Little Beasts: Art, Wonder, and the Natural World

A richly illustrated look at the intersection of art and science in Renaissance Europe

Art played a pivotal role in the development of natural history during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. European colonial expansion enabled naturalists to study previously unknown insects, animals, and other beestjes--＂little beasts＂--from around the globe. Little Beasts explores how artists such as Joris Hoefnagel and Jan van Kessel helped deepen and spread knowledge of these creatures with highly detailed and playful works that inspired generations of printmakers, painters, decorative artists, and naturalists.

This appealing book begins by mapping the origins of natural history as a discipline, showing how early illustrated treatises reflected a vibrant exchange between artists and naturalists that contributed to the growth of natural science and sparked public fascination with the animal kingdom. It shares insights into Hoefnagel’s engagement with contemporary natural history, as demonstrated in his Four Elements--a four-volume series of some three hundred watercolor miniatures of animals--and examines how intaglio printmaking enabled natural history studies to reach new audiences. The volume concludes with a discussion of Van Kessel’s small oil paintings, likely made for discerning collectors of both natural and artistic curiosities.

Blending lively and informative essays with beautiful illustrations, Little Beasts traces the connections between artists, naturalists, and collectors in an age of scientific discovery and broadening horizons, inviting readers to look with wonder at nature’s variety.

Published in association with the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

Exhibition Schedule
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
May 18-November 2, 2025

Alexandra Libby is senior administrator for collections and initiatives and a curator of northern baroque paintings at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. Brooks Rich is associate curator of old master and nineteenth-century prints at the National Gallery of Art. Stacey Sell is associate curator of old master drawings at the National Gallery of Art and the coauthor of Drawing in Silver and Gold: Leonardo to Jasper Johns (Princeton). Brian W. Ogilvie is professor of history at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.