The Work of Ignaz Matausch and Its 

 Significance to the Museum 



Hv KOY W. MINER 



THEUE are Ijoni occasionally jjcrsons 

 endowed with an unusual coiu- 

 bination of qualities which so 

 ])ernieate and take possession of the 

 mind as almost to replace the will, drl\- 

 ing their possessor irresistibly onward 

 through unusual paths in life. So ab- 

 sorbing becomes the life passion that 

 extraneous matters, important to others, 

 l)ecome subordinated to the grade of 

 merely disturbing influences. These 

 natures are delicately balanced, sensi- 

 tive, keenly alive to impressions, react- 

 ing to the lights and shades of visual 

 impression with the accuracy of seleni- 

 um, but with an intensity that affects 

 the whole psychology of the mind. 



Such a person was the artist modeler 

 Ignaz Matausch. In him this native 

 endowment was supplemented by a 

 training from boyhood in the most 

 delicate handling of the materials of his 

 art, and as one w-atched him at work 

 manipulating wax, wood, celluloid, tiny 

 needles of hand-wrought german silver 

 or minute splinters of glass, welding, 

 melting, joining all into place in the 

 intricate construction of his giant insect 

 models, one felt that the most refrac- 

 tory materials were malleable to his 

 hand. This of coiu'se was an illu- 

 sion. The mind guiding the hand was 

 trained to select, almost instinctively, 

 the substances best adapted to the work. 

 The great, rounded, clinnsy-looking fin- 

 ger tips worked with the delicate sen- 

 sitiveness and almost feminine touch 

 popularly associated with the long 

 tapering fingers of the so-called " artistic 

 hand," and the very dexterity of their 

 manipulation more than convinced the 



observer that the true hand of the artist 

 is not that physical member but the 

 accurate eye, the superperceptive brain 

 and that correlation through ner\es 

 and mus<'les which is produced only by 

 long-continued and arduous training 

 backed with an infinite patience anfl 

 enthusiasm. 



This may seem high praise to some, 

 but not to one who has watched Ignaz 

 Matausch at work day after da;^-, year 

 after year, gradually building up his 

 wonderful insect models, such as the 

 giant housefly shown in the hall of 

 public health, and patiently engaged on 

 the minute details of the complex ex- 

 hibits in the Darwin hall, in which his 

 work is blended with that of other skilled 

 preparators, as in the case of the window 

 groups. Among the, models which are 

 peculiarly his w'ork may be mentioned 

 the series illustrating the life history of 

 the tree hopper, accurately constructed 

 after long-continued and painstaking 

 original observations, and a series illus- 

 trating the peculiar unadaptive struc- 

 tures seen in many tropical species of this 

 same group. A model showing the ana- 

 tomy of the common spider is one of the 

 best products of his skill, in the pre- 

 liminary work for which he made many 

 original dissections with the collabora- 

 tion of Prof. i\lexander Petrunkevitch. 

 His share in the marine window groups 

 however, is of peculiar significance and 

 has contributed much to their success 

 and the widespread attention which 

 they have attracted. Among them the 

 Cold Spring Harbor group was largely 

 constructed by Mr. Matausch, and his 

 work is joined with that of other mem- 



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