PhilosophySciencePsychologySocietyCulture
EssaysVideos

Popular

About
DONATENEWSLETTER
Menu
Aeon
DonateNewsletterSIGN IN

Detail of a blue chaser dragonfly from Plate 17 of Animalia Rationalia et Insecta (c1575/1590s) by Joris Hoefnagel. Courtesy the National Gallery of Art

Detail of a blue chaser dragonfly from Plate 17 of Animalia Rationalia et Insecta (c1575/1590s) by Joris Hoefnagel. Courtesy the National Gallery of Art

i
Email
Post
Share

Insect aesthetics – long viewed as pests, in the 16th century bugs became beautiful

More than a century before Carl Linnaeus set out to categorise the natural world, the 16th-century Flemish painter and polymath Joris Hoefnagel began to render the creatures around him in unprecedented detail. As the US video essayist Evan Puschak (aka The Nerdwriter) explores in this short, Hoefnagel’s project was quietly revolutionary – particularly in his keen interest in insect life. Pairing his thoughtful analysis with some of Hoefnagel’s most striking illustrations, Puschak lays out why 16th-century Antwerp, the artist’s home, was the perfect confluence of time and place for his innovative melding of science and art.

Video by The Nerdwriter

Website: National Gallery of Art

4 August 2025
Email
Post
Share
Painting of a black bird with a red tail on a white tree branch set against a blue sky and yellow landscape.

videoNature and landscape

Scenes from Aboriginal Australian pottery chart the turn of the seasons

7 minutes

Photo of a woman sleeping, resting her head and hand on a large dog, creating a cosy atmosphere.

videoLove and friendship

What does it mean to say goodbye to a creature that doesn’t know you’re leaving?

13 minutes

Painting of a vast landscape featuring rocky hills, a woman with a child and distant snow-capped mountains under a cloudy sky.

videoNature and landscape

After independence, Mexico was in search of identity. These paintings offered a blueprint

15 minutes

Vintage photo of people erecting tall structures in a tropical setting with palm trees and a thatched building.

videoArt

A young Rockefeller collects art on a fateful journey to New Guinea

7 minutes

Illustration of two turquoise beams pointing from the Milky Way galaxy toward another galaxy on a black background.

videoHistory of science

How we came to know the size of the Universe – and what mysteries remain

26 minutes

Satellite image of South Dakota with glowing yellow lines representing data or energy pathways overlaid.

videoEcology and environmental sciences

Join endangered whooping cranes on their perilous migratory path over North America

6 minutes

Abstract painting of textured forms resembling fibres and foliage overlaid on an antique map background.

videoArt

Defying classification, fantastical artworks reframe the racism of Carl Linnaeus

8 minutes

videoFilm and visual culture

Space and time expand, contract and combust in this propulsive animation

5 minutes

Black and white photo of a woman cycling down a street with a wicker basket on the bike. She wears a checked coat.

videoHistory of science

Meet the Quaker pacifist who shattered British science’s highest glass ceilings

14 minutes