The Insect and the Image: Visualizing Nature in Early Modern Europe, 1500-1700 - Hardcover

Neri, Janice

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0816667640 ISBN 13: 9780816667642

Publisher: University of Minnesota Press, 2011

Synopsis

Once considered marginal members of the animal world (at best) or vile and offensive creatures (at worst), insects saw a remarkable uptick in their status during the early Renaissance. This quickened interest was primarily manifested in visual images-in illuminated manuscripts, still life paintings, the decorative arts, embroidery, textile design, and cabinets of curiosity. In The Insect and the Image, Janice Neri explores the ways in which such imagery defined the insect as a proper subject of study for Europeans of the early modern period.

It was not until the sixteenth century that insects began to appear as the sole focus of paintings and drawings-as isolated objects, or specimens, against a blank background. The artists and other image makers Neri discusses deployed this “specimen logic” and so associated themselves with a mode of picturing in which the ability to create a highly detailed image was a sign of artistic talent and a keenly observant eye. The Insect and the Image shows how specimen logic both reflected and advanced a particular understanding of the natural world-an understanding that, in turn, supported the commodification of nature that was central to global trade and commerce during the early modern era.

Revealing how sixteenth- and seventeenth-century artists and image makers shaped ideas of the natural world, Neri’s work enhances our knowledge of the convergence of art, science, and commerce today.

About this title

About the Author

Janice Neri is associate professor of the history of art and visual culture at Boise State University.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Minnesota Press
• Publication date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0816667640
• ISBN 13: 9780816667642
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 280