Leaf with thirteen mosquitoes (Rudolf II’s Historia Naturalis), Anselmus Boëtius de Boodt, 1596 - 1610
brush, h 290mm × w 186mm More details
Anselmus de Boodt was court physician to Emperor Rudolf II in Prague. Scientific interest in natural phenomena ran high at his court. There, De Boodt produced his Historia Naturalis, a series of albums with hundreds of images of animals and plants. This sheet of ordinary mosquitoes bears witness fo his exceptional powers of observation. Each of the thirteen mosquitoes is slightly different.
