THE QUEEN’S GALLERY BUCKINGHAM PALACE

PLAIN ENGLISH SCRIPT

MARIA MERIAN'S

BUTTERFLIES

PLEASE RETURN TO THE AUDIO DESK

Maria Merian's Butterflies

CHAMBERS GALLERY

Welcome and Introduction

Welcome to The Queen’s Gallery, and to our exhibition Maria Merian’s Butterflies. It explores the

work of the seventeenth-century artist and scientist, Maria Sibylla Merian. She was a fearless

traveller, and one of the first people to study the lives of insects. She is well known because of her

research on insects in South America, in the country called Suriname.

Stop 20. Maria Sibylla Merian, A branch of Willow with Red Underwing and Puss

Moths

Maria Merian was fascinated by insects, even when she was a child. She was most interested in their

life cycle - the way they changed from one form to another very different form (for example when

a caterpillar becomes a moth or a butterfly). Here she draws the life cycle of two European

caterpillars. On the willow branch in the centre there are two green caterpillars. They change into

the Puss Moths shown on the left – they are called Puss Moths because they have soft fur, like a

cat. On the left at the bottom she has drawn their white furry cocoon. The other caterpillar is the

small brown one on the lower twig. It has a brown cocoon and it becomes the Red Underwing

Moth, which is drawn in the top right-hand corner.

Merian was the first artist to show the life cycle of insects on the plants they live on. She was the

first scientist to study them in their natural environment. She drew each insect at exactly life size,

and showed their behaviour as well as their appearance.

Puss Moth caterpillars rear up when they are angry. They pull their heads back to display spots

which look like big black eyes. At their other end they produce long tails and wave them around –

they are bright red, and look like they might be dangerous. They behave like this to protect

themselves from being attacked by birds. They can also produce a smelly substance from glands in

their bodies, to make themselves even less like a tasty meal.

Merian’s artwork shows how carefully she observed the insects. But she did not present her

research with scientific diagrams – instead she used it to produce paintings which looked more like

still life compositions, more like works of art.

Both scientists and artists have to look very closely at the things they are studying. Being a good

scientist helped Merian to be a good artist, and being a good artist made her a better scientist – the

two worked together so that she produced good science and good art.

Merian’s Artistic Training

Merian’s father, Matthias Merian, was a very successful printmaker and a well-known publisher. He

published prints for geography students and travellers, and sold them across Europe. He died when

Merian was three years old, so she was brought up by her mother and stepfather, Jacob Marrel. He

was a still life painter and the main influence on Merian’s art. He taught her to paint watercolours

and how to compose still life paintings – at that time people thought that still life compositions

were a suitable subject for women artists. She also learnt printmaking, and became a skilful

engraver. When she was eighteen years old, Merian married one of her stepfather’s apprentices,

Johann Andreas Graff. He was also an artist and he worked with her on some of her early books.

Amsterdam Science and the Voyage to Suriname

Stop 21. Jan Commelin, Horti medici Amstelodamensis rariorum

This is the catalogue of the Botanical Garden in Amsterdam – it has two volumes. In the 1680s

Merian left her husband and took her two young daughters to Holland. At first she became part of

a Christian community, but later on she moved to Amsterdam and settled there in 1691.

Amsterdam was a great trading port and a centre for the art world – it gave Merian opportunities

to develop her art and her scientific research which she could not have had anywhere else.

In Amsterdam Merian met Jan and Joe Commelins. Jan Commelin wrote these two volumes. His

nephew, Caspar, was one of the first curators of the Botanical Garden. A few years later, he

contributed to Merian's own book on foreign insects and plants.

The catalogue is set out in a format that Merian would later use for her own work on foreign

insects – there is an illustration on one page with the words describing it opposite. The title page

shows the wide variety of foreign plants that were grown in the Botanical Garden. The people

represent the different countries the plants come from. Behind them is a view of the Botanical

Garden itself.

The second volume is open at the page about the Frangipani plant. This is a foreign plant which was

grown in the Botanical Garden. When Merian went to Suriname she would see it growing in the

wild.

Merian enjoyed her research in Amsterdam and learned a lot from it, but at the same time it could

only teach her so much. Many collectors in the city had cabinets full of fascinating examples of

plants and insects but they were all dead. Merian could study them but they could not tell her

everything that she wanted to know. For example, she could not observe the life cycles of insects,

so she did not know which caterpillar became which moth, or how they grew. Merian was excited

to hear about the tropical plants and animals of Suriname, and so decided to go to there.

