Art History Animalia

Well...bestiaries aren't known for their accurate illustrations 😂
"[This] ray is a flatfish; its body is almost round. The text says it has its horrible, deformed mouth on its belly not on its head where its eyes are. The artist has put the eyes and mouth together."
bestiary.ca/beasts/beast...

digital scan, detail from a medieval illuminated manuscript, illustration of a ray, bottom view with eyes and mouth - ray is drawn as a simple cartoonish white figure outlined in black, with blue water and red background and rectangular gold leaf framing

For #MedievalMonday + #ManuscriptMonday : a smiley flat friend!
#Ray, f.95v in Lippische Landesbibliothek, Ms. 70 (Der Naturen Bloeme), South Holland or Flanders, c.1287-90
digitale-sammlungen.llb-detmold.de/content/page...
#Fish

"A bimetallic nose ornament crafted from gold and silver, composed of two symmetrical sections. In one of the side sections, the hook or clasp is made of gold, while the zoomorphic motif below it is made of silver. In the opposite section, the composition is reversed: the clasp is silver and the lower design is gold. The decoration depicts arachnid figures (scorpions) arranged in pairs, with their bodies facing the central axis of the object. The motifs were executed using repoussé and openwork techniques. The piece has a polished surface finish."

#MetalMonday :
Nose ring with #scorpions
Mochica (Moche) culture, Early Intermediate Period (200-600 CE)
Origin: Huaca Cao Viejo (Upper Platform, NW Courtyard)
Bimetallic gold & silver
El Brujo Archaeological Complex EBBME00000-22 www.elbrujo.pe/catalogo/?pa...
#IndigenousArt #PeruvianArt #AndeanArt

Artist Honors Poetic Bird Migrations by Drawing and Painting Them on Vintage Maps “If my work can encourage viewers to pay closer attention to the fragile lines connecting nature, time, and human history, then it has fulfilled its role.”

Artist Honors Poetic #Bird Migrations by Drawing and Painting Them on Vintage Maps mymodernmet.com/steeven-salv... via @mymodernmet.bsky.social
#BirdsInArt #ContemporaryArt

“Our Moon is Out subtly depicts some of George Rodrigue's quintessential subject matter. The painting shows a Blue Dog in a landscape, but its restrained color palette of moody blues, purples, and black, encourages an appreciation for the work's exacting composition. Rodrigue's signature oak tree acts as an anchor on the canvas. Its Spanish moss hangs over the perfectly round moon in the background, and its trunk and branches serve as a backdrop for the Blue Dog's commanding presence. Rodrigue often referred to his paintings as puzzles, Our Moon is Out emphasizes the interconnectedness of each element on the canvas.”

#BlueMonday 💙
George Rodrigue (USA, 1944-2013)
Our Moon is Out, 1998
Acrylic on canvas, 18x14 in.
#DogsInArt
www.facebook.com/share/p/1Gv3...

Illustration of a vibrant macaw perched on a moss-covered, leafless branch set on a small mound with sparse vegetation. The bird features a large black curved beak, striking yellow chest and underparts, and blue-green wings and tail feathers. Its face is marked with distinctive white and black patterns, and its long tail extends prominently downward. The setting is minimal, emphasizing the macaw's detailed plumage and natural posture, reflecting an 18th-century natural history style.

🦜 A natural history of birds
London: Printed for the author, at the College of Physicians in Warwick-Lane, MDCCXLIII-MDCCLI [1743-1751, i.e. 1750-1776?]

[Source]

Papillons; Paris, Tolmer[ca. 1925] http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/48852963

Papillons; Paris, Tolmer[ca. 1925] (source: http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/48852963) #nature #illustration #art

Mr. Jefferson and the Giant Moose: Natural History in Early America Mr. Jefferson and the Giant Moose: Natural History in Early America

#BookRecommendation for #MooseDay 🫎:
Mr. Jefferson and the Giant #Moose: Natural History in Early America by Lee Alan Dugatkin (2019)
amzn.to/49I01CQ

Moose (Animal) Its hooves were supposedly a cure for epilepsy; it is the mascot of the Seattle Mariners baseball team and the clothing company Abercrombie & Fitch; and its meat is a delicacy. The moose is a fascinat...

