Abstract
Michel Bégon’s collection and Claude Aubriet’s contribution to natural history. Michel Bégon (1638-1710), a navy paymaster of Louis XIV in La Rochelle, was at the start of a collection composed of medals, books, objets d’art, works by famous painters and curiosities of Nature. To illustrate his collections of insects and birds, he employed the miniature painter Claude Aubriet (c. 1665-1742), in charge, on the other hand, of the king’s vellums. A careful study of the entomological and ornithological plates by Aubriet shows that he greatlv borrowed from former artists such as Maria Sibylla Merian or Johann Walter. This article is concerned with the problem of the role of the artist, as regards his relationship with the scientist or the collector of curiosa.
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