Uploaded June 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago

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In 17th-century Europe, artists like Jan van Kessel weren’t just making pretty pictures, they were feeding a full-blown obsession with nature. Collectors filled cabinets (and entire rooms!) with strange and beautiful things: fossils, feathers, pickled animals… and if you had good taste?

A Van Kessel painting. 🖼️ Insects (series), 1658 👨🏻‍🎨 Jan van Kessel the Elder 📐 Oil on copper, 14.3 × 19 cm (5 5/8 × 7 1/2 in.)

📍 On display at @ngadc’s Little Beasts exhibition (May 18 to November 2) #art

#history #bugs #insects #explorepage