Tegu at the Morgan Library NYC

In the Company of Animals:  Art, Literature and Music at the Morgan 
March 2- May 20, 2012


http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2012/03/03/arts/artsspecial/20120303animals.html
and the Morgan's Online Show Gallery at
http://www.themorgan.org/exhibitions/exhibitionList.asp?page=1&exhibition=animals

Wonderfully, the exhibit includes a print of Maria Sibylla Merian's Tegu.  At left is my student RB's sketch of a tegu, made in a life drawing observation of the reptile at Tufts University through the Experimental College. Merian had a tendency to embellish and stylize her subjects into imaginative designs-- after 2 hours of observation, it was quite clear to us that the circular shape created in Merian's tegu was unlikely in the real creature-- both in its anatomical and movements characteristics.  RB's bulbous tale suggests the same....


Read more about Maria Sybilla Merian's extraordinary exploits as a scientific illustrator and explorer in the 17th century Surinam in Sir Attenborough's book, Amazing Rare Things (Kales Press 2009 ISBN 978-0-9798456-2-8) and The Great Naturalists, edited by Robert Huxley (2007 Thames & Hudson publisher, ISBN 978-0-500-25139-3).  


To quote Walter Lack's essay about Merian from Huxley's collection, she may be "best characterized as an amalgam of natural history illustrator, naturalist, and... entrepeneur.  She left behind an extensive record of plants and animals, notably insects....(S)he was a female...illustrator and naturalist...intruding into a traditionally male-dominated sphere; secondly, she developed a lasting interest in metamorphosis...making her an early entomologist; and thirdly, by spending several months in Surinam she became a pioneer student of tropical fauna and flora."  Imagine the discomfort of  the ankle length, multiple skirts in a dugout along the coastal estuaries & jungles!  An interesting image could be wrestled from this today-- a woman scientist in long garments studying wild reptiles & caterpillars in the city.....