The Hand of Nature

Book excerpt: Composed of sixty-nine boxes, Jacques Kerchache's astonishing insect collection is illustrated here for the first time. It is part of a tradition that dates back at least to the Renaissance, when, spurred on by the great voyagers and navigators, collectors created curio rooms in which fauna, flora, minerals, fossils, skulls, shells, and insects were classified and arranged.Claude Levi-Strauss rightly observed: "A bird, a beetle, a butterfly invite the same rapt contemplation that we reserve for a Tintoretto or a Rembrandt". In this entomological collection, it is Nature the artist that holds sway, transforming each insect into a work of art.