Crawly Creatures. From horror to wonder

Crawly Creatures takes a close look at these changing perceptions in 140 objects, with highlights including the first drawing that took an insect as its main subject, made in 1505 by Albrecht Dürer, and Peter Paul Rubens’ Head of Medusa (1617-18). And we discover how this emerging appreciation for crawly creatures gave rise to a new painting genre known as sottobosco, meaning ‘forest flora and fauna’. The inventor of the genre, Otto Marseus van Schrieck, even bred reptiles, amphibians and insects himself. See for yourself how Sottobosco paintings merge the arts and sciences, in the final gallery of the exhibition.