived. The engravings she produced or supervised bear little difference from her original water colours. Some engravings were also hand-coloured by her.

In 1679 Merian published the first volume of a two-volume series on caterpillar, the second volume followed in 1683. Each volume contained 50 plates engraved and etched by Merian. Along the illustrations Merian included a description of the insects, moths, butterflies and their larvae she had observed. Der Raupen wunderbare Verwandlung und sonderbare Blumennahrung - The Caterpillars' Marvelous Transformation and Strange Floral Food, was very popular in certain segments of high society as a result of being published in the vernacular. However, her work was largely ignored by scientists of the time because the official language of science was still Latin.

The title page of her 1679 Caterpillars proudly proclaimed in German:

".....wherein by means of an entirely new invention the origin, food and development of caterpillars, worms, butterflies, moths, flies and other such little animals, including times, places and characteristics, for naturalists, artists, and gardeners, are diligently examined, briefly described, painted from nature, engraved in copper and pubished independently."

Jan Goedart had described and depicted the life stages of European moths and butterflies before her, but Merian's "invention" was the detailed study of species, their life-cycle and habitat. Goedart had documented species by depicting one adult, a pupa and one larvae. Merian depicted the physical differences between male and female adults, showed wings in different positions and the different colouring on each side of the wing. She also documented the extended proboscis of feeding insects. The first plate in her 1679 Caterpillars detailed the life cycle of the silkworm moth. Starting in the right-hand corner with eggs, progressing with a hatching larva and several moults of the growing larvae. Goedart had not included eggs in his images of the life stages of European moths and butterflies, because he had believed that caterpillars were generated from water. When Merian published her study of insects it was still widely believed that insects were spontaneously generated. Merian's discoveries were made independently and supported the findings of Francesco Redi, Marcello Malpighi and Jan Swammerdam.

While Merian's depiction of insects' life cycle was innovative in its accuracy, it was her observations on the interaction of organisms that became her major contribution to the emerging field of ecological studies. The depiction of insects and their plant hosts not only set Merian's work apart from that of the classic by Swammerdam and Francis Willughby, but also the work of her countrymen and contemporaries such as Georg Rumphius. Merian was the first to show that each stage of the change from caterpillar to butterfly depended on a small number of plants for its nourishment. She noted that as a consequence, the eggs were laid near these plants. In her description she commented on the environmental factors that influenced the growth of insects. On caterpillars she noted that the size of their larvae increased by the day if they had enough food. "Some then attain their full size in several weeks: others can require up to two months." Among her most significant contribution to science is the pairing of each larval lepidopteran, which she observed with a plant on which it feeds. She collected and kept caterpillars and conducted experiments to confirm her observations. She noted "caterpillars which fed on one flowering plant only, would feed on that one alone, and soon died if I did not provide it for them." She documented that some caterpillars would feed on more than one plant, but some only did so if they were deprived of their preferred host plant. Eventually the importance of the plant-host association was recognised and in the early taxonomy of moths and butterflies the species were given names that reflected the plants on which the larvae were found. Today the science of ecology focuses on understanding animals' feeding preferences and which plants play a critical role in the food chain.

Merian in her detailed studies made several other unique observations. In relation to larvae she recorded that "many shed their skins completely three or four times". She illustrated this with a drawing showing a shed exoskeleton. She also detailed the ways in which larvae formed their cocoons, the possible effects of climate on their metamorphosis and numbers, their mode of locomotion, and the fact that when caterpillars "have no food, they devour each other". Such information was recoded by Merian for specific species.

Research in Suriname

In 1699 Merian travelled to Dutch Surinam to study and record the tropical insects. The pursuit of her work in Suriname was an unusual endeavour, especially for a woman. In general, only men received royal or government funding to travel in the colonies to find new species of plants and animals, make collections and work there, or settle. Scientific expeditions at this period of time were not common, and Merian's self-funded expedition raised many eyebrows. She succeeded, however, in discovering a whole range of previously unknown animals and plants in the interior of Surinam. Merian spent time studying and classifying her findings and described them in great detail. She not only described the insects she found, but also noted their habitat, habits and uses to indigenous people. Her classification of butterflies and moths is still relevant today. She used Native American names to refer to the plants, which became used in Europe:

I created the first classification for all the insects which had chrysalises, the daytime butterflies and the nighttime moths. The second classification is that of the maggots, worms, flies, and bees. I retained the indigenous names of the plants, because they were still in use in America by both the locals and the Indians.

