Naturalism is the knowledge accumulated by human beings and nature for a long time. From Aristotle to Darwin, many important scholars throughout history have been regarded as naturalists. Their observation and depiction of natural diversity, which combines beauty and science in the documentary, was an important material for recording nature at that time, and is now a precious document in the history of natural science.
The ancient science of dealing with nature
Naturalism began with the analysis of the diversity of the natural world by ancient Greek philosophers. After Aristotle, the roman natural philosopher Pliny the Elder, who was active in the 1st century AD, compiled the encyclopedic Naturalis Historia (also translated as Natural History, Latin Historia originally meant to describe and study), covering animals, plants, metallurgy, minerals, human physiology and many other fields, and the title of this huge book is the origin of the title natural history. However, in the years when science was not developed, the "Naturalist" also contained many absurd rumors and ghost stories, which were criticized by posterity. But following Pliny Sr.'s methods and ideas, naturalistic writing lasted for more than a thousand years.
The Naturalist, compiled by the ancient Roman scholar Pliny the Elder, was the first naturalistic book to comprehensively introduce the diversity of all things in nature
The great geographical discoveries and commercial boom since the end of the 15th century opened up a wave of natural exploration and allowed naturalism to flourish. Countless new things came to Europe from all directions, which had never been heard of by Europeans before, and could not have any historical records, so writing about the nature of the New World became a popular naturalism.
In the 16th century, the Medical School of European Universities gradually attached importance to botanical education, which was an opportunity for the development of plant naturalism. The Botanical Garden of Ulise Adro Vandi, founded in 1568 by the University of Bologna in Italy, is one of the first botanical gardens in Europe. In addition to introducing new species, making specimens and painting became two new skills in naturalism. Museums were born when naturalists collected specimens in large quantities and displayed them publicly. Adro Vandi's collection of specimens in Bologna amounted to 7,000 pieces, and his Natural Museum was also the largest and most visited in Europe at that time.
Adro Vandi's major works are the 14-volume Nature Chronicle. Conrad Gesner, a Contemporary Swiss naturalist, focused on animal studies, and his 5-volume Zoology is considered the origin of modern zoology. Renaissance naturalism adhered to the humanistic tradition of writing. Gesner's "Zoology" contains both real-life animals and legends, and in addition to introducing the physiological characteristics and appearance of animals themselves, they are also interspersed with related aphorisms, fables and moral symbols. In his book "Ornithology", Adro Fandi divides birds into hard-beaked birds, birds bathing in dust, birds that are good at singing... Obviously, these observational descriptions of nature are not objective and neutral.
The 18th century was an era of great naturalism. Naturalists no longer pay attention to the symbols and metaphors of nature, but instead interpret the "natural order" objectively and rationally. Among them, the contributions of the Swedish biologist Carl von Linnaeus and the French naturalist Georges Buffon put naturalism on the road of scientific development.
In Linnaeus's Natural Systems, published in 1735, based on the characteristics of plants' sexual organs, he first proposed the taxonomic concepts of orders, orders, genera, and species (there was no family classification at the time of Linnaeus's classification). He also unified the naming of organisms through the Latin two-name method (the first is the genus name, the second is the species name), thus ending the confusion over the issue of biological nomenclature. Bufeng tried to find the mechanism of world evolution from astronomy, geology, geography, animals, plants, minerals and their changes, and the masterpiece "Naturalism", which took half a century to complete, had a wide influence in the Enlightenment and had a direct impact on later evolutionary theory.
The illustrations in Linnaeus's Natural Systems depict the division of plants into 24 classes based on the characteristics of their stamens and pistils.
During this period, British naturalists enjoyed great success in overseas exploration. In 1768, Joseph Banks and others took Captain Cook's "Endeavour" to the South Pacific to investigate, collecting species on a large scale in New Zealand, Australia and other places, and bringing back more than 1,000 of the 3600 plant specimens that belonged to newly discovered species. Banks earned him fame during a three-year expedition, and he later became President of the Royal Society and ran the Royal Botanic Gardens for 50 years.
During Captain Cook's second expedition to the Pacific in the 1770s, fellow painter George Foster recorded the King Penguin for the first time. The painting is currently in the collection of the Museum of Nature in London.
In the 18th century British naturalist works, it is impossible not to mention Gilbert White's Seyrberg Chronicles, which was first published in 1789 and has nearly 300 editions so far, ranking among the best reprints in the English-speaking world. It is actually a collection of essays and letters about the natural things of his hometown that White shared with two naturalist friends, but it is by no means an ordinary nature essay. In his letter, White described the richness and harmony of nature with reverence and praise, and the idea of ecological protection expressed made it the ancestor of ecology. Fabre's Insects, Thoreau's Walden and other natural notes that have endured to this day continue this tradition.
