Minneapolis Institute of Art

Bananas and Blue Lizard

After Maria Sibylla Merian; Engraver: Pieter Sluyter (Sluiter)

Date

1705–71

Medium

Hand-colored etching and engraving

Department

European Art

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

The owl butterfly, Caligo teucer (Linnaeus), is shown in flight and resting on a kind of banana. Merian recorded, Both its upper wings are a light ochre color, the other two are a beautiful blue. The identification of the lizard has been the subject of some debate among naturalists; it is now generally believed to be a member of the Cnemidophorus lemniscatus species complex. Merian said that she included the lizard in this watercolor as decoration. She fondly recalled that it had built its nest in the floor of my house; in this nest lay four eggs, white and round, like the three to be seen on the stalk. I brought them back with me in the ship to Holland and while we were at sea the baby lizards crawled out of the eggs, as small as the one to be seen on the stalk. Germany, Europe

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