Butterfly sightings in the ARTstor Digital Library

Papilionidae; swallowtail butterfly | Collected: 8/1975, Madagascar, Africa | Yale University: Peabody Museum of Natural History; peabody.yale.edu

Spring time is here and butterflies are already making their annual appearance, according to butterfliesandmoths.org. To celebrate, we’ve compiled a slide show of selections from a wide variety of eras, regions, and fields of study, from science to art to costume design.

Search the ARTstor Digital Library for butterfl* to find more than 1,000 images with the keywords “butterfly” or “butterflies.”

Butterfly Collector | ca. 1850 | George Eastman House; eastmanhouse.org

Papilionidae; swallowtail butterfly | Papua New Guinea, Australia | Yale University: Peabody Museum of Natural History; peabody.yale.edu

Papilionidae; swallowtail butterfly | Collected: 9/1913, Assam State, India | Yale University: Peabody Museum of Natural History; peabody.yale.edu

Ypthima sesara; nymphalid butterfly | Collected: 12/19/1963, Vita Levu., Fiji Islands | Yale University: Peabody Museum of Natural History; peabody.yale.edu

Morpho Hecuba, nymphalid butterfly | Collected: 9/1952, Para State, Brazil | Yale University: Peabody Museum of Natural History; peabody.yale.edu

Jean Jacques Bachelier | White angora cat chasing a butterfly, 2nd half 18th Century | Musée Lambinet | Réunion des Musées Nationaux

Strobridge Lithograph | Forepaugh-Sells Enormous Shows United: The Ty-Bell Sisters, Aerial Butterflies, 1910 | The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art: Circus Collection; ringling.org/CircusMuseums

Alexander Bening | Hours of Queen Isabella the Catholic, Queen of Spain: fol. 25 (recto) | c. 1495-1500 | The Cleveland Museum of Art

French Worth | Evening Dress, 1898 | Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art

German | Bonnet | second half 19th century | Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Click on any image to view the slide show and to read the full captions.

Our slide show includes an image of a very serious-looking butterfly collector from George Eastman House; several examples from the nearly 70 specimens of butterflies in Yale University’s Peabody Museum of Natural History; an 18^th-century painting of a mischievous cat chasing a butterfly from Réunion des Musées Nationaux; a 1910 lithograph of the Ty-Bell Sisters, Aerial Butterflies from The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art Circus Collection; a colorful illumination from the Book of Hours of Queen Isabella I, ca. 1495-1500, from The Cleveland Museum of Art Collection; and an evening dress and a bonnet from more than two dozen butterfly-themed dresses and accessories in The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Brooklyn Museum Costumes.

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On this day: Tax Day

Marinus van Reymerswaele | Tax Collector and His Wife | c. 1540 | Image and original data provided by Erich Lessing Culture and Fine Arts Archives/ART RESOURCE, N.Y.; artres.com

Since 1955, Tax Day has typically fallen on April 15 for those living in the United States. You might derive some comfort from knowing that your feelings today were not unknown in the 16^th century, as evidenced in these three Netherlandish paintings of tax collectors by Marinus van Reymerswaele from the Art, Archaeology and Architecture (Erich Lessing Culture and Fine Arts Archives) collection in the ARTstor Digital Library.

Incidentally, we’re puzzled by the ornate hats, which presumably were part of the profession’s costume. If you know anything about them, please leave a comment below. If you’re not too busy filing your taxes at the last minute, of course.

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Spring mysteries: Botticelli’s Primavera

Sandro Botticelli | Primavera; Allegory of Spring | c. 1478 | Galleria degli Uffizi | Image and original data provided by SCALA, Florence/ART RESOURCE, N.Y.; artres.com; scalarchives.com | (c) 2006, SCALA, Florence/ART RESOURCE, N.Y.

Spring is here! The return of sunshine inspired us to look at Botticelli’s Primavera, a masterpiece of the early Renaissance and arguably the most popular artistic representation of the season, even if – as we shall see – its interpretation remains inconclusive.

Botticelli painted Primavera sometime between 1477 and 1482, probably for the marriage of Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco, cousin of the powerful Italian statesman (and important patron of the arts) Lorenzo Medici. The date is just one of the many facts surrounding the painting that remain unclear. For starters, its original title is unknown; it was first called La Primavera by the artist/art historian Giorgio Vasari, who only saw it some 70 years after it was painted. While it’s generally agreed that on one level Primavera depicts themes of love and marriage, sensuality and fertility, the work’s precise meaning continues to be debated (a search in JSTOR led us to more than 700 results, with nearly as many differing opinions). Here’s what we think we know:

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New agreement: Images from the permanent collection of The National Gallery, London

ARTstor is collaborating with The National Gallery, London to share images of every painting in the museum’s permanent collection in the Digital Library.

The National Gallery houses one of the greatest collections of Western European painting in the world. Composed of more than 2,300 works dating from the 13^th century to the early 20^th centuries, the collection encompasses most major developments in Western painting. Highlights include Cézanne’s Bathers (Les Grandes Baigneuses), Piero della Francesca’s The Baptism of Christ, Rembrandt’s Self Portrait at the Age of 34, Holbein’s The Ambassadors, Uccello’s The Battle of San Romano, Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, Titian’s Bacchus and Ariadne, van Eyck’s The Arnolfini Portrait, and Velázquez’s Rokeby Venus.

