Science History 2 -Maria Sibylla Merian
“For only art and science raise men to the God-hand.” — Beethoven
Today i wanted to begin this article with the words of Beethoven. In his response to a letter sent by a 12-year old fan girl, the great composer expresses the equality and important of art and science in the sentence written below the head of this article. Then in the same letter, he says the following
“ The true artist is not proud, he unfortunately sees that art has no limits; he feels darkly how far he is from the goal; and though he may be admired by others, he is sad not to have reached that point to which his better genius only appears as a distant, guiding sun.”
Although it quite seems like Beethoven tells us how an artist should be like, these words also apply to a scientist because scientist also follow a life depicted by these words in an effort to make sense of the nature they are engaged in. Moreover, some scientist even were able to combine the concepts of science and art which is just like two different shadows of an object. In today’s article, we welcome one of these individuals, Maria Sibyyla Merian.
Maria Sibylla Merian was born in Frankfurt on April 2, 1647, as a child of the couple Johanna Sybilla Heyne and Matthaus Merian. His father, Matthaus Merian, was a famous copper engraver, and also the owner of a publishing house. He made many fascinating illustrations of 17th century of German cities. Maria sadly lost her father at about the age of three, afterwards, her mother married Jacob Marrel who was a famous plant painter. Marrell encouraged Maria, who was a young girl, to draw and love animals. On top of that, she was also supported by Marrell’s students. Being encouraged by people around, at the age of 13, Maria began collecting silkworms and other insects, and making drawings of insects and the flowers she saw.
“I spent my time investigating insects. At the beginning, I started with silk worms in my home town of Frankfurt. I realized that other caterpillars produced beautiful butterflies or moths, and that silkworms did the same. This led me to collect all the caterpillars I could find in order to see how they changed.” — Metamorphosis
In 1665, at the age of 18, she married John Andreas Graff, one of Marrel’s appranties. He was, like her own father, a man who drew and carved architectural works. Soon after, they had a daughter, Johanna Helena in 1668 and continued to live in Frankfurt until 1670. They later moved to Nuremberg where Maria made many drawings and also trained a group of young girls in the city in drawing pictures of plants. In addition, her studies on matemorphosis and insects continued. In 1675, she publidhed her first book, The New Book of Flowers, but her first scientific publication was published in 1679 with the book named “ The Wondrous Transformation of Caterpillars and Their Remarkable Diet of Flowers”
Over the years, she had drawn many insects and plants in her notebook, to print them she firstly make an artistic compositions of her drawings then engraved this representation on a copperplate. Afterwards, she coloured the original represantation by her hand which was very challenging task to do at that times. In the same book, she also collected the life cycles of butterflies. This work helped her to determine her own style. She had to return to Frankfurt in 1681, after her stepfather died. In 1683, she published a sequel to her book published in 1679.
By 1685, there had been a series of changes in her life. During that period, she started having some problems with her husband because of his wanting to move. About that time, she also joined a Protestant religious group with her family known as the Labadist. The Labadist didn’t recognize marriages with those who were non-Labadist, with previous problems, that led to a divorce. Afterwards, she work on the development of frog eggs and the metamorphosis of tadpoles. Similarly, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, a famous membor of the Royal Society, did this work 13 years after she did in 1686. After her mother died in 1690, she moved to Amsterdam where she would have to take a great journey to write her perhaps the most important work.
During this period, there were sailors going from Amsterdam to Suriname, a South American country, to establish a colony, and these sailors brought some pictures of this region. Maria previously had the opportunity to see some butterflies brought by Labadists who went to this region for missionary activities. This sparked her curiosity and she wanted to go to Suriname and work on these animals alive there, but it seemed quite difficult for an old lady to go to a tropical area where dangerous insects were found. Those who went to these areas could contract deadly diseases. Not giving up, Maria made preparations while continuing her studies on plants and insects. Over the years, she established close relations with many important people in the city, and with the help of city council members and using her own savings, in 1699, at the age of 52, she went on a 3-month journey to Suriname with her daughter. Although the owners of sugar cane fields that came here to establish a colony looked down on her, she collected many samples with the help of her daughter and a few slaves. She observed the metamorphosis of the caterpillars in the plants, afterwards, she collected and drew them in her notebook.
After spending 21 months in Suriname, she had to return to Amsterdam because of malaria. She had a fairly large collection of specimens and had made many drawings, sold some of these specimens, and began preparing her work in which to publish her observations. She completed her studies between 1701 and 1705 and published prints containing drawings of the specimens she collected during her time in Suriname, entitled “Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium”. This work carried 60 different engravings and was presented to readers in Amsterdam in both Latin and German.
Merian was known to be lively and very hardworking, and she had specimens and drawings collected throughout her home. In her last years, she was also trying to make a third of the caterpillar books that she published in 1679 and 1681, but she did not live long enough, and later her daughter Dorothea Maria was able to publish this book in 1717 after her mother’s death. Near her death, many people were very interested in her work, one of them being Peter the Great. Before Maria died, Peter told his physiologist to buy some of the original drawings. Also, part of her collection is inscribed in St. Petersburg. He was sent to the Petersburg Academy of Sciences. His daughter Dorothea Maria and his wife later moved to St. They became teachers at the art academy established in St. Petersburg and advised Petro on investment in works of art.
Art and nature shall always be wrestling until they eventually conquer one another so that the victory is the same stroke and line: that which is conquered, conquers at the same time. — Maria Sibyyla Merian
References
Kutschera, U. (2017). Anniversary: Maria Sibylla Merian and metamorphosis. Nature ecology & evolution, 1(3), 1–2.
Pieters, F. F., & Winthagen, D. (1999). Maria Sibylla Merian, naturalist and artist (1647–1717): a commemoration on the occasion of the 350th anniversary of her birth. Archives of natural history, 26(1), 1–18.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Maria-Sibylla-Merian
https://www.botanicalartandartists.com/about-maria-sibylla-merian.html
https://quotesgram.com/maria-sibylla-merian-quotes/
https://www.activityvillage.co.uk/maria-sibylla-merian
https://scientificwomen.net/women/merian-anna_maria_sibylla-67
https://www.wqxr.org/story/beethovens-amazing-response-12-year-olds-fan-mail/ (letter written by Beethoven)
You can access Turkish version of this article by clicking on the link below.
https://www.herkesebilim.org/post/bilim-tarihi-serisi-2-maria-sibylla-merian