Merian's drawings of plants, frogs, snakes, spiders, iguanas, and tropical beetles are still collected today by amateurs all over the world. The German word Vogelspinne--(a spider of the infraorder Mygalomorphae), translated literally as bird spider--probably has its origins in an engraving by Maria Sibylla Merian. The engraving, created from sketches drawn in Surinam, shows a large spider who had just captured a bird. In the same engraving and accompanying text Merian was the first European to describe both army ants and leaf cutter ants as well as their effect on other organisms. Merian's depictions of tropical ants were subsequently cited and copied by other artists. Her depictions of the struggle among organisms predates Charles Darwin and Lord Tennyson theories on the struggle for survival and evolution.

Her portrayal of Surinam animal and plant life is so accurate that entomologists who analysed her study journal from the expedition could identify 73 percent of the lepidopterans by their genus and 66 percent as exact species. Some of the animals and plants she drew are likely to have since become extinct. Her drawings are part of the scientific exploration by Europeans. Early taxonomy of tropical plants relied on images or specimens. Following her return to Amsterdam the images she had made were used by Carl Linnaeus and others to identify one hundred or so new species. In 1705, three years after returning from her expedition, she published Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium. Metamorphosis was first published at her own expense and sold by subscription, but did not sell many copies. After her death it was reprinted in 1719, 1726 and 1730, finding a larger audience. It was published in German, Dutch, Latin and French. Metamorphosis and the tropical ants Merian documented were cited by the scientists René Antoine, August Johann Rösel von Rosenhof, Mark Catesby and George Edwards. Few colour images of the New World were printed before 1700 and thus Merian's Metamorphosis has been credited with influencing a range of naturalist illustrators.

Scientific practice in Amsterdam

When Merian moved to Amsterdam in 1691 she made the acquaintance of several naturalists. Amsterdam was the centre of the Dutch Golden Age and a nexus for science, art and trade. When settling in, Merian found support from the artist Michiel van Musscher, who lived not far away. She took in students, one being Rachel Ruysch, daughter of the anatomist and physician Frederick Ruysch. Merian became an important figure among Amsterdam's botanists, scientists and collectors. Her Caterpillars books were getting noticed among the scientific community in England, she continued to breed caterpillars at home and ventured into the country side surrounding Amsterdam to study ants.

Trading ships brought back never seen before shells, plants and preserved animals. But Merian was not interested in preserving, collecting or studying specimens. When she received a specimen from James Petiver she wrote to him that she was interested in "the formation, propagation, and metamorphosis of creatures, how one emerges from the other, and the nature of their diet." In Amsterdam Merian was able to view exotic specimens of butterflies and insects from the Americas which missionaries and merchants had brought to Europe. This may have inspired her to travel to Surinam, but only interrupted her study of European insects briefly. Merian continued her collection and observation activities, adding plates to her Caterpillars books and updating the existing plates. She republished the two volumes in Dutch in 1713 and 1714 under the title Der Rupsen. She extended her studies into flies and rewrote the preface to her books to eradicate any mention of spontaneous generation. She explained that flies emerged from a caterpillar pupa, and suggested that flies could be born from excrement. The 50 plates and descriptions of European insects that appear to have been intended for a third volume were published after her death by her daughters, who combined them with the 1713 editions to one large volume. A number of Metamorphosis editions were also published posthumously by her family, to which 12 additional plates were added. All but two appear to have been Merian's work.

Shortly before Merian's death, her work was seen in Amsterdam by Peter the Great. After her death, he acquired a significant number of her paintings which to this day are kept in academic collections in St. Petersburg.

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Modern appreciation

In the last quarter of the 20th century, the work of Merian was re-evaluated, validated, and reprinted. Her portrait was printed on the 500 DM note before Germany converted to the euro. Her portrait has also appeared on a 0.40 DM stamp, released on 17 September 1987, and many schools are named after her. In the late 1980s Archiv imprint of the Polydor label issued a series of new recordings of the piano works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart performed on period instruments by Malcolm Bilson (fortepiano), with the English Baroque Soloists conducted by John Eliot Gardiner; the original cover design of each of the individual discs in the series, and the original boxed set of the complete piano concertos (as well as a disc of Mozart piano quartets) all featured Merian's floral illustrations. In 2005, a modern research vessel named Maria S. Merian was launched at Warnemünde, Germany. She was honoured with a Google Doodle on 2 April 2013 to mark her 366th birth anniversary.

In 2016, Merian's Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium was re-published with updated scientific descriptions and, in June 2017, a symposium will be held in her honour in Amsterdam.

In March of 2017, the LLoyd Library and Museum hosted a "Off the Page", an exhibit rendering many of Merian's illustrations as 3D sculptures with preserved insects, plants, and taxidermy specimens.

Merian's daughters

Today, while Merian has experienced reinvigorated fame in the eyes of the art and science communities, some of her work has finally been accurately reattributed to her daughters, Dorothea and Johanna. Joanna Helena Herolt often did not receive credit for her artwork because they were created in collaboration with her mother. Today her works are in the process of recovery. Similarly, Dorothea Maria Graff's images have only recently been accredited to the German painter: Sam Segal has reattributed 30 or 91 folios in the British Museum.

