Plate 60: Four Small Snakes c. 1575 - 1580

This is Plate 60: Four Small Snakes, made by Joris Hoefnagel around 1600. The illustration is meticulously rendered using watercolor and ink on paper. Notice how Hoefnagel has captured the snakes’ sinuous forms, using delicate washes of color to create a sense of depth and texture. The smooth surface of the paper allows for precise detail, highlighting the scales and subtle variations in tone. It would have taken many hours of painstaking work to achieve this level of realism. Hoefnagel was part of a broader cultural movement that valued empirical observation and the detailed recording of the natural world. At the time, the printmaking trade was booming, and highly skilled draftsmen were in demand to make designs for the engravers to translate into multiple editions. This kind of work was crucial in the wider dissemination of knowledge, and the rise of scientific thinking. This artwork reminds us that even seemingly simple images can be the product of immense skill and careful attention to the material world, blurring the lines between art, craft, and scientific inquiry.