In the 19th century, Western naturalism entered its golden age, and a large number of naturalists made broader explorations and in-depth descriptions of nature. In 1831, Darwin, who had just graduated from Cambridge University, boarded the British royal warship "Beagle" and embarked on a five-year round-the-world expedition. On the east and west coasts of South America and adjacent islands, Darwin carefully observed the distribution of species, leading to the hypothesis of biological evolution, and finally wrote On the Origin of Species in 1859. This is an important pinnacle reached by naturalism.
By the late 19th century, under the influence of the entire scientific division, the research of various fields of naturalism was becoming more and more refined, first divided into zoology, botany, geology, and then zoology was subdivided into ornithology, ichthyology, entomology, etc. In this way, naturalism is gradually emptied in academic circles.
Yet it didn't go away. More and more zoos, botanical gardens, natural museums, wildlife sanctuaries, and general publications in natural sciences have brought this ancient science into people's daily lives in a new way.
Art in science, science in art
Which herbs can cure diarrhea? Which fruit will be poisoned when eaten? The text alone is not very clear, but the ancient Roman physician Dios Coridès added illustrations to his treatise On Drugs for the reader to identify. Finding medicine to cure the disease is not sloppy, so the illustrations in the book strive to be accurate. This pioneer pharmacopoeia, which has been circulated by later generations for more than 1500 years, is one of the sources of the birth of naturalist painting.
The Treatise on Medicine, written by the ancient Roman physician DiosCorides, is an illustration to help readers identify various herbs.
In the golden age of naturalism, a large number of exquisite naturalist paintings emerged, and the authors often served as both painters and naturalists, with superb painting skills and rich naturalistic knowledge. At that time, the museum catalogue was an important material for recording nature and had high scientific and artistic value.
At the beginning of the 19th century, Josephine, napoleon's first empress, built a magnificent rose garden in the chateau of Mel maison on the southern outskirts of Paris, planting about 250 species and 30,000 precious roses. This historically famous rose garden also produced an outstanding rose recorder, the French floral painter Pierre-Joseph Reddoud.
In his youth, Reddood was a painter at the National Museum of Natural History, taught by several botanists, and his painting style was exquisite and realistic, with elegant beauty, especially in painting roses and lilies. The Enlightenment thinker Rousseau, when writing The Botanical Correspondence, invited Reddoud to paint 65 exquisite illustrations for the book. In 1788, Reddoud was appointed full-time court painter by the French royal family, and after the outbreak of the Revolution, a new employer, Empress Josephine, was welcomed.
Reddew painted various roses and lilies with delicate brushstrokes, and his album is known as the "Flower Bible".
Queen Josephine's garden gave Reddeau the opportunity to show off his talents, and most of the famous three atlases of the Rose Bible, the Lily Bible, and the Flower Bible were taken from here. Redd's floral works perfectly integrate art into science, which is a landmark in the history of world art and natural history, and has also earned him the reputation of "Raphael of flowers". Over the past 200 years, Reddoord's floral atlases have been published in more than 200 editions in multiple languages and have become a long-standing element of European art decor.
In the 18th century, the famous European flower painter Reddoud served as a French court painter, painting flowers and teaching painting for Queen Josephine and others.
In the 19th century, the Royal Botanic Garden painter Fitch painted a magnolia cracked wood specimen painting. The flowering branch of the main picture is distinctive, and the fruit and its anatomy are drawn on the side.
In the field of animal painting, birds are the favorite objects of naturalist painters, they are light and agile, and they are the most flexible beauty of nature. At the age of 18, the British genius painter Edward Lear published the first bird illustration monograph in the history of science, "Atlas of the Parrot Family", which contains a total of 42 exquisite painted parrot drawings, with delicate brush strokes and vivid postures. John Gould, head of ornithology at the Zoological Society of London, was known for 377 species of birds and was an ornithological authority for a generation. His talent in painting is equally outstanding, and he has been hailed as "the perfect mirror of nature". His masterpieces such as "Hummingbird Monographs" and "Birds of New Guinea and Neighboring Islands" vividly display many exotic and unique bird species, and have won a high reputation in the scientific and art collection circles.
The British painter Lear painted the Lear's macaw that bears his name. He once mischaracterized the parrot as the hyacinth macaw.
The "greatest bird museum painter" in the minds of Americans is John James Audubon. He immigrated to North America from France at the age of 18 and was quickly attracted by the colorful American birds, and was busy watching birds, hunting birds and painting birds all day long, forming a unique drawing method - fixing the birds shot with metal wire, making a "temporary specimen" with a fixed posture, and then depicting it in a 1:1 ratio. This seemingly cruel practice helped him accurately record the details of the appearance of wild birds. With extensive field experience, Audubon's birds exhibit a variety of natural habits: flying, foraging, hatching, brooding, courtship, fighting, in stark contrast to the static and dull bird images in traditional naturalist paintings. Some birds are now extinct, and the paintings are out of print.
