Art History Animalia

#TwoForTuesday for #WorldSnakeDay 🐍:

Lowell Nesbitt (USA, 1933-1993) Snakes and Snakes II, 1981 oil on canvas, 64 x 80 inches each

For #AppreciateADragonDay on #TilesOnTuesday:

Tile painted with four green lizards [and dragonflies], c. 1900 painter: Truus Nienhuis, Netherlands mark: ‘Craven Dunnill & Co., Shropshire, England’ earthenware tile, h 15.3 × w 15.3 × d 1.0 cm Rijksmuseum BK-1978-6

Happy birthday to iconic Dutch graphic artist M. C. Escher, born #OTD 125 years ago (17 Jun 1898 – 27 Mar 1972). Animals forms inspired many of his works, especially fish, birds, & other reptiles. Here’s a favorite example of the latter, 1943's Reptiles:

M. C. Escher, Reptiles, 1943, Lithograph https://mathstat.slu.edu/escher/index.php/File:Reptiles.jpg [All M.C. Escher Works © The M.C. Escher Company – Baarn – Holland; educational use]

More info on the blog: https://arthistoryanimalia.com/2023/06/17/animal-art-of-the-day-for-m-c-eschers-birthday-eschers-reptiles/

We don't have an exact birthdate for Flemish artist Jan van Kessel the Elder, but he was baptised #OTD (5 Apr 1626 - d. 17 April 1679) so here are three versions of his caterpillars and snakes signature (+some bonus spiders for #BeKindToSpidersWeek):

Jan van Kessel the Elder (Flemish, 1626–1679) "Garden and house spiders with grass snakes and caterpillars contorted and entwined to spell the artist's name" 1657 oil painting on copper H 15 cm (5.9 in) x W 20 cm (7.8 in) Sothebys

Jan van Kessel the Elder (Flemish, 1626–1679) The Four Continents: The Continent of Europe [detail of the signature panel] c. 1660s oil painting on copper H 48.4 cm (19 in) x W 67.1 cm (26.4 in) Alte Pinakothek

Jan van Kessel the Elder (Flemish, 1626–1679) "Seventeen panels depicting snakes, lizards, flowers, caterpillars, beetles, butterflies and other insects" [detail including the signature panel] 1658 oil painting on copper, 39 x 56 cm (15 x 22 in) and 14 by 19 cm (5.5 x 7.5 in) Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, call no. NW-UL-NW

You can read more about this creative signature, and see his son Ferdinand's version too, here:

For #TurtleTuesday:

Ki-ki myo-myo 亀喜妙々(Strange and Marvellous Turtles of Happiness) by Utagawa Kuniyoshi 歌川国芳 (1797-1861), Japan, Edo period, 1847-1852. Triptych woodblock print (nishiki-e), ink and color on paper, H 3.58 cm x W 7.40 cm. British Museum.

More info about the context of this image via The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: "Working at the end of the Edo period, the ingenious and prolific print artist Kuniyoshi brings the story of actors’ likenesses to a comic culmination in his depiction of twenty-three turtles, each with the face of a famous Kabuki actor of the day, scurrying around a red lacquer sake cup. Newly enforced publishing censorship rules from the Tenpō Reforms (1841–43) prohibited printmakers from making identifiable pictures of actors or courtesans."

Ernst Haeckel was born #OTD (16 Feb 1834 - 9 Aug 1919). Here are two of his Kunstformen der Natur (1904) reptile plates that don't get shared as often, along with keys to the species depicted: Plate 79 Lacertilia (lizards) + Plate 89 Chelonia (turtles).