#BookRecommendation for #MooseDay 🫎:
#Moose (Animal series) by Kevin Jackson (2009)
amzn.to/3LBQwMq

painting of a mother moose with her calf standing together along a riverbank in a conifer forest landscape

Happy #MooseDay 🫎
Claude Picher (Canada, 1927-1998)
#Moose and her baby, 1993
Oil on canvas, 20″ X 24”
galerie-perreault.com/products/l-o...

Resharing for #MooseDay 🫎

Resharing for #MooseDay 🫎

Resharing for #MooseDay 🫎

cat: 1151

The present / Le présent - 1938/39
https://botfrens.com/collections/61/contents/19382

Monograph of the Paradiseidae, or birds of paradise and Ptilonorhynchidae, or bower-birds. London: H. Sotheran & Co., 1891-98. https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/48735352

Monograph of the Paradiseidae, or birds of paradise and Ptilonorhynchidae, or bower-birds. London: H. Sotheran & Co., 1891-98. (source: https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/48735352) #nature #illustration #art

Atlas beetle (Chalcosoma atlas) from ‘An Epitome of the Natural History of the Insects of India, and the Islands in the Indian Seas’ by Edward Donovan. London: Printed for the author by T. Bensley, 1800.

I saw this at Harvard’s Houghton Library.

#naturalhistory #insectart #HoughtonLibrary #sciart

@wittspat.bsky.social 🦔👀

Illustration of three vibrantly colored, imaginary fish from an 18th-century book. The largest fish on the right features vertical black and white stripes, a green spotted tail, and multicolored fins and mouth with an open jaw displaying teeth. The upper left fish has a blue body with diagonal black stripes, a red heart shape on its side, pink and yellow-tipped fins, and a red and yellow face. The bottom left fish is brown with a yellow tail, green-striped fins, and a head with exaggerated pink and orange features. The artistic style is detailed but fantastical, combining natural elements with imaginative shapes and colors.

🦄 Poissons, ecrevisses et crabes, de diverses couleurs et figures extraordinaires, .
A Amsterdam, Chez Reinier & Josué Ottens, 1754..

[Source]

painting of four fluffy kittens (2 light grey, one medium grey, one dark grey) playing with/on a chess board, with pieces toppled over

#Caturday playtime 🐱:
Agnes Augusta Talboys (UK, 1865-1941)
#Cats and Chess Board, n.d. (gift from the artist, 1936)
Oil on canvas H 31.7 x W 47 cm
Bristol Museum & Art Gallery K1285 artuk.org/discover/art...
#CatsInArt #WomenArtists

painting if a domestic interior scene with a little yellow-eyed black cat peeking out from a big cardboard box green floor and wall, wood chair and window with open curtains in background

#Caturday cutie 🐱:
Ruskin Spear, R.A. (UK, 1911-1990)
#Cat in a cardboard box, n.d.
oil on board
11½ x 7 in. (29.2 x 17.8 cm.)
www.christies.com/lot/ruskin-s...
#CatsInArt

Futurist painting five stylized blackbirds in an abstract geometric scape of yellows, greens, blues, purples, and white (as with his other bird paintings, these lines, shapes, and colors are representations of the birds’ movements/flight)

Giacomo Balla (Italy, 1871-1958)
Futurist Blackbirds, 1924
Oil on canvas 50 × 70 cm
Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest 2023.5.1.B www.mfab.hu/artworks/199...
#BirdsInArt #Futurism

Three small copper alloy figures of dogs. Larger one is 3D, with tail curling over its rear, head raised and right paw extended as if to shake 'hands'. Two smaller ones are flatter, to serve as brooches. Both have long ears, pointed noses and are in running position. Top one has gold coloured spots enamelled on body and a greenish enamel eye. Bottom one has some surviving blue enamel that coloured the body, and a blue eye.

#FindsFriday 🏺
#Roman dogs along Hadrian's wall: copper alloy figure of pup lifting a friendly paw, + 2 enamelled copper alloy brooches of hunting dogs.
In galleries @tulliecarlisle.bsky.social considering life along farthest frontier of empire.
British dogs were highly rated, and very good boys.

