“Small,
silent,
swelling
to
roundness,
I
do not yet know
what
secrets I hold
what
marvels await me.”
Joyce
Sidman’s poem is written from the point of view of a butterfly egg, the first
chapter in The Girl Who Drew Butterflies
– How Maria Merian’s Art Changed Science.
Maria
was born in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1647.
Her father ran a publishing shop until he died when Maria was only three
years old. Her mother married an artist
who painted flowers and insects, which Maria often collected for him. No one
knew at that time how insects grew. Some people thought butterflies flew in
from somewhere else; others thought they emerged from dew, dung, dead animals
or mud. Maria was fascinated.
She
learned to paint and draw from her stepfather. But she also collected insects
in glass jars to watch them grow and change – silk worms and then moths and
butterflies. Her interest in art and
especially science set her apart from other girls in the 17th
century. She was different – she had to be careful and clever about how she
worked.
In 1679, at the age of 32, she
published a book with a long and fabulous title, typical of the time – The Caterpillars’ Marvelous Transformation
and Strange Floral Food. She engraved every print in the book herself and
hand-painted many of them, like this title page. You can see her name in the
branches at the bottom.
 |
| First published 1679, digitized by the Universitätsbibliothek Erlangen-Nürnberg |
Maria
did not have a happy marriage, leaving her husband to live in the Netherlands
with her mother and daughters. She even
moved to Surinam, a South American country with Dutch colonists.
“She
rented a house, cultivated a large garden, and plunged into the work of
discovering and breeding caterpillars.”
When
she returned to Amsterdam several years later, “Maria’s beautiful, accessible
art and text electrified her fellow naturalists. Most of the species she
discovered were unknown to Europeans at the time, and her observations were
widely quoted and discussed.”
Joyce
Sidman raised caterpillars herself while she was writing about Merian and also
read her books, including The
Caterpillars’ Marvelous Transformation – a primary source for her research.
Sidman wrote a short poem for each stage of a butterfly’s life, from egg to
approaching death.
The Girl Who
Drew Butterflies is the tale of a young woman who stepped far outside the
typical world of 17th century girls to become a botanical
illustrator and scientist who “saw nature as an ever-transforming web of
connections – and changed our view of it forever.”
Here
are several ideas to let Maria Merian’s work spark creativity in modern-day
young people.
1.
Take a walk outside.
Ask students to look carefully at any living thing – plant, insect,
bird. Write a short poem describing the plant or animal – or written from the
point of view of that plant or animal, like Sidman’s poems. Budding artists could instead draw their
chosen creature or plant with all the detail of Merian’s illustrations.
2.
Maria Merian traveled to the Dutch colony of Surinam, also
known as Dutch Guyana, and now spelled Suriname. Where in the world would you
want to travel and why? What would you want to see or learn there?
3.
Are you passionate about something that you would like to
make your career? It’s ok if you have no great passion yet, but if you do,
write about why you would like to spend your life working in that field.
In
her poem about a butterfly in flight, Joyce Sidman mused,
“How
vast
the
swirling dome
of
the sky!
How
strong the wings
I
have grown
for
myself!!”
Encourage
young writers and readers to grow strong wings for themselves by writing,
drawing and carefully observing the details of their world.
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