Maria Sibylla Merian

Artist and Entomologist (1647-1717)
by Linda Fisher

"Not for my own glory, but for the glory of God alone, who created such wonders."

An auspicious beginning
Although her father, an engraver and publisher, lived long enough to set in motion the destiny of his daughter Maria, he died when she was three. Fortunately for history, her step-father was a flower painter and at his elbow she learned illustration, drawing, paint mixing, copperplate etching, sketching, oil and water color painting. She was particularly adept at representing fruits, flowers, birds and insects. Later, women would be all but excluded from science, but in the origins of modern science, many women, Maria among them, served as illustrators and observers. Not content merely to record her observations, Maria became enchanted by the world of empirical science, in it's most enlightened sense.

Confident, talented, and independent
Maria married but remained independent, keeping her own name and establishing her own business which employed a cadre of confident and independent female apprentices. They sold silks hand-painted with flowers of Merian's design. And like chemists, they experimented to create paints which would survive washings of fabric.

Do caterpillars produce silk?
Curious to discover other varieties of silk worms for thread production, Merian undertook a study of caterpillars. What was a dead-end for business was a step forward for entomology. After having gathered and fed the creatures and watched them cycle through their transformations, she concluded they were not silk producers, but she had begun her first scientific treastise, the Wonderful Metamorphosis and Special Nourishment of Caterpillars. In preparing the work, she etched 50 copperplates that together illustrated the life cycle of each insect from egg cocoon to butterfly.

Off to Amsterdam
She left her marriage in 1685 with her two daughters in tow. After a decade in an experimental religious community, she moved to Amsterdam and supported the family preparing paints, and doing scientific illustration. She discovered the city botanical gardens and spent abundant time there examining exotic flora. She was hired to illustrate Metamorphosis et historia naturalis insectorum, the work of a French scientist. Bored working from specimens brought back from exotic lands by others, she vowed to do her own fieldwork from that day forth.

Into the field
Astonishingly, in 1699, at age 52, accompanied by her daughters, Merian boarded a ship and sailed to Surinam, on the northern coast of South America. Her objective was to observe insects and plant life first hand. For 2 years, she studied plants and insects of the region, gathering specimens, feeding them, and observing them as they went through their mysterious transformations. Butterflies, fireflies, bees, were gently killed and prepared for a trip back to Europe for further study and sharing with the scientific world. For extra measure, she preserved some small reptiles in brandy.

Speaking out for human rights
The Dutch colonists of Surinam, as they proved again and again around the world, were suspicious of scientists and resented their independent activities. Merian exchanged words often with the colonial rulers over the treatment of the Indians they had enslaved to work the rubber plantations. She also called attention to a plant used by natives to induce abortion rather than have their children be born as slaves. A century later critics would accuse her of playing anthropologist in including the knowledge of indigenous peoples alongside her drawings. They claimed she had been beguiled by some "cunning negroes". Her reports of traditional remedies and beliefs were characterized as "idle stories".

Brandied crocodile?
In 1701, weakened by malaria, she returned to Amsterdam. The trip had been a success for her science and her business, and in the blink of an eye, she set to work on Metmorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium. The work depicted plants and beings never before described or drawn. It is said she even displayed, for astonished Europeans, a small crocodile (preserved in brandy) which was suspected of being a kind of large insect. She did not rename the names given the plants by the natives, a common practice among her contemporaries. Instead she encorporated into her commentary practical aspects of the plants and fruits she drew.

Seventeen creatures named for her
Maria Merian died in 1717, having made a significant contribution to the empirical basis of European entomology. Throughout her life she financed her own research and scientific projects. In the end, six plants, nine butterflies, and two beetles were named for her.

US Postal Service bestowes honors
On March 3, 1997 the US Postal Service dedicated two new stamp designs based on her work "in the primeval splendor of Surinam. The stamp artwork features a flowering pineapple under investigation by two varieties of cockroaches, and a citron festooned with moth, larva, pupa and beetle. Her work combined a unique sensitivity toward some of the earth's humblest inhabitants with a profound talent for capturing their beauty in stunning realism on canvas. Relying on patience, persistence and precision, she also created a scientific record chronicling the metamorphic process at work."

Not for her own glory
Maria was never apologetic for her achievements, and never boastful. Like her contemporary, J.S. Bach, she claimed her work was done "not for my own glory, but for the glory of God alone, who created such wonders." Like Bach, she reflected the broadest possible framework of empirical knowledge, where the tragic dissociation of art, morals, and science, had yet to unfold.

US Postal Service Web site Collector's Corner