Crawly creatures : little animals in art and science / Jan de Hond, Eric Jorink, Hans Mulder ; in collaboration with Marcel Dicke, Erma Hermens, Maria Holtrop, Julia Kantelberg, Friso Lammertse, Julia van Leeuwen, Ellen Pater, Catherine Powell-Warren, Studio Tomás Saraceno & Arachnophilia ; translation, Pierre Bouvier, Michael Hoyle.
Publisher:
Rijksmuseum,
Copyright Date:
2022
Description:
191 pages : illustrations (chiefly color), portraits ; 32 cm
Catalog of an exhibition held at Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, September 30, 2022-January 15, 2023. Cover folds out. Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents:
Index. Julia Kantelberg -- Crawly creatures : from abhorrence to amazement / Jan de Hond -- Outcasts of creation : medieval associations with the devil, sin and death / Jan de Hond -- With fresh eyes : renaissance artists and crawly creatures / Friso Lammertse -- Between art and nature : crawly creatures in the Kunstkammer / Jan de Hond -- The smallest print in the book of nature : crawly creatures and Christian devotion / Eric Jorink -- From symbolism to intelligent design : the world as clockwork / Eric Jorink -- Spontaneous generation and miraculous transformations : reproduction and growth of crawly creatures / Hans Mulder -- A strange attraction : women artists and collectors and the creatures that no one can love / Catherine Powell-Warren -- The world as possession : colonial collections / Maria Holtrop, Julia van Leeuwen -- The view through a microscope : insects up close and personal / Eric Jorink, Ellen Pater -- Crawly creatures, forest floors and butterly wings / Otto Marseus van Schrieck and Sottobosco Erma Hermens -- No life on earth without insects : the importance of insects for ecosystems / Marcel Dicke -- Little critters with great meaning : crawly creatures in contemporary art / Julia Kantelberg -- Webs of At-tent(s)ion : from arachnophobia to arachnophilia / Studio Tomás Saraceno & Arachnophilia -- Casa Tomada : ants as metaphor / Julia Kantelberg -- Bibliography -- Works in the exhibition -- Index.
Summary:
"Small teeming animals such as insects, spiders, lizards and toads; these crawly creatures have historically endured a bad reputation. In the Middle Ages they were mainly associated with death and the devil. But in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries their beauty began to be appreciated. Crawly creatures were now the centre of attention: they appeared in works of art, served as the subject of scholarly treatises and became popular collectors' items. Artists such as Albrecht Dürer, Wenzel Jamnitzer, Jan van Kessel I and Maria Sibylla Merian observed these critters in painstaking detail and succeeded in depicting them beautifully. Scientists like Robert Hooke and Antoni van Leeuwenhoek were equally mesmerized. The little animals were collected, studied, placed under the microscope and rendered in illustrations. To this day, these creatures feature in the work of visual artists, who present alternative ways of interacting with insects and the natural world. This richly illustrated publication explores the fascinating relationship between art and science and the way the perceptions of insects and other crawly creatures have evolved over the centuries: from abhorrance to amazement"--Publisher's website.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.