Studies of a Blue Beetle and Insects

Studies of a Blue Beetle and Insects

Pieter Holsteyn II

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The advent of the microscope in the early seventeenth century revolutionized the manner in which people saw insects. In about 1600, ants, bees, and butterflies garnered most scholarly attention, owing to their significance in biblical and classical sources. By the eighteenth century, the range of insects that were subjects of study had expanded in tandem with a new interest in understanding insects’ anatomies. The two smaller, less familiar insects depicted in this drawing operate as a framing device for the large blue beetle at its center.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Studies of a Blue Beetle and InsectsStudies of a Blue Beetle and InsectsStudies of a Blue Beetle and InsectsStudies of a Blue Beetle and InsectsStudies of a Blue Beetle and Insects

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.