The Green Lizard of Jamaica (Lacerta bullaris) Possibly 1731 - 1743

Mark Catesby made this watercolor of a Green Lizard of Jamaica alongside a Lignum Campêche plant sometime between 1712 and 1719. Catesby was an English naturalist, and his work is a product of the colonial era, when European explorers sought to document and classify the natural world they encountered in the Americas. This image reflects the scientific gaze of the 18th century, but it is also marked by Catesby’s personal experiences. Consider the context of slavery in Jamaica at the time. The Lignum Campêche tree was a source of dye, and its cultivation was often linked to forced labor, thus introducing an element of social and ethical complexity. The lizard itself, perched amidst the foliage, seems both a part of and separate from this world, a symbol of the delicate balance between observation and intervention. How might the artist's own position in the colonial structure have influenced the way he saw and represented this scene? What stories of labor, exploitation, and resistance are embedded in this image?