For the Love of Butterfly. Antonio Canova's 'Cupid and Psyche', and Meadow Brown, Maniola jurtina, Hermitage, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
In the Hermitage of Amsterdam there's a wonderful exhibition now, 'Classic Beauties', demonstrating the classicism of the eighteenth century. A featured sculptor is Antonio Canova (1757-1822). Here's his 'Cupid and Psyche'. It shows the young passion of the two lovers with Pysche presenting a Butterfly, a figure for her soul, to Cupid. Their daughter will be Voluptas or Hedone, sometimes called just Pleasure.
And pleasure was certainly mine when I saw that darkly pretty Maniola jurtina, Meadow Brown, on Tansy, Tanacetum vulgare, in the Waterleidingduinen near Zandvoort aan Zee (see inset).
The name 'Maniola' is a diminutive of the Latin Manes, meaning the Souls of the Dead or perhaps in Antiquity a name for the chthonic deities. And Franz von Paula Schranck (1747-1835) devised that name for the genus presumably because of the 'earthy' colors of these Butterflies. Butterflies are often named for nymphs and the like, and the specific name 'jurtina' is probably a misprint or misreading of Juturna, the deity of fountains in ancient Rome. Now that the gods of Antiquity are dead, I thought it not wholly inappropriate to juxtapose Mortal Butterfly on funereal Tansy with once Young Divine Love.
For the Love of Butterfly. Antonio Canova's 'Cupid and Psyche', and Meadow Brown, Maniola jurtina, Hermitage, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
In the Hermitage of Amsterdam there's a wonderful exhibition now, 'Classic Beauties', demonstrating the classicism of the eighteenth century. A featured sculptor is Antonio Canova (1757-1822). Here's his 'Cupid and Psyche'. It shows the young passion of the two lovers with Pysche presenting a Butterfly, a figure for her soul, to Cupid. Their daughter will be Voluptas or Hedone, sometimes called just Pleasure.
And pleasure was certainly mine when I saw that darkly pretty Maniola jurtina, Meadow Brown, on Tansy, Tanacetum vulgare, in the Waterleidingduinen near Zandvoort aan Zee (see inset).
The name 'Maniola' is a diminutive of the Latin Manes, meaning the Souls of the Dead or perhaps in Antiquity a name for the chthonic deities. And Franz von Paula Schranck (1747-1835) devised that name for the genus presumably because of the 'earthy' colors of these Butterflies. Butterflies are often named for nymphs and the like, and the specific name 'jurtina' is probably a misprint or misreading of Juturna, the deity of fountains in ancient Rome. Now that the gods of Antiquity are dead, I thought it not wholly inappropriate to juxtapose Mortal Butterfly on funereal Tansy with once Young Divine Love.