The Voyage to Suriname

Suriname is on the North Eastern coast of South America. In 1667 it became a Dutch colony. Its

hot humid climate was perfect for plantations growing sugar cane, coffee, cocoa, and cotton.

Suriname had strong links with Amsterdam, and also with the Christian community in Holland

which Merian had been part of when she first went there.

Merian sold the contents of her studio to pay for her journey. The two month voyage from Europe

was full of danger. Not only was there a real risk of shipwreck, but travellers also had to beware of

pirates. Even so, Merian set sail in June 1699 on one of nine ships that set out from Amsterdam for

Suriname in that year. Her younger daughter Dorothea went with her – she was also a successful

artist and she helped her mother with her work. In August they arrived in the Surinamese capital,

Paramaribo, which at that time was a settlement of about 500 wooden houses. They moved into a

house with a small garden.

Merian and Botany/Agriculture

Stop 22. Maria Sibylla Merian, Ripe Pineapple with Dido Longwing Butterfly

Merian published a large book describing the research she had done in Suriname. The title was in

Latin - Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium means the Metamorphosis of the Insects of

Suriname. Metamorphosis is the scientific word for changes during the life cycle of an insect. A

copy of the book is on display in the case at the centre of the gallery.

Merian also produced luxury watercolour versions of the illustrations from her book. One of them

is displayed here. Merian found a Dido Longwing butterfly on the ground near a pineapple plant. In

this painting she shows the caterpillar, chrysalis, and adult butterflies with open and closed wings,

arranged around the ripe fruit. As in all her drawings, everything is life-size.

Merian chose to paint pineapples in both of the first two illustrations in her book on purpose.

European gardeners were very eager to grow them in their own gardens, even though the climate

of Northern countries made it difficult. But a gardener in Amsterdam, Agneta Block, had recently

managed to grow a pineapple from a seed.

In the book Merian described for European readers what it was like to eat a pineapple - they might

never have the chance to taste one for themselves. She talks about a ripe pineapple tasting like a

mixture of grapes, apricots, redcurrants, apples and pears eaten together at the same time. Its

smell, she says, is pleasant and strong, and when the fruit is cut open the whole room smells of it.

Stop 23. Maria Sibylla Merian, Costus plant with Stem Borer Moth

Merian did not stay put in the settlement and the plantations - she went out into the forests

looking for plants and insects. When she found them she brought them back. She found this Costus

plant in the forest. She knew that if she only took a cutting from it, it would die immediately, so

instead she dug it up by the roots and planted it in her garden.

She collected the caterpillars and looked after them until they turned into butterflies, so that she

could see for herself how they changed. She made detailed records of the dates when things

happened, and so was able to describe their life cycle over the course of the year. For example she

writes that the caterpillar became a chrysalis on 14 April 1701, and then a beautiful brown and

white butterfly on the 26th of the same month.

This image is a very good example of the way Merian produced the illustrations. The outlines of the

butterflies and caterpillar are printed, but the rest is painted by hand, in watercolour. These are

luxury works of art, intended for serious collectors. To make them, Merian took the plates being

made for the printed book before they were finished, and used them to make prints. While the ink

on those prints was still wet she pressed them onto parchment, made from calf skin. In this way

the final illustration was an image the same way round as the original drawing.

This set of illustrations belonged to the distinguished doctor Richard Mead. Later they became part

of the collection of Sir John Hill, who was a famous for his study of plants. George the Third bought

them for the Royal Collection in the late eighteenth-century, to be part of his large scientific

library.

The Science of Metamorphosis

Stop 24. Metamorphosis

In Merian’s lifetime, people were only just beginning to understand how insects changed from one

form to another. The scientific name for these changes is metamorphosis. People used to believe

that caterpillars just appeared out of rotting vegetation and that butterflies emerged from the dead

bodies of caterpillars. These ideas only began to change because of scientists like Jan Goedart and

Jan Swammerdam, who published their research into insects in the 1660s.

Even today, the way that a caterpillar – which looks like a grub or a worm – changes into a moth or

butterfly with wings is not perfectly understood. There has to be a stage between the caterpillar

and the adult insect where all parts of its body are completely changed. This stage is called a

chrysalis. Only now – 300 years after Merian did her studies – are we starting to understand the

chemical reactions which make these changes happen inside the chrysalis. The organs of the

caterpillar are broken down and turn into something almost like soup. Then at different places in

this soup the adult parts begin to grow. Merian would have been fascinated to watch these changes

happen, as people still are today!

