Insect aesthetics - long viewed as pests, in the 16th century bugs became beautiful

https://aeon.co/videos/insect-aesthetics-long-viewed-as-pests-in-the-16th-century-bugs-became-beautiful



He Painted Bugs Like Jewels — And Changed Science


More than a century before Carl Linnaeus set out to categorise the natural world, the 16th-century Flemish painter and polymath Joris Hoefnagel began to render the creatures around him in unprecedented detail. As the US video essayist Evan Puschak (aka The Nerdwriter) explores in this short, Hoefnagel’s project was quietly revolutionary – particularly in his keen interest in insect life. Pairing his thoughtful analysis with some of Hoefnagel’s most striking illustrations, Puschak lays out why 16th-century Antwerp, the artist’s home, was the perfect confluence of time and place for his innovative melding of science and art.

Video by The Nerdwriter

Website: National Gallery of Art

4 August 2025