page_title: The Holy Family with the Dragonfly
section_title: Insect
hierarchical_section_title: The Holy Family with the Dragonfly / Insect
caption_attribution_description: English: E. Vulgata female
context_page_description: The Holy Family with the Dragonfly, also known as The Holy Family with the Mayfly, The Holy Family with the Locust and The Holy Family with the Butterfly is an engraving by the German artist Albrecht Dürer from approximately 1495. It is quite small but full of intricate detail. A very popular image, copied by other printmakers within five years of creation, it is found in most major print room collections, including the Indianapolis Museum of Art and the UK Royal Collection.
context_section_description: The type of insect that Dürer depicted is unclear. While it is commonly named as a dragonfly (Odonata), Kate Heard and Lucy Whitaker in their book The Northern Renaissance. Dürer to Holbein (2011) suggest that he may have meant it to be read as a butterfly (Lepidoptera). They explain that the butterfly's familiar transformation from caterpillar to winged adult was a symbol of resurrection and the soul's redemption, referring to the infant Christ in the Virgin's arms. The painting is indeed sometimes also called the Holy Family with the Butterfly. The insect has also been taken to be a locust (Acrididae) or a praying mantis (Mantodea), "with the symbolic meaning in relation to the Virgin changing accordingly."
  A similar engraving in the American National Gallery of Art is named The Holy Family with the Mayfly, identifying the insect as a mayfly (Ephemeroptera). The critics Larry Silver and Pamela H. Smith write that the image provides "an explicit link between heaven and earth.. to suggest a cosmic resonance between sacred and profane, celestial and terrestrial, macrocosm and microcosm."
caption: The common European mayfly Ephemera vulgata
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