Detail View: JCB Archive of Early American Images: [Butterfly on a hibiscus]

Accession number: 
09891
Record number: 
09891-44
JCB call number: 
J719 M561o / 3-SIZE
Image title: 
[Butterfly on a hibiscus]
Place image published: 
[Amsterdam]
Image publisher: 
[Johannes Oosterwijk]
Image date: 
[1719]
Image function: 
Plate [37]
Technique: 
etching, engraving, hand coloring
Image dimension height: 
35.2 cm.
Image dimension width: 
19.8 cm.
Page dimension height: 
51.5 cm.
Page dimension width: 
34.7 cm.
Materials medium: 
ink, colors
Materials support: 
paper
Description: 
Branch of a hibiscus showing leaves, flowers, and stem. Includes butterfly, caterpillar, pupa, chrysalis, insect, and egg case.
Source creator: 
Merian, Maria Sibylla, 1647-1717
Source Title: 
[Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium. Dutch] Maria Sybilla Meriaen Over de voortteeling en wonderbaerlyke veranderingen der Surinaemsche insecten
Source place of publication: 
t'Amsterdam
Source publisher: 
by Joannes Oosterwyk, boekverkoper op den Dam in de Boekzael: Alwaer dit werk, ... te bekomen zyn
Source date: 
1719
notes: 
Hibiscus is shown with butterfly metamorphosis. The common garden Hibiscus or rosemallow, is Hibiscus syriacus, also known in some areas as the "Rose of Althea" or "Rose of Sharon." The text identifies this plant as althea. Stearnes identifies this plant as Hibiscus sabdariffa L, an Old World hibiscus. Merian first published Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium in 1705; in 1719, her daughters brought out a second edition in Dutch and in Latin reusing the original plates and adding 12 more plates and corresponding text. This new edition was created by pressing each still wet image onto a sheet of clean paper, creating a "counter-impression" which was reversed from the original, thus producing two prints from one inking. Notes on the plants contributed by Caspar Commelin.
Time Period: 
1701-1750
References: 
Stearn, W.T. "Maria Sibylla Merian ... as a botanical artist," Taxon, vol. 31, no. 3 (Aug. 1982), p. 529-534
Provenance/Donor: 
Acquired after 1870.
Owner and copyright: 
©John Carter Brown Library, Box 1894, Brown University, Providence, R.I. 02912
geographic area: 
Guianas
Subject Area: 
Flora and fauna
Subject headings: 
Natural history--Suriname