Can a Caterpillar Be More Than Just A Caterpillar?

"Hairy Caterpillar", from the Etching and Engraving Picture File, folder: Insects, Caterpillars (original source: Cassell's Popular Natural History)

In the Art, Music & Recreation Center we have many books that explain the cultural meaning and symbolism of all things inanimate, living or imagined.

Consider the caterpillar. Perhaps the most direct and helpful source is Merriam-Webster's Visual Dictionary which both illustrates and defines the creature (a “butterfly larva having a long body and 10 feet”). It also labels and explains about the parts of the caterpillar (simple eye, head, mandible, thorax, walking let, proleg, abdominal segment, and anal clasper).

According to the Dictionary of Symbols: An Illustrated Guide to Traditional Images, Icons, and Emblems, the caterpillar is said to represent the “lowly” and the “unformed.” This work correlates the caterpillar both with the Hindu belief in the transmigration of souls and with a Native American view of the creature as a “metaphor for sexual awakening.”

Symbols; Our Universal Language describes the caterpillar as symbolic of life, as “one stage of the development of a butterfly.” The Bestiary of Christ cites a 5th century pope who compared Christ with a worm because he was resurrected (“Vermis quia resurrexit”), his “broken body” transformed into a “glorious body” (the butterfly), thus the caterpillar came to represent the body of Christ and the Christian. This belief is further illustrated by a Merovingian gold ring from the 6th or 7th century with caterpillars on two sides and a fish in the center.

Source: Mémoires, Volume 4 by the Société archéologique de Montpellier

The Illustrated Dictionary of Symbols in Eastern and Western Art similarly notes the progression from caterpillar and chrysalis to butterfly, connecting it to allegorical Vanitas still-life paintings. In an earlier book, Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art, Hall writes that these paintings “signify not merely the insect life-cycle but the stages of man’s earthly life, death and resurrection.

Detail from "Vase of Flowers" [Bloemstuk met slaapbol en peulen] Jan Davidsz de Heem, source: Webmuseum (photograph by Carol Gerten-Jackson)

The discussion of "Vase of Flowers" by de Heem from the National Gallery of Art's website highlights with "the white poppy at the top, a caterpillar and butterfly evoke the idea of rebirth from a cocoon or tomb." (The small black caterpillar is visible on the stem just below the white blossom).

The meaning of the caterpillar is also considered in The Tattoo Encyclopedia: A Guide to Choosing Your Tattoo. The author also places the caterpillar within the framework of the life cycle, noting that while “crawling creatures are sometimes feared … the caterpillar offers something both visually and symbolically attractive in terms of life change.” This encyclopedia also has an entry for a “caterpillar with a hookah” -- a reference to Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland that for the author symbolizes a relaxed experience, and the possibility of a hallucinatory narcotic.

Illustration by John Tenniel from Lenny’s Alice in Wonderland Site

The silkworm is perhaps the most exalted caterpillar. Chinese Symbolism and Art Motifs describes the silkworm as “an emblem of industry.” The Way of the Brush; Painting Techniques of China and Japan similarly notes the diligence of this creature. Finally the Chinese artist Zhang Shuqi in Painting in the Chinese Manner compares the silkworm with the Chinese painters. As “the silkworm feeds upon mulberry leaves, and after due process of digestion changes this material into silk; in similar fashion, the artist calls from memory material absorbed through keen study of the world about him.”

From Symbols: Signs and Their Meaning and Uses in Design we learn about the Caterpillar Club - an informal organization comprising those who have escaped from a crashing airplane by parachute. The groups name is an homage to the silkworm that spun the silk that made the parachute.


Source: Wikimedia Commons

Perhaps it is in a Tin Pan Alley era song where we can finally come to know the caterpillar. Dixie Willson's lyrics imagine the caterpillar as one who dreams dreams “that magic’ly come true” - “A caterpillar dreams himself / Right out of all his fuzz / And into lovely fairy wings” ("The Caterpillar," music by Victor Young.


Bibliography

Bestiary of Christ by Louis Charbonneau-Lassay (Parabola Books, 1991).

"The Caterpillar, or, Winged Dreams," words by Dixie Willson ; music by Victor Young (Hinds, Hayden & Eldredge, 1924).

