Plate 24: Flying Swallow Gurnard, Male Lumpsucker, Longspine Snipefish, and Other Fish

Art Historical Context

In this delicate watercolor, several fish appear to glide through calm blue-green waters framed within an oval border. A vibrant flying swallow gurnard with outstretched, spotted fins occupies the left side, while a dark, textured male lumpsucker rests near the top right. Smaller species, including a longspine snipefish and silvery minnows, fill the scene below, their scales and fins rendered with fine precision and touches of gold paint that catch the light against the parchment surface. Joris Hoefnagel created this work around 1575 into the 1590s as Plate 24 in a series of natural-history studies. Working in watercolor and gold on parchment, he captured each creature’s distinctive form and color with remarkable accuracy, reflecting the Renaissance fascination with the natural world. Such illustrations served both scientific and artistic purposes, preserving detailed records of marine life for scholars and collectors of the period. Today the sheet belongs to the National Gallery of Art, where its intimate scale—roughly the size of a small book page—invites close looking. Hoefnagel’s careful observation continues to reward viewers with a sense of wonder at the variety of underwater forms.

About the Artist

Joris Hoefnagel · 1542–1600

Joris Hoefnagel, also known as Georg Hoefnagel, was born in 1542 in Antwerp to Jacob Hoefnagel, a prosperous diamond and luxury goods dealer, and Elisabeth Vezelaer, daughter of the Antwerp mint master. Intended for the family trade, he received a humanistic education, mastering languages, poetry, and music, but pursued art as a self-taught draftsman and miniaturist, receiving his first lessons fr...