Unknown Maker, Dutch

While the pleasing arrangement of 16 insects recalls the aesthetic quality of Pieter Withoos's Four Butterflies and a Bumblebee (in the museum's collection), under the magnifying glass this work does not have the identifying features and precise rendering typical of work by an artist-entomologist. The rather haphazard arrangement of the insects and the unrealistic details of eyes, legs, and wings suggest that this work was done by an amateur. Given the style of depiction and arrangement of the insects, this work may have been used by a painter as a template or pattern sheet for a flower painting. The specific insects are common to Dutch flower pieces of the time. The rather unskilled quality of the work suggests that the insects were drawn from the paintings of a more skilled artist. The use of parchment (goat- or sheepskin-prepared for drawing), while traditionally associated with more finished works, is consistent with the identification of this drawing as a study tool. Such a sheet would likely be reused by the artist and thus would have been executed on a support more durable than paper.