Crossing Disciplines: The Fruitful Duality of Maria Sibylla Merian's Artistic and Naturalist Inheritances

Abstract

At the end of the seventeenth century Maria Sibylla Merian, then in her fifties, set out from Amsterdam bound for Surinam. Sketchbook and watercolours in hand, she was to spend two years travelling, sketching plants and animals, and following her passion: to unravel the mystery of metamorphosis. Historians have compared Merian unfavourably with early modern taxonomists, arguing that because she did not publish on scholarly matters we must conclude that she did not debate ideas about natural philosophy. However, Merian was firmly rooted in an artistic network that was enthusiastically amenable to the sharing of information and subjects. Ties with family, friends, and artistic mentors promoted her training in art, and encouraged her curiosity for naturalia. Her multi-generational artistic networks set her in good stead to participate in the community of naturalists, a group that she contributed to as well as learned from. These two networks provided different but related stimuli for Merian's lifelong projects, as knowledge and practices of science and art rapidly transitioned around her. Merian's dual inheritances, in art and taxonomy, rendered her watercolours a touchstone between artistic and proto-scientific communities; and her art replaced text in the natural philosophy that she championed.