Twee tulpen met vlinder 1637

Here, we see Jacob Marrel’s rendering of *Two Tulips with Butterfly*, crafted with watercolor and gouache on paper. The composition is sparse, dominated by two stylized tulips set against a stark background, a testament to Marrel's precision. The tulips, striped with red against white, draw our immediate attention. Their verticality is echoed in the slender stems, lending a sense of structured elegance to the scene. A butterfly, perched delicately on a leaf, provides a counterpoint to the floral symmetry. In focusing on these forms, Marrel captures not just the likeness of flora but also the cultural fixation on tulips during the Dutch Golden Age. Each element, from the crispness of line to the calculated arrangement of forms, reflects a world in which the natural and the constructed intertwine. It invites us to reflect on how the perception and representation of nature are deeply mediated by our own frameworks.