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Insects in Art

Kids often think of bugs as creepy and crawly but today we are going to discover how insects can be art. We will learn about the many different ways insects are used in art and see the different approaches artist use to depict them.

This set was designed for students K-3rd grade to accompany a unit study on insects. Following this slide presentation students will spend time observing insects and making sketches. These sketches will then be used for an end of the unit project where students create their own insects.

All information with regards to Insects in Art was obtained from the Minneapolis Institue of Arts 5 Facts about Insects in Art, March 2006

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Insects In Art

Close your eyes for a moment and try to remember a piece of art work that you have seen or studied that had insects in it.

What did it look like? Were the insects realistic or abstract? Were they a small detail or the central image?

If you were to do a piece of art work that was about insects what would it look like?

Aeternum Florida Virtus

Is this what you think of when we talk about insects in art?

Artist: Jakob Hoefnagel
Date: 1592
Medium: Print
Size: 6 1/2 x 8 3/4 in.

Insects in Art

Insects have been used in art for many different purposes over the years. They have been used to educate, symbolize, decorate, and even give meaning to life.

Lets take a closer look at each of these ways.

Insects in Art - For Education

One of the way insects have been used for art is for educational purposes.

Many insects can only be found in specific places around the world. Scientist would travel to far away places and spend years watching insects in their natural environments. They would make detailed drawings to bring home as records of the new insects they had found.

Artist: Artist Unknown
Date: c. 1805
Medium: Drawings and Watercolors
Size: 11 x 8 1/2 in.

Maria Sibylla Merian

One on the best examples of insects in art for educational purposes comes from the work of Maria Sibylla Merian. In 1699, she set out for the exotic tropical country of Suriname, a Dutch colony in South America. For two year she studied insects in their natural habitat. She observed their metamorphosis as they developed from egg to adult. She recorded their eating habits and activities, collected specimens, and drew each stage of their life cycles.

Merian painted over a hundred watercolors during her time in Suriname. When she returned home, sixty of them were reproduced in her book Metamorphosis of the Insects of Suriname.

Moths, Caterpillars, and Foliage

In this one drawing we are able to see months of Merian's work. She has drawn each of the four stages of the White Witch moth's life.

Artist: After Maria Sibylla Merian ; Joseph Mulder
Date: 1705-1771
Medium: Prints, Print
Size: 15 1/4 x 11 1/4 in.

The First Stages

Each stage of the moth's life is delicately draw. The first stage starts as small yellow eggs that are attached to the branch in an egg sack.

The Second Stages

The caterpillar hatches from it's egg. Merian shows one crawling on a branch and eating the leaves. Notice the detail of each fuzzy hair coming off the back of the caterpillar.

The Third Stages

The caterpillar eats the leaves voraciously and then spins a silken cocoon around itself. Now it has entered the third stage, called the pupa.

The Fourth Stages

The pupa metamorphoses into an adult moth, which then emerges from the cocoon. Merian painted two moths, one in flight and one resting on a leaf with wings folded to reveal the beautiful lavender coloring hiding below.

Snake, Caterpillar, Butterfly, and Insects on Plant

Maria Sibylla Merian was taught by her stepfather, a still-life artist, and was greatly influenced by other seventeenth-century Dutch still-life painters. Like them, she paid close attention to detail. Her drawings and watercolors capture every feature of the insects she studies.

Artist: After Maria Sibylla Merian ; Joseph Mulder ; Cassave
Date: 18th century
Medium: Print
Size: 14 1/2 x 11 1/2 in.

Let's Discuss

Was Maria Sibylla Merian a scientist or an artist?

A National Emblem

Just as we use the bald eagle to symbolize our country (freedom, peace, greatness) other countries often use animals and even insects to represent their country.

Artist: Artist Unknown
Date: late 19th-early 20th century
Medium: Dolls, Toys and Games
Size: 4 3/4 x 3 5/8 x 2 5/8 in.

