A metamorfose sob a pena de uma alemã do século XVII: a arte e a ciência de Maria Sibylla Merian

Abstract

This essay aims to initiate an interpretative analysis of the life and work of a 17th-century woman – artist and naturalist: Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717). Based on a bibliographic review, we perceive that what we now call Germany was a country without unity and did not yet have a well-centralized state. During this period of transition from a feudal to a modern state, women suffered a decrease in freedom. However, Maria Sibylla, from a very favorable family context, managed to develop her artistic and scientific skills, publishing two works in the 17th century – Neües Blumenbuch and Der Raupen wunderbare Verwandlung und sonderbare Blumen- nahrung – which present images, the result of meticulous observations of the life cycles of insects, of a process little studied until then: metamorphosis.