The Most Beautiful Natural History Plates: The Pioneers
From the 16ᵗʰ to the 18ᵗʰ century, pioneers such as Conrad Gessner, Maria Sibylla Merian, Ulisse Aldrovandi, Anselmus Boetius de Boodt, and Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon transformed the way we saw the natural world.
Their works were not simply books but editorial adventures, uniting scientists, explorers, and skilled illustrators — and sometimes both roles in one person — to produce images that were at once accurate, educational, and deeply beautiful.
Natural history illustration refers to images of plants and animals created to document and study the living world. From the Middle Ages to the 19ᵗʰ century, the style, purpose, and symbolism of these works evolved dramatically — a transformation celebrated in the Morgan Library & Museum’s landmark exhibition Picturing Natural History: Flora and Fauna in Drawings, Manuscripts, and Printed Books.
Breyter Indianischer Pfeffer Leonhart Fuchs, De historia stirpium
Some of the earliest examples were not intended as art in the modern sense but as practical guides: illustrations in ancient medical treatises helped readers identify plants with medicinal properties. In the Middle Ages, artists often copied these images without observing real specimens, leading to highly stylized forms, sometimes barely resembling their subjects. It was not until the Renaissance, with works such as the Book of Hours painted for Catherine of Cleves (c. 1440), that flora and fauna began to be rendered with a sense of lifelike presence.
The Age of Exploration changed everything. By the 16ᵗʰ century, the arrival in Europe of plants and animals unknown to classical authors required illustrators to work directly from life. Early printed herbals, such as Leonhart Fuchs’s De historia stirpium (1542), reflected this shift toward naturalistic accuracy. By the 17ᵗʰ and 18ᵗʰ centuries, artist-explorers and naturalists collaborated intensively, each contributing to a fusion of science and art that laid the foundation for the golden age of natural history illustration.
1. Conrad Gessner – Historiae Animalium (1551–1558)
Conrad Gessner’s monumental Historiae Animalium laid the foundations of modern zoology. This encyclopedic work combined animal descriptions, medicinal uses, linguistic references, and — most memorably — vivid woodcuts and engravings, often colored by hand.
The illustrations, some attributed to Lucas Schan, reveal an early desire to portray animals as they truly appeared, blending careful observation with a painterly touch.
Bird of paradise from Conrad Gessner’s Historiae Animalium (1551-58) — Source.
2. Ulisse Aldrovandi – Monstrorum Historia and De Animalibus (late 16ᵗʰ – early 17ᵗʰ c.)
Ulisse Aldrovandi, often called the “father of natural history studies,” gathered thousands of specimens in his personal museum and supervised the creation of over 3,000 illustrations.
While he himself was not always the illustrator, Aldrovandi directed artists in his workshop to produce meticulous depictions from life. His works — sometimes including fantastical “monsters” — demonstrate both the thirst for knowledge and the imaginative spirit of the Renaissance.
Cucurbita maxima Duchesne, circa 1660
3. Guillaume Rondelet – Libri de Piscibus Marinis (1554–1555)
A physician and professor in Montpellier, Guillaume Rondelet produced one of the first comprehensive treatises on fish and marine life. The engravings in his volumes, likely the work of professional printmakers working closely with Rondelet’s observations, are striking for their precision.
Here, naturalist and illustrator were in constant dialogue: Rondelet supplied the expertise and descriptions; the engravers transformed them into enduring images.
4. Anselmus Boetius de Boodt – Gemmarum et Lapidum Historia (1609)
Better known for his work on minerals and gems, the Flemish physician and naturalist Anselmus Boetius de Boodt also contributed to zoology, especially with his detailed manuscript on animals in the Emperor Rudolf II’s menagerie.
His mineral plates stand out for their jewel-like precision — a reminder that natural history encompassed not only living creatures but also the earth’s hidden treasures.
5. Maria Sibylla Merian – Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium (1705)
Maria Sibylla Merian — a rare figure as a woman, naturalist, and illustrator — brought the insects of Suriname to life with both scientific rigor and lyrical grace. She meticulously recorded the metamorphosis of butterflies, the lives of amphibians, and the symbiosis between plants and insects, far ahead of her contemporaries.
Her plates go beyond pure observation: they are compositions where nature is staged like a theater of transformation. Merian’s counterproof printing technique lends a unique softness to the contours, enhancing the delicacy of her rendering.
Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium, plate XXIII
6. Marcus Elieser Bloch – Ichthyologie (1782–1795)
A German physician and ichthyologist, Bloch produced one of the most visually stunning fish books ever printed. Collaborating with engravers and colorists, he ensured that each plate captured the shimmering scales and natural posture of the species.
His work demonstrates how, by the late 18ᵗʰ century, improved printing and hand-coloring techniques allowed unprecedented realism.
Xiphias Gladius, The Sword Fish.
Plate from 'Ichthyologie, ou Histoire naturelle, generale et particuliere des poissons' (1785-1797) by Marcus Elieser Bloch
7. Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon – Histoire naturelle (1749–1788)
Buffon rewrote nature in his own voice. His Histoire naturelle spanned animals, plants, minerals, and physics. The engravings by Jacques de Sève, particularly in the volumes on quadrupeds, are both scientifically attentive and emotionally expressive.
In these images, animals — from bats to sloths — take on almost human expressions, bridging Enlightenment ideals of order with a Romantic sensitivity.
Le Cheval, Collection des animaux quadrupèdes de Buffon, tome IV, pl. 1, illustration by Jean-Baptiste Oudry
These pioneers — whether working as naturalists, illustrators, or both — turned observation into art and books into voyages of discovery. Each plate was the result of shared expertise: the scientist’s knowledge guiding the artist’s hand, the artist’s eye refining the scientist’s vision.
“This collaborative spirit would continue into the 19ᵗʰ century, when advances in printing and the talents of master illustrators ushered in the golden age of natural history plates…”