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Butterflies

Brett Westwood explores how the delicate, colourful yet exquisitely fragile butterfly has been eulogised through museum collections, works of art and folklore. From 2015

Shards of stained glass falling through sunlight 鈥 the butterfly is an image of beauty. Delicate, colourful yet exquisitely fragile we have painted and eulogised the butterfly from time immemorial.

A 鈥渂utterfly mind鈥 skips from subject to subject... they are modern metaphors for the trivial and light-hearted. Yet we forget that at times some butterflies have been used as menacing creatures.

Their eye-spots, used to deter predators, were interpreted as eyes watching you from hedgerow and meadow to make sure no lewd behaviour happened in the fields. The deep, blood red colour of the red admiral was seen as a sign of Christ鈥檚 crucifixion and therefore a symbol of suffering a death.

The butterfly metamorphoses between body forms, reminding us that our earthly body will one day be transformed.

Butterflies have also been the subject of overwhelming passion. Intense, obsessive collectors have chased them over every continent, even shooting them from the skies with guns and then trembling with overwhelming excitement as they put a blackened, torn creature into their displays. They are souls of the dead flying to heaven or an inspiration for fashion designers, or a symbol of death. Few creatures have had so much laid on their delicate shoulders.

Today, butterflies are symbols of freedom and harmony with nature, the poster insects for a utopia where people and nature are at one.

Original Producer : Sarah Pitt
Archive Producer : Andrew Dawes

Revised Repeat : First Broadcast 麻豆社 Radio 4; 16th June 2015

Available now

28 minutes

Last on

Sun 20 Jun 2021 06:35

Dr Blanca Huertas

Dr Blanca Huertas
is Senior Curator for the non-UK butterfly collection at the , overseeing around 35,000 drawers filled with some 4.5 million specimens. It is one of the world鈥檚 largest and most comprehensive collections of butterflies.

Her role involves maintaining, updating and expanding the collection and promoting its importance by engaging people to use it through loans, scientific research and internships so the collection can remain a national treasure for future generations.

Giovanni Aloi

Giovanni Aloi
Giovanni Aloi is an expert in the representation of animals and plants in modern and contemporary art. He is聽a lecturer in History of Art and Visual Cultures at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago,聽聽London and New York, and Tate Galleries.

In 2006, he founded聽, the Journal of Nature in Visual Culture. It is an international reference point for the debate on animals in the arts. He is the author of聽聽and is currently working on two monographs, one on taxidermy in contemporary art and another on plants in contemporary art, both due for publication in 2016.

Matthew Oates

Matthew Oates
Matthew Oates is and has been observing butterflies for more than 50 years. He is an ecologist with a background in the arts and his passion for butterflies is matched only by that for the great English poets Coleridge and Edward Thomas.

He has been at the National Trust since 1990 and is particularly drawn to people鈥檚 relationships with nature, places and seasons, and increasingly the impact of weather on wildlife.

Peter Marren

Peter Marren
Peter Marren is a writer, one-time journalist and all-round naturalist. His book won the silver medal of the and he is the author of the New Naturalist conservation volume, simply titled . His latest book, , about butterflies, is to be published next spring.

He also writes obituaries for , conservation news for , formerly has a column in and is regular contributor to , which includes his famous column of biting wit, Twitcher in the Swamp.

Broadcasts

  • Tue 16 Jun 2015 11:00
  • Mon 22 Jun 2015 21:00
  • Sun 20 Jun 2021 06:35

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