A newly-christened species of giant spider was unveiled this week. Kelly Grovier looks at why these creepy-crawlies have long crouched in the dark corners of our imagination. Somewhere, waiting to be discovered in an attic, crypt, or fusty loft, is the extraordinary weave of a mythical spider, whose mystifying brocade can only be reconstructed from the antique testimony of those who marvelled at it, centuries ago. The spider I’m referring to was the visual invention, created in exquisite embroidery, of the Dutch Golden Age artist Katharina Rozee, whose entire body of work has been lost to history in the 335 years since she died in 1682.

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