Natural History Plate
博物図譜 / 18th–19th century / Style / Natural History Illustration
The naturalist's plates showing unknown life as both taxonomy and wonder. The symmetrical compositions of Haeckel's Kunstformen der Natur became the junction where science plates flowed into Art Nouveau's language of form.
Symmetrical specimen layouts / Taxonomic completeness / Precision beside ornament / Systematic plate numbering
Dictionary entry
- Best used for
- Comparing primary sources and canonical works · Extracting principles that transfer to other media
- Type
- Observe the letters, signs and scale of reference works
- Composition
- Extract the one structure that governs gaze and information
- Material
- Verify the materials and behaviors specific to era, region and process
- Caution
- Don't reduce it to surface signs. Verify the context of era, region, technology and makers.
- Further study
- Haeckel / Audubon's Birds of America / René Binet's Art Nouveau architecture