These stunning engravings by Matthaeus Merian transport me to a bygone era. I still can’t fathom where artists of that time found their inspiration, how they learned, and how they managed to create such beautiful drawings. After all, they didn’t have Pinterest, Instagram, or anything like that. My point is that they had fewer resources than we do today. Or maybe they had even more…
This artist Matthaeus Merian is probably very talented. Obviously. I love the botanical feel of his works, don’t you?
Would you like me to tell you a bit about Matthaeus’s life? This famous artist is well-known to collectors of antique engravings. He was born in 1593 in the Swiss city of Basel. However, he studied engraving in Zurich, Strasbourg, and Paris.
After his studies, at the age of 18, Merian returned to his hometown, but within a year, he moved to Frankfurt, where he lived and worked for most of his life. In Germany, Matthaeus began working at the publishing house of Johann Theodor de Bry, which mainly dealt with maps and illustrations of America and Native Americans. There, he married de Bry’s daughter, Maria Magdalena. After the wedding, he and his wife returned to Basel, where, after Maria’s father’s death, Matthaeus inherited de Bry’s business and became an independent publisher.
In time, the couple had a daughter, Maria Sibylla. She began botanical illustration. If you’re interested in botanical images, you can read more about this artist here. Believe me, her works are worthy of admiration!
At the beginning of his career, Merian created city plans of Basel and developed his unique style. However, Frankfurt became his primary workplace for engravings, where Matthaeus created a vast number of maps of cities, countries, and a world map. His works also included engravings of biblical scenes and Greco-Roman myths.
He also used flowers and plants. This was more of an artistic symbol than scientific research. Depicting botanical symbolism was common at that time. Examples of laurel and rye speak of ancient, literary, and religious associations.
By the mid-16th century, the predominance of symbolism began to change as Renaissance botanists started studying flowers for their own properties.
Matthaeus died in 1650 in the town of Bad Schwalbach, when his daughter Maria was only three years old. A significant number of Matthaeus Merian’s engravings are housed in the Zoological Museum of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg and the British Museum in London.
Looking for inspiration in botanical and pastoral illustrations? then see my other posts about botanical artists: Botanical artist Raymond Booth, Flower paintings by artist Amalie Kärcher and Pastoral paintings by artist Robert Walker Macbeth.
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