Stumbled upon the Glass Jellyfish, a photo album over at PangalacticTrading.com. They are pictures of the works of Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka. It reminds me a of the delicate glass rotifer sculptures at the American Museum of Natural History.
The second half of the 19th century was a time of great scientific discovery. New museums were being built throughout the world and many existing private museums were opening to the public. New galleries were designed to display the expanding array of known living plants and animals. For many groups of animals this was easily done…But what about soft bodied animals such as jellyfish and sea anemones? Examples of these animals could be pickled in spirit to preserve them, but this in no way reflected their extraordinary appearance in life. Their colours quickly faded and their shapes became distorted as the tissues shrank. Papier-mâché and wax models could not capture their translucence and transparency. Leopold Blaschka, a brilliant glassworker and amateur naturalist, devised a solution to this problem - vividly recreating these life forms modelling them in glass.
On a visit to the National Museum in Prague two years back I was pleased to discover a number of Blaschka models being used for their original purposes - as educational displays in the Museum. Hopefully the importance of these exhibits will be recognised. I would be interesed to know of any other ‘lost’ Blaschkas.
A couple more Blaschka links showing up recently in my RSS feeder:
The Blaschka Marine Invertebrates at Cornell University
The Promotional Association “Scientific Glass Art - Blaschka-Haus e. V.
Design Museum: Leopold + Rudolf Blaschka
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