Stop 25. Maria Sibylla Merian, Frangipani plant with red cracker butterfly, 921161

Merian had seen the Frangipani plant in Amsterdam, where it was grown in the Botanical Garden.

In Suriname she was able to find it growing in the wild, and to study the insects that lived on it. The

two butterflies on this sheet are Red Cracker butterflies, with wings open on the left, and folded

on the right.

Male Red Cracker butterflies are really interesting. They rest on tree branches or trunks – usually

with bark which matches the background of their wings. When they fly off their wings make a

sound, like “chuck, chuck, chuck” – this is why they are called Cracker butterflies because they

make a noise which sounds like cracking. They use the sound to warn other males to keep away.

Also if they are hidden on the bark and a bird comes too close (or even a scientist!) comes too

close, they fly off with this “chuck” sound and with a flash of the red under their wings.

In this drawing, the chrysalis on the stem in the middle belongs to a Cracker. But the caterpillar at

the top is not a Cracker – it comes from a completely different group of butterflies. Finding out

which caterpillar turned into which butterfly was complicated. It was made even more so by the

many difficulties that Merian met with as she did her research in Suriname.

The hazards of research

One of these was poisonous insects. Many insects are covered in hairs which look like fur and it is

tempting for a scientist to touch them to find out what it feels like. Unfortunately in some cases

these fine hairs have poisonous tips. Merian discovered this when she handled a few hairy insects,

ending up with a painful rash and swelling as a result.

Other problems were caused by keeping caterpillars in wooden boxes, as many chewed their way

out. Sometimes chrysalises died. Sometimes wasps layed eggs inside them, so that young wasps

hatched out of them instead of the butterfly she was expecting. She was also plagued by ants. As

scientists working in jungles have discovered, ants swarm over your desk and remove everything

that they can get hold of. A collection of freshly caught insects can be completely removed by ants.

Another problem is that the time when a chrysalis hatches cannot be predicted. People making

television programmes about insects, for example, discover that the chrysalis will often wait for the

cameraman to go to the toilet, and then hatch whilst he or she is not watching!

Stop 26. Maria Merian, Water Hyacinth with Marbled or Veined Tree-Frogs and Giant

Water-Bugs

Merian was interested in many other subjects as well as caterpillars and butterflies, including the

way that tadpoles changed into frogs. Here she has drawn each of the stages that she has observed

in the development of the beautiful frog which she places under a water hyacinth. These frogs share

their pond with giant water bugs, which are very fierce. The bug on the left has attacked a young

frog.

Merian shows the front legs of the bug with two claws, but in fact it only has one. She has drawn

the sharp, short beak which the bug stabs into its prey, from which it sucks out all the fluids. Being

stabbed by one of these bugs is very painful and they use the beak to inject chemicals into the

wound.

The biology of the water-bug is fascinating. After they mate, the male bugs take care of their eggs.

Actually they have no choice as the female lays her eggs on the folded wings of the male, making it

impossible for him to fly. He looks after the eggs for several weeks until they hatch, keeping them

wet and making sure they get enough air. In some ponds where there are very few males with

empty wings, the females actually grab the males and clear the eggs of the other female off, forcing

the male to carry their eggs.

Making the Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium

Stop 27. Maria Sibylla Merian, Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium

This is the book Merian published when she came back from Suriname in 1705. It is a huge

luxurious publication, and beautifully arranged, with the illustrations on one side and the words

describing what she had found out about them opposite. Merian asked her old friend, Caspar

Commelin, the curator of the Botanical Garden in Amsterdam, to provide extra notes on each of

the plants.

Comparing the illustration in the book with the luxury watercolour version displayed next to it

shows that Merian changed the composition in the luxury version, by altering the position of the

butterfly flying in from the right.

Merian wanted as many people as possible to see her work. She dedicated her book to all nature

lovers. She published it in Latin and Dutch and also produced a version in black and white, for

people who could not afford the expensive hand-coloured version.

This copy of the book came into the Royal Library during the reign of William the Fourth. It is a

very rare edition. In most editions the illustrations in the book and the watercolours are the

opposite way round, like mirror images, so that what appears on the left in the illustration in the

book is on the right in the watercolour. Reversing of the images in this way is caused by the

printmaking process. In this edition Merian has corrected it, so that the illustrations in the book

and the watercolours match. The copies of the book where she has done this are very rare. They

are hand-coloured by Merian herself and would have cost even more than an ordinary hand-

coloured copy of the book.