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Eponyms

Her renown is such that biologists have named a number of taxa after her, commencing with Linnaeus, naming the South African "bugle-lily" now called Watsonia meriana. A species of South American lizard, the Argentine Black and White Giant Tegu Salvator merianae, is also named in her honor.. Further, appropriately, the Suriname butterfly Heliconius melpomene meriana, and the Brasilian butterfly Heliconius egeria mariasibyllae, and two spiders Avicularia merianae from Peru, named in 2017, and Metellina merianae from Europe, named in 1763.

Popular culture

On 2 April 2013, Merian was honoured with a Google Doodle, in celebration of her 366th birthday.

Gallery

Bibliography

• Neues Blumenbuch. Volume 1. 1675
• Neues Blumenbuch. Volume 2. 1677
• Neues Blumenbuch. Volume 3. 1677
• Der Raupen wunderbare Verwandlung und sonderbare Blumennahrung. 1679
• Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium. 1705
• Todd, Kim. "Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717): An Early Investigator Of Parasitoids And Phenotypic Plasticity." Terrestrial Arthropod Reviews 4.2 (2011): 131-144. Academic Search Complete. Web. 24 Apr. 2016.

Footnotes

References

• Bray, Lys de (2001). The Art of Botanical Illustration: A history of classic illustrators and their achievements. Quantum Publishing Ltd., London. ISBN 1-86160-425-4.
• Dullemen, Inez van : Die Blumenkönigin: Ein Maria Sybilla Merian Roman. Aufbau Taschenbuch Verlag, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-7466-1913-0* Patricia Kleps-Hok: Search for Sibylla: The 17th Century's Woman of Today, U.S.A 2007, ISBN 1-4257-4311-0; ISBN 1-4257-4312-9.
• Helmut Kaiser: Maria Sibylla Merian: Eine Biografie. Artemis & Winkler, Düsseldorf 2001, ISBN 3-538-07051-2
• Charlotte Kerner: Seidenraupe, Dschungelblüte: Die Lebensgeschichte der Maria Sibylla Merian. 2. Auflage. Beltz & Gelberg, Weinheim 1998, ISBN 3-407-78778-2
• Uta Keppler: Die Falterfrau: Maria Sibylla Merian. Biographischer Roman. dtv, München 1999, ISBN 3-423-20256-4 (Nachdruck der Ausgabe Salzer 1977)
• Dieter Kühn: Frau Merian! Eine Lebensgeschichte. S. Fischer, Frankfurt 2002, ISBN 978-3596156948
• Reitsma, Ella: "Maria Sibylla Merian & Daughters, Women of Art and Science" Waanders, 2008. ISBN 978-90-400-8459-1.* Kurt Wettengl: Von der Naturgeschichte zur Naturwissenschaft - Maria Sibylla Merian und die Frankfurter Naturalienkabinette des 18. Jahrhunderts. Kleine Senckenberg-Reihe 46: 79 S., Frankfurt am Main 2003
• Kim Todd: Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis. Harcourt, US, 2007. ISBN 0-15-101108-7.
• Wilhelm Treue (1992) Ëine Frau, drie Männer und eine Kunstfigur. Barocke Lebensläufe. C.H. Beck Verlag.
• Kurt Wettengl: Von der Naturgeschichte zur Naturwissenschaft - Maria Sibylla Merian und die Frankfurter Naturalienkabinette des 18. Jahrhunderts. Kleine Senckenberg-Reihe 46: 79 S., Frankfurt am Main 2003

External links

• Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium:
  • Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium images at website sponsored by Johns Hopkins University
  • Online version of Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium from GDZ
  • Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium (1705) - full digital facsimile from the Linda Hall Library
• Das kleine Buch der Tropenwunder : kolorierte Stiche from the Digital Library of the Caribbean
• Online version of Over de voortteeling en wonderbaerlyke veranderingen der Surinaemsche Insecten from GDZ
• Online version of Erucarum ortus, alimentum et paradoxa metamorphosis from GDZ
• Online version of De Europische Insecten
• The Flowering Genius of Maria Sibylla Merian Ingrid Rowland on Merian from The New York Review of Books
• Der Raupen wunderbare Verwandlung, images from collection at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Gaedike, R.; Groll, E. K. & Taeger, A. 2012: Bibliography of the entomological literature from the beginning until 1863 : online database - version 1.0 - Senckenberg Deutsches Entomologisches Institut.
•  "Merian, Marie Sibylle". Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. 1900. 
• Maria Sibylla Merian on the RKD website
• The Maria Sibylla Merian Society with links to digitized works from Maria Sibylla Merian and digital sources

Source of the article : Wikipedia