Medieval image of 2 herons in the water. The one in the back has it's beak in the water, looking for eels. And the one in the front is shown in two different poses: 1 with it's head up, and an eel in its beak; and 1 where it is grabbing an eel that is coming from its bottom. The eels are drawn standing in greenish water, and the whole thing is in a circle. You can just see text surrounding the circle, so you can tell that the image is part of a book. In fact, it's from a bestiary, and you can see, in red letters, the word "Ardea", meaning heron. The text doesn't name the herons in the image, but we can imagine that the one in front is called Willyon, & the other is Sarawiskers. You'd like to think that Willyon's behavior would make him an outcast, because it's what would happen to you if you tried that sort of thing among friends. But herons are more open-minded, and Sarawiskers isn't going to judge him. We could all use a friend like that. Image is from: BL Harley MS 4751, 41r

It's Tuesday. So let's talk about birds eating eels, passing them, and eating them again.

It's a THING that shows up in art & language. Here for example, is a lovely 13th C. image of a heron, shown in various stages of eating and...um...recycling eels. Or, at least, an eel. 1/4
🗃️🧪

photo of 9 metalwork insect pins on light grey background “Now on view at the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, is the exhibition The Stories We Carry, featuring contemporary jewelry created by Indigenous artists across many decades. The exhibit specifically explores 60 years of Indigenous jewelry and its enduring relationship with the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA).” “Bug Pins, various mediums and dimensions. [Clockwise from Top Center: Raymond Martinez (Ohkay Owingeh), SJ-19; Sam Leader Charge (Brulé Sioux), S-41; James Tenorio (Santo Domingo), SD-41; Dennis Apple (Sioux), S-89; Veronica Orr (Colville/Lytton), J-7; Christine McHorse (née Nofchissey, Diné), N-270; Peter Mesteth (Sioux), S-54; Carolyn Suina (Chochiti), CO-12; Jack Turquoise (Diné), N-273.] Courtesy of the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe, NM. Copyright held by the artists. Photograph by Eric Wimmer”

#Insect pins! 😍
From “The Stories We Carry” exhibition @ Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe, NM
More info here:
www.nativeamericanartmagazine.com/issues/60/St...
#NativeAmericanArt #IndigenousArt
Photograph by Eric Wimmer / IAIA MCNA

official auction photo of the object, quarter turn side profile facing right Chinese export blue & white porcelain tureen & cover in the form of a frog, with a second small frog finial on cover

#FrogFriday 🐸:
Blue & White #Frog - Form Tureen and Cover
China (for export market), late 19th - 20th c.
Porcelain, H 6 ¼ in. (15.9 cm) x L 10 in. (25.4 cm)
#ChineseArt
www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-6...

official auction photo of the four silver articulated fish, lined up vertically ongrey background “with engraved scales, three with gem-set eyes and hinged covers, one parcel-gilt”

#FishFriday 🐠:
Four Continental silver articulated #fish, 19th c.
Length of longest 15.5 cm/ 6 1/8 in.
www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/...

A comical black-and-white photograph by Adolp E. Weidhaas of a cat named "Brünnhilde" that wears a paper crown and cape

An oil painting by Jodie Niss of a cat slumped and sleeping comically in a corner by a mirror

A digital illustration by Xuan Loc Xuan of a white cat walking through nasturtiums

A new book from Phaidon is the purr-fect celebration of cats in art, photography, and illustration across centuries 🐱

www.thisiscolossal.com/2026/01/cats...

One of a great series of drawings depicting balloonfish and pufferfish made during the United States Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842. More here: publicdomainreview.org/collection/d... #fishfriday

Initial 'A'(d) at the beginning of Psalm 27 reminds me it's #FishonFriday 🐟
Manuscrits de la Bibliothèque d'Amiens Ms. 18; The Corbie Psalter with canticles and litanies; 9th century; France N (Corbie, abbaye Saint-Pierre); f.23v
@gallicabnf.bsky.social

official auction photo of the object on white background wood model of a carp swallowing a frog “Realistically carved with incised details in deep brown and black finishes to render the textured scales of the carp and the knubby skin of the frog.”

#FishFriday vs. #FrogFriday:
#Carp Swallowing a #Frog
Signed Sukekazu
Japan, Meiji Period, late 19th - early 20th c.
Wood model, L 12 in. (29.7 cm)
www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-6...
#JapaneseArt