Art History Animalia

For #WorldDolphinDay 🐬:

Ben Houstie (Pacific NW Coast, Heiltsuk Nation, b.1960)

Dolphins, 2000

Acrylic on canvas, 16 x 20 in.

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

#WorldOrcaDay:

Chilkat blanket with Orca design, Tsimshian (Pacific NW Coast)

Twined weave; warp of yellow cedar bark & mountain goats' wool, weft of pure mountain goats' wool

Field Museum no. 19571 (photographed on display in 2022)

For #WorldOrcaDay:

Robert E. Sebastian (Gitxsan, b.1952)

The Herd - Killer Whale, 1985

silkscreen, #81/100, 14 7/8 x 21 3/4 in. (37.78 x 55.25 cm)

#BookRecommendation for NarwhalDay :

Narwhal: Revealing an Arctic Legend (2017)

Bonus: I saw the 2019 NMNH exhibition the #narwhal book is based on, and found a few photos of the #Inuit artworks on display:

1. Carved Narwhal Figure

Canada, mid-20th c.

Soapstone, ivory

2. Narwhal Composition sculpture

Kakee Ningeeochiak

Cape Dorset, Canada, n.d.

Soapstone & caribou antler

3. Allangua (Narwhal)

Tim Pitsiulak

Cape Dorset, Canada, 2016

Reproduction of Lithograph

4. A Woman Who Became a Narwhal

Germaine Arnaktauyok

Iqaluit, Canada, 1993

Etching & aquatint

Happy #NarwhalDay!

A Narwhal (Monodon monoceros) tusk is the upper left canine tooth that grows through the lip. Sometimes, the right one does the same, resulting in a 2-tusked individual, as illustrated by English naturalist George Shaw (1751 – 1813):

George Shaw's The British Miscellany (1806)

George Shaw's Zoological Lectures (1809)

Bonus: Found a photo I took of a real double-tusked #narwhal skull that was on display at the Smithsonian NMNH :

For #NationalDolphinDay, here's an Ancient Greek powl decorated with dolphins🐬 and bonus octopuses🐙:

phiale with omphalos Attica, Eretria, 4th quarter 6th century BCE polychrome ceramic (painted clay) H 5cm / D 20.8cm Musée du Louvre

For #TilesOnTuesday:

“Dolphin” and “Whale” Dutch tile panels, c. 1600-1625, tin-glazed earthenware with polychrome decoration, made in Rotterdam. On display at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

For #WorldWhaleDay, the medieval bestiary version of a whale:

Bodleian Library, MS. Ashmole 1511 (The Ashmole Bestiary), folio 86v. England, first quarter 13th century.

"The whale likes to bask at the surface and sometimes stays there long enough for sand to accumulate on its back. Sailors mistake the whale for an island and try to land on it, with disastrous results. Usually the sailors are doing something to the whale (starting a fire on its back, attaching an anchor, etc.) but it this case they are just gesturing enigmatically. The whale is catching fish by open its mouth and emiting a sweet odor, which causes fish to swim right in."

"Allegory/Moral: The whale who deceives sailors and drags them down to their deaths signifies the devil, who deceives those he drags down to hell. Those of weak faith who give in to the sweet odor of worldly desires will be swallowed up by the devil."

- explanation via https://bestiary.ca/beasts/beast282.htm

For #WorldWhaleDay, here is famed English naturalist George Shaw's (1751-1813) illustration of the Sperm Whale (Physeter macrocephalus). You're welcome. 😂

George Shaw, The Naturalist's Miscellany, Vol. 6 (1794-5), Plate 184. Biodiversity Heritage Library