Lesson 4 Find and Do What You Love
A Passion for Science and Art
Today, it is common knowledge that butterflies go through ____ egg-caterpillar-pupa cycle.
However, until the 17th century, ____ people regarded the butterfly and the caterpillar as entirely different creatures.
They believed insects were evil creatures that came from ____
Butterflies, on ____ other hand, were considered “summer birds,” and it was commonly believed that they just fell from the sky in warm weather and vanished in the fall.
In those days, one ____ stood out as a pioneer.
Although having an interest in insects was considered odd and weird, she observed many cases of insect *metamorphosis and recorded these invaluable scientific observations through ____ unique paintings.
Her name was Maria Sibylla Merian.
Merian was born in 1647 in the ____ of Frankfurt, Germany.
When she ____ still little, she became very interested in painting flowers.
It is said that she once climbed over a wealthy neighbor’s wall to find flowers that she ____ paint.
She took some tulips without the ____ permission.
She ____ have been unaware of how expensive they were at the time.
When little Maria confessed her act, ____ neighbor asked to see the painting.
Seeing her ____ he was so impressed that he only asked for the painting as compensation.
When she was 13, Merian began ____ develop a keen interest in bugs.
It was unusual for a young girl to ____ passionate about caterpillars, spiders, and other insects, but Merian was obsessed to the point that she would sometimes watch them for weeks on end.
She carefully painted each ____ of their life cycles, depicting even subtle changes.
Even after Merian got married
Even after Merian ____ married and had children, her passion for insects did not die down.
She ____ caterpillars and butterflies at home in order to study and paint them.
To capture each moment of change, she spent many ____ awake, watching and waiting.
In her house were so many plants and jars ____ insects that her kitchen began to look more like a research lab.
After almost 20 years of hard work, Merian published a ____ about insects in 1679.
There had already been ____ about insects, but Merian’s was special.
While no other books had ever depicted the full life cycle of insects, Merian’s ____ each stage of metamorphosis in detail.
____ addition, Merian revealed the relationships between living things by illustrating insects within their natural surroundings.
This ____ different from other drawings of the time, which displayed only single specimens on a plain background.
In an era when most scientists perceived plants and animals individually, Merian paid ____ to how they fit together.
Many years passed and Merian moved to Amsterdam, where she was able to ____ her paintings and view marvelous and exotic butterfly specimens that other enthusiasts had collected.
However, seeing these lifeless creatures stuck in cases only ____ Merian desire to see them in their real habitat.
Finally, in June 1699, at 52 years of age, Merian and her youngest daughter got on a ship headed for Surinam, a ____ belonging to the Netherlands in South America.
This was a bold challenge.
In addition to being a female naturalist in the male-dominated world of 17th-century science, Merian was also setting out on an expedition with purely scientific goals ____ it became common.
She spent about two years in Surinam, exploring the ____
Confronted with intense heat, fierce tropical storms, and dangerous animals such as tarantulas and flesh-eating fish, ____ continued to collect every sample she could get.
In her own ____ she kept the insects she brought out of the forests and made numerous descriptions and paintings.
Eventually she painted more ____ 90 species of insects and at least 60 species of plants.
With these paintings she published her life’s work, Metamorphosis of the ____ of Surinam, in 1705.
____ book showed Merian’s passion for both insects and painting.
It was ____ truly remarkable book for its time, which contained colorful and detailed paintings of butterflies, bees, spiders, frogs, and even snakes.
One illustration ____ a bright blue butterfly flying over the colorful flowers of a *pomegranate plant, with another butterfly sitting nearby and a caterpillar creeping down the flower stem.
Another depicts two spider webs stretched between tree branches, with ____ and ants attacking their prey.
When the book was published, it had a tremendous influence on the scientific understanding of ____ at the time.
Some scientists
Some scientists even used ____ illustrations in the classification of species.
____ work also brought new life not just to insect study but to the art world.
Goethe, a celebrated German poet, also must ____ been impressed by her work.
He praised ____ talent for weaving art and science together.
In spite of this success, the popularity of her work faded after her ____
It is thought that ____ was because she was not a professional researcher and had no formal education.
Furthermore, her work dealt with flowers and insects, not the historical or religious topics that prevailed in those ____
In the 20th century, ____ Maria Sibylla Merian’s work was reevaluated.
Historians and artists began ____ recognize her extraordinary accomplishments and her passion that contributed so much to early modern science.
In recognition of her achievement, Germany put her portrait on their 500-mark bill, and today many schools there are ____ after her.
Maria Sibylla Merian was a ____ whose passion for plants and insects left its mark on the science world.
While other scientists of the day were debating whether or ____ insects grew out of mud, she demonstrated the stages of metamorphosis.
To ____ art world, Merian was one of the first to show the artistic power of nature.
Despite the doubts, suspicion, and ridicule ____ faced for being so different from “typical” women, Merian is now known as one of the greatest scientific illustrators in history.