Plate XXXIV Grape Vine with Gaudy Sphinx Moth, Maria Sibylla Merian

Artist and naturalist Maria Sibylla Merian traveled to the then-Dutch colony of Surinam to document and observe the local plant and animal life. European audiences eagerly embraced plants she studied, including plant-based New World goods such as cocoa, coffee, and rubber, and began importing these goods en masse to Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries. In her commentary accompanying this plate, Merian wrote of the grapes that grew wild in Surinam: “It is regrettable that one can find nobody interested in cultivating them; it would not be necessary to bring wine to Surinam; rather it would be possible to bring wine from there back to Holland, for the grapes can be harvested more than once a year.” Illustrations of the Gaudy Sphinx Moth’s larval, pupal, and adult life stages accompany the grapes.

Merian unifies pictorially the interwoven fabric of the lives flora and fauna. Her 1671 publication, Der Raupen wunderbare Verwandlung und sonderbare Blumennahrung (The Wonderful Transformation of Caterpillars and [Their] Singular Plant Nourishment), both describes the transformation of caterpillars into moths and butterflies and also depicts the plants that these insects eat and inhabit. Indeed, she never depicted a plant without including the holes or nibbled edges left behind by hungry insects.