1594
gouache
vellum
From the collection of National Gallery of Art
Dominant colour
Plate 60: Flies and Other Insects is a 1594 gouache by Joris Hoefnagel, a Renaissance work, depicting Insect, held at National Gallery of Art.
Joris Hoefnagel painted tiny flies, beetles, and other bugs on a sheet of parchment. The wings of a butterfly gleam with real silver paint. Gold dots mark the eyes of a spider. He worked in the 1590s, but the style feels older—think of medieval illuminated manuscripts. The bugs look almost alive, as if they just landed on the page. See more tiny wonders at the National Gallery of Art, Washington.
Joris Hoefnagel or Georg Hoefnagel (1542 – 24 July 1601) was a Flemish painter, printmaker, miniaturist, draftsman and merchant.
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