Cubomedusae
From Haeckel's Kunstformen der Natur — box jellyfish, rendered in ghostly duotone.
- Work
- Cubomedusae, from Kunstformen der Natur
- Artist / naturalist
- Ernst Haeckel (lithograph by Adolf Giltsch)
- Origin & date
- Germany, 1899–1904
- Held by
- Wikimedia Commons
Format
The full-resolution scan, color-managed to the source — yours to print, study, and keep.
Size
$19.00
The story
Unlike the saturated color of most Kunstformen der Natur plates, this study of box jellyfish (Cubomedusae) is printed in a cold blue-green duotone, the specimens' cube-shaped bells and trailing tentacles glowing almost bioluminescent against a dark ground — a printing choice that happens to suit the subject unusually well, since several cubomedusae species are in fact bioluminescent. Box jellyfish were still being actively classified in Haeckel's era, and several species carry venom potent enough to be medically significant, a fact the era's naturalists were only beginning to document systematically. What to notice: Haeckel varied his printing technique plate to plate as much as his composition — this monochrome treatment is a deliberate departure, chosen because it reads the specimens' transparency better than his usual full palette could.
About this reproduction
- Faithful reproduction of a public-domain work, sourced from Wikimedia Commons’s open-access release.
- Printed to order on 200gsm EMA matte art paper: smooth, no glare.
- Color-managed to the source scan.
- Ships in 5–8 business days; satisfaction guarantee.
