Plate 34: Seven Flatfish c. 1575 - 1580

This is Plate 34: Seven Flatfish, made by Joris Hoefnagel around the turn of the 17th century, using watercolor and gouache on paper. Look closely, and you’ll notice how skillfully Hoefnagel has used the materials at hand. The paper gives the work a delicate, intimate feel. You can imagine Hoefnagel hunched over his desk, meticulously applying layer upon layer of translucent watercolor, building up the subtle gradations of color that give each fish its unique character. Gouache, an opaque watercolor, adds highlights and texture, bringing the flatfish to life with their shimmering scales. The scientific naturalism and detail employed by Hoefnagel in this period reflects a change in European society. There was a growing merchant class and a new global trading system, where natural specimens were desired and exchanged as objects of scientific study and luxury goods. With this image, Hoefnagel is not just an artist, he's a recorder of the world's bounty. And in so doing, he elevated the natural world to the realm of art, blurring the boundaries between science, commerce, and aesthetics.