Key to Plate 79: 1. Cameroon Sailfin Chameleon 2. Chameleon Forest Dragon 3. Flying Dragon 4. Texas Horned Lizard 5. Kuhl's Flying Gecko 6. Common Basilisk 7. Frill-necked Lizard 8. Thorny Devil - 1.Chamaeleon montium (Buchholz) = Trioceros montium/Chamaeleo montium Buchholz, 1874 (See Trioceros montium) 2. Lophyrus tigrinus (Duméril) = Gonocephalus chamaeleontinus Laurenti, 1768 (See Gonocephalus chamaeleontinus) 3. Draconellus volans (Linné) = Draco volans Linnaeus, 1758 (See Draco volans) 4. Phrynosoma cornutum (Wiegmann) = Phrynosoma cornutum (Harlan, 1825) (See Phrynosoma cornutum) 5. Ptychozoon homalocephalum (Kuhl) = Ptychozoon kuhli Stejneger, 1902 (See Ptychozoon kuhli) 6. Basiliscus americanus (Daudin) = Basiliscus basiliscus (Linnaeus, 1758) (See Basiliscus basiliscus) 7. Chlamydosaurus kingii (Gray) = Chlamydosaurus kingii Gray, 1827 (See Chlamydosaurus kingii) 8. Moloch horridus (Gray) = Moloch horridus Gray, 1841 (See Moloch horridus)

Key to Plate 89: 1: Leatherback Turtle 2: Hawksbill Turtle 3: Argentine Snake-necked Turtle 4: Mata Mata 5: Geometric Tortoise 6: Galápagos Tortoise 7: Common Snapping Turtle - 1. Dermatochelys coriacea (Blainville) = Dermochelys coriacea (Vandelli, 1761) 2. Caretta imbricata (Gray) = Eretmochelys imbricata (Linnaeus, 1766) 3. Hydromeda tectifera (Wagler) = Hydromedusa tectifera Cope, 1869 4. Chelys fimbriata (Duméril) = Geochelone nigra (Quoy & Gaimard, 1824) 5. Testudo geometrica (Linné) = Psammobates geometricus (Linnaeus, 1758) 6. Testudo elephantina (Duméril) = Dipsochelys dussumieri Gray, 1831 7. Chelydra serpentina (Schweigger) = Chelydra serpentina (Linnaeus, 1758)

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,

For #WorldSerpentDay: Manasa, the Hindu snake goddess, trio of late 19th/early 20th c. Indian images:

1. Manasa, The Snake Goddess c. 1890, Kalighat watercolor, graphite, ink, and tin on paper Cleveland Museum of Art

2. "Manasa, goddess presiding over snakes." c.1895, Calcutta (Kolkata) color lithograph/popular print British Museum

3. Manasa, The Snake Goddess c. 1920, West Bengal by Jamini Roy (Indian, 1887–1972) watercolor painting, gouache on paper San Diego Museum of Art

Covering #TilesOnTuesday, #TurtleTuesday, #TwoForTuesday, and more #YearOfTheRabbit all at once with this one! ;)

tile from the panel "The Wonders of Creation": two rabbits, two snakes, and a turtle Iran, 19th century height: 27cm; width: 27.2cm; thickness: 3.3cm ceramic (siliceous paste), decoration molded and painted under transparent glaze [Musée du Louvre / Musée du quai Branly collection]

Covering #TwoForTuesday + #TextileTuesday + #TurtleTuesday with a pair of twin turtle molas! Hand-woven textiles of the Guna people (Panama), mid-20th century.

Title: Mola: "Two Turtles" (x2) Date: Mid- 20th century Artist: Artist/maker unknown, Guna people Geography: Made in Island of Carti Yantupo, Kuna Yala (San Blas Islands), Panama Medium: Cotton plain weave with cotton plain weave reverse appliqué Dimensions: #1 15 x 19 1/4 inches (38.1 x 48.9 cm); #2 14 1/4 x 20 1/4 inches (36.2 x 51.4 cm) Phiadelphia Museum of Art 1971-123-14 + 1971-123-11

January 16h is #AppreciateADragonDay so let's appreciate this wee Flying Dragon Lizard (Draco spp., probably D. viridis) painted in the 19th century:

Marianne North (English, 1830-1890) Flowers and Fruit of the Pomelo, a Branch of Hennah and Flying Lizard, Sarawak, 1876 oil on board H 36.4 x W 45.1 cm [Kew Gardens Marianne North Gallery #MN552]

BTW like their aboreal junglemates the flying snakes and flying frogs, flying draco lizards don't really fly, they glide...but it's still really cool :)

It’s #TurtleTuesday! Here is a cute clay turtle doing a blep 😛

Turtle vessel, Chimu (Peru), Late Intermediate Period (1000-1476 CE).

[Royal Ontario Museum]