Most research in empirical aesthetics belongs to one of two camps: (1) focus on the relation between beauty and simple quantitative properties in well-controlled stimuli, (2) including a broader range of stimulus and aesthetic variables using more ecological stimuli such as natural images and art works. Ernst Haeckel’s drawings of “Kunstformen der Natur” (1899-1904) are ideally suited as a bridge between these two traditions: They are plates consisting of a variable number of separately drawn art forms (e.g. plants, shells, animals), with different grey levels and colors for figures and backgrounds, with a good level of order (e.g. symmetry) and complexity (e.g. dense etchings) – all beautifully rendered and composed. In a large online study we presented high-resolution scans of the 100 prints and two sets of 100 isolated art forms extracted from 16 prints to different groups of participants (total N=203), which they had to rate on 7-point Likert scales for beauty, pleasure, interest, order, and complexity. In addition to basic demographics, all participants indicated their familiarity with biology and Haeckel, interest in art, connectedness with nature, and inclination to “other worldiness”. Beauty, pleasure and interest were strongly positively intercorrelated, while order and complexity were correlated negatively. Of the three aesthetic scales, interest was most strongly influenced by order and complexity. Average aesthetic ratings were higher for the whole plates than for the separate items (“parts”), across all stimuli as well as for specific wholes and parts from the same plates. Additional analyses will investigate relations with objective measures of order and complexity, as well as possible group differences as a function of some individual characteristics.