Alexander von Humboldt
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"In Humboldt's frontispiece, Nature, pictured in the guise of the cult statue of Artemis at Ephesus, stands stiff and lifeless. Multiple breasts hang down from her chest like globes of over-ripe fruit. Her arms outstretch like a doll's."--Ecology on the Ground and in the Clouds (2022) Andrea Nye In 1807 Alexander von Humboldt published his Ideen zu einer Geographieder Pflanzen nebst ein Naturgemälde der Tropenlander', a translation from French of one of the volumes written as a result of his five-year expedition to Latin America. The German translation includes a frontispiece by Humboldt’s friend, the Danish artist Bertel Thorvaldsen. The image showsa statue of Artemis of Ephesus being unveiled by Apollo. At the base of the statue lies a tablet with the inscription Metamorphose der Pflanzen, a reference to Humboldt’s much-esteemed friend Goethe to whom the frontispiece is dedicated." "The general truth of the principle, long ago insisted on by Humboldt (69. ‘Personal Narrative,’ Eng. translat. vol. iv. p. 518, and elsewhere. Mantegazza, in his ‘Viaggi e Studi,’ strongly insists on this same principle.), that man admires and often tries to exaggerate whatever characters nature may have given him, is shewn in many ways."--The Descent of Man (1871) by Charles Darwin |
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Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander Freiherr von Humboldt (September 14, 1769 – May 6, 1859) was a German naturalist and explorer, and the younger brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher, and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767-1835). Humboldt's quantitative work on botanical geography was foundational to the field of biogeography.
Between 1799 and 1804, Humboldt traveled to Latin America, exploring and describing it in a manner generally considered to be a modern scientific point of view for the first time. His description of the journey was written up and published in an enormous set of volumes over 21 years. He was one of the first to propose that the lands bordering the Atlantic were once joined (South America and Africa in particular). Later, his five-volume work Kosmos (1845) attempted to unify the various branches of scientific knowledge. Humboldt supported and worked with other scientists, including Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac, Justus von Liebig, Louis Agassiz, Matthew Fontaine Maury, and most notably Aimé Bonpland (with whom he conducted much of his scientific exploration).
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