Art History Animalia

For #WorldOctopusDay 🐙:

Two 19th century glass models from the Museum of Comparative Zoology collection of Blaschka Glass Invertebrates, on display at Harvard Museum of Natural History:

1. Atlantic White-spotted

Octopus (Callistoctopus Macropus)

MCZ SC#381

2. Curled Octopus (Eledone cirrhosa)

MCZ SC#364

For #WorldOctopusDay 🐙:

#Octopus Form Box

Japan, late 19th century

Hirado Mikawachi ware, porcelain with blue & brown glazes

6 3/4 x 6 3/4 x 4 1/2 in. (17.15 x 17.15 x 11.43 cm)

LACMA M.2002.147.2a-b https://collections.lacma.org/node/206463

It's #OCTOber #WorldOctopusDay🐙 and I'm awestruck by this incredible octopus platter!

Octopus platter, Traditional Haida carved argillite, late 19th c., from Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands, BC, Canada). 3 x 20 x 29.6 cm.

Anchorage Museum 1977.008.001

For #WorldOctopusDay 🐙:

Octopus Frontlet

Moche (La Mina), Peru, 300–600 CE

Gold, chrysocolla, shells

H. 11 × W. 16 15/16 × D. 1 3/4 in. (27.9 × 43.1 × 4.4 cm)

Museo de la Nación, Lima, Ministerio de Cultura del Perú (MN-14602)

“This object would have been affixed to a cylindrical headdress. Made of gold sheet, it was cut into the shape of a supernatural figure with serrated octopus tentacles that terminate in catfish heads. The creature rests on two clawlike feet, depicted in low relief. Reportedly found at La Mina, in the Jequetepeque Valley, the frontlet is remarkably similar to an example illustrated on a ceramic vessel from Dos Cabezas.”