Cassiopea (*Cotylorhiza tuberculata*) , Melicerta (*Melicetum sensu-*) Obelia Jellyfish Pretre (c1835)

When Marine Zoology Resembles a Coral Garden

This original hand-colored engraving presents a refined grouping of medusarian and hydrozoan forms, including Cotylorhiza tuberculata (often associated with the “Cassiopea” plates in early zoological literature), alongside Melicerta and Obelia, illustrated by Pierre Antoine Prêtre for the Dizionario di Scienze Naturali (c.1835).

The plate juxtaposes radically different life-forms within the same visual field: a branching, plant-like marine structure above, and a domed jellyfish figure below, completed by schematic medusarian details to the right.

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Visual and Aesthetic Analysis

The upper specimen unfolds like a delicate underwater bouquet, filled with fine stippling and dendritic rhythm. Below, the bell-shaped jellyfish introduces monumentality and balance, its surface rendered with a pearled texture that catches the eye without relying on intense color.

The result is unusually decorative for a scientific plate: part marine study, part ornamental composition, ideal for interiors that favor quiet complexity and natural geometry.

About the Subject

Cotylorhiza tuberculata is known for hosting symbiotic algae within its tissues, a biological partnership that allows it to thrive in sunlit waters and gives it an almost botanical visual character.

Obelia, by contrast, represents a colonial hydrozoan whose life cycle alternates between polyp colonies and free-swimming medusae — a phenomenon that captivated nineteenth-century naturalists as evidence of nature’s “hidden metamorphoses.”

Plates like this reflect the era’s expanding ambition: not merely to illustrate marine animals, but to document their life strategies, structures, and relationships within the living sea.

Condition Report

Excellent antique condition. Clean margins and finely preserved hand coloring on original smooth early nineteenth-century wove paper. No watermark observed.

Details

• Artist: Pierre Antoine Prêtre
• Work: Dizionario di Scienze Naturali – Sacchetti Collection
• Period: c.1835
• Technique: Original hand-colored engraving
• Paper: Original smooth wove paper
• Watermark: None observed
• Sheet size: approx. 22 × 15 cm

Read the biography of Pierre Antoine Prêtre and explore his marine illustrations

Cotylorhiza tuberculata print, Obelia hydrozoan engraving, antique jellyfish illustration, 19th-century marine natural history plate.