Customer Reviews

Merian's Antique Botanical Prints (Dover Electronic Clip Art) (CD-ROM and Book)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Obviously, the one-star reviewer didn't know who Merian was or what her art was about.

Maria Sibylla Merian was a 17th century naturalist and artist. Her work examines insects and botanicals from a scientfic perspective, so although aesthetics are certainly a concern (and her drawings are truly remarkable in that respect), so are things like metamorphosis and rot. She was studying specimens of the natural world as well as drawing them. As a result, the pictures in here do indeed have insects crawling all over and sometimes eating fruits and flowers (which are sometimes decaying). If you like Merian's work, then these are faithful reproductions (although her illustrations are of course better in color!)

If you are considering this product to use the clip art for something like DIY wedding invitations or for decorating a Mother's Day picture frame or something, then the one-star reviewer is right--the drawings are probably a little too creepy-crawly. If you want just nice botanical drawings and flower clip-art, I recommend the big clip-art book simply titled "Plants," with the green title banner.

Excellent illustrations! Good and great colors and images. I use these for decoupage and they are great.

Merian is an amazing natural historian... her work was all about recording the life cycles of animals, particularly butterflies and moths.... to call them worms.... when without the caterpillar there is no butterfly...

worms are not even insects....

i haven't read/seen this one yet but we are reading kim todd's book about her and looking her up on the internet. the drawings and paintings are just beautiful, and very true to life!

I was hoping for images of fruits and vegetables on the vine or stalk and did not find that at all with this book. This book has a lot of bugs, caterpillars, butterflies, etc. crawling all over the flowering plants. If this is the kind of imagery you want, then maybe this will work for you. Sadly, it did nothing for me.

Had I know that there were worms on every plant I would not have purchsed this item. The pictures, when viewed up close are horrible.