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