Art History Animalia

For #InternationalRabbitDay 🐰:

Yabu Chosui (Japan, 1814-c.1870) Portrait of a #Rabbit, 1867

Color woodblock print; surimono

24.9 × 18.3 cm (9 13/16 × 7 1/4 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

“A large rabbit fills the entire surface of this print, indicating that it was created in the year of the rabbit. The curious, sacklike quality of the rabbit’s body is also a reference to the large white bag of Hotei, one of the gods of good fortune, who often appears on New Year visual art. The rabbit’s body is also rounded out to suggest a lopsided moon (the home of the rice-pounding rabbit), which is emphasized by its silvery outline. Finally, there is an allusion to the most common New Year symbol, the rising sun. Although the rising sun is usually represented as a luminous, round body against an orange sky, Yabu Chosui showed it as a rising lopsided rabbit against a flaming pink background.”

#WatercolorWednesday :

John Leech (English, 1817-1864) Back View of the Elephant at the Regent’s Park Zoological Gardens, n.d. Watercolor & pen & brown ink, over graphite, on cream wove paper, 10.9 × 8.7 cm (4 5/16 × 3 7/16 in.) The Art Institute of Chicago 1940.891.6

#WatercolorWednesday:

Portrait of a Ladakhi Mountain Goat [Changthangi*]

India, Mughal dynasty, c.1601-25

Opaque watercolor, ink, gold on paper

37.9 × 25.6 cm (14 7/8 × 10 1/8 in.)

The Art Institute of Chicago 1919.944: https://www.artic.edu/artworks/76868/portrait-of-a-ladakhi-mountain-goat

🆔 “The Changthangi [aka Changpa, Ladakh Pashmina, Kashmiri] is a breed of cashmere goat native to the high plateaus of Ladakh in northern India. It is closely associated with the nomadic Changpa people of the Changthang plateau….The intense cold of the region causes the goats to grow a thick undercoat, which is harvested to produce the fine pashmina grade of cashmere.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Changtha

#IndianArt #SouthAsianArt

For #DragonflyWeek:

Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881-1973)

“La Libellule (The Dragonfly)”, 1936

From Histoire naturelle, published 1942

Aquatint & sugar lift etching w/ scraping & drypoint on copper in black on off-white laid paper

Image 27×21cm / Sheet 37×27.2cm

The Art Institute of Chicago 1946.439.27

Image © 2018 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY (educational use)

For #TextileTuesday, check out all the cool animals on this wrapper!

Man’s Wrapper (Akunitan) Akan, Ghana, 20th c. (before 1987) Wool, 211.7 × 342.2 cm (83 3/8 × 134 3/4 in.) Art Institute of Chicago 1986.1045

An interesting bit of numismatic iconography for #WorldSeaTurtleDay:

“Aegina depicted images of sea turtles on their coins when the island was the supreme sea power among the Greek city-states. The sea turtle…represented its naval strength and resiliency. After its defeat by Athens in 458 BCE, Aegina ceased using the sea turtle and substituted the land tortoise to symbolize its lost sea power.”

- via The Art Institute of Chicago

1. silver stater depicting a sea turtle

510-485 BCE

Ancient Greek, minted in Aegina

https://www.artic.edu/artworks/142732/stater-coin-depicting-a-sea-turtle

2. silver stater depicting a land tortoise

404-350 BCE

Ancient Greek, minted in Aegina

https://www.artic.edu/artworks/9648/stater-coin-depicting-a-land-tortoise

For #NationalCougarDay on #Woodensday :

Mountain lion effigy (part of a ritual cache), Salado branch of the Mogollon (New Mexico, US), 14th-15th c.