Chinese Bellflowers and Dragonfly

In Japan, the dragonfly is a national emblem. In fact, japan used to be called Akitsuhima, or Dragonfly Island. The long, rainy summer season and numerous rivers ans streams provide idea living conditions for dragonflies, which spend the early stages of their life in the water.

Artist: Katsushika Hokusai ; Nishimuraya Yohachi
Date: c. 1830-1831
Medium: Color Woodblock Print
Size: 9 13/16 x 14 5/16 in.

Reaching for a Dragonfly

In Japanese culture, the dragonfly has many meanings. It symbolizes the summer season, success, victory, happiness, strength, and courage. Long ago, Japanese farmers believed the presences of dragonflies in their fields meant an abundant rice harvest. Throughout homes of noblemen, dragonfly images appeared in paintings and on porcelain, furniture, and fabrics.

Artist: Suzuki Harunobu
Date: 18th century
Medium: Print
Size: 11 x 7 15/16 in.

Compare and Contrast These Two Insects

Insects in Art - Symbolic Imagines

Not only do we choose animals and insects to symbolize groups of people, we also use animals and insects to symbolize parts of our daily lives.

When we are hurrying around we are often called busy bees.

Yellow Lily and Scarab Beetles

Scarab beetles, also called dung beetles, roll balls of animal dung across the ground and then bury them in underground nests. Thousands of years ago the ancient Egyptians noticed this habit and associated it with the way the sun moves across the sky each day. The scarab became for them a sacred symbol of the morning sun.

Artist: Mark Catesby
Date: 1731-1743
Medium: Prints
Size: 13 5/8 x 10 1/8 in.

Scarab - A Symbol of Life

Female scarab beetles lay their eggs inside the dung balls. The larvae that hatch from the eggs feed under ground and later emerge from the earth as adults. Unaware of this hidden stage of the beetles's life, the Egyptians believed scarabs were born magically from the earth; so scarabs came to stand for rebirth and renewal.

Artist: Artist Unknown (Egyptian)
Date: 1786-1567 B.C.
Medium: Decorative Arts and Utilitarian Objects, Seal
Size: 5/8 x 7/8 in.

Compare and Contrast these Two Scarabs

Insects in Art - Life Lessons

Art will often try and teach or persuade its viewers in a life lesson. See if you can figure out what the artist is trying to say in the next slide.

A Closer Look

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Click to hear commentary from the Minneapolis Insttue of Arts on this still life.

Artist: Abraham Mignon
Date: c. 1669
Medium: Painting
Size: 23 x 19 1/2 in.

Insects in Art - Really Inside Art

Sometimes art has a purpose and this time its purpose is to hold insects.

Cricket Container

For over a thousand years, the Chinese have kept crickets as pets.

Why keep a cricket as a pet? The Chinese like this insect's melodic chirping. Beginning in the T'ang dynasty, the Chinese kept crickets in cages in their homes. At night they often placed the cage by the bed, so they could enjoy the cricket's song.

Artist: Artist Unknown (China)
Date: late 17th century
Medium: Decorative Arts and Utilitarian Objects, Gourd
Size: 6 1/2 x 2 7/8 in.

Cricket Box and Tickle Brushes

A variety of gear was made for crickets and their owners. Molded gourd containers, engraved with intricate designs kept crickets warm in cold weather. Summertime cages were ceramic or wood. To prompt their crickets to sing, owners used ticklers made of fine hair or rat whiskers attached to a wood or ceramic handle.

Singing-cricket Cage

This woodblock print shows a woman carrying a cricket cage. Look closely and you will see that she is using a tickler.

Artist: Suzuki Harunobu
Date: 18th century
Medium: Print
Size: 10 3/16 x 7 3/8 in.

Insects in Art - Decoration

One of the last ways that insects have been used in art is as decoration. As we look at the following images take note to the variety of ways people have found to use insects in art.

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