Merian's playful composition floats the large and extravagantly patterned butterfly above the blooming and fruited orange tree branch. This wonderful image is a scientifically comprehensive documentation of the butterfly that includes its larval and caterpillar stages; and of the orange — from its delicate white flowers to its vivid ripe fruit.

About Maria Sibylla Merian

Merian's paintings reflect the 16th-and 17th-century phenomena of "tulipmania" and of the "cabinets of curiosities", small but encyclopedic collections of all things rare and marvelous.

Merian's innovative and fascinating combination of flowers with insects and sea shells is really a reflection of her primary interest in insects. She left Holland in 1688 where the tulip, a recent arrival from Turkey, had become one of the most valuable commodities of trade. Arriving in Surinam (Dutch Guiana), she created her greatest work, Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium (1705).

The butterflies and moths she shows living on and with flowers and fruits were exotic creatures then unknown to Europeans. These delicate and flamboyant images are unique masterpieces of the Art of Discovery.

If you'd like to know a lot more about this most fascinating artist, you might want to buy Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis at Amazon.com