Bees: natures pastry cooks!

What are bees?

Bees are flying insects closely related to wasps and ants, known for their role in pollination and, in the case of the best-known bee species, the western honey bee, for producing honey and beeswax.  There are nearly 20,000 known species of bees in seven recognized biological families.They are found on every continent except Antarctica, in every habitat on the planet that contains insect-pollinated flowering plants.

Bees range in size from tiny stingless bee species whose workers are less than 2 millimetres long, to Megachile pluto, the largest species of leafcutter bee, whose females can attain a length of 39 millimetres.

Halictidae are the most common bees in the Northen Hemisphere. They are also called sweat bees, because they are often attracted to perspiration.

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Art: Rembrandt van Rijn

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Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (July 15, 1606 – October 4, 1669) was a Dutch draughtsman, painter and printmaker. An innovative and prolific master in three media, he is generally considered one of the greatest visual artists in the history of art and the most important in Dutch art history.

Unlike most Dutch masters of the 17th century, Rembrandt's works depict a wide range of style and subject matter, from portraits and self-portraits to landscapes, genre scenes, allegorical and historical scenes, biblical and mythological themes as well as animal studies.

In his works he exhibited knowledge of classical iconography, which he molded to fit the requirements of his own experience; thus, the depiction of a biblical scene was informed by Rembrandt's knowledge of the specific text, his assimilation of classical composition, and his observations of Amsterdam's Jewish population.[7] Because of his empathy for the human condition, he has been called "one of the great prophets of civilization".

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1. Rembrandt, Self-Portrait

Medium: mezzotint

Dated: 1767

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