Wood, stone, string, pigment

The Art Institute of Chicago

#TurtleTuesday :

Nose Ornament in the Form of a Turtle with C-shaped Body Coclé: Venado Beach, Coclé province, Panama, 800-1200 CE Spondylus shell, W. 7.3 cm (2 7/8 in.) The Art Institute of Chicago 1969.795

#TwoForTuesday :

Ear Ornaments with Ibis Inca: Ica Valley, Peru south coast, 1200-1450 Gold w/ garnet inlay a: 3.5 × 4.6 cm (1 3/16 × 1 13/16 in.) b: 3.2 × 4.5 cm (1 1/4 × 1 3/4 in.) The Art Institute of Chicago 1955.2594 a-b

For #WorldTurtleDay 🐢:

Tsuba with Design of Turtles and Water Okamoto Shigetsune, Chôshû School Japan, early 19th c. iron (decorative technique: sukidashi-bori, nikubori, kebori) 7 x 6.8 x 0.4 cm (2 3/4 x 2 11/16 x 3/16 in.) The Art Institute of Chicago 11.11583

For #WorldBeeDay 🐝 on #MonochromeMonday:

Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881-1973) "The Bee (L'Abeille)", from Eaux-fortes originale pour des textes de Buffon (Histoire naturelle) 1936, published 1942 Aquatint, sugar lift etching, & drypoint on ivory laid paper Image: 29.5 × 22.5 cm (11 5/8 × 8 7/8 in.) Sheet: 36.5 × 28.5 cm (14 3/8 × 11 1/4 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago 1946.439.22

Birdwatching in the Museum | The Art Institute of Chicago

https://www.artic.edu/articles/1121/birdwatching-in-the-museum

#WoodblockWednesday:

Okumura Masanobu (Japanese, 1686-1764)

Golden Pheasant (Kinkeicho), c. 1720/25

Hand-colored woodblock print; hosoban, urushi-e; 32.2 × 15.5 cm (12 1/2 × 6 1/8 in.)

The Art Institute of Chicago 1925.1955

The Ocean's Currency: Cowrie Shells in African Art | The Art Institute of Chicago

#TurtleTuesday:

Pendant depicting a tortoise Senufo culture, Côte d’Ivoire or Burkina Faso Early/mid–20th century Copper alloy, H.: 5.1 cm (2 in.) Art Institute of Chicago 2006.121

"Ornaments made of copper alloys are generally commissioned by individuals on the recommendation of a diviner as a means to encourage spiritual intervention in the resolution of individual problems or goals. This ornament is in the form of a turtle - an animal thought by the Senufo to have special ties to the spiritual world. The large round eyes and circular feet add emphasis to the neatly coiled rings of the turtle’s body. The flat, broad tail looks more like that of a fish than a turtle, but it probably made the object easier to grasp."

For International #VultureAwarenessDay:

Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881–1973) Le Vautour (The #Vulture) plate from Eaux-fortes originale pour des textes de Buffon (Histoire naturelle) 1936, published 1942, ed. of 226 Aquatint and sugar lift etching with drypoint on copper in black on off-white laid paper Image: 31.5 × 20.5 cm (12 7/16 × 8 1/8 in.); Sheet: 37.2 × 28.3 cm (14 11/16 × 11 3/16 in.) The Art Institute of Chicago 1946.439.14

For #WorldCamelDay:

Mosaic Fragment with Grazing Camel Byzantine; Eastern Mediterranean, probably Syria, 5th century Stone in mortar, 143 × 166.5 × 6.5 cm (56 1/4 × 61 1/2 × 2 1/2 in.) On display at Art Institute of Chicago

“This image of a grazing camel probably came from a larger composition with other animals that decorated the floor of a semipublic space within a private home, such as a reception or dining room. This animal is represented against a white ground decorated with florets. A bell hangs from the camel’s neck as it reaches toward an object, perhaps a vessel filled with water, at the lower right. The knobby contours of the camel’s body are accentuated by areas of shading in subtly modulated colors, including black, brown, brick red, and olive green.”

info via https://www.artic.edu/artworks/35355/mosaic-fragment-with-grazing-camel