Talks & Conversations

Conservation is a Logic of Love

A glass holding a loose bouquet of flowers set within an oval is surrounded by eight insects against an off-white surface in this vertical still life painting. It is impossible to tell whether the oval is an opening piercing the white surface or if the still life is an oval-shaped painting sitting on top of the white surface. The glass holding the flowers has straight, slightly flaring sides with a ring of textured knubs around the bottom third. Flowers in the glass include a white lily of the valley, yellow and purple violet, blue grape hyacinth, yellow narcissus, red poppy, upside-down cup-shaped pink snake’s head fritillary, and stems of greenery. The bouquet is lit from the left, and a ray of light focused by the glass falls across the back edge of the wooden ledge on which the glass sits. Two drops of water bead on the ledge, and the artist signed the front face of the ledge, “CLARA P.” The background behind the flowers within the oval is black. The bugs on the white surface are much larger in scale, painted precisely so anatomical details can be made out. Across the top are a dragonfly with a green body, a house fly with red eyes, and a dragonfly with a red body. A fuzzy caterpillar is to the left of the oval and a hornet is to the right. Across the bottom are a snail, a ladybug, and a beetle with a black body and red wings and legs.
Clara Peeters, Still Life with Flowers Surrounded by Insects and a Snail, c. 1610, oil on copper, The Lee and Juliet Folger Fund, 2018.144.1

Please join us for a conversation on the intersection of art, conservation, and science with artist Dario Robleto, the National Gallery of Art's chief of conservation Lena Stringari, conservator Michelle Facini, and imaging scientist John Delaney. Together, they will explore the fragility of art and the natural world and discuss the empathy and ethics involved in preserving materials and memories.

This program is held in conjunction with the exhibition Little Beasts: Art, Wonder, and the Natural World.

About Little Beasts: Art, Wonder, and the Natural World

Experience the wonder of nature through the eyes of artists. Look closely at art depicting insects and other animals alongside real specimens.

Art played a pivotal role during the dawn of European natural history in the 16th and 17th centuries. Advancements in scientific technology, trade, and colonial expansion allowed naturalists to study previously unknown and overlooked insects, animals, and other beestjes, or “little beasts.”  

A delight for all ages, this exhibition features nearly 75 of these paintings, prints, and drawings in a unique presentation alongside specimens and taxidermy from the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Learn about the rich exchange between artists and naturalists that sparked a fascination with earth’s living creatures, big and small. See how this intersection of art and science continues to inspire us today in a new film by Robleto.

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