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Visions of Nature: The Art And Science of Ernst Haeckel
This is the first comprehensive survey of the remarkable work of the19th-century biologist and artist Ernst Haeckel for whom nature and art were inseparable.
299 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2006
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About the author
Olaf Breidbach
51 booksOlaf Breidbach war ein deutscher Philosoph, Biologe und Wissenschaftshistoriker..
Olaf Breidbach was a German philosopher, biologist and science historian.
Olaf Breidbach was a German philosopher, biologist and science historian.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
November 2, 2019
I was really excited about this coffee table-type book that combines Ernst Haeckel's incredible nature art with context on his life and work. Unfortunately, this falls short of what I was hoping for. The organization is quite poor, and the text is riddled with confusing sentences and grammatical errors. For example, "He propagated this systematology from 1866 as part of the philosophical theory of monism, which was based n evolutionary biological." This isn't just an annoying typo, I honestly have no idea what this sentence is trying to communicate. The text also has a sociological perspective on Haeckel's impact rather than focusing on biology, which isn't inherently bad but isn't my personal preference.
The figures are in much better shape than the text, with good printing quality and a wide variety of Haeckel's illustrations and other work from the same period. However, there are a few issues here as well. The figures have very short captions and aren't referenced in the text, so it's often difficult to tell what they're showing. And the introduction promises that the book will display photos of Haeckel's specimens along with his sketches and final illustrations, but very rarely follows through (although the sketches that are here are quite impressive).
I really wanted to like this book, but given its problems, you are probably better off checking out Art Forms in Nature for Haeckel's art (the images are also in the public domain), and getting a separate biography of Haeckel if you're interested.
The figures are in much better shape than the text, with good printing quality and a wide variety of Haeckel's illustrations and other work from the same period. However, there are a few issues here as well. The figures have very short captions and aren't referenced in the text, so it's often difficult to tell what they're showing. And the introduction promises that the book will display photos of Haeckel's specimens along with his sketches and final illustrations, but very rarely follows through (although the sketches that are here are quite impressive).
I really wanted to like this book, but given its problems, you are probably better off checking out Art Forms in Nature for Haeckel's art (the images are also in the public domain), and getting a separate biography of Haeckel if you're interested.
Displaying 1 of 1 review