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New agreement: Images from the permanent collection of the Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens

ARTstor is collaborating with Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens to share approximately 1,100 images from its permanent collection in the Digital Library.

Marjorie Merriweather Post bought Hillwood in 1955 and renovated the property with the intention of leaving it as a museum that would inspire and educate the public. The Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens opened as a public institution in 1977, endowing the country with the most comprehensive collection of Russian imperial art outside of Russia, a distinguished 18th-century French decorative art collection, six working greenhouses boasting one of the country’s finest orchid collections, and twenty-five acres of serene landscaped gardens and natural woodlands for all to enjoy.

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Now available: The Courtauld Gallery, The Courtauld Institute of Art

Edouard Manet | A Bar at the Folies-Bergère, 1882 | Image and original data provided by The Courtauld Gallery | © The Samuel Courtauld Trust, The Courtauld Gallery, London

The Courtauld Institute of Art and ARTstor have released more than 500 images of works in the permanent collection of The Courtauld Gallery in the Digital Library. This is the first of a projected 8,100 images to be uploaded.

The Courtauld Gallery is one of the finest small museums in the world, with a collection that spans the art historical canon from the early Renaissance to the 20^th century. The Gallery is renowned for its outstanding collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings that illustrate the development of modern French painting, including such iconic masterpieces as Edouard Manet’s A Bar at the Folies-Bergère (1881-1882), Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s La Loge (1874), Vincent van Gogh’s Self Portrait with Bandaged Ear (1889), and Paul Gauguin’s Nevermore (1897). The Gallery also houses rich collections of sculpture and decorative arts, Gothic and Medieval paintings, Renaissance masterworks, and an important group of paintings and drawings by Peter Paul Rubens. There is an impressive range of works on paper – drawings, watercolours, and prints representing the major schools of Western art from the Middle Ages to the 20^th century, including masterpieces by artists such as Albrecht Dürer, Michelangelo, Rembrandt van Rijn, and J.M.W. Turner.

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In the news: Flu epidemic

Félix Vallotton | The sick patient (Helene Chatenay), 1892 | Samuel Josefowitz Collection, Lausanne| Image and original data provided by Erich Lessing Culture and Fine Arts Archives/ART RESOURCE, N.Y.
artres.com

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have stated that though the influenza epidemic that has recently been ravaging the United States has waned in recent weeks, flu activity remains high and may continue for some time. You can watch a great documentary about the flu epidemic of 1918 on the PBS website, and find out how to protect yourself here.

This image of a patient in bed by Félix Vallotton comes to us from the Art, Archaeology, and Architecture (Erich Lessing Culture and Fine Arts Archives) collection. View the painting in the ARTstor Digital Library, and be sure to zoom in to see the masterful way the painter depicts the medicine bottles on the table.

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Now available: Zimmerli Art Museum (Rutgers University)

Erik Bulatov | Sevina Sineva (Seva’s Blue) | 1979| Rutgers University: Zimmerli Art Museum | © 2008 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

ARTstor and the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University are now sharing more than 250 images of nonconformist art from the Soviet Union in the Digital Library. The collection, the largest of its kind in the world, includes more than 20,000 works of art by close to 1,000 artists and documents the creative activities of underground artists in the Soviet Union who courageously broke away from Socialist Realism—the official artistic style of the communist regime. With works in all media, the collection spans the late 1950s to late 1980s—from the initiation of the underground movement during Khruschev’s cultural thaw to Gorbachev’s perestroika and the downfall of the Soviet Union.

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Now available: Renaissance Society: University of Chicago

Katherina Grosse | Exhibition: Atoms Inside Balloons, general view; 2007 (creation) | Exhibited at: The Renaissance Society at The University of Chicago | © 2008 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / BILDKUNST, Bonn

ARTstor and the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago are sharing nearly 2,400 images of contemporary art and exhibition installation views in the Digital Library. This collection features painting, sculpture, installation, video, performance, and multi-media work by seminal contemporary artists who exhibited at the Renaissance Society, including Nancy Spero, Raymond Pettibon, Francis Alÿs, Eva Hesse, Kerry James Marshall, Shahzia Sikander, and others.

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Vanitas: a very literal nature morte

It’s October, which gives us a great excuse to feature more spooky posts. In the past we delved into the origins of Halloween and el Día de los Muertos, looked into the danse macabre, and considered Friday the 13^th and other superstitions. Today we look at another Halloween favorite: skulls! Specifically, their appearance in the still lifes known as Vanitas.

Herman Henstenburgh, 1667 – 1726 | Vanitas Still Life | Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Vanitas feature objects that remind us of our mortality and the transience of earthly pleasures. Popular in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, particularly in Northern Europe and the Netherlands, the genre continues to inspire artists to the present day – the ARTstor Digital Library includes four terrific examples of Andy Warhol’s Skulls from the Baltimore Museum of Art, and you’ve most likely heard of Damien Hirst’s “For the love of God,” a diamond-encrusted platinum skull reputed to be the world’s most expensive art piece.

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