Insects and Colors Between Art and Natural History / edited by V. E. Mandrij and Giulia Simonini.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Simonini, Giulia, editor.

Mandrij, V. E., editor.

Series:

Emergence of natural history ; Volume 7.

Emergence of Natural History Series ; Volume 7

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Insects in art.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (341 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Leiden, The Netherlands : Koninklijke Brill bV, [2025]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This book explores how European naturalists and artists perceived, investigated, and presented the relationship between insects and colors from the late sixteenth to the late eighteenth century. The contributors to this volume examine the creative methods and strategies that were developed to record color-related information about insects through studies on Hoefnagel’s glazed metal and hand-coloring practices; the lepidochromy technique used in paintings by Marseus van Schriek and later naturalists; the representation of sexual dimorphism of color and variable color of caterpillars in the images of Goedaert, Merian, Albin, and Rösel von Rosenhof; the painting-by-numbers technique applied to Schäffer’s bookplates on Regensburg insects; Schiffermüller’s watercolor originals of caterpillars; and finally, the color fading of exotic cabinet specimens and how this issue was tackled by Abbot and Smith. The volume is lavishly illustrated with rare and unpublished images and offers new insights into the interrelation between natural history and visual practices concerning the color of insects, with a special focus on butterflies and moths. Contributors are Harald Bruckner, Kay Etheridge, Beth Fowkes Tobin, Stefanie Jovanovic-Kruspel, Karin Leonhard, V.E. Mandrij, Kimberly Schenck, Stacey Sell, Giulia Simonini, and Friedrich Steinle. See Less

Contents:

Acknowledgements

List of Figures

List of Contributors

Preface

Introduction

V.E. Mandrij and Giulia Simonini

Insect Color in Joris Hoefnagel’s Ignis

Kimberly Schenck and Stacey Sell

“More True to Nature than Paintings”: Lepidochromy and the Color of Butterflies

V.E. Mandrij

The Biology of Color in Insects

Kay Etheridge

Painting by Numbers and Insect Illustrations in the Eighteenth Century: Jacob Christian Schäffer and Stephan Loibel

Giulia Simonini

The Colors of Lepidopterans: Ignaz Schiffermüller’s Caterpillar Watercolors and Their Iconographic Impact

Stefanie Jovanovic-Kruspel and Harald Bruckner

Color, Taxonomy, and Exotic Insect Specimens

Beth Fowkes Tobin

Index.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Includes index.

ISBN:

90-04-68455-7

Publisher Number:

10.1163/9789004684553 DOI