American naturalist Audubon
Audubon's obsession with painting birds once bankrupted him, and he had to start selling paintings in distress. In 1826, his first print in London, The Wild Turkey, was well received, and over the next 12 years, exquisite drawings of birds flew out of Audubon's pen, of which 435 plates were eventually assembled into Birds of america (usually bound in 4 volumes). Because audubon's bird paintings are close to life-size, the first edition of the book is huge, 66 centimeters wide and 99 centimeters high, all hand-colored, and priced at as high as $1,000. Today, fewer than 120 copies of Birds of the Americas survive, including one that sold for £7.32 million at Sotheby's london in 2010, making it one of the most expensive printed books in the world.
Eastern Meadow Wrens and Habitats in Birds of the Americas. Audubon meticulously depicted the bird's habit of building a nest on the ground and building a roof with grass above the nest.
Audubon's American flamingos are enchanting and beautiful, with pink feathers and harmonious curves on their backs, necks and legs that are completely faithful to nature.
The snowy owl in Audubon's Birds of america, the night sets off the white feathers, and the glowing round eyes exude alertness and bravery.
The first folio of Audubon's Birds of america is about half a person tall, and the birds and objects in the paintings are as large as the objects, which is very visually impactful.
Western science has long been an intellectual game for the male elite. But in the naturalistic boom of the 17th and 19th centuries, women were also encouraged to get involved. In 1699, a female illustrator living in Amsterdam in her fifties embarked on a government-sponsored expedition to the land of Suriname (then a Dutch colony) in South America, where she stayed for two years, becoming the first European to study and depict local flora and fauna. She is the legendary German naturalist Maria Sibylla Merian.
Merian was particularly interested in insects, and for two years she traveled almost all over the rainforests of Suriname, collecting and raising caterpillars, observing their growth, then painting them and describing them in detail. It was not until malaria was prevalent that she was forced to return to the Netherlands. Upon her return to China, she continued to devote herself to the paintings, retouching, and the collation of observation notes, and in 1705 published the Atlas of Insect Metamorphosis in Suriname.
The naturalist Merian uses vibrant paintings to show the development and metamorphosis of insects in Suriname, South America
In Merian's time, entomology had not yet been born, and naturalists could not understand the transformation process of insects, and Merian told people through careful observation and depiction that the growth and development of some insects included eggs, larvae, pupae and adult insects, and the appearance of each stage together with the plants on which they depended was completely drawn, and each picture showed the life of insects.
From a scientific point of view, Merian's description of animals and plants has some errors, and the pursuit of picture beauty also takes precedence over the accuracy of the depiction of life cycles. In the collection of "Atlas of Insect Metamorphosis in Suriname" in the library of the Museum of Natural History in London, there is a relentless comment from the former owner: some insects are "imaginary", the composition is "absolutely impossible", and the plate is "full of errors". But skepticism and criticism still can't hide her remarkable achievements in insect research. Naturalists such as Linnaeus have cited more than a hundred of her works. Since Merian's death, at least 6 plants, 11 insects, 1 spider and 1 lizard have been named after her.
While most naturalist painters are obsessed with depicting a certain class of creatures themselves, the paintings of the German biologist Ernst Haeckel are more interested in exploring the laws of natural beauty in many categories of creatures. From 1899 onwards, Haeckel began to combine knowledge of biological anatomy with painting techniques, including illustrations of the structural forms of various organisms in his research notes, including marine organisms such as jellyfish, sea anemones, crustaceans, and corals, as well as mammals such as bats and antelopes, as well as plants such as orchids, ferns, and nepenthes. Haeckel's paintings are meticulous, with the soft organs and intricate mineralized bones of tiny sea creatures painted, quite a few of which are completely new in the field of science. He was not satisfied with the front "ID photo" of the drawing sample, but also depicted it in detail from the side, back and bottom, and the painting looked like a hand-drawn 3D view, which was dazzling. But they all have one thing in common – the striking symmetry of the structure.
Jellyfish are the embodiment of animal elegance in the eyes of German biologist Haeckel. In the middle of the plate is the Anna Setia jellyfish named after his wife. He painted the top cover as a blue sunflower, the middle blue mouth and wrist and the golden gonads matched each other, like a princess's skirt, and the smooth lines made the lush tentacles swing freely.
The sea squirt in Haeckel's Art Forms in Nature
Haeckel was a big fan of Darwin, and from these orderly biological structures, he found evidence of biological evolution, that is, creatures that look very different on the outside actually have certain internal laws in geometric form and embryonic structure. In this way, he paid tribute to his academic idol.
Haeckel's 100 most iconic paintings, which Haeckel included in The Art Forms of Nature, caused a sensation in Western science as soon as they were published, and also had a great influence on painting, architecture and design in the early 20th century. The glass chandelier in the Monaco Oceanographic Museum was inspired by his drawings of disc jellyfish; the entrance gate of the 1900 Paris World's Fair, designed by the French architect René Binet, whose morphological source is Haeckel's painting of radiolarian worms; and the natural elements widely used in Art Nouveau were also inspired by his paintings. The "art form of nature" makes science and art more closely linked.