Art History Animalia

For #WorldLemurDay:

Giuseppe Castiglione (Italian, 1688-1766) Cochin Lemur, 1761 Qing Dynasty, China Hanging scroll, ink & colors on silk 109.8 x 84.7cm National Palace Museum, Tapei

Lemurs are of course not native to China, but rather endemic to Madagascar. This one was given to the Qianlong Emperor by the King of Vietnam, who likely got it from European traders. It was then painted by Castiglione, an Italian Jesuit missionary who served as an artist in the Chinese imperial court. The background was likely painted by Jin Tingbiao (Chinese, d. 1767). A truly international history!

🆔 Castiglione’s lemur is easily identifiable as a Ring-Tailed Lemur (Lemur catta), but note the level of morphological detail - he included the antebrachial gland on the forearm (used for scent marking), and the tail appears to have suffered some loss at the tip.

Happy #WorldAnimalDay!

Suzuki Kiitsu (1796 - 1858) One Hundred Birds and One Hundred Animals Japan, Edo period, 1843 pair of hanging scrolls; ink, color, & gold pigment on silk From “The Life of Animals in Japanese Art” exhibition at National Gallery of Art (2019)

“Native birds and animals appear alongside an elephant, a camel, and other exotic species. A mythical phoenix perches on the mountain in the scroll at right, while a kirin flies through clouds in the one at left. A sacred animal with the horns of a dragon and the legs of a deer, the kirin is said to materialize when saints or benevolent rulers appear. With real and fantastic creatures coexisting in harmony amid blossoming plants from all four seasons, these scrolls suggest a Buddhist paradise.”

For#WorldFireflyDay:

Shiokawa Bunrin (1808-77) Fireflies at River's Edge Japan, Edo-Meiji periods, 19th c. Hanging scroll, ink & color on silk LACMA collection - on display at “The Life of Animals in Japanese Art” exhibition at National Gallery of Art DC in 2019

For #DragonflyWeek:

Hayashi Jikkō (1777-1813) Dragonfly Japan, Edo period, early 19th c. hanging scroll, ink on paper private collection - seen at “The Life of Animals in Japanese Art” exhibition at National Gallery of Art DC in 2019

#FishyFriday:

Gong Gu (Chinese, 19th. c.?) Nine Carp Qing dynasty, 19th century(?) Set of four hanging scrolls; ink & color on paper Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

"A massive carp leads its eight offspring through thick aquatic grasses below the water’s surface. More than just cute animals, they allude to a line from China’s most ancient poetry collection, the Book of Odes (Shijing). It refers to 'nine similitudes' (jiuru 九如)—nine comparisons that imply eternity or longevity ('like mountains,' 'like streams,' and so on). Because the term for 'similitude' (ru 如) sounds like the term for 'fish' (yu 魚), paintings of nine fish became conventional expressions of wishes for longevity and constancy. The painter Gong Gu is otherwise unknown, but the splashy brushwork and broad washes suggest a date from the mid- to late nineteenth century."

-from the The Metropolitan Museum of Art's “Noble Virtues: Nature as Symbol in Chinese Art” exhibition

For #FroggyFriday:

Qi Baishi (1864-1957), Flowering Calamus and #Frogs, 1950. Hanging scroll; ink on paper. Dimensions: Image: 40 1/4 x 13 5/8 in. (102.2 x 34.6 cm): Overall with mounting: 99 1/8 x 20 7/8 in. (251.8 x 53 cm); Overall with knobs: 99 1/8 x 24 5/8 in. (251.8 x 62.5 cm). From the Noble Virtues: Nature as Symbol in Chinese Art exhibition at Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

“Qi Baishi often painted fish, crabs, and shrimp in the early years of his Beijing period (ca. 1920–57), but he seldom painted frogs. As a professional artist, he had to cater to the popular demand for sets of four hanging scrolls, so frogs became his fourth aquatic animal. The frogs in this painting face one another as if engaged in conversation in front of the calamus plant, which is indigenous to their watery habitat. Qi inscribed it with a couplet:

By the Starry Pond [Xingdou Tang] were three houses,

Where sons and grandsons knew the calamus flowers.

(trans. by Shi-yee Liu)”

[info via The Met]

To celebrate #WorldWetlandsDay, here is "Insects and Reptiles in a Pond" by Itō Jakuchū (Japanese, 1716-1800). It's one of 30 hanging silk scrolls of the Dōshoku sai-e (Colorful Realm of Living Beings) c. 1757-66, declared a National Treasure of Japan and held by the Museum of the Imperial Collections,