Art History Animalia

For #WorldDolphinDay:

Plate VIII from Giant Fishes, Whales, and Dolphins, field guide #SciArt from 1949.

A. Common Porpoise B. Commerson's Dolphin C. White-beaked Dolphin D. Common Dolphin

Biodiversity Heritage Library

#FrogFriday 🐸:

"Pond Life" - frontispiece to Historia naturalis ranarum nostratium by August Johann Rösel von Rosenhof (German, 1705-1759), Nuremberg, 1758. British Library collection

More about this work on the BHL blog: An Illustrated Natural History of German Frogs: Rösel’s Historia Naturalis Ranarum Nostratium

#InternationalChameleonDay:

1. Plate 1 in Bilder-Atlas zur wissenschaftlich-populären Naturgeschichte der Wirbelthiere, 1867

🆔 Indian Chameleon (Chamaeleo zeylanicus)

2. "Sudanchamäleon" plate in Brehms Tierleben: Allgemeine kunde des Tierreichs, Bd.2, 1913

🆔 African Chameleon (Chamaeleo africanus)

via Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL)

For #NationalPandaDay:

Earliest published European image of the Giant Panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca), based on the first skin sent to Europe, acquired by French missionary Armand David in China in 1869 and sent to Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle in Paris.

Plate 50 in H. Milne-Edwards’ Recherches pour servir à l'histoire naturelle des mammifères (Paris, 1868-1874). BHL.

More for #LoveHornbillsDay:

Hornbills by T. W. Wood (1823-1903), plate from Curiosities of Ornithology, London, Groombridge & Sons, c.1871. Via BHL.

It's #LoveHornbillsDay!

Plates from Edinburgh Journal of Natural History and of the Physical Sciences via Biodiversity Heritage Library:

Vol. 1 (1835-9), XCIX.B

Vol. 2 (1839-40), XCIX

For #DarwinDay:

Charles Darwin's Library Collection: Illustrations from titles owned by Charles Darwin via Flickr

Animal Art of the Day for #WorldJellyfishDay: Ernst Haeckel's Medusae

Images of plates 8, 16, 18, 26, 28, 36, 38, 46, 48, 78, 88, 98 via Internet Archive. Digital scan of the entire book including text available via Biodiversity Heritage Library.

More info on the blog:

https://arthistoryanimalia.com/2023/11/03/animal-art-of-the-day-for-world-jellyfish-day-ernst-haeckels-medusae/

Happy #InternationalSlothDay!

George Edwards’ male Pale-throated Sloth (Bradypus tridactylus) from The Naturalist’s Miscellany Vol. 1, 1789, looking rather offended! This is probably because it read the rude things being written about it in the accompanying text:

“So extraordinary is the union of awkwardness and ugliness in this uncommon creature, that it has generally been regarded as one of the most striking examples of animal deformity.” 🤨

“A celebrated naturalist, the Count Buffon, will not allow this creature to have any share in contributing to the general beauty in the chain of beings, but regards it as an ill-constructed mass of deformity, created only for misery….” ☹️

“With submission, however, to this lively naturalist, I should not hesitate to believe that the sloth, not withstanding this appearance of wretchedness and deformity, is as well-fashioned for its proper modes and habits of life, and feels as much happiness in its solitary and obscure retreats, as the rest of the animal world of greater locomotive powers and superior external elegance.” 🤷🏻‍♀️

via Biodiversity Heritage Library

#ThylacineThursday: thylacine illustrations by Joseph Wolf (German, 1820-1899)

Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London Plate XVIII (1850)

Zoological Sketches Plate XXXI (1861)

A #platypus picture for #MonotremeMonday:

Pl. XIII in Animaux venimeux et venins, 1922 via BHL

The above image along with a few other recent finds have been added to the monotremes historical sciart image bank.

#MonotremeMonday:

Plate LXIV Monotremata Johnson’s Household Book of Nature, 1880 via BHL

“Porcupine Anteater” = #Echidna & “Duck Mole” = #Platypus

Part of the fully updated monotremes image bank with several new images added of platypus & echidna historical sciart:

For #WorldTunaDay:

"TUNA LEAPING OVER MR. BERRY'S BOAT." Plate 18 in the fun-titled book Fish stories alleged and experienced, with a little history natural and unnatural by C. F. Holder & D. S. Jordan, 1909. Biodiversity Heritage Library.

Happy Easter to those who celebrate, from the REAL egg-laying mammals, the monotremes 😎

Plate LXIV Monotremata from Johnson’s Household Book of Nature (1880) via Biodiversity Heritage Library.

2-8 April is both #BatAppreciationWeek🦇 AND #BeKindToSpidersWeek🕷️! As I love both bats & spiders expect lots of art featuring both all week long 😎

Ernst Haeckel, Kunstformen der Natur (1904), Plate 66 Arachnida & Plate 67 Chiroptera, BHL.

#WorldFrogDay: Maybe this Surinam Horned Frog (Ceratophrys cornuta) wouldn't look so happy if it could read what naturalist George Shaw wrote about it in its description...

"Horned Frog" from The Naturalist's Miscellany, v.3, pl. 76 (1791-2) by George Shaw (English, 1751-1813). Biodiversity Heritage Library.

Here's what Shaw said: "Should inquiry be made, which is the ugliest animal yet known to exist? The creature here represented might perhaps with justice be proposed as an answer: an animal of such prodigious deformity as even to exceed in this respect the Surinam toad...." ☹️

For #InternationalWomensDay and #WomensHistoryMonth check out this database of women natural history artists in the Biodiversity Heritage Library maintained by Historical SciArt: