Читать книгу Parnassiology. From Rhyme to Crime - - Страница 3

I will only briefly touch on the topic of man’s glorification of the beauty of the Parnassians. Man has always admired beauty, and the beauty of the Parnassians is undeniable.

The genus Parnassius has inspired many artists. Here is a small list of works that mention or depict these butterflies:

Literature

Lots and lots of books and novels are devoted to Parnassian butterflies. I will show only a few.

Vladimir Nabokov – «Transparent Things» (1972) [Прозрачные вещи].

In this novel, Nabokov describes the Apollo butterfly, emphasizing the «faded red» spots on its wings.

Vladimir Nabokov – «The Gift» (1938) [Дар].

The novel contains scenes related to Parnassians.

Jillian Meadows – «Give Me Butterflies: A Novel».

A swoony, steamy romance in which two curators at a science museum – a handsome but grumpy astronomer and an anxious but sunshiny entomologist – realize they are the perfect match. The Apollo Butterfly in this romance is an example of a light and white sense of love.

Lata Sharma – «Nature’s Wings: A Journey into the World of Apollo Butterflies».

This book invites young readers on an exciting adventure through the enchanting world of butterflies. With its vibrant illustrations and engaging storytelling, this book is specially created for children aged four and above to spark their curiosity and ignite a love for the natural world.

Painting and Illustrations

Many scientific publications of the late 19th – early 20th centuries contain detailed illustrations of butterflies of Parnassians, made by naturalist artists.

Some specific oil paintings and posters depict Parnassians too, let’s touch them a bit.

The work of Peter Blake (Butterfly man, 2010, UniCredit Art Collection) – the author of the legendary cover of The Beatles – Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, depicts Parnassius apollo (Linnaeus, 1758) among the other butterflies.

Vasily Polenov’s «Butterfly Collection» (1874). This is a still life depicting butterflies laid out in a display case, among which you can see Parnassius apollo (Linnaeus, 1758), one of the most famous butterflies of the Parnassius genus.

Polenov, as a representative of the Russian realistic school, conveyed the details of the insects with great precision, which makes the painting a valuable source for entomologists and nature lovers.

This work reflects the popularity of entomological collections in the 19th century when collecting butterflies was not only a hobby but also a part of scientific research. The painting demonstrates the subtlety and ephemerality of nature, which is characteristic of Polenov’s work.

George Elgar Hicks «Life’s sunshine». He was an English painter during the Victorian era. He is best known for his large genre paintings, which emulate William Powell Frith in style, but was also a society portraitist.

Life’s Sunshine is a series of paintings by George Elgar Hicks which depicts mostly young and beautiful ladies. One such painting is devoted to two girls resting in a garden or a forest and observing the fly of an Apollo Butterfly. Apollo is depicted in all details, with its natural proportions. The ladies look at him with genuine surprise, their gaze conveying admiration for the beauty of the butterfly and the grace of its flight.

Peter Blake. Butterfly man, 2010, UniCredit Art Collection.

Vasily Polenov. Butterfly Collection.

Life’s sunshine. George Elgar Hicks.

Music

No direct musical works dedicated to Parnassians have been found. However, the theme of butterflies inspired composers to create works conveying their lightness and grace:

Robert Schumann – «Papillons» (Op. 2, 1831)

The piano cycle, the title of which is translated as «Butterflies», conveys the grace and ephemerality of these creatures.

Edvard Grieg – «Solveig’s Song» from the suite «Peer Gynt» (Op. 23, 1875)

Although the composition is not dedicated to butterflies, its melody is associated with lightness and airiness, reminiscent of the flight of a butterfly.

Philately, or postage stamps

Parnassians are depicted on postage stamps of various countries, including Hungary (1974), Afghanistan (1971), Kyrgyzstan (2018), and others.

Poetry

Poems are often written about the Apollo butterfly. Here are the lines of some of them:

Ludwig Uhland

An Apollo, den Schmetterling

Göttlicher Alpensohn, sey huldreich uns Epigrammen!

Ueber der nächtlichen Kluft flatterst du, spielend im Glanz.

Few examples of postage stamps with Parnassians

Few examples of postage stamps with Parnassians

Few examples of postage stamps with Parnassians

Few examples of postage stamps with Parnassians

Postal envelope with Parnassius apollo (Linnaeus, 1758) depicted.

[Nina Grachova

Solar Apollo Butterfly

Solar butterfly Apollo

Splashes joyfully into the cold glass…

I will think: is it a dream or not a dream?

A wing will emerge from under a black shawl.

The light of flickering eyes is clear.

It seems that I will remember sweetly in the grave:

The rustling of sly butterflies,

A spot on the golden wing…]

This was going to be a poem

about hope’s power. Of emergence

from our weeks in sheltered spaces,

transformed to newer selves.

Healed, our imaginations ran wild.

Our shells melted, turned rainbow-hued,

translucent scales unfolded, stretched.

Lifted from retreat, how we soared.

But I am writing from my tent

in Idlib, Syria. Shared by

three families, our cocoons are

cobalt blue sheets of thin plastic.

All we see here is mud or dirt.

I stand in daily water lines,

imagine which body part can be

washed once my tin jug is filled.

More queues form when medics arrive.

Like our neighborhoods, barrel bombs

transmuted our hospitals to dust.

Despite our pasts, we seek healing.

Prayers are as fragile here as

butterflies. Once I saw a False

Apollo resting on a rock.

Its wings were black and white, dots

of royal blue, eye spots of russet.

I tried to imagine how it might

mimic its mythic namesake.

How it might soar like a poem.

Modern art

In modern art, images of Parnassians (and especially the Apollo butterfly) are used quite widely. I will give a few examples, without going into the subject in depth, since such a depth would lead us to a huge number of works of art by modern artists, and this is not the purpose of this book.

Murals. A lot of street art contains depictions of different butterflies. The most famous street painter (mural creator) is Youri Cansell known also as Mantra. He is a consummate artist and naturalist. Mantra is especially fascinated by entomology, the world of insects. Mining memories of his childhood garden in France, he now paints exquisite murals, often of moths and butterflies, on urban surfaces where these ephemeral beings are seldom seen in the wild.

Mantra’s mural with Parnassius apollo (Linnaeus, 1758)

Mantra’s mural with Parnassius apollo (Linnaeus, 1758)

Mantra works with entomological collections to create new art.

Coins. Some countries are producing coins as pieces of art, not for wide usage, but for coin collectors. Mostly these pieces of art are precise and beautiful, but sometimes they can be very funny. One of such funny examples I would like to present here – a coin from Cameroun which (according the writing) depicts Parnassius apollo (Linnaeus, 1758), but in fact it is something different, sharing features of Morpho and some Satyridae butterflies.

A coin from Cameroon, with erroneous depiction of «Parnassius apollo’

Chinese coin with a depiction of Parnassius actius (Eversmann, 1843)

Apollo Butterfly or Parnassius Apollo digital artwork by SP JE Art which was uploaded on November 17th, 2020

Charlton’s Apollo, digital vector artwork, which was made basing the image of scienceart user of 123rf internet pages.

Digital artwork.

Modern art is unimaginable without digital content. Various images are created using graphic programs and are undoubtedly works of art. Here I provide examples of two such digital works.

Jewelry.

Modern jewelry uses very precise reproductions of animal details, including butterflies of the subfamily Parnassiinae. A couple of examples of such jewelry are given on the next page.

Apollo Butterfly earrings.

The price of a dream

Human emotions sometimes are very valuable side of the butterfly catchers. Not all of them are greedy and bad, some of them can demonstrate very honorable behavior.

This is a story from Yuri Stshetkin, a well known Lepidoptera expert. It shows some psychiatry diagnoses which can actually come across for butterfly collector.

«We set up camp in the village of Darai-Nazarak, lost among the harsh mountains of the Peter the Great Range. It was 1980, and our team had new faces – two collectors from Moscow.

Kipnis and Samodurov came for a dream. Koramius cardinal (Grumm-Grshimailo, 1887). A magnificent butterfly, a rare find even in these parts. I knew the spot where you could get it, but the road there is not for the weak: one and a half kilometers up the vertical by about ten kilometers over rough terrain.

Samodurov was younger and more resilient, but Kipnis was older, but obsessed. We climbed slowly. Kipnis often stopped, clutched his knees, and breathed noisily. We waited patiently.

We reached the place by two o’clock in the afternoon. In these parts, a butterfly is a real success. If you catch five or six specimens per day, consider yourself lucky.

I caught three. Samodurov caught five. But Kipnis was unlucky.

He crept up to each sitting butterfly with extreme caution, froze, held out the net, some five or ten centimeters remained… and the butterfly soared into the sky, disappearing in the sun’s rays.

Attempt after attempt, failure after failure.

At some point, his nerves gave out.

«Damn you all!» Kipnis screamed. His face turned red; his lips trembled. «Damn fate!»

He was shaking with rage and despair.

«I’ll rip this net! I’ll burn the whole collection! Why do I need all this?!»

He threw the net on the ground and began to tear his clothes.

We froze. There was no point in saying anything at such moments.

Samodurov silently approached, opened the box, took out one of his butterflies – a fresh, perfect Koramius cardinal (Grumm-Grshimailo, 1887) – and handed it to Kipnis.

He looked up, his eyes full of tears.

«Take it,» Samodurov said briefly.

Kipnis’s hands were shaking as he carefully took the butterfly. He looked at it for a long time, as if he couldn’t believe it. His chest was heaving, his breathing was ragged.

«Thank you…» he exhaled.

Something else appeared in his eyes – not just gratitude, but the realization that the dream for which he had climbed the mountains had come true after all. Even if not with his own hands.