Art forms in nature The prints of Ernst Haeckel

Haeckel's 100 plates of drawings illustrate the symmetries present in both botanical and zoological forms. Included are microscopic organisms (notably radiolaria), snails, ferns, algae, fish, antelopes, bats, fish, birds, all drawn and arranged to illustrate constellations of symmetry. About a third of the plates are in full color. Consistent with the emphasis on symmetry, no scale is provided to fix the size of the specimens. For Haeckel (1834-1919), each plate was evidence that similarities of form represent actual continuous lines of descent in evolution, lines that he illustrated elsewhere as evolutionary trees. In addition to the exquisitely drawn plates, this newly published edition includes a brief set of instructions for viewing the pictures, an essay on Haeckel as both artist and scientist, a biographical outline, and a list identifying all specimens. Haeckel's role in the acceptance of Darwin on the Continent, the impact of his drawings on architecture, and the influence of Art Nouveau on his drawings are all discussed in the accompanying essays. It was Haeckel's hope that his drawings would contribute to a broad consciousness of the symmetries of the organic and increased respect for nature. A beautiful book. General readers; undergraduates through professionals. A. B. Stewart; emeritus, Antioch College

This unusual book bridges the gap between science and art, as did Haeckel (1834-1919) himself, a pioneering German zoologist, emphatic Darwinist, and artist profoundly attuned to the splendor of nature. Two superb essays introduce Haeckel and his multifaceted work. The first, by Olaf Breidbach, director of the Ernst Haeckel House in Jena, Germany, is scientific in outlook and describes how Haeckel discovered that radiolarians, exquisitely ornate single-celled organisms, possess a symmetry not unlike that of crystals. This led to his creation of a classification system that not only grouped together organisms of similar forms but established a "genealogical tree that displays the existing succession of forms," thus mapping the evolutionary process and its dance toward increasing complexity. Iren\x84 us Eibl-Eibesfeldt of the Max Planck Institute zeros in on Haeckel's aesthetics, linking his voluptuously detailed drawings and bold compositions to art nouveau. Early art nouveau inspired Haeckel, and he inspired Art Nouveau at its height, and now, 100 years after the first publication of this elegant portfolio, his gorgeous renderings of diatoms, mollusks, jellyfish, plants, spiders, and bats rekindle our appreciation for nature's wondrous variety and innate beauty. "Seeing," Breidbach writes, "becomes an act of acquiring knowledge," and Haeckel's art does, indeed, both dazzle and teach. Donna Seaman