The Royal Danish CollectionRosenborgMaria Sibylla Merian

Maria Sibylla Merian

Maria Sibylla Merian was a painter, botanist and entomologist. She was born in Frankfurt and was taught painting and engraving by her stepfather, the painter and engraver Jacob Marrel, whose speciality was traditional Dutch flower pictures.

Her life was marked by her great talent as a painter of flowers and her interest in insects. Fifty of Merian’s drawings of flowers and insects are kept at Rosenborg; presumably they came from her first book on garden flowers. Her second book concentrates on the stages of development of butterflies and the plants they live off. It was an important scientific work, being the first time a writer compared insects with their host plants.

In 1699 Merian travelled to Guyana, in South America, where she listed and painted the local insects and flowers. The works of Maria Sibylla Merian are characterized by great technical skill and sharp observational abilities. Flowers and insects are precisely represented and her pictures are beautifully composed.

 

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Flower paintings

Flower paintings on parchment, executed in the latter part of the 17th century by Maria Sibylla Merian.

7B: The Stair Turret

In 1633 a new stair turret was built in the middle of the eastern side of Rosenborg.

1675-1700

From 1675 to 1679 the Scanian War was fought with Sweden. But the final goal, to win back Scania, was not reached as no European state would allow both sides of Øresund to be ruled by the same power again.

1700-1725

The 18th century was initiated with yet another war between Denmark and Sweden. For Denmark the war was brief, but for Sweden it was the beginning of the Great Nordic War, which Denmark became part of again from 1709.

Christian V

Christian V was the King of Denmark-Norway from 1670; son of Frederik III and Sophie Amalie of Brunswick-Lüneburg. He was married to Charlotte Amalie of Hesse-Kassel in 1667. He was the father of Frederik IV.