In the upper right corner of his 1611 painting “Air,” Flemish artist Jan Brueghel the Elder drew a bat holding a songbird in its jaws. While the painting might have been an allegory, the bat’s behavior was real — though scientists would not officially observe the behavior for another 400 years.
Artists are often keen observers of nature. Whether mimicking the reality in still lifes and landscapes or imagining a composite world filled with symbolism and fantasy, some artists show real biological phenomena — from predator-prey interactions to insect metamorphoses. Working closely with art historians, some researchers are spotting scientific…
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