Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia), Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
This beautiful and delicate natural-history painting by Shaikh Zain ud-Din belongs to the celebrated Impey Album, a collection of more than 300 botanical and zoological studies commissioned in Calcutta by Lady Mary Impey and Sir Elijah Impey between 1777 and 1782. The artwork is executed in opaque colours and ink on paper and measures approximately 76.2 × 96.52 cm in dimensions. Currently, it is in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art, USA. The composition of the painting presents a Brahminy starling perched prominently on the branches of an Indian jujube tree (Ziziphus jujuba). Surrounding the bird are several stages of the life cycle of the Antheraea moth, which is a species of large winged moths, a green caterpillar, and a cocoon. The carefully arranged branches, rounded green leaves, small fruits, insects, and bird create a dense yet balanced natural environment. Instead of placing the bird against a conventional landscape, Zain ud-Din isolates the living organisms against a largely pale background, allowing each species to be observed with exceptional clarity.
The painting demonstrates the artist's extraordinary attention to scientific observation and natural detail. The feathers of the bird are rendered with subtle variations of brown, grey, black, and cream, while the leaves are individually outlined and modelled with delicate veins. The moths are particularly striking with their broad patterned wings and eye-like markings contrast vividly with the green foliage. The caterpillar, meanwhile, introduces another stage in the transformation from larva to adult insect. This combination makes the painting not only a portrait of a bird or plant but a visual study of an interconnected ecosystem and the cycle of life.
When I look at this 1777 painting by Shaikh Zain ud-Din, I don't just see a bird and some moths arranged on a jujube branch — I see my own timeline staring back at me. There's a caterpillar still feeding, unaware of what it's becoming. There's a cocoon, sealed shut, doing work no one can see. And there are two moths, fully formed, wings open wide enough to be noticed. The starling just sits there, watching all of it, undisturbed — because none of these stages are in competition with each other.
I study animal life for a living, so I understand the biology of metamorphosis. But I also write my reflections as "Diary of a Strong Woman," so I understand the metaphor. My growth has never been a straight line either. Some seasons I'm the caterpillar, still learning, still feeding on experience I don't yet understand. Some seasons I'm the cocoon — sealed in, quiet, doing invisible work while the world assumes nothing is happening. And some seasons I finally get to be the moth, wings fully open, standing in front of people as the public speaker I've always envisioned becoming.
What this painting reminds me is that I don't have to rush any of it. The caterpillar isn't beneath the moth. They're just on the same branch, at different points in the same becoming. Wherever I am right now, I'm not behind — I'm exactly on schedule.
