Reptile, frog and curiosity prints
A caiman, a lizard, a snake, frogs and a toad, horned beetles, opossums and a tarantula from Maria Sibylla Merian’s Suriname, with two allegories from Robert John Thornton’s The Temple of Flora. Every print is a facsimile giclée at the size of the original sheet, limited to 250.
About reptile, frog and curiosity prints
Maria Sibylla Merian went to Suriname for its insects, but she drew whatever she found on the plants: a tarantula among weaver ants in a guava tree, opossums with their young, a toad with hers, a snake, and horned and harlequin beetles, beside fruit trees such as the cocoa plant and the soursop. After her death the Amsterdam publisher Joannes Oosterwijk added twelve plates for the edition of 1719, among them the caiman, the lizards and the frogs, some made from information supplied by the collector Albertus Seba. All 72 plates are on Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium.
The two plates by Robert John Thornton are allegories from The Temple of Flora, his tribute to Carl Linnaeus, who sorted plants by their organs of reproduction: Cupid Inspiring the Plants with Love, and Linnaeus himself in the dress he wore in Lapland. Who was Robert John Thornton? tells his story.