In the late 16th century, Flemish artist, scholar, poet and miniaturist Joris Hoefnagel (1542-1600) created the first illustrated book devoted to the study of insects. Documenting his observations with the naked eye, he meticulously painted hundreds of insects with watercolour and gouache. Marisa Anne Bass, associate professor of art history at Yale University, has produced a book on his work, Insect Artifice (Princeton University Press, £50). “Hoefnagel’s art is a reminder that nature and culture go hand in hand,” says Bass. “The natural world is not just the space that we inhabit. It is also a space that allows us to think through the very question of what it means to be human.”
