Still Life with Flowers, a Snail and Insects1589
A spray of flowers is laid out on the vellum alongside a snail, butterflies and other insects, each painted with microscopic care in watercolour and gouache and touched with shell gold, powdered gold bound in gum. More about this work
About this work
A spray of flowers is laid out on the vellum alongside a snail, butterflies and other insects, each painted with microscopic care in watercolour and gouache and touched with shell gold, powdered gold bound in gum. Joris Hoefnagel, a Flemish miniaturist who worked for the dukes of Bavaria and later for Emperor Rudolf II, was among the first artists to treat natural specimens as subjects in their own right, blending scientific curiosity with the jewel-like finish of manuscript illumination. Such sheets were prized in the collections of princes.
Written by Ochre Editions.
How it was made
- Opaque watercolour
- Watercolour made opaque with white or chalk and laid in flat, even layers. Persian and Indian painters ground their colours from minerals, applied them with the finest brushes and burnished the finished page.
- Watercolour
- Pigment in gum arabic, thinned with water and laid in transparent washes. Nothing white is painted: the light is the paper showing through.
Joris Hoefnagel
Netherlandish, 1542–1600 · Born in Antwerp; died in Vienna.
Hoefnagel, the son of an Antwerp diamond merchant, travelled widely through Europe, making topographical drawings that were engraved for the city atlas Civitates orbis terrarum. He became court miniaturist first to Duke Albrecht V of Bavaria and later to Emperor Rudolf II. His meticulous watercolours of insects, flowers and animals on vellum, made with scientific precision, mark an early high point of natural history illustration and anticipate the Netherlandish flower still life.
Written by Ochre Editions.
Rights and the museum’s record
Public domain. The Met has dedicated this image to the public domain under CC0, so anyone may copy, adapt and use it, for any purpose, without asking. Our prints and files are reproductions made from the museum’s image; the museum doesn’t endorse them.
- Object number
- 2008.110
- Credit
- Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Type
- Drawings
- Department
- Drawings and Prints
- Licence
- CC0 1.0 Universal
- Museum record
- See it on the museum’s site