Following her death, Merian’s work was also translated into French, and reprinted in numerous

editions.

Stop 28. Maria Sibylla Merian, Branch of Pomegranate with Lanternfly and Cicada,

921149

Merian tells in her book how local people in Suriname brought her a collection of insects which she

kept in a wooden box. In the middle of the night she and her daughter Dorothea were woken up

by horrible rattling sound. In a panic they opened the box, only to see sparks flying out of it. The

insects responsible are drawn here at the top of the illustration. Because of the light which they

produced people called them Lantern Flies.

Merian has drawn two types of insect in this illustration. One of them has a head which looks like a

peanut. It is known by a number of different names - the machaca, the alligator bug, the peanut-

headed bug or the lantern bug. In many areas of South America people are very afraid of this bug.

They believe that if it stings a person he or she will die. This is very strange because the bug does

not actually have any sting at all.

The other flying insect which is an adult cicada. But the most interesting part of this illustration is

the insect drawn at the bottom of. It is a cicada but it has the head of the other bug. This is one of

the most interesting of Merian’s drawings, because it is obviously based on some confusion.

It is hard to understand how Merian could have made this mistake, but there may be an

explanation. The men who helped her believed that these two insects were different stages of the

same bug, with one growing into the shape of the other. They may have tried to prove what they

were saying was true by sticking the head of the Lantern Fly onto the cicada. This explanation

makes sense – it seems unlikely that Merian would have drawn it like this, unless she had seen it

with her own eyes.

Merian and the fauna of Suriname (South America to Amsterdam)

Stop 29. Maria Sibylla Merian, Branch of Guava tree with Army Ants, Pink-Toe

Tarantulas, Huntsman Spiders, and Ruby Topaz Hummingbird

Merian was fascinated by all the insect life she saw in the jungle, including ants and spiders. Among

the spiders were the big tarantulas and here she has drawn the pink-toed tarantula. But a careful

examination of the detail shows that she has made some mistakes. For example the tarantula on

the left is using its fangs to hold an ant. But these spiders are not able to use their fangs in this way.

They are used to bite into an animal they are hunting or to bite in self-defence if they are attacked.

They cannot be used to hold onto their prey as shown here.

Her drawing of the ants is even more inaccurate, because she has confused several different kinds

of ant. In the middle of the upper branch, an ant is clipping a leaf from the Guava tree. This

behaviour is typical of the so-called Atta Ant or Harvester Ant. In some parts of the world,

particularly in South America, they strip away large amounts of greenery and take it underground.

In her description Merian says that they can strip a tree as bare as a broom handle.

The other ants that she has seen are Eciton Army Ants which are very different. They eat flesh and

will sweep through the forest floor eating everything in their path. Army Ants often work in teams

to form bridges, like that shown in the upper left of this illustration.

It looks like Merian has not understood the difference between harvesting ants which cut leaves

and the army ants who are the meat-eaters of the jungle. In the lower right a hummingbird seems

to have become the victim of another hunting insect. Nobody has been able to prove that they

have actually seen a hummingbird being eaten like this. It may happen, because very strange things

happen in the animal world. This single drawing of a pink-toed tarantula eating a male hummingbird

is the only evidence we have – it is the reason we call large spiders “bird eating spiders”.

Stop 30. Maria Sibylla Merian, Cassava with White Peacock Butterfly and young

Golden Tegu, 921158

This watercolour shows a cassava plant with a young tegu lizard sitting on it. The lizard is stretching

up, catching a little bug on the branch above. It might seem strange to include a drawing of a lizard

in a book about plants and insects, but Merian had a good reason for drawing it. She says that she

included it to make the illustration more interesting. But she also tells her readers that if people

like her book about insects and if it sells enough copies, she could produce another book about

creatures like this one. So she is already talking about her next book. She had all the material for a

book on reptiles but sadly, she became ill and did not live to publish it.

Following her death, the Metamorphosis was published in a new edition with extra illustrations,

including some based on Merian’s watercolours of reptiles. They include the adult Tegu lizard that

could grow up to fourteen feet long in the watercolour on display in the centre of the end wall.

