Maria Sibylla Merian in Picture Books: Metanarratives about Science and Religion

This article considers three picture book biographies of the artist and scientist Maria Sibylla Merian, and the metanarratives on science and religion that are embedded in each. Merian is famous for her detailed drawings of the lifecycle of insects within their ecosystem and for rejecting the old theory of spontaneous generation, which still had currency in Europe. The picture books bring to the fore Merian’s scientific curiosity and her skills of observation that swept away old superstitions about insects. The metanarratives cued through the visual imagery of her picture books ignore the underpinnings of Merian’s Calvinist faith in her commitment to portraying the details of insect ecosystems. These metanarratives also ignore Merian’s emergence as an entrepreneur within Protestant society and her contributions to the commodification of “exotic” nature in a colonial context.