Chinese Symbolism and Art Motifs: An Alphabetical Compendium of Antique Legends and Beliefs, As Reflected in the Manners and Customs of the Chinese by C.A.S. Williams (C.E. Tuttle Co., 1988).

Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art by James Hall (Harper & Row, 1974).

Dictionary of Symbols: An Illustrated Guide to Traditional Images, Icons, and Emblems by Jack Tresidder (Chronicle Books, 1998).

Illustrated Dictionary of Symbols in Eastern and Western Art by James Hall (IconEditions, 1994).

Jan Davidsz de Heem en Zijn Kring by Sam Segal (SDU, 1991).

Merriam-Webster's Visual Dictionary by Jean-Claude Corbeil and Ariane Archambault (Merriam-Webster, 2006).

Painting in the Chinese Manner by Zhang Shuqi (Viking Press, 1960).

Symbols; Our Univeral Language by Eva C. Hangen (McCormick-Armstrong, 1962).

Symbols: Signs and their Meaning and Uses in Design by Arnold Whittick, 2nd edition (1971).

The Tattoo Encyclopedia: A Guide to Choosing Your Tattoo by Terisa Green (Simon & Schuster, 2003).

The Way of the Brush; Painting Techniques of China and Japan by Fritz van Briessen (C.E. Tuttle Co., 1962)

Encyclopedia of Comparative Iconography

The Encyclopedia of Comparative Iconography: Themes Depicted in Works of Art is an omnibus reference source for the themes and motives of Western art. So much visual art over the millennia has used allegory and symbolism to express emotion and meaning, but not all of this rich thematic material is always readily or fully understood by the uninitiated viewer of art. Much of the artistic symbolism is drawn from Western religious traditions and mythology.

This two volume set consists of around 100 entries written by various scholar about particular themes. As the book’s editor writes in the introduction, the purpose of each entry is to “trace the various interpretations given to a theme during different periods and cultures to account for varying social and political beliefs.”

Many of the chapters relate to the human life cycle –“Birth/Childbirth,” “Marriage/Betrothal,” “Death” – and to eternal aspects of the human condition like “Avarice,” “Betrayal,” “Ecstasy,” “Honor/Honoring,” “Imagination/Creativity,” “Laughter,” Melancholy,” “Misfortune,” and “Sacrifice.” There are also other entries about extremes of human behavior like “Beheading/Decapitation,” “Damned Souls,” “Evil Eye,” “Madness,” “Martyrdom,” “Nightmare,” “Temptation,” and “Witchcraft/Sorcery.”

Each entry includes an essay reviewing the depiction of the concept in antiquity, mythology, religion and up through its contemporary meanings. Representative presentations of the themes are presented in “Selected Works of Art” passage at the end of each chapter. These are grouped by time period and provide information about the location of the art work. “Further reading” provides a bibliography of resources that explain and develop each theme in greater depth.

The end of the second volume includes a number of useful indexes. First there is an “Index of ancient mythological and historical personages, places, and concepts.” This is followed by an “Index of Judeo-Christian Personages, Places and Concepts.” For those looking to find discussion of visual representations from the Old and New Testaments there is also an index to chapters and verse of the Bible and the themes covered in those passages. There is also an “Index of other cultures, religions, and mythologies,” though these receive far less extensive treatment than the Egypto-Greco-Roman / Judeo-Christian traditions in this book.

There are two indexes to creative artists and their works: an “Index of artists and works of art” and an “Index of authors, literary texts, composers, filmmakers, and folktales.” Finally, and perhaps most essentially, there is an “Index to other names and terms.” Here one can find references to the concrete objects, concepts, or types of personages or animals that are subsumed under the wider themes of the book.

Encyclopedia of Comparative Iconography will assist students or art lovers trying to understand the allegory or symbolism of an art work. It may also help the student of psychology realize the variety of meanings and manifestations of human behavior. This is a reference book that repays repeated study and consultation.

"Tailpiece, or the Bathos" by William Hogarth depicting "Order/Chaos." Source: Hogarth's Works, with Life and Anecdotal Descriptions of his Pictures by John Ireland and John Nichols (Oliphant Anderson & Ferrier, 1883).