Stop 31. Maria Sibylla Merian, Cassava root with a Garden Tree Boa, Sphinx Moth and

Treehopper

The insect flying in at the top left of this illustration is a Sphinx Moth. It is shown with its chrysalis

and its striped caterpillar. A pregnant Garden Tree Boa is coiled around the stem of the plant. It is

eyeing up a tiny bug called a Treehopper. Treehoppers are strange insects. They can expand the

middle section of their bodies into an unusual helmet shape. They are small and are actually very

hard to find in the wild.

The plant in the illustration is the lower part of the cassava plant, showing its bulging orange roots.

Cassava is an important crop in Suriname. The horned caterpillar shown here fed on cassava and so

was a serious pest for the farmers who grew it. Even though the root is poisonous it is still used to

make bread. To make it safe to eat the root has to be grated and all the juice pressed out of it.

Merian records the painful death that can happen as a result of drinking raw cassava juice.

Stop 32. Maria Sibylla Merian, A citron with a Monkey Slug Moth and a Harlequin

Beetle

Merian had to end her research in Suriname early when she became ill, in June 1701. She returned

to Amsterdam with a number of specimens. The cocoon at the top, in the middle of the leaf,

actually hatched during her voyage home. To the left is the caterpillar of the Slug Moth with its

hairy protrusions.

Because the caterpillar has such an unusual and interesting appearance Merian probably though that

the moth would be just as unusual and interesting. But actually it becomes a rather ordinary looking

adult.

On the fruit below, Merian has drawn the Harlequin Beetle, life-size. The male beetle is particularly

remarkable because its front legs are incredibly long. The female is slightly smaller and her front

legs are not nearly as long. When this beetle was discovered and a specimen sent back to England,

scientists were puzzled by it – they could not imagine what it used such long legs for. They decided

that it must use the tiny hooks at the end its legs to hang off branches and move through trees.

This is nonsense, but the real explanation is much stranger. In the insect world, male insects want

to make absolutely sure that the eggs produced by a female which you have fertilised contain your

offspring and no-one else’s. These long legs are used to make sure that no other male will mate

with a female. After they have mated, the male puts his arms around her. To us it looks rather

sweet – he puts his arm round her and moves with her wherever she goes, hitting out if the way

any other male who comes close.

Stop 33. Mark Catesby, Catesbaea spinosa with Zebra Swallowtail Butterfly

Merian’s work – particularly her work in Suriname – had a huge effect on what was done by those

who came later. This is a watercolour by Mark Catesby. He travelled to South Carolina, Florida,

and the Bahamas in the 1720s to study the wildlife there. Here he has drawn the Zebra Swallowtail

Butterfly. The plant it is on was later named after him. We know that he had read Merian’s book,

because he talks about it in his own work, and he likes to point out where he thinks she is wrong.

The idea of putting the butterfly in this beautiful composition with the plant shows the influence

that Merian still had, even after her death. We know that people went back to Suriname with her

work in mind, looking for the things that she had discovered. Carl Linnaeus, the Swedish scientist

(who devised the system for organising plants and animals which we still use today) made use of

Merian’s work. He mentions ‘Merian, Suriname’ over a hundred times in his work describing

different kinds of animals and plants.

Some species were also named after Merian. Below is Merian’s watercolour illustrating the life cycle

of a Split-Banded Owlet Butterfly. Its scientific name is Opsiphanes cassina merianae.

This final part of the exhibition contains more information about Merian’s lasting influence. It has

been said that she had the eye of a very skilled artist, and the heart of a scientist. The detail in her

work shows how hard she worked to understand the details of the natural world. She then wanted

to share what she had discovered with as wide an audience as possible. She has been an inspiration

for students of nature all over the world, and will continue to be.

This is the final exhibit on our tour. We hope you have enjoyed finding out about the extraordinary

work of Maria Merian. You can continue your exploration in the Millar Learning Room. To get

there, go out of this exhibition through the door at the other end of this Gallery, and turn right.

You’ll find The Millar Learning Room straight ahead of you.

You are also welcome to visit the other exhibition here at The Queen’s Gallery: Scottish Artists

1750-1900: From Caledonia to the Continent.

You can return to The Queen’s Gallery, free of charge, for a year, by converting your ticket into a

1-Year Pass. Just sign the back and ask a member of staff to stamp it before you leave. To find out

more about future exhibitions and to explore the Royal Collection online, please visit our website

at royalcollection.org.uk. You can keep in touch by signing up to our e-Newsletter on the website,

or by following us on Facebook.