Insects In Western Art

Abstract

There has been an increasing interest in cultural entomology over the past 15 years (e.g., Hogue 1987, Capinera 1993, Cherry 1993, Sear 1993, El-Mallakh and El-Mallakh 1994, Berenbaum 1995, Isman and Cohen 1995, Pemberton 1995, Peterson 1995, Weidner 1995, Kritsky 1997, Miller 1997, DeFoliart 1999, http://www.insects.orglcedllced_index.html ). Among the aspects covered are insects as food for humans, insects and religion, insects in culture of native people, effects of insects on history, and insects in films. Being a regular visitor of museums, I sometimes noticed an insect here and there. But, in retrospect, I could remember only a few artists who had dealt with insects. In addition, few art historians deal with insects, and books and other publications on the subject are rare. This rarity of publications extends to those dealing explicitly with insects in western art (i.e., art from Europe and North America). For example, Hutchinson (1974) includes the representation of insects in the works of a medieval European manuscript illustrator, Rothschild (1991) shows a selected number of works, Sear (1993) provides a short communication on the occurrence of insects in the work of the graphic artist Maurits Escher (1898–1972), and Berenbaum (1995, pp. 321–323) mentions a variety of highlights among the works with insects.